What Did You Do In The Garden?

[Zeedman]

Um...no, it isnt the seed that you use as a spice, its their casing.
Its not so much hot as in heat, its more of a sensation. I liken it to touching your tongue on both terminals of a 9 volt battery. lol

This is something people eat voluntarily??? (Sad to say that I actually know the taste of a 9-volt battery.) I guess it's worth a try, I've taste-tested stranger things.

 

[flowerbug]

This is something people eat voluntarily??? (Sad to say that I actually know the taste of a 9-volt battery.) I guess it's worth a try, I've taste-tested stranger things.

it just tingles.

there is no way i want to plant anything around here with thorns, we have enough problems already! if i want to protect something i'll put up a fence and if i want privacy a fence or cedar trees surrounded by fences work just fine. i'm already regretting the rose bushes Mom has been encouraging (i gave many pints of blood as a kid to the rose bushes i would grow for the flowers, but i've moved on past that now and much prefer beans and peas which don't require quite as many contributions of blood).

also, if you want a quick growning natural hedge use apple seeds planted in the fall about six inches apart about an inch under the soil. within two years you'll have a 5-7 foot hedge and the plants are thorny enough. within 4 to 7 years you will start getting some blooms and apples which can be used to make some cider (hard cider) and perhaps some of the trees will be edible apples, but i would not count on it. the hedge can be partially trimmed or selected trees removed and regrown as needed (apple wood for smoking/cooking).

what i would like to do for a natural hedge here some time in the future if i need to redo one.

 

[Zeedman]

also, if you want a quick growning natural hedge use apple seeds planted in the fall about six inches apart about an inch under the soil. within two years you'll have a 5-7 foot hedge and the plants are thorny enough. within 4 to 7 years you will start getting some blooms and apples which can be used to make some cider (hard cider) and perhaps some of the trees will be edible apples, but i would not count on it. the hedge can be partially trimmed or selected trees removed and regrown as needed (apple wood for smoking/cooking).

I've got a lot of resident deer (I just shined the spotlight, several are present now). Once snow covers the ground, deer resort to eating bark & green twigs - and even my neighbor's cedar. Young apple trees, if not caged or otherwise protected, would be eaten down to nubs by Spring. They will even stand on their hind legs to eat the lower branches of my mature (though dying) apple tree. Fencing 1.25 acres, and caging dozens of trees, are equally impractical. So to fill gaps in my tree line, candidates must be deer resistant, hardy to at least Zone 5, and tolerant of my dense, poorly-drained soil. It's challenging trying to find trees/shrubs that meet those criteria.

 

[flowerbug]

I've got a lot of resident deer (I just shined the spotlight, several are present now). Once snow covers the ground, deer resort to eating bark & green twigs - and even my neighbor's cedar. Young apple trees, if not caged or otherwise protected, would be eaten down to nubs by Spring. They will even stand on their hind legs to eat the lower branches of my mature (though dying) apple tree. Fencing 1.25 acres, and caging dozens of trees, are equally impractical. So to fill gaps in my tree line, candidates must be deer resistant, hardy to at least Zone 5, and tolerant of my dense, poorly-drained soil. It's challenging trying to find trees/shrubs that meet those criteria.

we've known that cedar trees were deer food since the ones we first planted reached about two feet tall. one hard winter and the tops of many of them were trimmed a bit. many survived and grew to be tall enough to be above the deer grazing line, but a few winters in a row we had some very severe cold and deep enough snows that the deer were targetting our trees continually through the winter, in herds. no matter what i did or sprayed on them did not deter deer at all for longer than a few minutes. i mean fresh human urine on a tree dripping off and the deer would be back 20 minutes later. stand there with a gun, deer would be back in 30 minutes. etc. only fence worked in the end...

it will be that season here soon enough. i have more fence up but not enough. we have the youngest cedar trees covered by 5 gallon buckets. once they get bigger than that we have to fence them or put something else around them to protect them. we have rabbits that will strip the bark, but i've never had deer do that to cedars. i now hunt rabbits more than i did before because we have some more younger trees i want to make it to above the height the deer can reach, once they get that tall then the fences are not as critical, but the trees will look funny when trimmed below that height (sometimes like green-capped mushrooms ).

there are wild apple trees around here that have managed to survive so there is some capability there to get through predation by deer. i know that piling loose brush around saplings can help as can other techniques like putting up sticks, poles, wires, fences, etc. but it can also be a defense in layers and just sheer persistence. i think three years is pretty quick and much quicker than what some other trees can manage (for a cedar tree it takes about 7 years to get fairly tall enough to get above the deer grazing (we have one that has never made it in 24 years yet)) as apple seeds can be sourced for free or nearly free (asking at cider mills can often work if they'll talk to you and you explain what you just want a bucket of pomace) if you get it from a mix of apples then you get some really fantastic genetics going on there (apples are complex and rarely breed true)... anyways, whatever you end up doing i hope it works out... don't mind me if i natter on...

 

[ducks4you]

@digitS',I am wondering if you should mix in straw with your soil for your carrots for 2021? I, too, have had forks, although the short Danvers tend to do better. I am currently extending my growing season with lettuce and carrots in the horse tank. It's black, so it gathers heat and retains it, and I can cover it. The soil is ALL compost from 2018. We'll see.
When we both crack the secret for carrots, let's patent it!

 

[ducks4you]

Covered beets, turnips, small 3 x 6 bed (not harvested beets, yet, and maybe some spinach,) AND the 2 flower beds north of the garage. I HOPE to pull in some flowers today and others, will update you on that.
Low of 30 this morning, 31 tomorrow morning, 38 Sunday morning, THEN LOW OF 24 Monday morning!!!
Highs back in the 60's next week.
My oats are up, little green grassy like things, about 3 inches high.

 

[digitS']

Straw might help for the carrot soil, @ducks4you . However, this was a bed that was loaded with frost-killed plants in the Fall of 2019. So, the organic matter was down there but may not have decomposed enough to be of benefit.

@ninnymary once asked me why I don't screen the rocks from the soil. This would be a BIG task since, I'm not kidding (!), some of my garden soil must be 50% rocks.

Oddly, this year's carrots were in the "better" soil for rocks and last year's carrots couldn't have been in more rocky ground. The 2019 carrots were the best crop I've had since I left that other garden years ago where the sand content was so high (big rocks but few of them).

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

Straw might help for the carrot soil, @ducks4you . However, this was a bed that was loaded with frost-killed plants in the Fall of 2019. So, the organic matter was down there but may not have decomposed enough to be of benefit.

@ninnymary once asked me why I don't screen the rocks from the soil. This would be a BIG task since, I'm not kidding (!), some of my garden soil must be 50% rocks.

Oddly, this year's carrots were in the "better" soil for rocks and last year's carrots couldn't have been in more rocky ground. The 2019 carrots were the best crop I've had since I left that other garden years ago where the sand content was so high (big rocks but few of them).

Steve

just don't overdo the nitrogen...

 

[ducks4you]

This is something people eat voluntarily???

Agreed!

 

[Cosmo spring garden]

We have freeze warning this weekend so I harvested all my luffa gourds. Has anyone harvested them green? Did they dry and gave you a nice luffa sponge?