What did you do in the garden today?

[wyoDreamer]

I got my garden tilled last Sunday, will probably move the compost pile to the garden and start a new one with coop cleanings this weekend.

Question - should I try to screen the compost and leave the big chunks or just move the whole pile over? There are some weed stems that have not completely broken down that would be screened out, but I am pretty sure the tiller on the tractor will break them in to smaller pieces no problem, if I put them in the garden area.

 

[wyoDreamer]

We have had temps in the low 30's every morning for the last week. looks like we will be hitting 60 degrees on Saturday and then back to the high 40's next week. Ugg!

 

[Lazy Gardener]

If it were me, I'd not worry about the "chunks".

 

[Hinotori]

I have so many rocks, I wouldn't notice chunks. They might distort the growth of root vegetables like how rocks do to carrots, but it doesn't bother the plants.

 

[wyoDreamer]

I am just a little bit worried that they are still composting and may cause problems that way... i need to stop overthinking this stuff.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Continued ripping and tearing. Removing garlic volunteers. Ripped out the rest of the blueberry bushes. They are infected with witches' broom. Broadforking my way through the garden. I started on the potato bed today. Got 2 rows of spuds in the ground. Laying cardboard between rows. Need to go get some more wood chips to lay over the cardboard. Set aside some strawberry plants that appear to be virus free. They will go in the orchard. Hubby helped me do the second burn to make bio-char in the raspberry bed.

Hopefully, this is the year that I beat the garden into submission. No longer, will I allow volunteer plants to direct my path. If it's not intended to be there, it is going to get ripped out by it's roots, and left in the sun to die!

I'm finding very few grubs in the garden this season. However, the lawn is an other story. Skunks are working it over pretty good now. Chickens no longer allowed to free range since fox attack.

 

[Beekissed]

Planted flowers this evening, around the house and also some in the garden~impatiens, nasturtium, marigold, zinnia, sunflower, becopa, petunias, violas, etc. Moved some strawberries, and also a rhubarb, that was a little crowded in the designated bed for these things.

My duck experiment for the garden is working well as of now....will see how well it does with more bedding plants in it. I need to fence off the corn patch until those sprout and get big enough that the ducks can't trample or sample them.

The ducks are foraging a LOT there and seem to be finding enough bugs and such to be of interest, which should increase when the pest bugs move in on the plants to be found there.

 

[Beekissed]

Getting a LOT done in the garden this morning and hoping the rain holds off until I complete all I wanted to do there just now. Also hoping the Mantis will run fine for me today....needs the carb adjusted, so time will tell.

So far got the corn patch fenced off from the ducks, got the T posts put up for the extra row of raspberries and also for the long row of tomatoes. Got the potatoes fertilized, as I did everything else. Saw a few blooms on them already! Used fish and seaweed emulsion for the nitro, sweet lime for the calcium and phosphorus, sulfur and epsom salts for the sulfur. Used the fish emulsion lightly....really watered down as per bottle instructions....that stuff has a LOT of nitrogen in it.

Right now I'm getting the sides for the tater and rhubarb raised beds dug out of the honeysuckle over in the wood line so I can finally put those in place and start filling those beds up with hay, leaves, manure/litter, etc. Right now those beds are just mounded up raised beds but no sides to contain things.

Am mighty pleased with the rhubarb starts I got from Rural King~there were several in a pack costing $3.99, so I wound up with 7 rhubarb plants for $8 and they are growing well, each one is as big as those one would buy in a pot from the nursery at $15 a pop, so quite the bargain. The way I see it, I saved $97 with that one little discovery and purchase!

Same with the asparagus....I only bought a few packs at less than what one in a pot would cost and I got numerous root starts of asparagus from each $3.99 package. Ditto on strawberries.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

So far, I've trenched out the front (South side) of the garden in front of the CP fence. Will delay laying in the cedar slab edging until I get the fence panels shored up from their current floppy state of affairs.

All the potatoes are planted except for a few fingerling sets. Those will likely need to go in the sheet compost area, along with the corn.

Any readers have experience growing fingerlings? I'm interested to hear if they require more or less space than regular potatoes, and what you've found the comparative yield to be.

Got the final blueberry shrub grubbed out of the garden. Continue to get a good work out with the Broadfork. I've bent one tine. Will wait until I have the garden finished, then send it to the guy who made it for a "tune up".

Next up: remove some huge iris plants. They should put on quite a display this season if I left them alone. But, they are standing in the way of progress. So, I'll try to lift the clumps intact. Each clump must weigh at least 40#. They will go in flower beds at front and west end of the house.

 

[Beekissed]

Got rained out, but still pleased that I got any done at all, considering how rainy it's been this week. The rain will help work the fertilizer into all the plants that need it and the ducks will love the rainy weather too.

When it started raining, one broody called her chicks to her and they all gathered under mama...except the three little foster kids. Ducklings, who thought the rain was JUST right and kept on foraging right around mama. I bet she was thinking those were sure some strange chicks.