Granny's gone and done it again

[Wishing4Wings]

thats supposed to have fertilizer in it already. It looks like peat from the picture. looks dry. Only thing I see is tomatoes, I plant them much deeper or even on their side. Thats a lot of work there I hope the ertilize helps. I looked up dragonfly on squash bloom and all I found was a painting from 1800s . Guess they been doing it for a long time. LOL

Yes! That's what we do too, plant most of the tomato stem under the soil so it will have a bigger root system.
Dragonflies and damselflies are our FRIENDS.

 

[Granny Hatchet]

Answer to: Should I Cut Off Runner Plants from My Strawberries?
Stephanie,
If you plant in the spring, it is generally best to remove the blossoms for the entire growing season. Also removing the runners will help the plant devote its full energy to becoming a strong, well-established plant. However, if you want to see the number of actual strawberry plants grow, you can allow some of the runners to root and transplant them to increase the number of plants you have that will produce the following year. The initial plants begin losing their vitality after a few years, so allowing a moderate number of runners to be established each year keeps your beds fresh for the long term. Also, I wouldn’t transplant the mother plants. Each year, the plants that should be moved to a new bed are the runners. The runners then become the established “mother” plants for the new bed, and the process can be repeated indefinitely (at least in theory!).

Most home gardeners use a system called the matted row to grow their berries. This system allows you to maximize the space you have allocated for strawberry cultivation while most effectively harnessing the strawberry’s natural inclination to propagate itself. You can’t fill out a matted row without letting runners root. However, after you have filled it out with the first-year runner plants, subsequent runners will overcrowd and choke out all the plants so that the harvest declines precipitously and the strawberries become much smaller. That is probably what the Master Gardener class was conveying. Use the runners to fill your bed (so you don’t have to buy umpteen more plants to begin with), then keep the beds managed so that too many plants don’t root. Hopefully that helps, and good luck!

 

[Granny Hatchet]

freaking computer. guess I should only stay on one site.

 

[Granny Hatchet]

Dont think I know what a damsel fly is.. I am not looking it up either. LOL Dont dragonflys lay red squigley larva that is bad for fish or is that my imagination ?

 

[campingshaws]

Awesome pics, as usual. For next year, I would recommend removing about half of the soil from your beds and replace with compost (anyone near you have horses?) If you do it in early winter and cover with cardboard, it will be ready for spring. Cardboard keeps weeds from growing and prevents nutrient leaching from the rain. Beans look to have a virus, still safe to eat but your production will be low. Not sure on the tomatoes... I would pinch off blooms until the plants get a little larger. If the basil is bolting, then too much sun I think. Keep it pinched back and try to set up some partial shade. Everything looks very wet. Maybe too much water???


Love the helpers! They are learning so much from the experience.
That is a beautiful Damselfly and very beneficial. Super predators of unwanted bugs, including mosquitoes! At rest, damselflies hold their wings along their body and dragonflies' wings stick out sideways, like this:

Watering was in progress as I took pics. We are hand watering instead of using the soaker hoses, for now.

I can't use manure-based compost in the garden, per the health inspector. But we're working hard on the kitchen compost pile, veggie scraps, egg shells, weeds, and cardboard/leaves for the "browns."

Should I get rid of the beans and try something else? The virus is in the soil, I guess...

We'll be starting the pavilion beds and the pool fence soon!

 

[Wishing4Wings]

Watering was in progress as I took pics. We are hand watering instead of using the soaker hoses, for now.

I can't use manure-based compost in the garden, per the health inspector. But we're working hard on the kitchen compost pile, veggie scraps, egg shells, weeds, and cardboard/leaves for the "browns."

Should I get rid of the beans and try something else? The virus is in the soil, I guess...

We'll be starting the pavilion beds and the pool fence soon!

Oh, too bad... love me a big pile of horse poo! Kitchen compost is great too!
You might try replacing the beans with something else. Still early. Looks like you are getting some beans, but they won't be very productive. Maybe try that fertilizer first?

 

[Wishing4Wings]

Dont think I know what a damsel fly is.. I am not looking it up either. LOL Dont dragonflys lay red squigley larva that is bad for fish or is that my imagination ?

Damselflies are very similar to dragonflies.

General rule is wings back for damselflies.

Wings out on dragonflies and darners.

The larvae live under water and are very predatory. Ate all our tadpoles before we knew what was doing it!

 

[Granny Hatchet]

so then you throw darner in there yet another I dont know. I thought their larva was like mosquito ?

 

[Granny Hatchet]

Watering was in progress as I took pics. We are hand watering instead of using the soaker hoses, for now.

I can't use manure-based compost in the garden, per the health inspector. But we're working hard on the kitchen compost pile, veggie scraps, egg shells, weeds, and cardboard/leaves for the "browns."

Should I get rid of the beans and try something else? The virus is in the soil, I guess...

We'll be starting the pavilion beds and the pool fence soon!

you can buy manure already baked, surly they cant say anything about that ? The chickens cant poop in it ?

 

[campingshaws]

you can buy manure already baked, surly they cant say anything about that ? The chickens cant poop in it ?

He said avoid it so no one will ever be able to say "oh I got sick it must have been the manure in the garden."