What did you do in the garden today?

[writerskramp]

Two weeks to tilling time... Then seed planting. Figure it takes two weeks to sprout on average.. Seedlings not till Memorial Day.. It is what is is.. Just South of a Justin Trudeau's girly clothes...

 

[TJAnonymous]

Today has been a LONG day... It was pouring buckets when I got up and went out to feed the zoo.... Dog and I got soaked. Came back inside afterwards, gave her a frozen soup bone to keep her from whining, and I climbed back in bed for an hour!

After the rain stopped, I headed out to work on the garden. Figured out that my DIY garden fabric (made from recycled feed bags) is letting enough light penetrate that weeds & grass are growing UNDER the bags! I weeded as much as I could reach around the openings I cut for the seeds/plants I planted. At one point I was reaching under the fabric to pull weeds around the corn and out came a GIANT Black Widow spider! I picked her up with my trowel and moved her to the other side of the garden where she could find shelter without biting me...

I planted more corn, some spaghetti squash, and more green onions (mine were uprooted by the armadillo).

I have a BUNCH of trees to plant tomorrow. Also noticed that my new plum tree looks like it is dying. I had planted it in the duck pen and it started going downhill. I thought maybe the drainage wasn't great so I dug it up and moved it to a raised bed in the garden. Didn't seem to help. About 90% of the leaves have died... I don't know what else to do for it. Maybe just watch and see if it rebuds on its own...

 

[BReeder!]

Today has been a LONG day... It was pouring buckets when I got up and went out to feed the zoo.... Dog and I got soaked. Came back inside afterwards, gave her a frozen soup bone to keep her from whining, and I climbed back in bed for an hour!

After the rain stopped, I headed out to work on the garden. Figured out that my DIY garden fabric (made from recycled feed bags) is letting enough light penetrate that weeds & grass are growing UNDER the bags! I weeded as much as I could reach around the openings I cut for the seeds/plants I planted. At one point I was reaching under the fabric to pull weeds around the corn and out came a GIANT Black Widow spider! I picked her up with my trowel and moved her to the other side of the garden where she could find shelter without biting me...

I planted more corn, some spaghetti squash, and more green onions (mine were uprooted by the armadillo).

I have a BUNCH of trees to plant tomorrow. Also noticed that my new plum tree looks like it is dying. I had planted it in the duck pen and it started going downhill. I thought maybe the drainage wasn't great so I dug it up and moved it to a raised bed in the garden. Didn't seem to help. About 90% of the leaves have died... I don't know what else to do for it. Maybe just watch and see if it rebuds on its own...

For the feed bag weed fabric, can you lay straw over it to block the light? The feed bag still will serve the purpose of suppressing weeds and grass and keeping then from growing up through the added straw to find light. They should starve out then.

 

[BReeder!]

I built these bad boys today out of landscape timbers. Two down, only seven more to go. Filled them with soil that we have from excavating for an above ground pool. When they are finished I just need to wait a few weeks before I can put anything in them.

View attachment 2633973

Waiting for chicks to come, waiting for it to be warm enough to put my plants outside...

My beds at the old house we're landscape timbers. They were beautiful. Easy to build with too.

 

[jerryse]

Thank God for decent neighbor's. I got my tiller back today. It it's running better, but not great. I don't think it has the horsepower to get through the hard ground where I need to lay grass seed. My neighbor was out and kindly offered to let me use his. It's a beast! It's a Honda rear tine time that home depot is to rent out and they eventually sold it so he bought it at a great discount years ago and it still runs great. I tilled the three patches of the back yard that need grass seed and the remaining portion of the garden. Then I raked one area smooth for grass seed but soon found out I am out of seed. Darn it! So we got to regrading another patch I tilled and then built the raised rows in the last section of the garden that I got tilled. We blew right through dinner time so now I'm off to pick up pizza.

FYI I just repowered my old Troy Built with a predator motor from Harbor Freight . About $140 . I have done this before as the tiller was new about 40 years ago .

 

[Sally PB]

My neighbor was out and kindly offered to let me use his. It's a beast! It's a Honda rear tine

When I first started my garden with a shovel, my neighbor lent me his small, front tine tiller. So much better than a shovel, but my arms were jelly after I was done. I looked into tillers, read about rear tine models, and got one of those, a Craftsmen from Sears.

I rarely use it now, doing mostly no-till, heavy mulch gardening. But when I decided to put in another garden in very heavy soil, it was indispensable.

 

[WthrLady]

When I first started my garden with a shovel, my neighbor lent me his small, front tine tiller. So much better than a shovel, but my arms were jelly after I was done. I looked into tillers, read about rear tine models, and got one of those, a Craftsmen from Sears.

I rarely use it now, doing mostly no-till, heavy mulch gardening. But when I decided to put in another garden in very heavy soil, it was indispensable.

When my nice, old neighbor here saw me first take a shovel to virgin Prairie sod to turn my garden the first time. He came over with his massive John Deere 6 foot tiller made 4 passes and was done. Came back a week later to till the clumps, and then the disc and rake to finish it. It was amazing. Then two years later we put the barn on top of it.

Now we deep mulch, row garden, no till.

Doesn't working behind those walk behinds rattle your brains and eyeballs?

 

[jerryse]

Question . Anyone grow cowpeas ? I have not in a long time . Thinking maybe the rabbits might like them . I am going to try surrounding my green beans with cowpeas to protect them from rabbits . Fencing has failed in the past .

 

[writerskramp]

It snowed today..

 

[Sueby]

Morning gardeners! Love reading about everyone's gardens as things are picking up.

Nothing going on here, it's raining. We desperately need it. I will go check on the peppers I put in the tunnel, hoping they're surviving because I really want to get the rest of the seedlings out of my house.

I ordered some compost starter too. It was getting pretty hot till the couple days of snow. It needs a kick start.