What did you do in the garden today?

IMG_0883.jpeg

My neighbor planted clematis along my fence, what I don’t get, when I planted mine, I got loam, compost and horn meal and mine bloomed 2 months ago, he didn’t do anything, and still it climbed nicely and is blooming ( I even water it from my side, or else there wouldn’t be anything growing, at all) I remember somebody gave me a clematis 20 years ago, and I did nothing except water it, and it grew about 40 cm every year, didn’t bloom and then froze back in the winter… after a few years of nothing, I gave it to somebody else and there ist literally exploded, climbing and flowering, what the heck?!
IMG_0759.jpeg

My first ever red grapes are coming along nicely
IMG_0760.jpeg

My thorn less blackberries too, but since they are behind my mulberry tree, which has expanded a lot, I fear they won’t taste good cos they don’t get any sunlight, might have to dig them up in fall and replant them somewhere where they will get more sunshine, when I planted them, they had lots of it 😉
 
My Purple Zebra tomato taste better with out salt and it is sweeter than regular red tomatoes. It turns dark red with green stipes when ripe and kind of remind me of the larger Brad's Atomic Grape called Fusion, but they taste different. Brad's Atomic Grape taste better with a pinch of salt where as Purple Zebra taste better with out salt. Purple Zebra is a medium size tomato and is best served as a stand alone with olive oil and grated cheese or as a salad topping.

 
Last edited:
Saturday, Part 2

My old vegetable garden was neglected and grew small trees. Last Spring (2022) I had someone cut the trees down to the ground, then I covered the area with used carpet to smother new tree growth.

But that didn't stop weeds from TRYING.

Headed back outside, hedge clippers in hand...
Wow, you've gotten a ton done this weekend - how satisfying! It looks great.
What's the best way to cook new potatoes?
Roast them in with other veggies and/or a roastable meat cut.
 
Good morning all. @Wee Farmer Sarah nice haul there. I’m jealous of your rain :hitI have never cooked Lima or butter beans, icky is an understatement. My mom used to try to force me to eat them until I had an unpleasant reaction at the dinner table:gigI ordered 3 raised beds for the garden and another Vitex. The beds are 2’ x 8’ so hubs doesn’t have to build them from wood. He can hardly get around as it is and there’s no way he would just let me do it mys of even though I’m more than capable. Still going to turn them into SIP beds though. The Vitex is to shade the north wall of the garden and prevent so much heat from reflecting back into the yard.
 
Last weekend we bought a heavy-duty hedge-trimmer attachment for the weed-whacker power head, and today we tackled more of the blackberries, with me and the hedge-trimmer going ahead of Mr. dog and the brush cutter. I swept through everything above waist-level and hanging overhead, and Mr. Dog came behind me (at a safe distance, since I was waving that thing around like I was in Star Wars) chopping up everything I left on the ground, pushing it further into the jungle.

Wow, it makes me SO happy how good this worked and the amount we got done! FINALLY! We are getting ahead of the blackberries, after years of wasting time with hand choppers, machetes, even putting a rope around them and trying to pull them out by the roots with my truck...only to have them keep growing back.
Another few weekend sessions like this and they will be cut back enough to be ready to build our fence, and then we can get some little goat helpers to control whatever infiltrates the fence, keeping a nice hedge of blackberries along the road, so neighbors and trail-walkers can pick them if they want, but we will have a barrier for privacy.

My garden beds that have not sprouted, I decided to soil-test them again. It's so weird - not only have the seeds I planted not sprouted, but no weeds have grown there either. So I was convinced there must be something drastically wrong with the soil in those beds, but no (except one that I discovered was being used as a kitty-litter box :mad: ) but the others, the pH was 7, the nutrition was low but not THAT low...
So I drove up to the "free fertilizer" site and filled two buckets and three feed bags, dumped quite a thick layer over the 5 non-productive beds, and then watered like crazy.

It's possible that these beds haven't germinated because, even though I'm watering for 1-2 hours every three nights, it might be fine for existing plants but there might be too much evaporation during such hot days to sprout seeds. Some evidence - the grow boxes I put in the shade, with exactly the same mix of soil, are sprouting lettuce and spinach just fine.

So, my plan is to do another round of indoor germination: leeks, cabbages, cauliflower, and hopefully my beds will in good order by the time those go out.

What I really need is basil - so if I need to keep an indoor basil propagation system going all fall and winter, I guess that's what I'll do.
 
It's possible that these beds haven't germinated because, even though I'm watering for 1-2 hours every three nights, it might be fine for existing plants but there might be too much evaporation during such hot days to sprout seeds.
When I set seed in the garden when it's really hot I have had to water them morning and evening to keep them wet enough to germinate. Sometimes I cover the area with a board to help keep it damp. You have to keep checking and remove the board as soon as it germinates and keep it moist until it gets some size going. It can be difficult germinating seed in really hot direct sun.
 

New posts New threads Active threads

Back
Top Bottom