What did you do in the garden today?

[LittleLakePhil]

I have tons of leaves in my yard and no time to rake them...I'm so busy trying to get my ducks winter accommodations finished. Hopefully I'll get that done soon and have them raked into the garden. Because here it could snow any day and they would be covered till April.

 

[lazy gardener]

Also got a couple of load of wood chips moved...whittling away at that pile little by little, but the pile seems endless...sort of like the loaves and fishes!

Yep, I'm finally getting to the back side of my first pile of chips. Still have 2 more after that. I think they're each 14 cu. yds. That's a lot of chips that I've moved so far! Still doing it with my little green wheel barrow. I don't know if the lawn cart on the back of the mower would speed the process, but the bags are still on the mower. Been too busy to mow the lawn. Want to get that done before taking the bags off before putting on the trailer.... And the song goes on! Every load of chips I dump on the garden, I take a load of weed seed infested debris from the garden and dump it in the run. I figure that might cut some of the weeds down, as well as give them some good gleanings. Gonna wear that little WB out!

 

[lazy gardener]

Planted last 4 trees: 2 Juneberry, and 2 Siberian Pea Tree. Still cleaning up garden, got driven in by some biting insect that got down my shirt. Looks like a small house fly but has biting mouth parts. Any other gardeners have them? They only seem to be present in the fall.

 

[LittleLakePhil]

I watched the movie LG recommended to me....BTE is very interesting...I actually did something very simular years ago. And funny thing is when I moved someone came and dug up my garden soil and moved it to their garden. I had accessed to a huge saw dust pile and spent years piling it on. Worked great because I couldn't afford a tiller back then.

 

[lazy gardener]

I just know that that guy is on the right track. Years ago, I had a pile of chipped trees dumped in my yard to use as mulch. It took me 4 years to use up the whole pile. But, I found that the grass and weeds that grew at the edge of the pile were incredibly lush. And, after the first year, I could dig into that pile, and it was incredibly nice black humusy chunks. The whole "they say" issue about wood robbing nitrogen from the soil just doesn't play out in real life when the stuff is piled directly on top of the soil.

 

[beginnergirl]

I just know that that guy is on the right track.  Years ago, I had a pile of chipped trees dumped in my yard to use as mulch.  It took me 4 years to use up the whole pile.  But, I found that the grass and weeds that grew at the edge of the pile were incredibly lush.  And, after the first year, I could dig into that pile, and it was incredibly nice black humusy chunks.  The whole "they say" issue about wood robbing nitrogen from the soil just doesn't play out in real life when the stuff is piled directly on top of the soil.  

Chipped trees also usually have leaves included which helps balance the carbon.
I have a layer of cardboard down to kill the grass and ground trees from a tree service.

Now I have dozens of mushrooms. Will sprinkle with coffee grounds and see how it looks in spring. Now it is covered with leaves.

Today I weeded a 30' long bed and wheelbarrowed and spread over a cubic yard of compost. I'm also working on a cover crop for the chickens on layers of sod, bedding and coffee grounds. It's coming up but not ready for me to take the fence down. I reseeded some bare spots today.

Tired!!!

 

[Beekissed]

Yep, I'm finally getting to the back side of my first pile of chips. Still have 2 more after that. I think they're each 14 cu. yds. That's a lot of chips that I've moved so far! Still doing it with my little green wheel barrow. I don't know if the lawn cart on the back of the mower would speed the process, but the bags are still on the mower. Been too busy to mow the lawn. Want to get that done before taking the bags off before putting on the trailer.... And the song goes on! Every load of chips I dump on the garden, I take a load of weed seed infested debris from the garden and dump it in the run. I figure that might cut some of the weeds down, as well as give them some good gleanings. Gonna wear that little WB out!

LG, that's what I'm using...the lawn mower with a cart attached. This last pile is a good 50 yds from the garden and up a little slope, so I'm thanking the good Lord for that setup right now. I put my weeds and such in the coop also~except the burdock~but I'm figuring the sees on that grass will come back to haunt me when I put that compost back on the garden...but in THIS garden, that won't be a problem, as they are easily pulled up before they can even get a purchase.

Planted last 4 trees: 2 Juneberry, and 2 Siberian Pea Tree. Still cleaning up garden, got driven in by some biting insect that got down my shirt. Looks like a small house fly but has biting mouth parts. Any other gardeners have them? They only seem to be present in the fall.

Deer flies, perhaps? Hurt like the dickens!

Chipped trees also usually have leaves included which helps balance the carbon.
I have a layer of cardboard down to kill the grass and ground trees from a tree service. Now I have dozens of mushrooms. Will sprinkle with coffee grounds and see how it looks in spring. Now it is covered with leaves.

Today I weeded a 30' long bed and wheelbarrowed and spread over a cubic yard of compost. I'm also working on a cover crop for the chickens on layers of sod, bedding and coffee grounds. It's coming up but not ready for me to take the fence down. I reseeded some bare spots today.

Tired!!!

I had fungi in my BTE garden this year that I've never seen before...all different types. They say that's a great thing and some people who live in more arid climates who struggle to get their wood chips to decompose will intentionally infect the chips with fungal spores to speed the composting there. Every time it rained this year I would see a new and different kind pop up in the chips, some very colorful, so I think my BTE is on the right path so far. The addition of these leaves should help with all that as well.......

......I'm up to 181 bags of leaves and lawn clippings collected thus far and intend to keep going for as long and as often as I can until they are no longer available or the Lord says, "Enough!".

 

[lazy gardener]

Nope, Bee... not deer fly. I know them very well... we also have black flies, horse flies and moose flies. These look exactly like little house flies, but they have a pointy biting proboscis, like a deer fly. Man, they hurt. I was dancing, yelling, and almost did a strip down in the back yard. That wouldn't have been pretty!!!

 

[Beekissed]

See any here that look likely? Sounds like a black fly and I hear they are pretty common up north.

http://www.idph.state.il.us/envhealth/pcbitingflies.htm

http://www.ehow.com/info_8444944_small-flies-bite.html

 

[lazy gardener]

If I had to guess, I'd say it was a stable fly.