What did you do in the garden today?

[chickengr]

Couple things I've never planted before, one I've never ate can't wait to give it a try, both the seeds kinda shocked me, didn't look like anything I ever expected. The one I've never ate, Mammoth Sandwich Island Salsify, WOW! like ginormous caraway seeds, never would have thought they looked like that.
Other, Parsnips, I've bought them in grocery stores occasionally not very often but have ate them, never planted them before. IDK if any of you have seen rhubarb seeds but those parsnip seeds look the same like small round paper, thin, with seed in middle. Not what I expected figured like carrot seeds Lol!
Happy gardening!!!

I googled Mammoth Sandwich Island Salsify and found out they grow wild everywhere here

 

[chickengr]

tried parsnips last year. They took a long time to sprout. Then, it was sporadically. I think part of the problem was heat/dryness of the bed, even though I specifically tried to keep it moist. Finally, several sprouts looked good...until someone didn’t latch the chicken gate a few feet away. The chickens munched the parsnip sprouts! So, we never got to harvest any

you need to let parsnip overwinter if you want to harvest it. it takes at least 2 years to reach a good size. I gave it up for now but I plan to grow it in some corner of my garden in my new place.

 

[Ducklingguy]

I have a big garden this year! Started planting back in February, since it was fair.

Hopefully, everything keeps thriving! Awesome tomato plants! Turnips doing beautifully! I give the ducks the greens, and they love it.

Ducklingguy

 

[TJAnonymous]

The Richmond Green Apple cucumber seeds I ordered came today. I am going to try to cultivate them in a container but use the fence as a trellis. Anyone ever grown these before?

I also thought about trying to grow some under the giant pine tree that DH caught on fire last year. It's usually where my blackberries grow but they won't be producing until next year. Only thing growing there now is pokeweed. If I grow the green apple cukes there, they would have lots of ground space to expand. Probably a lot of pests over there though.

 

[Acre4Me]

Anyone ever grown these before?

here are examples of the green apple cucumber (bottom) and lemon cucumbers from my garden last year. Neither are planted again this year. We really like the taste of the lemon cucumber, but they succumb terribly to wilt and are beseiged by cucumber beetles, so we hardly get any before the plant dies. The apple cucumber withstood disease better, but we did not like the taste.

hopefully, you will have better success, or get a tastier cucumber!

 

[Sally PB]

So I spent a few hours today trying to figure out how to cover my plants for the night so they all don't die on me due to the frost.

I save all my old bed sheets for "frost sheets." I cut the corners on the fitted bottoms so that they will lie flat. I used them many times this spring for the strawberries.

I needed them last fall to protect beans. I put some tomato cages around the plants to hold the sheets up. That worked really well.

 

[BullChick]

Did you know that a feed bag fits over a tomato cage?

 

[Acre4Me]

Rain most of today. Much cooler next 3 days. Lows in the 40s!

but, transplants should be ok. Always better to have cooler/rainy or overcast weather right when plants transplanted bc less stress it seems. Of course, too cold, or too windy is a problem!

my insect netting stayed on overnight, even with some wind as the front came through!

 

[BullChick]

Rain most of today. Much cooler next 3 days. Lows in the 40s!

Ditto, and our local water park opens today.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Good morning gardeners. The chicks have arrived. All four are doing well. The weather cooperated and I was able to fire up the new gas grill and cook some barbeque chicken for last nights dinner. I need to run errands again this morning then should be able to hunker down and work on my list of projects for the rest of the weekend. The vegetable gardens are looking good. My arugula is getting ready to bolt so I'll be picking that later this morning. The lettuce is growing well so I can pick a few leaves for a salad. Since the weather will be cool and rainy over the weekend, I'll let the kale grow a bit more before I do the final thinning. The 8 foot row of chard I planted from seed is coming up now so the other bed with the salad greens can be cleared when those greens are done and the summer squash can spread out. I tossed out some of the sad little starts and have one more Roma tomato plant to put into the ground. The tomato bed with the San Marzanos and the Romas is quite full so this one can go into a pot. To respond to what I don't buy at the grocery store question: I buy very little bread. I bake most of the bread I eat and even some gluten free bread for DD. This year is the first time I had to buy tomato sauce in a very long time. Although I still have a number of jars of salsa left, my tomato crop, thus canning was a little less than normal last season. I haven't bought butternut squash in years. I rarely need to buy hot peppers or bell peppers. I love green beans but never seem to be able to plant enough of them. The record for the home grown ones lasted until January. And I never buy jams or jellies. I'm hoping for a good crop of potatoes but we go through a lot of potatoes so I'm not deluding myself to not have to buy them when the home grown ones run out. And of course, I haven't bought eggs since my first group of chickens started laying in early September of 2018. I use store bought butter for baking but make my own for buttering my bread. And last of all, I buy very few herbs. What doesn't get eaten fresh, I dehydrate and use over the winter. Good golly, you don't realize how much home grown stuff you consume until you write it all down. Have a great day everyone!

A little camera shy

My lone rhoddendron