What did you do in the garden today?

[Red Mangrove]

Harvested a second 5 gallon bucket of prickly pear cactus pads today, then threw them all into new places to grow. Miraculous plant

• No watering required
• Natural defenses
• Any portion of a pad can grow an entire new cactus easily
• Entire plant is edible
• Lots of delicious fruit

It's the ultimate permaculture plant for southern regions of the US. Opuntia strica does great in Florida. The fruit tastes like raspberries

 

[Sally PB]

• No watering required
• Natural defenses
• Any portion of a pad can grow an entire new cactus easily
• Entire plant is edible
• Lots of delicious fruit

It's the ultimate permaculture plant for southern regions of the US. Opuntia strica does great in Florida. The fruit tastes like raspberries

Wow, that sounds awesome. Especially the raspberry part!

 

[Sally PB]

I pulled up the rest of the tomato plants and cleaned up nearly all of the heavy soil garden. There's still some crabgrass in one area that I need to get out of there. I need to fork out the big piles of weeds, but they will probably sit until I pull the Butternut squash, so maybe another month. The squash are growing in an area that makes it awkward to walk around them now, and they're the last thing there. Except the grapes and one habanero plant full of green peppers.

I have a pile of wood chips nearby to spread around (thanks, hubby!) and I want to haul more up there. That soil needs all the help it can get. I can sure tell where the chips were last fall; I can actually dig a bit without having to really stomp on the shovel. So all the wood chips I can get, and I have a pile of compost that will go mostly on the grapes.

 

[fuzzi]

Well, that is more organized than I was. I had seed packets here and there, usually somewhere I could never find them when I needed them. Tossing them all into one cardboard box would have been an improvement in my organization.

At any rate, I have them all stored in my new plastic ammo box now. Next step is to try to organize them some way so I know what I have and how old the seeds are.

Cut some cardboard to fit the width of the box, and slightly shorter than the top. Write on the top of the cardboard what type of seeds are behind the cardboard divider.

Kind of like this:

 

[Smokerbill]

It got up to 89 degrees today, and since I quit watering the garden there were a lot of wilted plants. Once the sun went behind the trees and shaded the garden I pulled out the hose and watered things. I'll water again later, then tomorrow morning when it's cool I'll pick all the turnips and get the greens into the freezer and the roots into the fridge.

The heat didn't phase the tomato vines. They didn't wilt at all. And from what I've read, you don't want to water tomatoes when the fruit is ripening. Don't know if that's correct, but that's what I'm not doing. LOL

 

[Sally PB]

I'm going to roll up my hose and put it away. I want to get a couple of those hose caddy things. Probably won't, but I'd like them for storing the hose, nice and neat.

 

[fuzzi]

The weather is gorgeous, upper 70s, breeze, low humidity!

I did some lawn mowing, made the chick(en)s very happy:

And then I somehow lost my balance as I was mowing and fell on my tailbone. The ground wasn't as soft as I could wish, and I'm a bit uncomfortable right now.

At least I got the initial fire ant treatment started before I took my tumble.

Turnips:

Carrots:

 

[Burnt Brass Homestead]

I am creating a bee garden. I planted some crocus, Echinacea, and black-eye Susan. I have to get back out there to finish planting more bulbs for this coming spring bloom.

Creating A Bee Garden

 

[Burnt Brass Homestead]

And then I somehow lost my balance as I was mowing and fell on my tailbone. The ground wasn't as soft as I could wish, and I'm a bit uncomfortable right now.

At least I got the initial fire ant treatment started before I took my tumble.

oh no...I sure hope you don't feel that in the morning. Maybe a good time to take a nice warm bath and read book

 

[fuzzi]

oh no...I sure hope you don't feel that in the morning. Maybe a good time to take a nice warm bath and read book

If we still had a tub I probably couldn't get out of it, but a hot shower and to bed with a book is planned.