This evening when the shade had moved onto the front garden, I ventured out to water the flower beds since it seems I am not going to get a decent rain any time soon. This has been a hot, humid, and dry summer. When I finished watering the front garden I decided to get the grass mower out; not one of the fancy ones that you ride but one you walk behind and push, and cut the grass in the front garden before continuing watering the flower beds. Not long after I started cutting the grass, a rain cloud formed overhead. I was not worried about it raining of course and continued to cut the grass. However, the cloud started raining on me and the longer I tried to continue to cut the grass the harder the rain started to come down. I could look around and see blue skies all around the cloud that was just over my house. I was going to just ignore the rain but I was starting to get very wet. Finally I decided that I had to stop or I would be soaking wet. Of course the rain was short lived, I wouldn't have mind the cloud interrupting my grass cutting job if it had dumped an inch or two of rain on my gardens.

I have been busy the last few days building the stone border alongside the flowerbed that is beside the fence that is alongside the drive. The job involves me taking my little trolley into the woods to gather stones and then haul them back to the garden to build the border. It is not exactly an easy job but it is a job that I have been wanting to do for several years now. It was the only bed in the front garden without a border; although the border for the adjacent bed is not entirely completed.

New Border Along Fence Bed (Click image for larger view)

The length of the border; the straight part excluding the curve at the end, is a little over 14 meters (47 feet). It takes a lot of stones to build a border that long so it meant a lot of trips to fetch the stones. I am not quite sure how I will do the opposite side of the fence. I may just terminate the curve with a few more stones and just keep the other side trimmed. Or, I may continue the border along the opposite side at a later date. I wanted to finish the garden side because a border gives me a clean look and I can use the string trimmer to keep the grass cut against the border.

With the promise of rain on the way, I decided this morning would be a good time to add a side-dressing of fertiliser to the green beans. The first green beans I planted did not sprout; I think I counted five bean plants. I had used some old seeds, so that could have been the problem, or it could have been the weather turning cold and the seeds rotted in the ground. Either way, I had to resow the green beans. They are coming along nicely and if I can keep the deer from eating them, should provide lots of nice blue lake green beans for my table and for the freezer.

A Pretty Row Of Green Beans

As you can see in the photograph, it is a pretty row of green beans. The row is about 8.5 meters (28 feet) long. At the far end is a row of pumpkins that are growing nicely as well. The idea is to sprinkle a side-dressing of 10-10-10 fertiliser along each side of the row. Then using a hoe or rake you pull dirt up over the fertiliser and hill the row. I prefer using a garden rake, it is quicker and helps to break up the dirt so you don't get large clumps as you would using a hoe.

A Side-Dressing Of Fertiliser

The Row Hilled

The idea of adding a side-dressing of a slow-release granular fertiliser is that it will feed the plants throughout the growing season. As water percolates down through the soil, it will pick up the nutrients and carry them to the roots. However, you don't want to put a heavy layer, just sprinkle some of the fertiliser as you see in the photograph above. After working the green beans, I also side-dressed the pumpkins, butternut squash and the watermelons. I recently sowed a row of black-eyed peas but they had yet to sprout; hopefully the rain will have them up and growing soon.