What did you do in the garden today?

[Acre4Me]

Only 50s today and the winds are howling to 40mph so it feels much colder.
Next three nights are down to 34 or 32, so the plants will stay in. Those that are outside will stay covered.
The rock project.
All the rocks were washed, fully dried, and then base coat sprayed and allowed to dry for 4 hours. I then used an oil based Sharpie Paint Marker and allowed that the cure for 18 hours. This morning I sprayed a light coat of clear sealer on top.
I am NOT amused Sharpie. NOT AMUSED.

Not only has something in their normal sharpies changed over the last few years - not waterproof, UV stable, or they flake, but now THIS?! This should not have happened.
View attachment 3487949View attachment 3487950
Yes, I can still read them, but that's not the point. I guess the next time I make them, I'll just grab a small brush and paint them by hand.

Aaargghh!!

But, YOU did a very good job with prep and paint and writing!!

 

[Acre4Me]

Thank you for sharing how you did it. I've been having trouble with Sharpies staying on as well, on other projects.

I'll have to show you mine when I get to them. My biggest issue will be the time to find perfect stones to use. I hate to buy anything.

Find a stream/river that allows you to take a few stones. I realize not everyplace has this, but TN does not have a shortage of exposed rock! National parks do not allow removal of things. State parks -not sure, local parks might be ok. check with friends with land/streams, lake. Scrub the rocks, let them dry really well (oven on low overnight is a great place to start).

I need to get some rocks for this too. But, I’m looking for bigger rocks to put with the trees (name -some are long, and year planted).

 

[igorsMistress]

Good morning gardeners. I was really behind on the thread. Yesterday was great. I got a lot of logs cut up to manageable sizes. The area where the grapes are going is almost clear enough to plant. It still needs a bit of work. And a big thank you to all of you who responded to my question about spacing. Why can't "they" just say don't plant vegetable A closer than a definitive number of feet away from vegetable B. That would be too easy. LOL! I'm concerned about the asparagus. Perhaps it's the cool temperatures but there's very little growing. This should have been a really good year #4 for harvesting. The peas are doing really well and the carrots are beginning to poke through the soil. The blueberry plants are looking a little scraggly so hopefully this rainy week will help them along. The shallots are definitely growing. They're still tiny, but visible. I'm still holding off on planting the warm season vegetables for at least another week. It's projected to warm up later in the week, but still a bit cool for planting. I have 4 more shrubs to plant in addition to the grapes so that will be on my to do list this week. I have seedlings inside that need to be up-planted today. My tulips are starting to open up and the lilac is full of buds but my beautiful azalea is struggling to bloom. So sad to see it like this. I'm so glad I was able to mow the grass on Friday. It looks so much better. I'm hoping to get some grass seed on the bare spots either today or tomorrow. So much to do.

Tis the season lol. I hope it warms up and you get more asparagus!

Rhubarb custard pie recipe. 3 eggs 2c sugar 1/4 c flour 1tsp vanilla 3 tb milk 1tb butter. Mix together. Put 4 cups diced Ruhbarb in pie crust and pour mix over. Cover with top crust. Bake at 400 for 50-60 minutes.

I will have to try that rhubarb custard pie recipe as just rhubarb custard, or, as I say, un-pie, since I'm gluten free. I might halve the recipe, as DH thinks he doesn't like rhubarb, and I might *have to* eat it all myself.

I’m not gluten free but I would make it without a pie crust too (not a fan of pie crust with sweets).

 

[igorsMistress]

Here, in the middle of farming country, the farmers markets in the city are a joke. Stuff is bought bulk at costco, repackaged, up-priced, and sold as farm fresh, or locally grown. Uh-huh. Make sure you talk to your vendor about where and how they're doing things. I actually caught one pulling greenbeans out of a KIRKLANDS bag I watched him open to restock a pile of loose 'locally grown' greenbeans on his stand.
Tomatoes, locally grown, in Late May, that are NOT hydroponic, are NOT possible in Nebraska either. But people have no idea.

That is just disgusting to me.

 

[chickengr]

finally planted fruit trees. everyone complains there are no jobs but when you need someone to dig holes to plant trees you simply cannot find anyone. after 3 months of looking for a person to dig I finally found a 70 yo man who agreed to do this job.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Hey Gardeners I get behind so many pages here.. I bought two more salad starts.
Putting them in dirt today seeds planted but these are head start.

 

[CNJ]

Today, I ate my last Golden Glow mango. I let it ripen on the tree and found it loose in my fruit bag this morning. It was perfectly ripe, fiber less, and sweet. It also had a thin skin and seed.

The thin skin is a minus because it is hard to peel off by hand and its slightly bitter if eaten with the mango flesh for nutrition.

The thin seed is a plus because unlike fat seed mangoes I get more sweet flesh to eat.

I am happy I have this variety in my yard and highly recommend trying it. My Golden Glow mango tree is on its second year of fruiting and it tasted better than the first year, my rating on it has changed from 7 to 9.

 

[fuzzi]

I need to stop with the farming stuff and get to the writing stuff, but I found one more thing I'm going to try, if I get the time.

I'm going to mass over-plant in a single bed: rutabaga, pak-choi, radish, mustard, and dwarf peas.

When I cook rutabagas I place the tops in water until they sprouted leaves. I planted them in my garden, and they grew leaves and now roots. I'll be harvesting soon.


Big leaves on right behind hardware cloth are rutabagas

 

[WthrLady]

Find a stream/river that allows you to take a few stones. I realize not everyplace has this, but TN does not have a shortage of exposed rock! National parks do not allow removal of things. State parks -not sure, local parks might be ok. check with friends with land/streams, lake. Scrub the rocks, let them dry really well (oven on low overnight is a great place to start).

I need to get some rocks for this too. But, I’m looking for bigger rocks to put with the trees (name -some are long, and year planted).

Not a problem here with that either. We're on glacial till. We have lovely pink granite EVERYWHERE. For that I raid the fenceline, where the farmers have tossed all the obnoxious things after plowing and the winter heave. LOL

 

[TJAnonymous]

A frigging cutworm got to one of my ground cherries! It lasted ONE DAY! At least I had one more start that I hadn't potted up yet so I was able to replace it.

Saw the conversation about SVB. I didn't battle this last year because I grew all my squash inside the hoop house, but this year I set up a hoop trellis for pumpkins, watermelon, and melons.... So I'm a little apprehensive about battling this little beast again. I do have some insect netting I could throw over the whole thing but that looks so ghetto and ugly. And I'd have to hand pollinate everything. I'm already doing that with the vertical gardening in the hoop house. I'd rather not do it with the trellis stuff too.