What did you do in the garden today?

[CNJ]

Is this even possible? I will try with my new banana baby.

 

[Tstraub]

I live on a lake and my soil was mostly sand. Nothing grew very well in-ground. I dumped in all kinds of grass clippings and leaves for years, tilling them into the ground, and that seemed to help. But eventually I turned to raised bed gardening with the square foot method. I have had much more success with the raised beds due to the fact that I bought good quality topsoil to mix in the raised bed. So much better than my sandy soil.

However, you don't have to use the expensive Mel's mix to fill a raised bed. I build my raised beds 16 inches high, using free pallet wood, then fill it with hügelkultur wood in the bottom 8-10 inches, an organic layer of grass clippings and leaves, then the top 6-8 inches is a mix of high-quality topsoil with chicken run compost mixed 1:1.

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I have to pay about $60 for a trailer load of topsoil. That's my only real expense. The pallet wood is free, the hügelkultur wood is free, and the chicken run compost is free. The only money out of pocket is maybe $2.00 in nails and screws to make the raised bed and then $10-15 per 4X4 foot raised bed for the topsoil which I mix with the chicken run compost. If you have good ground soil, you could use that mixed with compost to top fill your raised beds and save all that money.

For me, it was obviously cheaper to fill some raised beds than to try to improve my sandy soil out in the in-ground garden. Also, I wanted to grow food now, not 5 years from now when the sandy soil finally improves.



My first raised beds 15 years ago were only about 4 inches tall. Now, all my raised beds are 16 inches tall and I don't have to bend over hardly at all. Makes a big difference when you get to be a certain age.



Yeah, those little tillers can really come in handy. I use my battery powered mini-tiller and my battery powered cultivator much more than my big walk behind gas tiller. Maybe you could tarp the small tiller outside and keep it? No doubt, if I sold one of my tillers, the next week I would need it and forever regret selling it. But that's my luck.

If you do sell your front end tiller, you might want to look into getting one of those mini-tiller attachments that fit on a gas or battery powerhead like those on grass trimmers.

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They work great on previously tilled soil, and small enough to work in a raised bed if you ever go that way. For breaking sod, however, you want that big gas tiller.

Those raised beds look real good and the price is even better. Maybe I’ll put one or two in or perennial vegetables. Maybe a rhubarb patch or some asparagus.

I have only had chickens for a short time but I do plan to clean out the coop and add all of there bedding to the garden once it’s done for the season.

 

[Devyn Nagy]

Picked a 36lb (16kg) watermelon today. Had a 39lb (18kg) one the other day.

 

[Devyn Nagy]

Yesterday I picked up a new to me Troy built horse tiller in “as is” condition. It was part of an estate and hadn’t been ran in a long time. Once I got it home I saw it would need at minimum a coil, a fuel tank, a carburetor and a muffler around $80-$100 in parts.

Harbor freight had a coupon for a new 6.5hp Honda clone engine for $129. So to save future headaches I went with the engine. It about as easy of a swap as could be just needed a longer throttle cable and the pull start needed re clocked so I could pull from the same side at the throttle. The worst part was getting the rusted parts moving again.

WD-40 and/or duct tape!

 

[FrannyNZooey]

I picked a flat of just starting to rippen tomatoes so that they can finish up indoors. I’m hoping to break down the remainder of the plants this weekend. I see that our fall rains are starting on Sunday.

Next in line are the eqqplants, red bells, cukes, and banana peppers.

 

[Tstraub]

WD-40 and/or duct tape!

I didn’t have anything that moved but shouldn’t have so no duct tape needed. I did have lots of things that didn’t move so I used plenty of WD-40, propane and a little heavy duty grease to get things moving. I also put a little slime in the tires to hold the wind in.

 

[Dadanga]

I can't believe Strawberries couldn't get worse! Now the bloody mites have dropped by to say Hello. Well I'll say hello to my bottle of omite and those baddies will get drowned in it. Sadly, I'll have to kill anything edible now. Since I have the ability to take it out of the rail maybe I could get creative and drown the suckers in something a bit more organic. Gotta take care of it as I can just see this spreading in the greenhouse.

 

[TJAnonymous]

I am like 20 pages behind.... Apologies if I missed anything directed at me. Work has been crazy lately and I've had little spare time.

I did make time this evening to put together the new automatic opener I bought for the duck coop. The motor died on the old one. Instead of paying $150 for a new one, I spent $70 and bought the parts off Amazon to build it myself. This picture was taken before I secured the timer down and prettied it up a bit. This opener is actually more secure because it uses an actuator to keep the door from budging. The old one was lifted up/down by a string. I was always worried that a critter would manage to get their claws under the door and lift it. Thankfully that's no longer a concern!

 

[Alagirl]

Is this even possible? I will try with my new banana baby.

they popped the flower stalks there, with some Hokus-Pokus eggs
I highly doubt that will result in a new plant.
I do concede that Bananas are not my forte though.

On the plus side, you won't miss the blooms.
And (considering the forum) the eggs.

 

[akroberts1085]

pie is in the oven and custard is in the freezer.
I need to mill wheat next.

Where do you get wheat grain for planting from?