So, what kept Pat/Patti so busy???

Patti writing: I didn't get posts written the last couple of weeks we were on the farm (I had some pre-written that I posted, but I didn't get any more written!). What in the world was I up to?

Well, there are a lot of things going on around the farm - one thing is that both Kendra and Ricky's place, as well as Regina and Jimmy's, will be on the New Kent County Farm Tour in July. http://nkccnews.com/community/2016/06/08/taking-root-farm-tour-names-locations-for-2016/
Regina had started mulching in their garden - I realized that this was an area where I could help out, so I went to work on it.

We started by weeding the rows - Regina did the most of this, but Dwayne took pictures of Miss Kitty and I doing some.

I really didn't want to get a lot of sun, so I was trying to improvise shade. I took a big umbrella and stuck the handle down the back of my shirt and into the waistband of my pants!

It kinda worked, but wasn't very comfortable!

So Jimmy brought out a patio umbrella in a "stand" - it worked really well! Though this picture is later in the day when there is a tree that shades much of the garden.

Miss Kitty "helped" too, though she really wasn't enjoying it all that much!

"Could I just go back to the bus?"

Then we mulched the walking area between the rows of vegetables.

The process was to put down paper bags in the rows - dairy cow feed bags work great - many of the other bags have a plastic shielding that would not break down by the end of the season. Then cover the bags with straw and wet them down (preferably with rain!). By the end of the season, all of this can be tilled under and will make organic matter to benefit the soil.

Almost done on Regina and Jimmy's garden

All the rows done (except the corn - we decided it didn't have to be done as it will be harvested soon and out of there).

Doesn't it look nice???

My sweet niece-by-"I do", Kendra, came by one evening when I was working on Regina and Jimmy's garden and was impressed with how nice it looked. She started trying various bribes to have me come over and work on mulching her garden too. I just kept on saying, "Oh, I need to finish Regina's" and "we aren't going to be here much longer". But... in the back of my mind I thought, "when she is gone to market on Saturday morning, I'm going to try to get at least some of her garden mulched!"

Kendra is selling veggies, flowers, soap, preserved goods, meats, etc. at Farmer's Markets - one week she will be at Matthews, and the other week she will do South of the James and then Hopewell in the afternoon. The day I had planned to do the mulching, she was scheduled to do Matthews, so would be gone from about 6:30am until after noon. It was predicted to be VERY HOT, so I wanted to get an early start.

Before the day I was planning to do this, I sorted through all the bags that were collected in the dairy barn and got all the ones we could use for our project sorted out. Just when I had finished that and was on my way to the shade near Regina's garden to work on opening them up, I noticed Kendra was over visiting... so I only brought a few over to the shade to start on. Kendra could see that we had finished the majority of Regina's garden, and came over to ask, "Are you going to do the corn rows too???" I didn't want to lie, but just said - "Oh, we still have some more to get done!" I thought if she walked around the corner and saw the piles of bags that I had outside the dairy barn that my secret plan would be out! But she didn't...

We worked on cutting open the bags and folding them the evening before. As you can see, Miss Kitty and Dwayne helped with this part! Dwayne actually helped a LOT with preparing the bags, and Jimmy did too with pre-folding the ones that I prepared ahead of time.

Come Saturday morning....

We laid the bags down first. The breeze made handling the bags a little challenging, but made the task a little less sultry hot!

Ricky was in on the plan, so he provided a lot of help. Here you can see that we have pats of straw down on the bags - the wind would pick them up, so we weighted them down with the straw before we spread it. We had also used the lawn chairs as weights (no, they aren't there for sitting in!).

Ricky and Jimmy (who also came over to help) spreading the straw.

Dwayne spreading straw.

 Kendra came over later in the afternoon and said, "The mulch fairy came to my garden!" She seemed to be very appreciative. We went back over after supper and put the bags and mulch down around the squash and melon plants to give them a good place to "nest". It was fun to have a project to get accomplished and to help out!