What did you do in the garden today?

[lazy gardener]

Well cool!
I rember them sifting through the gravel and moving it about, they're wisker like mouths sucking stuff up, sort of shovleing debris in... Defiantly filter feeding...

Must be a very different variety than the ones we have here. These are meat eating machines. When I was a kid, I kept one in a gold fish bowl at the head of the stairs between our lower level kitchen and upper level livingroom. So, those stairs were always being used. That crayfish would hear our feet on the stairs, and he'd climb up to the upper level in his bowl, so that he had his claws sticking up out of the water, hoping for a tidbit of hamburg.

Re: starting corn inside: When I've done it in the past, I used newspaper pots. I've given up the practice, b/c it hasn't seemed to grow as well when started inside. However, I always pre-sprout corn and all the rest of my large garden seeds.

 

[politicalcenter]

Ours are just run of the mill Texas crawfish. I know they will eat dead plants and fish with the occasional fresh catch if they can get a hold on it. With 850 gallons of water and only 10 crawfish I hope our two dozen minnows and three perch (yup we put the tree river perch in our in-house aquarium in the tank today) can stay out of reach of the claws.

Hmm. Our water went from crystal clear to light green to dark green to brown and back to dark green over the last few months. Right now, with the addition of the water plants and the aerator, it's a bright vibrant green again. We do have a pretty good algae bloom going on though. Our PH, Nitrite, Nitrate and Ammonia levels are dead on perfect for an aquaponics system containing either goldfish, Asian carp or hybrid perch. Wish us luck!

Of course I wish you luck! I do believe that when your water plants and grow beds start functioning well the algae problem will take care of itself. But no worries...green water won't hurt the fish (even though it may affect the taste of catfish) .

I am about ready to take some pictures of my ponds to post. My flag iris is blooming and so are my water Lillie's. I just have to vacuum the detritus from the bottom of the pond.

 

[FridayYet]

We had a nice rain yesterday so my veggie garden is muddy. In a couple of days I'll finally finish the drip system and plant.

In the back, the Russian comfrey is looking great. Today I plucked off all the flower buds to give more energy into plant/root development. I ordered (6) 2-year plants of Bocking #4 and was sent some extra root cuttings. Even the root cuttings are now putting out leaves.

Finally had a good mowing of the lawn that was grass and not just cottonwood leaves. Mixed that in the compost bin with the chicken manure and it's really steaming today. It's been a while since I had true Hot compost.

 

[lazy gardener]

Friday: Where did you get your comfrey? I bought mine from Coe's Comfrey. I forget whether it was #4 or #14. Mine is just starting to break dormancy. Planted crown cuttings last fall, wintered some over in pots buried in the garden. Also had 2 of 3 root cuttings survive.

 

[Stuffedcritter]

Runnings today for the first time in greenhouse their selling single potted bean seeds_) Also picked up a bag of Purina scratch grain which was loaded with mold, karma for not buying local. I also have Russian comfrey (seed five years ago) don't mind it self sowing, rabbits love it, bees, and compost benefits out way the attempts to take over the garden. Rise and Shine Rabbitry has great write up on it's benefits.

Lazy Gardener how is your plant sale coming along?

 

[FridayYet]

Friday: Where did you get your comfrey? I bought mine from Coe's Comfrey. I forget whether it was #4 or #14. Mine is just starting to break dormancy. Planted crown cuttings last fall, wintered some over in pots buried in the garden. Also had 2 of 3 root cuttings survive.

I bought mine from Coe's Comfrey, too. I think he only sells Bocking #4 now. Two or three root cuttings are doing well, I didn't have a place for the last two and left them in the ziplock baggie (open) in damp shavings for too long and they ended up getting moldy. Oh well, I'll probably have plenty with 8 plants. Glad this variety doesn't spread by seeds!

DH put in the drip system today since the garden dried up nicely and I was working in the coop. Not exactly spaced how I wanted, but I can always move it around next year! I'll just plant wherever the water comes out.

It's our first year gardening in the high desert, so I'll need to keep a journal of what works and what doesn't. UNM puts out a lot of good information for working in this climate.

 

[Sill]

Planted a red flame grape vine and a Frederick passion fruit vine. Got the rest of that bed ready for some other vines I'll hopefully get in the ground tomorrow. Gac fruit and luffas will take over the trellis before the others get established but are annuals so will be done by winter.

 

[Honey Maid]

I am a novice gardener. I have always started my garden from seeds. This year, I was unable to start my seeds when I usually do, so have bought some plants. My question is....The crookneck squash I bought today had 3 or 4 plants per little pot, should I cull them down to 1 plant each? And the cucumber had 4 plants in the pot, no seperation, should I try and seperate each little plant, or just plant them together like they are now? All roots are intertwined in the cucumber, so just take a sharpe knife to them to seperate them, if that is wht I should do?

 

[RichnSteph]

I am a novice gardener. I have always started my garden from seeds. This year, I was unable to start my seeds when I usually do, so have bought some plants. My question is....The crookneck squash I bought today had 3 or 4 plants per little pot, should I cull them down to 1 plant each? And the cucumber had 4 plants in the pot, no seperation, should I try and seperate each little plant, or just plant them together like they are now? All roots are intertwined in the cucumber, so just take a sharpe knife to them to seperate them, if that is wht I should do?

I'm in a similar, but different, situation. We bought plants in 4" pots and there were 2 or 3 in each pot. Since we are planting in an aquaponic bed I washed each set of plants (out of the pot) in warm rain water (we have a water catch at our place) and then eased the plants apart so we could plant them in separate spots. My fear was that if I cut or broke the roots that the plants would be "shocked" when they were planted. My advice to you is to dig your holes for the plants, wash them in a warm rain water bath to separate the roots... gently.. and when you plant them give them a gentle pour of warm rain water. The next day go out and give them another bath in warm rain water. Watch for leaf droop. Never give them cold water or tap water. A good compost mix in the holes will give those plants a great kick start on growth.

 

[lazy gardener]

HoneyMaid: In my experience, cucurbits (members of the squash, cuke, melon family) don't do well when transplanted. I wish you the best of luck with your plants, but, with them being that well developed, I'm guessing they'll be stunted for the entire season. Go ahead, and plant them. I'd love for you to prove me wrong. But, just to humor me, plant some seeds. If the nights are still cool, you could plant them, then tuck a milk jug with the bottom cut off, and the lid off over them. I bet they'll pass your plants and way out produce your plants within 4 weeks.