Setting Up a Weather Station, Peach Harvest & Planting Russian Sage! ️️ __ Garden Answer
Setting Up a Weather Station, Peach Harvest & Planting Russian Sage! ️️
Transcript
00:00 to the ground so we want to get them before that happens to too many of them.
00:03 I also have some strawberries to pick out here I think, I hope.
00:07 I use a lot of strawberries.
00:09 I usually make a smoothie at least once a day with some of our frozen strawberries.
00:13 So I like to freeze as many of those as possible before the season ends.
00:16 I've got a few Russian sage to plant, just three denim and lace.
00:20 And then Aaron and I are going to be installing a weather system that he bought.
00:24 It's the Tempest weather system.
00:26 Let me show you what it looks like.
00:28 So this is it right here.
00:29 So you install it on a pipe and it just tracks all things weather.
00:34 So anyway, Aaron will be able to speak more on that when we get to that part of the project.
00:37 But you install it on top of a pipe.
00:40 Sort of like we've installed some of our hose links, you know, just resting on top of a
00:43 one inch galvanized pipe.
00:45 So we're going to run and grab a length of pipe and I think we're going to install this
00:48 behind our barn.
00:50 I think.
00:51 It has to be close to Wi-Fi.
00:53 So we need to have it near that.
00:55 And I think behind the barn is going to be the least interrupted space in terms of like
00:59 it's open back there.
01:01 There's not a lot, you know, stopping any kind of weather tracking.
01:05 I don't know.
01:06 Anyway, that's what we've got going on today.
01:09 Oh, also excitement.
01:11 I have one honey crisp apple on the tree.
01:14 You know, most of them were taken by worms.
01:17 So I stripped the whole tree minus one that was clean.
01:20 I think it's ready to harvest.
01:22 Look at this beautiful apple.
01:25 Look at it.
01:27 And honey crisp apples are ones that you want to harvest in September.
01:31 And it says ideally you want to pick them when there's still a tiny bit of green, which
01:34 there's a tiny bit of green left.
01:36 So let's...
01:37 Oh, isn't that beautiful?
01:40 I figured we'd take this to the house and cut it up and maybe we can share it with the
01:44 kids, see what they think about it.
01:45 I also need to harvest nectarines, but I will leave that for another day.
01:48 This though makes me so happy.
01:51 The Fuji apples aren't quite as far along.
01:54 Starting to color up a little bit.
01:55 You'll notice some worm damage on some of them.
01:57 I might just try to cut around that because it's not too bad.
02:00 And we might just dehydrate a bunch of these.
02:03 But I thought I would just leave these on the tree and see what happens.
02:06 They're looking pretty good.
02:07 But the Albertas are looking great.
02:13 They smell amazing.
02:14 I've already canned a few quarts of sliced peaches.
02:17 I think I'm going to do some more sliced and halved peaches.
02:20 I might freeze some of them.
02:22 They smell so good.
02:23 Now they are a bit undersized.
02:25 Last year they were quite a bit bigger than this.
02:27 But last year we lost most of our crop in a freeze.
02:30 Like when the blooms were still out, we had a cold snap and I wasn't able to get out here
02:35 and cover the trees.
02:36 So I lost most of them, but there were a few left on the very interior of the tree and
02:40 those sized up huge.
02:41 But you know, I thinned these early in the season and then I should have come out and
02:44 thinned them more and I didn't.
02:46 And I showed you guys recently before we had a storm come through.
02:49 I thought I better get out here and at least thin them at this point, even though I know
02:52 the fruit's not going to size up much more.
02:56 I do think that they did size a tiny bit after I did that.
02:59 So anyway, I've got baskets out here.
03:01 We'll see what we get from this harvest.
03:04 Before I harvest the peaches in the tree, I actually go through the ones on the ground
03:08 because sometimes they're perfect.
03:10 Like this one just must have dropped between last night and this morning.
03:13 I will save all of those.
03:15 That one looks amazing.
03:16 Anything that looks like this gets to either stay out here or I'm going to maybe come back
03:20 out here with a bucket later and gather them up and Bethany's pigs can have them.
03:23 [Music]
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04:24 And there we go.
04:25 Quite a number.
04:26 Filled up two baskets which is awesome.
04:28 Now I did want to show you what the insides of these look like.
04:31 So these are the Albertas that we just picked and they've got the yellow flesh and they
04:36 are freestone which means that when you, well I tore mine apart, but when you usually use
04:40 a knife and cut them apart in a much more clean way, the pit falls right off the flesh.
04:45 See that?
04:46 It's really easy to remove them so they're really easy to can.
04:50 And then this one right here is the Snow Beauty White Peach.
04:52 So you can see the difference here.
04:54 This one's also a freestone so the pit removes very easily.
04:58 They're so, so tasty both of these.
05:00 So good.
05:01 Oh my gosh.
05:02 You know the thing about peaches though, I don't really care for the furry skin that
05:05 they have.
05:06 So if I'm out here I kind of have to like use my teeth to scrape the interior out and
05:11 then I just toss the peel.
05:13 That's why I like nectarines so much and I prefer eating those fresh over peaches because
05:18 the skin is really soft and tender and you can just eat the whole thing, the whole thing,
05:22 without it being a huge mess.
05:23 So anyway, that's why I'm leaving the nectarine for now.
05:25 We'll eat fresh off the tree for a little bit and then I'll probably do some freezing
05:28 with those later.
05:29 And then you can see over here, I left about 20 or so peaches on the tree because they
05:34 weren't quite ripe, which is great.
05:35 We can use those for fresh eating as well.
05:37 And then that's my little pile of the ones that were too damaged really to do much with.
05:42 So those will be gathered up and given to the pigs.
05:44 So now I want to see what we've got for strawberries out here.
05:46 I don't think there's a tremendous amount but I did see a little red peeking through
05:49 when we were driving around last night.
05:51 Peaches are in the shade.
05:53 There's our berry baskets.
05:54 Okay, so here's what we've got for strawberries.
05:56 The first ones that are so huge and we're actually going to be digging up the runners
06:01 and Bethany's got a friend that wants to take all of them, which is great.
06:04 So she's planning on doing that this week, which will clean up the row, like the walking
06:08 paths here.
06:09 But the first two varieties are the honey I and all stars, which are a June bearing.
06:13 So there are no strawberries on these plants.
06:16 But as we get further down here, there are three other patches.
06:22 So right here, and you can see we're dealing with some chlorosis.
06:25 Strawberries are particularly prone to that in our area.
06:28 See that, the dark green veining.
06:30 So we'll need to come through and give them some chelated iron.
06:32 But we've got seascapes right here.
06:34 And then we've got quinaults.
06:35 They've got a completely different look.
06:38 The leaves look a lot healthier, but they have started to scorch.
06:41 And honestly, I'm not overly impressed with the size and shape of the berries.
06:46 The flavor is good and they're just kind of an old heritage variety that have been around
06:49 forever.
06:50 But I think when we get ready to do our more permanent strawberry area, which I do want
06:56 to build like a waist high raised bed to do strawberries in, I will probably forego the
07:00 quinaults.
07:01 But they're here for now.
07:02 And let's see, is there any action in here?
07:06 Doesn't look like much of anything.
07:09 And then the last section here are seascapes as well.
07:12 I don't see a tremendous amount either.
07:14 We might fill up one cup if that.
07:16 Better than nothing.
07:17 I knew I had seen some out here.
07:20 Seascapes.
07:22 Big and beautiful.
07:31 Well, I've had more productive harvests in the past.
07:47 I think the kids must have beat me to the berries, which honestly makes me really happy.
07:51 It's one of their favorite things to do to come out here and pick berries.
07:53 I'll probably just give these to the kids because I don't want to put a whole freezer
07:57 pan or a pan in the freezer just to freeze a small amount.
08:01 Pretty nice size berries though.
08:02 They're beautiful.
08:03 Okay, so that's all I really wanted to do for harvesting this morning because this will
08:07 take me a while and I'll probably do that this evening.
08:11 Process all these peaches, but I do want to get the Russian sage planted out.
08:15 Now, this is one of my favorite perennials.
08:16 I have a few that are just go-to's that I plant in a lot of different locations just
08:20 because of how tough they are, the kind of color they produce, and the lack of maintenance.
08:25 Which Russian sage checks all those boxes.
08:28 And this one in particular, I've planted other varieties and I do like the big standard older
08:33 variety too.
08:34 And in certain applications where you need a taller variety, it's just beautiful.
08:37 But the Denman Lay stays more compact.
08:39 So it's like two and a half to not even quite three feet tall.
08:44 And then maybe just about three feet wide and it stays really thick and it looks robust.
08:48 It doesn't flop over.
08:49 Now, if you do have Russian sage that has flopped over and you just are not sure why,
08:54 typically it's because they're not getting enough sun or they're getting too much water
08:58 or they're fertilized.
09:00 They do not want to be fertilized.
09:01 They're just tough as nails, drought tolerant once established.
09:04 So usually we'll plant these, give them regular water like we do everything else the first
09:09 season, and then we can start cutting water after that point.
09:12 After they've had a chance to root in, they really don't want a lot of water, a lot of
09:15 moisture.
09:16 They definitely don't want to be sitting in it.
09:18 So we're just going to go put these in a full sun location out in the garden.
09:21 The other thing about these too, no deadheading.
09:23 They start blooming like middle of summer and then they go all the way through a frost
09:28 and you don't ever have to go clean them up or anything.
09:30 They're just really nice that way.
09:32 That's another reason why I like to plant things like hydrangeas, sedum, echinacea,
09:38 those type of late season things that just don't require anything from me all season.
09:44 Except for maybe being cut back once in the season, that's it.
09:47 I like plants like that.
09:48 Oh, the dahlias are gorgeous.
09:51 I'm enjoying them so much.
09:52 Okay, so we've got Russian sage on both sides of the walkway over here, but I can't remember
09:58 if I've got any on the other side.
10:00 We also have some room right here for some color.
10:02 That's some Denim and Lace we planted earlier this season in a nice drift.
10:06 There's some more.
10:07 This is a variety called Sage Advice.
10:09 Similar, but different a bit.
10:11 We're going to head to the other side.
10:12 Saffron Finch Supertunia.
10:14 New one for next year.
10:15 If you see it, buy it.
10:17 It's awesome.
10:18 I love it.
10:19 So we've got the Denim and Lace on either side of this walkway.
10:23 Isn't it gorgeous?
10:24 And it just looks like that for most of the summer and fall.
10:28 I just love that about this plant.
10:31 And I'm thinking I want some right in here.
10:35 We've got Quickfire hydrangeas.
10:37 There's a new Weigela right there.
10:39 There's the Tidy Tim Spruce.
10:40 And I'm thinking maybe a few of these right in here.
10:45 Stand back and take a look.
10:46 Yeah, it might be kind of nice to have that spikier texture and the purple blooms, of
10:51 course.
10:52 I'm just a huge fan of purple in the garden.
10:54 I love it.
10:55 You can pair so many different things with it.
10:58 [Music]
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11:37 All those look really pretty right there.
11:39 A little trio.
11:40 And so, you know, this hydrangea will fill in.
11:42 The Tidy Tim only gets four feet wide.
11:44 And at this point, it's about two.
11:46 So it'll only grow over about another foot.
11:49 So I think these will just barely touch in the end.
11:51 What I'll do is I'll plant a drift or something right in front of like kind of the middle
11:57 Russian Sage.
11:58 And it'll curve around the front of the last one.
12:01 And then I'll start something lower, some kind of a lower ground cover-y type thing
12:04 starting in front of the first one and then curving around the front of the spruce here.
12:08 I think that's what I'll do.
12:09 It evolves over time.
12:11 And this whole willy-nilly approach to gardening has been really fun.
12:15 It's been different for me because usually I skew more formal in the kind of gardens
12:22 that I'm drawn to.
12:23 But more and more, I've been liking a little bit more of a natural look.
12:27 And Erin and I were kind of talking about that the other night, like whether or not
12:29 we would have done this differently out here.
12:31 We had a rough idea because we had to know where the road was going to go, our driveway.
12:35 We had to know where the cut flower garden was going to go because we knew we wanted
12:39 those things in the orchard and so on and so forth.
12:42 But all the areas out here, there's zero plan.
12:45 Like I had no idea where any of the big stuff was going to go.
12:48 We just kind of get things and think that's a good spot for it.
12:52 And hoping in the end that by kind of applying the, you know, looking for the four colors,
12:57 principles, red, blue, green, and yellow, also making sure that there's good bone structure
13:01 for winter, and that's something that we'll be working on for a long time, making sure
13:04 there's evergreens everywhere and ornamental grasses and things that look pretty in the winter.
13:09 Making sure we have four seasons of interest.
13:12 As long as you're kind of thinking of all those things along the way when you pick out
13:15 spots to put things, I think in the end we'll end up with something real pretty.
13:19 Okay, it is weather station time.
13:21 So I'm going to go grab Erin, take the peaches inside, and we'll get that worked out.
13:25 All right, guys, so we just drove around trying to decide the best place for the weather station
13:29 because you kind of want it unimpeded by a ton of stuff, a ton of structures or trees,
13:34 that kind of thing.
13:36 I think we're going to put it behind the barn, which is originally where we thought it should go.
13:39 But do you know all the things that this tracks?
13:42 Not off the top of my head.
13:43 So it's the tempest, right?
13:45 Okay, so light sensor.
13:48 There's a haptic rain sensor, which looks like it's maybe the next one down.
13:52 There's a sonic wind sensor, which is underneath in this little section right here.
13:56 There's a temperature and humidity sensor, which is these ridges right here.
14:00 Solar powered.
14:01 Oh, not battery powered.
14:02 This right here, yeah.
14:03 Oh, that's awesome.
14:04 I thought for sure it was battery powered.
14:05 Do you have to face it a certain direction?
14:07 Yeah, I think you face this probably south.
14:10 You face which one?
14:11 The solar powered--I'm guessing you face that south.
14:13 Oh, sure.
14:14 I think that's it.
14:16 Nice.
14:17 So this thing just kind of rests--well, there's a little mount that we put at the bottom.
14:20 There's two mounts.
14:21 One that has the kind of adapter to slide it down onto this one inch galvanized pipe,
14:26 and the other one is to mount it on top of a 4x4 post, whichever one you want to do.
14:30 Or really anything flat, I think.
14:32 We figured this would be the best way to do it to begin with because we're not going to concrete it in.
14:37 Is that right?
14:38 Cement it in.
14:39 Yeah, sure.
14:40 So that we can move it in case we feel like there's a better location.
14:42 But it does need to be within range of Wi-Fi, so we were a little bit limited.
14:46 We've got Wi-Fi access at the house, the barn, and the Hartley.
14:49 So we figured being close to the barn would be the best.
14:52 I don't know.
14:53 Ready to go big hole?
14:54 Yes.
14:55 Okay.
14:56 So that's a 10-footer right there.
14:57 Paul has spray painted the bulk of it black, which is nice.
15:01 So we'll put the silver in down in the ground.
15:03 And Aaron has got the auger.
15:05 That's the 2-inch auger there.
15:07 This is one of those 48-inch augers that we bought that we never used.
15:11 Yeah.
15:12 Oh, great time to use it.
15:13 Yeah, now's the time to use it when you actually have to go deep.
15:15 Yeah.
15:16 So, right here along the fence, you're going to hit concrete if you're too close to that post.
15:21 So, like, right here maybe?
15:22 Almost.
15:23 No, because I feel like you're going to get close to the water.
15:25 I feel like you need to be right here.
15:26 Do you want me to just--can we just shift that over?
15:29 Can we just do it right here?
15:30 We can.
15:31 We'll be able to see it.
15:32 That's all right.
15:33 Okay.
15:34 Oh, that's going in smooth.
15:36 Yeah.
15:37 [Aaron spray painting]
15:40 You had the boxwood sitting here.
15:42 Oh, yeah.
15:43 We just moved those plants that were sitting over there.
15:45 They were sitting here, so they were getting watered here.
15:47 [Aaron spray painting]
16:00 Should we mount this thing before--put the tempest on first?
16:04 Probably.
16:05 Oh, yeah.
16:06 I can go grab it.
16:07 [Aaron spray painting]
16:12 So, it's that piece there, right?
16:13 Yeah.
16:14 And this is stuff that goes inside.
16:17 So, does this piece have to come off, and then that piece go on?
16:20 Yeah.
16:21 And this piece right here--I'm going to open this.
16:24 Hold on.
16:25 There's an on/off switch here.
16:26 Oh, on.
16:29 Oh, here we go.
16:31 Very nice.
16:32 Easy.
16:33 [Aaron spray painting]
16:36 So, what is this?
16:37 So, it goes from your router to this, to this, to this.
16:40 How does this plug in?
16:41 With the power.
16:43 I know, but where does it go in?
16:46 I don't see any access.
16:49 Oh, for crying out loud.
16:51 How did I miss that?
16:52 Okay.
16:53 So, we put that inside the studio.
16:54 Yeah.
16:55 Okay.
16:56 We got everything we need.
16:57 Okay, I think this goes on first.
17:00 And then this slides on.
17:11 Nice.
17:17 Well?
17:18 Didn't quite get it straight.
17:19 Well, it's okay.
17:20 We got to pack it in.
17:21 We go like that?
17:22 Yeah.
17:23 It's almost straight.
17:25 I'm not super worried about it being like--
17:26 Close enough.
17:27 Oh, do we face it right, though?
17:28 Do we need to twist it?
17:31 That looks exposed.
17:32 Yeah.
17:33 Well, now do you need to--do you have the app on your phone?
17:37 No, not yet.
17:38 Okay.
17:39 That's the next step.
17:40 I'm going to turn off my smartphones.
17:41 Yeah, you don't even really notice it back there.
17:43 Not really.
17:44 Okay, this is the app.
17:45 So, get.
17:52 So, you just had to create an account.
17:54 Yep, and then enable Bluetooth.
17:57 Okay, find a good spot in door.
17:59 Okay, now we want to plug in that other piece.
18:04 Done.
18:05 On my desk.
18:06 It's all messy.
18:07 Oh, I already turned it on.
18:08 So, hopefully that was okay.
18:09 Oh, I need to make sure this is the same number.
18:11 Okay, it wants me to set my location.
18:14 I'm glad you're doing this.
18:15 You would have lost me at, "You need to download an app."
18:17 Okay, so the app is saying that--what now?
18:20 We need to make sure it's turned on and blinking green, which it is.
18:23 Okay.
18:24 So, maybe I need to be closer to this.
18:26 Let me hit retry.
18:28 Searching for devices?
18:29 Oh, it worked.
18:30 It went through.
18:31 Oh, good.
18:32 Here, let me get this for you.
18:34 What's the purpose of that so it doesn't fly off the top?
18:37 It just, like, locks it the more you twist it.
18:40 Gotcha.
18:41 Okay, now it wants me to set up Wi-Fi.
18:43 Well, I guess, you know, the history--so there's no data available--but this is going to be the most interesting part for me,
18:49 is being able to look back and see averages.
18:51 Yeah.
18:52 You know, or, like, how gusty the wind actually was.
18:56 How much rain we got in the last storm.
18:57 Yeah.
18:58 That sort of thing.
18:59 Yeah, right.
19:00 So, we can't really rate it until we've used it for a little while, but you did say it was on the expensive side.
19:04 Yeah, it was like $300.
19:06 It looked like it was highly rated, and a lot of people were recommending it,
19:09 and it just looked like kind of a good one, so I went for it.
19:13 Well, hope for the best.
19:14 So, we'll be reporting back after we've had a chance to use it for a little while.
19:17 I think it'll be the most interesting after we get a storm because we can compare it.
19:21 You know, weather report versus what we actually got.
19:23 Sure.
19:24 That sort of thing to see if it's even comparable or see if it's close.
19:27 So, anyway, that is it for today, you guys.
19:29 Just a little bit of harvesting, a little bit of planting, a little bit of weather station.
19:33 I'm going to go process those peaches.
19:34 I probably won't film it.
19:35 It's just more canning, and I don't know how much canning you guys can take.
19:39 So, I'm just going to be slicing up the peaches, putting them in an extra light syrup.
19:43 I do a half cup of sugar and eight cups of water, so it's like the very lightest of syrup.
19:47 So, anyway, thank you guys so much for watching this video.
19:49 I hope you enjoyed it, and we will see you in the next one.
19:51 Bye.