This could very well curtail my gardening for a few days.

I'm not sure, but I think I may have broken my baby toe. I was walking to my bed in the dark last night, and somehow forgot that the camelback trunk at the foot of my bed was there. The corners are metal and I smashed my baby toe into it. I have a high pain tolerance, but I could not stay asleep because of the pain. It is the same toe I broke when I was a teenager, nigh on 45 years ago. Hurts like Bejezus. 

Here is a picture of it...what do you think? Broken?

This is the corner I smashed my toe on!!

Update: It's after eight pm and the pain isn't as bad now that I've been wearing my slippers for a while.  The pain seems to be subsiding a bit. Still hurts, but not as bad. I may very well take these battered old slippers to the store tomorrow. 

My okole is broken. I have not worked this hard since the big greenhouse clean-out of 2011.

Before the clear cut. To the right of the greenhouse are the snowberries.

The snowberries were really pretty in the winter.

In our house, when you work really hard, and everything hurts, we say 'my okole is broken'. Okole is backside or butt in Hawaiian. Today my okole is broken. I came home from the store early so that I could get into the garden and enjoy the sun and heat. I have an area of the yard I have left wild for the birds etc. it was all snowberries. I put in three plants about 15 years ago, and they have taken over a large part of the back yard. They were working their way to the blueberry walk through runners.  I cut them away from the greenhouse last year, and have tried to reign them in so they didn't take over. I failed. So, I got my long handled loppers, the new ratchet loppers that I posted about last week, pruners and gloves and just started hacking. I forgot my camera at the store, so I'm going to go out tomorrow with my ipad or phone to take pictures. It is a dramatic change. It took me about four hours of non stop work. I also borrowed Lance and Judy's ladder and climbed up and used the ratchet loppers to cut a lot of branches out of the birch. I feel very sore...but oh so satisfied. 

I have no idea what I am going to do with this newly found part of my yard. It is right by the 'hedge' so too shady to grow anything. I'll probably spend a year or two battling the snowberry runners, but I think I will just bark mulch it and maybe set pots of something there. 

This pile is much bigger than its looks here. Those branches you see are up to ten feet long. The pile is about six feet high and 12 feet across. It's one of two piles. 

This greedy gardener has been wanting to put in a second greenhouse. Hmmmm.

The beans are up!! Three types this year.

I have decided to try three different types of beans this year. Last years Fortex produced heavily and yummily. This year I wanted to try dry beans. I know we would use more dry beans than frozen green beans. So I set up the bean pot with Fortex, Borlotti and Orca. Borlotti is a red and white dry bean and Orca is a black and white. It is also called the Yin Yang bean. Can't wait to see them.

I've finally figured out what has killed my raspberries......again.

Last year I lost all of my Meeker Raspberries. I had no idea why. They limped along. Got wilty, turned brown and crispy, and died. I replanted with Tulameen. They didn't even live as long as the Meekers. Sad and upsetting. Raspberries are my favourite food in the world!!! So it has been two seasons of disappointment. That said, you should see the Fallgolds. They are HUGE and thriving. In the same bed as the dead plants. I started reading yet again, trying to figure out what is happening. I'm sure all the seasoned gardeners out there recognize the symptoms of Root Rot. It turns out that both Meeker and Tulameen are very susceptible to root rot. Fall gold is not. I read about root rot last year, but could not accept the verdict. 

My neighbour Judy has several varieties of raspberries and has given me some plants. I am going to wait for them to send out the new shoots and put the shoots in the bed and see if they live. Judy doesn't know the names so I need to test them for resistance to Root Rot. I love Tulameen raspberries, so I will need to set up another raspberry bed somewhere for them.

I am hopeful that this is not the end of the raspberry story.

Deadheading chives....where the heck was that bee I didn't see....but felt.

I didn't see the bee on the chives, but I felt it. Then I saw it. 

So, it hurt. But I had a job to do, so I finished deadheading. The pain was fading, but still 'stung'. My mom is a Oregano Oil advocate. She advocates it for everything!! So I poured some on. It stopped stinging right away. Really. So then I poured some tea tree on it for added measure. And now I'm telling you all about it. So I highly recommend Oil Of Oregano for bee stings. Here's another picture. The sting is just at the base of my thumb on the pad. See. The OOO worked so well you can hardly see it.