What did you do in the garden today?

I continued my war with the english ivy in my front garden. The prior owner used it and lily of the valley to cover the lovely tiered garden beds. I'm planting out pollinator friendly natives and classic non-native cottage garden plants in their place.

I also found out I'm very allergic to poison ivy now in my old age... which is also in the garden bed, simply thriving. I am pretty good at ripping out stumps after being given a course of steroids to stop the rash from completely taking over my body.

Currently 75% done with ivy removal. The lowest tier is fully planted, and weekly weeding it is quick and easy with my handy Japanese sickle. The raspberries got a new tier added to the trellis and tie backs on the main posts to prevent leaning from the strain. Put mesh tree bags on half of my fruit trees. I'm hoping to limit the damage from moths etc but the trade off is keeping helpful insects from eating aphids happily farmed by ants.

Strawberries are ripe and being picked actively. Raspberries are starting to reach picking ripeness. Should be a bumper crop this year.

Chickens got a hearty dose of bolted lettuces. More expected since we are jumping from 65 to 90 this week. I added fertilizer to much of my veggies and climbing roses since it's been raining so hard. I might as well take advantage.
 
I also found out I'm very allergic to poison ivy now in my old age... which is also in the garden bed, simply thriving. I am pretty good at ripping out stumps after being given a course of steroids to stop the rash from completely taking over my body.
I take rhus tox homeopathic tablets before pi comes out. 4 tablets under the tongue. 4x a day for a month and then 1x daily unless I get into it.
It's also good for arthritis
https://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/fda/fdaDrugXsl.cfm?setid=d255532d-cc05-4884-869f-19be804ba4fe
I went from walking by pi on a hot humid day and breaking out terrible blisters and itching so bad, to minor bumps and itch.
 
The rattlesnake beans that I saved last fall germinated nicely, 17 out of 20 sprouted so far. The last three look small and wrinkled, so I doubt they'll germinate. Anyway, that's an 85% germination rate, good enough for free seeds.

I planted them close enough in the garden that I shouldn't have to fill in any spots, and I might end up having to thin some out.
 
Lawd.
On my way to the garden I realized my roses and gardenias need some attention. I used neem oil on gardenias and cooper fungicide on roses and berries.
Transplanted 10 spoon tom plants.
Watered and tied up some plants.
I got some weeding in garden but I am pooped😅
I thought putting hot manure and chips from coop would suppress weeds in garden but it seems morning glories love it! It was like a jungle!!
 
I did start a trap crop of pumpkins but apparently planted them in a bad spot. They died... 😕

Anyway, I looked over my plants this morning and found ZERO SVB eggs.... Hopefully that means they've been foiled by the kaolin clay. 🙏🤞🙏🤞

I picked another 4 cups or so of blackberries. Gonna make more simple syrup with them later today.

At a point where I'm just basically maintaining stuff now. Need to probably put the shade cloth up over the tomatoes. Temps are starting to inch up over the 90 degree mark... Although we have more rain predicted Wednesday - Sunday. 🙄 Black rot from all the rain has decimated my Catawbas. No harvest from them this year. 😢 Concords are still hanging on though....
 
Too many zuchinis or marrows?

A firm family favourite as a child and also now as an adult this ‘Marrow Bread’ recipe is the perfect way to use up those large zucchinis and is a must if you are a ‘Banana Bread’ fan.​


Marrow Bread | Farmhouse Seeds
We do something similar but make a chocolate zucchini loaf using dark dark chocolate. I prefer shredded zucchini ~ a lot easier to bake with than using shredded carrots for baked loafs.
 

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