What did you do in the garden today?

[littledog]

Picture of my newest pallet wood raised bed design with framing on the outside, for comparison....

It definitely looks like it will hold up better, but what I really want to say is, it is gorgeous! Alternating the different wood tones on the slats is really attractive, plus the way you matched up the fork cutouts on the 2x4s gives it kind of a Victorian look!

 

[Paz]

I just made Mehalela. It will be ready to eat in a few days. The recipe is:
Turnips
1 beet
Garlic
1 hot pepper per jar.
Vinegar
Lemon salt
Salt
Water
Instructions
Cut beet and turnips to round flat thingies (sorry English is my third language).
Arrange them in jars.
Fill water, add one teaspoon salt to every cup of water.
Throw some garlic inside.
Add whole pepper to each jar.
Add about a teaspoon to full spoon of vinegar to each jar.
Add a FLAT teaspoon of lemon salt to each jar.
Seal it with oil, preferably olive oil.
WAIT for 3-5 days. It’s best to keep the jars in a shaded place, away from you, so you won’t get frustrated from waiting.

 

[littledog]

That Mehalela sounds delicious.

round flat thingies (sorry English is my third language).

I think the cooking term is "medallions" ..but that's French, LOL>

I got maybe 4'x4' before I said, "I am sick of digging out grass. This bed is being tilled by FIL's tiller in the fall."

Oh man, before I started with raised beds, I think 3/4 of my time spent gardening was digging out grass, and I got SO sick of it.
If you're going to leave it until fall anyway, you might consider setting out cardboard over the area you're preparing, and keep it in place with something heavy. It will kill all that grass and make your work in the fall so much easier.

 

[saysfaa]

I planted a patch of 35 tomato plants yesterday. I'm trying to set up a watering system for them....

Mostly background and a little update.

I planted 7 days ago. The soil was powder on top with moisture about 4 inches down. I planting in the moisture and watered each plant thoroughly in a circle of about six inches.

Next visit was 5 days ago. Two were flat, two were flat-ish, the rest were thirsty but doing reasonably well. I watered all multiple times with bucket and with milk jugs over about 24 hours - maybe a dozen to two dozen times. They got about a quart per time with a bucket and a gallon per time with the jugs I don't have enough milk jugs so some didn't get that treatment, some got it in a rotation.

I planted six or so more. Some replacements and some made the rows longer.

It rained on them just a little three days ago. Somewhat more than enough to settle the dust but maybe only barely that much. Yesterday evening, my sources sent pictures - most looked thirsty but not too bad, leaves beginning to curl. A couple looked wilty and leaves rolling. And a couple were very unhappy.

I'm planning to go over this morning. Then not again until next week.
The weather report says not much chance of rain for them.
My source will turn a hose on and return to turn it off if a soaker system or equivalent is set up.

 

[saysfaa]

Mostly background and a little update.

..

Planning notes for round two of the project.

The old hoses are gone, I will need to buy tubing if I do this. I don't know what kind or how big to get. I think very small will be big enough since the pin holes in the jugs are so small, assuming I can keep the sand and such out of the tubing. Small will cost less. Stiff tubing would be better than soft so it doesn't kink going over the top of the barrels.

If the tubes are big enough to insert the end of a funnel than it should be easier to establish the siphon. I think I will need to do that each time.

I don't know if I need to think about sealing the tube into the top of the milk jug. I think so because otherwise the water would flow over the top of jug. Maybe a gasket of some sort would slow it enough without having to seal it. Rags?

Maybe if I raise the barrels a few inches then it won't matter much if the jugs are level.

"How to use a water barrel" type web pages mentioned mosquitoes. I have scraps of window screen I could try to bind around the fill holes of the barrels. Maybe the jugs too.

Hopefully, I will have time to try out at least parts of this today.

 

[littledog]

I did a crazy thing, kind of on the spur of the moment - ordered a DR brush cutter and put it on my credit card
We have an old brush cutter that's a pretty heavy-duty push-type, but still a string trimmer, that uses the largest size of string. Mr. Dog was pushing it around yesterday, he got a lot done, then it pooped out on him - broken belt. And of course, this machine is discontinued so it will take some time to figure out what other belt will work.
We were googling belts and discussing how frustrating the blackberries are. Four years ago we paid a guy to come with a bobcat and chop down a large area, it looked great and we started planting native shrubs and trees in all the space we gained, but the blackberries are slowly infiltrating everywhere again and we just can't keep up. This time of year when they're growing so fast, we spend so much time cutting, then by the time it's done we have to start back at the beginning again. We thought about maybe getting bobcat guy back again, but he's expensive...so we finally decided spending so much time on the "Blackberry Wars" is wasting our time and slowing down all our plans, and we need to escalate the arms-race...

So I went ahead and ordered the DR from the company. Might take a while to get here, but it was $1000 less from the manufacturer than buying it from a dealer here, plus they offered free shipping. I can't wait for it to get here - I think it will help us finally get a handle on getting this property the way we want it. And it would pay for itself in 4 years, if we were to keep paying the bobcat guy.

The old cutter we will still keep, for doing slopes, long grass and less invaded areas - I think I will take to our local independent repair guy and let him figure out the right belt to put on it.

 

[littledog]

Mostly background and a little update.

I planted 7 days ago. The soil was powder on top with moisture about 4 inches down. I planting in the moisture and watered each plant thoroughly in a circle of about six inches.

Next visit was 5 days ago. Two were flat, two were flat-ish, the rest were thirsty but doing reasonably well. I watered all multiple times with bucket and with milk jugs over about 24 hours - maybe a dozen to two dozen times. They got about a quart per time with a bucket and a gallon per time with the jugs I don't have enough milk jugs so some didn't get that treatment, some got it in a rotation.

I planted six or so more. Some replacements and some made the rows longer.

It rained on them just a little three days ago. Somewhat more than enough to settle the dust but maybe only barely that much. Yesterday evening, my sources sent pictures - most looked thirsty but not too bad, leaves beginning to curl. A couple looked wilty and leaves rolling. And a couple were very unhappy.

I'm planning to go over this morning. Then not again until next week.
The weather report says not much chance of rain for them.
My source will turn a hose on and return to turn it off if a soaker system or equivalent is set up.

Put mulch around them!
They look like they could survive (especially the first picture, doesn't look too bad, maybe just shock from transplanting) but with intermittent rain, you not being able to go every day, and a helper who can only water sometimes, they need mulch around them to hold onto the water they are getting. With bare dirt around them, a lot of the water they do get is lost to evaporation.
The mulch can be almost any organic material - straw, old leaves, wood chips, grass clippings, even shredded paper/cardboard.

 

[Sally PB]

Add a FLAT teaspoon of lemon salt to each jar.

What is lemon salt?

The recipe sounds interesting!

I'm impressed with your English, by the way. 3rd (!) language.

 

[LifeSimpleAndSweet]

View attachment 3529398
Migration time again. This isn't our giant one, the one bigger than the snow shovel. This one is only 11/12 inches across. Sad thing is, she's left her pond 500 yards south of us and is headed for her laying spot pong which is another 1/4 miles north of me. It dried out months ago. I'm not sure what happens then. Maybe she can figure out to keep going and make it to the creek.

Aw, I've got one a little bigger than this. We've got ponds all over, so they are frequent visitors through my living space.

I was mowing yesterday and accidentally hit one.

 

[LifeSimpleAndSweet]

Today was a long one:

First, I hand watered where seeds or baby seedlings are. My basils, borage, watermelon, and some dill sprouted last night! I really do love seeing the growth of things I have planted!

After breakfast, I forced myself to go down and dig out some of the untilled garden bed in order to prep it for my sprouting milkweed seeds. I got maybe 4'x4' before I said, "I am sick of digging out grass. This bed is being tilled by FIL's tiller in the fall." So, I moved what was left of the compost and topsoil I had delivered back in whatever-month-it-was on top of that whole garden bed. There was more than I needed, so I moved a cart and a half up the hill to what I am going to make into my herbal/medicinal/kitchen garden. Yes, I will need to dig up more grass, but this area is much easier to dig in! The bed I was digging in today was difficult to get the shovel in the ground because the grass was so thick. So, I got a ridiculous amount of exercise in simply from pulling that full cart-load up the hill. Then, I watered everything. Tonight, my husband and I were walking around with the dog, and he looked down at the freshly watered garden and said, "The garden is looking good!" which made my day! It was glorious to hear that all the hard work I have put into it is visible to others.

I NEED to get the tomato trellis(es) made and installed, and trellises for our berry patches, too. And control what I am 98% sure are grapevines (which would involve more trellising)... do grapevines get extensive enough to climb to the tops of trees and kill them? And cut down the vines trying to kill the apple trees in the meadow. And clean up the berry patches. And go fill up my truck once or twice or three times with pine needles for mulch. And spread those pine needles. And thin the carrots..... it's a lot of work, but I love it! I just don't love that I always seem to fall behind on everything.

Speaking of berries, I finally looked up a low-growing vine that grows behind my garden and in the meadow and likes to trip you if you don't pick your feet up. It's dewberry, and edible! I should see about cultivating a patch of it, but that's not a priority for this year. This property has so much abundance for us, I love it!

I don't know definitively about the grape vines, but I've never seen one kill a tree in the way English ivy can. I don't think the tendrils turn into trucks that grow and choke.

If they are wild grapevines, I have many of those here. They are not worth cultivating as far as I've been able to tell. I've never seen a grape on any of them. But perhaps cultivation could change that?

Love that you found some wild dewberries!