What did you do in the garden today?

[Minanora]

wow I posted a lot playing catchup. I had to reply to all the things individually because of the ADHD... but it still makes me self conscious. lol

I caught a gopher today! Watered the garden.

 

[Sylvester017]

Maybe that plant had some damage to its roots when it was planted, or it's a genetic issue causing failure to thrive.

Why not pull it out and replant new seeds. I'm sure there's plenty of time left this season for it to grow and produce something.

We were going to pull it but it has fruit on it now ~ the other two plants are keeping us in zucchini so we curiously want to see what this one does

 

[Sylvester017]

I’m so behind on this thread. A lot has happened since my last post. I’ve been struggling with trying to get the yard and garden work caught up along with the delayed Spring cleaning. I’ve also been picking peas and wild black raspberries every day. I really need to process the peas and get them in the freezer. Saturday I was taking a big cardboard box out to the garage when I missed a step. I had a bad fall. I went to urgent care and got the head check. Tried to get the local ER to take a look and gave up on that. Tomorrow I get a CT scan and the X-rays the local hospital just couldn’t manage taken care of at the VA hospital in Boston. Trust me, the lump where I hit my head on the concrete floor was really big. I’ve been resting a lot but still doing the must do chores. Today was my first garden walk through the big garden and the gardens on the hill. My slicing tomatoes are starting to bloom. The pole beans are growing and climbing like crazy. The SM tomato plants look like they need fertilizing but the grapes are going well with the grapes getting bigger. I planted more curly kale last week and the seedlings are breaking through the soil. I’m looking forward to plant a short season acorn squash, some summer squash and pickling cucumbers at the beginning if next week. I’ll also be pulling the lettuce and planting chard as soon as I’m done with this medical stuff.

You are so lucky you didn't break a bone in your fall to the garage! I also fell last year carrying a big box to the garage only I had to go by ambulance to ER w/ a broken humerus, bruised chest & leg, forehead bump & black eye!! Had surgery to put a plate & pins to hold the humerus together! Didn't I look charming?

 

[Sylvester017]

We. Got. Rain!


Afterward, I went out and picked some more black raspberries. I think I'll have enough to make jam with now. I'm going to make it with honey. It'll be a small batch, and I can see if I like it, or if I want to tweak the recipe.

Don't waste good honey on cooked jam cuz honey will lose its health benefits when heated. Just bite the bullet & use cane or beet white sugar to sweeten jam. My Mom used to make her apricot jam w/a lot less sugar than the recipe so we could taste the fruit more than overly sweet sugar taste. JMHO.

 

[Sylvester017]

No, this one was still alive when I found it, and it peed itself so now the garden box smells. Luckily we have lots of rain in the forecast, and the netting survived well enough to continue doing its job without me having to handle it, but it would be nice if the little menaces just stayed out of my garden. I’m not even putting out bird food ATM! They just seem to like digging in the dirt.

Would something like this work to trap chipmunks? We bought this to trap a baby squirrel but caught a rat instead. Worked following instructions so well to catch rats we left it out all year & got dozens of rats & DH drowned them in a deep trash barrel each time.

 

[Sylvester017]

I'll have to look into that. Dear Wife just got me a Ninja Air Fryer for my birthday, and it has a dehydrate mode on it. So, maybe I already have the expensive part of that process. It would be nice to have a number of options of what to do with excess eggs. Thanks.

 

[Sylvester017]

Does anyone else just enjoy walking around the garden at night?

One word ~ MOSQUITOS

 

[gtaus]

Would something like this work to trap chipmunks? We bought this to trap a baby squirrel but caught a rat instead. Worked following instructions so well to catch rats we left it out all year & got dozens of rats & DH drowned them in a deep trash barrel each time.

Hard to tell the size from the picture, but it should work fine to trap chipmunks. Just have to figure out what bait to use. The chipmunks I have in the yard are smaller than a rat, so I would think it would work.

Not quite sure why you want to use a live trap to catch rats and mice only to drown them in a barrel. You can get inexpensive mouse and rat spring traps that both catch and kill them at the same time. I guess it makes sense not to use the spring traps if you have small children or pets that could get hurt.

I used my live traps to relocate pests a few miles down the road into the woods. I hope you can relocate any chipmunks you might be able to trap. I don't put them in the same category as mice and rats, but I know chipmunks can do a lot of damage in my raised beds digging tunnels and such.

 

[CatInTheHenHouse]

Would something like this work to trap chipmunks? We bought this to trap a baby squirrel but caught a rat instead. Worked following instructions so well to catch rats we left it out all year & got dozens of rats & DH drowned them in a deep trash barrel each time.

I think I saw chipmunk traps at Tractor Supply, the issue is I’m surrounded by woods and parks and such, so no matter how many I hypothetically trapped and killed, more would just move in. Thus I’ve been trying to repel/exclude them instead. I appreciate the suggestion though!

 

[Justagalwithchicks]

That’s great! Hopefully your plants handle the wind well

flowers blooming, lots of tomatoes getting close to ripe, and my dried bean plants have been doing really good. A bunch look like they are going to start drying soon so I’m excited. And my loofahs have been taking off which I’m looking forward to. And I think the last thing is all my peppers finally fruiting

Your garden sounds like it is taking off! I haven't done loofahs, but they definitely have peaked my interest. I saw some people use them in nest boxes? And I haven't done dried beans. Now I want too realizing we eat so many black beans! I even can them!