What did you do in the garden today?

[nordicacres]

I posted some pics of the Aronia plant a few pages back. I would say it gets at least six feet tall, shrub-like, and a great producer. The berries are bitter, but supposedly high in nutrients.

So today I made Aronia (Black Chokeberry) Jelly. You need about 4000 berries to produce 5 cups of juice. I may be exaggerating, but I don't think so. It took far longer than I expected. The berries are all skins and seeds. They are rather bitter tasting, but I thought that sugar makes everything taste good, right? WRONG! It is disgusting. The berries aren't sour. They are bitter. The sugar does not change the flavor. It is just sweet and bitter at the same time. Yuck! My DH says it really isn't so bad, but I think he is just lying to me so that I don't feel bad I wasted so much time today. Lesson learned. The birds don't even eat them. That should have been my first clue! Not sure what I will do with the 7 half pint jars I processed or the big bowl I put in the fridge. Blech!

 

[Bugseye]

What fascinating ideas! Yesterday I brought in a head of cauliflower, wondering about all the spots on them. My first year growing brassicas, I find I have to keep an eye out for aphids on them. And they don't give up easily.

 

[lazy gardener]

Planted 2 Apple trees, 2 rhubarb. (they've been potted since early spring.) I have 2 Siberian Pea tree, 2 June berries left to go. Every hole is dug with a pick axe, heavy clay soil with lots of big rocks to remove.

Any one have experience with pruning to keep fruit trees a manageable size? I just looked at a web site where the guy recommends intensive pruning to keep even full sized fruit trees as small as you want them, and he even recommends planting 4 trees of different varieties (though all on the same root stock, so they don't grow disproportionately to each other) in a grid where they are each 18" apart. All I can think is that this would set the trees up for increased disease risk. He also recommends summer pruning, b/c that stunts the growth of the following year. My trees are planted about 20' apart, but, I'm just wondering if anyone is experimenting with this concept.

 

[Bugseye]

Got those cool weather babies into the ground: lettuce (romaine and Bibb), mache, arugula, pak choi, and yokatta-na. For good measure, I planted some spinach seeds, but don't know how they'll do. I think I have a few weeks before I put up the tunnel again. It felt good being out in the clean air (no smoke) and feeling rain on my back as I finished.

 

[Sabz]

Planted for winter harvest! Hakurei, lettuce, pak choy, mizuna, spinach. I first pulled out my potatoes, tilled the soil and then planted these.

Well, a lot similar to you above me, Bugseye It was raining for me as well.

Starting to think about setting up the cover on that garden. It is still pretty mild during the day - around 25C, but at night it is pretty cold so I guess the cover would help for nights!

 

[RichnSteph]

Got those cool weather babies into the ground: lettuce (romaine and Bibb), mache, arugula, pak choi, and yokatta-na. For good measure, I planted some spinach seeds, but don't know how they'll do. I think I have a few weeks before I put up the tunnel again. It felt good being out in the clean air (no smoke) and feeling rain on my back as I finished.

Ah that reminds me that I need to get our beds cleaned out and planted with the cool weather crops a well as get the hoops built and installed.

 

[Guvnah]

Yesterday my grandsons came over. Each spring, before I plant my corn, I bury a "treasure" for them in the corn patch. Once the corn is harvested, they get to dig up the loot, and that's what we did yesterday.

It's a cool tradition we've been doing for several years. (Now they are ages 8 and 10.)

I also draw out a map for them to find the exact location of the buried treasure.

This year it was two large plastic coffee cans with goodies inside -- a bottle of snapple, some gummy bear packs, and other candy -- one coffee can for each boy.

I dig a large hole about 24 inches down, place the two cans in the hole side-by-side, place some pieces of 1x4 wood on top of the can lids (to distribute weight if someone steps on that very location) and then fill the rest of the hole with dirt.

Besides the fun tradition, my motivation is actually to test out improved ways to bury stuff so that it remains water-tight. Inside each can I insert an additional jar of some sort, and the double-container method works very well. This year the snapple bottles were bigger than the inside jars, so I tested out using a zip-lock bag instead. That worked just as well.

So what did I do in the garden (yesterday)? I played in the dirt with my grandsons.

 

[lazy gardener]

Don't give them a map. You'll get your garden tilled for free. Almost as good as chicken labor for scratch! Seriously, what a neat idea to get those boys outside and burning off some steam! Very creative!

 

[politicalcenter]

Started building a small greenhouse 12ft x 10ft. Got the wall framed and started framing the rafters.

I just hope I can afford to finish it.

Also bought some replete daffodils for my flower garden.

 

[lazy gardener]

Started building a small greenhouse 12ft x 10ft. Got the wall framed and started framing the rafters.

I just hope I can afford to finish it.

Also bought some replete daffodils for my flower garden.

You do realize that pics will be required???