What Did You Do In The Garden?

[flowerbug]

I'm throwing it all on my burn pile

the spiky leaves with a lot of thorns i'm putting in groundhog traffic areas to dry out and give them something else to think about besides fresh plants sprouts...

normally i just put everything on the weed pile to dry out in the sun. nothing comes back to regrow there, but i'm sure there are tons of seeds there that will regrow if given the chance. i hope the mourning doves will eat the seeds...

 

[flowerbug]

One problem with some thistles is that the seed can remain viable on the ground for years. That's why you try really hard to not let it go to seed and why it is so hard to eradicate. Those seeds can float in from a distance and some birds love to eat them and scatter the seeds in their poop. I consider it more of a case of control that total eradication. I know, not real optimistic for a gardener but what would life be without challenges? (Easier!)

the goldfinches love those seeds. that is where they come from here if they don't arrive via the wind.

i should not complain as the birds also have brought in sassafrass trees which i'd love to let grow but they've never survived transplanting once i've moved them from where they were hatched.

 

[flowerbug]

when trying to get a wildflower patch established a lot of people think of it as a regular garden. it is really not and should not be treated the same. it is actually best to see if you can find any perennial plants you might want as seeds or growing plants and then get them going well in a pot before planting them out to spread from there.

a wild flower patch is best kept very poor soil because that is how many of the wildflowers spread, into freshly disturbed soil and don't do that well with a lot of competition. getting them established in pots and then transplanting then gives you a seed source for future spreading around if needed.

plus it gives you a chance to observe a plant to make sure you want it around before releasing it into the wild... a mistake which happened here for some plants that costs me many hours each season in keeping them under control.

 

[digitS']

the goldfinches love those seeds

Oh, they do? I saw the first Goldfinch that I was sure of, today. They have that unusual molting schedule and the House Finches are back this year. Without the gold or a close up view of the red, they are both just Little Brown Jobs, "over there" .

I did quite a few things in the garden. Surrounded the area that was to be left unused (about 35' x 40') with repeat passes of the rototiller. Then, stepped in with the sprayer and weed killer.

I had gone through a strip (5' x 40') that we can used for a planting of bush beans and used a shovel to loosen and pull the thistle. Discovered that the bind weed is vining. That suggests to me that the roots are developing and the plants are likely to resurface if tilled. Oh NO!

I pulled every bind weed in the 5' area along with the thistle, yesterday. Today, I think the tiller did a good job getting the pig weed, etc. to a good depth. The remaining ground will be tilled with oilseed sunflower seed on the surface.

I have never done this before: planted sunflowers as a cover crop in ground just using a rototiller. If it works well enough to suppress the weeds, great! But if it does or doesn't, I will have to be back in there with the tiller mid-summer - before the sunflowers or anything else grows to a size that the tiller will have too much trouble with them. I might just re-seed it with more sunflowers. At some point, either in the fall or spring, the tractor guy can deal with it with his 5' rototiller.

We have already had snap peas! I put a 3rd layer of string on their trellis.

The good 3-2-1 composted chicken manure is apparently no longer available to me. I put a number of bags of alternatives in the veggie garden but the results were disappointing. Today, I mixed gallons and gallons of fish emulsion and put it on with a sprinkler can ... whew! Lots of trips to and from the faucet and up and down paths.

I have already dozed off in the lazyboy. Expecting an early bedtime and I'd better get in there to get cleaned up before there is a danger of me dozing off in the shower ...

Steve

 

[thistlebloom]

I saw the first Goldfinch that I was sure of, today.

This has been a great year for goldfinches here at my house. My sister brought me a long finch feeder and I was obliged to buy niger seed to fill it. The seed is expensive, but the finches love it and have been here for weeks. Today the pine siskens were all over the feeder and they and the goldfinches had to take turns. The feeder has 10 perches and they have been full all day.

 

[flowerbug]

This has been a great year for goldfinches here at my house. My sister brought me a long finch feeder and I was obliged to buy niger seed to fill it. The seed is expensive, but the finches love it and have been here for weeks. Today the pine siskens were all over the feeder and they and the goldfinches had to take turns. The feeder has 10 perches and they have been full all day.

the other ones they really like are chickory, coneflowers and mullien - i also seem to recall them being in the turnip and radish seed stalks from time to time. we used to have a chickory patch and they were frequently in there.

 

[digitS']

Did you ever use your chicory for a beverage, @flowerbug ?

@thistlebloom , something I miss about living a little too far from a forest is the Pine Siskins. I could carefully walk completely around a small, dense pine and have a Siskin singing in the tree and never miss a note .

Hey. Do you have any Crossbills?

If you might think that it is silly to water a 35' x 40' tilled area with no intention of gardening on it - there is a neighboring acre +- (not watered, at least) where nothing has been done for about 5 years. With no mowing, it is entirely weeds for the birds. Of course, my friend Wile E Coyote can hide in there now and then ... Maybe it's on the way to becoming a pine forest and I can enjoy the Siskins and Crossbills again!

Steve

 

[secuono]

I found these turds on my eggplants, flea beetles. Been manually removing them.
Any other way to easily deal with them?

 

[digitS']

Stop growing eggplant.

No, I'm just kidding but let me tell you ... eggplant is the first to have aphids in my greenhouse. I guess that they were hiding in there until they realized that there was some eggplants available.

Colorado potato beetles. Straight for the eggplant when it's out in the garden. Flea beetles? Absolutely.

Spinosad spray. Flea beetles are very mobile during some life stages but must decide to return to the plants after I have passed through with the sprayer. A fatal attraction ...

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

Did you ever use your chicory for a beverage, @flowerbug ?

i never did use it for anything other than the ornamental flowers and watching the birdies pick at them for the seeds.

we removed it after Mom realized the mistake of planting it (spreads easily) - alas the removal did not do much good for getting rid of the other blue flowers introduced (forget me nots).

[edit, forget me nots are very aptly named...]