What Did You Do In The Garden?

Busy day. Replanted some different pumpkins. Replanted cantaloupe, parsnips (4th time), beets, yellow squash. Transplanted some tomatoes-hope they are Mexican midgets and orange beefheart. They came from correct area. All day either tilling or hoeing grass seedlings out. I’d rather fight any weed but grass.
 
Been out in the gardens 5-6 hours every day, trying to take advantage of all the dry weather. Other than the squashes (which I won't put out for another week yet) the only thing left to plant is some Gaspe corn transplants. I was unable to plant them yesterday, because that location is still basically adobe gravel. Never did corn transplants before, but "Gaspe" seems to be hovering on the edge of extinction & seed was hard to find, so I wanted every seed to count. Hopefully the rain going through right now will soften the ground enough for me to transplant the corn some time in the next week. If not, I'll just have to fill the transplant holes with potting soil, so I can get that corn growing. It needs to tassel before the GM field corn upwind.

I've been putting up fence poles & tying string trellises as needed, for the beans which have sent up runners. Most of those (and all of the gourds) won't really take off until I apply hay mulch... which thanks to the dry weather, is harder to find this year. Been pinching off all peppers & flowers from the pepper plants too, until their growth shows that they have become established.
 
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Zeedman said:
Been out in the gardens 5-6 hours every day, trying to take advantage of all the dry weather. Other than the squashes (which I won't put out for another week yet) the only thing left to plant is some Gaspe corn transplants. I was unable to plant them yesterday, because that location is still basically adobe gravel. Never did corn transplants before, but "Gaspe" seems to be hovering on the edge of extinction & seed was hard to find, so I wanted every seed to count. Hopefully the rain going through right now will soften the ground enough for me to transplant the corn some time in the next week. If not, I'll just have to fill the transplant holes with potting soil, so I can get that corn growing. It needs to tassel before the GM field corn upwind.

I've been putting up fence poles & tying string trellises as needed, for the beans which have sent up runners. Most of those (and all of the gourds) won't really take off until I apply hay mulch... which thanks to the dry weather, is harder to find this year. Been pinching off all peppers & flowers from the pepper plants too, until their growth shows that they have become established.
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I transplamt corn and it always does really well. Just time consuming and since I use soil blocks the roots really love to wander. Good luck with your pproject! What does this corn look like? Sweet corn?
 
Cosmo spring garden said:
I transplamt corn and it always does really well. Just time consuming and since I use soil blocks the roots really love to wander. Good luck with your pproject! What does this corn look like? Sweet corn?
Click to expand...
"Gaspe" is a very short DTM flint corn, from eastern maritime Canada. Only 2-3' tall, and matures in as little as 70 days (faster than most dry beans). That means I can grow it without isolation, since it will tassel & pollinate long before the nearby GM field corn has tasseled. No worries about crossing. Small ears, so not the greatest yield... but I planted 2 seeds per cell, and spaced whatever came up 12" apart each way. Photos I've seen show quite a bit of tillering (suckers) so I'm curious to see how dense the foliage will be at that spacing (and will put out mouse traps proactively).

The seed is from 2 sources, mixed together for maximum genetic diversity. I planted 120+ cells, and will have 3 beds of 40. Since a lot of the cells have 2 plants, I'm estimating a population size this year of about 150. There is still seed left over, which I hope to grow next year & combine all seed into one mixed lot. That is the same thing I did with "Painted Mountain".
 
I pulled a ton of weeds by the rock wall, in front of the roses I went after with my chainsaw this spring, and cut down to nothing.
They are looking pretty pleased with themselves!

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i scraped some plants back again to encourage them to go away faster.

then i tried to go over to the south field to see if i could similarly disourage a large patch of thistles but they are still at the too hard stem stage for that to work out well. i did pull some from the neighboring grassy spot, but that was about all i could do. next time i mow over there i'll drop the mower down to as low as it can go and take those thistles down to the nub as close to the ground as i can get them.
 
flowerbug said:
i scraped some plants back again to encourage them to go away faster.

then i tried to go over to the south field to see if i could similarly disourage a large patch of thistles but they are still at the too hard stem stage for that to work out well. i did pull some from the neighboring grassy spot, but that was about all i could do. next time i mow over there i'll drop the mower down to as low as it can go and take those thistles down to the nub as close to the ground as i can get them.
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We have a terrible infestation of canadian thistle all over the ranch. I can no linger even walk out in the back pasture where my stock used to be, as they are so thick and taller than me 😞
 
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