What did you do in the garden today?

A few months ago, when my garden was still under 2 feet of snow, I asked the forum for help in setting up my very first attempt at starting seeds in the house for transplant later. I got lots of good advice from the members here. It's been raining all day today, but I had a few moments to snap a few pics of my progress....

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Those are my cherry tomato plants that are over 2 feet tall! Compare that to last year when I bought my 6 packs of tomatoes and those plants, at this time last year, were maybe 4-6 inches tall.

More tomato plants...

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Finally, some eggplants and peppers I started in the house...

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Those pepper plants are 6-8 inches tall and the eggplants are just over 12 inches tall.

I don't know how the rest of the growing season will turn out, but I figure I'm about 2 months ahead of last year's growth!

Well, just a big thank you to those who took the time to offer their suggestions and encouraged me to try to start my seedlings myself this year. I'm really happy with progress so far. :love :highfive:
 
...update.
on the watering project.

The barrels didn't work. I fussed with them for a while but I no longer think it will matter even if I get them. The gophers are eating the leaves off. I gave the survivors as much chance as I could.
 

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I dug this 3 year old Surinam Cherry tree up and didn't have anywhere to plant it, so I stuck it in a pond plant basket and covered it with rocks. I wonder if it can live in filtered tilapia water? The green stuff is duck weed, it multiplies really fast, I feed it to my fish as a supplement daily.


View attachment 3530321
im interested in how this works out.
 
Interesting how your soil is good 2 inches and deeper, but the top 2 inches is a problem. Can you simply amend the top few inches with compost?
I think that was the cause of the problem. Last winter I covered the beds several inches deep with some different composted materials, just to see the effect they'd have. I removed all of that a while back, but there's still a lot of organic material in that top layer.

One bed I covered with well rotted fir tree stump chips and dust that I dug/scraped/broke/shoveled from a rotten stump I found in the woods behind my house.

Another half of a bed I covered with a thick layer of partially composted hardwood leaves, mostly maple leaves. The other half of that bed I covered with well rotted ( 2 years old, the place I bought them from told me) wood compost, pretty much all fine granules.

Plus, there was lots of rain all winter and into the spring, and from what I read that can acidify soils. The Pacific Northwest is an area of the country that typically has acid soil.

So, I think that instead of adding anything, I'll go ahead and remove a couple of inches off the top, down to the good stuff. Then I'll plant some seeds, see how they do, and possibly prove that my theory is correct. The beds will still have plenty of soil. I actually overfilled them when I set them up, leaving no room for yearly topping off with composted material.

I worked too hard mixing compost into the beds so the worms, bacteria and fungus would have a good environment. I'm not going to disturb that by tilling. Maybe that's one reason the deeper soil pH and fertility measured as being good in that area.
 
A few months ago, when my garden was still under 2 feet of snow, I asked the forum for help in setting up my very first attempt at starting seeds in the house for transplant later. I got lots of good advice from the members here. It's been raining all day today, but I had a few moments to snap a few pics of my progress....

View attachment 3530355


Those are my cherry tomato plants that are over 2 feet tall! Compare that to last year when I bought my 6 packs of tomatoes and those plants, at this time last year, were maybe 4-6 inches tall.

More tomato plants...

View attachment 3530365

Finally, some eggplants and peppers I started in the house...

View attachment 3530368

Those pepper plants are 6-8 inches tall and the eggplants are just over 12 inches tall.

I don't know how the rest of the growing season will turn out, but I figure I'm about 2 months ahead of last year's growth!

Well, just a big thank you to those who took the time to offer their suggestions and encouraged me to try to start my seedlings myself this year. I'm really happy with progress so far. :love :highfive:
AWESOME JOB! Now prune those lower, dirt touching tomato branches :)
 
I dug this 3 year old Surinam Cherry tree up and didn't have anywhere to plant it, so I stuck it in a pond plant basket and covered it with rocks. I wonder if it can live in filtered tilapia water? The green stuff is duck weed, it multiplies really fast, I feed it to my fish as a supplement daily.


View attachment 3530321

It's gorgeous!

I've also read that duckweed is an entirely edible, high-protein, human food source. Great for during times of food shortages!
 
on the watering project.

The barrels didn't work. I fussed with them for a while but I no longer think it will matter even if I get them. The gophers are eating the leaves off. I gave the survivors as much chance as I could.

Oh, gophers... I don't miss them at all!

Everything we planted had to have a cage around the roots.
 

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