What did you do in the garden today?

[fuzzi]

Our local WalMart has eliminated almost all the lanes where they have someone to check out your items. Out of 20 lanes, they might have 2 staffed by a checkout person. Usually, those lines are backed up with people who have one or more full shopping carts to check out. No such thing as an express lane anymore - it's self-checkout now.

And the self checkout scanners are usually "card only". They're trying to remove cash purchases.

 

[Smokerbill]

I can easily mix up any ingredients in my cement mixer compost sifter. I can't get inexpensive vermiculite in the large 3 cubic foot bags anymore, so the head guy at our local nursery suggested I just mix a good quality topsoil with my chicken run compost 1:1. All I do is toss in a couple shovels full of topsoil, then a couple shovels full of chicken run compost. The sifted material drops down into my Gorilla cart in thin layers, essentially mixed. That is my "magic mix" for my raised garden beds.

I also have different sized screens I can put in the compost sifter barrel. I have a 1/4 inch mesh for making potting soil mixes, a 1/2 inch mesh for topping off the raised garden beds, and without a screen insert, the 1/2 X 1 inch mesh on the barrel itself is good enough for top mulch. I suppose I would not have to sift the top mulch, but it's so easy for me to sift compost with my cement mixer compost sifter that I prefer to sift out the material and toss the rejected bigger material that is not yet composted back into the chicken run for some more time to break down.

I tried sifting out some chicken run compost with the 1/4 inch screen for potting soil with my seed starts in the house. That was a mistake. The chicken run compost is full of life and I had all kinds of little flies and bugs in no time with those seed starts. Probably not a problem if you started seeds in that chicken run compost potting mix outside in a greenhouse, but it was not good for inside the house due to all the bugs.

Lesson learned. This year I purchased sterile potting soil from the store and did not have any bug problems with my seed starts. I hear you can bake compost to kill all the bugs and eggs in the compost, but I don't know if all that work is worth the time and effort for me.

Also, and I don't know anything about this, but I wonder if killing all the life in the compost to use it as potting soil really defeats the purpose of using compost in the first place?

I think for your inside potting/seed starting soil you should bake it in the oven to sterilize it. That would get rid of any bugs and pathogens that could hurt the seedlings as they're establishing themselves. And you'd have no bugs in the house.

Commercial potting soil is sterile, and starting plants inside is just a temporary thing. Once they get outdoors they need the living, critter infested compost and soil. Just my opinion...

 

[fuzzi]

Thanks. I guess I'll be wearing long pants until I finish that job. Don't want to get another rash. That was no fun.

I'm allergic to poison ivy. When I work close to the "leaves of three" I take antihistamine afterwards.

Years ago I had a PI rash all over my arms, and the itch was making me insane. I went to a local clinic, where a PA (or NP?) told me "The rash you get from PI is an allergic reaction, so treat it as an allergy, take an antihistamine."

That was probably some of the best medical advice I've ever received. I rarely break out after exposure because I wash my skin, and then use Nasonex. FLONASE/Fluticasone

 

[gtaus]

DH and I walking we will use the cement mixer for dirt now too.

Yep, cement mixers are good for mixing up lots of stuff.

At one time, I thought I might make my own chicken scratch, mix it up in the cement mixer really good, and put it in 5-gallon buckets for storage. But I ended up using a drywall mud mixer with a drill and mixing the chicken scratch directly in the 5-gallon buckets. Mainly I just dump in leftover grains from something else into my supply of chicken scratch, mix it up in the buckets, and call it good. I think I bought my mixer from Menards...

I did the math on all the chicken scratch ingredients, and it came out to be about the same as buying a premixed bag. So, it was not worth my time or effort to mix my own. I suppose if you could get a good deal on any one of the chicken scratch ingredients, the math would favor making your own. I saw a guy on YouTube who would barter some of his stuff for grains, so it made sense for him to mix his own chicken scratch.

Also, I only have 10 chickens. So, a 50# bag of chicken scratch lasts me months. No way could I buy bulk quantities of grains to save money, mix them up, store them, and use up all the chicken scratch before they would go bad on me.

That mud mixer would work great for mixing up small quantities of potting soil and stuff in 5-gallon buckets. It's a pretty good tool and does not cost much.

 

[NanaK]

We got rain this evening. Went from bone dry to puddles! Storm was scarey for a bit with the wind. Some folks without power with trees down. Thankfully not at my house.

Things have been a little busy around here lately. DD is in the process of adopting two siblings so I guess I’ll finally get some grandkids.

Congrates to you! Grands are the best!

So, if anyone can verify these plants are poison ivy or not I would appreciate it.

I saw you got your answer. Stay away from this stuff! Maybe pour boiling water over it. May have to do it again after a week or so.

I knew exactly what the next sentence was going to be.

Me too! They are great excavators!

I'm shooting for some serious weeding on Friday.

I hate weeding. Have you ever used a stirrup hoe? My favorite tool for the garden. Don't want to weed without one and I can weed standing up! Yay!

And the self checkout scanners are usually "card only". They're trying to remove cash purchases.

I no longer use a card if I can use cash or check. Had a young cashier look at my check one day and say I didn't think people used these anymore! hahahaha He didn't even know how to process it! Had to get help.

I don't use my debit or credit card anymore because of an incident of identity theft. Most miserable 6 months of my life. Took that long to get things corrected and my money back in my account even though my bank caught it before I did! It was awful and over $4000.

 

[gtaus]

I think for your inside potting/seed starting soil you should bake it in the oven to sterilize it. That would get rid of any bugs and pathogens that could hurt the seedlings as they're establishing themselves. And you'd have no bugs in the house.

Commercial potting soil is sterile, and starting plants inside is just a temporary thing. Once they get outdoors they need the living, critter infested compost and soil. Just my opinion...

That's exactly what I was talking about. But I did not feel it was worth my time or effort to bake my chicken run compost to sterilize it, so I just bought some commercial sterile potting soil in a bag and used that. One bag was more than I needed this year, but next year I plan on starting more plants indoors.

I don't think Dear Wife would be very happy with me if she saw me baking chicken run compost in "her" oven. Game over for me at that point!

 

[gtaus]

I saw you got your answer. Stay away from this stuff (poison ivy)! Maybe pour boiling water over it. May have to do it again after a week or so.

Thanks. I was just going to look on YouTube tonight for ways of killing poison ivy without getting myself exposed again.

 

[NanaK]

Thanks. I was just going to look on YouTube tonight for ways of killing poison ivy without getting myself exposed again.

My hubby is terribly allergic to the stuff so I have to take care of it. I will get it but he ends up in the Dr's office so I do this.

 

[akroberts1085]

Today I picked another zucchini and a roma tomato. I ate the cherry tomato.

 

[NanaK]

Thanks. I was just going to look on YouTube tonight for ways of killing poison ivy without getting myself exposed again.

One more thing...make sure you never burn it. I have a friend who did. They ended up in the hospital. It was in their sinuses, throat. They really got sick.