What did you do in the garden today?

[WthrLady]

Mowed the acreage. PHEW.
The pasture grew 14 inches in 7 days and the lawn proper 6. Good glory!

Drilled the holes and prepped them for the tomato plants. I'll plant tomorrow I think. DS has his grad photos tomorrow so that first.
Also want to get the mustard, dill, and started corn in the ground.
I'll plant the corn with the beans and the sunflowers with the mustard/dill.

Then weeding, feeding, and pruning....the cycle continues.

The littles were out the whole 5 hours I mowed. They snuck out a little further from the shop each time I peeked at them. Once the main flock was all mingled with them and no one cared or bullied. When I was done mowing I shoo'd them off to the lawn. Hilarity ensued when one found a worm. Then as a team, they decided they were thirsty and tired and went home. LOL. I'll have them out of the shop and into the big girl coop by next Friday.

 

[Brooks_]

I'm gonna give up on tomatoes. Everything goes fine, then hornworms.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Well, the storm drain fight is about to get ugly. The guy in charge didn't call but sent a subordinate down to look at the drain. That guy called and said "yep, it's dumping on your property. Nothing we can do about it. Your property, your problem." To which I said "so, then I can take a bag of concrete and plug the culvert then...." "Oh no! No, you can't do that...." I told him that his boss needs to call me. About 15 minutes later, his boss calls. Same merry-go-round argument. "This was put in before you bought the property.... If there was a problem, it should have been handled by whomever owned the property when the road was put in....blah blah. Nothing you can do about it now....unless you want to dig your own ditch to divert the water wherever you want it." Then he says that he's just an independent contractor whom the city has hired to manage the street dept (it's a REALLY small town) and he'll bring it up with the mayor but don't expect anything to happen. I told him that I'm looking into hiring an attorney because I do feel like it is their problem and they need to be an active participant in helping to remedy the situation.

He's called me twice now to complain that it's my problem, not his....and each time I've pushed back. Already reached out an environmental law attorney so let's see what they think about it....

Oh yeah, incidentally, when they paved this road they also put the gutter curb too high across my driveway so it scrapes the bottom of the vehicle every time you leave. We've complained about that too many times and they refused to fix it. So if this goes to court, I'll just bring up both issues since they are both tied to the road and see what a judge thinks about it.

This guy actually had the balls to say that its my own fault that my garden was washed away because "I chose to put the garden within 10 ft of the culvert." At which point I responded that if they are reducing use of my property because want to use it as a ditch run-off, then they can pay me for right-of-way easement to do so. I put my garden in that corner of the property because it was the only level and accessible spot I could do so without impacting my pasture & forage for my animals.

 

[TJAnonymous]

I'm gonna give up on tomatoes. Everything goes fine, then hornworms.

Are you doing any companion planting to deter them?

 

[Brooks_]

Are you doing any companion planting to deter them?

I haven't found anything that deters them. I'm all ears tho.

 

[WthrLady]

I find planting a patch of dill as bait away from the tomatoes, but not far, has helped a LOT with hornworm.

 

[Brooks_]

I find planting a patch of dill as bait away from the tomatoes, but not far, has helped a LOT with hornworm.

I guess I try that next year. Thanks.

 

[Happy hen lover]

I bought a load of Red River Valley black topsoil today.

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Going to mix that half/half with my chicken run compost and fill up my two new raised beds I just built. The bottom 8 inches is hügelkultur method using rotting logs and wood chips. The top 8 inches will be the soil/compost mix.

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Just want to add a picture of my elevated sub irrigated planter I built a few years ago. I had to empty it to move it to a new place in the yard, but here it is almost ready to go. Just need to mix up a little soil/compost for the top 3 inches in the planter.

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In case anyone is wondering what a sub irrigated planter (SIP) is, I can tell you the bottom 4 inches is a water reservoir filled with sections of 4 inch drain pipe. Notice the small overflow pipe on the bottom right corner of the planter. That is placed at 3.5 inches and fits into one of the 4 inch drain pipes that line the bottom of the planter. The idea is that there is always an air gap between the soil and the 4 inch drain pipe because the overflow pipe is at 3.5 inches. That allows the planter to wick up the water in the reservoir but prevents the roots from drowning because there is always an air gap for oxygen.

Since I had to empty the planter to move it, I upgraded my fill tube which you see in the top of the planter. I found some old 3.5 inch black pipe behind the garage, and decided to use some of it to make a better fill tube. The old fill tub was only 1 inch, and I could not get my garden hose to fit inside it. Plus, notice that I was able to put a section of swimming noodle inside the fill pipe so I can see the water level in the planter. As the plants drink up the water, the yellow noodle will go down the fill pipe. When the noodle is level with the top of the fill pipe - time to refill the planter.

The angle of the shot makes the fill tube look like it sticks way above the soil level of the planter. But I have yet to completely fill the planter. When top is filled with some new soil/chicken run compost mix, the fill tube will be 2 inches above the soil level. This planter is sitting way out in my backyard, and the larger yellow swimming noodle make it easy to see from my back deck on the house.

These sub irrigated planters are my favorite. I only have to fill them up about 2-3 times per summer. The plants love them and I get more beans in one planter than I ever get in my garden even when I plant 4-5 times more out there. I think having water always available in the reservoir is the big advantage.

Here is a picture of one of my sub irrigated planters last summer out on my back deck.

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OK, I feel I have shared enough for today. Still lots of projects on my To-Do list, but getting something done every day.

Love the pool noodle float! I have some mineral tubs and I just might find/make strip of styrofoam to float in my fill tubes.

 

[Happy hen lover]

I find planting a patch of dill as bait away from the tomatoes, but not far, has helped a LOT with hornworm.

I heard they love the stuff?

 

[TJAnonymous]

I haven't found anything that deters them. I'm all ears tho.

I plant a lot of marigolds and basil around my tomatoes. The marigolds deter nematodes, but also attract parasitic wasps which feed on tomato worms.

I also make a mix from pureed habanero peppers and water which I spray on my tomatoes. This prevents a lot of pests because they don't like habanero peppers any more than I do....lol. Just be sure you WEAR GLOVES AND GLASSES when applying it. Long sleeves and pants too.... No fun to get capsacian on your skin or, God forbid, in your eyes!