What Did You Do In The Garden?

[SPedigrees]

Yesterday seemed an odd day, weatherwise. It was the warmest day in over 2 weeks at 68°f (20°C). And yet, the afternoon had heavy overcast. Breezy but the system was directly from the south, blowing up from California, I suppose.

I set up a little fountain on the tree stump in the backyard . The stump cut at an angle, I had to really mess with making it level with 3 little feet. Measurements were made a few days ago with pennies . One penny has a thickness of about 1/16th of an inch. Stack 'em up. Set the level on them. One point on the stump was ground zero ... 1/8" here, 3/4" there, 7/8" there ... ah shoot ... my stack fell over!

Feet locations marked, board cut, holes drilled, screwed in place ... Set the ceramic bowl on the feet. Pump, solar panel, wire between ... I already knew it worked after setting it on the ground on a previous, sunny day. Heavy clouds, it dribbled.

Well anyway, it looks cute, DD says. I have it below the cast iron hand pump that I have had for years and set it on the stump in '23. Somewhere on TEG I have a picture of it with amaranth blooming beside and oregano growing around it . Fretted for years that I didn't really know how to run the water through the pump into a basin. Gave Up on the Idea! Water goes through a ceramic fish on the bowl's edge.

Now the oregano needs time to grow around it . I'll take a picture after that happens.

Steve, facing a week's forecast of overcast, rain and a dribble

Pictures needed!

 

[Phaedra]

Transplanted a lot of young plants - the hoop tunnel is now full, and one raised bed is also full. Now, only warmth-loving plants and some just germinated seedlings are still sitting in the greenhouse.

 

[flowerbug]

yesterday wacked a large thorn bush mostly back to some stubs that i need to chop off with a saw as the loppers won't cut things bigger than 3 inches across. this thorn bush has been on my list for removing for quite a long time. it was also covered with grape vines so most of those too got cut off.

after taking a short break i also managed to get that back pathway weeded.

today was lawn mowing day and working on a project to keep the birds from nesting above the windows and patio door here outside my room. it's been a continual issue where i have to keep after them so they won't put nests up there. so almost 28 years of aggravation finally partially remedied, but hopefully we'll finish that up Wednesday. i'll still have to caulk and stain to match but that's fairly easy compared to getting wood cut and put up there.

 

[digitS']

Pictures needed!

With the oregano just starting, one should anticipate what the surroundings will look like with its covering the stump.

fun to see how much sunlight is needed for a drip, a dribble and a flow. We may substitute “dismal, cloudy and bright” in our vocabulary

 

[digitS']

 

[digitS']

Scrounged some suitable compost (partially decomposed) from a  stealth, below-deck bin – coming up with about 12 gallons. Dumped 20 gallons of kitchen trimmings in and covered. Those had been accumulating since the great grass sod haul tied up the compost making several weeks ago.

The 12 gallons of  okay compost went into a tiny bed along the inside of the greenhouse south wall. It was tuff digging that out to its "required" 8 to 10 inches because the plastic film & 2x4 wall slopes back towards me. Meanwhile, I stand wedged on to a narrow path by the big, center bench. Also, the soil had to be loaded into buckets so it could be temporarily moved under that bench. Soil dug out and moved, compost placed, soil lugged back and dumped — a small job completed.

A home for as many pepper plants as can reasonably be set into that ground created! I have plans for running twine on their north side to contain them. The one other time peppers were grown in there, they grew so robustly that I couldn't walk on that southside path to harvest them, leaving all that to DW with her smaller frame. I am anticipating that those mostly Giant Marconi grow as well in 2024 but I'd like the pleasure of picking a few .

Steve

 

[Celtic_Rumor]

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

Me and my grandparents finally got down weeding the grass about a week or two ago. My grandmother doesn't like the chemicals most use and thinks it's bad for any new plants you're trying to grow. So, we've been using these fork-like pullers that grip the weed from the bottom of their roots and pulls them out. Hurts the back if you're not paying attention to your posture. Then we laid some compact dirt down to scape the land, backyard is mainly on a hill. My center and core really loved that work out, packing down all the mud. Cool to hear about your new fertilizer, I'm told fish fert is pretty great for plants.
- CR

 

[Phaedra]

Weeding, removing tulips, and transplanting a lot of veggies - 80% young plants left greenhouse and started their following chapters.

 

[Branching Out]

My experience is similar to yours Phaedra. 80% of my seedlings have left my high tunnel, so yesterday I spent the day making about 300 soil blocks for many different kinds of bean seeds. It was especially nice to be able to make the blocks outdoors now that pleasant weather has arrived. The trays of blocks are now filling one of the tables in the high tunnel. They need a little extra protection as we have heavy rain in the forecast for Tuesday. Once the beans produce a couple of leaves I will plant them out to their permanent locations. And unlike many of you highly-organized gardeners I do not have a well-developed plan for where these seedlings will go. I just keep planting until I run out of space.

 

[flowerbug]

...And unlike many of you highly-organized gardeners I do not have a well-developed plan for where these seedlings will go. I just keep planting until I run out of space.

i think you might have me confused with someone else... i pretty much have some plans for where i want to plant things but until we actually get the plants from the greenhouse i don't know how many and that determines where (as tomatoes take up a lot of room).

i do the same thing with my bean plantings. fit them in wherever there is extra space after i'm done planting the rest of the starts and plants. the space inside the fencing is the most valuable and i don't want to waste any of it.