What did you do in your garden today?

[Medicine Woman]

Very close to our home there are square bales of hay for sale for $5 and I have been wanting to try hay bale gardening. So yesterday DD and I ran errands and on the rebound I picked up 4. We placed them in a boxed in area DH constructed for whatever . I placed a bunch of contender green beans on 2 and 1/2 bales and dumped out some soil to cover them. I had watched a few videos. Honestly if it works well I will buy more.

 

[Mini Horses]

I've seen mostly straw used. There are pluses to it. Hope there was no weed killer used on the fields as that can also kill the veggies. Let us know how it works for you. I've been tempted in the past.

My fun with old bales in winter is to set them in the chicken run....IF THEY ARE full of seed head, when they get wet they sprout and chickens have fresh grass. Then they scratch it all apart.

 

[CrealCritter]

Very close to our home there are square bales of hay for sale for $5 and I have been wanting to try hay bale gardening. So yesterday DD and I ran errands and on the rebound I picked up 4. We placed them in a boxed in area DH constructed for whatever . I placed a bunch of contender green beans on 2 and 1/2 bales and dumped out some soil to cover them. I had watched a few videos. Honestly if it works well I will buy more.

Works well if the grass was not not sprayed with 2-4-D but even then it depends on when it was sprayed. Let us know how it turns out.

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[FarmerJamie]

In between storms this evening

 

[Dreamz]

In between storms this evening
View attachment 26573View attachment 26571View attachment 26572

Jealous! My tomato's, lol



Tiny Roma's are slowly coming.
By the way, not one seed of the corn that I put directly on the ground sprouted. It's all GRASS!

 

[Medicine Woman]

I've seen mostly straw used. There are pluses to it. Hope there was no weed killer used on the fields as that can also kill the veggies. Let us know how it works for you. I've been tempted in the past.

My fun with old bales in winter is to set them in the chicken run....IF THEY ARE full of seed head, when they get wet they sprout and chickens have fresh grass. Then they scratch it all apart.

In my area, no one has straw because we don’t have wheat fields. We do have corn but I don’t know if anyone uses the stalks to make straw and really it’s not many fields like it used to be. Mostly what we have fields of is sugar cane and that’s just used for sugar . If it’s full of seeds, I’m no worse off than what DH has going on with the garden. I just need something easy for me to reach. I know straw would be more ideal.

 

[Mini Horses]

Less bending & less weeding, both good!!!

 

[CrealCritter]

Last week I added tposts to level the wires out and slid the grow tubes up and pruned to the lowest single growing bud. Crazy how many buds were growing on some of the vines, talking in the teens. Today I went back to check, all of the niagara grapes are near the top of the grow tubes. This one is furthest along I hit it with some copper fungicide, since I'm not sure if the new immature leaves are pale because they are new and haven't hardened off yet or if a fungus. Although it's almost looking like it could use some nitrogen but the mature leaves a dark green. IDK... I suppose, I'll find out soon enough.

It's attached It'self to the bottom wire with its tentacle. I'll give it a few more days before I prune it. I need 3 healthy buds near the bottom wire to start kniffin training the lower arms.

With all the roots energy focused on a single vine now, they should grow fairly quick. I'm just happy to see the first vine exit the grow tube

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[flowerbug]

Last week I added tposts to level the wires out and slid the grow tubes up and pruned to the lowest single growing bud. Crazy how many buds were growing on some of the vines, talking in the teens. Today I went back to check, all of the niagara grapes are near the top of the grow tubes. This one is furthest along I hit it with some copper fungicide, since I'm not sure if the new immature leaves are pale because they are new and haven't hardened off yet or if a fungus. Although it's almost looking like it could use some nitrogen but the mature leaves a dark green. IDK... I suppose, I'll find out soon enough.
View attachment 26590

It's attached It'self to the bottom wire with its tentacle. I'll give it a few more days before I prune it. I need 3 healthy buds near the bottom wire to start kniffin training the lower arms.
View attachment 26591

With all the roots energy focused on a single vine now, they should grow fairly quick. I'm just happy to see the first vine exit the grow tube

i'm not sure pruning right away is a good choice with grape vines, you can let them grow and get stronger faster by not pruning them so quick. this is all IMO based upon years of experience... you can prune off any side shoots right away, but let the main vine go as long as it wants and make those leaves and give energy to the plant. then after the growing season is done you can cut it almost back and know that perhaps some segments will die back over winter before early spring cleanup and shaping. the main stem will be stronger having more energy.

or perhaps i'm misunderstanding what your writings and intentions are...

i'm hoping you'll continue to do your own studies and experimentation to see what works best, but i'm now out of the grape vine growing routine and can't verify or practice any more.

 

[flowerbug]

weeded the onions yesterday morning. we had a lot of rain so i was able to see where my earthworks had been overtopped by the water flow. i'll have to repair that next time i get back to that part of the garden. by the time i was done with weeding i was overheated and having a hard time breathing from all the humidity in the air so retreated inside. planned on having a very relaxed and cool rest of the day inside but was told we were invited to a party so had to get cleaned up and ready for that.

it remained humid and a bit rainy at times the rest of the day but at least it did cool off in the evening enough that we didn't run the AC last night.

today i did a little light weeding and had to remind Mom that when i pull some weeds and leave them on the surface of a garden they should be left alone (she thinks it looks untidy and wants to pick them up) because we do organic gardening and every bit of nutrients i can get back to the soil via those weeds is critical for what production we do get in the future (in organic gardening it is good to think three to four years ahead with your plant nutrients and rotational plantings of the different plant families in a specific area). the area i weeded yesterday is planted with onions a 2nd year in a row so i'll put something else in there next year (hard to do because of no fence and deer roaming around).

before doing a little weeding i'd checked the bean sprouts in the gardens inside the fence and everything looks good. these recent rains were really perfect in getting those new sprouts up and cleaned off as they push up out of the clay they sometimes need a little help with the water washing off a dirt cap sticking to them or trying to hold them down. none of that seen today. all sprouts up and at 'em. pulled a few vagrant squash sprouts (coming up from the buried worm compost under the plants). those sprouts have a good eight inch stem on them when i pull them out, but i don't want to encourage them or let them go as they'll easily take over a garden.