Xerocles head in the clouds and feet firmly in the mud.

[Xerocles]

Ya know, I feel kinda sorry for you folks who have been doing this gardening thing for years. I'm sure you get a warm happy feeling when your seeds sprout.
BUT. The total, unbridled JOY I get when I see the changes happening to my seeds/seedlings! I'm sure down the road I'll be thinking "that's nice, they're coming along nicely". But for now it's "WOW!! OOH BOY! WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT! YAHOO!
Two weeks ago, they were tiny dry seeds. Then pitiful looking stems with teensy cotyledons, and I'm thinking "they'll never survive". And @thistlebloom. These are the ones you suggested (and I did) to transplant. LOOK AT THEM NOW.
I wish you could experience the excitement again that I'm feeling now. What a rush!

 

[thistlebloom]

Who said I don't?

 

[seedcorn]

Believe you will find every year brings its own excitement. Never gets old. Although there will be years when you will have challenges and be happy to harvest anything. Last year I would have danced IF the varmits would have left me one-just one-ear of corn.

 

[Xerocles]

The 12 inches of hay is working GREAT. Not a single weed so far, yet the border areas are already looking like a mini jungle. My lettuce, directly planted early last week, is strongly up, but no true leaves yet. And I did a TERRIBLE job of sowing. Thick here, scant there. Sugar Snaps are about 4" tall, planted day after lettuce. BlackBerry is doing tremendously. Blueberry is blooming beautifully, but leaves are a little yellow. Acid soil, duh. But I don't know how to correct it in the short term. Lime in the fall, yes.
Ducks (since their sole purpose was for the garden, so they"re "part" of the garden) are progressing. They will be spending their first night outside tonight. No, they don't have their feathers yet. But it's only going down to the mid 50s. And they have a quite snug house with gobs of hay. I just couldn't stand it any longer. Brooder was a tote, 5ft long 20" wide, and 2ft tall. 5 ducks. Every day, complete change of bedding, and an hour of dry out time. Actually, if I had been duly on top of it, there would have been TWO complete changes every day. I really don't enjoy ducks. They better really convince me of their bug eating abilities. I find ONE slug in my garden...they're OUTTA HERE.
Only other plants I have are tomatoes and bell peppers. They are out of the initial germination tray and into their pre-planting pots. Tomatoes especially are going great guns. Ready to go into the garden but I don't know what to expect from the weather....so I'll wait another week or so. No rush.
Tomorrow, hoping to get some more seeds started. Since I'm learning as I go, I'm taking this nice and slow. I have the luxury of a l o n g growing season.

 

[thistlebloom]

. Blueberry is blooming beautifully, but leaves are a little yellow. Acid soil, duh

Do you mean that you think your soil is too acidic? Because I don't think that is the likely cause. BB's like soil even in the 4.5 pH range. Hard to know without a photo, but one possible answer to the yellowing leaves is that they are waterlogged. You are on clay as I recall and have also had a lot of rain?

 

[flowerbug]

Do you mean that you think your soil is too acidic? Because I don't think that is the likely cause. BB's like soil even in the 4.5 pH range. Hard to know without a photo, but one possible answer to the yellowing leaves is that they are waterlogged. You are on clay as I recall and have also had a lot of rain?

yes, i was going to say, please don't lime that plant! dunno about drainage, but if there is a lot of clay underneath then perch it by trenching around it to give it more drainage and mulch it well to keep it from drying out once the heat gets going. i don't think they like getting dried out (around here the smaller blueberry bushes are those which grow on and in boggy areas or on patches right around them).

 

[ducks4you]

We still get excited!! I watched a P. Allen Smith program about young farmers. One of the stories was about an urban garden at a high school where they stopped their football program 7 years ago. Their grass field has become a garden, with one full time worker and student volunteers. They grow and sell the produce and put that back into their gardening. He, the full time worker, said that there was a LOT of sweat equity untIL last year, when they were donated a tractor. They used to do it ALL with spades, tillers and wheelbarrows, just like me.
2020 is MY first tractor year and it is MIGHTY EXCITING, even though DH is hogging it!
I still get a kick out of watching sprouts, too.

 

[Xerocles]

SPRING FINALLY DECIDED TO SHOW UP! It Went straight from "too cold to be out here" to "Gosh, am I gonna have a heat stroke" upper 80s, low 90s.
But TODAY! Lower 60s, and next 10 days-upper 60s, low 70s. THANK YOU GOD!
The garden infrastructure is finally complete. Practically. Still need to put the Gate up, and secure the electric ground wire to the grounding rods. Gate is cut and laid out. Rods are in the ground. But. I need a box of screws, some hinges, a hasp, and clamps to secure the wire to the rods. Darn stay at home order. Only 11 cases reported in my county as of today.... but I am trying mightly to live by the rules. Everybody can justify SOMEHOW that what ever they want is "essential".
So now, the mulch is down, the wire to keep the ducks in, is up, the electric to keep everything else out (hopefully) is 99.9% finished. The duck house is finished, the bathtub is installed. LET THE PLANTING BEGIN!
Well, a new hitch developed today. A hawk showed up. First one I've seen s since being here. I was on the back porch. It made a low swoop across the back yard and banked across the garden. I rushed to get the chickens back in the covered run, and fought the ducks into their house. Boy are ducks dumb! If I wasn't counting so much on their bug control, I'd have left them out to take their chances with the hawk. Anyhow, less than 5 minutes after the hawk, I heard 2 gunshots from the general direction of the neighbor with the uber expensive game chickens. Coincidence? Probably. After all, we all know hawks are federally protected. But it does raise a question. I have heard that suspending CDs on over head lines will deter raptors (something about the flashing colors). Fact? Urban myth? Anybody tried it?
I missed planting day. My Grandma ALWAYS planted on Good Friday. And she woulda whooped me if I tried to plant on "rotten Saturday" cause nothing would come up. And I had transplants lined up in the garden, planning to put them in the ground tomorrow, too. Well.....Monday sounds like a good transplant day.

 

[Xerocles]

Oh, my bad. I know you guys like pictures.

OVERVIEW

THE "BUGINATORS"

SUGAR SNAPS..may have waited too late on them

BLUEBERRY greened up again nicely

BLACKBERRY

With blooms!

 

[baymule]

Looking good! We are getting a late frost tonight. Boo. But at least I haven't set out my tomatoes yet. Your buginators are kinda cute. But not cute enough to make me want ducks again. Besides, my male Great Pyrenees considers it his special duty to kill and eat them. He got the worst whupping of his life when he snarled and lunged at me over the body of his duck snack. I grabbed up a 4' pine limb off the ground and whalloped him into the next county. Yes sireee Bob! we did have us a Come To Jesus meeting over that one!