What did you do in the garden today?

[WthrLady]

Do they have a rash?
@BReeder!

 

[WthrLady]

It's sea lice season in Florida (jellyfish larvae). Oatmeal baths work wonders in lukewarm water. Antihistimines, and calamine lotion, rarely steroids.
I was the queen of being chewed alive. That plus the sand and deer flies. Glory.

 

[Swiss]

Crayfish invading the land! Sounds like a bad B rated horror film.

The only crayfish I am familiar with live in fresh water. I have never seen them on land, let alone burrowing into the soil. Are we talking about the same creatures? Here is what I know as crayfish....

Crayfish do make those towers. It seems crazy for them to do it on the land, instead of in the water (and sometimes farther from water than you would think would be good for them), but they do it.

 

[CNJ]

I think I screwed up, I missing the corn starch for the Carmel and I should have put half a can instead of the full 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk. I wonder how it will come out?

I put the left over cake mixture in a small cup and baked it along side of the upside down cake and it taste and look like a muffin. I am still waiting on my upside down cake to cool................I wonder how the tangerine part will taste.

 

[karenerwin]

We hiked 2.6 miles of trails in the Superstition Mountains. Then went to Tortilla Flat for lunch. Saw loads of wild flowers!

 

[CNJ]

I put the left over cake mixture in a small cup and baked it along side of the upside down cake and it taste and look like a muffin. I am still waiting on my upside down cake to cool................I wonder how the tangerine part will taste.

I don't like it, I prefer pineapple upside down cake................

 

[littledog]

Except for my beloved dahlias, which are all going to die because I can’t get them in the ground.

I'm so in love with Dahlias, but when I recently cleaned out the greenhouse, all the dahlia bulbs I'd dug up and packed so carefully were dead! I should have wintered them in the utility room - broke my heart. I'm starting new ones from seed this year, I guess we'll see.

If condensation on the lid is bad, I could either prop up the plastic dome or remove it completely. But I thought I was supposed to have condensation on the lid until the seeds started to sprout, and only then remove the lid. FYI, the room temperature is sitting at 63F, whereas the soil in the net cups with the seeds under the plastic dome is sitting at about 80F.

If the room temp is 63 but they're on a heat mat, you should do fine removing the lid as soon as a few of them sprout. I gave up on the dome system, seemed like the soil always got mold and algae before half the seeds sprouted. But we're in a pretty wet area, you might have better results. I've done OK with the heat mat, no dome, spraying with water every day, and a tiny little heater with a fan.

Good morning Gardeners plant are great in the spare room for another month.
Maybe ?

Are you getting rain, rain, and more rain, and hail a few days ago, like me, since we're not too far from each other?
I just started my indoor seeds, hoping to plant them out around the middle of May. If the weather cooperates, LOL.

Anyone have a knife they love?

Here's mine - Green River knife.

Way back in college I worked at a local seafood restaurant (a nice one, not a chain) where I worked my way up from dishwasher, to salads, making appetizers, soups, prep-chef...at that point the head chef told me my knife skills were severely, pitifully lacking, and taught me some of the knife skills shown in that video (though I did learn some new things from that video, thank you!) and gave me a ton of practice by piling up mountains of veggies for me to do, complete with deadlines and critiques. I became more proficient and faster at chopping, dicing, mincing various veggies, filleting fish, deveining shrimp...Eventually, I was promoted to sous-chef (acting head-chef on his days off !) and he gave me this Green River knife. It's easier to sharpen than a traditional-shaped chef-knife, since the blade is only slightly curved, but it can still do most things a chef-knife can. I graduated college and went on to other things soon after, but this knife has always been my go-to knife for most things, for close to 40 years. I own better. more-expensive and more varied knives now, but still, this is the one I tend to grab. Maybe because it's the one I learned the most from

I finally planted all the indoor seeds, with heat mats underneath. The grow lights are set up, but I won't turn them on until the seeds start to sprout. The various grids and wire setups are to prevent our cats from destroying everything.

 

[Swiss]

I have seen a crazy number of turkeys today. More than I've seen all winter! I stopped counting at 50. One huge Tom was walking down the side of the freeway!

I've never seen so many turkeys dead on the side of the roads before this year! I'm amazed at the amount of dead animals I've been seeing on the roads. It makes me wonder if it's because people don't pay attention to driving while they are driving, and instead have their noses in their phones.

I was going to borrow my FIL's tiller to get my garden ready, but he said at the last minute that he wants to get it tuned up/some issues fixed, so he wouldn't be bringing it to our Easter get-together to give to us. Part of his reasoning was that I can't plant in the ground until late May. Yes, but I have a crap ton of stuff to do, and getting the garden prepped is at the top of the list. So, I plan on continuing to do it by hand, for now. I kind of doubt he'll get it to me before I'm done, so, lots of digging in my future.

My seed starting is going quite well, and now I'm wondering if I will have enough room for everything I plan on starting indoors. The winter squash decided to grow extremely fast:

All of my tomatoes have sprouted (and most really need to be thinned and topped up with soil):

Left to right:
Tray 1-Wild strawberries, leeks, echinacea, leeks, cabbage, hot pepper, eggplant, rhubarb.
Tray 2- more tomatoes, sweet peppers, hot peppers, calendula, more echinacea, and some marigolds
Tray 3- almost all marigolds, more sweet peppers, and more hot peppers

Starting seeds indoors is a really wonderful way to get gardening before the conditions outside are favorable. I love gardening, so it really helps satisfy the desire to get in the dirt and play with plants!

A few weeks ago, I went to my grandma's birthday party, and while there I took some cuttings from their huge willow tree. I plunked them in some water, and waited. They grew roots! And I'm excited to plant these babies somewhere on my property:

Well, I'm all caught up on this thread, and now I'm off to dig!

 

[fuzzi]

A few weeks ago, I went to my grandma's birthday party, and while there I took some cuttings from their huge willow tree. I plunked them in some water, and waited. They grew roots! And I'm excited to plant these babies somewhere on my property:
View attachment 3462162
Well, I'm all caught up on this thread, and now I'm off to dig!

Keep them away from any underground water sources such as pipes, septic fields, etc. Their roots can and will destroy in their quest for water, can cost you $$$.

 

[Sueby]

@littledog I wish I could send you my Dahlias! I need to ask my neighbor what he wants me to do with them since I can’t plant them, a lot of them were a gift from him when his wife passed, she loved them as much as me. I’m debating asking DH to dig a few holes for me & saving a few of my faves. & maybe sticking a couple in the 2 large pots on the deck that I can reach & somehow staking them (they easily get 5-6 feet tall & wider than my arms can reach around). Maybe they’ll stay smaller in the pots though.

I wonder if I would like a knife like yours - I feel like I really would. I see a lot of chefs using something similar for work that would be done with a chefs knife. Like chopping veggies & onions & things.

DH took the plastic off the chicken run yesterday so thats done!