What did you do in the garden today?

[Ascholten]

Right now the chickens were the problem with the strawberries. They want to hop up in the planters, eat the berries then dig the crap out of it, im thinking for the worms.
A few mouse traps deterred that behavior real fast but yes some plants I am in the process of putting like a cage top on it with chicken wire to try to keep the bigger critters out. i swear if it is not one thing it's another. For some reason they seem to always want to cause their trouble about 5 pm or later. Haven't figured that one out yet.

Aaron

 

[TJAnonymous]

Tossing in - RAW milk on the pastures is AWESOME! Coming from a dairy farm background, and people have been doing it for centuries! It's good for the soil and adds back in so much mineral and bio-organics, good bugs.

Overage is routinely sprayed on fields.

Does it stink? My DH is worried that, with our heat & humidity, it will sour and cause our property to smell like death....lol. He is also worried about it clogging up the sprayer and, as I mentioned, the milk fats killing the grass. The article I quoted said they used skim milk but also indicated that whole milk would work the same. I still want to try it....

 

[TJAnonymous]

This is my first year with a strawberry patch. I got 16 Seascape everbearing strawberry plants and planted them in my new 4X4 raised bed I just built this spring. I am already picking strawberries this year.

I have noticed almost all my strawberry plants are producing strawberries, but a couple of the plants are just shooting out runners. The plants that are sending out runners have no berries on them. I find this interesting because the YouTube videos I have been watching show runners coming off of plants that also have berries. Mine don't. Maybe we have different varieties and the June bearing plants have both berries and runners at the same time?

In any case, I'm letting the runners develop some roots and then I'll snip them and transplant them to an extra hügelkultur bed I have set up for them. I think that will work. By the end of the summer, I might have 2 full raised beds of strawberries for next year.

I have several different varieties of strawberries - both Everbearing and Junebearing. Mine produced a great round of berries and THEN started sending out runners. In this case, I wanted the runners to propagate the bed. However, typically you should SNIP the runners if you want more berries. The plant is putting its energy into the runners instead of making more berries so you will have less berries or smaller berries. By snipping off the runners, you redirect the energy into the berries.

 

[gtaus]

I have several different varieties of strawberries - both Everbearing and Junebearing. Mine produced a great round of berries and THEN started sending out runners. In this case, I wanted the runners to propagate the bed. However, typically you should SNIP the runners if you want more berries. The plant is putting its energy into the runners instead of making more berries so you will have less berries or smaller berries. By snipping off the runners, you redirect the energy into the berries.

Thanks for the info. In my case, I have 13 plants producing berries and only 3 plants that are sending out runners and not producing any berries. So I am going to transplant the runners into another bed to increase my number of plants, and then I'll start to snip off those runners to increase the berry production. Right now, I'm more interested in increasing my number of plants. I am getting enough strawberries from the other plants.

So it's all good for the moment. But I can surely see where those runners redirect all the plants energy towards propagation instead of berry production.

 

[gtaus]

Right now the chickens were the problem with the strawberries. They want to hop up in the planters, eat the berries then dig the crap out of it, im thinking for the worms.
A few mouse traps deterred that behavior real fast

I would think mouse traps could do some serious damage to a chickens toes if they got snapped!

At any rate, I have chicken wire cages around some of my raised beds and hoops and bird netting on others. That works for me, so far, and nobody is losing toes in the process!

 

[WthrLady]

Does it stink? My DH is worried that, with our heat & humidity, it will sour and cause our property to smell like death....lol. He is also worried about it clogging up the sprayer and, as I mentioned, the milk fats killing the grass. The article I quoted said they used skim milk but also indicated that whole milk would work the same. I still want to try it....

Yes it does stink, but no more than anhydrous or manure does. But not for long, and yes it can clog the sprayer as fat solids are involved.
Unless you have a ready dairy herd, it's not REALLY worth the trouble IMHO.

 

[BReeder!]

It’s been a insane week here with little gardening done. Sunday through Wednesday was a church retreat I attended then Thursday was a long day at work. Friday-today was spent at my cousins because of her graduation. I picked up some fruit and a Aloe plant at the farmers market. Any tips to keep it alive lol? I’ve killed so many house plants. The neighbors are already setting off fireworks for the 4th of July. Weeded 1 row of pole beans and took pictures today. The weeds are appalling after being gone a week. Hopefully going blueberry picking tomorrow at a friends.View attachment 2737876View attachment 2737877View attachment 2737880View attachment 2737883 View attachment 2737884View attachment 2737885View attachment 2737887View attachment 2737888View attachment 2737890View attachment 2737893View attachment 2737898View attachment 2737900View attachment 2737902View attachment 2737905View attachment 2737908View attachment 2737910View attachment 2737912View attachment 2737914View attachment 2737915View attachment 2737916
View over front garden View attachment 2737918
Tonight’s sunset and a happy chickView attachment 2737920View attachment 2737921View attachment 2737922

Love the pics! Looking great.

 

[BReeder!]

It's about to storm. I grabbed some produce from the garden that was ready for picking. There's so much out there growing, but most of it is still not ripe. This one cucumber is overripe though.

Here's a panoramic pic of the garden too.

 

[WthrLady]

Alrighty all the dead/dying apple trees are gone from the orchard.
Unused irrigation ports are capped.
The outlying ones have been transplanted, staked, and deep watered.
Coop and barn sprayed for flies (OMG THE FLIES) I must go get a fly bag.
The haying equipment has been cleaned, and stored.
The tractor has been cleaned, moved and the blade reattached.
Soil for next year's seedlings has been moved to the seeding shed for drying.
PHEW. Cooling off before I herd the hens back into the coop before a storm.
Then a well water shower me thinks.

Nothing in the garden proper going on. Things are fat and green.

I feel bad for all you NorthWesterners that aren't used to this grossness and are miserable.

 

[BReeder!]

Morning . Back from vacation . Tomatoes grew well . Grass needs mowing . Rain coming . Flash flood watch . CT scan tomorrow . I have a aneurysm on my aorta . Need to have that fixed . Broke a tooth . So dentist appointment this week . Been a rough year health wise .

Take it easy over there. Hope all goes well.