What Did You Do In The Garden?

[flowerbug]

just planting as much as i can get done as the weather cooperates. pictures eventually... yesterday was hot and humid enough that i only managed to get one large area reshaped sort of and then planted a little more than half of it. so i hope today i can finish up that and then get another neighboring small garden planted too. if that happens then i only have the last larger garden to reshape and then plant. i hope i can get them all done this week so i can get outside the fence also worked on and planted. we'll see...

 

[Dirtmechanic]

My bulk compost and mulch arrived yesterday, going out soon to get it all spread out before it rains this afternoon.

I had trouble with black kow manure compost this year. That long lasting herbicide was in it.

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

Yesterday I put out custard cups with about 1/3" of veg oil and a couple of shakes of soy sauce. This morning one of them was full of at least 70 earwigs - dead. No wonder my coneflower wouldn't grow.

 

[Prairie Rose]

I got about half of my piles of compost and mulch laid down before the heat sent me indoors. The flowerbeds got a thin layer of compost sifted off my shovel, and a heavy layer of mulch. The vegetable beds got about a two inch layer of compost beneath an equal amount of mulch. I have enough of both left to make at least one, hopefully two, new vegetable beds in the morning. The mulch is being used up much faster than the compost is, but I am pleased so far.

My mother was so pleased with the results of the finished beds she called and ordered ten more yards of mulch to put in her garden areas, and under the trees none of us like to mow under. I need to figure out what kind of bribe it will take to get dad to bring home a tractor with a loader so I'm not moving all that with a shovel and wheelbarrow!

@Dirtmechanic I learned about herbicide contamination through compost the hard way too. This is mushroom compost...I'm sure it has manure in it, but it shouldn't be as strong a concentration to do damage. Hopefully!

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

interesting! i've never had pepper plants bothered by birds. do you normally put out food for birds in your yard? we don't put out any feed at all so the birds have to forage for bugs and seeds around the yard. we only keep bird baths for them and clean those frequently. it seems to be a workable combination for us. hope you can get your pepper plants to grow! i guess at the extreme some mesh netting may be needed.

No, I do not feed birds, but I think they do this when they are building nests. It happens every year and mostly pepper plants. I think the tomatoes are too big. I did plant cucumber plants one year and they pulled them out of the ground. They seem to leave the ones that come up from seed. The peppers I planted last night all seem fine so far this morning. They messed with my bok choy plants when I first planted them, but decided to leave them alone.

 

[Zeedman]

The planting is almost done for the home gardens... everything is either in, or started in pots. The Emerite pole beans were the only bean direct seeded, and they are coming up now. Three other beans were started in pots due to seed age. German Butterbean limas & Gigandes runner beans were also started in pots, to avoid squirrel damage to the emerging seedlings (been there, done that, learned my lesson). Swiss chard, Sierra Madre yardlong, MN 150 cowpea, Shiraz pea, and several soybeans were direct seeded.

The last storm brought a lot of lightning & thunder, but didn't dump as much rain as expected. Hopefully we will be able to bring in a truckload of topsoil to raise up the low spots in the rural garden, so we can begin planting there. I'll be driving out to check it this afternoon.

 

[Dirtmechanic]

I got about half of my piles of compost and mulch laid down before the heat sent me indoors. The flowerbeds got a thin layer of compost sifted off my shovel, and a heavy layer of mulch. The vegetable beds got about a two inch layer of compost beneath an equal amount of mulch. I have enough of both left to make at least one, hopefully two, new vegetable beds in the morning. The mulch is being used up much faster than the compost is, but I am pleased so far.

My mother was so pleased with the results of the finished beds she called and ordered ten more yards of mulch to put in her garden areas, and under the trees none of us like to mow under. I need to figure out what kind of bribe it will take to get dad to bring home a tractor with a loader so I'm not moving all that with a shovel and wheelbarrow!

@Dirtmechanic I learned about herbicide contamination through compost the hard way too. This is mushroom compost...I'm sure it has manure in it, but it shouldn't be as strong a concentration to do damage. Hopefully!

Yeah. Me being me I had 27 bags in the garden the year my wife decided she wanted to do the garden again. I have so many motivational levels in her having fun. I was doing my best to stealth, but that day is past. 3rd set of plants.

 

[digitS']

Drug the little 25 cc Honda tiller over some ground near the sprinkler pipes. For that tiller, paths are too packed and it's rocky everywhere. The big tiller will have to be out there again soon to kill weeds in the paths.

A second planting of bush beans finished up the last of the available space. Unless, we decide on another sowing of corn seed, the garden is full. More space is available, even within current irrigated area.

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

I had trouble with black kow manure compost this year. That long lasting herbicide was in it.

i didn't think they could use that stuff any more?! yuck!

 

[flowerbug]

No, I do not feed birds, but I think they do this when they are building nests. It happens every year and mostly pepper plants. I think the tomatoes are too big. I did plant cucumber plants one year and they pulled them out of the ground. They seem to leave the ones that come up from seed. The peppers I planted last night all seem fine so far this morning. They messed with my bok choy plants when I first planted them, but decided to leave them alone.

hmm, maybe supply some alternative bits of grasses or something that they might prefer to use instead? just an idea...