What did you do in the garden today?

[SheaLoner]

I'm considering buying a vacuum sealer. Opinions? Is it really worth the cost? I like zip lock bags because you can open and take a small portion of the frozen food.

I Love mine. Granted it is a 10+ year old food saver but still. I buy the quart and gallon precut bags from OutOfAir on amazon. If your seals hold, I have had 3 year old venison out of the deep freeze with no freezer burn and min taste loss.
A whole meat rabbit fits nicely in a gallon bag, and the quarts are great for 1-2 serving veggies packets.
You can do whole meals in a bag, meat, veg, seasoning and cook straight from there.

 

[igorsMistress]

Good morning gardeners. Had to spray the fruit trees w/ neem last night, something has been munching on them. There's new growth on all four of them though so I'm hopeful they'll live through the summer. Got both bunnies indoors also, now the chickens have the small yard to themselves. This evening I'll get out there and clean it up some. I switched to Kalmbach feeds and now am using pellets. Just tossed them some and they seem to be ok with it, phew! Chickens can be so picky! Have a great day all and keep those nails dirty.

 

[ChicksnMore]

Might get rain today and wow do we need it! It was such a pleasure to see clouds for a change though!

So I got to enjoy a little more time in the garden today. It's still supposed to reach 105° today...but the cloud shade really makes a difference!
I harvest seeds every year to replant and this year my perilla looks great, smells great...and tastes a little different then usual. I'm guessing I missed snipping some mint blossoms last year and they crossed. It's still yummy but I'm trying to decide if I should lose the mint. Here's my perilla.

And my mint. It's growing in a pond bucket with some Chinese celery and papyrus. I love plants like this that need almost no care and never stop growing...but I'm also addicted to perilla. It's such a unique flavor.

The Chinese celery hates the heat so looks kinda sad right now. It'll perk up late August or September.
Checked on my canyon grapes... they're starting to grow up their trellis! I'm very excited because all my other grapes I planted at the base of trees. They don't get enough sun to get much fruit and I can't reach the fruit there is.

Then I checked on my Barbados cherry tree and it's babies. I took some cuttings from my original tree a couple of years ago and now I'm trying to decide if I want to keep them in pots like the parent plant or be brave and see how they like being in the ground here.

I'm hoping having more will give better pollination...just not sure if them all being technically the same plant will work well. Hoping it works though. My Mexican Elderberry also needs better pollination so I'm going to take cuttings from it this year.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Good morning Gardeners. We have a atmospheric river here the next two days have a few bamboo one plastic bags lay them over the tomato. May get more than a inch of rain.

 

[TJAnonymous]

I'm super excited today over something that's probably silly... I found a really good spot to put my gooseberries! It's in our front yard... I usually don't put anything out there because we have around 6 - 8 giant (and I mean GIANT) oak trees so it is densely shaded.

HOWEVER... I found a spot. It isn't huge... Maybe 10 SF but big enough for the gooseberries. It gets morning sun until about 10 am and then switches to dappled shade until 5ish pm when it is in full shade. It's also in an area where DH doesn't mow and chickens, horses, and goats shouldn't get into it...

I'm hoping this works out really well since gooseberries do not like temperatures over 85 degrees.

 

[muddy75]

While we were out of town last week, the garden grew like crazy and so did the weeds
We harvested a bunch of lettuce for salads and sandwiches but I need to get to the weeding soon!

 

[muddy75]

While we were out of town last week, the garden grew like crazy and so did the weeds
We harvested a bunch of lettuce for salads and sandwiches but I need to get to the weeding soon!

We need to pickup mulch and do the aviary, yard and garden this weekend but everyone is still feeling yucky so not sure how much we will actually get accomplished

 

[vall]

About halfway done filling up the raised beds. Need more dirt but didn't have time to grab it today. Finished hooking up the watering system for the quail pens today. Tomorrow I will check for leaks, then I get to move some of the chicks to the new place.

Has anyone put a no-dig apron around their garden? I plan to cut some scrap metal roofing pieces into 1 foot strips to put under the fence. I don't have nearly enough to go around the garden, but it'll be a start. I can add more as we get more pieces. I've let DH know to be on the lookout for that kind of "trash" at work too.

I used flagstone scrap. It was a pain to weed around, so I'd recommend overlapping whatever material you use as an apron.

I'm super excited today over something that's probably silly... I found a really good spot to put my gooseberries! It's in our front yard... I usually don't put anything out there because we have around 6 - 8 giant (and I mean GIANT) oak trees so it is densely shaded.

I am debating putting my best banana pup in the front yard, between an oak and the house. But I know it'll get less sun in the winter. I really should put it out on the property I'm building on, but I need to find someplace where it won't get run over or be in the way of a potential orchard. And I don't have a well yet, but if it rains every other afternoon like it's supposed to, that might not matter.

 

[TJAnonymous]

I am debating putting my best banana pup in the front yard, between an oak and the house. But I know it'll get less sun in the winter. I really should put it out on the property I'm building on, but I need to find someplace where it won't get run over or be in the way of a potential orchard. And I don't have a well yet, but if it rains every other afternoon like it's supposed to, that might not matter.

I can relate. I bought this property because of all the mature trees on it. There's a wonderful balance of shade but enough pasture for the horses & goats to have plenty of grass. However, it also severely limits where I can put trees & plants. Watering is also an issue for me. Luckily this spot I've identified in the front yard is within reach of the hose so it works from that angle too....

In regards to your banana pup, what about future access to water? Will you have a reliable way to water it (if needed) in the years to come?

 

[WthrLady]

back from the new thumb doc.
Second time in a week a doc has looked at me (xray this time) and said WHOA, does that hurt?
LOL
Surgery in November after haying, harvest, canning, clean up is done. Can't manage it until then. THey asked how on earth I'll manage it, as bad as it is. I said I've done it the last two, one more is no different. I must be able to tolerate crap more than the people they normally see. The xray is ug-LY!
Only way to fix it is to remove one bone altogether and pull a ligament from my wrist and up and through another finger and to the thumb and back. Essentially creating a hinge like for a string puppet. Faboulous. UGH. One thing at a time.