What Did You Do In The Garden?

We've gone so long without rain, even tho it was an extremely good year for water storage, I'm now collecting water from my kitchen and pouring it on the lawn and my three pots of veggies.

Rhodie Ranch said:

We've gone so long without rain, even tho it was an extremely good year for water storage, I'm now collecting water from my kitchen and pouring it on the lawn and my three pots of veggies.

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I do this all the time. Use water from boiling eggs, potatoes, etc.

Mary

thistlebloom said:

You could rig fishing line to the arms and make them wave crazily when the birds show up. Like a real gardener.

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They see me know up by the house waving a stick. Lol. If I hear them, I go out and turn the water on and they fly up out of the garden, but do not leave, so I hit the fence post with a stick and they leave.

Rhodie Ranch said:

We've gone so long without rain, even tho it was an extremely good year for water storage, I'm now collecting water from my kitchen and pouring it on the lawn and my three pots of veggies.

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IF you use a dehumidifier, you could use that to water your garden, too. I put my older one in the garage and use it for gardening. I would be HAPPY to give you some of our overabundance of rain!!!

ducks4you said:

IF you use a dehumidifier, you could use that to water your garden, too. I put my older one in the garage and use it for gardening. I would be HAPPY to give you some of our overabundance of rain!!!

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ME too, Will it ever dry out?

Carol Dee said:

ME too, Will it ever dry out?

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i think i only have one round in me today so i'm waiting until a bit later to let things dry out a more. i'm enjoying my morning watching the clouds go by in a nice blue sky for a change.

so lucky said:

We had strong straight-line winds yesterday that tore off roofs, uprooted huge old trees in the local park, (and elsewhere) and generally made a mess of things. Today I pulled limbs from a sassafras tree and a maple tree out of my garden and off the top of the chicken enclosure. No major damage to our property, but at this rate, we won't have anything but stubs and stumps left by fall.

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Storm two weeks ago used a flag we had on our porch to rip the railing off the porch. It also broke the umbrella off our patio table and then tossed the table. Our ducks were happy as hell but the chickens were scared as ****. The hail hurt as I was ratchet strapping the roof down on one of our small coops that is currently housing some young chicks

Today I weeded thistle for an hour or so. That was super.

SprigOfTheLivingDead said:

Storm two weeks ago used a flag we had on our porch to rip the railing off the porch. It also broke the umbrella off our patio table and then tossed the table. Our ducks were happy as hell but the chickens were scared as ****. The hail hurt as I was ratchet strapping the roof down on one of our small coops that is currently housing some young chicks

Today I weeded thistle for an hour or so. That was super.

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uhg! a good pair of gloves and a long sleeved shirt that won't let the pickers through are critical for that... i've mostly got it out of the gardens here but one in particular i've had to dig a few times to make sure i've gotten all the roots out. it is currently being mowed regularly until i can get back to that garden again (this fall or next year by the looks of it)...

we have various kinds of thistles here i get after and it is always a challenge to keep them out because they are in the fields and along the road around us. wind blown seeds and tweety birds will bring them back.

we've been doing ok with the high winds lately. i think today is supposed to be windy enough that the mid-80s will be ok. just gotta drink enough water. two shifts today i hope.

flowerbug said:

uhg! a good pair of gloves and a long sleeved shirt that won't let the pickers through are critical for that... i've mostly got it out of the gardens here but one in particular i've had to dig a few times to make sure i've gotten all the roots out. it is currently being mowed regularly until i can get back to that garden again (this fall or next year by the looks of it)...

we have various kinds of thistles here i get after and it is always a challenge to keep them out because they are in the fields and along the road around us. wind blown seeds and tweety birds will bring them back.

we've been doing ok with the high winds lately. i think today is supposed to be windy enough that the mid-80s will be ok. just gotta drink enough water. two shifts today i hope.

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Do I have to get the roots? I've heard if I can tire it enough it will kill the roots.

My situation: trying to restore a prairie. Right now I have a few acres of wild rye, goatsbeard, reed canary, ... And a lovely amount of thistle.

I always thought thistle was an annual but now I've read different , so I've been pulling it, which is annoying considering I'm also trying to raise 5 kids, start a tree farm, take care of other animals (chickens and ducks), have a good relationship with my wife, have a garden and still work a full-time job. In the last few days I've realized that if I don't have the time to pull it all maybe I can get into the tall grass and just clip it at soil level, hoping that enough sun will not be able to get to it to allow it to grow and eventually it'll just naturally be removed from the ecosystem. While at the same time spreading a good assortment of Minnesota friendly prairie grass seeds

Does that seem sane? The pulling soaks up time, so I can clip about twice or three times the amount in the same time. I know you can kill creeping charlie this way, so hoping it works on thistle

I suppose I could host a party and say free beer and food after two hours of clipping or pulling.

SprigOfTheLivingDead said:

Do I have to get the roots? I've heard if I can tire it enough it will kill the roots.

My situation: trying to restore a prairie. Right now I have a few acres of wild rye, goatsbeard, reed canary, ... And a lovely amount of thistle.

I always thought thistle was an annual but now I've read different , so I've been pulling it, which is annoying considering I'm also trying to raise 5 kids, start a tree farm, take care of other animals (chickens and ducks), have a good relationship with my wife, have a garden and still work a full-time job. In the last few days I've realized that if I don't have the time to pull it all maybe I can get into the tall grass and just clip it at soil level, hoping that enough sun will not be able to get to it to allow it to grow and eventually it'll just naturally be removed from the ecosystem. While at the same time spreading a good assortment of Minnesota friendly prairie grass seeds

Does that seem sane? The pulling soaks up time, so I can clip about twice or three times the amount in the same time. I know you can kill creeping charlie this way, so hoping it works on thistle

I suppose I could host a party and say free beer and food after two hours of clipping or pulling.

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there are different kinds of thistles and each may have a different root structure.

the worst thistles are the large globe thistles - they get big, the needles are sharp and go through gloves if you don't have good ones. the roots are large and very white and will branch off easily and break off when you pull the plant if you don't get it when it is young. the flowers are purple. mowing repeatedly will at least keep the seed heads from forming but the plants can persist even with regular mowing. to kill them you have to remove all of the leaves repeatedly as soon as they appear. it is a lot of work. the good news is that digging them up can be done, but it will usually take several rounds to get all of the root pieces. that is how i do it if i am determined not to spray herbicides. if you want to try a mixed approach you can remove all the top growth once and then see what returns and then spray only those plants when there is enough leaf surface area to make the application work (get enough to the roots to kill them).

the second worst are what are called sow thistles, yellow flowers, the roots easily break apart, are smaller than the above thistle and are more yellow color (the roots). get these as soon as they appear as they are much easier to control before their roots have started to spread. i've hand weeded and dug this out of several gardens and it is really difficult to remove if other plants are in the way (irises). digging them out, like the above regimen will work, but you do have to be persistent.

other thistles are smaller and more annuals, if you pull them early after a good rain you can usually head them off. we have a few species of these too. one is more purple in the leaves and will come out, but can rapidly take over any bare spot from blown in seeds. like dandelions.

the best defence is a good offense. i.e. cover crops and not allowing any bare spots to be left to give wind blown seeds an easy go of it. buckwheat is a good nursery crop for covering and then letting other plants get established (along with radishes and turnip seeds are usually available at the grain elevators for a few $ per lb). also for most grasses the best time to get the established is towards the late summer and early fall when weed pressures are not so much as they can be in the spring/early summer.

you may not be able to clear a whole field each season, but you can at least often chop off the seed heads before they will allow things to get spread around further. avoid mowing any areas with seed heads to also avoid spreading them around more.

i'm currently weeding a large garden area and i always go by priority in terms of what is about to drop seeds. whatever i can trim back and remove before they drop seeds will help further efforts. it may take a few years to get it established and under control. so pick your priorities and work on what you can when you can. it does work through time...

another thing, mow the worst problem areas regularly. that at least will keep them under control.

the prairie grasses can take a while to get established so you can work around the plants that are already there by weeding just the areas around those to allow new plants to get going without competition. this means you don't have to weed the entire field, but just a part of it each season. variety and diversity are fun to encourage. it helps you identify and learn about each plant and seeing how they grow and will reseed.

like some plants will give off compounds to limit nearby sprouting of the same plant (alfalfa does this as do a few others).

i've used alfalfa and birdsfoot trefoil as cover crops and green manure crops. both work well but are hard to work around once they get bigger. luckily grasses will invade them and spread throughout. it won't be a true prairie with those in there but it can be a very nutritious green manure crop. i've reconditioned a large area like this and it is now prime garden dirt if i can ever get back to it to plant it (not this year for sure). i just chop it back and let the worms recycle everything several times a season. the soil is several shades darker than when it was when i started (all clay), very nice and crumbly now and it drains well enough. all those worms have done a great job for me.

if you go with any birdsfoot trefoil avoid seeding the agricultural varieties which are very large and can easily dominate any area. the smaller wild types will not be as crazy. but once they are in place you won't get rid of them easily anyways as they drop tons of seeds and will spread. so perhaps not what you might want for a native prairie anyways...

um... sorry, i can ramble on... lol