We Planted this Garden Then Walked Away Till Harvest

We have put down weed fabric. We have put down bug net. We've also laid down drip line under here because it's hard for water to get through the weed fabric to nearly 500 brassica plants. But we did not hook it up to a water source. That's my project today. The bottom's here. We need to put in our source line, attach it to our house, and get these plants the critical water that they need. We just transplanted them. It's been cold. It's been frosty, although they They seem to be holding up okay, which I'm happy about. Like any farm project, especially one where— well, this will be the only second time I've hooked up drip irrigation. I don't know what kind of problems I'm gonna go and come into. It's gonna be time. The boys have their own project. We've got to hay bomb while we still can. Probably about an acre, an acre and a half of prime pasture land. Where the topsoil was swept away with Hurricane Helene. Grass is starting to come in hot. Look at these clovers coming in with the early— I believe there's more pasture over here than over there. We've already set sheep and cows to hay bombing our land there. We've put leaves over here. We need a hay bomb over here while we still have hay and before the grass gets too tall and we need to graze it. Second step over here behind just getting hay over here is putting a net up. We're gonna have a flirt. We blended the youth group with the sheep. They're gonna poop and do their magic over here on the hay before we get really humming on the garden project. This is something we got to do anyway. We're gonna string trim around the edges. It's hard to beat a rice knife for this. Why not harvest it, hit it to the pigs? They need some greens, give them something to do. Good morning, the beautiful one. Good morning. What are you setting your task to? Everybody's just kind of picking their thing this morning. He's weeding these onions. And one reason they're so crazy is because that's new ground. Oh, I know, that's deep right there. Sheep are a little more flighty than cows. They don't know what to cross this creek. Uh, I think they're gonna cross the stream easy. Okay, we've got a wide lane across the creek. We're gonna try the creek one more time. Um, Yeah, it's too— it's too broad. Okay, problem is it's— it's kind of deep right here on this side. You think they'll do it now? There you go. If you get one over with this, bell will go. Here they go, here they go. They're gonna follow the cow. Come on, Ike, you can do it, you can do it. Come here, shake that bucket, Josiah. Shake the bucket. There you go. Now we got 2 over. There we go, there we go, Ike! Come on, come on, Ike! There you go! Oh, come on, Ike! Come on, you got it! Come on! Back to the gardening. It is Sunday seed day, so we've got a lot going on. All right, can I level with you guys right now? I am not feeling it. I'm not feeling it today, but I'm saying to myself, it doesn't really matter how I feel. This has to get done. I guess it's okay. First day of the week, just slow crank, slow start. It's, you know, cold crank. That's our no-work garden right there, the weed fabric and the current drip line. We need to have a source line from there, really through here, in case we want to use weed fabric there, which we need drip tape for. We're certainly going to do drip tape in the high tunnel, so hopefully my source line is that long. Lucky me, we made it. Need hooked up today. We're just going to connect them. Okay, but then this is going to be a maintenance nightmare. Uh, weeds are just gonna go up through that, and how you gonna deal with that? You can't string trim it. Weed fabric, and the plan is to put it all the way around our garden so we have a barrier. He's enjoying it. I'm gonna use what we have of the 3-foot, and then we'll go to cutting 4-footers in half. Jonah, I think, is fixing to string trim, so let's get some before shots. Of this gnarly garden. We gotta get our drips on top. We got to have always overlaying this, this, this has got to overlay our other fabric. I mean, a little bit like that is just going to be a nightmare all summer long. Hey, all we got to maybe do for this one end is right there, dar. Let's do it. Let's do it, babe. I'm just ready. Okay, you're feeling good, Freddie? Freddie's feeling good. He moved out of the way so you couldn't kiss him. I'm gonna try to put this water line in while y'all eat. Now I believe I can put up the other side of this. Work hard now so we can reap the benefits later. Hi! I got one side shielded. That feels pretty good. I think the other two sides Well, 3 sides won't be as hard. Before I do that, I think it's time to start getting this drip line going. Jonah, so you gotta lay out 4-foot weed fabric and cut it right down the middle as best you can. And to make it last, we need to get— we cut it in half. What do you want to do? You want to roll out here first, then cut it in half? Yeah. Oh, you're left-handed. Oh, that sucks. That's a right-handed scissors. I'm guessing I'm less than an hour away from water dripping on these plants, and hopefully less than an hour and a half. Oh my gosh, then weed fabric all around because they got to go about 2:30, and I wouldn't mind quitting by 2:30, but we got to get this done today because we got a lot to do on the animals this week. Here's our system. Garden hose goes into this, source line goes into this. Spray. Should I attach the source line before I test this? Yes. Jam this on, tighten that over it. Give up on the scissors? I thought the box cutters would cut, but they don't cut. Oh, why not? I don't know. Oh, that's a hook. Do you have a blade? Blade box cutter will do it. This pierces this easy. Oh wow, that was easy. Wow, this is going good. We got all the drips on. Easier than I thought. Boys told me they had only 1 hour. I said you better get hustling. That got them moving. Hey, work comes before play, isn't that what they say? That's a lot of material. That might do it. It needs to do it because it's all we got. I put the end on it. I guess it's a special end relieves some of the pressure, so we probably get a drip at the end too. All right, I'm gonna pull this tight. Okay, and it needs to be about right there, a slit right here. We need a two-way splitter. We'll run one hose to the garden and the other one will still be for the pigs. Lucky day, it's even got a washer in it! Wow, we're minutes away. From putting— and this is going to be very important because it's going to be 80 degrees tomorrow. These poor things, they're going from getting frost to 80 degrees. Go all the way against the post, cram the post. See, pull it up and get over that grass right there. We're gonna be string trimming that. Come back to right here. We're hooking this up, we're hooking this up, Henry. All right, now what do I do to get this to not It might not kink like that. What are the chances this is gonna work? Whoa, there's no leaks! I almost want to see a leak. Where do you see a drip? Right here. Okay, okay, that's proof it's working. Turned off. We got water going down in there. I can see it. I knew it wouldn't be without problems. Lily's got a leaky— oh, is it totally open right here? Okay, good. That's not a major problem. Oh yeah, we're flooding it. Okay, so these were never plugged off then, the strawberries. Okay, so all I do is bend this down, put this end clip on it. I bet I wasn't doing that right. Still leaking, but if it's just dripping, it's okay. It's not like we're gonna leave this It's important that they're not leaking because then they might not be watering everywhere either. But now seriously, we are to the point it's getting watering right now. We're gonna walk away, turn the water on a few times, you know, once a week, twice a week throughout the season, and then come to harvest. That's it. Boys have gone to soccer. I said, Rebecca, should I finish string— should I do some string trimming or come in? She said come in. I tend to just keep going and leave no room for rest or margin. I just get a rest from the sun because I'm gonna start parting and cutting up these chickens for a very special meal tonight. Boys are back. I'm glad you said to come in because we've just basically been cooking So that's the time I needed. Look at this though. Yeah, I'm bulking. I think we can't have this meal as much, it takes too long to make. How was the soccer? It was good. Did you score? No. Did you score? I heard there was some sprinting. Yep. What'd you score? Some chicken. We destroyed that oil. Can you put your peeler down while you eat? How is it, Mom? It's delicious. 10 out of 10. Zaxby's, eat your heart out. Happy day.