What Did You Do In The Garden?

[flowerbug]

Healthline says that both lemon juice and apple cider vinegar have a pH between 2 and 3.

I don't know enough about chemistry to really know how variable that range is. It matters little when I make a marinade. Nearly all meat that I cook on top the stove has been in a marinade. I'm very happy that I started doing this and have found infinite variety by using various vinegars and the juices of both lemon and limes.

It's all store bought, including the soy sauce and oil additions used in the marinade. I was just a little kid when I lived near citrus groves.

I'm not much into food preservation beyond freezing but imagine a chutney ingredient choice of your own lemons should be suitable, @Trish Stretton . I would "relish" some ideas about this sort of food .

Steve
who plans on sowing some carrot and beet seed, today after a little soil prep ...

the bottled apple cider vinegar and lemon juice usually have a pretty standard acidity so they can be reliably used in recipes. vinegar is diluted to about 5% strength if my memory is correct. that is strong enough for most people to use in cleaning and cooking. i don't know how the lemon juice is done, but i wouldn't be surprised if it is similarly adjusted to be consistent.

when you are talking about homemade and special company products instead of mass market larger brands i think those can vary more and so you would have to learn which are how strong and adjust them to suit your recipes.

as for here, yesterday wasn't too bad outside but i had absolutely no gumption at all so i didn't do much of anything outside. i tried to get enough enthusiasm to go out to take some pictures and then gave up and took a several hour nap instead. i guess my body was telling me something there...

today, if all goes well, will be the last day of cutting up pallets. i have the worst done already so now i am down to a stack of about 7 pallets and they all will be chopped up with the skill saw. it is supposed to be cloudy and 57F. i just have to wait for the frost to burn off and it to warm up enough that i can tolerate it. so i figure i have from about 11am on to get this all done.

the challenge once i get this project done is to go through the area where i've been working and pick up all the rusty nails that have been falling out of the pallets and then i will have to start planning on getting back to the fence right away because when i take out two pallets it will leave a opening from the ditch where the groundhogs are at right up to the fenced gardens (which they can climb through). so one project immediately gets another going, but i also really have to get back to pulling out and moving the drain tube from inside the fence into the drainage ditch i am filling in. so the fence running will take a few days and then back to the other project. if the weather really cooperates i can get both of them done before planting the warm weather crops starts happening. or at least done enough.

it looks pretty nice now with most of the mess cleaned up from where i stacked things last fall. i do need to clean that up some more but i think i have all the rusty nails out of the gravel so it is a good enough stopping point for the moment there.

so much work yet to go as usual.

i won't get into the robins or the project that turned into as that has been in the works for a few years anyways. lol birdbrains. got them headed off for now and that might be good enough until this fall or something...

 

[Ridgerunner]

Makes sense on the grapes and raisins, I had not considered seeds. Details, oh those details.

Have you considered a half recipe for that chutney? When I make chutney I don't use pectin, just cook it down, so as long as you keep the amounts of ingredients in proportion it should work. Might have to adjust the cook time but I go by thickness in hat anyway instead of a clock.

 

[Xerocles]

today, if all goes well, will be the last day of cutting up pallets. i have the worst done already so now i am down to a stack of about 7 pallets and they all will be chopped up with the skill saw.

Too little, too late, probably. But if you have a reciprocating saw (sawzall) you can get a blade for combo wood/metal for about $8. Go right between the slats and supports, cutting the nails, and saving the entire slat, for using the entire length of the slats.

 

[flowerbug]

ugh, i went out thinking i only had about eight pallets to go. i did eight pallets and i still have eight to go. lol

tired, taking a break, got overheated and needed a glass of water.

if i get two more pallets done today that leaves six for next time.

dang it. i really wanted this to be the last day of this part of the project.

maybe once i get back out there i can talk myself into doing it until it is done, but i'm already tired and don't want to be doing something like this where i'm exhausted as it often leads to injuries or stupidities better not mentioned...

 

[digitS']

I carried some of our compost over to the neighbor's garden - 8, 5-gallon buckets. There is never as much as a gardener would like to have. Maybe it will help in about 75 sqft bed.

Will have to dig out the bed it is going in but I'm hoping some wind and rain will keep me from doing that today. At least, I carried it over there!

Came home and mixed a wheelbarrow load of compost, top soil & peat moss (1:1:1) for DW's potted petunias and coleus out front. It would be good to put. I don't think coleus can take a frost so we have a few days before a run to the garden center.

I've grown petunias only once from seed. Believe it or not, I've also grown salpiglossis from seed, once. I never think of buying seed at the right time! BTW, salpiglossis looks like a petunia from a distance. Up close, the flowers are quite different and pretty.

Steve

 

[ducks4you]

FINALLY, got out to garden yesterday, before a torrential rainfall. STILL, very muddy and wet.
I changed the oil in my tiller. I did the right thing last fall and ran it until the 2019 gasoline was gone. I bought it a new filter, but still had to use some gumout spray to start.
Tilled the 3 x 6' small isolated bed, and tilled beyond it's borders. I will dig level to the wood borders and put cardboard there and several inches outside of it, since the wood will get burned this fall, anyway. TIRED of spending valuable gardening and riding time pulling weeds there.
I pulled out the chickweed, dug out dandelions to get the root before tilling and I found a volunteer potato sprouting in this bed! Great find.
Moved that potato and planted some of the leftovers from my planting a few weeds back., which totaled 20 new potatoes planted on the west side of the house. Not sure how many will sprout there, but it doesn't matter. When I harvest my potatoes I hope to have Brussels Sprouts seedlings to transplant in both of my potato beds.
This west bed is north of where the basement island door opens. (THAT needs repair. Sold us a steel door with 1 x 4" frame, which is now failing, and will have to be rebuilt. SO, no basement door access, and no mud room...for now.
I plant to transplant the regular mint that I bought at the grocery store a few weeks ago to go with the Easter lamb.
If you don't have mint, be prepared if you shop. There are many varieties. I have a LOT of mint, but it's chocolate mint. Tastes Great, but not so much in mint sauce for meat.
I also tilled the 2 beds to the north of the garage, separated by the walkway out of the garage. Chewed up a little bit of a hosta, but they are growing great there and I plan to separate the two of them soon. They are about 20 diameter.
I discovered that the Lily of the Valley that was started on the N/NW corner of the house and has spread to the NW corner, therefore trying to grow into my 2nd 2020 potato bed is growing there, next to the house, where it gets very little rain.
THIS is good news! DD's have this rotten tree, that I would pay to remove if I had the funds, in their back yard. Their 1 car garage is just south of this tree. I have tried growing vinca there. Failure. I have planted ferns next to their neighbors 6 ft wooden fence. They are doing ok. It fills full of weeds every year. They need some plants that can make it there, and will spread. I want 1/2 of my Lily of the Valley Gone.
I will be digging up and transplanting a lot of it at their house.
more...

 

[ducks4you]

I think that we should re examine some of the growing scare tactics about invasive plants. I would much rather have the Lily of the Valley than weeds. My bed with them gets few weeds. I could poison them (with a paintbrush), or dig them out. The plants Will fill in.
I will transplant some chocolate mint there, too, but I think the mint needs more moisture.
The bed between the north of the garage and where the tree sits (and sheds dead sticks and dead limbs all of the time!) is complete shade and is often too dry to keep things alive.
We will start with digging/tilling the almost 15 x 15' area first and transplant what I have already growing first. I might try some pachysandra there, too.
Anybody here grow that? Does it need partial sun, or do you know?
I would appreciate some advice before we put down $ on something that will fail.

 

[seedcorn]

Planted more Chinese cabbage. Put the onions and jalapeños peppers out. They were failing to thrive in cells. My green beans I planted in March are sprouting.

 

[ducks4you]

@seedcorn, we should be sharing this information, like "failing to thrive in cells." So much Internet garden advice is generic. If we find a better way, we should crow about it. Just sayin'.

 

[seedcorn]

Huh? They were probably getting phytophera. I lost about 2/3 of jalapeños. Lost a few onions as well plus some were weakened. I would not make a living starting seeds as I usually lose them hardening them off.