What did you do in the garden today?

[Acre4Me]

Pics of the work we have been doing.

Just 1 load of dirt on top of the tilled (now dead) grass. @Wee Farmer Sarah -you can see the pole beans in the background! We had to leave that one bed a little longer bc all the beans weren’t quite dry yet. But moved it before the big equipment came.

4 truckloads (102 tons) spread out. The pile of dirt in the corner is the dirt from the raised beds that was piled to one side. You can see the raised beds on their side on the far side of the dirt - the beds are 16’x4’. Chickens had a blast pecking around when we let them out.

And for gardening purposes: here is the fig plant we planted this spring. It had a few leaves and was about an inch tall. Now it is easily 3’ tall and actually has several little figs on it. I’d say we picked a good spot! Of course, now we will get to see how it survives the winter. It has a large bush to the west that will provide shelter from the winter winds. It is up against a south facing brick wall for heat. It is the “Chicago Hardy” type meant for colder climates. Hopefully the figs taste good.

 

[WthrLady]

I feel your pain with moving (and paying for) all that dirt. We have 16 side dump truckloads under our barn! ((BARF))
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Trying to get my butt in gear this morning. I spent all day yesterday with a sinus headache that was putting incredible pressure on my poor ears. OC I still had to plod on and get chores done and my city errands. So I have a post headache day hang over.

Today the alpaca toenails MUST be trimmed and I have to go to the city again to pick up something I accidentally left on the counter for my shop.

The garden is great. I think I might go ahead and harvest the mustard pods. We are expecting stormy weather tomorrow and I don't want the pods bursting all over the garden. So I'll trim them off and hang to dry in a bag.

ESPN gameday is in town for the football game tonight. So I should be good in town as long as I stay away from the campus this morning and get out of the city by 5pm.

Bean and bacon soup for supper, well, that's the plan anyway.

I can't believe we are only 2.5 weeks from me having to super clean the coop and put up the winter wind panels.

 

[Sueby]

@Acre4Me I have seen people in Italy bend over & bury their fig trees for the winter! I thinks its too cold here for even that so I bring it in.

That is a lot of dirt/work!

I'm ordering all the fence material tonight & picking it up tmrw. Yay! Cant wait to have the whole side yard fenced in.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Good morning gardeners. Still plugging away at the garden clean-up. The green beans are really done now. I'm with you @Sueby, I don't like not having lettuce or some sort of fresh leafy green. I need to take a road trip to the larger town stores in NH. Lettuce or spinach is on my shopping list. Need something to go with the tomatoes I gleaned from the garden. I'm re-thinking making applesauce for now. I really prefer my apples cooked slightly with just a bit of cinnamon, no added sugar. So I'm thinking just chip away at them for now and sauce them if what I have on hand start to get soft. My goodness @Acre4Me you have been busy. Your gardens are going to be so amazing next year. I can't wait to see pictures of it. And I am so jealous of your fig tree. We have such a short growing season here, it's hard to jump start the figs. I have a few ideas for next Spring to try to coerce my little tree into producing some fruit. My chickens are still laying like crazy so I really need to sell a few dozen to free up some space in the basement refrigerator. Have a great day everyone.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

About the dirt - I can't imagine looking at the tremendous amount of dirt. I was overwhelmed with a delivery of 5 cubic yards in April 2018 to fill my first five garden beds. I filled the beds, a few large planters and used the remainder to cover the HC in the chicken run (4 inches worth). Unfortunately I only had a shovel, a Homer bucket and a dolley to move the dirt around. It took all summer to clean it out of my driveway. The 5th bed(not shown) went in before I used the remaining dirt in the chicken coop run.

 

[igorsMistress]

Good morning gardeners

Since we had a good amount of rain during the week I got out to the garden this morning and turned over the soil with a fork. I cut back this bush, can't remember what is but it loves where it's planted. It has purple blooms.

I used my hands to break up any large clods and to get an idea of what the soil is like. The beds have been amended with alfalfa pellets and hay, gypsum, purchased garden soil/compost, and I had quail in the garden for close to a year. The soil is much improved to the depth of my fork in most places. The area in the corner behind that bush above needs some help so I raked up the dry hay from the center of the garden and moved this Mexican Bird of Paradise over there. It'll grow tall enough to catch the sun.

Artichoke is on a two week fertilization schedule and doing great!

I have a volunteer tomato in the ground cover, no idea what variety it is. There are usually a lot of lizards in that ground cover too.

The Mexican Heather is blooming. I trimmed off the dead stuff.

This is what the soil looked like in one of the beds. The natual soil is pretty sandy in this area so I added hay and the quail used a bin for solid cover, lots of poop happened here. After we processed the quail I stirred the soil and covered it with garden soil and compost and left it. The end result is a sandy loam and where I'm going to put the carrots this year. In the far right corner you see where the MBOP used to be, I want the carrots to extend into that corner or put onions there.

Sorry for the novel, it's been a while since I've been able to enjoy being outside

Have a great day everyone!

 

[WthrLady]

OH....also picked up 60 pounds, another 1.5 bushels of apples, harlsons, from a local orchard yesterday. THEY"RE HUGE! Which is nice, so I don't have to put apple after apple after apple on the peeler/slicer/corer. I'll get those into the dehydrator tonight and then tomorrow.

That will do for the season. PHEW.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Good morning gardeners

Since we had a good amount of rain during the week I got out to the garden this morning and turned over the soil with a fork. I cut back this bush, can't remember what is but it loves where it's planted. It has purple blooms.

View attachment 1919191

I used my hands to break up any large clods and to get an idea of what the soil is like. The beds have been amended with alfalfa pellets and hay, gypsum, purchased garden soil/compost, and I had quail in the garden for close to a year. The soil is much improved to the depth of my fork in most places. The area in the corner behind that bush above needs some help so I raked up the dry hay from the center of the garden and moved this Mexican Bird of Paradise over there. It'll grow tall enough to catch the sun.
View attachment 1919269
Artichoke is on a two week fertilization schedule and doing great!
View attachment 1919206

I have a volunteer tomato in the ground cover, no idea what variety it is. There are usually a lot of lizards in that ground cover too.

View attachment 1919210

The Mexican Heather is blooming. I trimmed off the dead stuff.

View attachment 1919211

This is what the soil looked like in one of the beds. The natual soil is pretty sandy in this area so I added hay and the quail used a bin for solid cover, lots of poop happened here. After we processed the quail I stirred the soil and covered it with garden soil and compost and left it. The end result is a sandy loam and where I'm going to put the carrots this year. In the far right corner you see where the MBOP used to be, I want the carrots to extend into that corner or put onions there.
View attachment 1919221

Sorry for the novel, it's been a while since I've been able to enjoy being outside

Have a great day everyone!

No apologies necessary. I appreciate the opportunity to see and learn how gardeners in different regions work their magic.

 

[igorsMistress]

@Acre4Me your place looks great! I would love a pile of topsoil to be dumped in my backyard but I'll have to do the same as @Wee Farmer Sarah and move it myself. Oh well, builds muscles!

 

[igorsMistress]

No apologies necessary. I appreciate the opportunity to see and learn how gardeners in different regions work their magic.

Thanks, I guess we'll see how magical my concoction is! You know, people say if the soil will grow a weed it'll grow a plant but that's not at all true. I started with very little green in my yard except weeds and some stubborn grass but chickens have helped tremendously.