What Did You Do In The Garden?

[flowerbug]

...
If the weather cooperates tomorrow, we will begin seeding in the beans for the home plots, and planting an apple tree purchased last weekend. The limas & runner beans will be started in pots, to avoid a repeat of the squirrel damage we had two years ago. The resident hawks are no-shows this year, and squirrels are growing bolder.

yay for beans! we've not quite gotten that far yet, but getting closer. i hope i can get some beans planted this week.

first thing i need to do is get those tiny melon seeds planted. have to find a few spots for them.

 

[ducks4you]

8AM this morning I spent 45 minutes packing up: tiller, MY wheelbarrow, oldest mower, 5 beefsteak tomatoes, 1 grape tomato, 1 cherry tomato, whiskey barrel planter, blue ceramic planter, weed & grass killer, stainless steel hand trowel, hand rake and bulb planter w/knife, 4 fancy metal supports, 6 new wooden stakes, and 12, dug up this morning ferns to transport.
Good thing I have a ramp.
Called to take them to DD's house, she is somewhat down for the count with cramps, but I still drove the 12 minutes to her house with the old truck.
Had trouble with the old mower, then refilled with new gas and it ran like a charm. Mowed the sunniest area, south side and west of the house, east of the garage. Told DD to decide where she wanted her tomato plants, and to put the brand new, painted cages from 2019 (never used,) where she wanted them. I had her move them for me to till, then put them back again. I showed her how to plant a tomato with a stake and the cage, then left her to do the rest of them, 7 in all.
I mowed around 3 hostas, 1 bleeding heart, and several columbine. She dug up and moved 5 columbines to the "forest garden" between the garage and tree. You see, their yard has areas separated by sidewalks and a cement pad by the porch and stairs to the back door.
She intends to mow the rest of it this year, and is waiting on my friend to repair Her push mower, which is why I am lending her my oldest push mower. Vet has my brand new push mower, and Mine with Honda engine continues to love me and work every time, so there is no hardship.
We transplanted some more LOTV, all of the ferns and 8 wax begonias, the ones with the greenish black leaves and pink flowers. I bought a plat, so there are 36 more to go in and fill in between the perennials there.
We transplanted the grape tomato into a 12 inch blue ceramic pot and shoved in supports. We planted the cherry tomato into aNOTHER 12 inch blue ceramic pot, with supports.
We transplanted the Magnolia Betty, that I had taken home bc she thought it was dead,and before she bought a 2nd one, in the ground and caged so her sister doesn't run the riding mower over it, and put it in the insert in the whiskey barrel planter. All of the planters are in this desert area in the east yard, very sunny location, where a previous owner had put down landscape cloth, most gone now, but it has a lot of stones.
I gave her advice about the tomatoes and to water the pots, but told her I would take care of the magnolia, since the insert has no drainage. She plans to transplant it this Fall, and I told her a good summer in the sun would help it put down some good roots. I also shoved in 6 gladiola bulbs to keep it company.
I left her the hand trowel, etc., bc they are Fisker's, stainless steel, and the hand trowel that she owned bent in the dirt.
We labored for 3 hours, I have a 6PM signing, and no time to garden at my place until tomorrow...in the rain.

 

[henless]

I went out early this morning and picked 8 quarts of rattlesnake green beans. Left plenty on the vines to pick in a couple of days. This is my 4th (?) year planting from saved seed. They seem to get better every year.

Pulled up a few more onions that had fallen over. Also dug up my elephant garlic. Looks like I left a few too long. They had started to separate.

 

[Cosmo spring garden]

The storms today somehow missed us, so we were able to finish planting the remaining peppers & tomatoes on the home plots, and closed up the fencing around those areas. Gave some pepper plants to the neighbors too. Also planted four plants of the Zuccetta Rampicante, which will be trained to the fence... those plants are dedicated for seed replenishment.

Both varieties of bitter melon (planted in peat strips) germinated, close to 100%. The first few seedlings of Cyclanthera explodens (the exploding gourd) finally showed today, I was getting worried that the 2012 seed was dead.

If the weather cooperates tomorrow, we will begin seeding in the beans for the home plots, and planting an apple tree purchased last weekend. The limas & runner beans will be started in pots, to avoid a repeat of the squirrel damage we had two years ago. The resident hawks are no-shows this year, and squirrels are growing bolder.

My mom loves bitter melons. She makes a curry with them.

 

[Zeedman]

The rain still held off, but it was so muggy that DW & I didn't get as much done as we'd hoped. Still working on the home plots. Planted Moringa, "Thailand" bitter melon, and "Pizza Crossed" pepper, all from transplants. Also planted the first of the beans, a 40' row of "Emerite". That is probably the only bean I will direct seed; all the others will be started in pots, due to their age.

I'm back at work now - at least temporarily. Lots of OT between now & the 4th of July, so it will be a struggle to get everything in. Worst comes to worst, I'll cut some barrels in half & plant what I can in those makeshift pots. The eggplant transplants are so large & healthy that they will need to be planted soon... same for the remaining peppers.

 

[digitS']

Put a
trellis
up for
the
peas.

 

[Dirtmechanic]

The burning of yard twigs and debris has been working well enough to produce the first full wheelbarrow of charcoal. Hitting the hot fire with water blows it apart so I do not have to chop it or process it further. I do not miss using the chipper at all. I find this much easier. A blower helps the fire blow hot so the smoke is minimized and not obnoxious for the neighborhood. I hope to find something better than wire fence since I have so much more wood to burn.

I have been staking tomatoes and trellising cucumbers. I planted 30 knockouts on top of the clay and mulched them with hardwood bark. Being too fresh and draining too well that bark turned into a dry situation so I re-mulched with black cow compost and the bark on top so they are getting happy again. I put out japanese beetle traps and put grubex on the lawn. Its time to start spraying the garden, the eggplants are showing some holes and its never to soon to protect cucumbers.

 

[ducks4you]

Put a
trellis
up for
the
peas.

Is this a new form of Haiku?

 

[Prairie Rose]

I pulled some bindweed

 

[flowerbug]

The burning of yard twigs and debris has been working well enough to produce the first full wheelbarrow of charcoal. Hitting the hot fire with water blows it apart so I do not have to chop it or process it further. I do not miss using the chipper at all. I find this much easier. A blower helps the fire blow hot so the smoke is minimized and not obnoxious for the neighborhood. I hope to find something better than wire fence since I have so much more wood to burn.

I have been staking tomatoes and trellising cucumbers. I planted 30 knockouts on top of the clay and mulched them with hardwood bark. Being too fresh and draining too well that bark turned into a dry situation so I re-mulched with black cow compost and the bark on top so they are getting happy again. I put out japanese beetle traps and put grubex on the lawn. Its time to start spraying the garden, the eggplants are showing some holes and its never to soon to protect cucumbers.

i wonder if the wood was wrapped in wire mesh before starting the burn and then you could take the whole thing/bundle and dunk it in a barrel of water all at once? then you'd mostly get steam and not much smoke at the end... just guessing here, but worth a trial. i think the more formal processes just quench it by eliminating the oxygen feed. i suppose if you have access to cheap CO2 you could use that for even faster quench... hmm...

my one attempt at making charcoal here was a trench in the heavy clay soil with both ends underneath open to the air. lit the fire at one end, waited until it burned about half way down and then filled in both ends and then buried it even deep as steam escaped until nothing was coming out. it was a lot of work and the percentage wasn't great, but i did like the effect that it and the fire itself had on the surrounding clay. it partially fired some of it so it was more crumble than sticky mess.

i don't bother breaking up chunks of charcoal in the wood ashes we get as i figure that by walking on it and moving the dirt with the shovel eventually it will get broken apart. maybe in a few thousand years... as a part of the idea is to sequester some carbon chunks in the soil i don't mind if they are there. they don't hurt much more than any of the other things we have in the garden soil (often pieces of crushed limestone wander in from the neighboring pathways).