What did you do in the garden today?

[TJAnonymous]

Got a break in the rain so I made the trek out to the garden to see if my weed barrier stayed tacked down this time....

Along the way, I was super stoked to find my blackberries are regrowing! My DH caught our pasture on fire while burning brush last December and it went out of control when it hit the blackberries because they grow around a giant pine tree. The tree is 80 ft tall and was engulfed. I thought it was a goner for sure but there's still a small portion of it that is green. I'm hoping it doesn't die....

In the garden, I had to stop and admire all the burgeoning growth.... Here's a couple of blueberries I planted last fall starting to bud out. I put some red pepper plants in with them since they are still small. You can see the Sweet 100 Cherry tomato in the background next to my garlic...

Next was the raspberries... The red raspberries were planted last year. I just planted gold raspberries a week ago.

The strawberry tower is doing great.... The top is supposed to be alpine strawberries but I think keeping the seeds in the freezer for 9 months killed them. I ordered new seeds.... Going to mix up some good compost and peat and refresh the top tire before adding the seeds this time.

The new dwarf peach tree I planted a few days ago. See the standing water from the storm drain runoff? Gah!

And lastly.... The partially finished garden.... Everything stayed down through the storms! Once I get the hoop house in it will help! You can see the onions and squash I planted last night... Nothing else has sprouted yet. Still have so much more to do!

 

[Artichoke Lover]

Got a break in the rain so I made the trek out to the garden to see if my weed barrier stayed tacked down this time....

Along the way, I was super stoked to find my blackberries are regrowing! My DH caught our pasture on fire while burning brush last December and it went out of control when it hit the blackberries because they grow around a giant pine tree. The tree is 80 ft tall and was engulfed. I thought it was a goner for sure but there's still a small portion of it that is green. I'm hoping it doesn't die....

View attachment 2585322
View attachment 2585323

In the garden, I had to stop and admire all the burgeoning growth.... Here's a couple of blueberries I planted last fall starting to bud out. I put some red pepper plants in with them since they are still small. You can see the Sweet 100 Cherry tomato in the background next to my garlic...
View attachment 2585326

Next was the raspberries... The red raspberries were planted last year. I just planted gold raspberries a week ago.
View attachment 2585330

The strawberry tower is doing great.... The top is supposed to be alpine strawberries but I think keeping the seeds in the freezer for 9 months killed them. I ordered new seeds.... Going to mix up some good compost and peat and refresh the top tire before adding the seeds this time.
View attachment 2585340

The new dwarf peach tree I planted a few days ago. See the standing water from the storm drain runoff? Gah!
View attachment 2585346

And lastly.... The partially finished garden.... Everything stayed down through the storms! Once I get the hoop house in it will help! You can see the onions and squash I planted last night... Nothing else has sprouted yet. Still have so much more to do!
View attachment 2585349

I think strawberries can take up to a month to sprout. Keeping them in the freezer shouldn’t kill them if you stored them properly. It’s actually used for long term seed storage 10+ years in some cases.

 

[TJAnonymous]

I think strawberries can take up to a month to sprout. Keeping them in the freezer shouldn’t kill them if you stored them properly. It’s actually used for long term seed storage 10+ years in some cases.

They were kept in a padded envelope in the bottom shelf on the door in my freezer. I keep looking for signs of life but haven't seen any yet. I didn't amend the soil when we added it so I am worried about it being too compacted which topsoil tends to do.

 

[Artichoke Lover]

They were kept in a padded envelope in the bottom shelf on the door in my freezer. I keep looking for signs of life but haven't seen any yet. I didn't amend the soil when we added it so I am worried about it being too compacted which topsoil tends to do.

Was it airtight?

 

[pennyJo1960]

I bought a dozen berry plants this last fall. This is what I have found about them.

Once abundant in the Pacific Northwest and praised as "the finest eating strawberry in America," the Marshall strawberry is today very rare. Now an artist in Indiana has begun an effort to revive the berry, offering starter plants in hand-sewn containers.

A rose by any other name is as sweet, but what about a strawberry? If its name is Marshall, it's the sweetest of them all, but chances are you've never eaten one, at least not lately. Abundant and popular in early- & mid-century, the aromatic, juicy berry has since become very rare.

At one time, lauded as the finest eating strawberry in America. An esteemed American agricultural encyclopedia notes that the Marshall strawberry was "the standard of excellence for the entire northern strawberry industry." And, according to James Beard, it was one of only two kinds of strawberries his mother would allow into the house.


Marshall strawberries filled fields in the Pacific Northwest after World War II, but its numbers would later dwindle as it succumbed to viruses and, as its geographic popularity increased, the stresses of traveling. This shortcoming was due, ironically, to its sweetness: According to the Oregon Strawberry Commission, the Marshall was so full of sugar that its shelf life was measured in hours rather than days. Delicious but costly to cultivate, the Marshall was phased out of fields in the mid-1960s.


In 2004, it was named one of the ten most endangered foods in the country by RAFT (Renewing America's Food Traditions). By 2007 “the only hint of this remarkable strawberry existed] at the USDA’s Germplasm Repository in Corvallis, Oregon in the form of a single clone."

 

[Stepnout]

Sunday March 21/2021 I planted my onion seed. One tray of Talon and one tray of Candy. I’m in a long days zone but a friend of mine grew Candy last year and had great success. I purchased a 2x4 heating pad and controller. I set it at 75f. Today I rigged up 2 four foot fluorescent lights I have and used the grow bulbs. 4 of the Talon sprouted already. Fingers crossed i have a good crop.

 

[igorsMistress]

Good afternoon all. @Sueby that’s a beautiful egg! @TJAnonymous I like the tires! The three together looks great. I haven’t had a lot of time for outside but really there’s not a ton to do other than water. The lilac is doing well, it’s out on the picnic table for now and has new leaves. . We’re supposed to be below 70 tomorrow but up to 90 by this time next week so I’ll have to get it transplanted tomorrow after work. Hopefully the shade for over the duck pool will be done this weekend. Time for dinner, have a good night!

 

[NewBoots]

My little EE laid her first egg yesterday, it's my first blue/green egg ever. It even has speckles! That poor girl needs some confidence tho, they go out of their way to pick on her. Maybe laying will help her.

That looks exactly like the eggs my EE Koraline lays, speckles and all. I always get comments from customers about them.

Well no gardening went and picked up 9 pullets about 2 months old

A day with new chicks is always a good day!

Got a break in the rain so I made the trek out to the garden to see if my weed barrier stayed tacked down this time....

Thanks for that idea, I might well use it, the chickens and rabbits generate a lot of bags. And those are greats garden pics.

I finally got the snap pea netting hung today so I could get my seedlings planted. All but a couple had roots coming out the bottom of the trays so they were ready. I even remembered to get the chopped straw piled up at the bases to keep the roots cooler. And I planted beets on the south side of bed and that'll make even more shade once they get going.

Here's some of my seedlings still in the greenhouse that have a way to go.

And I've given up on the cabbage family other than just to feed to the chickens and rabbits. Between the the cabbage loopers and slugs, snails, and earthworms, I can't get a single head that isn't crawling with protein inside. Not what I want to make coleslaw with eh? The broccoli and kale produced a little but not enough to make them worth fighting the loopers for. But it's okay, the critters love the stuff and the protein inside is a favorite of the chickens. They'll eat even the big snails now.

Inside I made pasta salad, my tomato sauce based salad dressing, have jerky marinating to put in the dryer tomorrow, and currants soaking in hot water for oatcakes to be made later. My fishing bucket is next to me waiting to be cleaned up for the season and that's always fun.

 

[Swiss]

 

[chickengr]

With the cost of fuel , buildings, insurance and employees , most legal business must charge a minimum, of close to one hundred $$, to show up anywhere, but especially places that require a hour or more of their total travel and inspection time, plus transportation cost . Repair cost begin after that cost is met. Many companies will give you the "show up fee", "credit", if you use their service for the repair. If you live way out from town or the provider, you better be wealthy or talented and healthy! Most appliances ,these days, cost more to repair than to replace, due primarily to these business cost, that are so high! Building materials and fuel are sky rocketing right now. Many items have risen 5 to 50 % in the first few months of this year! A $600 refrigerator with only one part needing replaced, will typically cost about $300 to repair,now. (BTW, they last only about 8 to 10 years now, compared to 15 to 25 years in the 1970's) If you need a new circuit board and another part replaced, you will pay nearly as much as a new comparable item! If you can't fix it yourself, good luck! With the printing of paper money being out of control, the dollar is becoming like monopoly game money. The dollars you scrimped to save are worth far less ,than when you saved them, even with interest earned/lost in typical retirement savings vehicles. You may thank your well off/rich politicians for this downward spiral. A dollar you saved in 1981 will be about 20 cents of goods/services compared between the times. The impact on the wealthy is small and will not affect their lifestyle much. The impact on a lower income blue collar worker that is retired with a small SS check and a modest savings(by today's accounting), is devastating! Millions more good hard workers are entering poverty in their senior years, despite saving all they could manage. In 1981, A 70 year old worker retiring with SS and $50,000 savings was considered to be relatively financially secure, for the remainder of their expected life, with a paid off mortgage. We now know, that most of them struggled with poverty, if they lived past 80! Because of the true rate of inflation of the cost of living! It has become far worse now! I pray for our country! I apologise for the rant, I am sad and angered by this situation.

when you pray for your country please pray for the rest of the world as well. nowdays everything is global.