What did you do in the garden today?

[jerryse]

Cloudy, breezy and cold. Good news I got a real shoe on my sore foot today.

 

[Sueby]

Dang, that sucks @TJAnonymous!

 

[Molpet]

Cloudy, breezy and cold. Good news I got a real shoe on my sore foot today.

 

[Sammster]

Have any of you purchased red wiggles to add to your compost bins and/or gardens? I'd like to give my bins and gardens a boost. Thoughts?

 

[TJAnonymous]

Dang, that sucks @TJAnonymous!

Last year I used tree covers but they still ended up dropping their blossoms.

This year they've grown too big for tree covers. They are easily 9 - 10 ft tall now and have a similar spread length. The blossoms have been open a while and were already losing petals.

From what I read out of University of Florida, open blossoms can tolerate down to 26 degrees but young fruit is killed at 28 degrees. They are predicting lows tonight around 28-29 degrees.

 

[Sueby]

Our water is so hard here!, plus all the chemicals they put in it. I have psoriasis and we got a filter for our shower. My skin is much less dry and my hair appreciates it too. I use a goats milk bar on the dogs and they actually smell better since we got that filter.

We use a reverse osmosis system for drinking water. Unfortunately we are on a slab so we don't have any room for anything more than that. We are on a shared well & get notices quarterly that our chloride is over the legal limit but they don't have to do anything about it except let us know.

Last year I used tree covers but they still ended up dropping their blossoms.

This year they've grown too big for tree covers. They are easily 9 - 10 ft tall now and have a similar spread length. The blossoms have been open a while and were already losing petals.

From what I read out of University of Florida, open blossoms can tolerate down to 26 degrees but young fruit is killed at 28 degrees. They are predicting lows tonight around 28-29 degrees.

Too bad you don't have an orchard heater. We bought one a few years ago - it would work so well for this, I think (not what we use it for). I remember you losing them last year.

 

[jerryse]

Have any of you purchased red wiggles to add to your compost bins and/or gardens? I'd like to give my bins and gardens a boost. Thoughts?

Red worms AKA manure worms. Not sure if they like compost but worth a try. Cheap start is get some at the bait shop. Sometimes called trout worms at the bait shop. Gardens are not rich enough for them to stay no matter what the sales hype says. Normally found in or near barnyard manure piles.

 

[Liz Birdlover]

Well crap. Freeze warning for tonight. I knew it would happen but it still sucks. There goes any chance of peaches for yet another year.

I feel for ya & can relate...I am wondering how the blueberries will do, mine are all in bloom as of this morning. 30 degrees after reaching 70 the other day? Darn fickle weather.

 

[Liz Birdlover]

Have any of you purchased red wiggles to add to your compost bins and/or gardens? I'd like to give my bins and gardens a boost. Thoughts?

I have 4 mini mealworm farms in 5 gallon buckets. When I clean my pigeon loft, under the grated flooring, there are mealworms there, too. I use the 5 gallon bucket mealworms all year long as nice live treats for chickens & toss a few to friendly Robins & a super sweet Mockingbird. What I add to the buckets, for the worms to eat is chicken feed & sliced raw potatoes for moisture. I leave the buckets right in the unheated coop & they may slow down but the worms do not die over winter...we only get below freezing a few weeks at a time here, Jan & Feb, though. If we get a below zero forecast, I bring the buckets into an outbuilding that's kept about 40 degrees. When I add the pigeon manure to the compost areas, some mealworms go too. It's amazing the work they do, accelerating the whole process of breaking stuff down. I discovered by accident, how great they were, so now I just keep it going. You can really see the progress if ya do 1 area regular vs. another area adding the mealworms. Rich dark soil broken down faster. The wild chickweed & clover growing there are deep green & so nice, too. It's a win win. I haven't tried any other worms.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Windy but dry today. Really didn’t do much outside. I found a length of 6 inch metal garden edging I can use for the asparagus bed. I watered the strawberry bags then started the chocolate tomatoes, tarragon and mint. The temperature here is going down to 29F overnight tonight. I’ve been keeping a close eye on my peach tree and fortunately the buds are forming slowly but not near ready to bloom. My tree is a dwarf so it doesn’t get very tall. After pruning it gets to about 10 feet but I can cover that if necessary. My forsythia that looked like it was starting to bloom stopped. Thank goodness. I did cut some branches and they are blooming nicely in my living room. We may get snow later this week. I’m so over the cold weather.