What did you do in the garden today?

[WthrLady]

Morning all.
Gulped my coffee down and cleaned out the barn.
The boys are all haltered up and stuck in their stalls waiting for the team.
I'll go out just before they come and rake the ally and set the camera up for a video.
Hopefully we'll get it on youtube today.

More rain overnight. Dry for a couple of days, then rain monday and again next week.

GOOD grief so much water.

 

[oldhen2345]

Robins today! Doing well, and filling up the nest. Still 4.

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Stringing one of the pole bean trellis - beans are already a few inches up at the bottom! Also melon seeds in front of them have sprouted.
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Tomato bed in back, pepper bed in front. They re looking good.
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Bed with squash - a variety.
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Gourds on South side of chicken run - gourds are sprouting in the bed - I think 5 different varieties planted. Purpose is primarily for shade!
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So....those stupid cabbage loopers - the irritating green caterpillars ruined my brassicas last 2 years - so many that even Bt spray could not keep up. So, I dedicated this one bed to cabbage and brussel sprouts, and am trying insect netting. Success or failure - time will tell.
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We added 2 cattle panels to one bed. Planted cucumbers at the base. Nothing else in this bed.
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potato bed on the left - 3 types growing. dried bean bed on the right - pole beans at the tower, and bush beans where there isn't a tower. I am trying trellis netting on this structure for the first time. Looks sturdy enough, but we will see how the netting fares.
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Still a few more things to do. No pics of the big bed right now - so, those will be later. A few more things to plant here and there. Many of the plants are showing herbicide damage, so must be a lot of farm field spraying going on right now - usually it is done by now, so I am a bit frustrated continuing to see affected leaves on many plants. However, once it leaves the air, the plants should perk up.

Wow, Impressive!!

 

[TJAnonymous]

We have had a string of weeks of nice, warm weather in the 60F's, 70F's and even hit the low 80F's a day or two. I got lots of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, beans, strawberries, etc... planted these past few weeks. Looking forward to a good garden this year.

And then, FROST WARNING tonight with temps forecast down to 26F. To be fair, where I live, our average last frost date is like the 1st of June, so I was overly optimistic by planting the garden beds a few weeks early. 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 found some tarps and covered some raised beds, but then ended up using a lot of empty 7 inch plastic pots turned upside down over the remaining plants. I think/hope that will protect them from the frost overnight, but to be honest, this is the first year I have even tried to plant the garden before the 1st of June, so my frost prevention defenses have not been considered before.

I got the pots at Menards over the past few years on their sales when you basically got the pot for free after rebate. I had a stack of about 50 of these plastic pots in the shed, never being used, but today thought they might work to cover my plants and protect them from the frost. I am a big sucker for buying things that are free after rebate. Looks like I might have found a good use for these free pots after all.


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I used old bed sheets, shower curtains, old room darkening curtains, moving blankets, tarps, and horse blankets.

Pretty much anything I could find.

 

[oldhen2345]

Will do more weed wacking and weeding this afternoon- after last nights rain, everything is too wet to mess with- if I walk in the area that I need to weed, I sink down in the mud and it squelches all around my feet. Will let it dry off a little.

 

[TJAnonymous]

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
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My lone rhoddendron

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I really want to be self-sufficient like this. We made a lot of salsa last year but had to purchase some tomatoes from the farmers market to get enough to combine with our tomatoes.

We went on vacation during the first two weeks of July which was a bad idea because I missed most of the blackberry harvest. I did manage to get enough to try to make some sugar free jam. It didn't set up well though and is more like heavy syrup.

This year I made a lot of improvements to the garden so I'm hoping to actually get a decent harvest and do some canning. I also have a dehydrator but I've never used it before. I need to figure out what works well for that and what doesn't.

 

[jerryse]

I had to be in town so I went to Farm and Fleet . Got some Brussel sprout plants and a couple of cucumber plants since mine did not germinate well . Beast selection I have seen on veggie plants this year .

 

[pennyJo1960]

Have a great day all have to go into town today too wet to Garden

 

[WthrLady]

The boys are naked. LOL......
Noodle necks are running around the pasture.
It's 1pm and only 49 degrees.

 

[Sally PB]

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

Brilliant! Thanks for the idea and the picture!

I also have a dehydrator but I've never used it before. I need to figure out what works well for that and what

I dehydrate a lot of stuff. What kind of dehydrator do you have?

Here's what is easy and works well for me.

Fruit: bananas, cherries, apples, peaches, melons. Strawberries were bland and lost flavor.

Vegetables: My neighbor has done way more than I have. She does a lot of corn and peppers. I've done some tomatoes and peppers. I never have enough asparagus to preserve any; we eat it all! I did potato slices once a long time ago.

I haven't done onions, thinking that they would make the whole house stink.

I've dried butternut squash that is cooked, with a bit of cinnamon and brown sugar, making what I call "squookies" (squash cookies). It was fantastic!

I've dried yogurt, but it's messy. We've made jerky that is very good too.

I did a little bit with herbs; I spread the leaves out and laid a paper towel over them to keep them from blowing around as they dry.

 

[vall]

Today, picked a handful of blackberries and green beans, and put up shade cloth over the lettuce.

Then went down the hill to check for dragon fruit buds but suddenly felt a thud.. hawk attack! Dripped blood all the way back to the house but it's stopped now. I have 5 little cuts on my head and a splitting headache. Bad start to a long weekend I left a message with the county wildlife department, hopefully they can remove her. I do not want to start wearing a helmet just to tend my orchard.