What did you do in the garden today?

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Waiting for heavy fog to burn off. We are forecast to be dry today finally.

After all this wet maybe I can pull weeds in the flower beds.

My plants are almost all still alive after the very wintertime temps we just went through.

Good to hear your plants survived the snow and low temps.

 

[21hens-incharge]

The morning walk through reveals that I have brave rabbits.......no real damage but several deep holes dug in pots and the unplanted raised bed.

Rabbit stew anyone?

 

[WthrLady]

What some three striped reticulated ground squirrel to go with those rabbits?

Great day in the morning! Our weather system shifted late last night. So what was supposed to be a quiet dry night (so I could plant and mow this morning) turned into an all night shift with severe storms and tornadoes (about an hour and a half of me). Which means yet ANOTHER 1.28 inches of rain.

Cloudy, soggy, and cool again today.

I hope we don't swing the other way too fast. It's been known to happen. Although I am enjoying the no AC bill, or water bill for the acreage (beyond watering livestock).

Still need to mow....hoping we'll loose some of the soggy this afternoon. So this morning I'll get some weaving done.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Morning all got up way too early have not been out yet did finish coffee even got dressed taking Randi to auction this morning he is the black copper marans I raised beautiful boy but hence the name if I keep on want better behavior there is a EE we picked up that has turned out to be a boy raise him and see

 

[Acre4Me]

Next 10 days-all days have rain forecast. Where is the sun???

My beet seeds...not a single sprout. No cucumbers either. I replanted cucumber seeds a few days ago. Guess I’ll replant beet seeds too. But everything else has sprouted.

On the other hand, Burpee FINALLY emailed me back. I had called customer service about 1 month ago bc worried the raspberry plants doing poorly -maybe diseased. Looked bad compared to the Burpee raspberries purchased previous fall (and never planted but kept moist and in cold garage thru winter). CS indicated I should email them with pics so a horticulturist would get back to me. I did and got an auto response saying “within 24-48 hours” would get a response. Never got a response...so emailed them again after 12 days indicating I was disappointed in their lack of response. Today, about a week or so later I got an email from them...it was poorly written, and indicating 3x within the email I should plant the raspberries. Um yeah -waaaay ahead of you, Burpee. Already planted a couple weeks ago.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Burpee is not as good a place as it was my Folks bought seeds from them as a child buying from them as I had to surrender from work they turned awful

 

[Acre4Me]

Burpee is not as good a place as it was my Folks bought seeds from them as a child buying from them as I had to surrender from work they turned awful

So far all Burpee seeds I’ve planted have done well - great germination rates. Plants ... so, so. Not planning to buy anything else from them except maybe seeds. In addition, it was highly likely that I was speaking to a call center in another country, to a person reading from a script. What they said to me was actually ridiculous....

CS: “plants are sent dormant”
Me: “the plants were fully leafed out and putting out new shoots when I unboxed them. That means they were not dormant”
CS:”plants are sent dormant”
Me: (repeat above)
CS: “you should have already planted them right when you received them”
ME: I received them in March, a full month prior to expecting them. It is very cold and freezing here. The non-dormant plants would have died as they did not arrive in a dormant state”
CS: ”you should have planted them when you received them”

This continued until I asked for an email so I could send a picture as I was concerned about disease, and not their dormant/not-dormant state.

So, email today indicated that I should never have brought them indoors at night bc shipped dormant ... uh, seriously??? They were actively growing and not dormant when I received them. Night after night of freezing temp and wind and snow and rain are generally not good. Oh, and they told me 3x I should plant them....

Burpee Customer Service = grade F
Failed in my experience. Oh well, many other choices available.

 

[WthrLady]

I agree. Michigan bulb promptly replaced my dying on arrival berry plants, but I have little hope for the plants either. Seeds were great. But the plants no so much.

There's no way I could have planted mine when they showed. We were under 4 feet of snow and ice. It was a good thing that we have a green house where they could be pampered until I could get them in.

They died anyway.

But to get the odd plants I want, I have to order online, which stinks. Small local nurseries USED to plant, cultivate, and clone their own plants. Now they just get the crap sent across country on the same generic big box truck with all the other crap. I caught our local nursery at it the other day. Ticked me off.

OH and I went to buy an I Fooled You Pepper plant from them. So I get there, it's gorgeous as usual and I get distracted by the squash and cuke plants. More importantly, I get distracted by two lady beetles have wild beetle sex on a leaf. OK, well they've been out a lot lately.

THen I notice a LOT of lady beetles. Well ok, they get swarmy when it's warm. I pick out a few squash plants, and my peppers. Then I the sun hits my pepper plant just the right way and there are dark splotches showing on the pepper plant that I didn't notice when I picked up the plant, the size of quarters. I flip over the leaves, they are infested with aphids. INFESTED!

So I bring it to the attention of one of the greenhouse workers( in his 50s), who knew NOTHING about plants and their pests. OMG! HOW can you work there and not know ANYTHING?! THis is a large family operated nursery. Then I went to the green house manager who blew it off and said they were dead and that's why they released the beetles. UM no, they were crawling on my hand, they are not dead. WTH would they sell veggies covered and I mean COVERED in aphids and let people infest their own gardens?!

Their tomatoes were wilted and browned and yellowing, which should NOT be happening in a greenhouse situation with fertilizer and proper sunlight and heat and care.

So I asked about a couple of varieties I was hoping they were going to grow and a variety of sedum I asked about last year, she said "we get whatever they toss on the truck and shows up." OMG! Illusion shattered.

 

[LittleMissCountry]

Soooo hot today! 90 today and humid. All next week is 90's and humid. I got out early, mowed and weeded, and watered my garden.

 

[Acre4Me]

I agree. Michigan bulb promptly replaced my dying on arrival berry plants, but I have little hope for the plants either. Seeds were great. But the plants no so much.

There's no way I could have planted mine when they showed. We were under 4 feet of snow and ice. It was a good thing that we have a green house where they could be pampered until I could get them in.

They died anyway.

But to get the odd plants I want, I have to order online, which stinks. Small local nurseries USED to plant, cultivate, and clone their own plants. Now they just get the crap sent across country on the same generic big box truck with all the other crap. I caught our local nursery at it the other day. Ticked me off.

OH and I went to buy an I Fooled You Pepper plant from them. So I get there, it's gorgeous as usual and I get distracted by the squash and cuke plants. More importantly, I get distracted by two lady beetles have wild beetle sex on a leaf. OK, well they've been out a lot lately.

THen I notice a LOT of lady beetles. Well ok, they get swarmy when it's warm. I pick out a few squash plants, and my peppers. Then I the sun hits my pepper plant just the right way and there are dark splotches showing on the pepper plant that I didn't notice when I picked up the plant, the size of quarters. I flip over the leaves, they are infested with aphids. INFESTED!

So I bring it to the attention of one of the greenhouse workers( in his 50s), who knew NOTHING about plants and their pests. OMG! HOW can you work there and not know ANYTHING?! THis is a large family operated nursery. Then I went to the green house manager who blew it off and said they were dead and that's why they released the beetles. UM no, they were crawling on my hand, they are not dead. WTH would they sell veggies covered and I mean COVERED in aphids and let people infest their own gardens?!

Their tomatoes were wilted and browned and yellowing, which should NOT be happening in a greenhouse situation with fertilizer and proper sunlight and heat and care.

So I asked about a couple of varieties I was hoping they were going to grow and a variety of sedum I asked about last year, she said "we get whatever they toss on the truck and shows up." OMG! Illusion shattered.

WOW! That's too bad - it is so frustrating to go to a place and t ask questions and then they look at you like you're the strange one to expect them to know anything about their product. Also frustrating to feel like there is not a single benefit to buying from a local business if they don't care about their own products.