What did you do in the garden today?

[CapricornFarm]

Great! What kind of fruit trees are you going to plant?

Apples, plums and pears!

 

[henless]

We've been working on the new garden beds. So far, we have 2 new ones in, and the strawberry bed has been redone. Right now we're just putting down the first row of cinder blocks. Once all the bases are down, I'll come back and put in the 2nd row.

I've started putting the layers down. Cardboard first, then leaves and then compost over
them. Watering between each layer. Still looking for some good top soil. Really don't want to buy the bagged soil.

I've also dumped 10 large loads of leaves/pine straw in the chicken run. Put another 7 loads in the coop. The chickens sure do love digging through it all.

We also put up my leaf mold cage using chicken wire & Tposts. I'll start putting leaves & pine straw in this week. Anyone else make leaf mold?

 

[CapricornFarm]

My husband won't let me put down cardboard, says it looks trashy. Really? And who is going to see it with stuff on top? So i mix sand and composted cow manure with the clay soil, for my raised beds. I keep forgetting to dig up the sweet potatoes. Lol, the snow has me distracted.

 

[lazy gardener]

Sunset at 3:58 yesterday. 10 more days, and spring will be on the way.

My husband won't let me put down cardboard, says it looks trashy. Really? And who is going to see it with stuff on top? So i mix sand and composted cow manure with the clay soil, for my raised beds. I keep forgetting to dig up the sweet potatoes. Lol, the snow has me distracted.

Seriously? Does he think that weeds look better? Does he do the gardening? How bout this... Sneak a layer of cardboard (or even layers of newspaper) onto one of your beds, then hide it with a skim coat of wood chips, or even (perish the thought, but some folks do spend money on this sort of thing!) bagged mulch. Plant it quick with seedlings, or even seeds, and, don't mention it till after it's up and growing. Then, show him the difference between a properly mulched garden bed, and a naked soil garden bed.

IMO, the idea of "what a garden should look like" is one of those things that goes back to our child hood. We think this is what a garden should look like, b/c that's what Mom and Dad or Grammy and Grampy did. Little thought goes into what is actually best for the plants involved. God did not design soil to be left naked.

 

[dan26552]

It’s getting there. Slowly but surely. This was the 17 of last month

And a couple days ago.

 

[rebrascora]

Well, it might not quite be in the spirit of this thread, but I spent an hour this afternoon looking in every nook and cranny in the garden and adjacent land for an AWOL Marans with my heart in mouth expecting to find a patch of feathers where a fox had picked up lunch. During the search however, I found two sneaky nests in the undergrowth/hedgerow....one with 4 eggs and the other with two.... all frozen solid.... but at least it gave me hope...... I haven't seen an egg from any of my hens for a couple of months and these Marans had started being secretive about where they were laying a month before they moulted, so some of these may be from then but two (slightly different colours, so looks like both may have resumed) looked pretty clean and recent..... Turned my back to look out on the lane and ring my OH to tell him I was missing a hen and when I came back, there she was standing outside the pen bold as brass wanting me to let her back in and I'm still no wiser about where her recent deposit was placed, although I looked all round the garden again. Argh!!
Not much else I could do in the garden as the ground is frozen solid.

 

[deepbluesea]

My husband won't let me put down cardboard, says it looks trashy. Really? And who is going to see it with stuff on top? So i mix sand and composted cow manure with the clay soil, for my raised beds. I keep forgetting to dig up the sweet potatoes. Lol, the snow has me distracted.

I keep forgetting to dig up my sweet potatoes, too! The foliage died back last week, so I need to get on it. I'm kinda running around like a spaz--'tis the season. My son, who is 16 but doesn't have his license yet, has quite a social life, in addition to the normal holiday shenanigans.
I chainsawed a dead tree and limbed a few overgrown branches, then hauled a few logs to the run for chicken fun.

I picked the last of my habaneros and my bells, though the bells won't ripen. The remaining cherry tomatoes aren't going to ripen either, so I'm going to leave 'em. I plan to finish weeding the other three raised beds, spread compost and plant some clover/rye during the Christmas break.

And always with the seed catalogs...

 

[ChocolateMouse]

I can't believe we're 10 days out from the solstice already! This month has gone by SO fast! D: The solstice is when we celebrate, and the day after I'm going away for a while, so it's kind of crunch time here!

 

[CapricornFarm]

Sunset at 3:58 yesterday. 10 more days, and spring will be on the way.
He is OCD. No, he does not garden but everything has to look tidy. Ugh! He would probably be ok with mulch. I did spread wood chips from the coop with out complaint.


Seriously? Does he think that weeds look better? Does he do the gardening? How bout this... Sneak a layer of cardboard (or even layers of newspaper) onto one of your beds, then hide it with a skim coat of wood chips, or even (perish the thought, but some folks do spend money on this sort of thing!) bagged mulch. Plant it quick with seedlings, or even seeds, and, don't mention it till after it's up and growing. Then, show him the difference between a properly mulched garden bed, and a naked soil garden bed.

IMO, the idea of "what a garden should look like" is one of those things that goes back to our child hood. We think this is what a garden should look like, b/c that's what Mom and Dad or Grammy and Grampy did. Little thought goes into what is actually best for the plants involved. God did not design soil to be left naked.

 

[dan26552]

I’ve planted 300 multiplier onions.