Cosmo Spring Garden 2022

[Alasgun]

A manure source will greatly aid your efforts too.

 

[Cosmo spring garden]

A manure source will greatly aid your efforts too.

True! I will add bunny and chicken litter in the next pile . I didn't have any yesterday but will collect it in a bucket until I have enough material for the next pile.

 

[digitS']

Maybe you already know this Cosmo'. You can think of manuring as a simple and time-honored process. The word "manual" is from the same source. Working the land and soil for the benefit of fertility and crops.

That said, I was very reluctant to put a tea made from fermented compost on my garden years ago. It smelled horrible and I'm putting it on vegetables???

Last year, I used a tea from mint ... . It wasn't so bad. One idea of benefit was that you can deter bugs with something like this. That made sense to me for years before I learned that some people use mint. A week of brewing and "It wasn't so bad."

Steve

 

[Cosmo spring garden]

Maybe you already know this Cosmo'. You can think of manuring as a simple and time-honored process. The word "manual" is from the same source. Working the land and soil for the benefit of fertility and crops.

That said, I was very reluctant to put a tea made from fermented compost on my garden years ago. It smelled horrible and I'm putting it on vegetables???

Last year, I used a tea from mint ... . It wasn't so bad. One idea of benefit was that you can deter bugs with something like this. That made sense to me for years before I learned that some people use mint. A week of brewing and "It wasn't so bad."

Steve

Mint tea? In compost? I will have loads of mint in a few weeks so I will definitely try that! Thank you! As I type this, there is a 50 gallon rain barrel that is filled with water and has a "teabag" ( which is bunch of rabbit litter tied in an old curtain, best part is that it floats and keeps the water free of junk so I can drain it from the little spout!).

 

[digitS']

Well, I didn't use the mint at such a wholesale level.

It was primarily a test to see if I could keep the aphids off the cabbage and broccoli. There have been seasons when aphids have come very close to ruining the cabbage crop, especially. I'm willing to spray with insecticidal soap or neem oil but if there is a massive number down in the curled leaves, spraying is nearly impossible.

Using a 5 gallon bucket with a loose-fitting lid, pulling out any debris, filling a sprinkler can, and sprinkling the tea weekly on the cabbage and broccoli was my technique. It was difficult to know how well it worked to repel aphids because there was still a few (almost none on the broccoli) but, there were few aphids anywhere in the 2021 garden.

Steve

 

[Cosmo spring garden]

If it didn't rain today I would have planted all my onions. But it did rain so I cleaned the house . Trust me, it needed a cleaning!
Iso here are some pics I took yesterday. It was a gorgeous day so we spent almost all the daylights outside getting lots done. Tilled up the market garden plot and tarped it. Tilled the onions and brassicas plot and spread some compost on it but I won't plant onions until I have mulched the beds. Weeding onions beds is a horrible, horrible task which I don't ever want to repeat.
And a pic of my broody hens and some chicks we hatched couple of weeks ago.
Tomorrow if the weather cooperates we plan to gather hay so I can plant my onions.

 

[Cosmo spring garden]

All my herbs and flowers are getting hardened off so they can be planted next week. I didn't realize how crazy I went with planting flowers this year! But I wanted flowers, lots of them so here we are...

I love chive flowers. They are so pretty! The brassicas I planted in between the pea trellises are growing beautifully!

Today DH tilled up one large portion of the summer garden. I think I'll plant either sweet corn or bush beans/soybeans.

 

[Cosmo spring garden]

It is the day yo harvest garlic!
And of course it was hot and humid!
I'm running out of room to cure them at.
Will they cure OK if I put them on a shelf inside the house? I've always cured them outside on the covered porch.
I also have a greenhouse that has shelves which I can use.
Any advice?

 

[Zeedman]

It is the day yo harvest garlic!
And of course it was hot and humid!
I'm running out of room to cure them at.
Will they cure OK if I put them on a shelf inside the house? I've always cured them outside on the covered porch.
I also have a greenhouse that has shelves which I can use.
Any advice?

Looks like a nice harvest. The covered porch sounds like the perfect place to cure garlic; out of direct sunlight, with good air flow. You can cure garlic in the house, with a fan blowing on it... but the smell might get a little strong. Other possible curing locations are hanging in the garage, patio, or any other area that has air flow (or a fan) and does not get excessively hot. Hanging in small bundles (10 or less) is better than laying on a shelf, since all sides of the bulbs dry equally.

 

[flowerbug]

leave the greener stuff in the ground a bit longer and then you can perhaps cure in stages in the available space?

the biggest problem with letting garlic go too long in the ground is that the tunics might not be as good the later you lift it. as you get experience with each variety you can figure out where the peak quality is at for size of the garlic bulb and how well the tunics are coming out.

for the variety i grow it is about at half green/yellowing leaves and the rest are already brown when i lift it. once the bulb is lifted i dry the outside as much as i can and then put them in flats to finish drying and rotate the bulbs at least once a day until they are fully dried.