What did you do in the garden today?

I've spent a stupid amount of money on strawberry plants. Hundreds of dollars. No matter what variety I get, they get overwhelmed by disease and die. I'm battling the same problem with my raspberries. There's tons of wild raspberries and blackberries within a 100 ft outside my garden area. Viruses/fungus are easily spread in this climate and it's almost impossible to eradicate the wild berries so my best option is to simply treat my domestic varieties with fungicide. As long as I stay on top of it, the raspberries/blackberries can generally overcome it. Strawberries haven't been so lucky but I think it's because I don't have a good way to water the existing beds without getting the leaves wet. That just increases the leaf spot/fungal issues. After having to replace my strawberries every single year for the past 3 years, I'm done throwing money down the drain on these beds. I will try another idea with the food grade 55 gallon barrels. If that doesn't work, I'm just giving up on the strawberries altogether.
 
I've been cleaning my garden up after I trashed it with wood scraps from a project. Took some pictures while I was at it 😃
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Lot of work to do still before it's clean again...but making enough progress I can start to enjoy my little space again.
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Plumeria seedlings from seeds a lovely lady on here sent me❤️
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And Clyde the call duck...his house is in my garden❤️
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Hope everyone enjoys their day!
 
Good afternoon gardeners. I’m still picking San Marzanos. I pulled most of my Better Boy tomatoes to ripen indoors. I got tired of my nocturnal taste tester biting chunks out of them. Good news is they have blooms opening on them. I thought my cherry tomatoes were finished but they’re full of new blooms and green tomatoes. The late planted summer squash are blooming and working on production. I also have tiny cucumbers developing. I have another acorn squash developing but I’m not sure if it will be ready before the frost. The bed it’s in would be easy to cover. The kale and chard are still going strong and the turnips are looking happy. I really need to thin them again. The peaches are very close to ripe so any day now I’ll be up to my elbows in peaches. My chickens have been laying a bit sporadically @Sueby. Two weeks ago they pretty much stopped laying. I think it was the end of the 3rd heat wave. When the temperatures cooled down I guess it was throwing their body clocks out of whack. They are now producing a little better. They still have days where I’m only getting one or two eggs but then I’ll get 4 or 5 in a day. My girls are getting a little older now. I have 2 RIR that are 4 1/2 years old 2 BR that are 3 1/2. My BO are 2 1/2 and the CW are the youngest at just over a year. I have no plans to get more hens until the older hens pass.
 
I've spent a stupid amount of money on strawberry plants. I'm done throwing money down the drain on these beds. I will try another idea with the food grade 55 gallon barrels. If that doesn't work, I'm just giving up on the strawberries altogether.
IBC tote cut in half works too. I keep most my plants in them. Slightly above ground so water drains out /so standing issues, and if it does get fungus'd up, easy to isolate, torch to sterilize for next crop. Try it for your strawberries. You may have a drainage issue more than anything else if moisture is getting them. Mine never look really good, but they live.

also fwiw i throw my coffee grounds in with the strawberries too. them and the berries seem to love it. now if i can keep the fn chickens from digging the worms out and digging the plants up i'd be golden :D

Aaron
 
Was up at 3am with thunder shaking the windows. The storms were still 50 miles away. Great two hour light and sound show, but only .07" of rain.

Another 14 pounds of orange tomatoes from the garden last night, now ripening on the deck.

I spent an hour working on my ignored blackberry bushes. Good grief. I'll not ignore them again, but now they're nice and neat and wrangled.

FWIW - not bothering with Opalka meat tomatoes next year. They're big, few and far between, hard on the plant limbs, and never seem to loose their green shoulder, which splits like mad and goes weird.

Next year will just be a couple slicers and the rest San Marzanos.
No rain for at least another week.

Awaiting State Fair results.... ::tapping foot::
 
I have a spiralizer! Makes quick work of them & they're great as a pasta alternative. This is the one I have, got it like 8 years ago so would probably not buy the same one now, but it does work well.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015Q7ESF4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Here's, I think, 10 or 12 spiralized squash draining:View attachment 3236916

We got some huge thunderstorms - I can't wait to go check the rain gage. I bet we got a couple inches! :yesss:

(ps, I'm still trying to talk DH into moving to the PNW :gig)
YES!!!!! We really need more garden & chicken folks! You'd love it here! Do you salt, drain, and freeze the zucchini noodles?
A lot has changed in the garden since I was away! My girlfriend tried wrangling our tomato’s, to beaten up their grow area. It looks better but is still a jungle!
I still have to cut ours back nearly every other day, the cherry tomatoes are nuts!
Only downside to all this is, we came back to what appeared to be a dead freezer. Light s off and everything completely defrosted. Lost some Boston butts that were bought on sale, several bags of flounder caught over this summer and about 75 bags of various veggies saved for the coming winter. All got buried in the garden for worm food.
Oh man, I'd have cried.
Me too! I made mine with cherry juice where it called for water. It's delicious!
That's how I make our too, nearly time to harvest the apples here.
My husband helped me finish making my compost bin. Now, the pupper can't just get to the pile, and it won't flatten into a not-a-pile.
That is a beautiful compost bin! That scorched finish is like our chicken coop, very nice.
Lot of work to do still before it's clean again...but making enough progress I can start to enjoy my little space again.
That is a lovely garden, it looks so cool and inviting.
My chickens have been laying a bit sporadically @Sueby. Two weeks ago they pretty much stopped laying. I think it was the end of the 3rd heat wave. When the temperatures cooled down I guess it was throwing their body clocks out of whack. They are now producing a little better.
Mine has been the same but I think it's the soft molt the layers have been in. But this morning we got the first egg from one of the marens:
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Tiny but nicely dark.
 
YES!!!!! We really need more garden & chicken folks! You'd love it here! Do you salt, drain, and freeze the zucchini noodles?
Yep, pretty much the same as the shredded, but I leave them in the strainer on the counter over night covered with a towel & they dry up so that I don't have to squeeze them. I totally love it out there, DH has no interest but I think it's because he's never been. How can you have seen it & not love it & want to move there!?

I just feel like if I'm feeding & watering chickens I dang well better not have to buy eggs! Especially in August! I should have a stash built up by now, but nope. It's the darn broodies, they gotta go. :he
 

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