Garden Update
Old fence removed, new fence incomplete. It’s been an exceedingly wet week. We’re currently under a flood warning from yesterday (Sat) until Thursday. It’s wet, there’s standing water in the yard that has me slightly concerned for the state of the shrubs. A bigger headache right now is the lack of fencing. I’m lucky the dogs listen. As long as we watch them, we can let them out without a leash.
Planting & Weeding
Luckily, we had great weather yesterday so I got my chores for the weekend accomplished. Well, at least the big ones. My three sisters are planted. I definitely started the pots several weeks to early and the seedlings were pretty long in the tooth. I seeded in more of the corn, hopefully, I’ll still get good growth (only about half the flat survived).
In the prairie bed, blazingstar has emerged; I guess I didn’t plant all of them upside down, or at least the ones I did will. Unfortunately, the weeds have started coming in strong as well. I spent a couple of hours chopping creeping charlie in the food hedge, aggressive mint emerging in the rhubarb bed and lily of the valley in the forest bed (along with a myriad assortment of weeds around the front of the house).
Pruning Forsythia
The biggest weekend project was pruning the forsythia. Since forsythia blooms on new growth, the best time to prune it is right after the flowers have fallen. This was my first time pruning back forsythia. In the past, I’ve just let it go without effort and once had it coppiced when I was sick. When I went in, I found an absolute tangle of old-growth. The right side shrub perhaps got the worst of it. I was confident in the long rambly stems I removed. Unfortunately, the remaining stems tower as lanky skyscrapers over a sparse base. The left-hand shrub fared much better, It had healthy new growth much lower. I think it gets more sun and didn’t grow nearly as tall and straggly as a result.
Aquaponics Update
Big Basin Progress
Not much of an update this week. I’ve lost the last bluegill. I’ll never kick off a project in the fish room in such a backward way again. From now on, I’ll have established biological filtration in the tank and a proactive strategy for water changes. I knew better but was just overly enthusiastic. I’m still waiting on some of the parts needed to fill the main basin. I should be able to get fish in there by the end of the week. I can use the existing filters and tank water to bootstrap the setup.
Gone Shrimping
I’ve also started up my first shrimp tank. Learning my lesson from the last few weeks, I’m going slow this time around. I’ll get plants going and established for a month or two before I order in any shrimp. Since that will put me near July, I’m not sure what I’ll do to safely acquire them (Shipping in summer temps isn’t always the smartest). A road trip might be required.