What Did You Do In The Garden?

[Gardening with Rabbits]

Nothing done in the garden. Wind blowing, snowing and not putting my plants in the greenhouse as planned, but maybe next week.

 

[flowerbug]

it was a bit cool and windy today too, but i still went out because it was sunny and dry enough i could do some work on a mess that i started last fall. to make any progress with that is happy to both of us. if i can keep chipping away at it this next week perhaps i can have the whole edge done and ready for planting. well, ok, maybe not, my body can't do much more than an hour at the moment. by the end of the week i'll be up to an hour and a half or two hours.

also put the wheel back on the wheelbarrow. i need to find some washers and the wrench to tighten it down, but i thought it a good idea to get the wheel, bolts and nuts at least back together so they don't get lost. we have two other wheelbarrows, but this is the one that Mom likes the most so i paid a lot more than i really wanted to for getting the tire fixed, but that is done now... ok, almost, i know where the washers and wrenches are at. that's the easy part.

 

[Trish Stretton]

I got the next bed made up- paths done on three sides, but all four edges put in place. This is an extra wide bed at 5 foot wide rather than 3 or 4 like the others.
One end of this has excess partially broken down woodchip stacked up out of my way. With the other side, I have planted out my leeks, had another go at trying to grow carrots, sowed my Tokyo long white spring onions, beetroot, Florence fennel, Red cardinal beets-chard.

The Red cardinal chards have started to sprout already, after a couple of days, which is really good.

The middle of the bed is currently being used to toss the convovulus onto, to dry out to a crisp, that I have been pulling out from the next to-be path.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I dug up an entire nutsedge and thought I'd post a photo. I don't get a lot of the nuts when I remove them. You can't just pull it out, that nut breaks right off. That's a fairly large nut, I've seen several much smaller. Sometimes that nut is an inch or so underground, not as deep as this one was.

This one looks like it had been broken off before. That nut just keeps sending up new shoots it seems like forever. That nut does not run out of energy very fast.

I pretty much got it at the right time, before it reproduced. Eventually it would go to seed but the way I hate is that when they get about this much growth above-ground they start sending out Rhizomes which become new plants. Also they form nutlets underground that will become a new plant. They start reproducing really young, if you don't stay on top of it they can quickly become a thick mat. Nutsedge loves a wet poorly drained soil, like the swamp muck that makes up a lot of my soil.

 

[so lucky]

I doubt if you are wanting to use chemicals, but there is a nutsedge killer available. Expensive. But nutsedge is a pest in a zoysia grass lawn.

 

[Trish Stretton]

I am so glad we dont have that here, its bad enough with convovulus and couch grass.

Yesterday morning was dark and windy and I thought- oh good, we're going to get some rain.' Didnt happen, the wind just turned ferocious and blew the fruit off my Peach and Avocado tree- Never did find the peaches, I think they might have wound up on the road, but over 50 baby Avocadoes, which I now have sitting in a cool spot hoping that they might actually be old enough to ripen. lol, that will be my biggest haul ever cos I think the possums usually get most of them.

This morning, inspected both hives and later when it cools down a bit, I'll do some more on the next path. I want to get that finished by next week.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I doubt if you are wanting to use chemicals, but there is a nutsedge killer available. Expensive. But nutsedge is a pest in a zoysia grass lawn.

Anything that kills nutsedge I do not want anywhere near my vegetables. That is some strong chemicals. I would not mind using a chemical in my grass but if I keep it mowed there I'm OK. It's the garden where it is a pain.

 

[Prairie Rose]

Still pulling major hours at work, coming home, sleeping it off, and going back. I did manage to buy a rhubarb crown yesterday on the way home. Will hopefully find a place to plant it this weekend!

 

[seedcorn]

Anything that kills nutsedge I do not want anywhere near my vegetables. That is some strong chemicals. I would not mind using a chemical in my grass but if I keep it mowed there I'm OK. It's the garden where it is a pain.

SoI take it that roundup is not an option.....

 

[Ridgerunner]

SoI take it that roundup is not an option.....

This is a family forum, Seed, watch your language. I use Glyphosate in certain places, such as the cracks in driveways, fence rows, or other specific areas to control certain things. This weed, nutsedge, is all over those areas so it gets hit, turns yellow, and dries up. I don't know if it actually kills the nut or not. You'd think it should but it doesn't take long for anther nutsedge to show up. That could be from seeds or other nuts in the ground. Those can last for years. To try to actually control it chemically would require a lot of spraying, I'm not saturating my soil like that.. I try to control it with mowing and weed-eating as much as I can but it still reproduces. Seeding will take a little longer but the nutlets and rhizomes start developing about when it has six leaves. It doesn't take long for it to develop six leaves. Doesn't take it much longer to go to seed.

I used to rant and rave about Bermuda grass. You probably haven't noticed that lately, I consider this stuff worse.. Besides since I moved I don't have Bermuda grass. I left that in Arkansas.

I've looked at herbicides that are generally pointed toward nutsedge, mainly comparing withdrawal periods and cautions about certain vegetables. Glyphosate is one of the milder ones. But as a general rule I try to keep herbicides out of my vegetable garden. I don't have the patience some people do that use a small paint brush and paint Glyphosate on certain plants.

When I built my raised beds I removed the top 5" to 6" of dirt to remove the vast majority of nutsedge seeds and nuts. It worked, before I did that there was a mat of nutsedge growing where some of them are. Obviously I did not get them all, you can see how deep I would have had to go, but I got them down to a manageable number. With my other plants in there I usually can't dig like this to get them out so I try too pull the growing part off before they have a chance to reproduce. This one just happened to be in an area where I could dig and I was gentle enough to not break off that stem growing from it. That stem can be delicate and if it breaks you are not going to find that nut.