What did you do in the garden today?

[WthrLady]

How many acres is 100lbs of this seed supposed to cover? And how many lbs of hay is it expected to yield? Our property isn't big, just 1-1.25 acres left over from our garden and orchard trees and shrubs, but I'd like to make all of it produce something, even if only to grow enough to feed a couple goats and supplement my horses' hay. I wonder if that's possible.

It looks like they're ready! What nice healthy greens.

LOL!!! I'll never forget one time when we were kids in the 70s, when my Mom dished up cow tongue for dinner, and didn't tell us what it was. She diced it into small cubes in a delicious sauce and we all loved it.
My stepdad: "What is this? It's delicious!" My Mom (refusing to lie, but not wanting to tell the whole truth either): "It's beef." My stepdad: "how did you get it so tender?" My Mom goes into a long explanation about the recipe, hoping we will all get bored and change the subject. Finally: "what cut of beef is it, exactly?" and she admitted it was tongue.
Stupidly, we were disgusted and she never made it again (that we know of)

Done! That's a lovely coop.

This past weekend I planted one bed in red potatoes. Set up a trellis in another bed for peas - this was one of the seed packs I discovered while cleaning out the greenhouse, they were from 2016! So I sowed the whole pack on both sides of the trellis with almost no spacing - hopefully they will get at least 10% germination and I'll have a decent crop.
Dug up and cleared a small weedy area, covered it with cardboard and wood chips, then put out some grow boxes and seeded them with lettuce and spinach. Covered them with row cloth, not so much because of the weather - night temps have consistently been above 40 - but so the cats won't dig and poop in their dirt.
Most of our orchard plants are doing OK, 4 out of 5 last year's native plums are budding, so is one of this year's Costco apple trees, the other I can't tell. The weeping willow we planted in 2020 is leafing up and growing beautifully.

The 3 roosters have done a good job tilling up the asparagus area, and it's time to move them and plant some more asparagus there. But where to move the roosters? Maybe we can set up a new pen in the area we want to grow hay in the future.

Can you not pick that up at a tractor supply or a farm store locally?
I just get that here!
( spreading guide is on the bag.)

 

[WIchickMama]

Snow covered today, 2 inches of the white stuff and we are in the mid 30s. Hope it melts sooner than later.

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

Shameless plug - am in a pretty coop contest
you can vote once a day - up to and including Wednesday the 6th
Please.
https://woobox.com/c2ymrb/gallery/qxD-Cz_xP8k
View attachment 3048691

I voted yesterday but it won't let me vote today, it says I already did.

 

[TJAnonymous]

How many acres is 100lbs of this seed supposed to cover? And how many lbs of hay is it expected to yield? Our property isn't big, just 1-1.25 acres left over from our garden and orchard trees and shrubs, but I'd like to make all of it produce something, even if only to grow enough to feed a couple goats and supplement my horses' hay. I wonder if that's possible.

They recommended 18-20 lbs/acre. I have 4 acres of pasture that I want to seed. I seeded a bunch of bermuda last year which does GREAT in the summer time in this southern heat. I seeded some ryegrass last fall but it was annual ryegrass. Ryegrass is great when the weather is cool. So my hope was that I would have grass most of the year with the bermuda & ryegrass. When the ryegrass sprouted, we quickly realized that DH had seeded in a haphazard fashion... My front pasture looks striped like a golf course. I ordered this mix so I can get the benefit of alfalfa (a legume which adds nitrogen to the soil), and a mix of ryegrass, timothy, and orchardgrass....all of which should compliment the bermuda. The clover is also a cover crop which should add some nitrogen to the soil and help fertilize the grasses. Alfalfa doesn't grow great down here during the summer because it gets too hot & dry. I'm hoping, like ryegrass, that it will spring back to life in the spring & fall...

I have 2 horses on my 4 acres, along with 2 goats and far too many chickens. The annual ryegrass I planted left green grass until late December. I went through about 80 square bales to feed everyone through the winter. The ryegrass resprouted about a month ago....the bermuda is still dormant and JUUUUST beginning to wake up.

So far my seeding plan seems to be working. It is a big investment on the front end but I'm hoping I can maintain it with some organic fertilizer to keep it in top shape. Then (ideally) I would only need to supplement hay from Dec - Feb) which saves me a month on each end (2 months total or about 60 bales @ $7/each).

 

[TJAnonymous]

I voted for you! Your coop was easily the best of the pictures shown.

I agree....The dude who has the highest votes doesn't have as cool of a coop as @WthrLady

 

[jerryse]

Sings of spring here .

 

[WthrLady]

I voted yesterday but it won't let me vote today, it says I already did.

That's what I ran into this morning.

 

[WthrLady]

I agree....The dude who has the highest votes doesn't have as cool of a coop as @WthrLady

Thanks everyone.

 

[TJAnonymous]

My starts are looking pretty decent. I only lost 2 tomato starts from that cold weather mistake. I reseeded those two pots and they've sprouted too... The only things that haven't come up are 2 Echinecea Paradiso and 5 Lisianthus (which are notoriously fussy plants but I didn't know that when I bought them). Oh, and the avocado that I didn't expect to grow anyway....

 

[Acre4Me]

I would be livid if it ate my tomatoes! It would be a never ending endeavor here though. We literally have hundred & hundreds of them. I just looked out front & saw 7 between our tiny front yard & the neighbors across the street. I could spend my life trying & probably never trap them all. & then the acorns would be out of control, I'd probably kill myself walking on them. We are surrounded by giant oak trees.

If I had it in me today I'd get up & cover the bed with some hardware cloth, but I'm being lazy & praying for the onions to get big fast.

We did have a lot of mature trees and smaller lots in that home. Here, there are some trees big enough for a squirrel to be interested, but not too many. I will trap them if any squirrels give me garden grief. If they just go about their business of being cute and leave my plants and garden alone, then they will not get trapped.