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[henless]

Mary, I'm going to give direct seeding a try. My tomatoes did so poorly this year, I really don't have anything to loose.

 

[Beekissed]

Henless, I think Paul G. put chips in his orchard at 18 in. deep...I'm thinking that would suppress most of the grass until things starting growing on top of all those chips.

 

[henless]

Henless, I think Paul G. put chips in his orchard at 18 in. deep...I'm thinking that would suppress most of the grass until things starting growing on top of all those chips.

Isn't that from one of the new vids put up by thatnub? I watched it a few weeks ago. I remember Paul saying he had new chips hauled in for the orchard. I also remember him saying he had weeds in his orchard that were taller than his trees before he had the new chips brought in. I saw this a few days after I put my chips in my orchard. If I had seen it first, I probably wouldn't have put them there.

I don't have enough chips to make mine that deep. I think I'll just rake some up a bit deeper around the trees then scoop the rest up and put on my garden. I'll try putting leaves/pine straw out in the orchard this fall. Maybe try and pick up some bags of leaves from town if I see any.

 

[Beekissed]

Cleaning out the garden today...not even a tenth done and already deposited two heaping cartloads of stuff in the coop. Those birds won't be walking on the ground for weeks!

Every year I promise myself I won't let the weeds takeover near the end of the season and every year I break that promise. It was just too much vine tangle in the corn to even get in there and roust out weeds. Next year, if I'm still here, I plan to plant less and manage it more....someone had mentioned twirling the vines around the plant base in a circle and I like that idea. For sure these big pumpkins can't be trellised but I'd love to keep them off my fences and from taking over the garden.

Next year...plant less, manage it better, keep it neater. I promise!!!

One thing I have this year from last year's few that I planted....Black eyed Susans!!! Many good plants and starts of them! These will be moved to the front and side flower beds and some will be moved to the front of the garden, along the fenceline.

The red flowering everlasting strawberries survived and produced better than the regular white blooming everlasting plants...some of those just up and died. The others are still producing wads of berries! I'll be filling in the gaps where others died with cultivars from the reds come spring and just keep growing those.

That blueberry plant has survived but hasn't grown one inch nor produced any bloom at all...it's just there.

The chives were not harvested at all this year and were let go to seed and do what they wanted...as a result, I have two huge clumps of chives that I can now split off in threes and replant in a line along the fence. Chives seem to thrive in this BTE, so the more the merrier. Can't get an onion or garlic to grow, but I can get chives to grow like crazy.

I'm thinking about planting more garlic this fall and see if it does better than the spring planted did.

Harvested all the various squash, pumpkins and watermelon and they don't amount to much when one views it in the light of just how much vine had filled my garden. Never again. No more watermelon...they just don't do well in my clay soil. The same seed was planted in Joel's little plot with his sandy soil underneath and his watermelon produced BIG, ripe and very flavorful melons...around 13-14 melons from 5 plants. I had about a million seeds planted in my garden and I harvested three or four and not a one matured and ripened sufficiently.

If I plant it again it will be two seeds in one hill and the vines will be twirled in a circle or laid out in straight rows only. I like this variety because the leaves and melons are so very pretty and they are pretty disease and parasite resistant if they get enough nutrition. I had planted Joel's in a hill of horse manure while mine were just seeded in the soil, no hills and very little manure.

I'm leaving the 4 ft. jalapeno plant for a bit, though the three branches have all split off the main stem due to the heavy peppers on them...just staked it and tied those up for support and will see about finishing off peppers there.

Got two yellow squash plants that are still looking good and blooming but are covered over with squash beetles and such of all kinds and not really producing anything, so will be pulling those up.

The chickens are all in the garden now, having a heyday from all the bugs we are disturbing and all the left over tomatoes and strawberries we are dropping here and there. I'm going to have to put netting over the strawberries to protect them but everything else is fair game for a bit.

It's fun taking this garden from disaster to clean...I think that may be why I let things go a bit, just for the fun of cleaning it up and making it look great again. I do the same thing with my bedroom now and again....let it get cluttered so I can work a miracle.

 

[Beekissed]

Now up to 7 heaping cartloads of debris hauled to the coop. The last cartloads will be placed in the spare pen...should be two more in there.

Then I hope to have time to put together my cold frame and dump all the materials I've been collecting for it for the past several months. A cartload of old cow manure out of the deconstructed compost bin, a cartload of ancient horse manure that no longer has any nutritive value but can act as filler, a bale of old straw, a bucket of composted chicken litter and two bags of potting soil.

Hope to plant some beets, carrots, spinach, cos romaine, chard and maybe kale in it. Will use the old screen door off my spare chicken pen as the lid to it, wrapped in a large clear leaf bag from those leaves I collected last year.

The cold frame itself will be a headboard and footboard off an old bedstead, connected with reclaimed lumber from a bunkbed. Nothing goes to waste here! I already cut the legs off that bed to make Aliza's little table earlier on.

Hope to also start more rows of romaine lettuce and kale in other parts of the garden...I want to use up all my seeds this year and maybe even order extra. I'll likely plant those within the tomato trellises so I can use the trellising as field houses by covering them with plastic to make mini greenhouses out there.

 

[Beekissed]

Finally done moving garden debris and weeds out of the garden.....15 heaped up, tromped down, cartloads full...hauled off to the coop and spare pen. Mountains of it...WAY more than last year, that's for sure.

The chickens have had a ball in there today...was good to watch. I'll put netting over the strawberries and let them back in there until I get things planted.

Got a couple of buckets full of some mighty misshapen potatoes....look like they were grown in Chernobyl.

White one with red ones growing off the top of them or off the side, long tubular ones that look like yams, scabby and twisted ones that look like a tater's worst nightmare...like the wrong turn of spuds.

I was just shocked to get any at all, so each little ugly spud will be cherished, washed and canned or stored, depending upon their size and relative condition.

Harvested one small onion...about the size of a golf ball. One...after planting over a thousand in seeds and plants, I got one golf ball. It will also be cherished...it's one in a thousand!

Too late tonight to start building my cold frame and moving perennials, as I have to build a gate for the back porch before dark. The previous one is one busted, twisted old relic that no longer functions to keep anything out.

Will post pics of today's labors when I charge up the camera and download pics and such later on. It's downright miraculous to see the before and after shots.

 

[Beekissed]

Took lots of pics of today's activities...it was kind of neat to see the mess get transformed into clean. First I'll show a few pics of the before and then the after...then I'll show some of the in betweens.

Before...

Stop for a commercial break to model my GW garden hat on Mom....by best work partner ever!!! It took both of us working steady for almost 6 hrs to get all of this garden cleaned out.

And the after....

During....

 

[Beekissed]

Where it all went.....

Things we found in all those weeds...some were given to the dogs and chickens, but some were saved and will be used by us or fed to the animals later.

Found another pumpkin almost as big as our biggest one that was 35#, so I'm guessing it went at least 32-33 lbs.

And various butternut, cushaw, spaghetti squash and a few small watermelons.

A nasty guest...

My unused hat...I never wear hats, though I love the pretty of this one....tried to wear it but it was just too hot.

And just a gratuitous shot of the cats and where they sleep each night....

Not pictured among the finds was a couple buckets of really ugly spuds and a basket with some peppers in it...both finds will be canned for later use. Still have a huge jalapeno plant out there just going gangbusters, so am letting it finish out.

A pic of Joel's BTE garden right now....still harvesting his watermelons and sharing them with neighbors. They are incredibly good!

 

[Nyboy]

Bee in one photo I was tring to figure out what the big white flowers where. Your chickens

 

[baymule]

Bee, I don't blame you one bit for letting the garden go to the weeds. I did too. But I just turned my sheep in the garden yesterday to do my clean up. I thought they would go after the remaining bean vines, but nope, they started gobbling the Poor Joe weeds, followed by ragweed.

Your garden sure looks nice now!