What did you do in the garden today?

[igorsMistress]

I am making compost tea, its not a worm bin. A worm bin is planted in the soil, so the worms can move in and out.

I have a worm bin in my shade garden in the soil. So far the worms are still there.

 

[Sueby]

Morning all. Dad passed away yesterday. Thank you all for your thoughts & prayers, they meant a lot.

It'll be a tough week, but I'm looking forward to getting home & spending some time in the garden. I never did pick up peppers from my friend so I'm very short. I may see if there are any left at the garden store on my way home today. DH bout died when I sent him a link to an article on a sriracha shortage. He lives on the stuff so I better get some peppers to get him through!

I should have flowering squash when I get home, hopefully just in time to start hand pollinating.

DH put out a couple bigger traps yesterday in hopes of getting more squirrels or chippies. He texted me this am that he got a skunk & a possum. He said he let them both go. They don't bother anything & this year is a horrible tick season so that possum is dearly needed. The skunk on the other hand I could have done without! He also said he watched a turkey chase a rabbit out of the yard, lol.

We've had quite a bit of rain, I need to feed the garden. Maybe tomorrow I'll have time. Hopefully.

 

[igorsMistress]

Morning all. Dad passed away yesterday. Thank you all for your thoughts & prayers, they meant a lot.

It'll be a tough week, but I'm looking forward to getting home & spending some time in the garden. I never did pick up peppers from my friend so I'm very short. I may see if there are any left at the garden store on my way home today. DH bout died when I sent him a link to an article on a sriracha shortage. He lives on the stuff so I better get some peppers to get him through!

I should have flowering squash when I get home, hopefully just in time to start hand pollinating.

DH put out a couple bigger traps yesterday in hopes of getting more squirrels or chippies. He texted me this am that he got a skunk & a possum. He said he let them both go. They don't bother anything & this year is a horrible tick season so that possum is dearly needed. The skunk on the other hand I could have done without! He also said he watched a turkey chase a rabbit out of the yard, lol.

We've had quite a bit of rain, I need to feed the garden. Maybe tomorrow I'll have time. Hopefully.

I’m so sorry for your loss @Sueby

 

[Sally PB]

@Sueby, more hugs and prayers, for you and your family.

 

[Sally PB]

tied up the asparagus fronds which were tipping into the walkway

I have this problem! How do you tie them up? Can you post a picture, please?

 

[Acre4Me]

@Sueby I’m sorry for your loss of your dad. I’m sure you will miss him, but it is so good you were able to see him before he passed.

 

[littledog]

Not sure if everyone knows this. But all these food grade barrels, totes and drums are available because even if a liner is used there is a law on the books in the US that they can only be used ONCE! And, AND they must be made with 100% new material. So all those ingredients, from everywhere, in Everything, causes soo much waste its not even funny. And the people who sell them? They have a contract with factories to buy the empties for a set price. They must take All of them at ome time and pay the same price for 10 or a 100.

No, I didn't know that - what a bunch of waste! And the fact that they're so expensive for average people to buy. there's a fake economy right there.

The store brand of milk here is $3.39 a gallon. When I make yogurt, I make a gallon at a time. Then I drain about half of it off in whey. So I get 4 pint jars of yogurt, about the same amount of whey for the blueberries.

I hadn't bought milk for a dew weeks, but when I bought it tonight, it had gone up from $1.79 for a half gallon to $2.49. Crazy!
We're currently building a small barn and paddock to keep goats next year, and our original plan was to have wethers to keep the blackberries under control, and be pets. But maybe a better plan would be to have a breeding family so we can milk them...The way food prices are increasing, anything we can do to be self-sufficient might be necessary.

I didn't have the heart to kill the babies, wish I did, but I don't. THEY do not destroy everything like the chippies & mice & I have plenty of clover they eat.

Awww, same here! We have rabbits all over our field, including many cute babies, mostly living in the surrounding blackberry areas and only occasionally in the garden. Whenever I see them in the garden, they're just eating the surrounding grassy areas and not picking on our veggies. Our cat occasionally kills one - we find a dead, headless bunny in the yard. So I figure our kitty Pumpkin is keeping them under control as much as they need to be.

We've got over a half acre of southern wild blackberries. I SWEAR on my life that they were created by Satan himself.... Even the LEAVES have multiple razor sharp, hooked thorns on them.... Of course, they produce the sweetest blackberries you can imagine....but by the time you are done picking you look like you fought a mountain lion.

So I'm ready.....

Yes! Our area is Blackberry Hell. Himalayan blackberries here in Western Washington are not native, they were introduced in the 1800's and have taken over ever since. I swear, when you try to trim them, they attack! They curl themselves around a weed-whacker head, making it stop running and destroying the motor, Use a hand trimmer to chop them, and they find your hands, and slash them with their thorns.
This past weekend, our object was to re-take our driveway, where these plants from hell had taken over and grown all over our wood-chip pile. We did our best working with the saw-blade attachment on our weed-whacker, but these Satan plants creep along the ground and destroy the blade when we try to chop them. So then we put the edger attachment on the whacker and we were able to cut them off in a mat, dispose of them at the edge of our property, and then bind our wounds, bleeding slashes in spite of tall boots, leather chaps, eye protection, long sleeves.
The main reason why we've been wanting to have some goats was to have some wethers to keep the blackberries under control. Now milk prices are making it even more attractive, maybe we should get a breeding herd and get milk.

I use the electric mower for these smaller areas. I was going to run the big riding mower over the front yard but with the gas prices just under $5 a gallon locally, I think I can let that go for a few more days.

Absolutely - I went to the gas station to fill a few gas cans for our yard implements, and it was $40 ! Time to get out the old-fashioned push-mower.

Going out to put some more pole beans in the pea patch that got eaten by the rabbit.

Not sure who ate my peas (maybe nobody, they were old seeds) but I did the same as you, filled in the bed with pole beans. Good luck to both of us!

You noted only 10 seeds in a pack. I’ve noticed several packs of seeds with small amounts in them - less than in the past?

Agree. Even Territorial seed packs have less seeds in them than in the last few years - while a bit more expensive as well.
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I did need to buy some tomato starts from my local farm store, unfortunately. My seedlings were so beautiful - I think I just planted them out at the worst possible time, they were used to cloudy, rainy weather and all of a sudden they got planted when it was 70 degrees and a strange, warm orb was shining. The store had really limited choices, but I managed to find a few that were still alive, sauce varieties.

 

[Iluveggers]

@Sueby I am so sorry to hear about your dad. May peace come to him at his resting place, and your family while dealing with his loss.

 

[littledog]

Part of the reason we didn't have enough time to complete our plans for the garden this weekend, is because our neighbors invited us to their party for their son's high-school graduation. He's a smart, motivated and hard-working young man who is going to college, he'll be the first in his family to go to college, and I'm sure he will graduate. His parents are immigrants who came here many years ago, worked hard at various jobs, learned English, raised their kids to respect their family and their new country, and now this young man will help make our country great.
He's American, but also part of his parents' culture, and this is what makes America great. Young people like him. who understand more than one culture, are the ones who come up with new ideas and invent new things.

 

[WthrLady]

81 degrees and a dewpoint of 76 at 8am.
Finishing breakfast and spraying the weeds and calling it done for the day.