What did you do in the garden today?

[TJAnonymous]

I took a jaunt around the garden this morning. Strawberries are putting off runners like crazy which means smaller or no berries, of course, because they are putting their energy into runners. I'm thinking about digging up the pine berries and moving them into the pasture somewhere. I wasn't super impressed with the taste and they take over the bed while only producing a couple of berries. I'd rather have more Allstar because those tasted amazing.

Something is definitely killing my corn. It is stunted, deformed, and looks pathetic. Even new shoots are dying off. I'm thinking it is something in the ground like bad nematodes or something. Guess no corn for us this year except from the store.

Blueberries are still barely hanging on. I really need to get the soil tested because I don't know what else to do for them.

Everything else looks great! I harvested some leaves for a salad last night. Tasted great!

Not much else to harvest yet.

 

[oldhen2345]

Sun shining beautiful today. went out and harvested some squash and zucchini this morning. Will put it up to freeze later today. Planted another drift rose and weeded some more asian jasmine. Gonna weed wack this after noon.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Imagine my surprise when I found a mulberry tree in my backyard that I never knew existed.... The only downside is that I don't think it is getting enough sunlight where it is located.

 

[WthrLady]

I'm sure it's fine. Mulberry are more of a weed than a tree. If it's making fruit, it's happy.
Have at it.

 

[gtaus]

I save all my old bed sheets for "frost sheets." I cut the corners on the fitted bottoms so that they will lie flat. I used them many times this spring for the strawberries.

I needed them last fall to protect beans. I put some tomato cages around the plants to hold the sheets up. That worked really well.

That sounds like some good ideas. I'll have to talk to Dear Wife to save some old bed sheets for use as "frost sheets". Probably easier to work with than the plastic tarps I took out.

 

[gtaus]

I used old bed sheets, shower curtains, old room darkening curtains, moving blankets, tarps, and horse blankets.

Pretty much anything I could find.

Yeah, I had some new tarps that I had not used for anything, so I took them out of the package. As I said, normally I never plant anything until after our average frost date, but I got ahead of myself this year. Running around like crazy trying to find stuff to cover the plants.

 

[WthrLady]

That sounds like some good ideas. I'll have to talk to Dear Wife to save some old bed sheets for use as "frost sheets". Probably easier to work with than the plastic tarps I took out.

I also get them for $1 at the goodwill

 

[CheckenLady76]

Nothing yet. Well, I did clean trash out of there a few weeks ago LOL. I watered plants in my greenhouse. There is so much still to do!

 

[gtaus]

We have had a string of weeks of nice, warm weather in the 60F's, 70F's and even hit the low 80F's a day or two. I got lots of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, beans, strawberries, etc... planted these past few weeks. Looking forward to a good garden this year.

And then, FROST WARNING tonight with temps forecast down to 26F. To be fair, where I live, our average last frost date is like the 1st of June, so I was overly optimistic by planting the garden beds a few weeks early. So I spent a few hours today trying to figure out how to cover my plants for the night so they all don't die on me due to the frost. I found some tarps and covered some raised beds, but then ended up using a lot of empty 7 inch plastic pots turned upside down over the remaining plants. I think/hope that will protect them from the frost overnight, but to be honest, this is the first year I have even tried to plant the garden before the 1st of June, so my frost prevention defenses have not been considered before.

I got the pots at Menards over the past few years on their sales when you basically got the pot for free after rebate. I had a stack of about 50 of these plastic pots in the shed, never being used, but today thought they might work to cover my plants and protect them from the frost. I am a big sucker for buying things that are free after rebate. Looks like I might have found a good use for these free pots after all.


View attachment 2691815

Update to my own post: Using the empty pots turned out to be a good idea. Not only was it fast to throw those empty pots over my plants, but it was equally as fast to pick them up the next morning. These empty pots were perfect for my garden plants that were less than 4 inches tall. Much easier to turn a pot over the small plants than to cover them with the tarps I had. BTW, I counted all those pots I got for free after rebate at Menards and I had a couple stacks counting up to 70 pots.

Dear Wife had the idea to cover her flowers with newspapers, so we are still cleaning up the yard after that decision.... To be fair, her flowers were taller than the pots I had, so she didn't have many options. Live and learn, hope to be better prepared the next time.

 

[CheckenLady76]

Imagine my surprise when I found a mulberry tree in my backyard that I never knew existed.... The only downside is that I don't think it is getting enough sunlight where it is located. View attachment 2694226

I have 2 mulberry trees in my back lot. Love it!