What Did You Do In The Garden?

[Cosmo spring garden]

DH helped me make a long raised row to plant garlic. I made a trench in the middle, dumped couple of wheelbarrows full of chicken coop bedding and some dry grass clippings and than covered it with dirt and mulched with leaves and fresh grass clippings. I saved the best garlic bulbs from last years harvest for planting. I hope they do well. One of our dog got in the garden and ripped up a nice cover I use to prevent cabbage moths from laying their eggs on my brassica plants . Today my kids helped me plant some radishes and spinach. And I had saved bunch of daikon radish seed pods from this year and I sprinkled those around the garden to break up the clay soil and act as a cover crop.

 

[seedcorn]

We picked the last of tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and watermelon (nothing to brag about). Also gathered butternut squash. About 1/2 the crop as last year but still plenty.

 

[ninnymary]

We picked the last of tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and watermelon (nothing to brag about). Also gathered butternut squash. About 1/2 the crop as last year but still plenty.

Seed, last year I got about 12 from one plant of my Honeynut butternut squash. This year I planted 5 and only got about 8. Don't know why. My soil is amended very well but maybe it was pollination. I didn't have as many bees as I usually do.

Mary

 

[seedcorn]

Same here. One plant in 2018, more than we could eat. This year, 4 plants about 4-5 fruits.. go figure..... I was so ashamed for my honeynut, i didn’t count them....

 

[thistlebloom]

I finished cutting down the perennial bed in front of the vegetable garden this afternoon and cut the hops off the fence.
I'm feeling a little ambivalent about that hops vine there... it's a lot of cleanup every fall and getting a little crazy with wanting to climb and run rampant. I may move it next spring. Maybe sneak over to my neighbors yard.

 

[Dirtmechanic]

Not the garden just the lawn, as it got cut, fertilized and insected. Well I did nip the tips on the blackberries to help them bush out. I am so proud we finally got a little rain.

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

Wow that is a lot of blackberries.

I have only tasted sweet ones once. A lady of a tiny restaurant brought us a few to eat while we waited for our order. They were so sweet! I think she may have bought them from the farmer's market. I've tried them at various farmer's market and they are always too tart for me.

Mary

When I am picking, if it comes off the branch really easy then it usually is very ripe. If I have to even give a little tug, it will not be as sweet. I kind of eat my daily amount of blackberries while picking because I have a better chance of eating a sweet one.

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

I picked kale last night for supper and I thought it was very sweet and then DS said the kale tastes like it has sugar and I said I know. Never had kale taste that sweet. I picked Swiss chard for lunch. All of the plants are looking rough. The Swiss chard should come back next year. I got the garlic planted. I think I planted a little too close, but not sure. It might be like I usually do. I did not plant as much as I used to and all purple striped hard neck. I have piles of plants I am pulling and other piles of branches and weeds cut down and I am moving wheel barrows of rabbit manure and old straw to the garden. Trying to get a little done each day and some sun.

 

[ninnymary]

Top dressed my cauliflower with a little horse manure and hay.

 

[digitS']

Rescue of plants and food has fairly well been accomplished.

Now, it's time to put the gardens to bed.

Some of that will literally be digging out beds and burying frost-killed plants. I wish that I could go back to that in its entirety. The tractor guy tilling the ground doesn't permit it. Imagine him dropping into a 10" trench filled with loose soil and decaying plant material. Ha !

Steve