What did you do in the garden today?

[Acre4Me]

The "problem" I see with parasitic wasps is that while they keep the caterpillar from becoming a source for future caterpillars, they have already decimated the plants before they die.

Last year many of the hornworms were stopped in their tracks before much damage was done! So, the wasps were very beneficial!

 

[Acre4Me]

Do you feed them to the chickens? All but one of my girls will chow down on JBs.

I pulled a couple more buckets of weeds today. We got about 1/4" of rain last night, so the weeds pull MUCH easier. I didn't get enough weeded, but it was time to go bug hunting, so I stopped.

I think I'm going to be pulling my garlic soon. Not sure what to plant in that bed, since it'll be empty until end of October/beginning of November when I plant more garlic there. Beans are out, because they don't get along with alliums. Kale maybe? Since it can handle some frost, it could stay until I need the bed again for garlic.

No, I don’t feed them the JBs. I’ll sometimes give them a couple I picked off a plant, but not from the traps.

I just harvested garlic. In that section I planted beets along the two edges, and carrots in the middle. But any brassicas play nice with garlic/onions too.

 

[vall]

Asparagus beans are coming up so I better come up with a trellis this week. Getting 4 quail eggs a day now and sent 8 of the extra roos to the freezer on Sunday.

I did get a good harvest today. Picked about a dozen cherry tomatoes and 3 Prairie Fire tomatoes.

How are the prairie fires? I was looking forward to those, but I planted them then moved across the country.

 

[igorsMistress]

Good afternoon all. Hope you all enjoyed the holiday weekend! Waiting for the sun to go down so I can go out to the shed for some blue juice. Everything needs a boost and that’s all I’ve got at the moment other than a small amount of compost. Will get things fed early in the morning. I spent the weekend working on various things, including new nest boxes for the crew. I now have three wooden crates to do something with, maybe I’ll decoupage them with some flowery napkins and use them in my closet. I switched out the bucket I use to collect condensate from our HVAC to collect water for the xeriscape garden; the new one is black and I’m hoping it’ll make the water hot enough to kill off any gross stuff. I’m trying soap nuts in the kitchen and recycling that water along with the dregs from the dog water on a couple of large shrubs in the front yard. The ring soakers are great for individual shrubs and I’ve got a hose down in the shade garden for everything but the jasmine in the middle. I’m going to use the other one in the veg garden at some point, but with the three sisters I’m planting in a depression and flooding instead. We’ve been below 110 for a while but temps are going over that by the end of this week and rain chances are nil. Going lay on a heating pad, I think I have a pinched nerve and boy does my arm hurt! Take care all.

 

[WthrLady]

You can search up boric acid and sugar. Much easier than a big concoction. I used this and 24 hours later I saw no ants

and you don't even need the sugar

 

[SheaLoner]

Had a steady light rain all day today. Will check the gage tomorrow to see how much we got.
Most of my onion plants got knocked over. Not sure if it was something, or because I fished out the last of the weeds on Sunday. Hopefully they keep going.

I think I want to put a whole mess of broccoli in the garlic bed once they get pulled. What is the best way to start broccoli in the summer? Can I start them outside in partial sun? Should I put them in the plastic greenhouse and leave the sides open?

 

[Elyrian1]

It rained! And it might rain some more? Not sure but we'll see what happens. We got enough to have a nice soaking so I don't have to go out and water tonight, and honestly that's what matters. I'm tired, we had DMV stuff today and other real life nonsense I won't get into. But it's all quite exhausting and I'm done.

Wait... not quite done. Something tripped the GFCI outside and I need to go find out what it was. Right. Ugh.

On the bright side it would appear that DH has managed to track down and seal the leak that was over the middle of the bed. We had a towel in the bed at the head between our pillows because of the leak, and it oddly became the cat's favorite cuddle spot at night. Silly cat.

The only bummer was that I was drying the potatoes out and hadn't watered them for days in prep for harvest and now I need a wait a bit longer. Ah well, such is life.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Asparagus beans are coming up so I better come up with a trellis this week. Getting 4 quail eggs a day now and sent 8 of the extra roos to the freezer on Sunday.


How are the prairie fires? I was looking forward to those, but I planted them then moved across the country.

They aren't bad at all... Very juicy and flavorful. I thought they would be bigger. Most of mine are around 3" long and maybe an inch wide.

I tried several new varieties this year - Prairie Fire, Blue Cream, Black Strawberry, and Sart Roloise. The only ones that have ripened are the Prairie Fire and Blue Cream. Not overly impressed with the Blue Cream. They are kind of flavorless. We'll see if they get better through the summer. If not, I'll probably just give them to the chickens.

 

[TJAnonymous]

and you don't even need the sugar

I don't use sugar. After a couple days, ants were gone

 

[TJAnonymous]

I'm making zucchini and cucumber chips in the dehydrator. First time I've ever done it. The chips were easily 2-3" in diameter when I started... I knew they would shrink but I'm surprised at how much! They are maybe a quarter of their original size and there's still 6 hrs to go...

Gonna be more like tictacs than chips!