What did you do in the garden today?

[Sueby]

I too enjoy lettuce in the winter - it's so nice that it never bolts! I still have a 2x4 foot bed covered & producing. I also have a big bowl (it's actually a bird bath) in the window growing now so that if the stuff in the hoop house goes the house stuff will be ready. I'm hoping to make it all winter.

& I would LOVE to put up 75lbs of onions! How much garden space does that take you @Wolfie2? (I have 2 new beds going in in the spring & I'm debating my options!)

 

[pennyJo1960]

I keep seed potato in the laundry room. They actaully start to sprout and put out small potato there

 

[Wolfie2]

"I would LOVE to put up 75lbs of onions! How much garden space does that take you @Wolfie2? (I have 2 new beds going in in the spring & I'm debating my options!)"

Current bed is 4' by about 30' long with spaces every so often to make working the bed easier. 2 different varieties, purple and yellow.Took 3 packages of starts + 2 bags of sets that the wife got from Lowe's. They are planted on a 6" x6" grid within eac section. Gives me enough space to get in and weed the bed (yes, we get a lot of weeds in the winter and onions do better with no competition). The bulbs are close to touching when ready to pick and, as the case may be, You may have some that have run out of room to grow. Be advised that onions have, @ most, a 4 mo. storage time {Varies by variety) and any bruise /defect will shorten the storage life of each damaged bulb so plan accordingly.
Hope this helps

 

[Sueby]

"I would LOVE to put up 75lbs of onions! How much garden space does that take you @Wolfie2? (I have 2 new beds going in in the spring & I'm debating my options!)"

Current bed is 4' by about 30' long with spaces every so often to make working the bed easier. 2 different varieties, purple and yellow.Took 3 packages of starts + 2 bags of sets that the wife got from Lowe's. They are planted on a 6" x6" grid within eac section. Gives me enough space to get in and weed the bed (yes, we get a lot of weeds in the winter and onions do better with no competition). The bulbs are close to touching when ready to pick and, as the case may be, You may have some that have run out of room to grow. Be advised that onions have, @ most, a 4 mo. storage time {Varies by variety) and any bruise /defect will shorten the storage life of each damaged bulb so plan accordingly.
Hope this helps

That is a very good point on the storage. I'd say mine didn't have too much longer before they were going to start going bad, that was probably about 4 months, or almost. I had enough to make it till maybe 3 weeks ago so in the end I probably grew the perfect amount. I also don't have a basement or anywhere good to store them, so that doesn't help. Thanks for the info.

 

[WthrLady]

OMG contractor texted me at 1145, and said he'd be closer to 1pm instead of noon. OMG I WAS ARGH.
He JUST confirmed with me last night.
So he shows up 5 minutes of 1pm, WITH THE WRONG COLOR siding and MISSING the gutter end piece. He first says he lost the list of jobs he was supposed to do that we made 2 days ago. He could have asked me again when he confirmed time last night, but didn't.

THEN he said he didn't bring it as it is a gutter job, and he's not a gutter guy, UM YES, you were on the crew that did my gutters two years ago before you were promoted to siding.

THEN he blamed everything on the Covid personnel shortage. OMG. Seriously?! Then quit taking jobs you can't cover. I'm going on 9 months!!!

And NO, I did NOT pay him.

 

[BReeder!]

OMG contractor texted me at 1145, and said he'd be closer to 1pm instead of noon. OMG I WAS ARGH.
He JUST confirmed with me last night.
So he shows up 5 minutes of 1pm, WITH THE WRONG COLOR siding and MISSING the gutter end piece. He first says he lost the list of jobs he was supposed to do that we made 2 days ago. He could have asked me again when he confirmed time last night, but didn't.

THEN he said he didn't bring it as it is a gutter job, and he's not a gutter guy, UM YES, you were on the crew that did my gutters two years ago before you were promoted to siding.

THEN he blamed everything on the Covid personnel shortage. OMG. Seriously?! Then quit taking jobs you can't cover. I'm going on 9 months!!!

And NO, I did NOT pay him.

That's frustrating... That's why I'm such a DIYer. At least I can only blame myself when things go wrong.

 

[BReeder!]

I, too am in zone 9, Only in TX. Lots'a stuff I grow here that won't grow in the summer due to bolting when it barely gets started. Anything in the cabbage family! Peas. ONIONS! I put up about 50- 75 lbs of onions every spring. Can buy the starts from the local feed store but if all else fails I can order them from Dixon farms, a Tx company who grows them for sale. Anyway, Parsley, corriander, carrots, radishes, lettuce (I do my lettuce in a big pot with a "lettuce blend" and grow enough where We can make a decent salad every day and never run out by picking off leaves from each plant, combined other leafy stuff in the garden). Anything which cannot take hot weather. Experiment! You might lose some but chalk it up to a lesson learned.

Potatoes might grow well in zone 9 winters. Use light colored mulch such as straw to keep the soil from getting too hot.

 

[Sally PB]

I wish I had a fireplace. I keep thinking about adding one. It's really not all that difficult. It's a bit of time and money though.

We probably need to have our chimney rebuilt, or at least resleeved. Anybody had to do that? How do I find someone for that kind of job? Yeah, I'll go google it...

Anyway, I noticed that it's cool enough to prevent the compost from heating up and rapidly breaking down the scraps. I don't smell anything funky, but I an beginning to wonder about the risks of attracting rodents, opossums and racoons. Normally it's not a big concern as things break down quickly and there's plenty of brown matter. With the cold weather though, should I stop adding to the compost since it's not going to break down much?

I know I've had critters eating some of the stuff I put out there. I try to bury it with the chicken poop from the coop.

That's pretty mean. Hey, critters, here's a nice rotting melon! Now I'm going to cover it with chicken poop...

 

[Ascholten]

Contractors just don't seem to care anymore. Especially here in florida, it's such a scam state to begin with them, I guess they all expect you to be satisfied with getting screwed over. Do not pay them until the job is done and if you are going to leave negative feedback on google or other places, wait until AFTER the job is done COMPLETELY, and any 'fix this right this time dummy' work is already done before doing so, so they don't leave you any surprises.

People make mistakes, we GET that, but why can't they just say, oh crap, I screwed up, Im sorry I'll be back out xxx day, instead of the typical.. the dog ate my homework excuses?

Aaron

 

[igorsMistress]

Speaking of picsView attachment 2937331

I forgot to share my garden cover with you guys. You can just barely see the plants growing in there, but they're doing great. We've gotten down as low as 27f and I haven't noticed any damage. Since I took this picture, I've added three pvc green house clamps to each hoop. I left the chunks of pallets on the edge though, because of our high winds I figured the extra weight couldn't hurt. I also figure I need another bag of clamps.

That looks great!