What did you do in the garden today?

[Artichoke Lover]

I just realized that I have a week to.
Build at least 400ft of A frame trellis
Buy the last of my plants and chick supplies
Clean the entire house
Finish improvements on the coop which I don’t have supplies for yet
Pot up all 300 and something transplants
In addition to my normal schedule which includes work, weeding and harvesting.
I don’t know how this happened but it did. The reason for the rush? The week after is planting week and I’m supposed to have chicks hatching that week too. I think I’ll start May by sleeping for a week!

 

[TJAnonymous]

I just realized I could clean the poop stains off my duck eggs by using a little bit of baking soda.... Hallelujah! I wish I had learned this nugget a couple months ago

 

[AmeliaBedelia]

I didn't get the hydrangea planted, but DID do the dahlias and mowed some of the grass. Also some weeding. All in all, not too bad.

I also made the mistake of looking through the inventory at a local nursery...now I want to go buy ALL. THE. THINGS.

Oh, and I thiiiink the mysterious jasmine-ish vine in the yard is vinca...most likely "vinca minor"? Looks like it isn't quite as bad as asian jasmine or english ivy, but can take over if it isn't kept in check. We'll know for sure if it blooms little blue periwinkle flowers.

Goals for tomorrow:

1. Don't go shopping for plants. Instituting a "cool off period" for myself...
2. Set up some pots and plant more flower seeds, since direct-sowing has been hit or miss in my flower beds.
3. Get out the edger and mercilessly hack at the ivy growing along our driveway and by the back fence from the neighbor's yard.
4. Check on blueberry bushes...the neighbor's by the road already has baby berries!
5. Bond with new chicken.

 

[alfie10]

heavy frost today but the sun is shining with a lovely blue sky ,might get a bit done outside later on .meanwhile I,ll keep on clearing the house out.I,ve been hoarding to much so last week I decided to have a big clear out ,a lot went for recycling ,lots in the rubbish bins and even found things I might be able to use around the garden .Now when i am spending all summer working in the garden i won,t feel guilty about needing to do things inside .I had to break an old armchair up so used part of the frame to prop my old comfrey up,it grows huge but then flops everywhere ,doesn,t look good now but will soon be covered with the plant ,saved me some pennies because proper frames are expensive .also made a planter from some old nesting boxes lying around. If they just last me this year I have saved some money .

 

[Sally PB]

onion sets. I have never grown onions.

I had my best ever onion harvest last year. I thought I'd done the same as years before, but maybe the star aligned differently, or the weather was better, or my mulch/composting was paying off.

I planted onions between the potato plants. No potato beetles, or other bugs that I recall. I got a record harvest of both.

Plant onion sets with the tip sticking out of the ground. The roots are shallow, so they need water often if you aren't getting rain. Mulch or keep the weeds at bay; they don't like competition. Also, they can handle more nitrogen in the fertilizer than you might think; they aren't really a "root" crop. The bulb is actually modified leaves. If you clip leaves to use as green onions, the bulb probably won't grow as big.

Don't plant onions near peas or beans. They don't like each other.

 

[Sueby]

I was gone to visit friends so I didn’t get anything done this weekend. I just got home a few hours ago. Nobody watered the greenhouse while I was gone so those plants were looking really rough. They seem to be perking up now though. My dad found a large rat snake in the coop while I was gone last night. I’m glad I wasn’t home! It was relocated to the shed with a rat problem. The first of the strawberries are starting to color up so I’m very excited. The last daffodils started blooming yesterday while I was gone and so did the Iris. My hatch is going well so far. I candled today and tossed out 1 clear and 1 blood ring. The other 31 look to be in good shape.View attachment 2611165View attachment 2611166View attachment 2611167View attachment 2611169View attachment 2611170View attachment 2611171View attachment 2611172View attachment 2611173

NONONONONNNNOOOOOO. Ahhhh! I do not like snakes! I know they're good & all, but just NOPE.

DP wants to make one of those using a rhubarb leaf as a mold. We have an oversized plant saucer back on the bluff for the little critters now, a big leaf would look much nicer and give the tiny things the rough stone to climb out.

That would be great! My friend had some issues with them cracking, I think because they were so big, but she figured it out somehow in the end & I love my leaf bath.

Oh and some of the garlic that I planted in the fall is sending up flowers?!? Should they be doing that? Should I cut them off? They aren't ready to pull yet at all and they didn't do that last year with the same planting times so I'm kinda freaked.

The scapes usually show up late spring, early summer. Seems a wee bit early, but I wouldn't worry about it. Cut them & eat them! Or you can let them flower, harvest the bulbils & propagate that way. Some say cut them so the bulbs get bigger, others like to save the bulbils - I hear its a good way to revitalize your garlic & it produces an exact copy of the parent, though I have never done it.

I burned half my lettuce. I knew I'd never find a balance for the beans & lettuce under the cold frame. No biggie.

My sick bird is still alive, but still not right. Not sure what her deal is but she's hanging out in the chicken hospital for now.

I MUST pull out the dahlia bulbs today! That are probably all shriveled up & dead by now.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Good morning gardeners. We had a cool night but thankfully a bit of rain as well. I planted the curly endive seeds yesterday and got my potato patch planted and arranged on their pallet deck. I have ten grow bags, 5 with white potatoes and 5 with red. I mixed the expanding potting mix (which is all ground coconut coir) with a bag of Miracle Gro garden soil. I can't wait to see how they'll do. Still too cool to plant anything else. A few more asparagus spears are poking through the soil. My herb gardens did quite well over the winter. The Thyme in both beds is looking good as is the parsley, oregano, sage and marjoram. I cover mine with leaves in Autumn. Do you cover yours @Sueby? I was surprised when you mentioned your thyme did not make it through the winter. I'm not planning any outside work today. It's laundry day so I will be focusing on that as well as getting the dining room organized. DD finally got some downtime to put my new sideboard together so I'm working on transferring stuff to the new furniture piece and giving the room a good cleaning. My little edger mower arrived yesterday. Nothing to edge right now but I took pictures. I'm excited to give it a try. Regarding the hot peppers: just give them some more time. My bell peppers took awhile to germinate and now the jalapenos are coming up now. I see what appears to be some "movement" in the ancho chilies cells so I'm just being patient. You reminded me of what I do with onions in my garden @Sally PB. I used them to deter the chipmunks and groundhog from munching on the salad buffet. So I need to put chopping onions for the garden on my "to-do" list.
Just for you @NewBoots, my new garden toy. The little orange handle in the rear is the release for removing the trimmer from the deck. It was so easy to put together I was confused. There's an extra handle but I haven't figured out how to attach it yet.

 

[BReeder!]

The 10 day forecast is all 50s with a few days in the 60s. The lows are hovering just above freezing in the 30s. Praying we don't get a frost that damages my peach blossoms. So close to the frost free date - just 2.5 weeks.

I was supposed to start cucumber, zucchini, sunflowers, and some other things last weekend by didn't get to it. Hopefully I'll find the time later today. Part of the problem is there's not much room under the grow lights until the peppers and tomatoes go outside. I think I'm going to move the largest peppers and tomatoes to the sunroom. They'll have to go in the East facing windows though because the west facing windows are full with marigold starts. Moving them would give me room for two trays of starts under the grow lights though.

 

[Sueby]

@Wee Farmer Sarah I got no rain at all! Originally they said an inch between Sun/Mon/Tues - not a drop yet. My herbs are in a large 1/2 barrel, I'm thinking I should put them in the ground, or at least a raised bed so they'll winter better. I did tuck some leaves in there, but I'm not sure how well they stayed all winter.

 

[BReeder!]

Gurney's managed to improve the shipping date on most of my order. However, my Mountain Rose potatoes at not shopping until the late half of May even though they are currently "available to ship". That's not good... I ordered two other types of potatoes that are shopping this month (hopefully later this week or early next). Why do I need to wait another month for just one type? They offered to delay the shipping on the other two so they all arrive together. NO! Planting potatoes in the end of May means they'll get killed by July heat and not produce much of a crop to harvest. Doesn't Gurmey's understand what a cool weather crop is?