What did you do in the garden today?

[karenerwin]

@WthrLady I've been saving egg shells to use in the holes when I actually plant the tomatoes in the ground. My friend is supposed to be saving them as well. We will see if she remembered.

 

[chickengr]

still winter here till wednesday.

I can see that all of you are talking about gas/petrol. are you prepared to fuel shortages? hope that will not happen but what if?

I have got a few paulownia trees to plant in my new place. it is fast growing tree that renews itself from the roots. last year I tilled 2 dry, dead (?) paulownia sticks and they sprouted this year I pruned one and chopped sticks and put in the ground to see what happens.

 

[Emma-Daisy]

@WthrLady I've been saving egg shells to use in the holes when I actually plant the tomatoes in the ground. My friend is supposed to be saving them as well. We will see if she remembered.

What does this do?

I already have loads of egg shells saved up as slug deterrent so if they do something else useful that's great .

 

[igorsMistress]

Hello gardeners. It’s almost 0200 and I’m up/ can’t sleep so thought I’d catch up here. I second or third starting canning with the water bath method and graduating to pressure canning. I recommend the Ball book as a great resource for beginners, at least it helped me. I also dehydrate, but to be honest I can’t stand dehydrated vegetables when they’re reconstituted, especially peas. I like to dehydrate herbs, meat and some fruits, also thick sauces like chipotle’s in adobo…purée a can full, spread and dehydrate, then use for cooking etc. Don’t forget the tomato chips It’s also fun to dehydrate cake and reconstitute as desired for a snack here and there. I’m pretty sure it was Here that I mentioned for my dads sake I hoped I wouldn’t see him last Thursday; he passed Wednesday morning. Yesterday I went to the crematory with my mom to make arrangements and pick out a tube for his ashes, then we went to his favorite Mexican restaurant and I had a margarita in his honor. Today I really need to get out and water before my mom comes over. Next weekend I’m taking a gardening class at the worm farm and plan to take another look at their fruit trees and how those are set up. Anyway, I’ve rambled enough.

 

[littledog]

Can you can everything in a water bath canner or pressure canner or is each one used for different things? Never canned before but would like to learn, it looks really complicated/ no idea what to buy.

Great, thank you. So if you're only getting one you should go for pressure?

I would definitely start with water-bath canning, until you are confident with it, and consistently get good results. There's a lot you can do with pickles and jams! Even if you get a pressure canner for the future, and just use it with a regular lid while you're learning. I can't emphasize enough, to get a good recipe and follow it exactly.

I started by water-bath canning various pickles and jams, and after I got confident with the temperature and timing so my jars were sealing consistently, I started trying harder recipes like applesauce, tomato sauce and tomato-based pasta sauce, adding the recommended amount of lemon juice to bring it to a safe acidity.

This past fall I bought the Instant-Pot Max to try pressure canning, after watching the videos @NewBoots mentioned (I think she posted some last summer, which is why I pulled the trigger on buying it.) I haven't tried using it for pressure canning yet, just other things it does (like air-frying, making rice and stews, etc.) but this season I plan to try it for the first time, once I have produce to can with it.

I refer to this book all the time for the directions. I've only used one or two recipes out of it, but I get it out every year to read my canning directions, lol.

Love this! I don't have this exact book, the one I have is a gigantic, frayed and yellowed but still readable Better Homes and Gardens cookbook I inherited from my Grandmother. It has a whole section about canning, with most of the same recipes in it as your book, plus charts on the timing for different fruits and veggies. My book is hilarious in some ways, like some of the charts give proportions in bushels, and encourage me to save money by pressure canning ground beef at $0.14/pound, instead of buying expensive cuts at $0.42/pound.

It has stayed cold here enough things are not trying to bud out yet.

Few of mine have yet either, except the weeping willow and a few of the native plums. The new native trees and shrubs I ordered will be ready for pickup April 15, so I expect by then I will know for sure what survived last year's heat wave and what is truly dead and be replaced.

Thank you to whomever said they wash their plant pots in the dishwasher. I remember washing something plastic that melted, so I didn't consider it for my yogurt/cottage cheese containers. Then I figured I could try one... and it worked!

Might have been me, I re-use yogurt and cottage cheese containers too, and run them through the dishwasher after rinsing out last year's dirt. I guess it depends on your dishwasher, but in the past mine have melted when on the bottom shelf, but never had that problem if I keep them on the top shelf.

This so much! Since I'd also have to pay to get a propane tank set up on top of buying a new propane range, it'll take lottery win to make it all happen but that's my fantasy anyway.

Maybe consider one of those camping stoves that run on compressed gas canisters? There are even some (Biolite is the brand I can think of, but there are others) that can run on a variety of fuels - white gas, compressed gas, even wood or wood chips. You couldn't run it inside your house (a garage would work) but if it's something you only need it for canning it might be worth looking into, for much less $$ than getting your home set up for propane.

I can see that all of you are talking about gas/petrol. are you prepared to fuel shortages? hope that will not happen but what if?

Mr. Dog filled up his car last Monday, for $4.20/gallon, so I figured I should fill up my truck before the price increased - the next day it was $4.40! Fortunately for me, I have an electric car I use for commuting, with a free charging station at my workplace. I only use my big truck for towing and large loads, so its two full tanks will last for six months or more, possibly. If high prices and fuel shortages last longer than that, I guess I will make trips to buy feed with my little car more often, give up towing my horses to competitions this summer, and pay through the nose if I really need to use the truck for something.

At the risk of getting too political, my horse competitions are a small sacrifice if it means any help at all to our friends in Ukraine, by keeping oil and gas sanctions on Putin.

Still, easy for me to say - I understand how lucky I am to be able to depend on an electric car/free charging, while most people here who depend on gas, and people around the world (including average citizens in Russia) will have to contend with so much worse hardships and sacrifices than I ever will.

Off my soapbox now...

My indoor seedlings are sprouting! It's not even been a week since I started them - I quickly set up the grow lights and put them on a timer, so their light won't be hit-or-miss like some of them were last year. Tomorrow I plan to start lettuce, spinach and peas in grow-boxes in the greenhouse. April 1 I will plant potatoes outside, and April 15 is this years' last frost date, so I will plant my seedlings outside, and plant the direct-seed plants at that time as well. That's the plan, anyway.

 

[littledog]

Here that I mentioned for my dads sake I hoped I wouldn’t see him last Thursday; he passed Wednesday morning. Yesterday I went to the crematory with my mom to make arrangements and pick out a tube for his ashes, then we went to his favorite Mexican restaurant and I had a margarita in his honor.

Oh, Im so sorry, @igorsMistress. RIP for your Dad, and love and sympathy to you and your Mom, and all your family.

 

[Acre4Me]

@igorsMistress, I’m sorry for your loss. I’m glad you and your mom could spend time together to celebrate him!

 

[Acre4Me]

Cold weather….so ready for spring. Only low 20s today, teens tonight. Then it warms up a bit. Hoping for an early spring, but we typically still get frosts into May. Two years ago it went down to mid 20s at night in late May, so many people lost their gardens as that was an exceptionally late frost. So, we are due for an early spring, right?

Had to thrift store shop for something for a costume for school play. While in one thrift store, there were new garden pots of the shape I was looking for: lower/squat type and round. I’ll use these for the strawberry plants I purchased (not arrived yet). I’m tempted to get some more…

Chicks are growing well! Getting some nice feathers going. They are just over 2 weeks old. Looking forward to letting them out of their brooder into the run (behind a fence, of course) to discover the rest of the flock. They’ve been hearing them for the past week, but I haven’t let them out due to the cold and wind.

 

[Sally PB]

It’s also fun to dehydrate cake and reconstitute as desired for a snack here and there.

Dehydrated cake... oh, do tell! How long, what temp, what kind of cake, and how in the world would you rehydrate it?

I would never have thought of drying cake. This blows my mind. Awaiting info...

 

[Elyrian1]

Morning all. So the most exciting thing yesterday was that DH nearly passed out in Walmart when we went to pick up his prescription (antibiotics of course). Sat himself in a chair and managed to hand over the prescription for filling before he did the whole cold clammy and pale thing. Didn't actually pass out, thank goodness, because there's no way I could have physically kept him off the floor. He's much bigger than I am. The pharmacy ladies, bless them, slapped a critical priority on the meds and got it done in about five minutes flat despite having a line waiting.

So I haven't had to fight to keep his butt relaxing in a chair. The shock to his system has done that for me. The actual extraction was very easy and quick though. Only took them about fifteen minutes to pull all four and then we were on our way. So, I may have to putter on the chicken coop all by myself this weekend if there's to be any progress. But first, need a big roll of hardware cloth. I want the whole run predator proof against everything.

I'm toying with the idea of planting the plants out today, but Monday night is supposed to hit 36 so... eh. Maybe not. Maybe I'll wait until Tuesday and just be patient. However the plants brought those annoying little black gnats in with them so I've been keen to get them out of the house and back outside. There's nothing quite like a cat throwing themselves four feet up the wall at 2AM because they want that dang gnat!