What Did You Do In The Garden?

[Zeedman]

Which one did you buy?

Earthquake 31285. I'll post my observations on the tiller thread.

 

[Dahlia]

Today my friend and I built this garden box out of the scrap pieces of cedar planks we cut for other uses. It should help keep the slugs at bay, especially if we top the sides with copper tubing!

 

[flowerbug]

yesterday was the first day i got into the fenced gardens to check them out and start weeding anything that needed to get done before spring planting. not bad as i was able to get five of the seven gardens finished in a few hours.

the remaining gardens will probably take a day or two as one of them is pretty big and has a lot of spring flowers to work around. i need to remember to take my markers out there with me so i can move them later this season so they will be along one edge with the rest of them that i moved last year.

making progress as the weather cooperates, that is all i can expect.

 

[henless]

I put my squash starts out this past week. Planted my green beans & cucumber seeds. Planted a few sunflowers here/there.

My tomatoes & peppers are growing good.

 

[Trish Stretton]

Do you have any bricks?

Yep, but they are all going in the paths or around the tangelo tree...oh, were you talking to me about this or somebody else? I didnt check. Oh well, moving on.

The new lot of Saffron bulbs all came up and alot faster than the older ones that I already had. The new ones have been flowering like crazy so I have been picking them and then removing the stamens in accordance with the instructions that came with them.
I dint know that you had to pick the flowers to encourage them to grow more and I think I have planted the earlier ones too deep, cos not one of those has flowered, but maybe they will set more bulbs.

 

[flowerbug]

i got out yesterday and did more digging along the edge i'm trying to clear of grass/weeds. three and a half feet further along and some of the edge i didn't do the last time i made it out there. i slept very well last night, but woke up with a very sore shoulder blade so either i slept on it wrong (possibly) or i made it mad at me with the digging so we'll see how today goes.

the soil back there is tremendous! in previous years i was able to amend along part of this edge using the wood ashes my friends have been giving me. i never mix it in completely, but partially so that through time as i go back through it will get mixed in better.

the rains have not been much up until last night, so while the surface was wet enough yesterday and the soil was not completely dry down deep you could tell it needed another few good rains, which we got last night. i don't think i'll be doing any serious gardening today, i can work on weeding some pathways if i get out there at all.

but back to the conditions of the soil itself, after being leveled some years ago i planted alfalfa and birdsfoot trefoil and then would chop it back sometime three or more times a season for the worms to feast on. even if it is our mostly clay subsoil it is dark and has plenty of roots going through it and worm tracks all over the place so it is prime garden soil now (which is why i'm putting it back into production for as long as i can keep up with the space that i am clearing out). keeping grasses and other weeds from growing under and around alfalfa is a very difficult thing to do, especially if the grasses are spreading by roots and stolons. even after repeatedly trying to get all the grasses out of there it's taken back over again. the garlic is still in there too where it has also been mown quite often. it is a good source of garlic chives if i remember to go out there and get some.

whatever i don't get removed and buried will get mowed and with the warmer weather and rains it will probably need to be mowed in a week. busy season is here.

 

[digitS']

Garlic chives?

Are you using young garlic leaves?

Or, just trying to confuse us ? It's been a little difficult to start garlic chives here but now have some. The regular chives are easy, almost a little too easy. Apparently, in some places - they get completely outta hand! Maybe I'm lucky to be able to appreciate them where conditions must be a little inhibiting.

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

Garlic chives?

Are you using young garlic leaves?

Or, just trying to confuse us ? It's been a little difficult to start garlic chives here but now have some. The regular chives are easy, almost a little too easy. Apparently, in some places - they get completely outta hand! Maybe I'm lucky to be able to appreciate them where conditions must be a little inhibiting.

Steve

one of the gardens i've removed them from had an edge of about 90 square feet of chives. they never had any problem growing here at all from seeds. Mom wanted to protect some sunflower seeds and young plants from being eaten so she heard that if you put the flower head of chives around them the chipmunks would leave them alone. uh, no, but then we got the start of the chives along that edge and they kept expanding each season until i finally removed them (when the horsetail started to get really bad in that garden and i had to dig it all up anyways). the smell of chive roots makes me sick to my stomach enough that i won't willingly plant it ever again here. what we have is plenty enough even if Mom tries to mow it all down each time...

garlic chives from young garlic plants yes, but not the same as the plant often called garlic chives, lily leek, etc. (allium moly). which we also have a clump of those out front someplace. we have all these and the only ones we eat consistently is the garlic. we rarely bother to use the chives, even if we have a bunch of them along another edge. the bees do love all of them though.

 

[digitS']

garlic chives from young garlic plants yes, but not the same as the plant often called garlic chives, lily leek, etc. (allium moly)

So. You are trying to confuse us!

Google has "garlic chives" as Allium tuberosum.

So many species in this family! I'm going with the Allium tuberosum because of white flowers on what we now have.

Steve

 

[Dirtmechanic]

Well I got inside the fence and weedwhacked and burned the old stuff plus some fig limbs that were waaay to green to burn properly. But it turns out leaf blowers can make a roaring fire, with less smoke to keep neighbors from grumbling. The dirt looks loamy. I was thinking it might be too wet to till but it has drained well even after the 2 inches of rain in the rain guage from a couple of days ago. I cut grass and trimmed. Oh by the way, the potato slips I planted in DW's hyrangea shrub garden have come up and she does not know what they are! She likes them, has shaped them, and they are growing like mad down low under the shrubs. I am like Schultz, I know nothing!