What did you do in the garden today?

[fuzzi]

I haven’t bought bleached flour in over 30 years. I always buy King Arthur flour because it comes from Vermont. Relatively close to me so “local.” Most of the cheese I buy also comes from a farmers coop in Vermont.

My mother always used King Arthur flour. They finally started carrying it in the NC stores a few years ago.

 

[fuzzi]

We dropped to 34 last night.
Tonight and tomorrow night we'll be down to 28 for a few hours. I'll toss another layer on the herb garden tonight.
The verge of the pasture needs a quick trim with the mower, but the rest, and the main lawn, can go wild for all I care. Cutting it short in drought is too hard on it. My neighbors all cut too close in a good year, and then water it to death to keep it green.
I'm not wasting my well on a green lawn.

Am thinking harder and harder about a freeze dryer. Thanks guys. Geesh.
I'm leaning towards the small one, but locally they sell the medium one.

Even though we get 48" of rain annually it gets hot and dry during the late summer here. I raised my mower blade to 2 1/2" so it doesn't scalp the grass and kill it.

 

[Molpet]

See the sprout with the seed coat still on it? (The little green thing next to it is a weed.)
View attachment 3806210
It's a pepper. I have had a lot of seeds do this this year. In years past, these usually dry out and die. The leaves never make it out of the seed coat. I don't know why this happens; maybe because the soil is too cool or too dry?

Anyway, I have saved every one of these by dripping a drop of water onto the seed coat, 2-3 times a day. It keeps the coat from drying out, sticking to the seed leaves. This little guy is now a cayenne pepper seedling.

Spit has enzyme or something that helps dissolve the stuff holding the hat " seed coat" on .

 

[Sally PB]

Spit has enzyme or something that helps dissolve the stuff holding the hat " seed coat" on

I'm not using spit, just water, dripped off my finger. That's an idea though....

 

[fuzzi]

Home today, weather was dry, in the 70s so I got out the mower and started doing the front yard. DH came out, offered to help, did a fair job with some direction (his short-term memory is gone). Then he mowed by the road, and it looks SO much better.

After a late lunch and sit down time I was reluctant to start another project, but made myself go outside. I decided to walk around the back yard, pruning tree seedlings. And then an avalanche started...I started cleaning out the perennial garden around the bird feeders.

I should have taken a "before" photo. This is about halfway done. I was pulling weeds, removing debris from last year's plants, and pruning Virginia Creeper, wisteria, and honeysuckle. All three of those are invasive and a nuisance.

You can just see the Amaryllis on the left.

Aha! This is a "before" picture!

When I reached the propane tank I used my cordless hedge clippers. The bench and propane tank were smothered in Virginia Creeper vines.

Photo is from March, so imagine the vines covering the tank, fence, and bench.

And I found two Stella d'Oro lilies!

There was a perennial garden under the weeds...

The "bird garden" consists of coreopsis interplanted with canna lilies, sedum run amok around the bird baths, the lilies that I rediscovered, and banana trees on the right. You can see the red Amaryllis towards the house, to the left.

Shortly after I came in a thunderstorm rolled through and gave us a good soaking rain, what we badly needed.

 

[WthrLady]

Even though we get 48" of rain annually it gets hot and dry during the late summer here. I raised my mower blade to 2 1/2" so it doesn't scalp the grass and kill it.

I cut mine at 3.5 inches in the Spring, and then at 6" all summer and fall.

 

[Swiss]

Yeah, I've seen them at TSC. Still can't justify the $$$$.

Same. I've looked into how much electricity they take (quite a bit) and how loud they are (quite a bit) and that keeps me from walking out of TSC with one of them.

My cherry trees need to hold off! I saw white showing in some blossoms yesterday. We have 4 nights out of the next 8 with 32-35 degree temps. We have 2 nights before that for them to open more and then pay the price.

I haven't looked more closely at the blueberries yet...

I planted 2 cherry trees, 2 peach trees, and 2 apple trees last spring. It's weird to me that this one peach tree is the first to say hello to Spring! Even the 50+ year old apple trees are JUST starting to lead out. Maybe this peach tree is in the best spot?

 

[WthrLady]

I got a giant tarp over the herb garden.
We're headed to a freeze tonight and tomorrow night, but I think they'll be ok.
OC the whole orchard is in peak flower.
Oh well.
Still pondering the freeze dryer.
The nutritional value is so much better than canning as is the shelf life.
We have low power costs up here, so it wouldn't cost me too much to run.
I'd need to buy it oil, and would have to get a blender to make powders.
I'd rather it than the dehydrator.

 

[TJAnonymous]

I got a giant tarp over the herb garden.
We're headed to a freeze tonight and tomorrow night, but I think they'll be ok.
OC the whole orchard is in peak flower.
Oh well.
Still pondering the freeze dryer.
The nutritional value is so much better than canning as is the shelf life.
We have low power costs up here, so it wouldn't cost me too much to run.
I'd need to buy it oil, and would have to get a blender to make powders.
I'd rather it than the dehydrator.

I have a cheap dehydrator that the step-dad got my mom for Christmas the year he died (2019). My mom never used it. I've used it 2 or 3 times and never been very impressed with it.

I'd much rather have the freeze dryer, simply to preserve taste and better shelf life. It is just so hard to justify the cost... Even with food costs rising.

 

[Swiss]

Spit has enzyme or something that helps dissolve the stuff holding the hat " seed coat" on .

Common sense should have told me that the spit would be placed on the fingertip, and then transferred to the seed coat. Sleepy brain imagined licking the little seedling.... so, yeah. I'm going to bed, now.