What Did You Do In The Garden?

[ducks4you]

Harvested 11 more cucumbers. I am buying cucumber seeds for OTHER THAN pickling, so I can grow bigger.
Family demanded a salad on Wednesday and a salad today, so 4 had to be sacrified.
Hoping to make the rest into pickles.

 

[Phaedra]

Pruned shrubs, cut back perennials, and practiced shaping boxwood

 

[digitS']

I will claim that Winter preparations are one-third finished in the big garden.

The first 1/4 tilled was tilled a second time (leaving the Porters tomato volunteer undisturbed ). Half of the next 1/4 was tilled. I had made a pass with the mower and tiller last week to see if this would be successful and it appeared to be. The corn stalks had been cut and lying on the ground for several weeks. The mower was reasonably successful at lifting and chopping the stalks. The tiller could make it through with 2 passes over the ground and really mess up the stalks and stumps . It looks sufficient to hasten decomposition altho a smaller rototiller would have likely had too much trouble.

It's a long way from what the tractor guy could have done and far from the digging out of beds and burying that I continue to do with the home garden. It does, however, look adequate to set things up for the Spring tilling if I cannot get back for one more simple pass thru this year. Where I did this on the first quarter – it went very quickly and looks like ground ready to plant, immediately .

The sprinklers were loaded into the pickup to be brought home, all hoses were rolled up, and the irrigation pipes were stacked into a pile. A half bucket of greenbeans were picked and nearly as many snow peas. There were a few tomatoes with a blush, a few cucumbers, and one melon to be brought home . Cloudy, sprinkley weather may be insufficient to prompt a hard freeze next week but we are coming down to just zero growth and nothing benefitting from being there.

Steve

 

[Phaedra]

We processed the recently pruned stems, twigs, and branches into very ideal sized materials for compost.

Kind of self-sufficiency, they will make very good quality compost, I believe!

 

[flowerbug]

I will claim that Winter preparations are one-third finished in the big garden.

The first 1/4 tilled was tilled a second time (leaving the Porters tomato volunteer undisturbed ). Half of the next 1/4 was tilled. I had made a pass with the mower and tiller last week to see if this would be successful and it appeared to be. The corn stalks had been cut and lying on the ground for several weeks. The mower was reasonably successful at lifting and chopping the stalks. The tiller could make it through with 2 passes over the ground and really mess up the stalks and stumps . It looks sufficient to hasten decomposition altho a smaller rototiller would have likely had too much trouble.

It's a long way from what the tractor guy could have done and far from the digging out of beds and burying that I continue to do with the home garden. It does, however, look adequate to set things up for the Spring tilling if I cannot get back for one more simple pass thru this year. Where I did this on the first quarter – it went very quickly and looks like ground ready to plant, immediately .

if i had a big enough patch where a power anything would be useful i would see if i could find a trench digger that would flip over the surface and then pile dirt on top of it so it could be left like that and then each season i could go back and forth burying and flipping the surface and leave a trench for garden debris and whatever else to go in there. anything else i can do from no-till to low-till is much easier all around (less effort and less noise). it's the really weedy spots and the sod in spaces that i want to recycle into worm food that would be great for a trencher. busting sod is not easy to do...

p.s. searching under sod turning and sod flipping don't really give you much of what i'm interested in and trenching doesn't either...

 

[ducks4you]

Sorry, sounds like a job for your good ole' spade. Dig your way to China and make a trench. Then you can fill with compostables and backfill with soil.
Nice thing about weeds...they can't run away.

 

[ducks4you]

Harvested green beans. SO SURPRISING!!! I planted So Late this year and yet we will have at least one dinner with them.

 

[flowerbug]

...
Nice thing about weeds...they can't run away.

you've not seen those tumbleweeds in the wind...

 

[Branching Out]

I sowed Cereal Rye in little 'pinches' on the neighbour's steep slope, to help keep their bank from eroding once the rains start. Then some winter pansies got moved from 6-cells to containers for our deck, with one pot planted for our neighbour as well. There were empty planters sitting by their front window, so I top-dressed those with composted manure and poked in some 'Green in Snow' mustard seeds. It was home-saved seed so if they sprout it'll be good, and if they don't it won't be a big deal. I was not feeling very energetic today, so all of this was accomplished with minimal exertion. We finished by giving the bunny a run in the garden, and now my basil has teeth marks in it. (Note the ridiculously small melon hanging from the fan-shaped trellis).

 

[Dahlia]

I sowed Cereal Rye in little 'pinches' on the neighbour's steep slope, to help keep their bank from eroding once the rains start. Then some winter pansies got moved from 6-cells to containers for our deck, with one pot planted for our neighbour as well. There were empty planters sitting by their front window, so I top-dressed those with composted manure and poked in some 'Green in Snow' mustard seeds. It was home-saved seed so if they sprout it'll be good, and if they don't it won't be a big deal. I was not feeling very energetic today, so all of this was accomplished with minimal exertion. We finished by giving the bunny a run in the garden, and now my basil has teeth marks in it. (Note the ridiculously small melon hanging from the fan-shaped trellis).

The melon made me smile! It's so cute!