What did you do in the garden today?

[chickengr]

going to water only. goat's run is almost done. I'll make a connection door in a coop that remained outside that run due to a nasty slope and probably put african geese in there. then I'll need coops for khaki campbell ducks (eggs are in the bator, hope they hatch) and for egyptian fayoumis.

 

[Liz Birdlover]

Something ate half of my cucumber starts. I even have them covered with hardware cloth.

I think I'm going to not cover any of my veggies this year. I'm growing every thing on trellises so hopefully that will help with the squash bug & cucumber beetles. I have too much growing to hand pollinate it all, if my parthenocarpic cukes came up I would have covered them. But oh well, we'll see how it goes.

I saw the numerous "somethings" that were feasting on my sprouts.

I Heard some crazy sounds 2am, went out with a flashlight in my long night shirt & muck boots .

I saw 2 foxes zipping around playing & telltale mole holes yes, I know you guys do your work at night. Figured I'm already out here, take a quick glance at the garden. Those darn fat, slimy slugs were feasting on my young sprouts!!! I was so mad! Where do they all come from anyway?!

I set up some beer saucer traps. Foxes checked them out but thank goodness they apparently do not care for beer, one sniff, a snort of disgust, & back to hunting for moles. I went back to bed 3am lol. I checked the beer traps at 7am. Some slugs did indeed drown, those slimy alcoholics. But the number of slugs I saw overall astounded me. I will be setting beer traps every night now. I'm wondering what brand beer works best? I only had Coors Light on hand.

 

[Liz Birdlover]

All this rain, which we have't had in 3 years, is making everything really happy. I am in allergy hell.

Ditto that. All red from the steroid shots for my back, too. I've looked very sunburnt for days & always thirsty. I cannot be out in the sun til this crappy scenario passes, so I'm stuck indoors days, til dusk, which really sucks! I thought the side effect from steroids would help with allergies, too...nope, not really. Stuck indoors & constantly runny nose which gets worse when I go outside, even taking Allegra. Hoping I feel better in a few days.

 

[Liz Birdlover]

I've been pregerminating my bean seeds, and have gradually planted them out. It's too cool yet to direct seed. Did the majority of them yesterday, and more popped by this morning, so got those out too. Harvested all the oregano this morning, and having DH dig out the huge patch of them so I can put something else there.
Of course, there's always weeds to kill.
I bought some new lavender plants to put in. My really old ones took a hard beating this winter. I bought l. augustifolia and another on called Blue Spear. Anyone else here love lavender?

I love Lavender. As I'd heard purple color flowers actually have more pollen & I'm allergic to lilac, I only got 1 Lavender, to see how I'd react. I'm Not allergic to it! It has grown into the coolest shrub-like perennial plant & I love it! I will be getting more.

 

[Liz Birdlover]

Rain rain!
Mostly surveying garden this morn.
I’m not sure I like the butternut squash w okra as it’s becoming more difficult to get down paths!
I really hope I have I big juicy Sweet watermelon!!!
First sunflower about 10-12 ft.
My hydrangea is the happiest I’ve ever seen it. I hope it goes deep red this year instead of a dusty rose color.
Anyone else leave spiders in garden? I cal them my friends

My fav garden spider, Golden Orb, they pretty much stay on their own web. When they feel threatened they bounce their whole web like it's a trampoline. I find them in many places & often relocate them to the safe garden, if they've made webs in dangerous places where they'll get mowed.

 

[Liz Birdlover]

I’ve bought seeds 3 years in a rows and nothing.
All I can think is it gets too hot too fast and they must die

We seem to have long cold, wet spells every spring, like still cold into June & then suddenly too hot & dry here, too. It's very frustrating.

 

[Liz Birdlover]

Lavender doesn't overwinter here either. BUT, guess what I found growing in the middle of my hay field this week?!?!It's almost 18 inches high and 24 wide. It doesn't have a strong smell. At first I thought it was rogue Russian sage, but the leaves are all wrong, and the flower timing is wrong.
But the flowers look like lavender.
I'll show you when I go to yank it out.
Maybe you can tell me what it is, if it isn't.

Don't yank it, move it to a pot, see what it ends up being. It may be a gift, randomly planted by a bird or by seed on a breeze. I've gotten a few pleasant plant & tree surprises that way.

 

[Liz Birdlover]

I have a spinal cord stimulator implanted, it's 2 electrical leads in my epidural space & a battery pack just below my waist. It sends out electrical impulses that confuse/interrupt the pain signals to the brain. It's been a life saver. I also have hardware from previous surgeries. You can see some of it in this pic.
View attachment 3850500

Wow, that xray may be a prediction of my future xrays. Right now I use the stick on Stims...they kinda help but not really like I'd hoped.

Well, anything that actually helps relieve the constant, stabbing like a sword pain is worth it. I hope you continue to get relief & have ongoing wonderful quality of life.

 

[Sueby]

I saw the numerous "somethings" that were feasting on my sprouts.

I Heard some crazy sounds 2am, went out with a flashlight in my long night shirt & muck boots .

I saw 2 foxes zipping around playing & telltale mole holes yes, I know you guys do your work at night. Figured I'm already out here, take a quick glance at the garden. Those darn fat, slimy slugs were feasting on my young sprouts!!! I was so mad! Where do they all come from anyway?!

I set up some beer saucer traps. Foxes checked them out but thank goodness they apparently do not care for beer, one sniff, a snort of disgust, & back to hunting for moles. I went back to bed 3am lol. I checked the beer traps at 7am. Some slugs did indeed drown, those slimy alcoholics. But the number of slugs I saw overall astounded me. I will be setting beer traps every night now. I'm wondering what brand beer works best? I only had Coors Light on hand.

Since I'm still not allowed to bend yet to put out beer traps I decided to go with sluggo this year & it's worked great. I saw a couple dead slugs being eaten by ants yesterday. I'll only use it till the starts are big enough to survive a little munching.

Wow, that xray may be a prediction of my future xrays.
Well, anything that actually helps relieve the constant pain is worth it. I hope you continue to get relief & have ongoing wonderful quality of life.

Thank you. I know you have issues too, I hope that you get your relief also. If you ever want to talk about it feel free to send me a message. I've been though a lot with steroid shots, PT, meds, surgeries & the SCS over the last 20 years, lots of fails & some successes.

Got out there & watered the garden got a little epsom salts on the peppers & strawberries, weeded & planted some zinnia seeds before the sun gets blazing. Now back to work. Oh, got a few strawberry runners pinned into little cups to propagate too. I'm going to make a 2nd GS tower from runners.

 

[chicken opey]

My dd is keeping all suckers! At what point should we get professional help . She tells me it’s just in case we fail w the other 144!

Sunflowers!
I found out I accidentally killed my spiderwort bed! I was angry at the ants and huge ant bed beside it that a threw the whole pot of hot lard on them! I didn’t realize it would kill my spiderwort!!!

The tobacco horn worms have returned and boy are the chickens loving it!