Your 2025 Garden

[tripletfeb]

Today I weeded the garden and planted broccoli, lettuce, spinach, and some herbs. My strawberries and chamomile have taken over a whole section of garden, not complaining though

 

[fuzzi]

Today I got the last two rain barrels installed. It will be nice to save rain water for the gardens!

Two on each downspout.

Rain is forecast for the next few days, so I am very happy I was able to get these installed before the storms arrive.

 

[fuzzi]

I'm guessing it is about 16-18 ft. planted on both sides. It was just a scrap of chain link fence. It was originally put up as a back stop for baseball when my grandson was small.

I turned it into a bed for peas. I will get a few pickings off these before the mildew takes them. They are still full of pods. They did well last year. I still have a couple packs in the freezer.

Your beans are looking good!

Thank you. The peas I pulled up were getting powdery mildew, so it was time. After removing the pods I tossed the vines in one of the chicken yards. They won't eat much, but it will act as a bedding for the run, eventually composting.

I am going to look over my garden diary, to see where a third sowing of beans should go. I try to rotate the crops as much as possible, to avoid disease. And I have a couple yams I will plant as well, they like warm soil so I hadn't put them in yet.

And I need to mow...

 

[jxp]

Today I got the last two rain barrels installed. It will be nice to save rain water for the gardens!
View attachment 4119834
Two on each downspout.
View attachment 4119835

Rain is forecast for the next few days, so I am very happy I was able to get these installed before the storms arrive.

2 Summers ago we had a heat pump system installed to replace the wall unit heaters and window AC's that were probably as old as the house and had long outlived their usefulness.
I understand the basics of the new all-in-one unit but not the intricacies. It gives off a lot of condensation drip which, although the unit sits on a concrete pad at ground level, the water comes out a PVC pipe from the eaves of the house.
Last year I let it just go onto the ground which the ducks found to be a wonderful place to chill out in the heat of summer. I didn't care for the muddy mess, however, and got a 55 gal to use like a rain barrel for collection. Now that most of our rain is finished for the season, it will be nice to have this source. I find the plants don't really care so much for city water.

 

[jxp]

Thank you. The peas I pulled up were getting powdery mildew, so it was time. After removing the pods I tossed the vines in one of the chicken yards. They won't eat much, but it will act as a bedding for the run, eventually composting.

I read about various solutions to try a long time ago in either Mother Earth News or The Old Farmer's Almanac. The one that works best for me is as follows: when you're down to the last inch or so in the bottom of your milk carton (and it's near its expiration date or about to go over) leave it out on the counter at room temperature overnight. The next day it should be good and sour smelling, fill the cartoon the rest of the way up with water. Use a clean spray bottle to spray the tops and bottoms of affected leaves.
Every few years I'll get PM or BS on one of the the roses and this simple concoction works like a charm, keeping it away for the rest of that year and into the future.
Two years ago when I bought most of the young fruit trees, one of the apples developed some sort of fungal disease shortly after being planted. (I'm pretty sure it came home with it from the nursery) I sprayed it with this concoction and was very diligent about picking up and disposing all of the leaves as they fell right up until it went dormant. Last year, there wasn't a sign of disease on either that or any of the other trees.

 

[Sally PB]

I copied that information and saved it in my garden file. I had horrible powdery mildew on my zucchini last year. I'll try it out.

 

[R2elk]

 

[Nomadicus]

Not sure where to start. Need to finish one job today before I start another. It's getting harder and harder to keep the momentum going. If my back is working the weather is bad. If the weather is good my back wants to go on a labor strike.

 

[CatInTheHenHouse]

Pruned back some of the basil seedlings today. I’m reasonably sure I have at least one Thai plant and one Lemon plant in addition to the two easy-to-identify Dark Opal. I need to free up some smaller pots so I can get them out of their tray!

 

[R2elk]

Cucumbers

Melons