frustratedearthmother

Sustainability Master
Joined
Mar 10, 2012
Messages
21,041
Reaction score
24,629
Points
453
Location
USDA 9a
I walked past the garden and noticed a big ol' yellow squash that needed to be picked. It'll still need to be picked tomorrow... :(
 

NH Homesteader

Sustainability Master
Joined
Sep 6, 2016
Messages
7,800
Reaction score
6,673
Points
347
I um... Looked at my garden. Thought about watering, but it's supposed to rain tonight so didn't. Need to finish mulching and get some fertilizer on the tomatoes. I was thinking about manure tea but is it bad to use manure with shavings? I also have a pile that's mostly hay and manure. This was supposed to be a big garden year but looks like it'll be similar to last year. Weird weather, got a bunch of stuff in late... Oh well, it's something.
 

Mini Horses

Sustainability Master
Joined
Sep 2, 2015
Messages
7,787
Reaction score
16,925
Points
382
Location
coastal VA
Well....gardening, such as it is, not huge and just OK. Having a week off, yesterday I decided to do some things out there. Started out well BUT as I looked out the back door I see all the goat does in a place only accessible by having escaped their pasture. :( NO reason to be out there as there is plenty of forage. Quickly changed from PJs to clothes, guzzled rest of coffee and as I headed out the back door, there they were in the yard looking at (for?) me. They followed as I walked to the gates and they came in nicely. Now confined and I'm up and about, thought I'd head to garden....

Planned to put up another gate & actually got the gate to the location for it. Needed the pins to hang it. Went to truck, grabbed empty gas can for mower...as I put it into back, saw the four large flower boxes I had salvaged from another's trash pile along the road. They were faded but still good for some plants in the garden -- cukes were planned for one. Unloaded those. Opening coops before leaving -- saw that I had failed to close a pen for some young ones -- hmmm, find them! Then, realized just how tall the grass was and began cutting (OK -- see the pattern??? jumping from thing to thing) Mowed for a long, long time.

Dumped 6 bags into compost, dumped 14 into pile for drying and use to mulch -- all in garden area. Then, worked on the hot wire around the front pasture. THAT grass was butt deep and need horses there to cut it for me but, had to check all the wire, cut along it, dump into a burn pile -- before opening it to them. All was working well as I found out by an accidental "self test"....:lol: This makes me remember that I have to go fix a hole somewhere in the goat pasture. Do that.

Now, I realize it's time to feed and close up :th

WHAT have I done?? Nothing to cross off my list. Whatever I didn't do, I know that I got absolutely filthy not doing it !!

On way in, check my setting hen & one pipping. :celebrate


THIS MORNING -- I decided to work slightly differently. The hen had hatched 4, more working...nice. The goats were in their pasture (my fix had been successful) and so I opened gates and walked them 1/4 mile to the lower pasture for browse (they like me to invite them!). Then climbed fences and called to mares who followed me back to the top and they happily scurried thru the gate I opened into the bountiful front pasture! Eating machines!! I planted 2 cukes into one of the flower boxes, went back in for coffee, and felt good that I could look out my kitchen window to see the bags of potato plants growing well! :ya Not planned, just dumb luck location.

Hopefully, that garden gate will get hinged today, also!

Some days -- things don't go as planned but, work out OK.:old
 

Mini Horses

Sustainability Master
Joined
Sep 2, 2015
Messages
7,787
Reaction score
16,925
Points
382
Location
coastal VA
Nice day -- 60 degree and sunny. Warmed to 78, slight breeze, low humidity (rare for here this time of yr). Outside ALL day :clap AC off, even saved some electric! :cool:

Got the gate hung. YAH!! mulched, watered, cleaned an area to move a grape fine -- a 2 yr old volunteer from something I fed the birds. Whatever it is will be great. Will move it in AM into garden area. It can climb along the fence. No problem. Little tomatoes on the vines...pole limas starting to climb. Much got planted late but, it's all good.

All six eggs hatched, 3 lovely yellow chicks & 3 black/yellow....moving, chirping. Good hen! Her sister will hatch a clutch 6/8.

Mowed around the chicken coops. Heavy, thick grass!
 

Beekissed

Mountain Sage
Joined
Jul 11, 2008
Messages
12,774
Reaction score
3,943
Points
437
Location
Mountains of WV
Got so much done in the garden these past few days that I couldn't stop thanking the Lord today every time I passed the garden....and that was a lot of times!
faint.gif


Tore out my tunnels to make improvements, took a heaping barrow full of lettuce and pak choy out of there. Transplanted the broccoli elsewhere.

Put up another CP trellis and planted out the rest of the tomatoes I'll actually need or want this year. The tomatoes are all looking pretty good thus far, tall and slender, but are starting to fill out...love it that they are all from my tomatoes of last year, except the Sweet One Million tomato by the gate. A few of the tomatoes are volunteer tomatoes that I transplanted elsewhere...they are a mystery as to what they are.

Finally got the JBs to lay off the beans so much...still a few, but I think they will recover. The cukes look to be recovering as well...only pulled one out.

Got that one pile of chips spread to areas that had plants growing...I need TONS more chips.
STARE.gif


Got the sunflower staked up, got a Fortex bean planted next to it. Tied up some flowers that were taking up too much floor space. Got the garden weeded....AGAIN...LOVE that Rogue hoe!
Love_.gif
Eli showed me the proper way to sharpen it, so today I filed down some of the nicks and burrs I had put in the edges while being stupid with it.

Got things fertilized and also gave all a dusting of lime. Got the sagging fence tightened up, got flotsam and jetsam cleaned up out of the chips~plant markers, trays, cells, odd bits of plastic here and there. Got lettuce sets and pepper seedlings put under temporary tiny tunnels until they get bigger. Got the Agribon spread out, trimmed the holes and such out of it, rolled it ready for making the tunnel frames.

In other words, the garden looks GREAT right now....and I hurt all over.
STARE.gif
LOL_.gif
Did all of that while helping to watch grandgirls, helping with the outhouse construction, cooking meals, etc.

God is so very good! Only with His strength did I get through these past 3 days.
faint.gif
 

Hinotori

Sustainability Master
Joined
Nov 2, 2011
Messages
5,789
Reaction score
12,716
Points
373
Location
On the foot of Mt Rainier
After fixing the mower yesterday, today was another lawn day. Tomorrow as well. I only managed to get stuck twice and didn't need to truck to pull it out this time. I reclaim a bit more land from the 6 foot grass and brush each time I mow. Eventually it will be fenced for pasture. Have to dig out rocks and trash every time I'm out there.

Today was a lazy garden day. Nothing needed done with it cooled back down to around 70. I need to finish cleaning out the old raised beds and put the perennial food plants in them. The big resin barrel planters work really well for the squash and the elevated waist high planters work better for the peas and beans than anything else has here. Those are against the back of the house where the deer are leary of coming. The 4 legged pests are why I haven't bothered planting peas for a few years.
 

frustratedearthmother

Sustainability Master
Joined
Mar 10, 2012
Messages
21,041
Reaction score
24,629
Points
453
Location
USDA 9a
We've been getting rain, rain, rain most of the week. I NEEEEEED to get in the garden and attack the weeds that are coming through. The feed sacks and pine shavings have kept them down well, but the chickens got in a couple times and tore up some of the feed sacks with their scratching. Tenacious weeds are popping through...ugh. Peppers are coming on and eggplant is blooming! YAY! I love me some eggplant. :D
 

Mini Horses

Sustainability Master
Joined
Sep 2, 2015
Messages
7,787
Reaction score
16,925
Points
382
Location
coastal VA
Love eggplant parm! Grilled chicken is good with -- just sayin.

Mine occasionally get in but, at this time I believe they have decided it wasn't a place they needed to be. Chicken wire all around on the wood rails - 4' high ! In this area they only want to go thru/under a fence, not over. That helps! Not foolproof, as you know.
 

lcertuche

Almost Self-Reliant
Joined
Aug 26, 2016
Messages
980
Reaction score
626
Points
163
My tomato leaves are curling so I'm thinking of trying something on them in case it's a buggy problem but if it's virus related then it's just bad news. One of my plants I thought was a potato plant that I hilled up a couple times is looking like a tomato plant now. It's half the size of the other tomatoes but I'll bet it's got a good root system. Peppers are blooming and the squash and cukes are up but I tried replanting the squash/zuchinni and it's not looking good. I better be replanting it. I should have already been eating it but I didn't plant it until almost June. The beans are tall and should have blooms any day now.
 
Top