What Did You Do In The Garden?

[Zeedman]

Weeding & mulching of the home gardens is nearly done. We laid 6 bales of hay, but still need another 4-5 bales here to get done (plus another 15 bales or so on the rural plot). Got feelers out for the hay on CraigsList. DW & I took a look at the rural plot yesterday. Almost everything we planted there came up, except two older soybeans... I may need to use rescue protocols on those two next year.

The water spinach is loving the heat, it is ready for the first picking.

Will be starting work on the rural plot today. I need to put up poles for all of the trellises, so DW can start running the strings. As anticipated, the weed hatch is very heavy, almost a ragweed & crab grass lawn... not looking forward to that task. That garden was once nearly weed free, it will take years to fight all of the weed seed accumulated in the last two years. I'm considering using a weed barrier; it would take a lot, and cost a pretty penny, but save us days of labor - and is reusable. The silver lining is that all of the perennial weeds - especially thistle - appear to have been eliminated.

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

I got the pole weeds weeded and it was raining again today and about 63 degrees. Someday the tomatoes may get some heat.

 

[Trish Stretton]

@Trish Stretton are you leaving any lawngrass in place while leveling? No, not @seedcorn 's crab grass.

My yard sure isn't level and seems to become worse each year. It isn't very noticeable when the grass is growing and "softening" the lines. Maybe Engineer @Ridgerunner would call it elevations.

Ridge' has suggested using soil to fill in low spots. I have done some of that but imagine that it would take a pickup truck load of soil to make much of a difference.

It's probably mostly a traffic problem here and I don't know what the bluegrass think of having 2 or 3 inches of soil raked over it and then walked on. I MUST do this filling again at the foot of the backsteps. It seemed to be okay with the grass before but it was more like an inch and a half that I raked over it. Then, Skippy decided not to step on it for about a month while not daring to make that suggestion to DW.

Steve

Most of the grass is couch with some white clover. I find it regrows quite quickly even when scraped.
I'm taking the clay soil from the bed around the water tank cos it has wind anenomes roots in it and these have started to encroach into the cracks in the courtyard paving and will ruin it if left in place. It wont matter if these roots do regrow in the lawn cos they'll die from being mowed all the time.

The beautiful black top soil is coming from the top left corner where it is a lot higher than the rest of the lawn. I have managed to strip of squares of grass to go on top of the really bare or roots areas.

This newly made bit around the Greengage tree will have another 800mm (2 1/2-ish feet) to the left of it where the greenhouse will be rebuilt. The sides will be 2 feet lower cos the land slopes away from this tree a little, so there will still be enough room, for the doorway with out having to do any trimming of the framing,(I hope).

Still have a lot to do, but it keeps me busy.

 

[flowerbug]

Most of the grass is couch with some white clover. I find it regrows quite quickly even when scraped.
I'm taking the clay soil from the bed around the water tank cos it has wind anenomes roots in it and these have started to encroach into the cracks in the courtyard paving and will ruin it if left in place. It wont matter if these roots do regrow in the lawn cos they'll die from being mowed all the time.View attachment 36039
The beautiful black top soil is coming from the top left corner where it is a lot higher than the rest of the lawn. I have managed to strip of squares of grass to go on top of the really bare or roots areas.
View attachment 36040
This newly made bit around the Greengage tree will have another 800mm (2 1/2-ish feet) to the left of it where the greenhouse will be rebuilt. The sides will be 2 feet lower cos the land slopes away from this tree a little, so there will still be enough room, for the doorway with out having to do any trimming of the framing,(I hope).
View attachment 36041
Still have a lot to do, but it keeps me busy.

pictures yay!

 

[digitS']

Ran rototiller in, around, through the vining plants.

It worked fairly well for killing the weeds. The plants weren't spaced perfectly to run consistently at a 90 or 45 but most hadn't grown much to put themselves in the way.

Someday the tomatoes may get some heat.

One problem was that some melons have died . I don't think that includes any of the Gris de Rinnes and it may not include the Galias. The Galias (Passport) struggled through spring 2019 and provided a few fruits. Zero cantaloupe in 2019, despite attempting to grow Goddess, a very early U of New Hampshire melon. But, this spring's temperatures weren't quite as radical. Still, some melons died.

It's the same crops as had problems. However, the winter squash is okay. The eggplant kinda looks okay. The peppers aren't looking so unusual for my garden and this time of year. Neither the eggplant nor the peppers are growing .

My tomato plants are beginning to look much better and are growing. It really helped to get the flea beetles off of the plants. Now, some serious weeding has to take place and, hopefully, that can be done tomorrow.

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

gotta water today. everything needs it so likely i won't get much else done. which might be ok. hot, hot, hot and no rain in the forecast until Friday now. then we finally have a cooler day down to 89F in the forecast for Saturday. otherwise today is the coolest day in the forecast at 93F, the rest of the week is hotter. i wonder if the tomatoes are going to be able to set much fruits but i will ding them good today when i'm watering them. time to get at it...

 

[flowerbug]

i actually do see some tomatoes forming on them now - also a lot of flowers on the tomato plants. we'll see how this week goes.

melon plants have some flowers already. the plants aren't very big it is surprising to me that they're flowering already.

cucumber plants are loaded with flowers too.

peas are showing signs of getting ready to quit. i give them a good shot of water or three every time i'm in the garden just to see how long they'll go in this heat. a lot of flowers on the tops of those too, but the lower down parts are podded and getting seeds. it will be an interesting mess to sort out. i planted a bunch of small groups of peas in this tiny plot and knew they were going to all grow together so for sure they did that. heheheh...

no bean flowers yet. some of the climbers have found their strings/poles already. a few are already half way to the fence (i had to rig some poles and strings so they can get to the nearby fence). it's a trial to see if it will work better than what i did last year which didn't work very well at all.

 

[Collector]

I have had some pretty bad luck this season so far with a few bright spots sprinkled in. Hope the weather stays on the sunny side for awhile so the garden can get some growing in.
We waited An extra 1.5 weeks to plant this year to sort of wait out the cold weather Which made no difference. The weather has not been the best for getting things going this season but everything is up and growing slow. Looks like the weather is going to be better from here on though, so hooray for that. The tomatoes are around 18” tall right now which is quite a bit smaller than usual. Some have small tomatoes on them that I should pick off and let them grow a little. Beans, peas cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, And Brussel sprouts are doing ok Cept the beans are growing slow. Planted potatoes in April they are blooming now so they are doing ok. We have planted cucumbers twice so far, the first round all were lost to powdery mildew. The second planting seems to be holding on for dear life ,and may be losing the battle. The pumpkins and winter squash are just sitting there not doing anything. If something doesn’t happen soon there won’t be enough days left to get mature squash for winter eating. Is there any garden lore about the sweet corn being ankle high by the 4th of July ?? If not there may be trouble brewing out in the corn patch lol. What has been a surprise to me is the summer squash. They have put on more growth than anything else out there so far so yay for them.
What is new this year:
eight trees
2 honey crisp apples
2 cherry trees, one van, and one bing.
1 Elberta peach
1 Bosc pear to go with the Bartlett that is already here.
2 Autumn red maples.
We also put in two elderberries, 8 primo cane blackberries 4 grape vines, 2 gooseberry/ one died, and DW just picked up 4 huckleberry bushes so we will see how that works out.
Also last fall I prepared a strip down our back fence line and planted 50 bare root harvest gold raspberries from our tangled raspberry thicket. All but one survived the winter and are blooming now and next years canes are up and 4’ tall already, so big win on that. Preparing a strip down another fence line for our heritage red raspberries this fall. Also put in 3 raised beds behind the house for more planting area. I know I am forgetting some stuff but this is a general rundown of what’s been going on around here lately.

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

My cucumbers do not look good. I am going to put some more seed in. Not sure why. Some are gone, so I think birds pulled them up, but I am not sure. The squash look good, but also some are gone. My peppers usually are just the best looking plant in the garden, but they look awful and I think root bound in cups waiting for warm weather. I have peas on my plants, not many. Pole beans are starting to really take off. The kale and collards I should start freezing some. My cabbage is trying to make heads. I have some lettuce and the Swiss chard is just taking its time this year. I do have some small tomatoes on plants and flowers. It is sunny and going to be 80 today and I will have to water today.

 

[ducks4you]

Killed burdock by sawing and bush-hogging. Killed curly dock by digging and bush-hogging. Killed everything else with 2D-4. Mowed until the cows came home...but no cows showed up.