What did you do in the garden today?

[Elyrian1]

I watered the garden pretty heavy today. We also finally managed to go buy six bags of compost, three different varieties, that I'll mix up and work on topping the fall garden beds with. For spring gardening I plan to pull compost out of the chicken coop about October or early November, and in preparation for that I've been taking a lending hand from nature. The field behind us was full of wild green amaranth last year. It was taller than the fence at one point. For whatever reason it didn't come back this year (maybe they sprayed?) but last year dropped seeds all over the property. A bunch of plants decided to come up immediately next to my garden beds, between them and the fence, and I've just been breaking off huge chunks and tossing it to the chickens to give them something to do and some green stuff to turn into compost for me. We've also had a bunch pop up in random places that we allowed to get hip high before pulling out. In order to have this happen again next year, we allowed a couple of the plants in the patch by the garden to go to seed.

I realize I'll probably be pulling amaranth seedlings out of the garden next year, but that's okay. When they're small, they're not hard to pull up from the roots.

This evening I'm going to try again to plant the flowers I bought. Fingers crossed DH doesn't have to go anywhere at the prime cool hour again. That happened yesterday and I packed up the kids and said "We're going with you!" Otherwise we weren't going to get to spend time together yesterday at all.

 

[Swiss]

awesome garden. The Asparagus, did you plant it inbetween the strawberries or what? I didn't see it in there. I got a big tub of it growing and it seems to be doing well.

Hint on the asparagus: Pull the fronts off towards the tips. You can see there are male and female plants, some prefer the taste of one over the other but anyways., Go ahead and pinch off the tips or the fluffies. They taste wonderful in salad or other dishes, plus since you are not taking the thing down at the base of the stalk like when you harvest it normally, it's not killing / stunting the plant so it'll still grow big and strong for next years real harvest !

Aaron

The asparagus is on the long fence side of the bed. I just planted them from seed this year, so they are quite thin and blend into the weeds behind them when you aren't actually looking for them.

 

[BullChick]

You guys have been talking bees, and this seemed relevant.

 

[Happy hen lover]

I plan to dig a hole and build a sort of small bunker storage space (sort of big box) for food. if anyone comes to my house to steal they will not know where I keep food. we need secret compartments.

We seen storage in bizarre places. I've seen someone build a system of shelves in a wall with 1x4s it just fits a pint jar or small can, in a paneled wall. Then they just cover it back up with sheet of panelling. One prepper I saw put stuff in every closet she had.

 

[NewBoots]

Ananas insertlongnamehere melon:

Loved this. And marvelous garden pictures, thanks for posting them!

The tiny tims that I have no idea got here, will not be back next year. They are smaller than peas, but shaped like a birdhouse gourd. They are a pia to harvest.

We raised Currant Cherry tomatoes one year with the same result, too tiny to be useful and a pain to pick.

We did bring home some fish though, so the day was not a total loss, 3 flounder and the biggest Mangrove snapper I've ever caught. Had to go @ least 2 lbs! Tasted good last night!
Y'all have a good and productive day!

Sounds like fun! I caught another 2lb bass the other day. Fun to catch and delicious.

@Ascholten, that looks terrible. I hope it feels better and the swelling goes down quickly.

We had zucchini boats for lunch and they were so good, good thing too, the zucs are really going to town. At least I know I can freeze them now.

 

[high5]

We seen storage in bizarre places. I've seen someone build a system of shelves in a wall with 1x4s it just fits a pint jar or small can, in a paneled wall. Then they just cover it back up with sheet of panelling. One prepper I saw put stuff in every closet she had.

Think squirrel. That prepper had it right!

 

[Sally PB]

I picked about 3/4 bushel of tomatoes today, and canned 7 quarts. Which all sealed.

Talking about tomato varieties to "invite back" next year...

I will be growing Hungarian Heart and Italian Heirloom for sure. Amish Paste will be back, though it isn't doing the best. Wisconsin Chief... nah. Cherokee Purple... I think I'll buy a packet of seeds and try them, instead of using my friend's saved seeds, just to give them one more chance.

Mortgage Lifter... I might do that one; not really impressed as it has catfaced badly. Huge tomatoes, but the yield is 2-3 small pieces.

I am losing a lot of canable tomato from each tomato to yellow shoulder. Google says that's due to high heat (yup), lack of potassium in the soil (need to test) and too high of pH (need to test). So I'm going to check what I can check, amend the soil, and see what I can do to cure that issue for next year.

 

[CluckNDoodle]

I picked about 3/4 bushel of tomatoes today, and canned 7 quarts. Which all sealed.

Talking about tomato varieties to "invite back" next year...

I will be growing Hungarian Heart and Italian Heirloom for sure. Amish Paste will be back, though it isn't doing the best. Wisconsin Chief... nah. Cherokee Purple... I think I'll buy a packet of seeds and try them, instead of using my friend's saved seeds, just to give them one more chance.

Mortgage Lifter... I might do that one; not really impressed as it has catfaced badly. Huge tomatoes, but the yield is 2-3 small pieces.

I am losing a lot of canable tomato from each tomato to yellow shoulder. Google says that's due to high heat (yup), lack of potassium in the soil (need to test) and too high of pH (need to test). So I'm going to check what I can check, amend the soil, and see what I can do to cure that issue for next year.

A lot of people love Cherokee Purple but it was the my first tomato plant to die from wilt out of 80 this year. It wasn't disease resistant for me at all.

 

[high5]

A lot of people love Cherokee Purple but it was the my first tomato plant to die from wilt out of 80 this year. It wasn't disease resistant for me at all.

Was it a disease? Or just lack of water because of the Climate Change push this year?

 

[WthrLady]

Just got home from camping, what a beautiful weekend. Will catch up later tonight.

Just wanted to pop in & see if anyone has a good tomato soup recipe to can. Everything I see has tons of sugar in it, I hate sugar in my tomato sauce or soup!

There's one on my blog.
I pressure can, so I don't have to worry about low acidity. Link to blog is below, search for soup.