What did you do in the garden today?

[Sally PB]

Wow! Very nice garden porn there!

 

[Artichoke Lover]

What type of cucumber is that? Looks like the size of the lemon cucumber but green instead of yellow.

Just regular boston pickling the first picking is always a bit funky shaped

 

[BReeder!]

I change my original opinion. It is a Margined Leatherwing Beetle

That's it! I just looked it up. Apparently it's a good bug to have in the garden. The adults are pollinators and the youngsters are voracious predators who attack various garden pests. If I see anymore of these I will not flick them. Oops!

 

[WthrLady]

Note to self: Do not flick voracious predators.

 

[pennyJo1960]

That's it! I just looked it up. Apparently it's a good bug to have in the garden. The adults are pollinators and the youngsters are voracious predators who attack various garden pests. If I see anymore of these I will not flick them. Oops!

That is a the red soldier beetle

 

[NewBoots]

Any tips on helping this poor Rosemary?? Took 5 minutes to get the thing out of the pot

I agree, I'd run a knife down the sides at least 4 times and open the bottom and either put it in the ground or in a bigger pot. Rosemary is tough, I love the stuff.

More garden porn from today (I could not get all the pics in one post)

Wow, I think I need a cigarette.

Got most of the mowing done but still some left so no fishing tomorrow, maybe Friday. Watered the beds and the hedgerow and scattered more slug bait where the chickens couldn't reach it. I had to go over the shallot bed with a pitchfork to remove the insane web of grass runners then mixed in a load of rabbit poop. Should be room for maybe 4 more tomato plants in there. I think I'll try planting one of the really stressed potted tomatoes and see if they can recover or if it's better to just toss them when they reach that point.

Today I opened the escape holes under the coop and inside the coop and the littles clearly understand they can run to safety whether they're in the run or the coop. The big girls pointed out that the littles had to mind their Ps and Qs but didn't really pick on them at all and they mixed for most of the day. I'll still have to keep the littles in the run until they get big enough that the cats can't easily kill them but the integration actually worked and I am so relieved, nearly giddy.

 

[chickengr]

I've gone over and beyond trying to get the blueberries to work. I made raised beds because the soil here is always too alkaline. I mixed in a huge bag of peat moss, peat humus, compost, pine needles, and layered the top with about 4-6 inches of pine bark mulch. That's not including the sulphur and fertilizer I added separately and continuously. Mine were doing really well until this last bout of rain. Then the chlorosis started. I thought maybe some of the sulphur and fertilizer had washed out from the heavy rain, plus it had been a month since I fertilized/added sulphur so I added more. I think this time I added too much and burned the roots? I've lost one bush completely. Another looks like this...

View attachment 2721120

The other 5 are still chloritic but are also starting to get the dying leaves just like the first two. Pretty sure all of them are going to die and I'm not sure how to save them. I wish I could call a plant doctor like I call a vet.....

I don't think pine needles and bark are good for blueberries. just a thought.

 

[Sally PB]

I don't think pine needles and bark are good for blueberries

Oh!? I heard just the opposite. Pine needles are acidic, which is what blueberries need. Help, Google?

 

[Sally PB]

but the integration actually worked and I am so relieved, nearly giddy.

Yay! I hope mine goes as well in a few weeks.

 

[CluckerFamily]

Oh!? I heard just the opposite. Pine needles are acidic, which is what blueberries need. Help, Google?

I also have heard the same thing.
And blueberries love the same soil pine trees do.