What did you do in the garden today?

[littledog]

Done with the garden! If you see anything wrong then please tell me!

Aww, that's so cute! I especially love that rustic birdhouse, and the statuary looks nice too. I can't tell what exactly you have growing in there, but I would put in a layer of mulch around the plants, and butt it up against the little fence. Wood chips would be good, but a bale of straw spread around would work, if that's easier to haul home. It would not only help the plants retain water and discourage weeds, but would help hold up the little fence, too!

 

[Ascholten]

Smoothie, milk.... screw that, if you REALLY want to hate yourself, use half and half or heavy whipping cream. It's to die for. LITERALLY !!

Ive got probably 30 lbs of dutch red shallots that I harvested, were planted I want to say january some time, and now were pretty much run their course. Have in the house now, culled the rotted ones. It's amazing how much one rotten little onion can stink out a house!! Ill give a lot of them away and shave probably 40 bulbs for next harvest. A bit tart but good raw but get really sweet and are wonderful in dishes. Im going to give them a try see how well they freeze dry.

Aaron

 

[Sueby]

Morning all. Still hot & humid out there. Took the biddies a while to get to bed, everyone fighting to be as far away from the scary fan as possible, knocking each other off the roost. It was funny to watch though!

As a person who dated a drug addict I will put in my 2 cents & tell you AA classes & the like are the BEST place to get drugs, lol, he would always tell me that. He also said if he really wanted to get & stay clean he would have to move away from friends he did drugs with, places he did drugs & change his musical tastes. Driving by the ole bar was always a trigger. 30 years later & he is still a drug addict, he has been arrested numerous times but was never able to get any help. He is a functioning addict tho, always able to get a job as he's in the trades (HVAC, ASE & RVIA certified) but never able to keep it long - his jail time meant nothing. He runs his own business now & lives in his mom basement & every time I see him he is high. It all breaks my heart.

Anyway, we make smoothies here too, choc strawberry are my fave!

My pepper plants FINALLY look amazing, they are loving this heat & growing like weeds. Sheesh, took forever.

 

[littledog]

Keep harping about the climate change I know we need to do more than we are.. Owning the chickens is a step to greener our gardens do well to help but we need to keep doing more and more

Thank you Penny, I couldn't agree with you more!

Our poor dog who's been almost constantly panting for the past four days, in spite of everything we can think of to help her cool down, agrees with you too. So do my poor horses, who have never experienced worse than a few 90's days in a row, and now are drinking 20 gallons of water a day, stuck in the barn because of the past four days of 99, 100, 104, and 112, with 85 to 90 at night so no nighttime cooling and no shade out in the pastures. Our chickens are doing OK so far, their coop and yard is constantly shaded, and we replace their water with colder water several times a day. This kind of heat has NEVER before happened here!

People who choose to believe that this insane weather here, which is normally one of the wettest and mildest areas, last year's wildfires when I had to evacuate my horses, the ongoing drought in the southwest, increased hurricanes in the gulf states that threatened my Mom last year in her Florida assisted-living facility, floods in midwest states that wrecked the corn crop of some of my relatives in Iowa, and earthquakes in flat states like Oklahoma, are not caused by human activity, especially drilling and burning fossil fuels, are kidding themselves and choosing to ignore reality.

Mr. Dog and I try to do as much as individual people can, for example I bought an electric car last year for commuting, and now only use my F-250 gas-guzzler for towing. This has worked out great so far, but if other people continue to ignore reality, our source of power which is predominantly hydro here, will get worse if drought conditions continue to spread.

Sorry for such a long discourse on climate change, in a discussion that is supposed to be about gardening.

Maybe I should have shut up, and taken this discussion to another thread.

And, maybe as well, the people in this gardening discussion who believe Covid is fake/ created in a lab to be a bioweapon/ an excuse to get us all microchipped via a fake vaccine to track all of our activities, should have taken their opinions to the discussion about Covid.

Done with this, back to gardening:

Has anyone else ever eaten asparagus frond tips like this? If so, how did YOU like them? Have any recipes? I can't believe I am the ONLY one who ever tried this, yet there really is not a lot of info about other tardz like mee who tried this. I think these could really make a nice addition to a salad TBH.

Suggestions, comments, Ideas?

When we first moved here, we were so fortunate that there was an existing asparagus patch. For several years, we got huge harvests of lovely, huge asparagus spears. But they don't last forever, apparently there are male and female shoots - the males produce large, wide shoots you want to eat, and the females stay thin and go to seed more quickly. After 12 years here, we get less and less big edible spears, and more and more thin ones that go to seed quickly.
The top shoots are still great to eat! I usually pickle them and use them later in some recipes, or sometimes sauté or grill them along with the bigger spears, or just add them to other sautéed veggies, like spinach or summer squashes. They are just as delicious as the big spears, but my patch needs more new ones planted.

I decided to graft them to the one that had been broody the longest. These BLRW girls are the easiest broody hens I've had as far as handling them with chicks goes. I also got my "dealer" to bring me some strawberry runners.

LOL, I wish I had a dealer who handles both addictions, baby chicks as well as plants!

What about pasteurized milk? We often have extra milk that goes bad before we use it all. I have just been dumping it down the drain. Is there any benefit to using pasteurized milk on the garden or in the compost bin?

Nope. The pasteurization process has done away with a lot of the most beneficial crawlies and will just sour your compost.

That article was really interesting, but it mostly stressed milk as a benefit when it comes to soil microorganisms. Pasteurization might eliminate those, but what about just the basic benefit of milk as a source of calcium? The article found that the greatest benefit of milk was when it was diluted, so adding old milk to your compost might be worth experimenting with.

If we as a society truly want to help people, then we need to quit with the stigmatism of a conviction. I see you had a drug conviction? Yes I did, are you clean, yes I am, do you plan on staying clean? yes I do. good, do you want the job? YES>>> I DO. great, you start monday.

If a person makes a mistake, make them pay for it, but once they paid their debt to society, it's DONE, you need to now accept them BACK into society and not hold that mistake against them forever. There are exceptions of course but in general, we really need to get off our high horses and get over ourselves.

The doctors and nurses I worked with were top rate, but it does eventually come down to the individual person to change their life. It was heartbreaking for me to see our patients released back to the exact same living situation where they were using drugs and getting into trouble. I think it would be very hard to change your life if you are sent right back to where you were before your hospital stay.

Most addicted people would like nothing more than to get free of their addiction, but's really hard and very few have access to the right help they need.

 

[TJAnonymous]

I think when you can get people involved with the food process, even if it's just harvesting some food from a small garden in the backyard, they seem more connected to the food then simply buying it at the big box store. Also, it's nice to harvest the food right before you eat it instead of letting it sit in the fridge for days. We have already had a few meals with fresh Swiss Chard and I suspect it will not be too long before we start getting some beans from my planters. Nothing better than a handful of fresh beans picked from the planter on the deck outside the kitchen and then steamed up for supper.

I know it gives me a LOT more respect to my ancestors. My great grandparents ran a fruit farm & orchard during the Great Depression. I know how hard I've struggled just to keep a few peach, apple, and plum trees from dying. I can't imagine managing an entire orchard without the modern conveniences of the Extension office and easily obtainable chemicals like Captan, Copper Fungicide, Neem oil, etc....

 

[TJAnonymous]

That article was really interesting, but it mostly stressed milk as a benefit when it comes to soil microorganisms. Pasteurization might eliminate those, but what about just the basic benefit of milk as a source of calcium? The article found that the greatest benefit of milk was when it was diluted, so adding old milk to your compost might be worth experimenting with.

I think the article was saying that the milk sugars benefit the microorganisms that are already in your soil. And that the milk fats drive away bad soft-bodied insects. In the article, they used skim milk but specifically called out that the outcome should be the same with whole milk.

 

[Sueby]

I have no problem with the unrelated conversations, I enjoy them most times. I love to hear other peoples opinions on things, even if they are wrong. As long as no one gets nasty I think it's all good.

 

[Ascholten]

I have yet to see a topic anywhere really, which did not get side tracked or hijacked on occasion. It happens, it's what people do. If everyone allows others to speak their piece the it's generally not an issue. It's when you get the Im right, YOU are an idiot, Im going to preach, YOU need to mind your own business.... moron... attitudes that generally start causing the problems. Thankfully have not seen that really too much here.

That's what makes America such a great place. Everyone IS allowed to have their own opinions and beliefs, BUT they also need to remember that THEIR right needs to be shared, and they must allow others to have the same freedoms and rights as well, even if they disagree with the stance. This latter part recently has become a huge problem sadly. This IMO is what happens when you have generation(s) of lousy parents who don't raise their children properly, to respect others, and just let AOL be the babysitter. The kids turn into selfish, self centered, narcissistic adults. You tube is full of videos these clowns have shot of themselves behaving poorly in public. anyways....

@littledog you mentioned you have horses and they are drinking a lot. How bad is their urine for plants? Is it too strong to spread in your garden? DO you do anything of the sorts. Curious on that.

Aaron

 

[MeliticusBee]

I captured two hornworms from my tomatoes - kept them to feed to my kid's bearded dragon who scarfed them down like he was starving - and they were HUGE.
Then I taught same kid how to watch for hornworms...

 

[Sooner Magnolia]

I captured two hornworms from my tomatoes - kept them to feed to my kid's bearded dragon who scarfed them down like he was starving - and they were HUGE.
Then I taught same kid how to watch for hornworms...

I bet that was satisfying! And probably much less disturbing than feeding a squeaky toy sounding pinky mouse. I have a beardie at school. Luckily no horn worms yet. Be cautious about feeding wild caught insects, etc if you use any chemicals and there is also a small chance of transferring parasites.