What did you do in the garden today?

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Good morning all. Looks like stormy weather and heat is spreading through the country. It was pretty rainy yesterday bit cool temps and actually not a whole lot of rain. Made the trip to HD for remaining items needed for coop expansion. Sticker shock for sure. Last year I paid around $16 per 4 x 8 foot sheet of OSB board. This year it was $44 per sheet. OMG! Fortunately I only needed one sheet. The littles are getting really big however they still are not fully feathered out. Likely due to the high temps. The good news is that the approaching heat wave may only be 4 days and not 5. I'm hoping to be able to get the expansion completed and the littles moved out before next weekend arrives. I cleaned up the little bit of grass and weeds in the corn patch this morning. There's been a lot of growth in the past 10 days. It looks like the final count on the lima bean plants is 9 definite and perhaps one more. I'm not sure if I'll be growing these again. The bush beans in the cucumber patch are blooming and looking good. The best thing in the garden is no sign of early blight on the paste tomatoes. The basil I planted in that bed is starting to look much better as well. The peppers and okra are doing fine so I feel like I can breathe a little better. The growth rate on the summer squash and cucumbers are still a bit slow but I'm hoping for the best in this weird weather pattern we are dealing with. I have enough old sheets to use as shade cloth if the sun gets too intense for some of the crops. Knock on wood the bugs aren't too horrific here yet like they were last year. The marigolds I planted should be blooming soon. I caught a thirsty visitor in the bird bath yesterday. Too cute! Have a nice day.

corn patch 15 June

corn patch 25 June

 

[oldhen2345]

We too are struggling with our front yard keeping trees alive! We have been here 7 years and we've had 5 different type trees die in an area 10yds or so. So frustrating! And soooo expensive!

A few years ago I had 5 majestic old pecan trees in my yard and two oak.now I have one pecan and one oak. The pin oak had two trunks- one straight and one curved over my chicken yard. I hired a fly by night crew to cut down the curved one and leave the straight- he did the opposite, so now I worry one day that tree is gonna land on my chickens.

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

I don't know how big your garden is, but we used PVC pipes stuck over rebar we pounded into the ground to make a hoop structure and then large binder clips to attach netting all the way around. It does a good job of keeping them out here and I can take the binder clips off and drop the netting to work in there if I'm not walking all the way inside. When it is really hot I can put netting over the top too to give the plants a little shade.

Yeah it's long...16' long and 4' wide in full sun...then I have 5 grow pots just beside there that is mostly shade and they love getting in there as well...little boogers.

 

[WthrLady]

I grow mine on the cattle panels and weave them in and out as they grow, Those I miss get tied to the panel.
Brought in some short little zinnias, some smoke plant, 5 giant blackberries, a cherry tomato, and a cloudy day tomato about the size of a golf ball.

 

[gtaus]

Made the trip to HD for remaining items needed for coop expansion. Sticker shock for sure. Last year I paid around $16 per 4 x 8 foot sheet of OSB board. This year it was $44 per sheet. OMG! Fortunately I only needed one sheet.

Yes, and the year before last, when I built my chicken coop, OSB was just under $7.00 per sheet. Maybe instead of buying stocks and bonds for retirement, I should have invested in OSB!

 

[Fishychix]

Has anyone seen these bugs before? They are all. Over my stuff How do i get rid of them without using harsh stuff?

 

[gtaus]

We have had very little rain this spring. The lawn grass is a lighter shade of pale, and my dearly departed dad would be beside himself at this situation. Anyway, about 2 weeks ago, I started looking for my Orbit automatic watering timer thinking I should hook it up with a sprinkler to water the yard in the early morning. Never found it in all the usual places.

So, yesterday evening, I decided to start cleaning up the garage. That task is well overdue. Two hours into the garage cleaning, I found the water timer! Definitely not where it was supposed to be stored. Everything looks good in the bag and all parts there ready to be put to use.

Today, however, it's raining... Good thing I decided to look for the water timer yesterday. If I had waited until today, with the rain we are now getting, I would have found another reason to justify not cleaning out the garage and putting it off again. Still have about another 2 hours of cleaning in the garage before I'm done. Probably a good day today to finish cleaning inside the garage due to the rain outside.

 

[gtaus]

Has anyone seen these bugs before? They are all. Over my stuff How do i get rid of them without using harsh stuff?

Not really sure what you are dealing with in those pictures because my old eyes are not so good anymore. I see little white spots which I think might be aphids. If so, I have successfully used dish soap with water in a spray bottle to treat infected plants. Evidently, the aphids hate the soapy water but the stuff does not harm the plants. Might work on other bugs as well. If not, then you could move on to other options. But I agree that the least harsh effective method is the one I would prefer.

I once attended a gardening meeting and the Master Gardener had the philosophy that if the bugs overran her garden, she would just let it go and start planning for next year. Some years bugs are worse than other years, and she was not going to spend time fighting nature. She felt the best defense was to plant a variety of plants because bugs in one year might attack certain plants, but other plants might be thriving that year.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Has anyone seen these bugs before? They are all. Over my stuff How do i get rid of them without using harsh stuff? View attachment 2735841View attachment 2735843

They look like aphids which can be green or brown. Try some insecticidal soap?

 

[TJAnonymous]

So I'm already thinking about next year's garden and what I want to do differently.

First of all, what has worked well....
* - the PVC underground drainage pipes for watering

* - the recycled feed bags used as landscape fabric and covered by mulch to keep weeds down SIGNIFICANTLY

* - insect netting over the hoop house to keep squash bugs and most other nasties out. Didn't work against whiteflies and aphids but I can work with that!

So, what I'd like to do differently.... My inground garden isn't very big. Maybe 20 ft x 20 ft? I'm thinking about making a greenhouse frame from PVC around the whole thing. Keep the hoop house inside the greenhouse frame but cover the ENTIRE greenhouse frame with insect netting. Then leave the hoop house UNCOVERED inside and use it as a hoop trellis for cukes and stuff.

I'd still put the PVC in the ground again but I could also use some PVC along the bottom of the greenhouse frame.

Thoughts?