What Did You Do In The Garden?

[digitS']

@Phaedra Geiermann , that looks like such a pleasant environment.

Since allotment gardens are not uncommon to British and some other European gardeners, and these are some distance from home, garden sheds have some popularity there. Probably, the great majority are just places to store hand tools. Others are quite a bit more than that. I have been enchanted with some of the pictures that I have seen of them.

Steve

 

[Phaedra]

@Phaedra Geiermann , that looks like such a pleasant environment.

Since allotment gardens are not uncommon to British and some other European gardeners, and these are some distance from home, garden sheds have some popularity there. Probably, the great majority are just places to store hand tools. Others are quite a bit more than that. I have been enchanted with some of the pictures that I have seen of them.

Steve

Yes, when we bought the house, there is a wooden shed for only tools. However, it's a quite old one, i have no intention to walk into that for two years. Last year we decided to remove it and build a new one, otherwise having a dark, damaged and spooky shed in the garden is just a waste, especially the location is quite lovely.

We selected the type with two seperate room, one for storaging tools, and the other for a coffee (yes, this is one of my 5 coffee corners), reading, writing shed.

The photo is taken when it's done, from our greenhouse

I spent much quiet and cozy moment here reading and writing, so this is most of the time a "she shed."

 

[flowerbug]

Yes, when we bought the house, there is a wooden shed for only tools. However, it's a quite old one, i have no intention to walk into that for two years. Last year we decided to remove it and build a new one, otherwise having a dark, damaged and spooky shed in the garden is just a waste, especially the location is quite lovely.

We selected the type with two seperate room, one for storaging tools, and the other for a coffee (yes, this is one of my 5 coffee corners), reading, writing shed.

The photo is taken when it's done, from our greenhouse

View attachment 43268

I spent much quiet and cozy moment here reading and writing, so this is most of the time a "she shed."
View attachment 43269


View attachment 43270

i could just live there. i don't need much. haha! beautiful!

 

[flowerbug]

i did get the earliest beans picked and brought in. i should get a few lbs from them once they are fully dried and shelled out. not a bad crop considering how many we also ate as freshly steamed beans.

the weather report said it was 74F out there, but when i went out to bury the tomato scraps and some horrible corn on the cob that was inedible it felt ten degrees warmer as it was so humid and not much of a breeze.

a part of any proper burial of vegetable scraps also involves looking around that area and finding any weeds that need to be buried as the worms can always enjoy turning those into future vegetables and/or flowers.

in the other patch it also meant piling up some bean plants so i can bury them tomorrow or some other day and also weeding while picking. i want to get as many weeds out of there as a i can before they drop seeds. so far this season i've mostly been able to do that so it will make the coming seasons much easier in the end. just have to keep at it as much as i can. i have my garden knife with me almost all the time when in the gardens because in most of them the soil is so firm as to be unable to pull weeds out by hand without getting most of the root too. this saves a lot of damage to the hands because trying to get the whole root out of the ground otherwise would involve a lot of poking and prodding and breaking fingers or searching around for a sharp bit of rock or a stick to dig it out. a big old steak knife with a large wooden handle does the trick much better.

 

[Dirtmechanic]

Picked a peck of Okra and some Bells. Tomatoes are almost gone, I got one. I tied up some German Queens that have started flowering so the second shift should produce some more before the cool weather arrives. I broke open the leaf mould compost from last fall and started wheel barrowing it around, I fertilized and composted 6 camellias and trimmed, fertilized and started mulching 30 knockouts. I ran the strimmer around the yard. If the rain holds off I will start a new compost pile with the leaves that are beginning to come down.

 

[heirloomgal]

The red is the fleshy aril that surrounds each seed. It is slimy, but sweet & edible... the seed is not. I've separated the aril from the seeds in one of two ways.

If I only have a few, I spread the seeds out on newsprint, and place them somewhere they will dry quickly. When the aril has dried, it will stick to the paper, and the seed can be peeled out cleanly.

If processing a lot of seed (as I did today) I place them in a bucket of water & beat them briskly with a wire whisk, until all of the arils have separated. Most of the seeds float; I skim them off the top with a large wire strainer. Then I can either pick out the seeds (as I did today) or spread them out on newsprint, stirring until most of the arils have stuck to the paper... at which point I can gently pour off the clean seed.

Those were pretty neat looking seeds (or seed arils I should say), strangely delicious looking - very like cherry pie filling. That is indeed an unusual vegetable in the looks department; is it one of your favourites thus your avatar? I've tried a few lesser known fruits and vegetables, but not that one. I think the 'bitter' in bitter melon gave me pause.

 

[Zeedman]

Those were pretty neat looking seeds (or seed arils I should say), strangely delicious looking - very like cherry pie filling. That is indeed an unusual vegetable in the looks department; is it one of your favourites thus your avatar? I've tried a few lesser known fruits and vegetables, but not that one. I think the 'bitter' in bitter melon gave me pause.

The red arils are sweet - very sweet for some varieties. Too slimy for my taste when fresh, but I've eaten a few of them dried. We added some dried arils to rice once to give it color, but it didn't add much to the flavor.

I think bitter melon causes a lot of people to be apprehensive. Justifiably so, IMO... its definitely not for everyone. It is very good for health reasons though, especially for diabetics. Of the more unusual vegetables in my collection, bitter melon gets the most attention - hence the avatar. I have 6 varieties in the collection, and grow 2 varieties every year (but 3 this year). Besides what we eat ourselves, we have quite a few Filipino and Asian friends who use bitter melon in their diet, and we give a lot away to them each year. Finding a way to successfully pickle bitter melon is my greatest culinary challenge.

The grand children have all been fascinated by the bitter melons hanging from the vines - especially when Grampa told them they were "frog cucumbers". It really is an interesting plant, and would be a conversation piece as an arbor cover.

 

[ducks4you]

Just got my hay for this winter. BEAUTIFUL alfalfa/grass mix, heavy bales, $6/each, and straw. 400 hay, 50 straw.
My hay man thins that there will be a shortage of hay this winter. HE is investing in more building storage space. I am BLESSED bc I can store up to 500 bales in my loft.

 

[ducks4you]

This weekend I cleaned up the saplings trying to regrow by the street fence, mowed down any grass/weeds, dug them out and tilled on both sides of the fence. I FINALLY transplanted 24 Romas that were begging me to do so. Most had masses of roots the size of a dinner plate. I tried to use flextape to fix the cut in my old hose--I need >100 ft of hose to water there--but I didn't tape it up right. It goes to the trash this week and I am buying a new hose so that I can use the new water wand that I bought last month. I am planting seeds along the fence line for a lovely fall brilliance of color, etc. I have learned SO MUCH about gardening this year!!
Most important: NEVER GIVE UP!!

 

[Dirtmechanic]

This weekend I cleaned up the saplings trying to regrow by the street fence, mowed down any grass/weeds, dug them out and tilled on both sides of the fence. I FINALLY transplanted 24 Romas that were begging me to do so. Most had masses of roots the size of a dinner plate. I tried to use flextape to fix the cut in my old hose--I need >100 ft of hose to water there--but I didn't tape it up right. It goes to the trash this week and I am buying a new hose so that I can use the new water wand that I bought last month. I am planting seeds along the fence line for a lovely fall brilliance of color, etc. I have learned SO MUCH about gardening this year!!
Most important: NEVER GIVE UP!!

I finally gave up and bought 6 of those metal boxes with the hose reel hand crank for sunny or exposed irrigation connections and put some stiff plastic cut from a old lawn sweeper bag over the reels attached to the house. Just keeping them out of the weather and sun the least bit has stopped the annual hose buying around here. I get some silicon spray and grease and clean/grease the boxes and spray wipe the hoses and its good. I bet a uv resistant boat wax would be even better for the hoses.