What did you do in the garden today?

[deepbluesea]

Hi! My garbage can taters are growing like crazy, so I've been adding soil a few times a week. I also put some sweet potato slips in a seven-gallon fabric grow bag. I think I have a total of ten carrots that germinated.

On the other hand, apparently my fennel seed packet was leaking, because I have fennel starts coming up in three out of the four beds. That works, because it's mostly for the swallowtail caterpillars.

Don't know if I told ya'll, but I had a moderate catastrophe in the garden on Saturday am. I have a haphazard fence around the four raised beds and just latch it together with a t-post. Well, on Friday night I was integrating my two new pullets and must have forgotten to close it up, because I let them out on Saturday morning, then looked out the window from my room and saw four of my little darlings happily munching. Ack! I got them out before they did too much damage, but the tatsoi and purslane and kale are toast. Kind of funny because I interplanted the kale with swiss chard, and they left the chard totally alone. Replanting here I come.

Hope everyone's having a great week.

 

[dunnmom]

It was rainy today, so I opted out of garden duty. However, my first broody hatch began yesterday, which was day 20. I've seen 3 chicks out of 12 so far, but there could be more under her.

No clue what kind of chicks they are. Very likely mixed breeds, as I bought the eggs from a firefighter who has all sorts. He only selectively breeds one breed at a time, but sells the barnyard mix eggs for only $7/doz. Pretty good deal for a first hatch.

 

[pennyJo1960]

broke down decided to buy marans 5 pullets they a cuckoo in variety have 14 in the incubator lockdown in 4 days move them from no name to hova can see in
hova not the no name all yellow no see plastic

 

[lazy gardener]

Got the garden beds marked out. Have 3 more beds to plant in the garden, but also have the HK, and the sheet compost area. Some of my Super Buttercup seeds are sprouting! They were saved from a 22# buttercup bought at a road side stand in 2012. @bruceha2000 was part of my fiasco to get F1 or F2 hybrids of that parent stock that should have produced a Red Super Buttercup. I got a few F1 Reds, but the F2 reverted to Red Kuri type of fruit. I hope to try that cross again, and may get lucky this time. I also have some of the F1 Super buttercup x Red Kuri seeds planted, but they are not sprouting.

For some reason, my lemon balm has completely disappeared from the garden. I found a couple seedlings, but they were not scented. So, tonight, as it was getting dark, I did a walk around the perimeter of the yard. Found some lemon balm, and only one of the found seedlings was scented. So, it's been marked, and will be transplanted into the garden. May find more during day light!

Gorgeous pink misty sunset tonight. Tomorrow promises to be a nice day. Worms are having quite the romantic rendezvous tonight! Front lawn visited by 3 turkeys this afternoon. The entire flock was standing on top of one of the tractors, hiding (in plain sight) from them!

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Today I went to my suburb's local gardening club with a couple of friends for their "plant swap". It was a MESS. There were...

2 whole people that weren't us that weren't over 50.
A lady from a local garden center was doing a presentation on annual flower containers and hybrid varieties. And by presentation on them, I mean she was selling them. Both figuratively and literally.
The presenter said "thank goodness, hallelujah" because her husband didn't plant his "huge vegetable garden" this year. Everyone laughed along. Except us. :T
She also did a bit on the soil supplements her store sells and how we should buy them.
She also lied a bit on the uses of "insect repellent" plants. Like, she didn't even mention anything genuinely useful like citronella or lemon balm and used the most dubious plants possible for it.
Every time she said anything the group went "Ooooh!" like it was something interesting. Like "This one is a PINK version of this flower!" "Oooooooh!".
The "plant swap" was actually people leaving plants out for other people to take.
It was "members only" but didn't say that it was members only anywhere it was advertised and the door was literally open. However three people approached us asking for our money to join the club while telling us this.
If you joined the garden club you not only pay a fee, but also put in public service hours in addition. So you pay money to do volunteer labor.
It was not members only if you brought plants though, which we did, but there was no formal exchange so we didn't put them out because we brought 50 or so plants and there was about 5 on the exchange table.

But hey we did win a door prize, and that was OK.

 

[chickadoodles]

Lg that's funny about the flock hiding from the turkey! hahaahaaa
My turkey never hurt a chicken though.

Sorry about your seeds and lemon balm.

 

[lazy gardener]

Sometimes, the only appropriate comment I can make is, WOW!!! Hope you didn't give up something important, or fun to go to this "swap."

 

[chickadoodles]

x2 that is sad.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Nah, Lazy, it was an hour meeting 5 minutes from my house next to a grocery store I was already going to and I did go home with the door prize and some purple irises for my rain garden.

But man, it was lame as all get out. :T It was the the most generic place I'd ever been to, just old suburbanite women talking about planting hybrid annuals to burn extra money and kill time.

 

[deepbluesea]

Ugh--that sounds horrible. Feel ya. I brought 30# starts to a 'swap' a couple of weeks ago. Not much in the way of reciprocity. So it goes. My friend @ChocolateMouse, please take it easy on 'old' middle-aged women. That's me. Not a suburbanite, and I get what you're saying but... that stung a little to read. I think you're awesome BTW.