What Did You Do In The Garden?

[SPedigrees]

I'd been planning a trip to town today for groceries and other errands, but the sunshine and blue skies this morning, together with tomorrow's rainy forecast, told me that today was the day to work outside. I managed to clear out the galvanized bed for winter. These tomatoes were in it for the long haul! The root systems on these plants had staked their claim on this raised patch of dirt and did not come out without a fight. There were still some ripe little tomatoes that I snacked on while working. I still have a lot of end-of-season work, but at least the back pasture looks almost civilized now, not the jungle that it was. Tomorrow I drive to town in the rain!

 

[digitS']

My 30 minutes of exercise today: Two buckets of kitchen scraps, a huge wheel barrow load of frost-killed tomato plants. and about half that much roots & leaves of bok choy already harvested were all buried in the little veggie garden.

About 1 & 1/2 inches of the soil surface was still frozen at noon. That bed receives some sun but it was 16°f (9°C) this morning. It was a little hard to break through with the shovel but the soil below is quite rich with organic material already and so, quite soft.

Probably Tuesday or Wednesday afternoon or perhaps both days, I will be out in the big veggie garden hoping to "bury" the plant material out there with a lawn mower and rototiller. It won't work anywhere nearly as well but, with zero shade, at least it won't be kicking up clods of frozen earth.

Steve

 

[Branching Out]

Late blight is setting in, so the afternoon was spent culling tomato plants before heavy rain arrives tomorrow. I also managed to harvest a few more handfuls of dry beans for seed; this is an unexpected bonus, because were it not for this late stretch of mild weather those dry beans would have been a complete bust.

 

[flowerbug]

... I also managed to harvest a few more handfuls of dry beans for seed; this is an unexpected bonus, because were it not for this late stretch of mild weather those dry beans would have been a complete bust.

those are the ones that i don't plan on for the future as i don't want to be relying upon a chance late season for a seed supply. instead, if they are a really nice bean i try to get them sent to people with a longer season who can use them.

 

[SPedigrees]

Late blight is setting in, so the afternoon was spent culling tomato plants before heavy rain arrives tomorrow.

Late blight struck here about 20 years ago and put me off growing tomatoes for the following decade. That was the most discouraging gardening experience I ever had. I hope you were able to harvest some tomatoes before it hit your garden.

 

[Phaedra]

We started re-building the chicken run with a roof for our second flock, another 7 hens. I am kind of falling in love with building something in the garden, haha.

I also removed some larger brassicas into the hoop tunnel, so the hoop tunnel is again 70% full.

 

[digitS']

A Late Season for 2023, which meant that I was out prepping the big veggie garden for Winter in November. Another 25% done with 25% still to do ...

And, what a tough 25%! I'm UP for the day later than anytime lately and sore. Barely able to get thru this quarter yesterday with its combination of corn, tomatoes, cabbage and broccoli. First over it with the lawnmower set on high. The corn stalks had been cut 6 weeks ago but I still had to move some of the stalks out of the way. Tomato vines flat from about 10 days of severe frost, the mower accomplished little. Broccoli cut first with chunks flying out from under the mower like an artillery engagement! I probably spent the plus time of 2+ hours untangling tomato vines from the tines. The 25% was beaten and so was I .

It is raining today and, we are told, that weather will continue off and on thru the remainder of the week. I should be okay with the remaining 25% (50' x 30') of beans, eggplants, peppers, etc., etc. next week. I think 🤔. Keeping an optimistic perspective on circumstances is a requirement for gardeners .

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

A Late Season for 2023, which meant that I was out prepping the big veggie garden for Winter in November. Another 25% done with 25% still to do ...

And, what a tough 25%! I'm UP for the day later than anytime lately and sore. Barely able to get thru this quarter yesterday with its combination of corn, tomatoes, cabbage and broccoli. First over it with the lawnmower set on high. The corn stalks had been cut 6 weeks ago but I still had to move some of the stalks out of the way. Tomato vines flat from about 10 days of severe frost, the mower accomplished little. Broccoli cut first with chunks flying out from under the mower like an artillery engagement! I probably spent the plus time of 2+ hours untangling tomato vines from the tines. The 25% was beaten and so was I .

It is raining today and, we are told, that weather will continue off and on thru the remainder of the week. I should be okay with the remaining 25% (50' x 50') of beans, eggplants, peppers, etc., etc. next week. I think 🤔.

with things like that i'm worried about getting nailed from those corn stalk chunks and corn cobs. it's happened before... this year we have no corn in the south field so the mowing has mainly been getting rid of the tall grass and the thistles. from experience i can say that pieces of thistles getting inside your shoes when mowing aren't much fun either.

Keeping an optimistic perspective on circumstances is a requirement for gardeners .

yes! i was just checking the radar for your area since i noticed the rains heading in your direction yesterday.

clear and cold here.

 

[digitS']

A difficult 2 hours of tilling in the garden but I finished the down&dirty for the final 25%. Hopefully, I can get back sometime next week for the final touches to the soil and (about) the best that I can do with the tiller. That may not take me more than 1 hour -- it would represent a 3rd pass over that final 50' x 30' part. The other 150' x 30' has been tilled those 3 times. Giving it a week allows for some decomposition of the down&dirty plant material.

This is sorta new for me. My beds in every garden were dug out with a shovel with composting-in-place being used for years before the tractor guy showed up in the big veggie garden about 10 years ago. Simply rototilling for annual and complete soil prep hasn't been my practice in like, forever. That is, until it began in 2022. It worked okay but only okay. The tractor tilling was much more thorough and, of course, so was digging out beds. What a workout even if running the tiller goes so much quicker than using the shovel or spading fork ... oh well.

Steve, slave to an infernal combustion machine

 

[flowerbug]

View attachment 62016
A difficult 2 hours of tilling in the garden but I finished the down&dirty for the final 25%. Hopefully, I can get back sometime next week for the final touches to the soil and (about) the best that I can do with the tiller. That may not take me more than 1 hour -- it would represent a 3rd pass over that final 50' x 30' part. The other 150' x 30' has been tilled those 3 times. Giving it a week allows for some decomposition of the down&dirty plant material.

This is sorta new for me. My beds in every garden were dug out with a shovel with composting-in-place being used for years before the tractor guy showed up in the big veggie garden about 10 years ago. Simply rototilling for annual and complete soil prep hasn't been my practice in like, forever. That is, until it began in 2022. It worked okay but only okay. The tractor tilling was much more thorough and, of course, so was digging out beds. What a workout even if running the tiller goes so much quicker than using the shovel or spading fork ... oh well.

Steve, slave to an infernal combustion machine

i'm envious of anyone who has an uncomplicated enough space that they can even get a tiller in there. almost all of the gardens here are not really big enough.

i was looking at all the sod out back in the NE Garden that i want to put back to garden space and contemplating trying to borrow the neighbor's tiller that i used many years ago to level that space out before planting alfafa and birdsfoot trefoil but it really is much more pleasant to me to not have noise like that and if it takes me several years to get it done that might be ok... it would go much more quickly if i didn't have to do the repeated digging for quackgrass removal but Mom is not safe around air gaps that would provide a root barrier in the form of a trench i'd like to have along that edge. it would be a real hazard and i don't want that to happen. so i dig, how i dig ( said with an accent of Yenta the Matchmaker from Fiddler on the Roof )...