What did you do in the garden today?

[NanaKat]

Have been weeding beds again and watering the garden.
Pulled another bed of onions to finish curing for storage.
Finished putting straw around the plants in the garden beds. Dill seed is ripening so picked a bunch of umbrels to dry. We are picking peppers, cucumbers and a few tomatoes. Watching our first cantaloupe like a hawk.
Will be making pickles this week.
Finished processing juice from the last of the Sandplums...now have a total of 12 gallons of juice.
Sorted the pullets from the cockerels in the big juvie pen. Moved the middle group of ducks to a permanent location in the empty pen.

 

[lazy gardener]

Hey lazy gardener! I've got Blue Lake bush beans this year too. They've done well for me. I started picking them about 5 weeks ago. Out of about 9 bushes direct seeded in March with another 4 or so planted every 3 weeks throughout March-April-May, I'd guess I've picked 20 pounds of beans so far, and just getting started. They have certainly been good producers in a small footprint.

HE surprised me with a few seed packets in February. Wasn't on Valentines Day, but I was happy he thought of me and grabbed some. Normally I'd plant flat podded (Italian) pole beans, but he doesn't know much about gardening, so he chose the Blue Lake, as well as Hale's Best cantaloupe, California Wonder bell peppers, Rutgers tomatoes, and a few other varieties of things. I'm into open pollinated and heirloom varieties that do well here, but a gift is a gift and I'm grateful. And so far all have been growing well, tomatoes and beans producing already. The Rutgers tomatoes aren't as productive as some of my other varieties yet, but I figure they'll start hitting their stride about the time some of my early ones are quitting for the season.

Got a huge storm in the wee hours today, with thunder and lightning going off BIG every few seconds for about 40 minutes! Dumped so much rain my big smoker fell over sidewise from sinking into the soaked ground. Luckily no damage and we got it righted and moved to more solid ground. We'd moved it to have a good flat place for laying out coop and run parts on the cement. I'm still working on digging out the patio extension to set in pavers, so we've run out of paved space. So much to do!

I harvested lightly today after getting anything I was afraid the storms would take yesterday. Amazing how fast the cucumbers go from "too small"to "almost missed getting it in time"! Everything looks very happy and refreshed after all the rain.

Got the brooder materials all set up in the sun porch. Will spend some time tomorrow getting it set up in case the chicks get here early. Ship date still the 28th as far as I know. I expect they'll get from Ideal in Cameron to me in Arlington overnight. Been so long since I raised chicks, I hope I still got the touch!

Not much to do in the garden today, so I put up another small batch of stewed tomatoes. Never can have to much of that. So versatile!

Might work on the patio pavers tomorrow if the clay isn't too sticky to dig. Sure would be nice to have that extra space. I'm having to incorporate a French drain there too, so it's a bigger job than just throwing down some paving blocks. It will help take the runoff away from where the coop & run are to be and put the excess water somewhere it's more needed. Worth the trouble to do it right. And it's going to be so pretty once the pavers are done and we put the permanent cover over it all next year! I can hardly wait to sit out there sipping sweet tea or margaritas.

Hope y'all are having a beautiful bountiful weekend.

Good to hear that you like the Blue Lake. I'm not at all fond of bush beans. I prefer pole beans b/c you get a much greater yield in the foot print, plus very little bending once the plants are growing up the trellis. Any thing I can do to eliminate my almost constant hip pain is a plus. By far, my favorite bean is Fortex. But, I continue to try some new varieties of this or that every year to keep my gardening "fresh". Almost all beans are OP, so you can save seeds. Have done some flat podded beans as well. they make great dilly beans that don't roll off your sandwich! I'm very fond of Rutgers tomato. Have grown it almost every single year since discovering it a number of years ago. Sounds like your patio area is going to be wonderful, as well as solving a potential drainage issue. Mama always said, any job worth doing is worth doing right!

 

[10 acre woods]

I did more training of tomatoes and cucumbers to their trellises and cages. It is my first year growing San Marzano tomatoes. They are really starting to set on. I can't wait until they start getting ripe. I picked cucumbers, summer squash, peas and blackberries today. Some of the blackberries are almost as big as my thumb!

 

[pennyJo1960]

nothing in ours is pickable yet.. there is a new pain reliever on the market it is lidocane being added to aspercream and icy hot buy the aspercream on it is in a roll on even with my limited movement I can use it @lazy gardener

 

[chickadoodles]

Wow everyone is so busy in their gardens.

I went out in the muck that is as bad as Dan's place as we also live in Alabama and yes it has rained all month and we got as much rain from Cindy as we did for the whole month!
The water can't soak into the ground here either.
I went out to check on the garden only to find stink bugs eating my tomatoes.
I had to through a dozen to the cows from the damage.
I picked a bunch more and brought them in. I sliced and put some green ones in the freezer. And I have some sitting on the dining room table to finish ripening. I need to go out and put some netting over the plants! I did not even check the squash and okra or other plants yet.

 

[NorthTexasWink]

MmmMmmMmMMM I love fried green tomatoes! I make green tomato chow-chow to can at the end of the season too. Do y'all have chow-chow up there? It's a relish made with green tomatoes, pickles, peppers, onion, and some recipes add other stuff. Can be tart or sweet or spicy. Nice to keep around to put on beans, eggs, bbq, pretty much anything really. I hate to waste anything and green tomatoes especially would be a shame to waste.

We got some of that Cindy kickback rain too. Already had gotten a good bit, but now everyplace I have for storing rainwater is full to the brim. I know I'll be happy to have it later this summer.

Clay is too wet to dig now, so worked on getting things organized for the chicks and their space outdoors once they are ready for it. Harvested, ties stuff up, minimal weeding needed.

Y'all will probably think I'm more than a little off when I tell you one of the things we are doing to keep the coons, coyotes, bobcats, and such away. We are taking some mixed large predator urine (that I get one of my cousins who is a zoo vet) and mixing it with human meat-eater urine to make it go further. I was using it to deter moles and protect our trash from getting raided. We sprinkle this mixture around the perimeter of our property, especially concentrating on the area nearer to the chicken run. I want to do this before any chickens are here to habituate the native predators into giving this area a wide berth. We started about 8 months ago. We often had signs of potential predators around, saw them, and had our trash gotten into sometimes. Now we also spray a bit on the trash containers and nothing touches it. The urine varies but is a mix of wolf, bear, big cats, badger, and such. My cousin says it's from doing lab tests, physical exams, pregnancy tests and so on. What do y'all think of my idea? I'm still using plenty of hardware cloth on the coop and run, maybe even electric wires. We have a LOT of predators here.

A few shots of the garden today, including my first year trial of a big insulated tub I got for free from CL last year. It was used at fairs for selling turkey out of. I drilled drainage holes in the bottom, raised it on bricks and filled with my raised bed mix. Trying out cantaloupe with some leftover tomato and pepper seedlings I added late this season. It doesn't get as much sun as I'd like, but I already harvested a nice batch of carrots from it, so maybe it'll get enough. I think the insulation might keep it cool enough all year for carrots, beets, even lettuce. I seeded some to test that, though they don't show in the photo. Getting it painted will come later, mostly just wanted to see how it would work.

 

[chickadoodles]

We have tried chow chow but not a big fan. Love your garden pics looks great.
I plan on starting some new tomato plants in a few weeks for fall.
My pit bull pees around the perimeter of our property and we have very few critters that get past him. Except for the squirrels they won't even run them off!

 

[pennyJo1960]

chow chow sounds like maybe a salsa?

 

[NorthTexasWink]

You know that furiously virulent green hot dog relish you buy in the grocery store? Chow-chow is that consistency, but NOT that taste or color. More like a tapenade. Finely minced mildly crispy pickled veggies to add texture and acidity or sweetness, with or without spiciness or heat. So . . . a relish. It's really hard to describe taste and mouthfeel isn't it? Anyway, it's probably an acquired taste like poutine or menudo or fried spam.

 

[lazy gardener]

A common old timer coon deterrent is to simply pee in/around the corn patch. I can't tell you how well it works. I think the coons here are brazen enough that they'd simply get into a p!$$!ng contest. I can tell you that urine is sterile, high nitrogen, loaded with other nutrients, makes a great conditioner for hay bale gardening, and is a great compost amendment.