It has been a cooler June this year, but the little harbingers of summer have finally arrived. I saw one crawling around when I was weeding yesterday so I knew they were ready to make their appearance. Tonight I saw them mostly in the blackberry patch, very close to the one I saw crawling around yesterday. Despite the cool evenings, summer days are coming!

Due to the cruelty of the Trump Administration’s budget cuts, much of the funding for food pantries have been cut. Obviously, Jesus’ admonition to “feed the hungry” is lost to right wing “Christian” nationalists. Those of us at St. Anne’s who garden have been asked to “plant a row” specifically for our food pantry since the need will be greater this year.

We have planted a large bed of 6 Early Girl II tomatoes specifically the food pantry of Project Hope. Since the beds were installed late, I planted tomatoes that were almost three feet tall with little tomatoes and flowers! They are in red tomato cages and the bed is in the center of the garden.

I have dedicated the bed in Memory of Sr. Lorraine Menheer, whose visionary action beginning in the early 1990s formed Project Hope at St. Anne. Through the generous donation of parishioners, our House of Hope thrift store generates over a million dollars each year to help local people in need. We also have a food pantry that feeds many local families and individuals.

We will donate all the tomatoes from that bed to Project Hope as well as some of the surplus from the rest of the garden. That bed is labeled and will serve as a talking point to my grandchildren and others for us to be aware of poverty and hunger that exists even within the wealthy community of Barrington as well as throughout the world. It is our duty to feed people in need.

In mid-August, last summer, I gave up on my garden as it had been completely devastated by rabbits and other critters. Natalie and I didn’t even get enough vegetables for our own needs from our large garden, and there were none to give away. After all the work I had put in during the spring I was completely broken. I vowed never to let this happen again and decided that I would convert t the whole garden to raised beds that were out of the reach of the rabbits and other small creatures. If larger animals such as racoons and groundhogs became a problem, I could easily wrap the beds with 36-inch plastic fencing to keep them out.

The main part of the project was completed today with soil being loaded into the remaining beds and final planting being done. The installation of the mulch for the paths will come in the next week or so. It has been a much more difficult project to complete than I anticipated, but it is now done. I have installed 15 galvanized and painted steel beds, and 6 wooden planters. This will make my gardening a lot easier in the future as I can spray the mulched paths with RoundUp to control any weeds making it through the mulch. Planting and weeding will be easier in the soil that is half compost, and I will be planting denser to help control weeds. There will also be less bending. There is no longer a need to rototill.

I was outside at 6:00 AM, putting the last two beds together. The temperature was in the mid-40s, a departure from the 80- and 90-degree weather of a few days ago. I finished one bed by about 7:00 and realized that my measurements were off and the layout I had planned would not work. I switched the fourth tomato bin with one of the bigger bins with rounded ends. I called Noah around 7:30 and he said that they were almost ready to leave but needed to do some work on the machine they were going to use to move the soil as it hadn’t been run in a couple of years. That gave me a little breathing room. They arrived around 8:00 and I explained the game plan to Noah. They would do any necessary leveling of the beds.

They started loading the soil and I continued work on the last bin. As they progressed, it became obvious that I was way off in my calculation of the amount of soil needed. We’ll need another 6 or seven yards at least! They wrapped up around noon and will be back on Memorial Day, weather permitting. That will give me time to rebuild the two wooden beds.

After they left, I headed up to Countryside in Crystal Lake. They had no Mortgage Lifter tomatoes or Mexican Tarragon. I did grab some okra even though I am not ready to plant it. I drove home and grabbed some lunch and then took a nap as I was exhausted. More exhausted than I’ve been in a long time.

I headed over to Goebbert’s around 3:30 and they were out of Mortgage Lifter tomatoes also and the pepper plants were small. There was only one large Jalapeno plant left, and it looked half dead. Then I realized that Monday is probably a terrible day to go to a Nursery as they are cleaned out from the weekend and haven’t re-stocked yet.

I drove home and started planting everything that I could. My stated goal was to have the garden in my May 19th and I think I would call this a win. The essential plants are planted and the rest will only be a week late if we can avoid rain on Memorial Day. Considering the massiveness of this revision, I am happy.

I took a little time from my construction to pick some Bok Choi and red (Due to Goebbert’s labeling error) Green Onions for dinner. These were planted about a month ago. Natalie made a wonderful dinner with this and some carrots, broccoli, pasta, and chicken-pineapple meatballs.

The goal this year was to convert the garden to tall, raised beds to minimize animal damage to the crops. Another advantage will be less bending and easier weed control. This has been a larger project than I originally imagined and began a month ago with the acquisition and planting of six raised planters and the installation of a new watering system.

Now I am constructing and installing steel beds that I purchased on Amazon. Thirteen in total. I will keep two of the new wooden beds that were installed in October of 2019.

May 12. I went out and finished tightening the screws on the bed for the zucchini, and I moved it out into the garden. I ripped out the boards from the south end of the first bed near the fire pit so that I could position the zucchini bed. I went to water the raised planters and the peas and saw that what looked like the spigot had a large leak. I thought that maybe the hose connection might not have been tightened sufficiently. However, upon closer examination, I discovered that the new hose had developed a massive leak. It had hardly been used. I finished watering, turned it off, went into the house, and started a ticket with Amazon. I found three bad reviews with the same problem. They will replace the hose, and I will send the old one back. (That will be interesting as it will be impossible to drain completely.) I hope they all don’t start leaking.

May 14. Went to work on tomato bed. Removing plastic takes at least an hour. Building is an hour or so. I fabbed the pieces at the table then assembled on the lower deck.

May 15. I talked to RT’s son Noah. RT is undergoing treatment for cancer and Noah will be doing the lawncutting and other work. He will be able to come on Monday, the 19th to fill the beds with soil. I called Down-to-Earth landscaping in Barrington and ordered 6 yards of Garden Mix which is 50% compost and 50% topsoil. The bill, with delivery and tax was $326.

May 16.  I filled up the yard waste bin with the trimmings from the spruce and the pile over the fire pit, and then took it to the curb. I unpacked the next two bins and knelt down and gave thanks when I realized they were not coated with plastic film. This design also uses wing nuts, which should make assembly easier. A queen yellow-jacket was surveying the area around the deck, but she didn’t sit still long enough for me to dispatch her with spray. I will get her. I continued c building until almost 5:00. I got one bed together and will tighten the screws in the morning.

May 17, The Ryobi impact driver worked well for tightening the screws. However, installing the four braces was a real pain, and that took well over half an hour. I finally got everything tightened and braced and moved the bed to the garden area. I am working on removing the old wooden beds and knocking out a few more pieces. Then I removed the wire fencing from the back half of the second bed and pulled out the posts. That took some effort. I removed a deciduous tree sprouting up in the blackberries. That took me to about 11:30, and I sat on the deck with some iced tea to rest a bit. The soil was delivered to my driveway mid-afternoon. It doesn’t look like as much as I expected. I hope we have enough.

I am now going to take about 15 minutes to see if I can figure out when the original raised beds were installed. They were present in the 1988 film “Catch a Wave” of Kevin and Wendy. That makes them at least 37 years old! Likely I installed them the year after we moved in in 1987. I will say that they are 38 years old. They served me well. I built another bed, so the two 3X8 beds with rounded ends are done.

I rested a little and then went to work on the 3X8 rectangular beds. There have been the easiest to build so far, even though they are the largest. I got the first one done in less than two hours. I finished around 7:00. and will do the last two tomorrow.

May 18. I was on for streaming mass on Sunday, so I started working early afternoon. I am panicking as I was running out of time since the bins and garden area need to be prepped by tomorrow. I finished ripping out the old raised beds.

I tried to add more wood to the five-year old wooden beds, but the blocks had shifted and things didn’t fit well. I will likely need to reconstruct those beds. I’ll build wooden angles to secure the corners and dispense with the grooved cinder blocks. They moved around way too much. I’ll fill those last.

I unpacked the last two raised beds and I pre-fabbed the end pieces. I worked until about 11:00 and was exhausetd.

Last night, I took out the trash to the curb and used the drop cloths I bought to cover the tomatoes and peppers as there were warnings out for chance of a frost.

I was up at 6:30 and slept well. The nighttime temperature never got below 36°, so my covering of the plants was unnecessary, but better safe than sorry. The next week will be warm, so we should be past all frost danger for the year.

I did some research as to why there are sometimes frost warnings when the predicted low temperature is several degrees above freezing. I discovered that the high and low temperatures are measured at four feet above the ground. On cold nights with little wind, the colder air sinks to the ground and can cause frost at that level, even though the temperature at four feet is several degrees higher.

Last Saturday, May 3, I started by drilling the drainage holes in the bottom of my four new containers. Then, I cleaned up the dead plants in the current containers, a bunch of dead leaves, and other rubble. Then, I determined which containers I was going to keep. The four new containers will be for tomatoes and in the back row. The two large black containers I bought last year will be for the Serrano and Jalapeno peppers. The two remaining large blue containers will be for cilantro, and the two green containers from the lower deck will be for Basil. There were five or six extra, smaller containers, and I emptied the soil into the four new containers. Then I hauled the four bags of potting soil into the back yard and dumped each bag into one of the new containers. Then I got out the leaf blower and cleaned up the dirt I spilled, and I was done for the day.

On Monday, May 5, I went to Menard’s and got the two Obelisk tomato cages I needed, as well as a couple more bags of soil and bean seeds.

Today, I went out and planted the plants in the container garden, then a pot of basil and cilantro from seed. I have two other pots that I will plant in 3 to 4 weeks, and I’ll rotate crops between the two sets of pots. I need to get a large pot of basil next time I go to Goebbert’s.

I watered the container garden, cleaned up a bit, and came in for dinner. I made tea and heated up some of the chicken parm and spaghetti. We were able to eat on the back porch for the first time this year. Yay!

Goebbert’s didn’t have the large Jalapeno plants out yet so, I will plant those when they are available.

This week I finished the front yard plantings, putting geraniums into the pot in front of the lilacs. I went to Jewel a couple of days ago and bought another 30 geraniums and 8 Broccoli plants of the variety “Destiny.” The deck plantings are complete. I bought two hanging baskets at Goebbert’s for $39.99 each. Ouch! But they are the purple and white petunias that I love. I also put geraniums in the pot by the cooking deck.

I bought three more Shishito peppers and six Gypsy peppers to complete the raised planters. The arugula and radish seeds are up at least 1/2-inch and it’s been less than a week since planting.

I drilled drainage holes in two of the large pots I bought at Costco and transferred the soil from last year’s hanging baskets and the old deck rail basket into them. Then I emptied the soil into them from the two cherry tomato pots by the deck. That got them only a little over half full – they are enormous. I put the remaining half-bags of potting soil into one and almost a whole bag into the other. I planted two large cherry tomato plants in one and two grape tomato plants into the other and put the decorative cages into the new pots. I topped off the other pots and cleaned up the lower deck.

Today I weeded the enclosed trellised area where I plant peas. It was loaded with Dandelions and thistle. I got peas planted as well as the eight “Destiny” Broccoli plants. That was as far as I got today as the rain was starting.

Thursday and Friday will be rainy, and then warm and dry for the weekend and into next week. This will be the push to rebuild the wood beds and assemble and install the steel beds. I need to purchase four more of the steel planters. If the weather holds, I can get the bins installed next week and have RT move the compost/topsoil mix in the following weekend.

This weekend, I’ll get the container garden planted and also rebuild the herb garden to prevent soil loss.