What did you do in the garden today?

[jerryse]

I watch a lot of them. I tried the air layering method extensively in the last year or two. All the while, I am wondering how this is supposed to work when you are removing the cambium layer. Every one of the tree and shrub rootings failed.

List the species you tried. Layering on the ground works if a branch is low enough. Just put a clump of dirt or rock on it to keep it in contact with the ground. Some species will not root and some species root easily. Ground layering you do not remove bark or cambium.

 

[BReeder!]

Need to plant sunflower and yardlong bean seeds. I need to get the beds in order for these though still. I will try to get some of that done today.

 

[WthrLady]

.8 inches of most welcome rain last night with insane electric storm
What I could have done without was the 1.25 inch hail, but at least it wasn't wind driven. So aside from some early leaf damage in the orchard, the greenhouse roof was the only thing damaged. Only one stone made it all the way through, but the outer layer of the roof panels is shot. I'll have to replace it for next spring. If I can just get it through early June this year...
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[riss]

Love that it’s sunny today. Sick on the couch though so hoping to crawl my way outside at some point

 

[WthrLady]

That makes sense. The coop and the run will face south, with the sides of the run being west and east, so I plan on putting the wind protection just on the west side of the run. Just for winter and heavy rain storms. Would you be able to share some closer up pictures of your run with me? Also, I got approved for my permit. Yay! I live in a suburb just south of Saint Paul and we can have 6 chickens in our little community.

Sure. It'll be tomorrow as I have the hail shutters up as of yesterday, and am just keeping them up today as they will be needed again through tonight.
Basically, they are boxes built onto the open end of the coop. A ramp allows them in and out of the pop door. The whole thing is 1/2 inch hardware cloth. It has evolved over time to having a steel roof. Then I built another box to the side of that, but that is board and batten to really giving them a place to run out of our wind, which is always an issue here. It has huge windows that hinge all the way open for warm days. The addition of windows on the closed run allows me to control wind flow and drafting.
I WISH I had made the second extension walk in height as it is harder to clean and rake out, but it is what it is. Mice tunneling in drive me nuts as 1/2 inch hardware cloth is no deterrent to them.

 

[WthrLady]

Re: Knife sharpening we were talking about last week. I saw when I was at ACE Hardware in the city this week, a knife sharpening service. It is computerized and about $7 a knife. They put the knife in and off it goes. I'm going to give it a try this week on a couple of my older great, but not so great knives. (The really crazy $$ ones came with lifetime sharpening by the company, I just have to ship them out.)

 

[BReeder!]

Sure. It'll be tomorrow as I have the hail shutters up as of yesterday, and am just keeping them up today as they will be needed again through tonight.
Basically, they are boxes built onto the open end of the coop. A ramp allows them in and out of the pop door. The whole thing is 1/2 inch hardware cloth. It has evolved over time to having a steel roof. Then I built another box to the side of that, but that is board and batten to really giving them a place to run out of our wind, which is always an issue here. It has huge windows that hinge all the way open for warm days. The addition of windows on the closed run allows me to control wind flow and drafting.
I WISH I had made the second extension walk in height as it is harder to clean and rake out, but it is what it is. Mice tunneling in drive me nuts as 1/2 inch hardware cloth is no deterrent to them.

I'm considering a new coop build. Thinking about tearing down the shed that I built our current coop into and building a new shed-like structure but with a large overhang in the front (like a covered patio) and screening that in as the run. We do not keep a large number of chickens - 8 was the most we had at once - so I think I could make it large enough for the chickens to have adequate space. My thought was to use 1/2" hardware cloth buried into the ground though to keep out predators (especially opossums) and mice. I'm sort of shocked that mice chew get through the hardware cloth. What the heck keeps these b@sterds out?!

 

[WthrLady]

The mice walk THROUGH the 1/2 inch cloth. They are so annoying and prolific.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Good morning Home Gardeners. I will found if you have rats there are no mice.
We dug a ditch layed a two cinder block stacked foundation.
Covered feed at night.

 

[chickengr]

Good morning gardeners. So sorry about the bantams @Acre4Me. I came up with a less labor intensive and lower cost for my grape arbors. I ordered arched trellises from Amazon. I'm only putting in a few vines and with the cost of the t-posts, the cross bars and the wire the ready made arches were less expensive. Also the idea of planting the hillside with a bunch of cross-like structures seemed a little weird. They'll be here Friday. Now I can see getting these vines planted before the end of the month. I just planted another 12 cells of English lavender. These are for the local deer to enjoy. LOL! One of the lavender plants in the herb garden is still clinging to life, but at least it survived the arctic blast. I'm wondering if I should start the mustard seeds indoors. I had planned on direct sowing them. Thoughts @WthrLady? The mustard will be planted in the grape section as "ground cover." Spring in New England is a bit of a challenge @chickengr. The only thing I have planted so far are cool season vegetables. My first row of peas is germinating but I'm hoping the majority of them will hold off for another day. We were lucky last night because we didn't get frost, however tonight it looks like a sure thing. I covered my baby leeks. They take a long time to mature and I don't want to take any chances with them. I don't plan on putting the tomatoes starts out until the first week in May. The beds they are going into this year are easily covered if needed.Time to get busy. Have a great day all.

we do not have frost but spinach, peas, etc. would thrive in this weather. in my old place grass already turned brown. I prefer my new place.