What Did You Do In The Garden?

[digitS']

In the greenhouse, the tomatoes & peppers received some of the Fox Farm fish fertilizer a few days ago. Something new to me but it does have some feather meal so is partly what I have used for years (composted poultry byproducts - no longer available). The plants may only need to be indoors & hardening off for another week but it's time for a little more nutrients. Tomatoes in 3 1/2" pots, peppers remain in 4-packs.

Those pots are insufficient for about half of the tomatoes. They have grown too tall even though separated for better light. I put bamboo stakes on those and may need to do the others. It helps with floppiness and 2 twist ties on an 18" stake is sufficient. The twist ties, I hasten to add, are only twisted to 180°. I don't like to but have left them on because of windy conditions once transplanted out and a growing stem will literally push off the twist tie when it is tied so casually.

At one time, we sold plants like that. I'd even start off with 12" stakes. It made for safer transport but I worried that a customer may well leave them on and I wanted to be sure that the plant wasn't strangled because of that. The 180 twist works, just secure enough to hold them a little while.

Steve

 

[Dirtmechanic]

I thinned green beans and planted 3 sun sugar cherry tomatoes and 3 juliets.

 

[flowerbug]

In the greenhouse, the tomatoes & peppers received some of the Fox Farm fish fertilizer a few days ago. Something new to me but it does have some feather meal so is partly what I have used for years (composted poultry byproducts - no longer available). The plants may only need to be indoors & hardening off for another week but it's time for a little more nutrients. Tomatoes in 3 1/2" pots, peppers remain in 4-packs.

Fox Farm was what my brother got into using for growing weed here and he wanted to follow a certain regimen every week. the first season he was able to come by often enough that he could do most of it himself so i didn't get too involved with that. the second season he was under the weather and it fell on me to do the scheduled feedings and i didn't always do it every week. the results were still acceptable and i think that just having semi-decent organic gardens were good enough.

some of those bottles really stunk when opened.

the raccoons did not disturb anything, which was good i didn't have to worry about them making more problems.

the tomatoes here are always planted deeply enough that the raccoons don't get into them no matter what the greenhouse might use for fertilizers. sometimes the raccoons do uproot some onions but that's just the breaks...

 

[peteyfoozer]

I burned a bunch of foxtail in the yard, and some of the stinging nettle before my back demanded I stop. I need to see if the lawnmower works. Weeds grew at a phenomenal pace after last rain, darn it. Still haven’t gotten that stupid pig moved. Beginning to think any plans for a garden this year may be doomed…we might have to live on just jerky

 

[Dirtmechanic]

I burned a bunch of foxtail in the yard, and some of the stinging nettle before my back demanded I stop. I need to see if the lawnmower works. Weeds grew at a phenomenal pace after last rain, darn it. Still haven’t gotten that stupid pig moved. Beginning to think any plans for a garden this year may be doomed…we might have to live on just jerky

My dogs live on chicken jerky. It is not a bad lifestyle.

 

[Branching Out]

I burned a bunch of foxtail in the yard, and some of the stinging nettle before my back demanded I stop. I need to see if the lawnmower works. Weeds grew at a phenomenal pace after last rain, darn it. Still haven’t gotten that stupid pig moved. Beginning to think any plans for a garden this year may be doomed…we might have to live on just jerky

Hang in there!

 

[flowerbug]

buried a large pile of cardboard. it was a lot of work considering i'd not done any serious digging since last fall. the worms will be very happy down there in their new multi-story worm hotel.

weeded about half the garden so it won't take that much more effort to have it ready for planting.

 

[SPedigrees]

The ranch didn’t winter cows out there for the past several years do to rustlers having made off with over a half a million dollars worth of cattle one year.

Wow, that's terrible! Horses look like they're eating well in their corral, nice looking hay. Those young wives may be sick of cow camp, but they have greater powers of endurance than I have. The doorless outhouse alone would have done it for me!

 

[SPedigrees]

I spent the past week hacking, chopping, sawing, and hauling downed wood from our forest of ancient pussywillow bushes alongside the brook. The ice/snow storm caused a lot of damage. At least the lawn mowing crew was able to get thru after my efforts. All those branches, trunks, etc are in a huge pile, some to be chopped or sawed into firewood for cook-outs, and the rest awaiting hauling out into one of the brush piles in the swamp when I regain some strength to don waders and move all of it. To borrow an old line from Harrison Ford, "There's no part of me that doesn't hurt." On the in-between days when I wasn't working outdoors, I had to make the 40 mile round trip to get car serviced and stock up on groceries, still more errands and trips to town lie ahead, vet apts for both dogs etc. I swear those drives and errands are more tiring in their own way than grueling physical labor, altho at least I don't end up crippled afterwards. I'm seriously too old for this. Still have to assemble a new galvanized raised bed before June 1st when danger of frost is gone, and try to clean up downed pine trees and branches up in the woods.

 

[Zeedman]

I've been "exercising" the plants twice a day with the hair drier (air only setting) in an effort to thicken their stems & reduce legginess. Had to start with low speed initially, but I can wave it at the peppers in full speed now. Done for 5 minutes in the morning & evening, this appears to be as effective in strengthening as a continuous fan - without drying them out.


The same treatment has thickened the stems of the tomatoes, but they are still growing like weeds (they are after all indeterminate ). The lights are suspended from chains hung on hooks, and I need to raise them a link or two nearly every day now. The tomatoes REALLY need to be potted up & moved outside. The leaves have become so intertwined it will be challenging to untangle them without damage.

Edit: had a lot of trouble with the photos... I guess cut & paste didn't work right.