Sally's GF3 thread

[MalSabreur]

Brome grass, o brome grass!
How do I love thee?
Let me count the ways....
A big, fat ZERO!

If all the brome that is invading my gardens were gone, I wouldn't have any problem with weeds!

I just spent about 3 hours digging the brome out of my blueberry bed. Brome puts out stolons that can grow under thick mulch, send shoots up through or out on the other side, and just laugh at my puny attempts to get rid of it.

But on the brighter side, I took my MP3 player -- yeah, so out of date, I am -- and sang along to lots of tunes. That makes just about any weeding chore almost fun. It's good exercise for the lungs too. None of this la-la-la stuff; I belt it out and too bad if anyone can hear me.

I take it that what you call "brome" is what we call "twitch" or "couch grass" over here. I found one of the big problems was disposing of all the bits dug out of the ground. You can't put it on the compost heap and it doesn't burn particularly well unless you dry if and apply napalm.
We had terrible problems with the stuff until we invested in a mobile Twitch Processing Unit or TPU. These come in various types, but the ones we favour are British or NZ Whites or Flemish Giants. They are quiet, cheap to run and you can eat them afterwards.
I'm really enjoying your posts! Please keep up the good work! Fun and informative, what could be better?

 

[aart]

One place that aches the next day really surprised me: my Achilles' on my left foot! That's my "shovel" foot.

Use both sides of your body, might be clumsy art first but it'll really help down the line.

 

[Sally PB]

I'm really enjoying your posts! Please keep up the good work! Fun and informative, what could be better?

Thank you!

Use both sides of your body, might be clumsy art first but it'll really help down the line.

I did do a little from "the other side." You're right, it really helps to balance out the wear and tear.

 

[Sally PB]

I ordered sweet potato slips a long time ago, and they were to ship the end of May. I just got a notification that they will be here this coming Tuesday. Well, that changes my plans a bit!

They're going in the sandy downhill garden, and the spot isn't ready yet. It's sort of ready. I want to put some black weed block fabric down to warm up the soil, and had planned for that to be in place for a week-ish. Guess that's what I'll be doing tomorrow.

Weed block fabric is entirely mis-named. Something like, "fabric that encourages weeds to grow sideways until the find their way out from under this stuff" would be more descriptive. Or, "fabric that rises from the ground on weed stems, looking like you have big rocks erupting from your soil." Maybe, "fabric that weeds grow through, and you can never get this stuff all pulled up, so you'll be dealing with it for the rest of your life." But "weed block?" Nope.

It is, however, black. So I'll see if it can help the soil warm up, as that's what sweet potatoes need. If it works, I will roll it back up, put it in the garden shed, and use it again next year.

 

[Sally PB]

This is the area where sweet potatoes will go. The darker spots are where I spread some chicken run dirt last fall. (The really dark spot is some coffee grounds.) Those areas were slightly raised. The Great Washout of '23 moved a lot of that stuff down to the other end of the garden. You can see the sand that got moved around as well.

I tilled it all up and watered it for 2 hours. It's been very dry. I rarely use an overhead sprinkler, since they're so inefficient, but that seemed to be the best way to water the whole area.

The black is weed "block" fabric. I'm using that to pre-warm the soil.

This is my second try with sweet potatoes. The first time, I planted them in the heavy soil garden and got nada. I didn't know they didn't like heavy soil. I thought they'd appreciate more hours of sunshine and warmer air temps at night.

 

[Sally PB]

Well, the joke's on me.

This is from the sweet potato drop ship location:

You have a package coming.

Scheduled Delivery Date: Tuesday, 05/23/2023

TRACKING NUMBER FOR SWEET POTATO SLIPS - WILL SHIP THE WEEK OF MAY 29***
___________________________________________________________________________

This is from the place I actually ordered them from:

"Please be advised that while the tracking number is correct, the information on the notification has an incorrect estimated delivery date."


But on the bright side, the sweet potato bed is ready and waiting.

 

[Sally PB]

I didn't know that ants could bite! I mean the itty bitty ones, <1/8" long.

Dang, do they ITCH!!!

 

[TwoCrows]

I didn't know that ants could bite! I mean the itty bitty ones, <1/8" long.

View attachment 3516151
Dang, do they ITCH!!!

Yes they do bite and some ants sting! Vicious little things. We have Fire Ants out here, their stings make welts that burn and itch for several days.

 

[Shadrach]

That's A LOT of work. Don't let the ignorant say otherwise. More than I will accomplish today, with certainty. I'm still looking to find the courage do gig some 4' holes in the ground and set 16' 4x4s in place. But it needs doing, so one more Arnold Palmer, and out I go...

Have you got a fencing graft? Great for digging deep holes and breaking up clay soil.
https://www.briantsltd.co.uk/product/ultimate-fencers-graft-reinforced-weld/

 

[Sally PB]

Have you got a fencing graft

I don't think I've ever seen one, but I will definitely be looking for it. I wonder if they're called something else on this side of the pond.