What did you do in the garden today?

[igorsMistress]

Hi all.

I spent all morning outside, gorgeous day out there! Did some work in the covered garden today, cleaned the coop, put clean hay in the nest boxes, swept the patio, fertilized the plants, and started cleaning up the compost pile. There are a few aloe blooming in it Once I moved all the big stuff off the top i left it for the chickens. They've been having fun digging in the pile, LOTS of bugs in there! They'll have it down to the sticks and such shortly and then I can do some more work to it before I move some of that dirt for another project.

I came in for some lunch, then need to restake the hibiscus and move some shade and cover areas for the chickens to new places and clean up my tools before I shower and make dinner.

Have a great day everyone

 

[Acre4Me]

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Hi all.

I spent all morning outside, gorgeous day out there! Did some work in the covered garden today, cleaned the coop, put clean hay in the nest boxes, swept the patio, fertilized the plants, and started cleaning up the compost pile. There are a few aloe blooming in it Once I moved all the big stuff off the top i left it for the chickens. They've been having fun digging in the pile, LOTS of bugs in there! They'll have it down to the sticks and such shortly and then I can do some more work to it before I move some of that dirt for another project.

I came in for some lunch, then need to restake the hibiscus and move some shade and cover areas for the chickens to new places and clean up my tools before I shower and make dinner.

Have a great day everyone

Completely jealous/envious of your sunshine. Can practically feel the warmth emanating from the screen! I prefer semi-arid climates...OH is a bit too wet for me. I've lived in Eastern WA before, and liked it. I know you get blazing hot in the summer, though...but all that sunshine is pretty great.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Still not finished with my rooster condo yet, almost there. Rather than adding more square footage to my existing run I'm thinking it would be best if I built a lightweight chicken tractor to let my flock get out into the grass. Last week when I was pulling into my driveway with the new chicks I noticed mother hawk building her nest again in my neighbors tree. Hope she only has twins this year rather than triplets like last year. My seedlings are doing well. The romaine is coming up as well as the basil. I bought two large terra cotta pots for the rosemary so I can bring it inside to over winter. The big rain storm is set to hit overnight here so I don't expect tomorrow will be a good day to work outside. The good news is the snow and ice finally melted off of my garden beds. Everyone else has been so productive, I'm feeling a bit like a slacker.

 

[igorsMistress]

Completely jealous/envious of your sunshine. Can practically feel the warmth emanating from the screen! I prefer semi-arid climates...OH is a bit too wet for me. I've lived in Eastern WA before, and liked it. I know you get blazing hot in the summer, though...but all that sunshine is pretty great.

You have green though, lots of it!

It's pretty nice most of the time. In the summer it would be nice to get more thunderstorms sometimes though.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Completely jealous/envious of your sunshine. Can practically feel the warmth emanating from the screen! I prefer semi-arid climates...OH is a bit too wet for me. I've lived in Eastern WA before, and liked it. I know you get blazing hot in the summer, though...but all that sunshine is pretty great.

I totally agree. No sunshine here. It warmed up to near 50F but it's cloudy and damp. But it is Spring finally. I ran out this morning to pick up some more pellets for the stove. I hope is it the last for this season.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Still not finished with my rooster condo yet, almost there. Rather than adding more square footage to my existing run I'm thinking it would be best if I built a lightweight chicken tractor to let my flock get out into the grass. Last week when I was pulling into my driveway with the new chicks I noticed mother hawk building her nest again in my neighbors tree. Hope she only has twins this year rather than triplets like last year. My seedlings are doing well. The romaine is coming up as well as the basil. I bought two large terra cotta pots for the rosemary so I can bring it inside to over winter. The big rain storm is set to hit overnight here so I don't expect tomorrow will be a good day to work outside. The good news is the snow and ice finally melted off of my garden beds. Everyone else has been so productive, I'm feeling a bit like a slacker.

Keep saying not a slacker alright we are having great weather rain comes in Friday or Saturday.. my Silky tunnel is done but only three fit through last one I carried we are debating on how to fix this but they are all in the tractor eating bugs and grass

 

[WthrLady]

Managed to get hands into "dirt" today. I managed to get 4 flats packed and planted, mostly lettuce, sugar beets, and a bunch of wildflowers. I planted the berry bushes that came TOO early into a planter, and then did a second planter to start the peanuts. So that's all I managed today. I forgot how much I dislike packing cells, but now I have a packing track and a good dowel, so the next 4 trays will go much faster.

I also got two fee trays with those pods that expand when wet when I bought my seed heat mats. Boy do I dislike those things. I think I'll toss the rest.

OH, and two of my trays I used a block maker. Took a little longer, but if I can do those and not buy/ use cells, I'm a happy camper.

I'll try to wait until april 1 to get tomatoes and cukes started. So maybe I'll get some more flowers in tomorrow and some planters direct planted.

 

[igorsMistress]

I have a question about grow bags for those of you that use them.

What do you use for soil? Our climate is very arid so I was thinking about mixing up some potting soil with coir. Does anyone suggest other amendments?

 

[WthrLady]

I use 8 parts soaked coir, 1 part vermiculite, 1 part pearlite and I make sure that I fertilize. ONE because coir has no intrinsic value other than a medium and TWO its a container. and I loose nutrients like mad in containers.

I don't add local soil to my containers, they eventually get out of balance and get either too dense, or start growing cooties.

 

[igorsMistress]

I use 8 parts soaked coir, 1 part vermiculite, 1 part pearlite and I make sure that I fertilize. ONE because coir has no intrinsic value other than a medium and TWO its a container. and I loose nutrients like mad in containers.

I don't add local soil to my containers, they eventually get out of balance and get either too dense, or start growing cooties.

Thank you! Do you reuse the mixture the next time?