What Did You Do In The Garden?

[flowerbug]

still weeding the North Garden. if things go ok i'll finish today before the rains happen. two edges to go with one partially done already.

while working on the upper flat part where the turnips are at i was picking the broad leaf plantains and pulling off the seed stalks and throwing them in the grass because the birds can come along and eat those. later on Mom was going around picking those up. i tried to tell her about giving the birdies something to eat but she just said that they can eat the berries off the honeysuckle bushes/trees. arg! so much for the birdies having some food for later in the season. i know they do eat a lot of those seeds...

as for the honeysuckles they've been eating a lot of those berries and spreading those seeds around. i pull thousands of those plants out each year. it is getting into the stage of things where we get drunk birds from eating all the fermenting berries.

 

[ducks4you]

Paid to have burdock cut and stacked and have my big garden weeded.
Neighbor kid did a Great job!
He is 19yo and waiting for his interview with FedEx (this would be his 2nd job, after 18 months at a gas station/fast food chain job,)
I pay cash, so he can keep filling his gas tank.
Win-win

 

[Jane23]

Today, I surveyed my garden. The grasshoppers and ahpids have eaten it. It has never been this bad, but this year we had way too much rain and our winter was too warm. We did not have at least a week of -40° temperatures. Sad though it is, I can plan for next year and research.

So far, I am planning on building up my raised beds, because if they’re higher, sometimes it does help keep the bugs out and possibly planting the garlic I will get around the edges like I did my other garden bed. You would have to imagine it, one garden, early destroyed, potatoes, and onions. The other garden untouched. is it the garlic I planted? I think so. Plus, its on the other side of a hill.

Any thought to add on what I should try next year?

 

[Cosmo spring garden]

So hot here and humid. Started watering the garden to keep things alive.
Potato plot was tilled and sown with buckwheat and watered. I love using buckwheat as covercrop. It's great for pollinators!

 

[Jane23]

So hot here and humid. Started watering the garden to keep things alive.
Potato plot was tilled and sown with buckwheat and watered. I love using buckwheat as covercrop. It's great for pollinators!

I’ve thought about that where I am. Two beds are currently a pea mixture that should be helping my poor soil. Though I did find aphids in them too, thats where they laid their eggs.

 

[Zeedman]

The home gardens are finally taking off.

Picked a bucket of slicing cukes today; the vines have reached the top of their 6-foot trellis, and are branching heavily. They are, if anything, even more rampant than last year. The new luffa ("Long Beauty") is flowering heavily; a female blossom on almost every leaf node. I picked 4 today at edible size, and am letting another 4 of those first-set to go for seed. 20+ young luffas already set; looks like this variety will be WAY more productive than "Joy" last year. The Chinese bitter melon (now in its 5th generation of dehybridization) has reached 12" beyond the top of its trellis, is branching heavily, and is well on its way to becoming a green wall. Most of my labor now for all of these gourds is training & redirecting all of the new branches onto their trellises.

The bush acorn squash is growing nicely under its floating row cover, to keep SVB at bay. I should be able to remove the cover soon, when the first female flowers appear. Won't know for awhile whether this is the true-bush version; if so, one squash on each plant will be hand-pollinated for seed. I grew the true bush acorn several times & really liked its earliness and productivity; but it seems to be vanishing from the seed trade.

All peppers grown for seed are now caged, covered, and blooming. All but one of the tomatoes are healthy, and being trained onto string trellises (the last variety, "Wolford Wonder", was only recently freed from the weeds which were holding it hostage). The eggplant was only recently weeded also, and is beginning to set fruit.

All of the garlic has now been dug; I'll post more shortly on that thread.

My eyes begin to glaze over just proof reading this, so probably best to stop here, before anyone falls asleep on their keyboarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

 

[flowerbug]

...
Any thought to add on what I should try next year?

beneficial insect refuges aka places that the good bugs can overwinter and hide out during the times you are cultivating a neighboring area. i have them normally spaced around the gardens. we rarely see aphids on most of our plants but some can show up on the brassicas because i don't normally grow those in most areas so there isn't a brassica aphid predator around much that i can tell. so once in a while i may pull a heavily infested brassica plant and bury it.

during the rest of the season you can also plant some dill, alfalfa, clovers and other plants that the bugs will use to keep them around and to give them enough to have a full life cycle.

next spring get some lady bugs and let them go in your gardens.

 

[ducks4you]

Today, I surveyed my garden. The grasshoppers and ahpids have eaten it. It has never been this bad, but this year we had way too much rain and our winter was too warm. We did not have at least a week of -40° temperatures. Sad though it is, I can plan for next year and research.

So far, I am planning on building up my raised beds, because if they’re higher, sometimes it does help keep the bugs out and possibly planting the garlic I will get around the edges like I did my other garden bed. You would have to imagine it, one garden, early destroyed, potatoes, and onions. The other garden untouched. is it the garlic I planted? I think so. Plus, its on the other side of a hill.

Any thought to add on what I should try next year?

GARLIC, GARLIC, GARLIC, GARLIC!!!
(sung to the tune of "Marsha! Marsha! Marsha! Marsha!")
Plant it in ALL of your beds.
Doesn't matter which kind. It will deter pests. Apparently marigolds aTTRACT aphids and other bugs--who KNEW?!?!? Just FYI
Try planting it heavy. IF you reseed, just plant the cheapest grocery store garlic to Start with, although it won't overwinter, but it Is readily available. RIGHT now you can still order garlic from seed companies.
@Phaedra has grown it just for the shoots.
I am about to plant the small garlic seeds that I harvested in my front bed. Not really enough sun, but they will take a few years to do anything, so they will be the type of filler that my mint has been on the west side (but shaded by a "Door-mer"--back door that sticks out), and has kept the weeds out.

Episode 1102: The Foodscape Revolution - Growing A Greener World®

Foodscaping is the practice of incorporating edible crops into the ornamental landscape. We visit Brie Arthur's foodscape garden for examples.

www.growingagreenerworld.com

Brie Arthur got me excited over growing garlic and She lines her beds with it.
You don't even have to harvest it to use it.

 

[ducks4you]

Also, plant mint in pots and put them by your beds.

Does Mint Repel Pests – Insects And Animals That Don’t Like Mint

The fragrance of some mint varieties doesn’t sit well with insects. That means that you can use mint as a pest deterrent. Click here to learn more.

www.gardeningknowhow.com

 

[flowerbug]

So hot here and humid. Started watering the garden to keep things alive.
Potato plot was tilled and sown with buckwheat and watered. I love using buckwheat as covercrop. It's great for pollinators!

it also works out well as a nursery crop for starting alfalfa or mixed ground cover blends through the hot part of the summer.