What Did You Do In The Garden?

[Gardening with Rabbits]

Got the garden tilled (thank you neighbor!) and it's ready for more stuff than the one puny row of tomatoes. Maybe tonight if I'm not too tired.
I got up at 5:00 this morning to get outside chores done before going to work but sat down for a minute to watch the hummers outside the window and dozed off.

View attachment 31880

I still have tomatoes to plant, I think I will still use the Walls of Water and see how they work. Should have been using before now though, but like every year, by the time I get the garden tilled, I do not need the Walls of Water. I like your garden with the flowers on the outside. How many sides have flowers? I have some old pallets and I am thinking of using on one side to plant some flowers on. I have one side with flowers. I had planned to put flowers around the whole garden one year and never got it done. I have Delphiniums I started from seed a few years ago and last year they started to spread, only they spread into the garden instead of the area I wanted, so I transplanted a bunch, but this year, half my garden could have been Delphiniums. I transplanted some, but others I just pulled up.

 

[thistlebloom]

I still have tomatoes to plant, I think I will still use the Walls of Water and see how they work. Should have been using before now though, but like every year, by the time I get the garden tilled, I do not need the Walls of Water. I like your garden with the flowers on the outside. How many sides have flowers? I have some old pallets and I am thinking of using on one side to plant some flowers on. I have one side with flowers. I had planned to put flowers around the whole garden one year and never got it done. I have Delphiniums I started from seed a few years ago and last year they started to spread, only they spread into the garden instead of the area I wanted, so I transplanted a bunch, but this year, half my garden could have been Delphiniums. I transplanted some, but others I just pulled up.

I just put the W.O.W. on the tomatoes Monday afternoon. The tomatoes had already been in but were stressed from cold I think. I only have them on 5, but am looking forward to some ripe tomatoes off those earlier than usual.
That's quite a problem to have from delphiniums, lol. I started some from seed this year but they are tiny things, I'm afraid they'll get lost if I plant them out. I would love it if they spread, so far I have not done to well with delphs.
In the vegetable garden I only have flowers on the outside front facing the road. They were a bunch of perennials a friend gave me when she redid her garden.

 

[Beekissed]

@thistlebloom , that's some good looking soil you have there! I too place flowers and vines on the perimeter of my garden...I feel it attracts pollinators to the veggies. They can also act as sacrifice plants for the Jap beetles.

I've got honeysuckle on two of the garden gates, some lemon balm here and there, then I have some annuals all around the perimeter~sunflowers, zinnias, marigolds~though the marigolds are also next to certain veggies, as are a few nasturtiums. For some reason I can't seem to grow nasturtiums here in this soil...I've tried direct planting and also transplanting seedlings, but thus far they just look stunted and yellowed, no matter how they are planted.

The main gate is covered over with pink and also wild honeysuckle....

...while the secondary gate, which just got planted a year or so ago, is just getting started in developing vines.

My tiny corn patch after its first hilling...don't think I've ever planted quite this small a patch before! All I need from it is one bucket of ears for pickling, so am hoping this amount will do it.

Got some turnips showing up, though I haven't had the time to thin them...can't wait to try them!

Some of the rhubarb that was planted last month as mere roots...a few are doing VERY well, some average, some not so well at all, but still holding on. For $8 I'm not complaining and I hope and pray they continue to grow well in this type of bed.

Also some strawberries that were also just roots, planted at the same time. Pepper and broccoli seedlings in the background.

 

[flowerbug]

I still have tomatoes to plant, I think I will still use the Walls of Water and see how they work. Should have been using before now though, but like every year, by the time I get the garden tilled, I do not need the Walls of Water. I like your garden with the flowers on the outside. How many sides have flowers? I have some old pallets and I am thinking of using on one side to plant some flowers on. I have one side with flowers. I had planned to put flowers around the whole garden one year and never got it done. I have Delphiniums I started from seed a few years ago and last year they started to spread, only they spread into the garden instead of the area I wanted, so I transplanted a bunch, but this year, half my garden could have been Delphiniums. I transplanted some, but others I just pulled up.

if you have pieces of wood from pallets without the nails or staples to use that is one thing.

we have a lot of old pallets rotting now (used to cover a drain from the house) and it's a real mess to try to pull or find all the rusty nails and staples. it is almost impossible to pull a large rusty nail out of a hardwood pallet. i've decided i may just have to rip them with a circular saw and then bury them under a pathyway and then make sure i never have to dig that area up again.

in the past we've burned them and then i've been finding rusty nails in that area for all the years since then. i don't burn stuff any more.

when i was running the fence behind the honeysuckle bushes i came a fraction of an inch from stepping on a rusty nail from one piece of wood that got tossed back there. this was after repeatedly asking Mom not to do that because i was tired of finding rusty nails and screws around. so i made a point of bringing the piece of wood with the nail in and showing her again. "Please, no more of this. Please, please, please..." if i can pull the nails or screws i will before she uses the wood, but otherwise if i can't get the nails out i now have a place where i pile them to keep an eye on them while they rot.

 

[ducks4you]

Put in 3 MORE hours on the same bed as in previous post. "Harvested" almost a complete bucketful of bindweed (pictures this weekend on my thread). I am sure that I missed some, but will be using the paintbrush method to kill that. Could NOT believe it but they talked about bindweed on MidAmerican Gardener last night (which I DVR'd bc I was gardening when it was on yesterday) and the Professor Emeretis, Plant Pathology said it grow 30 FOOT roots!!!!!
MY personal experience is that if you let it infest your bed, RoundUP or D-2 will kill it. My personal experience this last week is that:
1) if it hasn't been there too long a spade deep is all it takes to remove the roots
2) if you mow it won't establish in your lawn, even MY lawn which is combination of grass and weeds that I have made peace with
3) if you leave an inch of it it will regrow
4) throw it in the trash! Don't even trust burning it.
I should add that I removed the bindweed and took 4 medium sized wheelbarrows full of the dirt and gave it to my chickens. I tilled their run and put BACK a large wheelbarrow's worth of that and tilled it into the bed last night before I lost my light.
I know it's easy to work hard in your garden and leave your tools out, but I try REALLY HARD to put my "toys" away, so both wheelbarrows, the shovel the rake the big stall shovel and my tiller got put back in the "carriage house" and the barn. Several years ago I lost a really nice "drain spade"
https://www.grainger.com/product/WE..._on_Your_Search-_-IDPPLARECS&cm_vc=IDPPLARECS
to my tiller bc I left it out in the garden and didn't see it until the wooden handle was toast, and I really preFER a wooden handle.

 

[thistlebloom]

@thistlebloom , that's some good looking soil you have there! I too place flowers and vines on the perimeter of my garden...I feel it attracts pollinators to the veggies. They can also act as sacrifice plants for the Jap beetles.

I've got honeysuckle on two of the garden gates, some lemon balm here and there, then I have some annuals all around the perimeter~sunflowers, zinnias, marigolds~though the marigolds are also next to certain veggies, as are a few nasturtiums. For some reason I can't seem to grow nasturtiums here in this soil...I've tried direct planting and also transplanting seedlings, but thus far they just look stunted and yellowed, no matter how they are planted.

The main gate is covered over with pink and also wild honeysuckle....

View attachment 31888
...while the secondary gate, which just got planted a year or so ago, is just getting started in developing vines.
View attachment 31886

My tiny corn patch after its first hilling...don't think I've ever planted quite this small a patch before! All I need from it is one bucket of ears for pickling, so am hoping this amount will do it.

View attachment 31884

Got some turnips showing up, though I haven't had the time to thin them...can't wait to try them!

View attachment 31885

Some of the rhubarb that was planted last month as mere roots...a few are doing VERY well, some average, some not so well at all, but still holding on. For $8 I'm not complaining and I hope and pray they continue to grow well in this type of bed.

Also some strawberries that were also just roots, planted at the same time. Pepper and broccoli seedlings in the background.

View attachment 31887

I love those honeysuckle covered gates Bee! Your garden is looking beautiful.

I'm hoping to get up at first light Saturday and budget 2 or 3 hours in the garden to get more planted. The rest of the day will be weed abatement and maybe flowerbed cleanup since I have neglected them so far this spring. Evening is devoted to the horses, poor Luke has only been getting the barest attention, because Syringa has taken the priority time and I'm about out of juice when it's his turn.

My money jobs are going full blast and I'm hard pressed to keep up there. But that's how life is in the spring. I'll be able to catch my breath a little by July.

 

[flowerbug]

...
to my tiller bc I left it out in the garden and didn't see it until the wooden handle was toast, and I really preFER a wooden handle.

i just hate stepping on the rake/four pronger... i always try to put it down with the prongs in the dirt.

 

[Trish Stretton]

Put in 3 MORE hours on the same bed as in previous post. "Harvested" almost a complete bucketful of bindweed (pictures this weekend on my thread). I am sure that I missed some, but will be using the paintbrush method to kill that. Could NOT believe it but they talked about bindweed on MidAmerican Gardener last night (which I DVR'd bc I was gardening when it was on yesterday) and the Professor Emeretis, Plant Pathology said it grow 30 FOOT roots!!!!!

I have this problem too.
I found even if you do spray it, it still grows back. This is the reason why I am going to be paving all my vegie garden paths, so I can do a divide and conquer strategy. I have some areas separated already .
I put sticks for them to grow up and then nip them off at the ground, roll up the vine and leave it somewhere off dirt to dry out- learnt that trick from my mums neigbour.

I also grow ground cover where I know I am not going to be able to get it an area. This makes the Convovulus climb up to the light rather than crawl over the ground where it can set yet more roots. Then I do the same thing, nip it off, rollit up and dry it out...then it goes in the trash bin especially if I left it too late and it started to flower.

Some of the areas that have been affected have very spindly vines now.

 

[thistlebloom]

I have this problem too.
I found even if you do spray it, it still grows back. This is the reason why I am going to be paving all my vegie garden paths, so I can do a divide and conquer strategy. I have some areas separated already .
I put sticks for them to grow up and then nip them off at the ground, roll up the vine and leave it somewhere off dirt to dry out- learnt that trick from my mums neigbour.

I also grow ground cover where I know I am not going to be able to get it an area. This makes the Convovulus climb up to the light rather than crawl over the ground where it can set yet more roots. Then I do the same thing, nip it off, rollit up and dry it out...then it goes in the trash bin especially if I left it too late and it started to flower.

Some of the areas that have been affected have very spindly vines now.

Great idea, having them climb up something rather than sprawl over the ground, then taking them out. I have a very heavy infestation of bindweed now, from one season of not keeping after it. Makes me tired just thinking about it.

 

[ducks4you]

Good report--yesterday evening I planted the bed I talked about, west side of the (4 car) garage, some 3 ft wide, ~18 ft long with:
--blue dent corn, saved from last year's harvest, planted one full ear on the cob, another experiment from a web site
--OLD, OLD scarlett runner beans that I found, which I will replant with fresh beans if they don't grow
--sacrificial hubbard squash
--pumpkin
I am taking the chance that the dirt from the chicken's run is not rotted enough, but I doubt it. The ONLY reason stuff doesn't grow in their run is bc they will dig up and eat it.