What did you do in the garden today?

[igorsMistress]

Not really, its to reflect the sun, so the cover and water stays cool. The cover is shaped like a dome, so the rain water runs off to the sides. I trimmed the middle out of a round clone pad, and zipped tied it to the stem to hold it in place. I'll cut the zip tie once I get a few more string clips on the plant.

I just found out that the silver thing is holding the plant up right. I have a close pin on both ends that keeps the silver thing tight.

The 1/2 pvc with 90 elbow is for ventilation. I put a small fruit bag on it to prevent mosquitoes from getting in.. The pvc is secured in a rubber gromet, so its rain proof.

Thanks for the info!

 

[WthrLady]

It’s ON!

My southern friend came over for coffee. She likes to garden a bit. She talks about her southern (mostly rural KY) upbringing often - memories of foods, plants, lack of snow, etc.

I showed her my cotton and peanut seeds. She looked shocked and said, no way-you can’t grow them things up here (her southern accent increased at this moment).

Hmmm… now I’m really determined!! Lol, she’s sweet and would think it’s great if I succeed. She just doesn’t think “them things” will grow successfully here.

YOu can TOTALLY grow them up here! I have, peanuts included. Best part is no weevils! LOL. They have weevils and peanut borers. Bwahahahaaaaaa

 

[TJAnonymous]

My lemon tree is being finicky again. I'm pretty sure I killed off all the spider mites. Haven't seen any webbing in over 2 weeks now. The citrus scale is another story. I've been spraying/soaking the tree with a dormant oil/Neem oil mix a couple of times a week. While the scale has vastly reduced, it's not gone completely. I'm still finding 2 - 3 of the little devils every few days when I check for them. I am finally getting new growth on the tree but I've also started getting yellow leaves again. I picked 5 leaves off today that were on the verge of falling! I've been monitoring moisture closely with a meter to ensure I don't over or under water it. I put a couple of food spikes in the pot today. The last time it was fed was late October or early November. Not sure what is causing the leaves to yellow on me.... This tree makes me want to choke it, I swear....

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Worked on getting ready for the arctic blast blowing in tomorrow morning. I doubled up the vinyl shower curtain where there were gaps. Covered them so hopefully the wind doesn’t blow through that side. I’m out of shower curtains so I took an oilcloth table cloth and made a covering for the main door. It made it up to 34F and sunny today. It was a little breezy today but the temperature inside the coop got up to over 50F. Tomorrow morning will be the last we see of double digits above zero. The temps will be dipping to -15F without the windchill. Fortunately it will be short lived and the temperature rebounds to above freezing on Sunday. My sweet hens produced 5 eggs today. I’m hoping they take a break until this arctic blast is over. Only garden related thing today was dumping pellet stove ashes onto the 16 foot garden bed. I’m holding iff on the leek seed planting until after this mess is over.

 

[vall]

My lemon tree is being finicky again. I'm pretty sure I killed off all the spider mites. Haven't seen any webbing in over 2 weeks now. The citrus scale is another story. I've been spraying/soaking the tree with a dormant oil/Neem oil mix a couple of times a week. While the scale has vastly reduced, it's not gone completely. I'm still finding 2 - 3 of the little devils every few days when I check for them. I am finally getting new growth on the tree but I've also started getting yellow leaves again. I picked 5 leaves off today that were on the verge of falling! I've been monitoring moisture closely with a meter to ensure I don't over or under water it. I put a couple of food spikes in the pot today. The last time it was fed was late October or early November. Not sure what is causing the leaves to yellow on me.... This tree makes me want to choke it, I swear....

Which leaves are yellow? Old or new? Old yellow leaves can be lack of nitrogen (possibly because the soil is too cold to take it up). Always happened to my citrus to some extent in California winters. I think 70 degrees is the min but don't quote me on that.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Which leaves are yellow? Old or new? Old yellow leaves can be lack of nitrogen (possibly because the soil is too cold to take it up). Always happened to my citrus to some extent in California winters. I think 70 degrees is the min but don't quote me on that.

The leaves turning yellow are not the new growth that just started but some are smaller leaves that aren't too old. All the leaves turning yellow are closer to the main core of the tree.

I brought the tree indoors in mid-October because of an impending cold snap. Pretty sure it went into dormancy shortly after even though my room temperature is in the mid-70s. The pot is right next to a south-facing window so it might be a little cooler but only by a few degrees maybe. It never lost a leaf after I brought it in until I noticed it was infested with spider mites and citrus scale just after the beginning of January. I treated it aggressively for the pests and it stopped dropping leaves until it just started again this week.

 

[AMM10]

My sister in AZ has 2 lemon trees in her backyard that went through a pretty bad winter a few years ago. Last time I was there I took a few pics and this is what they looked like:

 

[BReeder!]

Greenhouse was in the 70s while it was in the low 30s outside with nothing in the greenhouse.

I'm just starting to work on the floor now. I put landscape fabric down and used two 2x4s to edge three center isle that will be 3ft wide. I dumped several frozen bags of paver base sand. They should the during the day tomorrow so I can spread the sand and start laying pavers. I'm going to use a foam paver base that I hope works out. They are 3'x2' styrofoam interlocking (overlapping really) mats with small holes for drainage that lay over a layer of sand and the pavers go directly on the mats. It seems sound and easy enough.

The plan is to then put gravel in the outter 18"x8' areas to provide optimal drainage under the shelves that will run down each side. I'm thinking dark peddles to collect and hold some heat into the night - and black river pebbles are just very nice to look at.

 

[WthrLady]

buckets of water make better heat sinks, otherwise it sounds great!
Amazing how nice it gets in there, eh. Sad that it looses it's heat QUICKLY after the sun sets.

 

[BReeder!]

buckets of water make better heat sinks, otherwise it sounds great!
Amazing how nice it gets in there, eh. Sad that it looses it's heat QUICKLY after the sun sets.

I'm thinking about black buckets or totes full of water too... I was thinking about adding them on under the bench on the north side so sun hits them coming in from the south. Probably going to insulate the north wall with reflective foil covered foam - I have two foam panels sitting in the basement so might as well use them. Trying to think of other ways to keep the heat in in the Spring and Fall...