What did you do in the garden today?

[oldhen2345]

& you've all made me want a plum tree! Or maybe pear.

I want both pear and plum, but have no idea where I would put them ... hmmm

 

[Fishychix]

I repotted 50 tomato plants. I cant believe so many made it so far. I may have to share some. I also repotted some pumpkins on a stick and replanted more seeds that didnt make it. Beets & kohlrabi. I also planted some genovese zucchini and .... umm, I cant remember now. Oops! When can I leave the repotted tomato plants outside? I already burned up several in the greenhouse because I wasnt here to open it. Can I leave them on my deck? It has a gazebo thing on it for lots of shade.

 

[TJAnonymous]

My neighbor has a Catalpa tree that hangs over the fence- just waiting for catalpa worms to show up to go fishing- or feed the hens.

These are Eastern Tent caterpillars. Unfortunately birds, including chickens, won't eat them... They are known to defoliate trees which is why I hate them so much. They also attack my strawberry plants.... I sprayed my trees and some plants with BT but we've had spitting rain off and on which washes away my efforts. I destroyed any nests I ran across but it hardly makes a dent.

 

[NewBoots]

@NewBoots if you get a chance will you take a pic of your bug & bee houses? I'm trying so hard to make a nice place for pollinators here & would love a hive but can't because of the bears - maybe a house would work!

We had bee houses for years at the place in Portland, this is our first year at the new house. This is the bug house.


This is the mason bee house. The house is beautifully made but I uglied it up to attach the side panels to protect it from the wind and blowing rain.

& you've all made me want a plum tree! Or maybe pear.

I want both but I just have no more space. Our soil is so terrible here we have to box in any fruit trees we want to actually grow and bear fruit. We do have a bunch of crabapples, a regular apple, and a prune plum but I want MOR!!! Especially pears.

it didn't kill my back @NewBoots.

Awesome, I am really itching for a battery powered one to trim the area around DPs shrub and flower garden. Power mower is too big and the weed eater has an annoying trailing cord.

PEPPERS! UGH - they take forever.

My tomatoes are doing great but those danged peppers sprout so slowly and then grow even slower! I am really hoping for great things from my wintered over peppers.

I wonder might be too cool and wet here for praying mantis

I think it is, we never saw any in Portland unless they were the ones you can buy as egg cases. Once we moved here to the south coast we started seeing them and researched it, this is the very edge of their range.

My neighbor has a Catalpa tree that hangs over the fence- just waiting for catalpa worms to show up to go fishing- or feed the hens.

I always wondered about that, catalpa worms really do come from catalpa trees?

I want both pear and plum, but have no idea where I would put them ... hmmm

I am with you sister, when I win the lottery I'll have a small orchard.

Did a bunch more up-potting including the okra, I have 6 pots now with 2 plants each in them, once it gets a little warmer here I'll give them a shot in the raised beds and keep a couple in big pots and hope for enough to pickle. The summer squash are growing fast now in the greenhouse and I'm wondering if I can get away with planting them in big (say 7 or 10 gallon size) pots and let the plants trail across the ground. They take up so much space I don't really want to use the raised beds for that unless I have to. Any opinions?

Got to show off some of the raised beds, the recent weather has really got them going:

Strawberry bed and I really hope they earn their space.

Lettuces, mustard greens, bok choy, and carrots.

Sunchokes that we're raising mostly for fodder.

More mustard greens, beets, lettuce, radishes, snapdragons, and yarrow.

Snap peas, more lettuce, fennel, and arugula.

Garlic, onions, and shallots. This bed will get switched to tomatoes once they're big enough and it's warm enough.

Gooseberries, currants, oregano, and shallots. The gooseberries are sending up runners, all inside the bed so far.

Blueberries, lingonberries, borage, alyssum, and mixed flowers.

Crabapple, I really hope for enough fruit to pickle some.

A regular apple (I forget what type) and I just though the flowers were beautiful.

And finally, some dutch iris, I just love these.

Okay, that's my picture bomb for now. Stay dirty everyone.

 

[Fishychix]

Can I plant pumpkins and cantaloupe together?

 

[BReeder!]

Can I plant pumpkins and cantaloupe together?

Not sure, but I'm going to plant winter punkin, sugar pumpkin, black diamond watermelon and butternut squash all together. I figure why the heck not.

 

[chickengr]

Uh oh. That sounds like my covid experience. Get some over the counter pain meds, a thermometer, and a pulse oximeter (drug stores have them). And your favorite muscle ointment - I like tiger balm red. The pain meds and ointment help with the aches so you can sleep at night, and the thermometer and pulse ox let you keep tabs on your health. I found my body had a hard time regulating my temp at all, so my temp would dip too low if I didn't keep enough blankets, then too high if I had too many, etc. So I checked it regularly when awake to keep it in a normal zone. But my oxygen levels and heart rate stayed okay, so that was the main thing.

Oh, and warm non-dairy milk with plain cocoa powder mixed in helped a LOT with the covid cough. Add honey if you can't handle plain cocoa, but less sugar is better. (Cocoa is shown to help with cough.) Go with non-dairy milk since dairy can increase congestion. I also found that putting one of those vibrating back massagers on my upper back seemed to help break things up so coughs were more productive.

Anyway, not trying to scare you - you may not get the full experience I did, or it might not be covid - but those are my tips in case you do.

I did also find it helpful to get some sunshine (alone, in my yard, not around people). Not sure if the help was all mental or if the vitamin d helped a little? Regardless, prayers sent your way!!! And keep us updated.

sunshine (vitamin d) + zinc are medicine for any virus.

 

[chickengr]

I feel the same way.... I have one dedicated bed for strawberries. They went in last spring. They grew very well, and I pinched all runners so they would focus on root growth. Not many strawberries last year bc it was first year. Also, I killed quite a few when I over-fertilized late summer. This spring the remaining ones look very good, lots of flowers. Hoping for a good haul. But, yeah...are they worth a whole bed??

strawberries are beneficial for health (heart, etc) so yes, they are worth.

 

[TJAnonymous]

irises are beautiful!

you should prune your plum tree. if you leave too many branches it will die. let it develop roots first. ask me how I learned it, lol.

I purchased the plum tree about 3-4 weeks ago. When I bought it, it was blooming like crazy. It isn't a big tree....maybe 4 ft tall? I figured it was easily 2 yrs old already by the size. It didn't start to die until I planted it in the ground in the duck pen. I went out and looked at it today (I've transplanted it to a raised bed in the garden). The last of any green leaves it has are wilted and will likely be dead by tomorrow...

I really have no idea how to save it. Do you think if I pruned it, it would save the tree? I mean, it literally has almost no green leaves left on it. By tomorrow, it probably won't have any....

ETA - I did add some fertilizer to the raised bed in case there was a nutrient deficiency although that is hard to conceive because it was planted with fresh soil & lots of good compost. I also mulched heavily around the base to ensure it had good water retention....

I'm just stumped on this one.....

 

[chickengr]

I got my test results. Negative.
I'm happy the test says I don't have Covid, but I certainly have something. Sticking to taking vitamins and cold/flu meds and staying away from DW and the kids for now. Hoping I'm not in that false negative percentage. It's likely a strain of the flu though if I had to guess. Just riding it out unless things get worse, in which case I would see a doctor. I am getting some mucus out, so that's a good sign.

I still wet outside into the garden of course even though I'm sick and it's cool and wet out. I transplanted zucchini that I just up potted the other day. The roots already extended through the bottom of the pots and the real leaves were already open and growing. I didn't want to keep them inside longer than necessary. I also need to transplant the rest of the marigolds. I haven't gotten to them yet though. That will likely be tomorrow as long as the rain holds off.

old greek recipe for flu:

1 tsp of corn starch
1 cup of milk
little sugar

boil it till you see bubbles and drink it as hot as you can stand it. cough can be gone the same day.