Trellis Up, Strings for Tomatoes and Netting for Beans and Cukes

May 19, 2025

Yesterday (Sunday, May 18), Bruce l took me for a 15 minute motorcycle ride. My physical therapist said I need to see what happens when I ride. He wants me to ride every day for 15 minutes for a week. We started on Saturday.

After we got back home from the ride, Nox came outside with us. While Nox wondered around the backyard, Bruce put together the frame of the third trellis. It is 8 feet tall, with a foot sunk in the bed, making it 7 feet tall for the beans and cucumbers.

After putting the frame of the third trellis together, Bruce climbed up on a ladder and tied strings 6 inches apart on the tall tomato trellis frame. The tomato trellis is 10 feet in the air, with 1 foot in the bed, making it 9 feet tall for the tomato plants.

I handed up the end of the string to Bruce, unwound the string to the ground, and as he tied the string onto the trellis, I cut the string at the ground level.

After Bruce finished tying the strings onto the frame, he went off to take Nox inside and to do some Bruce things, more on this later in the post.

I tied a horizontal string just above the edge of the garden bed from north side of the trellis frame to the middle post. I tied the dangling vertical strings from the top to this bottom horizontal string. Using a special Velcro for plant tying, I attached my tomato plants to the strings.

The sweet potatoes are starting to look good, as you can see in the picture.

While I was getting the tomatoes tied up, Bruce called out to me to let me know I should come take a look at the fire he made (this was the main Bruce thing) from pine tree branches he pulled from the tall grass. Pulling the branches out of the branch piles in the tall grass was the other Bruce thing.

Bruce had a bucket to dip into the tub to quickly get water if needed. In the picture, the bucket is hiding behind the pine tree. Bruce has it full of water ready to go.

I went and looked at the fire, talked to Bruce for a bit, then went back to tying up the tomatoes.

Once I was done with the tomatoes, I helped Bruce burn branches. We pulled them out of the tall grass. We didn’t clear all the branches and large logs lurking in the grass. Bruce won’t be able to mow in that area until we get the branches and logs pulled out.

While by the fire, I took a look at the blueberry bushes. Two of them have yellowed leaves. I looked it up to see what causes yellowing leaves. Apparently, a high pH causes the blueberry bushes not to be able to use the iron in the soil. I may have put two blueberry bushes in the only spot in the yard that has a high pH. All the places I tested came back with a 4 to 5 pH. I didn’t happen to test the area I put the blueberries. I need to do a soil test. It is also possible the plants are waterlogged with all the rain we’ve been getting.

After watching the fire burn down and putting it out, we got out of the outside heat plus humidity and cooled off inside.

I received notification from Amazon that my delivery had arrived and was in the mailbox.

I walked down to the mailbox to get my trellis netting. This netting is for the pole beans and cucumbers.

I got the Gorilla step-stool and used it to tie the netting to the trellis frame.

The netting bottom is about 6 inches above the garden bed edge. The beans almost reach the bottom. The cucumbers in the next bed over still have a ways to go before they reach the netting.

The silver tarp is covering the Bama Dirt pro mix to keep it from washing away.

I was happy to get inside and cool down after being out in the sunshine.

Later, we walked around Blackberry Homestead, looking at everything.

We snacked on fresh peas while looking at other plants in the garden.

I discovered a yellow-stripped armyworm in one of the garden beds. Bruce squished after I looked it up only to discover, it wasn’t beneficial or a caterpillar that metamorphose into a beautiful butterfly.

While in the back pasture, we saw blooms on the persimmon tree limbs that overhang our property.

Bruce notice this bird.

I spent sometime digging up false dandelions next to the blueberry bushes while Bruce sat outside with Nox.

I’ve noticed the lush leaves of the unknown bulbs in the garden by the house starting to die back. Daylilies have grown up among the yellowing foliage and are sending out tall stalks for blooms.

We tried to sit out on the front porch, but found it to be too muggy. We decided to go inside as the sun set.

I walked out onto the driveway circle to get a better picture of the sunset.

We had thunderstorms last night. Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled, waking me up. Nox, realizing I was awake decided she needed to go outside. I pulled on my robe and took her out in a light rain. Nox quickly peed and returned to the house, leaping up the steps into the house. She was slightly damp. I dried her off with one of the Nox towels.

She went over to her dog food and munched down.

I went back to bed. Later, she wanted in bed with us and I helped her into bed. She proceeded to put her cold wet nose on Bruce. He thought she needed to go outside again. I told him, “I just had her outside.“

Bruce still got dressed and took her outside. Nox, having been outside recently, didn’t need to do anything. She lead Bruce back to the bedroom. Nox wanted the bed on vibrate. As soon as Bruce turned on the vibrations, Nox settled down and went to sleep.

What an utterly spoiled dog!

The vibrations do seem to make Nox’s hurt shoulder feel better. Nox had been limping a lot throughout the day.

We got about 1/2 an inch of rain last night.

We didn’t do much outside today. Bruce took me I made sourdough buttermilk sandwich bread.