What Did You Do In The Garden?

[flowerbug]

Ok, THIS is garden remarkable. I am cleaning up my grapes, doing a first cutting after harvesting, planning on severe pruning next February, and I pull up a branch that is touching the ground. It has a root!!!! I assume, bc I have been really busy, that this IS a grape vine, I have already lost 3/8 grape vines and don't want to damage it. Yesterday I am pulling the weeds in preparation to lay down cardboard and chicken compost (just tilled) to get rid of the weeds without spraying and I NOTICE that THIS branch originates on another grape vine!!
Apparantly you CAN get cuttings to root.
https://homeguides.sfgate.com/root-grapevine-cutting-placing-glass-bottle-water-68657.html
I was, frankly amazed and so pleased bc it looks like I am back one vine, making it 6 for 2019.
I WILL get you a picture of this over the weekend.

yes, it is a common practice to take cuttings of vines and stick them in moist dirt, if they have a few nodes on them below the ground some will take. the only issue is if the vine is European or a native American vine. the Europeans have to be grafted onto native American root stock or they'll eventually die from disease.

if the grape is a Concord variety it is likely ok to grow from cuttings... all that you trim off in your prunings take the pieces about 1-2yr old about a foot to a foot and a half long. stick 'em in the dirt. wait until next spring. see how many go. mulch them to keep the soil from getting too dry and frost heaving them out...

 

[digitS']

My husband says it looks better to see green than compost bins haha.

Mary, if you have a location ~ say, 4' by 4' minimum ~ that would look good with a wooden deck, and a hole dug into the soil there wouldn't just hold a pool of water --- think about a compost bin under a deck.

It's really something of an accident that I started to do composting here at home like this. The decks outside the chicken coop and greenhouse are just a little larger than that minimum size, often noted in gardening manual. Even though it would be almost impossible for water to pool in my soil, it does hold moisture in the pile of compostables. The might be 2' deep, no deeper than that. The pile may be several inches higher at the start.

I add things by burying in halves under the coop deck, in quadrants under the larger greenhouse deck. That deck is a little heavy to move but the smaller one slides easily.

The neighbor with a view of both decks told me that she didn't even know I did composting. Really works!

Steve

 

[ninnymary]

Mary, if you have a location ~ say, 4' by 4' minimum ~ that would look good with a wooden deck, and a hole dug into the soil there wouldn't just hold a pool of water --- think about a compost bin under a deck.

It's really something of an accident that I started to do composting here at home like this. The decks outside the chicken coop and greenhouse are just a little larger than that minimum size, often noted in gardening manual. Even though it would be almost impossible for water to pool in my soil, it does hold moisture in the pile of compostables. The might be 2' deep, no deeper than that. The pile may be several inches higher at the start.

I add things by burying in halves under the coop deck, in quadrants under the larger greenhouse deck. That deck is a little heavy to move but the smaller one slides easily.

The neighbor with a view of both decks told me that she didn't even know I did composting. Really works!

Steve

Is the deck acting like a top? I add the chicken poop daily to my compost and other stuff every few days. I also like to turn it daily. Your method might be too much work or lifting for me. Send me a pic. if you can.

I have 2 bins. Once I fill one up, stop adding to it and let it cook. I start filling up the second one.

Mary

 

[digitS']

Is the deck acting like a top?

Sort of. There is no frame beneath the deck, just blocks for support.

I'm not trying for anaerobic composting. The last couple of years, they have received additions in one quadrant or side so often that the material stays somewhat fluffed up.

I can imagine that some gardeners would not be doing that. Also, that some heavy soil types would be unsuitable.

Stealthy Steve

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

I quit composting, well DH did it and that's why it is not getting done, but I am putting things in a pile so I guess it is composting. I have not been out there much this summer, but my cat is sitting out there in the mornings and I realized he is staying warm, so something is composting down. He used to go under the neighbors house in the winter waiting for us to call him in. He will not stay in all night or goes out like 4 in the morning, but the neighbor closed in the area to get under the house. I think I am going to get a crate and crate him in the office at night. He is 11-1/2 years old and got in a fight a couple of weeks ago and could barely walk. He is too old to stay out and refuses to sleep in the garage where he used to sleep. I am tired of worrying about him and getting up in the middle of the night to let him out. This conversation does have something to do with composting, it reminded me to go check and see what is cooking out there.

 

[Nyboy]

Rabbits you can't make a cat do anything it doesn't want to.

 

[ducks4you]

I feel like starting a thread that says,
"SOOOO...you Thought you could live off of the grid and totally feed yourself from your garden?"
Every growing season is different and we have successes and failures.

 

[ducks4you]

You will have to wait on the pictures of the grape vine that grew a root until later today bc I can only upload from my camera to my laptop.
BUT...
Sunday I hired my hay guys to strip the (16 x 19') horse shelter. It took 4 hours to clean out. It also took one hour for them to put the drive belt back on my used Toro riding mower. The guys told me it was flooded and I didn't think yesterday that it was gonna start. I manually pushed the engine through the screen and after 5 tries it started! Only smoked for 5 minutes, but they had it up on it's nose during the repair, so some oil got in the gas tank.
I had them cut off the leftover metal posts that the last farmer had PUT INTO CEMENT to build a W O O D E N outside cow manger, which rotted away some 10 years ago. I had cinder blocks over all of the them to protect the horses. Now...gone!!!!
Then to the piece of metal support for the old fencing which busted a riding mower tire. I had THAT covered with a cinder block, too. They dug it out, attached to a 2 foot long, 1 foot wide slab of cement.
WHHHHYYYYY does everybody think putting metal in cement is such a Great Idea?!?!?!?
We pulled out the tow chain, used my truck and pulled it out to a garden bed where it now lives, where it can hurt NO ONE.
This morning I tilled all of the dirty shelter bedding to level out the piles. The guys said that once the top layer was gone it smelled like dirt.
Very dry, but I mowed the tall corners of the north pasture in anticipation of my party this weekend.
Gotta vent: The other couple who started this party with me in 2011 decided to go to an Memphis, Ghost and Elvis tour This Weekend. This is the 8th year of this party and I started it with them. He wrote me toDAY to tell me to keep it a secret for her b'day present. Ok, but why tell me about this today, when the party is Saturday, then write that he realized after what he had done.
DH's response, "told you last year that they have moved on."
Makes it sound like we broke up bc the summer is over, so no sympathy there.
I just said, "Have a nice time." What else can you do?

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

Brought in kale, small amount of green beans, tomatoes, peppers, a couple of cucumbers. Trying to decide what to do about the squash.

 

[digitS']

I brought in all the squash a couple of days ago. There is a pumpkin left that just has a hint of orange. The others were in all stages of maturity - now tucked away by the garage. Some left were dark green; some were orange in July!

Anyway, I bet that pumpkin would have turned orange by Halloween ... now, I suspect that it is frost damaged.

I wish that there was an actual C. pepo that was good eating. I mean a winter keeper, the species has the summer squash needs covered. The early variety Jack o'lanterns do so well in my garden. Then, I can keep them around for months.

That zucchini soup recipe using pumpkin worked much better than I expected. This fall, Imma gonna use a pumpkin to make zucchini bread. Let's see how that goes ... I like zucchini bread .

Steve
will bring a few buckets of celeriac home today