What did you do in your garden today?

[flowerbug]

this morning i went out and refreshed the birdbath and came back inside and went back to sleep for while. i intended to go out after the birdbath and get the garlic lifted but i really needed a bit more sleep instead and so i try to listen to what my bod tells me. when i woke up it was trying to rain but not enough to make me worry. Mom needed her sewing machine lubed and so i did that and then during that it wasn't really stitching right so i changed the needle and rewound a bobbin with some different thread. between those things we got it stitching better. soon we need to take it in for a cleaning and check up. she's got a lot of miles on it the past few years since she bought it. it's a monster of a machine as far as i'm concerned...

so after getting that sorted out i went back out and got the garlic lifted and then took pics and played smoosh the ants (black ant colony trying to eat our shed door, sill, etc. which is attached to the back of the garage so i really need to get that out of there completely). i keep knocking it back to not many ants but it is never gone. last week i tried to get the bottom of the door caulked but that didn't work out well. this coming week is probably not going to work out well for deconstruction that i need to do (remove old caulk pull up the sill plate and see what's going on under that and ...) so instead i'll make up a batch of ant poison and bait them when the weather gets hot so they are forced to drink the bait and i'll smoosh any ants that try to wander off in search of better water). after a bit i got out a chair and a pillow and took my book out there to read and catch whatever ants i could get. i think only one got by me. a very nice breeze and cool enough to sit there this evening. i do not do well sitting for long though so after about 45 minutes it's time to get my butt in to this comfy perch instead... as i was telling some people last night i am a protoplasmic being (bean). i'm like water, i seek my own level...

i did weed much of the area around the garlic and along the edges on each side so that is also good to have done. need to do a lot more. purslane is one of those weeds that's tough to eradicate (and since it is somewhat edible i don't want to get rid of all of it anyways).

tomorrow i'll be back to weeding the North Garden. it's coming along, but a few more days to go. maybe i'll have it done by Friday.

 

[flowerbug]

watering today. slight chances of rain later but i can't count on that actually happening.

 

[CLSranch]

In several canning/gardening groups I am in on Facebook, there are discussions floating around that one of the home garden big seed suppliers mixed up/mispackaged lots of pepper varieties this year. People expecting jalapeños got yellow Hungarians or similar, for instance.

Any of you seeing this?

My wife got 2, 4 packs of Jalapenos. It seems only 1 plant is not a bell pepper.

when i first went out i had a run in with a wasp/bee of some kind that got pinched in my shoe so i had to come in and change socks because it kept wanting to sting me again

A honey bee can only sting once, then she dies.

i didn't see that bee again for the remaining two hours i was out there. i saw hundreds to thousands of other bees. they're all over out there all the time there's something blooming.

Honeybee's MOST often will not sting out in the field collecting pollen/nectar. They have nothing to defend in your garden. Just when you rip there roof off and start digging through frames. Good thing is you have a hive just far enough away to be attracted to your garden. I have several hives on my few acres. The garden is to close for them to bother with.

I have stung myself slapping one that was on my face not doing anything to me while mowing, I just felt something and thought it may be a grasshopper. She didn't sting me.... I did. I've stopped slapping bugs if I don't know what they are.

and get the garlic lifted

Lifted???? I'm not familiar with that phrase.

i am a protoplasmic being (bean). i'm like water, i seek my own level...

Enders' game???

 

[flowerbug]

My wife got 2, 4 packs of Jalapenos. It seems only 1 plant is not a bell pepper.

A honey bee can only sting once, then she dies.

yes i know, i'm well versed in this sort of thing. it did sting more than once and i saw it come back for multiple attacks in trying to sting me further (through my shoe).

we have a large pile of hives out back from the beekeeper, they're not ours. plenty of bees around of several kinds.

i was a bit worried this spring and summer as i was not seeing many other kinds of bees but now with the squash and melon flowers i'm seeing more other kinds of bees. and also perhaps the return of some rains has also helped. still not too many of the larger bumblebees, but at least i've seen a few of those at last.

as for the peppers i'm still not sure what i'm going to get off what i planted but at least the Beaver Dam peppers look to be the right kind.

Lifted???? I'm not familiar with that phrase.

our soil is too heavy to just pull it up so i have to go under it with the shovel and lift it up to where i can pull it out. then i cleaned it off and put it in the bucket upside down to cure for a while before i trim the stem off for storage.

Enders' game???

ha! i have read that book (and a lot of the others in that series) many times, but more likely i just like beans. so it is a common pun on my part to refer to myself as a human bean or such...

 

[flowerbug]

i finished weeding the top part of the North Garden and then worked a bit over the edge. i didn't expect to get this much done. Mom helped by pulling some of the weeds along one edge (but more left to do). tomorrow i may be able to finish what is left of the last two edges.

also i have some finished turnips in that garden to bury as i don't want to haul all of that valuable organic material back to the weed pile. there's a few turnips in there that are the size of basketballs that are still growing. if they start going bad i chop them up with the shovel and bury them too. worm food and a cover crop. i'm glad this season for all the seeds that are being scattered around that garden. where a turnip grows not much else grows easily. plus i like the yellow flowers. the edible part of growing them is also nice but Mom won't tolerate me cooking them so i rarely do eat them, but i want to keep a perpetual crop going of them if i can.

when rotting they sure do smell, but what is funny to me is that they smell like beer.

there was a nice sized toad hiding under the turnip leaves where it is nice and cool - i hope i left him/her enough cover to be happy and able to survive...

 

[flowerbug]

rains yesterday afternoon and evening. today is a day of rest.

 

[The Porch]

well, I think first I'll water the blue berries, a chipmunk has been getting into the corn garden and nibbling on the zucchini, I dont think I can keep it out,
Some of the corn plants around the outer edges on the east and south sides are a tad yellow, I think the heat dries them out , I'll mulch those edges--
Pick lettuce- carrots- beets- tie up some tomato branches,

 

[murphysranch]

I simply cannot keep my garden damp. Squashes are yellowing, even tho I water every other day and sometimes every day.

Next year, I'll be installing drip tape in every single raised bed/tub.

 

[The Porch]

Water,water,water

 

[CLSranch]

yes i know, i'm well versed in this sort of thing. it did sting more than once and i saw it come back for multiple attacks in trying to sting me further (through my shoe).

Just checking. And telling any random reader. You know how some people are. While I was at a friends house the other week he kept complaining about all the bee's. I was exited because I have a swarm trap there. Then I noticed what he called a bee, anything that flew. Hornet, spider wasp, red wasp everything that flew but a grasshopper and I never saw 1 bee.

cleaned it off and put it in the bucket upside down to cure for a while before i trim the stem off for storage.

Do/can you freeze it? We have A LOT of wild garlic. If I pick enough to last, it goes bad after a few months.

I simply cannot keep my garden damp. Squashes are yellowing, even tho I water every other day and sometimes every day.

Next year, I'll be installing drip tape in every single raised bed/tub.

I water for 12 hours at a time this time of year. Turn it on before bed and turn it off the next morning. It lets it get down in the soil enough to do some good and stay. Earlier this year before the seeds got established I'd water 2 hours a day and you couldn't tell the next day, sometimes with watering certain rows/plants by hand before running the sprinkler.
I forgot to turn on the sprinkler last night. Even after telling the boys several times that we needed to.