What did you do in the garden today?

[Acre4Me]

It’s finally warming up and drying out. Now that the plants have gotten plenty of water, and now warmth again, I’m hoping they will grow fast!

I was at the farmers market this morning, and bought a few squash plants as a trap crop for SVB. I might still tent the pumpkins and summer squash though…haven’t decided yet.

 

[WthrLady]

1.08 of rain last night. We lost power for just over an hour, but I don't even care.

 

[WthrLady]

View attachment 3545041

The truce is over, and I am now at war with the squirrels on my property!

I planted some bean beds a few days ago, and the squirrels got into the raised bed and dug up lots of the seeds. I don't think they were looking for bean seeds to eat because I found a number of been seeds dug up and on top of the dirt. But the seeds will not germinate if they are sitting on top of the soil and not in it.

I had to make a few squirrel proof screens to lay on top of my planters to protect the bean seeds until they have a chance to grow. Much like the screens in the Google picture above. So, I am basically reseeding those bean beds and starting over.

The squirrels are also getting into my raised beds with tomato and pepper plants, but they don't seem to bother the plants already growing. But they dig small holes in the dirt all around the plants and I wonder what they find in the dirt that is so interesting to them?

Dear Wife was upset and wanted to kill the squirrels, but I assured her that was a losing proposition as we live on 3 acres of wood property and there is no end to squirrels ready to move into the territory if we managed to trap and kill the squirrels currently living here.

Squirrel-n-ator trap. YEP. Work like a dream.

 

[WthrLady]

I buy plants from a local nursery that sells 6 packs of vegetables and annuals for about $2. I rarely buy plants from the big box stores, as they're lesser quality and higher priced than that nursery. And they NEVER have red vinca or pentas, only white or pale pink. I want the red to attract butterflies and hummingbirds!

OH I agree, people buy from them for city convenience. That's why I started the great plant sale 4 years ago. BUT turns out, people are generally lazy. They'll spend hundreds of dollars on cookie cutter plants from big box instead of driving 20 miles to a variety sale and spending a 10th of that. Which reminds me, I need to drive to the dairy up the road monday and pick up more milk and cream.

 

[Sueby]

I haven't caught up yet but needed to say

The truce is over, and I am now at war with the squirrels on my property!

ME TOOOO!! Those little b@$!@&*$ are chewing through my 5 gallon waterer! I just bought a new bucket to put new horizontal nipples instead of vertical because they waste too much. It's been out for a week & the tree rats have chewed the top already. . It is on.

And we had a visitor today.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Good morning gardeners. I got the side slope mowed and weed whacked yesterday. Also moved 3 more bags of mulch to the new path. I didn't rake up nice, just moved it with my foot. I need one more bag of mulch and that will be done. I can use the leftover mulch to cover the cardboard I'm going to put in the big garden. I finally caught the little culprit that's been feasting on my lima bean leaves. As suspected, it is slugs. I guess this little guy I caught this morning couldn't pull himself away from the buffet. This is why I save eggshells. My left knee is acting up today so I need to rest it before going back to the high garden. I pinched flowers off nearly all my tomato plants this morning. They are way too little for that right now. They are growing well, but still a bit early for developing fruit. I examined my apple tree up close yesterday and I could not find any of the tiny apples I saw a few weeks ago. Likely got blown off during one of several storms. My newly planted butterfly bush is developing blooms already. It's still small but looking healthy. Also, I think I saw signs of life on one of the grapevines today. It was really hard to see so I took a picture with my phone at close range. It looks like something is waking up. We got 1/2 inch of rain overnight and the weather folks are promising another inch. That would be nice before the temperatures climb towards summertime temps. I'm sure the nightshades and corn will enjoy the warmth. I'm hoping Yogi doesn't start craving chicken @Sueby.

 

[ShrekDawg]

It’s raining today so I can’t do anything but I did get pictures of the garden. It’s coming along. And yesterday or the day before, I forget, we did put up the cages.

 

[Sueby]

I hope so too @Wee Farmer Sarah! Thankfully he's happy just strolling through to the neighbors yard to eat out of their ground feeders for now.

My fig tree has figs. Barely any leaves - but has figs!

& my butterfly weed is starting to flower. Bring on the butterflies!

 

[gtaus]

tree rats

I'll be making at least one more squirrel screen today for my elevated planters. Hope that is all I need to do.

 

[gtaus]

I have read that squirrels don't like hot peppers. There are suet cakes sold for wildbird consumption that contain hot peppers. The birds can't taste the heat but squirrels can, and leave the suet alone.

I did not know that. I'll have to tell Dear Wife about it. She gets very upset when she sees the fat squirrels are out eating all the bird food from her feeders.