What Did You Do In Your Garden Today?

[897tgigvib]

I'm in get back into shape mode after having that Bubonic Flu. Gotta get in shape before I climb a ladder to do the netting.

Almost there! Just tucker out too soon, but working on it. And oh boy I have some good workout and mix it up routines to do in my garden!

It's mostly digging and filling my wagon behind the lawn tractor. 3 things now. The woodchips left by woodcutters who cut down some very large leaning Fir trees is one stuff. For now it's going outside my garden. (One of the 3 purposes of my vegetable garden is beauty.) Smells good too!

I cut some mid and end paths in the 2 middle beds of the main part. Also to the south of the south bed I dug a trench to fill with clay. Today was a couple loads of clay soil, and 2 loads of woodchips.

Also, the easternmost bed at the end is receiving a trench. Soil from that, which is too heavy in my estimation for the wall there, is going to the front section as a lyer to mix in and raise the level where it shrank. That trench will receive fluff forest compost and will be mixed with the rest.

All this soil movement and placing within the garden is via 5 gallon bucket, carried by me. I know, does not sound like much exercise, but it is to me. Seems to be working too.

Oh, I was switching gears from one thing to another, and little things between. Wire cages to move around.

What's tomorrow? Kind of part 2 of today. Hope to be done shovelling clay, or almost anyway. More trenching the back bed, hauling to the front. Sorting the wire cages. Maybe tuck the white plastic down both sides of that south bed.

Goal is to get the Peas in before St. Pat's day in that bed.

 

[Ridgerunner]

What Did You Do In Your Garden Today? - Not a darn thing other than with the tomato and pepper starts I have in the house. We got a really nice rain here which we needed but I can't go in the garden without sinking over my ankles. So I stay out. I planted my cool weather spring stuff before the rain but I can't mulch until it comes up. I hope the seeds didn't wash away too bad. The rain was hard enough that might have happened.

That mulch will eventually be thick enough I can walk in there without visiting my friends in China but it will really compact the walkway areas. I don't do raised beds there, just the old plant it in rows type of garden.

So yesterday I canned 18 pints of chicken broth. You probably could have used it when you had the plague recently. This is nothing like the broth you buy in the store. This stuff has FLAVOR. I took advantage of the down time outside in the garden to clean out a bit of freezer space for the coming season by using those frozen chicken carcasses to make broth.

Today I'll pick up 8 bales of wheat straw to use as that mulch and leave it out in the weather so some of the seeds can sprout. I'll do some more work on that reed rack I'm building for my wife. She's into weaving. You would not believe all the stuff she has me build, reed racks, spooling racks, raddles, cubicles, trapezes, and who knows what else. Weaving has a language all its own.

I do actually have friends in China. Some people I worked with are working there now plus my brother-in-law worked over there for several years. Do you need some contacts to help loosen the roots of your bindweed?

People think the Great Wall (which really is impressive) was built to keep the Mongols out. It even says that in history books. That's only partly right. It was really built for horse control. One Mongol on horseback was probably worth ten Chinese foot soldiers. The Great Wall was designed so that if the Mongols breeched the north side, the Chinese foot soldiers could stop them from getting through to the south side before their horses could get room to maneuver.

 

[vfem]

I love seeing how so many more people have things going on in the garden now!

Just a month ago everyone was just waiting watching snow and dealing with bad weather. At least now, if its bad weather outside a lot more people can finally get starts in the house going so they have SOMETHING to do!

I didn't do anything yesterday, but I had oral surgery and I was in pain sleeping most of the day. Which was fine, as it looked sunny out, but the winds whipped through bitter and angry cold.

Over the weekend we were in the 60's and it was perfect for a lot of things, so I did a bunch then. We weeded and fluffed the mulch in the front bed, did our rows in main garden in back, pulled out rotten wood boards, cleaned up the chicken coops and a few odds and ends in the side beds. I have a bunch of weeding to do on Saturday and then we're going to mulch the beds and the paths in the garden. They are calling for 73 on Saturday!!! Too bad I have to work most of the day, but I have the morning before it gets too warm to get the beds prepped for that mulch. Hubby will get that picked up in the afternoon if he can borrow a truck.

 

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

not much i can do in my garden yet. i still have a layer of snow/ice over it. :/ i'm just happy i can see most of my yard in other patches. here's hoping next week we will have warm enough temps that i can get my tiller in the ground to get some early veggies under some tunnels soon!

 

[Mickey328]

Does looking at it and sighing count? It's still just a tad early to do much, although we did have a gorgeous day yesterday...full sun and 60+ degrees....took care of almost all the last new snow we got. I was thinking it might just almost be time to get the peas in the ground...but we can still count on a few frost days before all is said and done.

I did turn and water all my sprouts, talked to them and told them what good, lovely little green things they are

 

[897tgigvib]

Where I live now is actually the first garden I've ever had that has no Bindweed. Hoo boy, if I ever see one in it, it'll be no holds barred get rid of it now.

I did not understand one word of that about weaving. I guess that is a language of its own. I have a couple tenuous connections with Elsie Allen, a local native American basket maker extraordinaire. A friend knew her and actually inherited a basket she was working on when she died. We went to a small craft shop in Ukiah, and talking with the owner discovered that she is Elsie Allen's great niece.

That is a smart way to get the bales to produce fewer weeds! Open it up and let them sprout.

I've had homemade chicken broth and it is really great alone, plus makes wonderful mix in other soups. I bet yours is awesome.

I actually heard that about the great wall of china while watching a documentary about the silk road. They said that the usual given reason is just a simple version. It went on about how on the silk road, china traded silk and herbs for roman horses. the name they had for the roman horses translated as flying horses.

 

[thistlebloom]

You've got an impressive to do list Marshall. Sure wish I could get out there and do some stuff. My perennial beds are mostly snow free now, so if I was going to be home today I'd do a little gentle cleanup out there, and rake the bits of lawn that are clear.

Maybe before I leave for work I'll go glare at the 8" of snow on the veg beds.

 

[digitS']

Well, yesterday afternoon was a big day of work for me. I said in the "landscape fabric" thread that I felt I was doing several years of weeding in that 1 afternoon.

My hand held up real well to it. It doesn't feel a bit more sore this morning than yesterday morning! In fact, it may be just a sukochi better today .

Getting over the fence to work is limited by the neighbor's early afternoon departure for work. I did learn that the soil isn't very wet! It might be cold but it isn't mud. This is the real advantage of having so much gravel in the soil here. Oh and Marshall, you mentioned your lake and water level on the weather thread. The recent snow melt in my gardens is on its way - down to the aquifer. Water in the aquifer here moves at a rate of 30 feet a day . . ! Think of it, the aquifers in many parts of the world are measured in centuries!

The next garden, that I've had for nearly 20 years, gets a fair amount of shade this early in the year. I can squeeze over in the sunniest part of it but - those beds were cultivated last fall . In fact, all the beds were cultivated last fall .

The big veggie garden is another story but I'll need to find out what is happening there and when the "expansion" will happen with the tractor guy coming in.

Steve

 

[canesisters]

Well, since my garden is entirely contained on the table in the spare room at the moment, all I did was water and rearrange. And, of course panic that the corn and sunflowers have JUMPED. I'll need to get the sunflowers outside ASAP - and I guess I'll have to move the corn up before mid April.
Oh well. I guess I was a little over eager to start something. :happy_flower

Got a little buddy to keep an eye on them

 

[digitS']

Cane, it looks like you have lots of trees outside that window for a leaf mulch.

Mulching around the corn and sunflowers for frost protection will be easy. A couple minutes with a lawn rake and you will have them covered or uncovered.

The sunflowers can take quite a bit of cold - probably even a light frost.

Steve