What did you do in your garden today?

[flowerbug]

almost finished the last part of the long narrow garden but there is a few square feet of sod i still need to remove and a few weeds to take out along the other edge. all told it was a four hour day today and i got it mostly done, but i ran out of oomph for those last two feet and i can get those anytime between now and next planting season so no big deal at all. it sure does look a lot nicer out there now.

it is only an illusion though as stripping sod off the surface does not remove the deeper grass roots that can sometimes persist and some other plant roots can resprout and grow too but i know all that will be there for me. what this does though is that it starts to process of reclaiming that space for next season and getting all that sod buried and then putting newspapers and cardboard over it (and then replace more dirt on top that is thick enough to plant smaller crops into) will prevent most of the grass roots from coming back up. it's a pretty easy technique if you are patient enough and know that you'll be back in some future time to find some of those roots that have escaped and started to grow again. that's ok. it's just part of the process.

double digging deep grass roots out of clay is just a lot of work. i'll do it if i have to, but i'd rather just go back there once a week and chop off any new growth trying to come up and call it good enough. that gets rid of most the problem grasses and then after a while i can see where the clumps are still left that i need to actually go dig out.

in all though the edge is along a grassy area with invasive deep root grasses. it's not going to be fun each year, but it will be a lot easier to manage the edge of the garden now that it is a ways away from the neighboring gravel pathway and the total amount of edge to keep up is reduced by 3/4 with this garden space being reclaimed. i already gained most of that back by what i did this past spring and summer so what i finished today is just putting the icing on the cake. it was all much easier to deal with this summer compared to previous years.

 

[tortoise]

I started sorting seeds and putting planting dates into my calendar.

 

[Trying2keepitReal]

I did get some onion and carrots seeds in before the snow yesterday. First time sowing seeds in the winter so I am interested to see how this works.

 

[flowerbug]

i've been inside too much, but that's how it goes this time of the year. sometimes i can get outside for weeks at a time and other times not. so inside work has been sorting beans and sending out some packages that were due.

if i'm lucky today i can get outside and do something, not sure what yet, planting garlic would be a good idea. at least now i have the garlic bulbs in here where i can get to them to get cloves for replanting. i don't need that many. i'm downsizing again. people still want whatever i can grow so it doesn't go to waste, we're just not using as much of it here in cooking the past few years so i like to use the space instead for things we do eat no matter what (squash, beans, tomatoes and onions are sure bets in that regard).

i always love bean sorting season so it's very tempting some times to stay inside and do that instead of going outside on marginal days, but this year i've had to take any marginal days that have come along and make the best of them. i see blue sky so we'll check it out in a bit once i get some breakfast/brunch and wake up enough that i'll trust myself to walk a straight enough line.

 

[flowerbug]

i did get the garlic planted and weeded most of the North Garden. which since it doesn't have plants in the way goes pretty fast. it was cold enough that when i was done i was happy to come back inside and get warmed up again. later on i had to go out to retrieve the recycle bins and on the way back got the lawn chairs put in the garage for the winter. so a productive enough day considering i was thinking of just hiding inside all day again.

i did find a home for the extra garlic i have harvested so after putting ten large bulbs into cold storage in the garage the rest is now taken care of. well... almost... i have some tops/bulbulles off the scapes that are in some box tops in the garage some place. those i give away to people who want them and some are as big as small cloves of garlic so they're also emergency garlic rations if needed. in late winter at the seed swap people are always happy to see them and i've never failed to give away all my extras that i take with me even if it is such an odd time to talk garlic.

 

[Trying2keepitReal]

nothing directly in the garden but I got a seed catalog from Sow True Seed out of NC and I am planning (or more like dreaming) and circling all the seeds that I will need to buy. lol

 

[flowerbug]

i was able to get two large piles of scrapings and leftovers from the beans buried in two trenches today. then spread wood ashes and got them dug in well enough that they'll do until i have to weed it all again in the spring. the other fun i had while doing this was leveling the garden which makes it easier to take care of. i'm not sure if i get tomorrow off or not. we'll see what the weather does. forecast is for rain at some point so perhaps that will be a rain day for me?

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Weather is nice so I started on the raised bed area. Every year I try to give them a little lift. This year they need a BIG lift, lol. I'm planning on adding some barn gold (dirt from the barn, lol), some old hay and some cardboard. This area grows the BEST weeds in the world and it's a constant battle to not have them take over. I'd love to NOT have to fight weeds all season.

I know I'm overthinking this - but in what order would you layer the materials (the cardboard, barn dirt and old hay)?

Would you lay the cardboard down on the existing bed and then and then add the dirt and top it with hay? Or would you add the dirt,, the hay and then the cardboard on top, or the hay, then the dirt and then the cardboard or.... ?

 

[FarmerJamie]

Weather is nice so I started on the raised bed area. Every year I try to give them a little lift. This year they need a BIG lift, lol. I'm planning on adding some barn gold (dirt from the barn, lol), some old hay and some cardboard. This area grows the BEST weeds in the world and it's a constant battle to not have them take over. I'd love to NOT have to fight weeds all season.

I know I'm overthinking this - but in what order would you layer the materials (the cardboard, barn dirt and old hay)?

Would you lay the cardboard down on the existing bed and then and then add the dirt and top it with hay? Or would you add the dirt,, the hay and then the cardboard on top, or the hay, then the dirt and then the cardboard or.... ?

GLASS O' WINE TIME!!!!!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

GLASS O' WINE TIME!!!!!

I agree! I shall probably have a glass tonight and ponder this question, lol!