What did you do in the garden today?

[jerryse]

Question: Anyone use a grow tent to start your transplants? Is it worth the money?

 

[Lauravonsmurf]

Man. Have I been going to the wrong church. Lol

On the menu in the garden today? Calcium. Been dissolving egg shells in plain ol vinegar and applying it according to the directions on a commercial calcium acetate product.

That’s cool.

 

[Lauravonsmurf]

Question: Anyone use a grow tent to start your transplants? Is it worth the money?

No but I’ve been wanting to try it. I know folks who have and it seems to work.

 

[gtaus]

Heard we are supposed to receive some more winter weather after the warm we have been having lately, some of the fruit trees have starting to bud... not ideal..

Strange winter in terms of being so mild here in northern Minnesota. Almost all the snow was gone weeks ago. Makes you want to start your seeds early to take advantage of the good weather. But, no, tomorrow's high of 60F will be followed up with snow in the forecast for next weekend. Last year this time we still had a couple of feet of snow on the ground.

Still have to remind ourselves that "normal" winter season has many weeks left. Our last frost date is end of May for zone 3b. Will start my seeds at the end of this month, but not before, despite the tempting warm weather this winter.

 

[gtaus]

Question: Anyone use a grow tent to start your transplants? Is it worth the money?

I bought one of those indoor greenhouse shelf units from Menards a few years ago.

I thought it worked just fine but Dear Wife was not so happy that it took up a lot of room in her kitchen/dining room area in front of the sliding glass window for our deck. So, that was the end of that. But it did work.

I then bought some Hefty Hi Rise 72 quart clear totes to use as mini greenhouses. They worked better for us as I was able to move the totes outside during the daytime and bring them back in the evening, and stack them up vertically out of the way.

 

[Sally PB]

I bought some New England Aster and Purple Coneflower seeds to plant for the honeybees. Both, but especially the NEA, bloom later in the season, when there often isn't much in bloom that honeybees like. They LOVE the NEA. I'm thinking of planting some seeds of both in the green house this week.

The bee club is having a sale on honeybee helpful plants. We'll buy a couple of the trees, and some of the potted plants as well. Like NEA, which can be trickier to start from seed, but I'll give it a go.

Informational bit: Basswood, aka, American Linden, is one of the best trees for honeybees. They LOVE the pollen. We are blessed to have two mature Basswood trees, right near the hive. I won't be buying any of those; they can take up to 12 years to begin flowering, so by then, eh, who knows where we'll be in our bee journey?

They also do not flower every year, unfortunately. They did last year!

 

[jerryse]

I bought some New England Aster and Purple Coneflower seeds to plant for the honeybees. Both, but especially the NEA, bloom later in the season, when there often isn't much in bloom that honeybees like. They LOVE the NEA. I'm thinking of planting some seeds of both in the green house this week.

The bee club is having a sale on honeybee helpful plants. We'll buy a couple of the trees, and some of the potted plants as well. Like NEA, which can be trickier to start from seed, but I'll give it a go.

Informational bit: Basswood, aka, American Linden, is one of the best trees for honeybees. They LOVE the pollen. We are blessed to have two mature Basswood trees, right near the hive. I won't be buying any of those; they can take up to 12 years to begin flowering, so by then, eh, who knows where we'll be in our bee journey?

They also do not flower every year, unfortunately. They did last year!

I have 2 colors of wild Asters here. Not sure what species they are. A light blue and white. Thinking about managing some as flowers . Cutting back to make them bushier and shorter.

 

[Lauravonsmurf]

Well new pen shifted into what we think will be its permanent spot. We can start outfitting it now, and making it Fort Knox. Second broken coop broken up, we may recycle some sections as trellises and yard art on the fences.

The third baby coop along with scavenged poultry/bird wire stacked neatly, we will assess how best to salvage it. New medium coop moved out to area in prep for building. Pen has feeder set up in and two temporary nesting spots, as well as temporary roosts set up, fake eggs put in nests. Auto watering system will be set up latter. Right now I just want them exploring the pen because their stomachs compels them.

The girls because they are curious laid four eggs near the pen so, finally fresh eggs again…

Taking a break, gots to get ready for a family event in a bit. We will move the panels of the big pen into the coop area latter this week. After I haul out the old fence netting we are tearing down and have the new area ready for the build.

Progress is being made. I think I maybe able to get a couple boxes started towards being fixed this week as well.

 

[cj2024]

Update on my Cider vinegar verses spider war. The spiders won........................they don't die from being sprayed with cider vinegar.

 

[Smokerbill]

Update on my Cider vinegar verses spider war. The spiders won........................they don't die from being sprayed with cider vinegar.

I'm curious as to why you're fighting the spiders. They won't harm anything and it's likely they're helpful, eating other pests that could cause problems.