The Weekly Digs #210
Last week I sat down to write out my week and I legitimately had nothing come to mind! We did do things but between lack of sleep and stress I couldn’t get anything down. Luckily, this week I do have more to share.
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In the Garden
Corn Planting and the Birds
We planted another succession of sweet corn. This is something we really love! And so do the local wildlife. I thought we were past the point of needing nets for corn but I was wrong.
The birds had themselves a healthy snack of freshly soaked corn kernels. They wait until they sprout then pick the whole thing out of the ground and eat only the corn seed.
Thankfully, we planted enough seeds that I could transplant them around to where all the gaps were and everything looks ok now. They didn’t eat all of them like the first few years, but more like nibbled here and there. I hope it stays that way and they don’t eat more!
Beans, Rabbits, and Chipmunks
Another animal problem we’ve been having is the rabbits! Man, they are pesky this year. We did move out all the baby bunnies we found several months ago in the strawberries, so I know it’s not them but perhaps the next generation of babies from nearby.
They can fit through the welded wire fence and they ate all the bean tops from the beans in my tunnel. I had no idea they did that until I saw the rabbit there one night.
Then Cam saw a chipmunk in the tunnel and he said it looked like it was eating the bean tops too. Cam was able to remove the chipmunk and we thought the problem was resolved.
But then I started to see some bean tops being eaten from another area of the garden and found that it was indeed the rabbits eating them again.
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We may add some chicken wire to the bottom of the fence to prevent rabbits but likely not this summer. It would be a winter project due to the time involved.
My friend Jill from the Beginners Garden said in her Instagram stories that she had used row covers for her beans to keep down the pest pressure and keep rabbits at bay. I thought that was a good alternative plan.
The beans seem to mostly be growing back and so for right now I’ll just keep an eye on them but it they mow the beans down again the row cover will need to go on!
Currently harvesting:
Summer squash (45lbs between this week and last!), cucumbers (25lbs), tomatoes, kale, celery (35lbs, we harvested all of it at once), basil, green onions, and arugula.
Here is the garden tour for June:
Preserving
We have had many heat advisory days which means we spend a little more time inside. Of course, this means that I can get some preservation done!
I made a 2x batch of sausage and bean soup from THIS BOOK. I made a bunch of beef stock too, so I could use it in the soup.
Then I had so much beef stock, instead of canning it plain, I decided to make another 2x batch of sausage and bean soup.
So I ended up with 25 quarts of soup. Soup was the most popular item in the pantry last year. The kids love to eat them because they are an easy no work meal (for them at least, haha!).
We also made a bunch of stewed garlic squash for the freezer. Photo above,
The other thing we have been working on is freeze drying green onions. I harvested all of them so we could plant the corn.
Whew! It’s a busy time of year. I’m super thankful Cam has been home on paternity leave, it has been amazing to have him around more to help and do projects. That is the only way we have been able to keep up! Everyone in the family is pitching to help.