What did you do in the garden today?

[Sally PB]

I hear an owl hooting outside. How cool is that?

Pretty dang cool, IMO.

Today I'm going to go to a friend's house to do some yardwork. She pays me, we chat, I do something I enjoy doing that she hates to do.

 

[igorsMistress]

I want to try this squash. In one of the comment answers said no SVB damage. I think it could be used as a zucchini in the immature stage.

I guess they are hard to get, I found a site that only allows one pack per person

https://greatlakesstapleseeds.com/products/pepo_algonquian-squash

I wonder how those might do here in the desert…

 

[Sueby]

Hey all. I'm headed out for a bit of a vacation, took some pics while I was out stocking up for the chickens.

It's fall for sure, garden is ready for sleep. All the weeds are dying. (really not weeds, all the mint that has taken over & the mess of wildflowers I way over seeded) I like to leave all the spent flowers for the birds, so I'll clean up in the spring & then the new fence will go up!

Got a couple figs that will be ready while I'm gone, DH will enjoy them.

Greenstalk with lettuce & spinach (succession planted) is looking good! We ate the first level & it's growing back well.

Have a great week all, I'll be back next weekend.

@WthrLady the coop looks fantastic! I especially love the design of the one over the door.

 

[igorsMistress]

Hey all. I'm headed out for a bit of a vacation, took some pics while I was out stocking up for the chickens.

It's fall for sure, garden is ready for sleep. All the weeds are dying. (really not weeds, all the mint that has taken over & the mess of wildflowers I way over seeded)
View attachment 3653170

Got a couple figs that will be ready while I'm gone, DH will enjoy them.
View attachment 3653173

Greenstalk with lettuce & spinach (succession planted) is looking good! We ate the first level & it's growing back well.
View attachment 3653175

Have a great week all, I'll be back next weekend.

@WthrLady the coop looks fantastic! I especially love the design of the one over the door.

Safe travels and have fun!!

 

[fuzzi]

Nice pictures. I have a couple of questions for you concerning adding compost to your raised bed. Do you double-dig your raised bed to bury your partially composted material? Is that a lot of work?

Thanks!

I don't do a proper double-dig, just go about 8" down. The soil in the raised bed is not compacted so I don't have to loosen it with my spading fork, a shovel works well. I put about 4" of compost into the ditch, then top it off with the dirt in next row. Then I even it out with my hands, it's that friable. I can reach all the raised bed by bending over slightly, as it's 4'x4'.

If I tried to double-dig a regular garden in the ground my back would break within minutes.

 

[fuzzi]

Lovely refreshed raised beds! Nice work

Thank you!

I can handle gardening in the raised beds, am glad that I decided to invest in them. I'd not done any vegetable gardening for over a decade prior to purchasing the first kit two years ago.

 

[Dadanga]

I have a 3ft x 4 ft rubber cement tub above a 600-gallon fish tank with some of the return water from my ultima filter rigged to fill it 1/4 to 1/2 inch full and drain back into the fish tank with constant water flow. I use 12 one gallon grow bags with potting mix and organic fertilizer mixed on the top half, so it doesn't leach out. The fabric bags wick water up and keeps the top half moist. I also fill clay pebbles around the bottom of the grow bags to prevent algae growth.
I have a constant supply of leafy greens growing in the tub year-round.

It's easier to maintain than the Kratky method, since the bags have enough organic fertilizer to see the plants through to harvest. In addition, cherry tomatoes can also be grown in the one-gallon bags, but the fruits aren't as large as the ones grown in larger containers.

I have a bigger 3 ft x 8 ft x 8-inch-deep plastic grow bed above a 1,000-gallon fish tank that is set up almost the same way, but I keep the water level higher, and I use a bell siphon with a small hole on top to prevent the siphon from triggering, so the water drains from the bottom and not the top. I need the water to drain from the bottom to prevent my duck weed from draining out.

I use the duck weed as a food supplement for my White Nile Tilapia's. White Nile Tilapia's can grow up to 10lbs and they look and taste like saltwater fish to me.

View attachment 3653107

Wow that's pretty impressive! Only fish I eat is fried but that is massive! The grobag method is actually a similar setup to the guy I watch uses. I have a 110L grobag I'll try to shoehorn into the wicking bed. I've even got a 380L one but I mean...unless I use the IBC as a wicking bed. Not a bad idea though. I do like the IBCs with how much room you can use.

Today was spent mostly setting up the kratkies with tomatoes, squash, rock melon and other remnants from the raised bed plant out. Speaking of. It was another hot day today and some of the seedlings are struggling. The courtyard where most of these are setup get a lot of shade so it's going to be interesting to see if it's enough for fruiting. I also seeded the top of the pots with some gourmet salad mix for some groundcover. The glorious thing about the kratky system is that the roots will just descend into the res so crowding shouldn't be too bad...I hope. Directly under a palm tree is the front kratky and the bees are having a good ol' munch.

 

[gtaus]

I don't do a proper double-dig, just go about 8" down. The soil in the raised bed is not compacted so I don't have to loosen it with my spading fork, a shovel works well. I put about 4" of compost into the ditch, then top it off with the dirt in next row. Then I even it out with my hands, it's that friable. I can reach all the raised bed by bending over slightly, as it's 4'x4'.

If I tried to double-dig a regular garden in the ground my back would break within minutes.

When I hear double-digging, I'm thinking some hard work. But I can see your method of double-digging in a raised bed would be much easier than an in-ground garden.

Since I got into building and using pallet wood raised garden beds, all my new raised beds are also 4X4 feet and 16 inches high. Not much bending over or reaching to maintain those raised beds.

As mentioned before, I sift all my compost, add it to the top of the existing soil in the raised bed, and sometimes I will use my small Ryobi 18v cultivator to mix it into the top ~4 inches. Hardly any work at all.

 

[jerryse]

Around 1 PM we had 49 degrees and rain. A cold rain. I recently ordered a new French fry cutter that came today. A very nice cutter. I have used the same cheap cutter for 60 years and it was out of my Aunts estate. Time for new.

 

[Smokerbill]

This is what the gallon water jug method looks like.View attachment 3653036

Very interesting! I found a video describing the method too. But I guess I don't understand why you'd do that instead of just separating the garlic cloves when the head is dry and planting them. Does the water jug method give them a head start?