What Did You Do In The Garden?

[seedcorn]

Then you are getting the wrong message. When things are great, nasty bugs also prosper eating, damaging and multiplying at alarming rates. The beneficial bugs & birds are always behind as their meals have to multiply for them to exist. By then, bad bugs are out of control and have done their damage. Predator bugs don’t expand in numbers, THEN here come the bad bugs. Other way around with a time delay.

 

[Trish Stretton]

Thats sad.
Fortunately, I'm not seeing that here.
For example, I used to have a major problem with white butterfly totalling my broccolli and cauliflowers. This year, they nibbled the leaves but I still got a good crop of both. I have a few winter sprouting type broc's that are still producing beautifully.

Still have a few Sicilian Violet caulis that are now producing secondary heads. Its a pity that they cook down to a yukky khaki green though.

I have already harvested the Green Macerata Caulis and left the plants in place so they will eventually flower and produce seed for next year. This is probably my all time fav cauli. I might need to put some sort of cover over these so they dont cross with anything else and am thinking that maybe the frost cloth I have might come in handy to keep insects out while I hand pollinate them.

Today, I weeded my shallots bed. These just look fab! This is the one bed that I have been very vigilant in keeping weed free , finally realising that onions just Do Not like competition At All!.
I cant wait to eat them- I do occasionally pluck the odd leaf off a few so I can have 'onion greens' with my dinner.

This bed also has a few rows of probably too late sown onion seed, but at least few of them have sprouted. To be honest, I havent really had all that much luck with proper onions. It might be that I am not sowing them at the right time but I needed to use this seed quickly cos it was already too old.

I stopped to admire the rows of carrots and pulled a few bits of grass out from there too.
One of the 'weeds' that I have left in place here, is the land cress. Had a nibble on a few that accidentally got pulled out.

 

[flowerbug]

yesterday i needed all of my energy for picking strawberries and getting them mashed for shortcakes.

today is an official day of taking a break, watering and only light duty stuff...

 

[ducks4you]

@Trish Stretton , dunno for Sure, but we in the US have a white cabbage moth. With all of the insects that have crossed continents in ships, etc., it could be that.

Protecting Your Cabbages From Cabbageworm And Cabbage Moth

Nothing is more disappointing to a gardener growing cabbage than going out to harvest the cabbage heads only to find them stunted and riddled with holes and tunnels. Find out how to control cabbage moths and worms here.

www.gardeningknowhow.com

 

[Trish Stretton]

Yep, thats the one. Hungry little beggars too.

 

[Trish Stretton]

Today, I boxed in my Black rapsberries with below ground retaining boards so they cant escape into my neighbours place and have a nice layer of leaves covering the soil to hinder weds from growing meanwhile.

I did have to dig out set of roots out to make room for the boxing. That got taken to my other neighbour to see if she wanted it. Thankfully, she did.
Now they cant be a nuisance and have been trimmed all ready for spring.

With this Warm!!! winter though, the roots are already starting to show new shoots, maybe spring will be early here, this year.

 

[Cosmo spring garden]

Yesterday we weeded 3 raised rows and watered the onions. I need to fertilize the corn today. And water it. We have not had any rain in over a week. I am so thankful for our well! . My bantam cochin hen is broody again and sitting on a huge batch of eggs. I also have 7 eggs in the incubator that will hatch in 8 days. These are my favorite chickens. So small and gentle and go broody all the time.

 

[Prairie Rose]

I went out and weeded this morning while it was still cool. Need to water when I get home from work tonight.

 

[digitS']

Today, I boxed in my Black rapsberries with below ground retaining boards so they cant escape into my neighbours place

This reminds me of my experience watching the competition between my neighbor's blackberries and raspberries .

I had grown raspberries and knew that they do just fine here. Blackberries were an interest because I like them, lived with them elsewhere, but knew that they struggle here. And, these were very nice blackberries and if they sprawled just a bit, I could reach the ripe fruit while standing at the edge of my garden .

I could reach and appreciate the raspberries, too. That reach became easier and easier as the robust blackberry vines pushed out their smaller, red cousins.

And, push they did! After about 10 years of growing in the same row, the blackberries had entirely displayed the raspberry vines. Meanwhile, those plant rhizomes had travelled about 6' to where I set up a trellis for them .

It was not all going great guns for the blackberries, however. The problem for that species is partly that our winters are often too cold. By the time the raspberries were flourishing in the corner of my garden, the original location of the blackberries was entirely populated by DEAD plants. There were only a few left where the raspberries had once grown!

Had the blackberries learned humility? No. When I left that garden after my 20 year stay, I had been physically pushing back at the tiny, nearly inconsequential remnant of the blackberries. I even removed some rhizomes so they wouldn't complete the migration from one garden to the other, however feeble that may have been.

Steve

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

I did some weeding and planted 4 cherry tomatoes the other day and about 30 minutes later it started to rain and hail. It has rained on and off several days now and again today with 40s at night. The tomato plants look rough. It is supposed to start warming up tomorrow into the 70s.