What did you do in the garden today?

[Wannabefree]

Well like I said this is the best year I've ever had, but especially so for peppers. I've never seen peppers do this well, and I just had to take a pic of this monster jalapeño. That's an average size jalapeño beside it! I'm amazed! I am saving the seed from the ones I get that are this large and going to attempt to improve these along the way. They have a great flavor and the plants are huge and absolutely loaded down with fruits. I pick mostly smaller ones that I actually could allow to grow but they weigh down the limbs so much I pick small ones too to thin them out.

 

[Wannabefree]

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Wowza!

 

[Wannabefree]

I failed to get a pic of the biggest one a week ago lol! I ate it, then thought hmm..maybe I shoulda..oh well too late. I could let these all grow this large. Usually jalapeños allowed to keep growing will get scarring on the skins way before they get this size. These don't! There is minimal scarring at the tip of this pepper where the skin got thin from fast growth. I wonder if I actually let a couple grow till they show scarring if they'd get almost as big as a bell pepper lol...I may try that just out of curiosity.

 

[baymule]

I picked everything that was pickable 3 days ago. I turned the sheep in the garden yesterday and today. Lots of crab grass, Poor Joe, and giant ragweed. Free sheep food! When I put the flock in the garden, I turn out the 3 weaner lambs in the yard so they can graze too. After the sheep clean it up, we'll pull what's left and start getting it ready for next year. I'm thinking about planting Dutch White clover in the garden. It stays short and fixes nitrogen. Dutch White clover lives way up into June around here instead of dying back at the first peep of heat.

 

[Wannabefree]

I'm going to pull weeds after I finish cutting the grass

 

[CrealCritter]

I picked everything that was pickable 3 days ago. I turned the sheep in the garden yesterday and today. Lots of crab grass, Poor Joe, and giant ragweed. Free sheep food! When I put the flock in the garden, I turn out the 3 weaner lambs in the yard so they can graze too. After the sheep clean it up, we'll pull what's left and start getting it ready for next year. I'm thinking about planting Dutch White clover in the garden. It stays short and fixes nitrogen. Dutch White clover lives way up into June around here instead of dying back at the first peep of heat.

Excellent idea - I've been doing winter wheat for a ground cover throughout the winter. Doesn't work so well though

 

[Beekissed]

The clover also makes great fall and winter feed for free ranging chickens and is still available when the snow is off the ground in the winter months. I find it to be the most worthy seed of planting in the meadow for the amount of bees it attracts, the good cover on the ground, the good protein levels for the chooks and how it never gets too tall.

Tied up a few volunteer tomatoes to whatever was nearest...one to a huge sunflower that already has a bean vine on it and the other two to fenceposts. Scuffled a few weeds...mostly grasses right now.

Went up to the coop and got a cartload of compost from underneath the roosts, with plenty of fresh poo in it too and covered that with water. The rains will add more water and I'll be using out of that cart to side dress these plants that are showing some nitrogen leaching and also some slow growing plants. Put some around the rhubarb this evening but will let that compost tea cook a few more days before applying it to other things. The rhubarb is really showing the leaching, with yellowed leaves and slow growth.

Took a few caterpillars off the maters....black with a yellow stripe? Army worms? First time I've ever seen such a thing in my garden...let me tell ya, every pest bug in the world has answered the call to chew my garden. I've got things I've never seen before going on.

Pruned some zinnias and cleaned up my garden bench.

 

[milkmansdaughter]

I attacked what was left of my garden with a lawn mower today. It's really a shame how overgrown it got, but with snakes in the area, I was afraid to get in there once the grass took over. The garden was doing fine, but by the time we were finished moving (my husband moved in in October but our youngest son and I only got here at the end of June) extra rain, a sick dog, and various other projects, the garden got away from us. I wish I had goats. The chickens wouldn't go near the garden. So today, I got in there with a mower and found the peppers and okra doing well. Most everything else is getting cut, tilled, and replanted for fall. The chickens rejoiced mightily over the overgrown cucumbers I found with the mower.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I need to do the same thing. At least you found some goodies!