What did you do in the garden today?

[WthrLady]

Yeah, I kinda figured that electric fence in your pictures would not keep out the deer we have. I know a guy who was growing grapes, and the deer would come and eat everything. Long story short, he ended up installing an 8-foot-high fence and added that angled wire top before he finally beat the deer. HIs little vineyard looks like a prison yard, but at least he now grows grapes and is able to harvest them.

His fencing looks something like this Google picture...

View attachment 3564990



For sure. Good luck.

Our orchards and vineyards have fences like that or 10 foot deer fencing around them around here. It's the only way.

 

[dirkandlorie]

My main garden has always had an 8' welded wire fence around it, but I'm told the main reason all the deer don't jump in is the raised beds inside. Very narrow walkways so no good place to land. I tried the same theory on my veggies beds alongside the driveway with only 4 foot chicken wire fencing on tposts. I made those beds 60 feet long but only 4 foot wide, very narrow path down the middle. Deer are all over my property, but they don't bother my veggie gardens. They eat my roses and daylillies instead, lol

 

[WthrLady]

Well, it's taken me 5 days of ridiculous work in insane heat, but the pantry is clean, reorganized, has new very bright lighting, and new canning shelving. I'm out of a lot of thing, as it is that time of year, and half the tomato products are my son's. I'm storing them.
I also still have several jars of dried/dehydrated herbs to label and get down there, so fill in the empty dry shelves in your imagination. The shelf unit is huge and is screwed to the over head joists it's not moving. LOL.

NO one wanted the old canning shelf, which blows my mind. People that picked up canning and preserving over the last 3 years have already quit. It seems it takes too much work. To me, it's just another season.

Rubbish guy had a good time letting his truck munch it. About broke my heart to see it destroyed. Not even craigslist free curb alert found it a home.
The Old.

The new

 

[dirkandlorie]

Well, it's taken me 5 days of ridiculous work in insane heat, but the pantry is clean, reorganized, has new very bright lighting, and new canning shelving. I'm out of a lot of thing, as it is that time of year, and half the tomato products are my son's. I'm storing them.
I also still have several jars of dried/dehydrated herbs to label and get down there, so fill in the empty dry shelves in your imagination. The shelf unit is huge and is screwed to the over head joists it's not moving. LOL.

NO one wanted the old canning shelf, which blows my mind. People that picked up canning and preserving over the last 3 years have already quit. It seems it takes too much work. To me, it's just another season.

Rubbish guy had a good time letting his truck munch it. About broke my heart to see it destroyed. Not even craigslist free curb alert found it a home.
The Old.
View attachment 3565196


The new
View attachment 3565197

Wow! What a setup! Good job

 

[gtaus]

I. Am. Impressed. And I understand the need to shout out when something like this [gardening success] happens. Shout on, @gtaus, shout on.

I'm glad to hear that they did right by you. [In fixing my lawn mower without charging me]

Thanks for all the support @Sally PB. It's much appreciated.

 

[gtaus]

Well, it's taken me 5 days of ridiculous work in insane heat, but the pantry is clean, reorganized, has new very bright lighting, and new canning shelving.

I would have been happy with either setup for canning shelving. Both look great to me. I do prefer the adjustable height shelves. I bought one of those pin sets where you drill a hole every inch and then just put pegs in where you want the shelf.

NO one wanted the old canning shelf, which blows my mind. People that picked up canning and preserving over the last 3 years have already quit. It seems it takes too much work. To me, it's just another season.

Dear Wife and I used to do a lot of canning when we were younger. But we had a health issue that put an end to our canning days. I never considered canning much work, but, to be honest, Dear Wife did the bulk of the work. Life can throw a curveball at you sometimes and then you have to decide what you want to spend your energy on. Canning was too much work for Dear Wife, and we ended up giving away all our canning supplies to a relative who makes good use of them. So, no regrets.

On a more positive note, we bought a much larger freezer and instead of canning, we now freeze lots of seasonal food. We had frozen buttercup squash almost all winter and once a month we would take out a zucchini bread from the freezer. Not quite the same as garden fresh, but still very good. So, freezing is our new canning. At least it allows us to save some garden produce for the winter months.

 

[WthrLady]

Wow! What a setup! Good job

Thanks

 

[Coldd]

I spread worm castings on the tomatoes, squash, and basil. I also moved a few volunteer tomatoes to new spots where watermelon had died.

I am really hoping the sun and heat catch our plants up to the previous year. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Next garden project is building a hot compost area for the old chicken bedding and manure. What a resource that would be! Also looking at a greenhouse for next year. My partner is questioning if we need one but my thoughts are that it’ll help reduce the lag/adjustment period of the plants after transplant, and we could grow things inside of it after all the seedlings are moved out. Anyone with greenhouse experience in colder climates that can chime in?

Thanks

Also saw a group of 3 chickens picking on one of the more docile ones. They have their protectors on, and feathers are growing back but I think they’ll lose them all again once they’re taken off and are easy targets for the bullies.

Queen bully was out in chicken jail for a week and went straight back to her spot at the top…

 

[gtaus]

Next garden project is building a hot compost area for the old chicken bedding and manure. What a resource that would be! Also looking at a greenhouse for next year. My partner is questioning if we need one but my thoughts are that it’ll help reduce the lag/adjustment period of the plants after transplant, and we could grow things inside of it after all the seedlings are moved out. Anyone with greenhouse experience in colder climates that can chime in?

I live in northern Minnesota, Zone 3B. Composting is a great idea. If you have the time and energy to work compost piles, then hot composting is certainly a great option. I went a different route. I converted my entire chicken run into a chicken run composting system. Basically, I load up the chicken run with leaves, grass clippings, wood chips, and just about anything else organic the will compost. I use deep bedding in my chicken coop and twice a year I clean out the coop and toss all the old coop litter into the chicken run for composting. It gets mixed with all the other materials already in the run. Then, the chickens just scratch and peck through the run litter looking for worms and bugs to eat. They speed up the composting process that way, and I can get finished compost in about 3-4 months with practically no additional effort on my part.

What works best for me is that I have so much compost in the chicken run, that I can harvest as much as I want when I need it. In fact, I have created so much compost that I converted a cement mixer into a compost sifter.

I don't need to do all the manual work to have a successful hot compost system, which requires turning of the piles and rebuilding them to keep the temps up. I just let Mother Nature compost the chicken run litter with the help of my composting chickens.

If you don't want to invest in a system like I have, a simple compost sifter made out of 2X4's and hardware cloth sitting on top of a wheelbarrow works. I sift almost all my compost, but I know lots of people don't. The cement mixer compost sifter lets me fill up a 6 cubic foot wagon in about 15 minutes. If I sifted all that compost by hand, it might take me a couple of hours.

I would really like to build a greenhouse. It's on my wish list. But there are so many other projects I need to do first. I hope you get your greenhouse.

 

[karenerwin]

Hunted down and destroyed squash bug eggs