What Did You Do In The Garden?

[digitS']

First off: what I did in the garden: Put down some organic, commercial fertilizer and tilled it in with the little 25cc Honda. DW then sowed seed for carrots, parsnips, chard, and beets. We put some shallot sets and seedlings in along with bulb and green onion seedlings. It froze in the big veggie garden this morning so we decided to allow the brassica transplants a little more time at home.

could order gravel or stones.

Marie, my soil is so very rocky I don't think that I could ever advise someone to put rocks in theirs. What is the depth of the beds and the native soil below?

millet ... birds were crazy for it when the heads ripened

I have grown millet a number of times. You are sure right about the birds!

It was only for dry flower arrangements - my plan, not the finches. The first season, I noticed that birds were in it and, I think it was 2 days before I was back in the garden. They had completely destroyed the seed heads by then!

After that, I learned to watch the millet very carefully and harvest before it was ripe.

Steve

 

[Zeedman]

Last summer I tried a grain, even though I don't have tons of space, and it worked out really well. It was called Dragon's Claw millet; it's short, maybe 2 ft, produces quite a lot per plant and seems to thrive on heat and utter neglect. Two hurdles though- birds were crazy for it when the heads ripened, and it looks so much like a weed that it's hard to actually keep the crop weeded. It was slow to start, and everyone who passed my patch asked, 'why are you growing weeds here'?

Grains I've been considering include millet, rice, and hull-less barley. I think all of those would need to be covered with bird netting to get a good harvest. Grains are entirely new to me, so I've got a lot of learnin' to do before I jump into that project.

Rain all day today, so just started a few more seeds inside - Moringa, water spinach, Cyclanthera explodens (tiny gourd that explodes & expels its seeds), and wild sunflower. Those are all in the heated mini-greenhouse until germination.

 

[heirloomgal]

It's crazy right @digitS'! Every time I went to check on that patch as it got closer to maturity, a little flock of birds would burst out of there and scare the heck out of me! They were all hopping around under the leaves, pecking away. They stripped the seed heads even while green. At some point it occurred to me that maybe there is some kind of drug in these things for birds?

I should also mention @Zeedman it was a really early maturing crop too.

 

[flowerbug]

Grains I've been considering include millet, rice, and hull-less barley. I think all of those would need to be covered with bird netting to get a good harvest. Grains are entirely new to me, so I've got a lot of learnin' to do before I jump into that project.

...

one time i let some of the cover crop i planted one season go to full maturity just to see how they grew and finished up (normally i would turn them under about a month before planting). both the winter-wheat and winter-rye did very well that season and i could certainly understand why they were used as cover crops. not many weeds could stand up to them and didn't do very well in comparison.

towards the end i had a lot of amusement watching chipmunks jump up into the air to pull the seed heads down so they could harvest them.

i did also harvest some of the seeds for my own use and i even did eat some of the wheat berries, but i never milled any of it to flour or go beyond so a lot of effort i wasted there. the complaint from Mom was that the chipmunks stashed seeds in various places around the gardens so the next fall we had sprouts coming up from stashes they never cleaned back out. of course, none of that bothered me, i tend to be very live and let live in comparison...

 

[Marie2020]

First off: what I did in the garden: Put down some organic, commercial fertilizer and tilled it in with the little 25cc Honda. DW then sowed seed for carrots, parsnips, chard, and beets. We put some shallot sets and seedlings in along with bulb and green onion seedlings. It froze in the big veggie garden this morning so we decided to allow the brassica transplants a little more time at home.


Marie, my soil is so very rocky I don't think that I could ever advise someone to put rocks in theirs. What is the depth of the beds and the native soil below?

I have grown millet a number of times. You are sure right about the birds!

It was only for dry flower arrangements - my plan, not the finches. The first season, I noticed that birds were in it and, I think it was 2 days before I was back in the garden. They had completely destroyed the seed heads by then!

After that, I learned to watch the millet very carefully and harvest before it was ripe.

Steve

Thank you for getting back. Thick clay is our soil. As for the raised beds they are not in place yet this will have to be worked out plus I want to cover my vegetables.

Sorry too be so vague I'm dealing with a big big problem right now and will be back asap

 

[Marie2020]

I'm building two new raised beds right now as well @Marie2020. I built one large raised bed about five years ago too. For all three all I did was till the ground underneath, which had a lot of clay. I didn't lay anything under even though there had been weeds there previously. The beds are about 1 foot high, and the 1st one has worked out really well. No weeds made there way up into the soil. I have some slug pressure, which is worse in areas that have a bit of shade at some part of the day. My most successful approach to them has been diatomaceous powder squirted from a mustard bottle.

Thanks so much for your direction.

I'll be back soon.

 

[ducks4you]

FINALLY started sweet peppers indoors. They are King Of The North, 60 days maturity (green), 72 days maturity (red). I have them on a heat mat with a gro light on top of the fridge, in a plastic store container about the size of a showbox that came with spinach.
I put in topsoil and Topped that with starter soil.
Must have planted about 60 seeds.
We'll see what comes up, but I have "high" hopes bc I bought them from High Mowing.

 

[digitS']

King Of The North, 60 days maturity (green), 72 days maturity (red).

The King was in my garden for several years, Ducks'.

It always performed well altho it was on the small side for a bell and never matured to red. That may have been the fault of the willingness to harvest the green ones too early.

But, the first of May?! I started peppers the last week of February, first of March. Well ... don't pay any attention, except for the little hot devils, peppers seldom grow all that well for me. Baby Yours and we will keep our fingers crossed.

Frosty morning temperatures at the big garden but we haven't had any freezing here at home for about a week .

Steve

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

I have all the kale, collards and cabbage planted. The cardboard from last fall really helped. I planted some Kong sunflowers today and transplanted flowers. A lot of work on the other side without the cardboard. This is the first year I have been able to work hard and not just fall apart. I am recovering from exercise. All the tomatoes and peppers have been out in the sun and hardened off. I planted a few onions today too.

 

[Artichoke Lover]

Last summer I tried a grain, even though I don't have tons of space, and it worked out really well. It was called Dragon's Claw millet; it's short, maybe 2 ft, produces quite a lot per plant and seems to thrive on heat and utter neglect. Two hurdles though- birds were crazy for it when the heads ripened, and it looks so much like a weed that it's hard to actually keep the crop weeded. It was slow to start, and everyone who passed my patch asked, 'why are you growing weeds here'?

I’m having that same problem with the corn some of it got washed out of the rows by the heavy rain this week. It looks just like a type of grass we have here so I spent about 10 minutes this morning scratching my head staring at the patch before I decided just to leave it another week or so and try to figure it out then.