What did you do in the garden today?

[CedarLane]

We used to plant 2-100ft rows. That's a lot of potatoes and a lot of digging!

My husband and daughter spend evening after school this fall digging our potatoes: 8 -- 25' rows. DH would agree that that was a lot of digging! (Our daughter used the front corner of the garden for her garden patch so the potatoes were in the back of the garden rather than in longer rows.)

 

[gtaus]

In case anyone is interested in buying one of those watertight ammo/field boxes for seed storage, Menards has them on sale this week for only $1.99 after $5.00 rebate...

I bought one of those ammo boxes at Harbor Freight this fall, on sale, for $3.99. I thought that was a good price at the time. This Menards field box is obviously better if you don't mind playing the rebate game. Basically the same design as the HF ammo boxes. including the stackable feature of the boxes.

They work great for storing seeds on a budget. Check out this short video...

 

[CedarLane]

If you get snow a few layers of mulch on top will protect the roots and they should come back next year, but these carrots won’t be tasty in my experience. You can let them go to seed though if you want to collect, and the flowers are pretty.

My SIL thought the carrots she found this past spring were very sweet. She thought I should have just left my carrots in the garden, but I wasn't sure I wanted to do that in Michigan--at least not on purpose! DH tilled the garden and planted cover crop. It looks nice for the winter (the deer are enjoying that wheat too!) The garden doesn't always get taken care of at the end of the year like it should.

 

[CedarLane]

If you have Queen Annes Lace (wildflower, sometimes called wild carrot), it will readily cross with carrots. The resulting seeds can (probably will) revert to tough, skinny roots.

I don't save carrot seed for just this reason. We have Queen Annes Lace everywhere.

This is good to know. We have a lot of Queen Anne's Lace too.

 

[CNJ]

Early this morning I went outside to checkup on my surviving 2 Kajari melons and found one of them bent over with a slug on the stem. Thank God it didn't eat the stem yet if I was a few minutes late it would have been game over. I thought the crickets were the culprit, but now have confirmation it was slugs. I used a granular insect product that kills slugs and is safe to use in the garden; I put it around my fabric bag. I already spread some around before this incident, but the heavy rain probably washed it out.

At first, I blamed the crickets when I saw one jump out, now I have clear evidence that a slug ate the stem part of my Melon plants, and I think the crickets are eating the leaves! If it was the slug the plant would be bent over, but its not and some leaves show signs of being eaten.

 

[CNJ]

There’s a hack for sweet potatoes in this video, I’m going to try it this year.

I cut the damaged part of a sweet potato and let the cut part dry for a few days and stuck it in potting mix with the dried cut side up and exposed. Shoots came up from the sides, so cut sweet potatoes also work.

 

[igorsMistress]

I cut the damaged part of a sweet potato and let the cut part dry for a few days and stuck it in potting mix with the dried cut side up and exposed. Shoots came up from the sides, so cut sweet potatoes also work.

Good to know, thanks!

 

[Smokerbill]

My SIL thought the carrots she found this past spring were very sweet. She thought I should have just left my carrots in the garden, but I wasn't sure I wanted to do that in Michigan--at least not on purpose! DH tilled the garden and planted cover crop. It looks nice for the winter (the deer are enjoying that wheat too!) The garden doesn't always get taken care of at the end of the year like it should.

That's what I'm doing with my carrots, just leaving them in the ground and pulling them up as I need them. Everything I've read says that carrots get sweeter when exposed to cold and freezing weather. The last few carrots I pulled tasted great!

 

[NanaK]

I have never covered carrots. We got down to 19f Tuesday night. Just went out to make sure but they look fine. Usually taste good as long as I get them out before the weather warms up. They do not like warm weather.
These are only covered with netting to keep the deer and rabbits out.

 

[Sueby]

I didn't cover my rosemary last year and it died. Of course, we also had a freak polar freeze where the temperature went to like 20 below zero. This year I purposely planted the rosemary in a pot instead of the ground so I could bring it inside if/when it gets too cold. Of course, I haven't yet determined what threshold is "too cold." It got into the low 20s at night at least 3 times this week. It was covered with a tree cover and seems fine. Since they are predicting a colder & snowier winter than usual, I probably need to figure out when to pull the trigger on moving it. Since I have the new gardening shed in place, Ive toyed with the idea of just moving it in there with a grow light on a timer for the winter. It will still get REALLY cold in there since it's not insulated but at least it will be safe from wind, snow, and frost....

Not much of a help, but rosemary will not survive here outside, 6b (was 6a). I bring it in the house every year. Thyme, sage, chives & mint come back for me. I can't get Lavender to survive outside & it annoys me because it should be ok. LOL