What did you do in the garden today?

[Beekissed]

I've never really had fruit flies on the maters...maybe if we let them get overripe and rot on the vine that would happen but have never even seen that before. Maybe where it's more southern climates this happens?

Went out and dug around in the wood chips and leaves to see what I could see...not many worms but lots of little bugs, all the rain we've had is sure helping things to compost, as is the warm weather. Lots and lots of rain here but could still find dry pockets under the leaves, particularly under the mounded up material~mulched leaves, grass clippings, ramial wood chips, manure, larger leaves~over the taters.

Rhubarb is confused and up out of the ground 6-7 in. I just tucked leaves up around it and hope it doesn't die when we finally get really cold weather.

Ordered seeds today...they always cost more than I imagine they will but I've got all I'm planning to plant now. Now I just need to build my cold frame, plant some lettuces, make a ton of seed tapes and wait for spring.

Hope to haul some aged horse manure when all this rain stops...IF it stops. Also hope to plant some garlic and onion seeds if we get a break in the rain.

 

[politicalcenter]

My garden is all mud. I have been doing a little work in the greenhouses. I have started some more butterfly weed and have been putting my brugmansia in larger pots. I have also been filling more cans of water in my houses. I use the stacked cans as shelves to better conduct heat and to save room.

With all this rain the floor of my new greenhouse is getting soggy and the pasture it sits in is holding water in new places.

I am beginning to think I need another house. I am thinking about building one over one of my cement ponds and raising fish (tilapia) underneath. I should be able to do it without extra heat in the winter.

I am retired and ain't got nuthin else to do.

 

[jak2002003]

Piled up all the fallen coconuts, swept up the teak tree leaves, cut the grass, chases out a family of water buffalo.. joys of living in Thailand.

 

[Arielle]

Would love some input on black berries. Many, too many to pick just one or two from the catalogs. Also noted the thornless are twice the price of most varieties....Ive always picked wild thorny canes. Who can convince me the thornless are better??

 

[Beekissed]

I can't...not really. They are bigger but I find the taste very bland...not sweet and not tart, just blah. Every time I've ever had thornless blackberries they taste that way, no matter the source, so it's not what they are fed or where they are grown, nor the variety...it's just the thornless blackberries don't even taste like blackberries.

Could be why they don't need thorns to protect their fruit from the wildlife...

Spread ashes at the drip line of the apple trees, as nothing grows there but moss. Hope some of that gets down to the roots.

Have been noticing the leaching of nutrients from the BTE garden into the surrounding yard...deep, lush green grass growth all around the perimeter, with long streaks outwards and downhill from the garden, in low places in the yard, from whence that area drains. Almost looks like a leach field for a septic system!

All of the follow up vids on YT about this method described neighboring pastures, lawns and even chicken runs benefiting from the compost tea leaching from any BTE garden or orchard area but I'm now getting to see it firsthand. It gives me an idea of what to expect about the nutrient flow in my soil directly underneath this huge compost pile.

 

[Arielle]

Bee. Again thanks for introducing this gardening method. We usually dumped the horse manure in compost but now spread thru the woods and the garden area to compost in place. Even the weeds only go about one foot.lol

On the blackberries.Your remarks are typical if too many fruits. We picked lots of wild fruits like blueberries blackberries and strawberries and chokecherries. Wild fruits usually are richer more complex flavors.

 

[jerryse]

Would love some input on black berries. Many, too many to pick just one or two from the catalogs. Also noted the thornless are twice the price of most varieties....Ive always picked wild thorny canes. Who can convince me the thornless are better??

They will have winter damage in zone 5b no matter what they rate them for . You have to lay them down and cover them with mulch . A lot of trouble . Stick with the wild thorny canes .

 

[Arielle]

Would love some input on black berries. Many, too many to pick just one or two from the catalogs. Also noted the thornless are twice the price of most varieties....Ive always picked wild thorny canes. Who can convince me the thornless are better??

They will have winter damage in zone 5b no matter what they rate them for . You have to lay them down and cover them with mulch . A lot of trouble . Stick with the wild thorny canes .

For whatever reason the wild fruitsblackberries where I now live are the worst tasting berries. I try them. Hoping it will taste better than the last...until I quit taste testing. Just lacks the good blackberry flavor I remember as a kid.

SIL has a plant that has giant berries and good flavor...but they don't know the variety. Thick canes. Got me wanting great blackberries ....

 

[Arielle]

Meant to include SIL is a bit further north. So I thought blackberries if the cultivated type would be fine. ???

 

[Beekissed]

For whatever reason the wild fruitsblackberries where I now live are the worst tasting berries. I try them. Hoping it will taste better than the last...until I quit taste testing. Just lacks the good blackberry flavor I remember as a kid.

SIL has a plant that has giant berries and good flavor...but they don't know the variety. Thick canes. Got me wanting great blackberries ....

Maybe they just need some good food? Most everything tastes better if it's been fed a good, healthy diet...eggs taste better, tomatoes taste sweeter when given some manure, meat tastes better when the cow has fed certain things, etc. I have a few apple trees in the yard that never really gave any fruit until I pruned them, then the first crop of their apples had no flavor whatsoever. Nada. Pretty, dark red that is almost black, and a bland flavor...even the squirrels wouldn't eat them and they stripped all the other trees before they even ripened. Then I applied some manure at the drip line...not even enough that you'd think it would make a difference but it did.

When I tasted them this past season it was like a whole other apple had grown on those trees....they had an excellent flavor! Now I'm very excited to see if I can get another crop off those three trees and am feeding them a layer of mulch, leaves, wood ashes(they are in horribly acid soil) and will apply some more manure this coming spring as well.

Then I just have to keep the squirrels off them....searching for a couple of real hungry cats right now.