What did you do in the garden today?

[MotherofOrpies]

yesterday I harvested 2/3 of my red currants, I don’t like them ( too sour) but the chickens love them, since I gave them to a friend for a year cos I’m getting both hip joints replaced I gave the berries to a friend who loves them, tossed in a few mulberries as well, cos they are getting ripe too, and she also loves them, why is it that the mulberries never fall where they are supposed to? I’ve got a ginormous tree, and need a picker on a pole to get at them, but most of the time, they fall exactly where the picker is not I can’t collect them on the ground cos there are a lot of bushes and some nettles mixed in with them , ouch, too hot to wear boots

 

[karenerwin]

Good morning gardeners. I guess I forgot to check with my companion planting resources before I planted the chard with the butternut squash. Wah! I think I’ll let it germinate and grow then transplant what I can and just compost the remainder. I only have 3 hills of squash in that 4 x 8 bed and they are coming up and looking healthy. I pulled up the baby bok choy. It was still stunted and munched on so it will go to the chickens. I got the cardboard covered up with mulch. I did 2 bags yesterday and another this morning. Still need another bag on there and I need to dig up more cardboard to cover more area.

I don’t know how far away your local post office is but I get a lot of large heavy cardboard from my local post office. I saw a bunch out on the side of the building so I went in and asked about. They told me to take all that I want because they can’t get rid of it fast enough. They said they have a recycling company but they don’t come by often enough.

 

[chickengr]

I was fortunate enough to have visited Greece twice. I know how hot it can get there. Do you use any kind of sun shade for your plants?

I live in northern Minnesota, and we had unseasonably hot weather early this year. Lots of gardeners complaining about the cool weather crops not having enough time to produce before the heat caused them to bolt. No where near as hot as where you live, but our cool weather plants took a beating this year, too.

my new garden is big for sun shade. I did not plant it all. summer here is not for gardening. but the rest of the year is great. it is somewhat cooler in my new place than in the old one. I cannot wait to see how it will turn out.

 

[littledog]

The top of the arch is only 6 feet high, so I can easily reach any produce.

LOL, I mentioned working a ladder into the design because I was imagining some big pumpkins growing on top of the arch, right in the middle.

 

[littledog]

I don't know why the squirrels dig in the dirt. I thought maybe they wanted to eat the bean seeds, but I found lots of bean seeds sitting on top of the dirt.

They may be just looking for a convenient patch of dirt that's easy to dig in, to bury their nuts.

 

[Kwoka]

View attachment 3551521
yesterday I harvested 2/3 of my red currants, I don’t like them ( too sour) but the chickens love them, since I gave them to a friend for a year cos I’m getting both hip joints replaced I gave the berries to a friend who loves them, tossed in a few mulberries as well, cos they are getting ripe too, and she also loves them, why is it that the mulberries never fall where they are supposed to? I’ve got a ginormous tree, and need a picker on a pole to get at them, but most of the time, they fall exactly where the picker is not I can’t collect them on the ground cos there are a lot of bushes and some nettles mixed in with them , ouch, too hot to wear boots

I’m regretting my life choices, because I let my chickens free range the whole back garden, and they ate every last ripe red currant, and every unripe gooseberry from 3 bushes. Stripped bare! Luckily they haven’t discovered the white currants yet lesson learned, next year there will be fencing around the berries!

 

[Sally PB]

Unfortunately have seen a few Japanese Beetles. Set out one trap near where I saw them.

Two-three weeks and they'll be here too.

I think of them as free chickie snack. Well, I have to go collect them, so it's time out of my day. In the hottest part of the day...

 

[littledog]

My first hatch in my new incubator is now in lockdown! I hope we're doing everything right - I had issues with keeping the humidity right for the first few days, think I solved that thanks to help from some awesome people in the incubation thread. So we candled them last weekend, and I'm a beginner at knowing what I'm looking at, but it looked like at least 19 out of 22 were growing properly. One looked like the fetus might have stopped developing early because it was 1/3 of the size of the others, one looked normal-sized except there was a huge air pocket, and one had a really thick shell so I couldn't really tell.
Please wish us luck - babies should start hatching on Sunday!

Got enough of the garden planted that I could spend time setting up my final 8 beds. First I covered the new area with cardboard, then dug out all the soil in an 8x8 section, because I did a lot of work composting and amending it last year and didn't want to waste that goos soil. So dug down to clay, stored the good soil on the cardboard, cardboarded the 8x8 section, moved several trailer loads of wood chips to cover that section and fill in the hole, then placed the new raised beds. So here's where I am at:

I still need to level these, then fill 1/3 with wood chips, 1/3 with the dirt I dug out, and 1/3 with compost. Then when the pile of dirt is used up, cover the rest of the cardboard with more wood chips and place my last 4 raised beds.
These freebies I got from work are what I'm using, some industrial equipment came in them, then they were up for grabs, so I grabbed as many as I could! They're hinged at the corners, and designed to stack up on each other on a pallet, to form any height of crate. I stained them with cheap redwood stain.

They have convenient points on the bottom to poke into the ground and stay in place.

It's probably too late to use them this year, well, maybe for something plantable in the fall, like garlic.

In the meantime, here's what I have:

Don't know why this picture came out upside-down, but these dahlias sent by a wonderful person here, are coming up beautifully! The little thing in the pot is a volunteer melon that seems to be surviving.

Potatoes, with some baby lettuce and spinach interspersed.

Cukes germinated great.

Butternut not so great, this is the only one out of 10 that survived. This weekend I'll seed some pumpkins in the bare areas, 75-80 days means late September harvest, which should be fine if the weather is not too wet.

Strawberries spreading all over, but just a few tiny berries.

More dahlias, chives behind them, parsley in the back. The empty bed has beets and carrots seeded, but no sprouts yet.

Still a lot of work to do, but we're making progress.
They delivered our new DR brush cutter yesterday, can't to start using it this weekend!
But, my back was already a bit sore after all that digging and shoveling, then we thought we could lift the brush cutter in its crate on to our little cart to move it out back, but it was heavier than expected and I pulled my shoulder and neck - not too bad, just sore so I'll probably let Mr. Dog play with the brush cutter while I (hopefully) watch the chicks hatching!

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Good morning gardeners. I picked the fattest pea pod this morning and opened it. Not ready yet. The peas are still tiny. I put the leftover piece of weed barrier around the butternut squash plants. Hopefully that will cut down on any crawly things that could damage them. The big garden is looking good, the 2 tomato beds are growing nicely and the leeks and shallots amaze me every time I look at them. In the high garden, the lima beans are recovering nicely from the slug attacks. The tomato plants are growing nicely there too. The okra is a little slower than the eggplant and peppers but I know when the temperatures climb the okra will catch up. I planted cucumbers in that bed this morning. they are near the sunflowers so hopefully they will like it there. I also planted some thyme and lavender seeds with the other herbs under the grape arbors. The 3 lavender plants I put there are growing and blooming nicely. The oregano seems to be very happy there. The pear tree and dogwood tree are growing and the shrubs I planted are all doing well. I don't expect to get anymore gardening done today aside from a little weeding. I have a date with a dirty carpet and my carpet cleaner. Have a great day all.

 

[Sueby]

Nice score @littledog!

Planted some little violas

I had some in a pot last year by the coop & this is what happened this year, I had no idea they would volunteer so easily!

Pulled 3/4 of the garlic before the rain comes. Left the smallest in to see if they will grow anymore. I got scared because the first one I pulled had a worm, but thankfully the rest were fine. A little small this year, but I'd say average sized so I'm happy.

The wildflowers are just starting to bloom, this white stuff, whatever it is, smells SO good! & there are so many ladybugs & tiny bees in there too so that's a great bonus. I may sacrifice a bed every year for this!

Have a great day all.