Not the gardening I’d hoped to do in 96 degree heat and triple-digit heat index. But at least I found the leak in the water main. 2.5 feet down. Now the real digging begins. Lol
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Same. Our street is called Redbud Ln., and frankly these trees are a pain. We have a half dozen medium to large redbuds in our yard. They are constantly starting new seedlings. Their wood is weak and brittle. You cut one down and 20 more sprout from the stump.
They’re pretty, and native, but they are a lot of work.
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Holy shit… did you call a plumber?
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He’s coming tomorrow for an estimate, but I wanted to locate the problem. It’s super expensive, and digging is a lot of the cost. So I am hoping to do as much of that as possible. When I had the pipe exposed the water was squirting up. Water Co says we’ve used 20k gallons in the first half of the month. !!!
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That’s a good point!
I hope it gets fixed!
I hope it gets fixed quick!
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A quick fix today, $300. With a warning that “this patch will hold for 6 months, 6 years,who knows. But the whole pipe is probably rotten and will have to be replaced from the meter service up to under the house.” Time to sell the place. lol
ETA: Added end quote
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I hate to say it, but yeah, you’ve got to get on that. The damage that could cause if it blew in a few months (in winter) could be catastrophic.
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We don’t get “winter” where I live, but yeah. It’s a disaster waiting to happen. It’s the digging that costs so much. So, I’ll likely rent a backhoe and try to do as much of that as I can, then call in a professional. To be honest, replacing it all, all the way up to the house, would be the thing to do.
ETA: The house is so old, I have a place where there’s a junction of plumbing that has stainless steel, PEX, iron, galvanized, PVC, and copper all coming into a single spot. Kinda cool, but kinda not.
Ah, found a picture. The iron is below the galvanized, and the PEX is just out of frame behind the viewpoint.
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Oh, I recognize that standpipe at the middle bottom: lead solder, amirite?
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Yep. All that junction lacks is the old hollowed out tree trunk and clay drain pipes from the early 19th century. And the iron pipe transits from one corner of the house to the other, and looks very roughly like this:
Slightly flatter. But same overall effect.
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That’s a sanitary sewer stack. More concerning is the connection at bottom left.
Older welded copper connections may have lead soldering, but those welds are really messy! So hard to say for sure.
…Do we have another thread for “home problems and possible solutions”? We’re meandering pretty far from the garden…
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Noice! I do beans and corn together, but didn’t realize zukes could be added! Totally trying that next year. How many corn plants do have in there?
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I’ve been meaning to come back here for a while, having discovered this thread…
So, as an introduction, here’s a list of crops I’m growing this year:
- cabbages (round, pointed, Savoy, red)
- kale (Sutherland, curly, Nero di Toscana, perpetual)
- potatoes (assorted varieties, mostly in bags, some in the ground)
- Brussels sprouts
- purple-sprouting broccoli
- calabrese/broccoli
- cauliflower
- broad beans and field beans (just finished)
- runner beans
- assorted varieties of climbing French beans (pole beans) - including Cherokee, Lazy Housewife, pea bean (yin/yang beans), blauhilde …
- yellow dwarf French beans
- assorted drying beans (borlotti, beefy grex, and another I can’t recall - Dutch brown?)
- Courgettes (zucchini) - two green varieties, and a round (Nice de Rond)
- yellow patty pan
- Uchiki Kuri squash
- mashed potato squash
- honey bear squash
- butternut squash
- sweetcorn
- beetroot
- Florence fennel (hopefully - seedlings not germinating well)
- parsnips
- carrots (mostly Autumn King)
- some assorted lettuces, rocket, etc - not very successfully
- tomatoes - several varieties
- cucumbers
- gherkins (for pickling - I have a year’s supply on hand right now - still not quite finished 2020’s jars)
- the onions, shallots, garlic and elephant garlic are all lifted and drying
- swede (rutabaga?)
- bell peppers - a purple variety
- aubergines (largely a failure this year)
Plus perennial fruit…
- strawberries (a few kilos - now all over. Much jam was made - plus some kilo bags now in the freezer)
- loganberries (it went mad last year, huge harvest this year - 6-7 kilos+ - jam and juice)
- raspberries - autumn fruiting
- green gooseberries
- red gooseberries
- red, white and blackcurrants
- jostaberrries
- rhubarb (ok - not technically a fruit, I know)
Me, smug? Yeah, a bit, I guess. We are 95% self-sufficient for veg. Tomatoes are purchased when not in season here but not a lot of other veg is - the occasional head of broccoli or cauli during the year, and salads in the summer. I’m really not very consistent or very good at lettuces and salad leaves.
Picked a few caulis for the freezer today, before they ‘blow’.
To be honest, I have no idea how I manage to spare so much time to be here on the BBS! 
Happy to answer any Qs or try to take/upload any pics anyone might be interested in. Will try and report back on some crops as they come along.
ETA - I forgot leeks! Went in the ground 10 days ago, having been sown in around late March in a seed tray.
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Ive got corn, pole beans and kabocha squash sharing a couple beds. Hard winter squash are not the usual choice for a 3 sisters setup. So i guess ill see how it works. Also stuck in a few fennel, chard and chive seeds to fill in gaps where none of the first three germinated, as well as a bed that nothing else came up in which now has ‘vine peach’ melons (never grown these before).
Its also my first time doing raised beds and our first attempt at gardening in our heavily deer populated area 
Also stuck some potatoes in grow bags, but the dont seem to be doing very well…
Edit:
Decided today that the ‘vine peach’ melons - true to their name - were going to need something dedicated to climb, since they were starting to vine onto the corn next door. So i slapped together a trellis this morning.
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Volunteer golden oyster mushrooms on an ash stump. Second flush this year!
Another ash stump i inoculated with a differnt strain of oysters in maybe January 2021.
Finally starting to show some activity!
And an oak stump innoculated with maitake.
Will have to wait and see if that is what is starting to show, or if it is some other fungus.
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Too many probably, didn’t think they’d all take, 5, maybe 6 corn stalks. Yeah, the squash (of any type, we just like zucchini) complements the gowth, shades the roots, and keeps the soil moister.
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A week away from home let the garden go a little wild.
Tasty cherry tomato gradient
Wall of tomatoes
Canteloupe
Green beans
Onions picked and hung to dry
Peppers and pickling cucumbers, and more onions
My curcurbids have NOT been doing well at all. I havent picked a single zucchini yet, my squash have barely grown at all, and the pickling cucumbers are stalled too.
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