What Did You Do In The Garden?

[ninnymary]

I have been sprucing my garden getting ready for our annual coop tour this coming Sunday. Usually there are around 200 people that come see my coop. There will be 14 coops on tour this year.

I had to pull my ultra dwarf nectarine and peach tree out of their pots. They appeared to do well for 2 years but then the soil got so dried out and watering just wasn't working. They started dying so out they went. I'm not too disappointed since the fruit was bland. Not really hot enough here for stone fruit. They were also in front of my plum and apple tree that are around the fountain. Removing them opened up the space and it looks much nicer. In one pot I planted a 3' tall Brown Turkey that a friend started from a cutting. In the other pot, I planted a pink popcorn blueberry. My blueberries in pots do well so I decided to go with a sure thing. Since they are small right now, I planted red swiss chard around them.


Planted more cilantro and radishes.

Mary

 

[Collector]

I injured my back at work a couple weeks ago and tings have been on slow speed ever since then. The vegetable starts are growing like crazy, all have been up potted for awhile and growing fast. Also started the garden fence but had to stop To cut down a 110’ cottonwood tree that was leaning the wrong way and needed to be removed first. With the back situation it has been a uphill battle with the tree I fell it and have most of it cleaned up and burned. I kept a 55’ log from it to use in the garden as a terrace. Not sure how I am going to get it there though. It’s been pretty tough going with my back and trying to save it for work days. DW back also been out for about a month she has all her gardening jobs plus taking care of grandson 3 days a week. I hope we start getting better soon or the garden season will be a disaster. I think I will take some heavy equipment home next weekend and try to get some of my jobs caught up on. Garden time is here so no time for health issues to spoil our favorite time of year:

 

[flowerbug]

@Collector i sure hope things improve for you and your back. i've had issues for 40yrs and only the past 3-5 have been decent.

i would never be able to drop a tree that big here. i wouldn't trust myself plus there's just too much other stuff around.

be careful out there! start slow and work into it. always warm up in the morning before doing heavy bending/lifting because that is when your discs are stiff from not moving all night. they are nourished by fluids moving in and out and at night they plump back up so to get them flexible again and to prevent problems always start the day with gentle exercises to get them more squishy.

all of this i learned the hard way... not counting other things too.

 

[flowerbug]

today, worked on fixing up the mess i made last fall with one of the gardens, will take me another two or three days to finish. moving rocks, making the edges with the rocks, using pieces of some sort of strange material to be the inner edge. i think it is black plastic with black granules in it. i wonder how long it will hold up. i'm not all that fond of plastic of any kind being used around the gardens because it always ends up being a mess i have to clean up later. perhaps this will be a 10-20yr later mess -- it's very heavy -- the rocks are too. which is why i only did part of it today. too early in the season to go full bore on any projects.

after i was tired of moving rocks i switched over to cleaning up some of the other mess i still have. old pallets to break apart and the chunks of wood from that, i decided to use them to plug up gaps in the pallets i still have sitting there so critters don't have such an easy time using that location as a hiding spot. the other day there were two groundhogs sunning themselves back there. i was hoping they'd stay away. nope. so they've had warning shots and their summer den is plugged up. i check those areas once or twice a day to be sure they've not started back up. no new digging for a few weeks now.

so the other day the smaller groundhog i may have shot with the air rifle, but i've not wanted to pull more pallets out of where they are at because it is such a mess to do that. i don't have enough fill to do the whole job now. i have to do it a little each season. so it may be down there and eventually i will smell it rotting. oh joy... the larger one ran under the pallets too, but eventually it took off -- which to me is a good sign that they don't have yet another den under the pallets (they shouldn't because it gets flooded at times).

i just need to get more fill in the end and then i can bend sheet metal i have sitting there back over it and put the gravel on top of that. they're not going to get back through that space again (more likely they'll try to go around sometime, but i'll be watching...).

hopefully some new fence the next few weeks somehow - going to make the wabbits, deer and groundhogs to have to really work for it to get in the yard from the east and north edges. we can't do the whole thing, but this will give us a more consistent fence than what we already have back along those edges (in bits and pieces of recycled fence). i sure hope it helps. i don't really mind sharing, but i get fed up when the entire crop is gone.

tired, bed time.

 

[ducks4you]

Lettuce are up in the mini greenhouse and some spinach.

I bought 6 pots of grape hyacinth, 4 plants in each pot, on WM clearance at 42 cents/each, and put them in ground on south lawn of DD's yard. They have two huge trees, probably elm or maple, but dunno and don't care. They both shade out part of the lawn, so you KNOW that grass is a goner. Tomorrow I will be home and I will put all of the spring bulbs that are up that I moved last year. I will take a count, but I think we are talking about 50 daffodils, a handful of full sized hyacinths and a good dozen crocus, maybe a few tulips. I found about 4 daffodils in odd places, one next to my burn pile, another in the corner of a vegetable garden bed. They will be moved.
Mid American Gardener was commenting on how you only need to wait 3-6 weeks after the flowers fade to cut them back and they will still have enough energy for the bulbs. In my DD's world, THAT means they can mow over them.
I am looking for ground covers that will spread but not be invasive. I KNOW that creeping phlox is a good candidate and DD's have one that needs dividing after two years and I have two, one of which needs 3/4 of it removed and replanted. I will put those closer to the city sidewalk. They should get enough light to do well this summer, despite the mid summer, leafed out tree shade.
DH mowed the 3 acre north pasture Saturday. I had to clean up sticks from a limb, put out to dry out two years ago, and now moved. Otherwise, only a few burrs that came in on one of my horses. Leave it to them to find any!
I will be planting onions and some other cool weather crops directly this week. We had a FREEZE scare yesterday morning! Good thing no tomatoes were outside, they would be goners. Also, the fruit trees had not Quite flowered, so there might be some apples, pears and peaches in 2018 after all.
Only one isolated patch of burdock and the poisoning begins!! Got my supply of D-2, which pulverized any that I sprayed last year.
ALSO, I rode "Buster Brown" (QH) twice this weekend! All of the burdock cleaning up which I started in February, has given me a riding season this year!!!!!
DH thought he deserved and A for effort, I gave him a C+, he gave himself an A++++
As his trainer I really need to connect better...

 

[flowerbug]

@ducks4you so nice when things finally improve and you see the efforts paying off.

 

[ducks4you]

I injured my back at work a couple weeks ago and tings have been on slow speed ever since then... It’s been pretty tough going with my back and trying to save it for work days. DW back also been out for about a month she has all her gardening jobs plus taking care of grandson 3 days a week. ... Garden time is here so no time for health issues to spoil our favorite time of year:

Prayers sent for your back!!!
I am THRILLED that my next door neighbor is going to take down the two trees that need to go in my yard!! I watched him take down a 90' tree 12 foot from his house a few years ago, so I KNOW that he knows what he is doing. We have a great relationship with him and he knows that he can do this sometime this year when he gets around to it.
He took down a 100yo maple that somebody wanted removed for free, with easily a 4 ft. diameter, judging from the piece that he couldn't sell bc it had some nails in it. He sold a 12 ft section just above the base piece (with the nails) for nearly $1K last week. Pretty good return for his work. He loves to cut cords for his fireplace, and is happy to take the Mountain Ash (I THINK?!?) and the volunteer maple growing next to my pine trees (2 ft base diameter) out.

 

[canesisters]

Added compost.
Let Chaos the barn cat nap in my lap.
Gave the sprouts a day out in the yard (as opposed to the dining room table)
Sat and admired a pair of blue jays building a nest.
Revamped the roost in the chicken coop to turn it into a compost factory.

 

[digitS']

@Collector , I wrote paragraphs and paragraphs about my back. I'll delete a whole bunch of it! Here's what's left:

Don't ignore present problems or some of the potential problems.

My left leg is a wreck from sciatic nerve damage. However, it's been a toss up for several years as to which leg and side of the back is causing me the most discomfort. No question about it the last 6 months: the right. That means I have no good leg to walk or stand on. I'm really unstable. However, walking and general exercise has always been of help. I try to take care of myself in my activities.

A retired person, this is probably good for my sense of purpose and mental adroitness . I try not to do just enuf to get by. I'm not striving for excellence but I don't intend to disappoint myself.

All that can change because of health. "Doing the best I can" is what I am up to and all I think you should be up to .

Steve

 

[Sunnyba8e]

18 months into this new property with lots to do. So much shade in back accounted for a miserable garden last year so my tomato plants are waiting on the sidelines for a better spot. Going to try the west side of the house. Nice and sunny afternoons with the heat of the afternoon sun. I have husky cherry, early girl, better boy and mortgage lifter tomatoes. The latter being a new one for me to grow. I harvested last year's garlic and weeded all the flower beds. 20 bags of mulch and 10 of garden soil still waiting for my attention.