These few days are allocated to a very different type of activity. It's nice to take a break from charting and studying and do something else for a change. Gardening means spending time in open air and enjoying the beautiful sunshine.
Tomorrow (possibly) I'm going to show you how the garden looks like, but today I'd like to show you what we did yesterday and today.
This is the cucumber. We only have one row this year, which is around 10m long. Usually we have two or three rows of 10m long each, but this year we still have pickles left from the previous years, so no need for so many.
The stems are growing fast and at this point, if we don't do something, all of them will be on the ground. Some like to grow cucumbers on the ground, but we don't. Having them grow on a net is way healthier. You can then easily get rid of the side stems that are not needed as only taking nutrients away from the cucumbers. In case of excessive rain, having the cucumbers lay in water can be avoided easily, not to mention they get more sunlight as well. So this is why we use a net and help them grow upwards.
This is the net. It's not new as it can be reused for a few years.
The two poles are tied together with this plastic thing, that in some countries the police is using as handcuffs 馃槀
Do you recognize the end of the cable? I do. It was my internet cable once, a hundred years ago and as I don't use it anymore, we can use it to tie the net to the poles. This is a form of reusing or recycling, if you like. Here, pretty much everything is about improvising. You don't have to have fancy things that look amazing. You can use everything you want, as long as it serves the purpose. So, cables can be used as well.
Make a loop to fasten the net to the pole.
The net is ready.
All you have to do is help the cucumber find its way to the net.
And the job is done.
Yesterday in my post I told you and showed you, how the currants look, due to lack of rain.
The ugly truth is, some of them look like raisins as they are dry. This is a sign for concern, because if it continues like this, we're going to have nothing to harvest.
The truth is, we have an irrigation system, that is working well, but only for the vegetables. Fruits have never needed irrigation, what usually comes from above has been enough, but times are changing, the climate is changing and this is the result. Today we deviated the irrigation system, to be able to water the currants, gooseberries and grapes too. The well is midway, so we had to pull the hose in the other direction.
I've never used the irrigation system till today, my dad is the one doing it all the time, but today I wanted to do it at all costs. I thought it would be cool. Yeah right! 馃槀馃槀馃槀
First of all, the hose was too short for the distance the water had to reach. As I said it above, here, everything is about improvising. So my dad turned the water on and I faced a real challenge. I had to find a solution quickly.
Without knowing too much, I thought if I raise the end of the hose, maybe I can direct the water further. This seemed like a good idea, but I also needed to disperse the water as I did not have that watering head that watering cans have. Using my finger seemed like the perfect solution in these conditions.
In the end, I was able to figure out how to use what I have, to do do the job. But, as there's always a but, no job is as easy as it looks from outside. Me, the naive city girl, I thought it is though 馃槀馃槀馃槀.
Turns out, the hose is not exactly brand new, or top quality and had some holes at the end. Which means at first, till I was able to figure out what's wrong, I got water all over my hands and face. I needed to cover the hole to be able to continue.
Second problem, the water doesn't listen to you. Physics is a funny science, so depending on where you put your finger, the water deviates accordingly. This mean I was able to water myself too, successfully 馃槀馃槀馃槀.
At the end of my marvelous operation, my shoes were wet and my jeans were dirty. Those are hiking shoes, which means they should be waterproof. Yeah right! Don't believe everything they say. Anyway, not a big deal as they are dry already. Should have used my rubber boots, but I didn't as I was not thinking, but now I know and next time I'll be smarter.
Then we had to put the hose back where it was before, to be able to water the vegetables, but as the ground was muddy, I got my hands dirty 馃槀. And not only that, but my hands were also hurting. The hose is pretty heavy and I had to hold it tight, to be able to achieve the result I wanted. I was thinking of firefighters honestly. Their hose is much heavier and the water they are using is coming with a higher speed.
Well, regardless of the inconveniences, for me it was a lot of fun and knowing I did something good, makes me feel good. I would do it again, even if I get wet as it's helping the garden.
If you're a newbie, you may want to check out these guides:
