What Did You Do In The Garden?

[Zeedman]

Does the town collect leaves? I’m sure they would gladly drop a truck load off on your garden.

The rural township where the garden is located does not collect leaves. The nearby city (2 miles away) does, and might be willing to drop off a load; but I would have no control over the contents. Walnut leaves, treated lawn clippings, and cigarette buts (which can carry mosaic) are problems I prefer to avoid. Still, it may come to that, if there are no other options. I admit, the idea of a whole dump truck of leaves is an attractive one. The city nearest to me dumps their collected leaves on nearby farm fields.

 

[Zeedman]

Having said that. Our big veggie garden would require several dump truckloads to make much difference, not a few plastic bags full. Are cover crops for yyou not an option?

I wish cover crops were an option; I've used them successfully when I gardened in California. Unfortunately, my growing season is too short to accommodate both garden & a cover crop... it would be either/or. I have considered the possibility of dividing the rural garden into strips, and alternating the strips between garden & cover crop (which SSE does with some of their gardens.) That would entail either reducing the square footage available each year for gardening, or expanding the overall size of the garden to compensate. That is a possibility I've been considering for several years, and one I would need to discuss with the property owner. It would solve several issues at once.

 

[Zeedman]

the landscaping company was really reasonable on the hauling charges so that was good i just had them back in and dump in whatever pile i needed, either sand, topsoil or pea gravel. i did have them mix some compost into the topsoil but it turned out that was a huge mistake as the compost was full of ground up trash of all sorts. i'm still picking that out of some gardens. won't repeat that mistake...

Years ago, I had several yards of "garden" soil dropped off in a previous garden. It too had compost... as it turned out, from a municipal operation. The source must not have been very particular about what they pitched into the shredder. There was a lot of ground up wood - much of it painted. Any wood old enough to compost was very likely to contain lead paint. After discovering this, DW & I scraped up what we had already laid down, and used it on her flower beds instead.

This year, I ordered several yards of 'garden soil' from a different company, for the garlic bed. I had expressed my concerns to the owner about introducing contaminants, and they assured me that no municipal compost was used. But as DW & I began spreading it, we discovered a lot of pieces of shredded plastic bags. No other contaminants, and it was annoying picking the fragments out... but the soil looked usable. Only time will tell.

 

[Zeedman]

When I began to downsize, I had this clever cover crop idea of field peas early, sunflowers midseason, and oats to winter-kill.

It had been many years since I was in the farming game so I wasn't sure where I would find some of this seed locally but it was already midseason and sunflower seed was easy. What a mess! I didn't even do a good job killing the 2' high plants with the tiller. Pulled plants by hand later - which was a much better idea than using the tiller.

Since the tractor guy shows up in the fall on his own schedule and comes late, oats wouldn't work well. The tiller would probably have the same problem with peas if they needed to be tilled under in early June.

Steve

Been there, done that. The first year I cover cropped, it was a mixture of oats, vetch, and favas. When everything was about 1-2' tall, I tried to turn it under with the tiller alone. BIG MISTAKE. It so clogged the tines that I spent about as much time de-tangling as I spent digging. It helps a lot to first mow the cover crop before tilling, but my second mistake (the following year) was to try that with a small mower. It takes a riding mower to cut & chop such heavy growth.

I mow everything in the gardens now before tilling, but I would love to try that again with a thick cover crop. If I knew then what I know now...

 

[Zeedman]

@Zeedman , I will be using my bag mower Saturday at DD's house. They have all of these tall maples and others and the leaves blanket their corner lot. Last year I mowed with my bag mower and filled up paper lawn & leaf bags, so I could transport back.

Bagged leaves is one opportunity I still hope to take advantage of. Both the city & my township have leaf collection days, where people either sweep their leaves to the curb, or put them out in the paper bags allowed for that purpose. With a couple helpers, I could drive my trailer down the streets, picking up bags. The homes with heavy maple leaf cover are the ones I would collect, since my experience at home shows they break down quickly.

Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions, you've given me a lot of food for thought (or compost).

 

[Marie2020]

After my fixing the bottom of my chickens coop for winter we sorted out the flower pots .

I'm so pleased out of the five lemon seeds I sourced from my shop bought lemons one has taken really well and another trying it's best too catch up.

The other day I added some leaf collection too my compost bin and yesterday managed to get up the garden again too add some veg peels and one old apple.

Little steps but it made me feel good.

Lemons

 

[Marie2020]

Some of my flower pots

My saffron crocus are battling through I also have some in the garden

 

[Marie2020]

Pictures are taking a long time to load

 

[ducks4you]

Worked in DD's yard yesterday, All 3 of us worked on this, I need to add.
We emptied out the 3 big, ceramic pots and put them upside down on an old wooden door in the lh front wall of the garage. Here are the original prices:
1) 24" top diameter, 18 inch tall--$75.00, got it on clearance 8 yrs ago, $15.00
2) 14" to diameter, !4 inch tall--$25/00
3) About the same, slightly smaller--~$25.00
Last two were over $40.00 when I went window shopping this year.
Biggest one...who knows!!
Swept out the garage.
Packed up 7 rickety chairs for me to burn, along with the bush trimming/weeding that eldest DD did with a reciprocating saw.
She announced that she had chopped down the big weeds, and cut out the dead wood.
Makings of another gardener there, I think!
Ran their snowblower to get through the old gas. NOW, ready at the door for 2021/22 winter service.
This was a Christmas present I bought them 4 years ago, Black Friday on sale for $350.00
SAME model on sale today...$550.00
Changed out the battery on their riding mower. Eldest DD ran it over lawn/leaves to use up the old gas, then filled to finish.
Took home my oldest mower. Stopped running, but I suspect it's the spark plug.
Took home a round table DD's had gotten for $15 at some sale. Diameter is about 3 1/2 ft, folding legs, top is MDF
I Needed another table for my pantry.
Threw away garden pot trash and other stuff.
Took home a nice, lidless bin with a small hole. I Needed this in the basement for my collection of plastic pots, bought with their plants, and great for transplanting.
Brought home a plastic Aldi bag that had some of my outside clothes I forgot about.
We burned their collection of sticks in the same firepit I used for my peach tree last April. I THINK that's why I got 30+ peaches this year.
I told them, give it until next weekend, then empty the ashes and put this away, too.
Profitable work day.

 

[Zeedman]

Just finished the last big garden task for the year - peeling & de-hydrating the garlic. There were 120-130 bulbs in total to process, with all but one variety already done. The last variety ("Carpati") was the largest quantity, almost 3 pounds of cloves from the two bulbs purchased last year. And the hardest to peel, which is why I left it for last.


Peeling & slicing all of this by hand took 4 hours. This is a hot variety; the 5 mil gloves that work fine for cutting hot peppers, were only partially effective for the garlic (perhaps due to the length of exposure). My finger tips are still burning a little. The aroma is really strong too; the dehydrator is in the garage, but we can still smell it in the house. My hope is that it will be strong enough in the garage (and the attic, which opens up there) that the odor will drive out any mice which might have taken up residence there over the summer.