What did you do in the garden today?

[dirkandlorie]

This year I'm experimenting with a homemade fertilizer, and it seem to be working well. The mix is 4 parts leftover chicken fines, 1 part bone meal, 1 part blood meal and 1 part dolomitic lime. Using it in the veggie beds and flower beds with a handful of compost also every time I fertilize. Can't say it did much for my beets, but the tomatoes and peppers are the biggest I've ever seen. Cucumbers are growing in leaps and bounds. (Why oh why did I plant 5 cucumber plants? I can't possibly eat this many pickles!) All my greens, mustard, chard, etc. were humongous, and the flower gardens are gorgeous, so I think I will call this experiment a win. Nice to have a use for all those chicken fines besides their mash that I still make them every morning. Might be important to mention that the higher protein level the chicken food has, the better it works as a fertilizer. (Thats what the old timer who told me about this said) I use a 50/50 mix of game bird and layer feed for my girls, that's 35 and 16 protein averaged out to 25% protein.

 

[jerryse]

Raining again. It has been very humid. I planted turnip and Daikon radish before the rain. A little earlier planting than usual but we have the moisture. Thinking about fall peas. Days are getting shorter so a good time for some crops that bolt in lengtheng days.

 

[WthrLady]

Since it's only about 150' around my garden I can trim under the entire fence with my weed trimmer in 5 minutes. That's what I did yesterday.

Today I have a lot of cleanup to do, mainly removing all the rigged up fences I built when I was trying to contain my chickens in the back yard. And I need to plan out how I'm going to build an additional run for the chickens so they have access to sunshine during the day.

It's supposed to get into the 80's today, so I better get out there now while it's cool and get the hard work done.

Perfect!

 

[karenerwin]

Speaking of, has anyone grown a self pollinating summer squash or zucchini? Or spaghetti squash? (well, parthenocarpic really)

First time growing spaghetti squash. I’ve got so many that it is pulling the long side of the raised bed away from the shirt side!

Hubby tried pulling it back together with a ratchet strap. Will see if that gets use through the end of gardening season.

 

[TJAnonymous]

It seems that my garden was untouched by deer last night. The 3D electric fence I set up must have worked. This is where I got the idea, and it gives a good explanation of the system.

https://www.ncat.org/electric-deer-fence-tips-and-resources/

I did notice that two of my pepper plants were nipped off this morning. I don't remember even looking at the peppers yesterday morning, so I'm sure I just missed it.

Here's a diagram of how the fence is set up, followed by pictures of my setup. My inside fence has an extra hot strand above the 24" line, and on three sides there's a yellow rope strung above that. Don't know if the extra strands help or hurt, or make no difference.

View attachment 3563294

View attachment 3563295View attachment 3563296View attachment 3563298View attachment 3563299View attachment 3563300View attachment 3563301

I bought an electric fence to put around my chicken yard in hopes of keeping chickens from flying/jumping over the fence. Didn't work so I put netting up instead. Sooooo.... I thought about repurposing my electric fence in the garden next year to keep deer, coon, and squirrels out. Especially if I decide to grow sweet corn in the garden proper... I was curious if anyone else is doing that.

 

[Sueby]

We have a lot of deer around here but what I've found is they will not jump over my 6 foot high deer netting to get in the garden because it's a high jump & they have no good place to land with the raised beds in there. 6 years here & they walk right on by & eat the hosta out front instead.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Good morning Gardeners was in the garden planting yesterday..
No photos of course will remedy that today.

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

Today we got a gallon of small cucumbers, a handful of banana peppers, a little over a gallon of green beans.
Green beans blanched and cooling for freezer storage.

 

[WthrLady]

I bought an electric fence to put around my chicken yard in hopes of keeping chickens from flying/jumping over the fence. Didn't work so I put netting up instead. Sooooo.... I thought about repurposing my electric fence in the garden next year to keep deer, coon, and squirrels out. Especially if I decide to grow sweet corn in the garden proper... I was curious if anyone else is doing that.

We did in 2019, chickens still got in. But deer and raccoons didn't. We don't have squirrels, tree squirrels.

Grounds keeping was a nightmare.
We had he 150 foot fence and the heavy duty corner posts.

 

[WthrLady]

We have a lot of deer around here but what I've found is they will not jump over my 6 foot high deer netting to get in the garden because it's a high jump & they have no good place to land with the raised beds in there. 6 years here & they walk right on by & eat the hosta out front instead.

They can jump high or far, but not both and they prefer to not jump into places they cannot see unless they are in a blind panic.

My garden is wrapped in shade cloth/windbreak and full of T posts with inverted cans on them.

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Just brought in a quart of MASSIVELY large blackberries.