What did you do in the garden today?

[CNJ]

I start my seeds in a petri dish with a damp paper towel. That way I don't have to guess if they will sprout. I use a tooth pick to plant them in starter trays.

 

[vall]

I really want to buy this banana tree...

https://www.fast-growing-trees.com/products/ice-cream-banana-tree

I don't really have a good spot that gets morning sun but afternoon shade....

Get a dwarf variety if you want to have a chance at fruit in a frosty climate. They will die back to the ground every winter. Ice cream is overrated and not worth the premium price, imo. That dwarf cavendish on the same site is the chiquita type. And they'll take all the sun you can give it, no need for shade.

 

[Dr Evy]

The Amish guy that my husband works for, (his wife) gave my husband some fresh rhubarb the other day. He asked her if he could buy a part of her plant for us to grow. She said $5 but my husband gave her $10 for taking the time to dig it up. It was a large section and it's really growing and taking off in the garden.
I made from scratch Rhubarb muffins for the first time this morning.
View attachment 3116163

I love rhubarb muffins I’m going to have to make some soon! My rhubarb is almost big enough. Our neighbors have a huge rhubarb patch and they don’t even pick theirs so I’ll probably take some of theirs too. They’ve let us take some in the past, don’t worry I don’t just walk up and steal their rhubarb

 

[TJAnonymous]

Well 2nd time seeding lavender has failed so I broke down and bought 2 from a local country market.
I also picked up a sweet mint. I was told my peppermint is not the same and would not help with all the critters sucking up the kale.
Is that accurate?
Will the sweet mint help?

Lavender hates me. I've been trying for 2 years to get it to grow. I've seeded it. I've bought plants already started. It just goes toes up and dies no matter what I do. I had two seedlings that I started this spring and one plant that I bought from the market that are still alive (barely). Hoping they make it.

 

[TJAnonymous]

I have them, they are prolific. They grow over 10 feet tall. My chickens like to eat the leaf.

I also have a few dwarf banana trees that produces the long Chiquita bananas we see in the super market. I forget the name of it, I bought my trees off ebay. The plants were small, they fit in my mail box, but they grow fast and produce many side shoots. The dwarf variety are easier to manage. However, the bunch of bananas it produces are massive. I need to support the bunch of bananas or the tree will tilt over.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/255534395540?hash=item3b7f097094:g:oXIAAOSwSgdifm8P

10 ft? Wow... I live in Zone 7B. It can get down into the single digits on occasion at night during the winter so I'd likely need something I can bring inside. That would NOT be a 10 ft tree.... I really liked the idea of bananas that taste like ice cream or vanilla custard. How can you say no to that????

 

[Dr Evy]

I checked on the garden today, everything is growing beautifully. Here’s pictures!

I planted the bottom of a head of lettuce and it started growing!

And we have our first tomatoes (My other tomato plants are doing well too, no tomatoes though. I just didn’t get pictures)

The basil is looking good, though still pretty small.

And miraculously, after I thought it was dead, my baby pepper plant came back to life! I highly doubt it will give me a pepper though lol.

Here’s my rhubarb

My strawberries. I was disappointed because as I was pulling weeds from the strawberry bed I noticed an ant colony had been living in my strawberry box. I’m not sure what to do about that, any ideas?

And my sunflowers are getting huge!

And the pumpkin and squash plants are getting big too!

Also, I’m going to pull weeds later, so don’t judge

 

[TJAnonymous]

I planted 5 Blueberry bushes last Spring. They did nothing the 1st year. I added homemade mulch, coffee grounds and some yellow powder ( have the bag in the garage I forgot what it is). I see they're sprouting this hear despite the deer or rabbits feeding on the tips during the Winter.
I'm in "Copper Country" of the U.P. of Michigan. In fact, the first copper mine is within 1 mile of my house, which was built in 1922, no doubt by a foreman miner who didn't live in the "Row Housing".
So the soil is acidic with metals. The soil has an orange rust hue to it, in some places.
Thank you for your post, it was very informative.

UP Michigan usually has really good soil for blueberries. Have you had a soil test done by your county extension office? They are usually free and tell you EXACTLY what to add for any kind of plant you might grow. I'm adding small amounts of lime a little bit at a time. I need to fix the phosphorus though before I add the ammonium sulfate & zinc otherwise the phosphorus will just bind it up, especially the zinc. If you also have high phosphorus, I found this info below really helpful which is why I'm going to try to plant some fava beans (legumes) in the fall. Also toying with adding some tomatoes too but I'm worried it might be too acidic for them. (Maybe get some off the clearance rack!)

The quickest way to reduce excess soil P (which can take years!) is to stop any manure or compost application while continuing to grow crops that can be eaten or sold. One solution for vegetable growers may be to grow cover crops as forage crops, and graze or bale grass crops to sell off the farm as livestock feed. For example, triticale is very good at removing P from the soil and producing winter forage. The P removed ranges from 7–36 pounds/acre (7.8–40 kg/ha). The more P your soil has, then the higher the P level in triticale grown in that soil. Double cropping can remove P at twice the rate.

Vegetable growers do not have the problem of P accumulation to such a big degree as livestock farmers, nor do vegetable crops remove P at the rate forages do. See the New England Vegetable Management Guide Removal of Nutrients from the Soil for a table of Approximate Nutrient Removal by Selected Vegetable Crops. The best vegetable removers of P are celery (80 lbs P2O5/acre, 90 kg/ha), tomatoes (72 lbs, 81 kg), potatoes (65 lbs, 73 kg), sweet potatoes (60 lbs, 67 kg), peppers (52 lbs, 58 kg, fruits only), cucumbers (33–72 lbs, 37–81 kg), eggplant (56 lbs, 63 kg). Onions remove about 25 lbs (28 kg/ha) one-quarter of the P removed by alfalfa hay (104 lbs, 117 kg) In all cases, to achieve results this high, grow high yields and remove the vines too, although you can’t sell those! Beans and peas are in the 7–10 lbs (8–11 kg) range if just pods, 20 lbs (22 kg) with vines. P2O5 is 43.7% P.

 

[TJAnonymous]

I checked on the garden today, everything is growing beautifully. Here’s pictures!

I planted the bottom of a head of lettuce and it started growing! View attachment 3116295


And we have our first tomatoes (My other tomato plants are doing well too, no tomatoes though. I just didn’t get pictures) View attachment 3116262

The basil is looking good, though still pretty small. View attachment 3116263

And miraculously, after I thought it was dead, my baby pepper plant came back to life! I highly doubt it will give me a pepper though lol. View attachment 3116273

Here’s my rhubarb View attachment 3116274

My strawberries. I was disappointed because as I was pulling weeds from the strawberry bed I noticed an ant colony had been living in my strawberry box. I’m not sure what to do about that, any ideas? View attachment 3116285

And my sunflowers are getting huge!
View attachment 3116299View attachment 3116300

And the pumpkin and squash plants are getting big too! View attachment 3116302View attachment 3116303View attachment 3116304


Also, I’m going to pull weeds later, so don’t judge

Use Diatomaceous Earth on the ants in your strawberries. It is non-toxic, will kill the ants (or at least make them move), and will also deter slugs.

 

[TJAnonymous]

I got ONE load of mulch put down in the garden before it got too hot to continue. I still have 8-9 loads remaining, at least. Well, at least the peppers will be happy. They are mulched now. Supposed to storm this weekend so I won't get to finish any more loads until next week sometime.

I also got 6 BOSS seedlings in the ground today. I still have to find "homes" for another 6...Not sure where I want to put them. I might have room for at least 4 more in the garden but they won't all fit there if I give them 18" of clearance between plants. Since I sowed this handful from the BOSS seeds I buy for the chickens from the feed store, I don't really know how big they will get or even what variety they are.... I'm just doing it as an experiment to see how many seeds I can get from one plant considering a 50# bag of BOSS is up to $30/bag!

 

[Dr Evy]

Use Diatomaceous Earth on the ants in your strawberries. It is non-toxic, will kill the ants (or at least make them move), and will also deter slugs.

You are a life saver! Thank you!