What Did You Do In The Garden?

[digitS']

I bet ..

. there is frost ..

tomorrow morning.

digitS'

 

[buckabucka]

I agree, @Gardening with Rabbits that the cooler weather is nice right now. Five more weeks in the school year and the kids are already acting bonkers. As soon as the weather warms up, they will totally check out.

This is a very weird spring in lack of frosts. I put in the onions in late April, and I always set up some hoops over them so I can quickly cover them if we have a hard frost, but I haven't covered them once yet. We've had very late hard frosts here before (that damaged peppers in the hoop house), so the hoops will stay just in case.

Today is supposed to be 53 degrees, and by Thursday, 88! Then it should cool off again for the weekend.

 

[ducks4you]

I could relate that story about a sawmill in the forest near my one-time home. How the buildings had fallen and all but disappeared until you walked right into the midst of that little place ... and realized that you were standing in sawdust! I mean, the piled stuff takes centuries to decompose!

Steve

NOT if you burn it.

 

[digitS']

Burning makes me think of burning manure, @ducks4you . We once did that accidentally, burning some corral boards near a manure pile. Horrible Smell! The residents of the housing development about 300 yards away already had to suffer through the burning smudge pots from the orchard next door. I wonder what they thought of our smoldering manure pile that took a few days to put out. At least there wasn't the common "teepee burner" and wretched smelling log pond of a sawmill nearby.

Dad told us that it used to be accepted practice to burn manure and use the ash for fertilizer. I know that it continues to be so amongst subsistence farmers in SE Asia. They carry the ash to distant gardens, often on their backs. Many plant nutrients must be lost but some concentrated, I guess.

It did freeze here at home. This time, I had the hoopies covered with tarps. The nearest Wunderground thermometer to the big garden had 36°f and I sure hope things are okay out there. Could have made the drive to turn sprinklers on but it would have meant carrying pipes in the moonlight. Please, I'd be happy with just a little warmer. Thank you.

Steve

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

I agree, @Gardening with Rabbits that the cooler weather is nice right now. Five more weeks in the school year and the kids are already acting bonkers. As soon as the weather warms up, they will totally check out.

This is a very weird spring in lack of frosts. I put in the onions in late April, and I always set up some hoops over them so I can quickly cover them if we have a hard frost, but I haven't covered them once yet. We've had very late hard frosts here before (that damaged peppers in the hoop house), so the hoops will stay just in case.

Today is supposed to be 53 degrees, and by Thursday, 88! Then it should cool off again for the weekend.

We already had the 50s and then we had 81 and then back to 50s again. Right now the forecast has 40s and even 50s for lows. May 15, today is the usual frost free day and people plant and I usually plant around this date for tomatoes and peppers.

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

NOT if you burn it.

The pine shavings I use are in a box in the back corner of the hutch and will soaked in urine and when I take them out to change I will dump the shavings in a barrel and sometimes before I get that barrel dumped it will rain on them, so they are really wet and then we we build a compost bin, I layer the shavings with other things and when we used cow manure these savings are gone in a year and if I keep a bin hot, they can be put on the garden at the end of summer. There is a lady a few blocks from me putting in a first time garden. Tilled up the ground. Never saw how it happened, but compost, maybe manure spread and she is planting and already has tomatoes out and has put wood shavings all around the plants. I can't wait to see how this garden grows.

 

[ducks4you]

Give your critics the shovel and you will pull up a chair and watch THEM do your mucking!

 

[Smart Red]

It's finally happened. I've actually started working in the veggie garden. Not for myself, unfortunately (yet) but for my D-I-L who mentioned she wanted to plant some things in the garden today. HUH? I suppose she was expecting that my son, her spouse, would do whatever was needed to make it work out. NOT!

I spent 4 hours Sunday and another two hours today getting one raised bed ready for planting. First by digging out all the weeds - and worse - the grass that grew in the bed over the winter. Getting all those runners up and out is a major project in itself.

After loosening the soil with a fork and then doubling digging the bed, I am hoping I got most of those fiesty runners of grass. Then, after mentioning the bed needed an application of compost dug in - with no apparent listeners - I did another session of double digging to get the work done myself and incorporate some of the aged chicken compost that is piled in a fallow bed since last summer.

The bed still needs to be raked smooth before it can be planted. I'm guessing son will do that all the while thinking he's done what was needed in getting the bed ready for his wife.

Me? I'm truely pooped! Out of shape and used to Spouse doing the greater share of soil prep. At least, this year I will have help with the weeding and garden up keep as the season progresses. And, hopefully, I will be able to get my future farmers up to speed as to what a good, productive garden needs before planting can be done.

Yes, I could have had D-I-L help with prepping the bed, but I don't think she's ever done that before...just walked to her community garden bed and had spouse rake it for her. Unfortunately, she was sick yesterday while son was busy with other needed work. NOT GONNA be this way all the time or I just might cover the garden beds with carpet and shop at the farmers' market.

 

[Smart Red]

Two beautiful days for working outside, though. Just what I need .... to put some distance between the kitchen goodies and myself.

Now to start on a garden bed for myself. I am also going to put pavers of some sort on the paths to keep future weeds from getting such free reign in the beds. What a mess!

 

[PennyJo]

We are talking pavers where there is nothing but mud between humans going a certain path
and dogs I hit hard when I went down last night... need to get out into the garden with my new seeds
and two new plants but afraid to fall again