What Did You Do In The Garden?

[digitS']

After the first 7 minutes of the Indoor Exercise yesterday, the thought occurred to me: what in heaven's name am i doing? I went out and at my somewhat random pace, spent 2 hours finding and cutting old boards, driving rebar stakes, setting boards and moving soil back against my crude retaining wall. It should last for a few years.

The rebar stakes for the hoops may be set in place for the pvc hoops and, maybe, I will pull the hoops out from their storage llocation in the crawl space under the south room. Setting them up will be about all I am willing to do without some reassurance from the Weather Service re: windstorms.

Setting the plastic film in place isn't really a 2 day job but it's more than 1 day with the hoops, cutting the film, pull it in place, attach to window and door frames with lathe, install door and window, tie down to big stakes with baling twine, place boards & bricks/rocks along edges, etc.

It's all worth it for the 9' x 20' protected environment for a nice, early starting place. It used to be of even more use as I filled the 18" path with flats of plants that overflowed the 9' x 20' greenhouse and were for a distant garden. My knee held up well with yesterday's activity and didn't cause any later, added torment. That's the condition this morning, after 8 hours on the horizontal.

Steve

 

[digitS']

Late season in a past year — center path covered with flats of things to transplant out elsewhere.

 

[Shades-of-Oregon]

digitS’ very impressive ‘past year’green carpet of seedlings. That’s a lot of work and determination. I remember those day’s well. . Luv the memories we share of gardening.

 

[ducks4you]

Sunday, I dug out about 6 red (or yellow) tulips that had jumped the border, and dug out the clump of purple tulips in another location. I put them in 2 buckets and they sat practically in the dark on the basement counter until today. My whiskey barrel planter is wooden, the pot is plastic with a rim, but no drainage. I started a fire in my fire pit, grabbed a piece of rebar, heated it up in the fire and melted a nice, neat 1/2 inch drainage hole in the center.
Funny, the wooden part Has a 2 inch diameter hole...
I filled in the bottom half with stuff from a 2 month old pile of used stall bedding, dug out from the middle of my garden fencing (with there are mounds and the soil is rich and easy to handle,) and shoveled out more soil, then I drove the plastic pot and the pots of tulips in my tow wagon over to deposit them in the wooden whiskey barrel, just north of the bottom of the front door steps.
I am sure that they will live. Pulling them up this late, I am not sure that any will flower. Doesn't matter.
By May all of the tulips leaves will have died down and be impossible to find. For 5 years I have promised youngest DD that she can have the purple tulips. IF they start to produce buds I will pot them up and she can take them to her office to show off. If NOT, she can dig some holes in her yard and we will transplant later in the year.

 

[hdan]

Amended with compost, planted three rows peas today.

 

[digitS']

Hoop house is covered – door in place. The window frame is covered and tacked down with lathe. The window hasn't been installed.

Both frames need work. They are basically posts in the ground converted to frames. The door "vestibule" receives so much run-off of water from the carport roof that it's often a mess at this time of year. I had to remove the threshold to make the door fit! The window posts are leaning so much, I will have to put a brace in to allow the simple square shape window to close. All very crude but they have been adequate access and ventilation for over 20 years. Not.much.longer!

Retrofitting and repairs become not nearly as simple as building anew. Ding dang it.

 

[ducks4you]

Back not quite healed yet, SO, I pulled out my trusty riding "God" mower and took out the trash to the street where I left the can, pushed it 180 degrees around to be ready for pickup;
I grabbed the end of my 200+ ft of hose that goes from the outside taps to the 110 gallon steel pony water tank so that my mower did the heavy lifting and pulling, and I filled the tank;
Replanted cabbage, spinach and cauliflower (this time I used the purple) seeds in sowing jugs, covered with vermiculite (I used a funnel for both,) ran water to them from the outside tap and put them back in their spots;
Watered the other 6 jugs;
Put new plugs on top;
and fed ponies.
ALL before the severe thunderstorm that Could have contained a funnel hit us.
We had a deluge and the pony's turnout was flooded.
Being Springtime it all drained, but more rain forecasted midweek to the weekend.
I count 17 German Red Garlic up, and 31 Porcelain Garlic up AND I had forgotten that 2 years ago I planted seeds from the Amish Garlic (no clue as to what kind) are up on the edge of my wildflower garden.
Also, some Italian Garlic that I planted a few years ago. The ground was hard as a rock when I tried to harvest, so I left them in the ground to...do their thing.
I had phone work and brothing to do this morning, but I hope to be out to get more done this afternoon.
Yes, Virginia...Ducks is playing with semicolons.

 

[flowerbug]

nothing today it's cold and windy and pretty soggy. just looking... out the windows...

 

[Branching Out]

Musical plants. Moved some pansies and echinacea to spots where they'll have more room to stretch out. There were also some curly endive plants and a Red Mizuna that over-wintered, so they got new homes as well. It would be nice to save seed from the mizuna if it survives the transplant.

Tiny tomato seedlings, some sweet peas, and a handful of Ferrari bush beans got upgraded to slightly deeper containers. Zinnia and marigolds got pricked out to good sized bins of potting mix; they'll spend several weeks in the bins, until they're ready to plant out.

Most of the day was spent treating horsetails with a solution that I'm trialing, to see if it controls them (or at least slows them down.) Horsetails are so annoying; they pop up like mushrooms with new shoots each day.

 

[heirloomgal]

Musical plants. Moved some pansies and echinacea to spots where they'll have more room to stretch out. There were also some curly endive plants and a Red Mizuna that over-wintered, so they got new homes as well. It would be nice to save seed from the mizuna if it survives the transplant.

Tiny tomato seedlings, some sweet peas, and a handful of Ferrari bush beans got upgraded to slightly deeper containers. Zinnia and marigolds got pricked out to good sized bins of potting mix; they'll spend several weeks in the bins, until they're ready to plant out.

Most of the day was spent treating horsetails with a solution that I'm trialing, to see if it controls them (or at least slows them down.) Horsetails are so annoying; they pop up like mushrooms with new shoots each day.

Horsetail used to be the absolute bane of my garden. Bush dirt trucked those in, and they grew like grass. It took some years, but I've finally banished them nearly entirely with a Dutch hoe.