What did you do in the garden today?

[Sueby]

The last ten yard bags of maple leaves need to go somewhere besides the shed. Will they work as brown to counter the green of lawn clippings? There will be some chicken manure but not enough to handle the amount of grass.

I do this. In the fall DH bags up the leaves with the mower & I save them in the shed for the winter & a make a big pile next to the compost bins to use for layering. It also keeps the critters out of the pile more if the greens from the house are buried under leaves. When it snows I spread them on the ground so the chickens can walk on them. When winter is over the leftovers go to the compost bin & the chicken run. The chickens got a bag last weekend, as a matter of fact, & boy did they have fun tearing thru a bag of 8 month old leaves.

 

[Sueby]

Nice!

This last year, we finally built a pantry out in the mudroom, and it's great! However, it's on an outside wall, and in the winter, the mudroom gets very little heat. So I don't store anything that can't freeze out there.

We have talked even longer about building a pantry in the basement under the stairs for the canned goods, both store bought and home canned (mostly tomatoes). Really hoping we do that; I need a place for all the empty canning jars as we use up the tomatoes. It gets cold in the basement, but I've never had anything freeze there.

Also, then jars would be visible. DH will say, "I didn't know we had applesauce!" because the jars are in opaque totes or cardboard boxes.

I'd also like a place to store my canning equipment. I only use for a few weeks during the year. It would be nice to have secure, clean storage for the canner and pressure canner.

I wish I had a basement, we're on a slab here because of the water table. & my mudroom is the same, it's not heated. I would kill for one of these canning racks that have the tilted shelves so you can see the tops but I have no where to put one. Something like this:

 

[WthrLady]

I built one like that. I have fallen out of love for it and am just about ready to build a normal, one jar wide shelving system like I grew up with. I haven't quite decided in full yet.

 

[Sueby]

You know I kinda thought I remember you saying you had something like that. Or seeing a pic of it maybe. My neighbor had 1 jar deep shelves covering her entire large mudroom, it was such a perfect storage system & looked really cool! Mine is all windows & unheated so that's a no go.

Found this little lady crawling up the giant wood chip pile in the back yard, lol. Not sure where she was going, but she was covered in mud so it looks like she already laid her eggs.

 

[Swiss]

We had no rain. None.
Meanwhile the city people are still filling their pools, watering their lawns, and running through car washes. No restrictions.
We've had less rain than the dust bowl years.
Want to guess how firework season is going to go?

People are dumb, and selfish.

 

[Swiss]

Something wet has been falling from the sky today, and the ground is wet! Is this what you have all been calling "rain"?

We got about .1", and are expecting about .25" more! Huzzah!!

 

[MotherofOrpies]

Finally managed to get the last tomatoes and chilis outside , my peach tree has a disease, it’s a pity, cos he has many peaches, but I fear they will fall off before getting ripe

my first ever grapes ( red) I love grapes ! But I fear, the birds will harvest them before I can
we haven’t had any rain for the last 5 weeks or so ( driest May in recorded history, and June hasn’t brought any rain at all) and now we’ve had a week of temperatures around 30 C, can’t wait for some rain! The ground is baked, so when I start watering, it just runs off, I should hoe it, but can’t cos I waiting to get both hips replaced …

 

[Sally PB]

I built one like that. I have fallen out of love for it

May I ask why? It looks so handy.

People are dumb, and selfish.

I replied with a sad emoji because it's true.

 

[WthrLady]

You know I kinda thought I remember you saying you had something like that. Or seeing a pic of it maybe. My neighbor had 1 jar deep shelves covering her entire large mudroom, it was such a perfect storage system & looked really cool! Mine is all windows & unheated so that's a no go.

Found this little lady crawling up the giant wood chip pile in the back yard, lol. Not sure where she was going, but she was covered in mud so it looks like she already laid her eggs.
View attachment 3537501

Nope, she's just dug herself out of her spring wet pond and is headed to lay her eggs. Amazing critters.

 

[Sally PB]

They are toning down the amount of rain in the forecast. Maybe a quarter inch, all told. The grass is crunchy dry.

We did get a trace of rain, enough to wet the driveway.