What did you do in the garden today?

Most places had seed, in general. Couple items out of stock but, no biggie...like a variety of a tomato. Southern Exposure and Sustainable Seeds both had everything I would want to buy....only 2 sites I explored last night.

I feel that lids will be available by first of year. LOL I have about 12 doz of ea size to still use up. I'll order enough for my 2021 needs.
 
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Moving forward, that's gonna be the way to function. Buy up far in advance of need. Hubby went to WM for shampoo this week. He bought the LAST bottle of Suave on the shelf. So, next day, we went to Dollar Store and I bought 6 more bottles. Buy it before you need it, folks, and buy more than you think you could possibly need. One year, I hit a close out on shampoo at local pharmacy. I bought 9 bottles of shampoo for $0.17 each!!!
 
I counted my boxes of lids. Now I'm not allowed to buy more since hubby heard me tell mom there are 54 boxes of regular. There are a dozen wide mouth that I haven't bought in many years. I'm sending 9 of those to my great uncle today. He can't get lids and all the jars he's been given are widemouth. He used up his supply and wasn't sure he'd be able to finish his canning.

I've noticed a lot of items are in limited supply. I stock up when I can. Limited money with hubby having been out of work 4 months hasn't helped but I've been getting a bit at a time.
 
Same here --- buy if found, on sale, etc. I generally stay stocked for 3-6 months, food much longer. But, I've increased the backlog some, not at hording level but at my normal +. It's pretty freaky out there. As to $$ -- it's always on a "watch" list here. Usual slow season for outside work is coming up -- winter months. Anticipating a LOT more time and a lot less $$ :lol: But I can actually go without a trip to buy any food or "normal" stuff, for the winter. That has been routine for a while, just some lack of supply now -- so, you add some back stock. Canning has increased the food preserves. Been squirreling away garden, freebies & cheap buys.

Still need to pack in winter hay!! Will do that mid-Sept.
 
i have about half a yogurt container of melon seeds already. :) i don't think i'll be short on those. anyone need some for next year give me a holler this winter.
 
I have been really busy lately and not able to get on the site the last few days with a "forbidden" message, so its nice to have a chance to catch up and post :)

I got a new whipper snipper and gave it a good work out today. The grass had just shot up everywhere with the warmer weather and late rain. It was so fun to whack it all down again. I am not even as sore as I thought I would be. I got quite a lot done and was very impressed with this little battery operated unit considering the amount I had to do.

I lost a lot of seedlings to pests as the weather warms up. None of my tomatoes survived that I had planted in the hay bale, so that idea is out. Nothing I put in the ground lives long before it is decimated. My mum didn't believe me until she brought a mint plant down and within 8 hours it was destroyed. She said I don't have a chance of growing food here, as have many others, but I still want to keep trying (on the cheap!). I have had some success, just not heaps haha. Some plants do better than others and I just have to figure out which.

I am sure the bugs live in the soil and know that when I buy in soil and use pots, the veggie plants have a better chance of survival. Plastic buckets were way cheaper than pots so I got a few of them, even if they only last a year or two they will still work out cheaper than proper pots. I haven't yet poked drainage holes in them but I will tomorrow when I put out the next lot of seedlings. It will be warm enough for them to start to rot if I dont. I wanted to try some hanging strawberries but I know we get some fierce winds through in november so I might hold off until after that. Same with the bird netting for the trees. I got new netting but will wait until those dry winds pass before I set them up.

The soil of the whole block seems to be really improved, there are so many more grasses this year over weeds. I know some consider the grasses as weeds but I see it as hay mulch. Its so pretty to have everything green. It was black sand when I moved in and the whole town becomes a dust bowl after harvest, it will be interesting to see how my garden does over summer this year. I want to get some more nitrogen fixing natives into the ground and work on a middle canopy. My neighbour has a lucerne tree for me and I have some silver wattle coming up on its own (farmers HATE that plant but for my garden it seems perfect, I didnt bring it in, it came up by itself). I will put out some more sunflower seeds in the hope for those but I might need to fence the ducks in. The bulbs are beautiful, bluebells have just started and the season will end with tulips. I have to be careful not to cut them down with the long grass!

Rabbits have invaded the town again but I have only seen one in my yard and found where it got through the fence and havent seen any since. I hope my fencing continues to keep them out. I lost the last chicken and another drake to a fox. It dug under into the shed from the back neighbours yard. Darn thing couldnt get into my yard, nor dig under my fence so it dug under the neighbours fence and then dug into the shed from there! I think I have fixed it up pretty well, but I wont know until the fox gets hungry again if I have done a good enough job. Lucky for me, it's only targeted the drakes so far. The chicken was old and annoying anyway. I will be glad to clean up my garden paths knowing she wont rip up all the rock edging again.

The trees are just starting to bud their foliage again, the jasmine is in full bloom and the wisteria is going to explode into flower any minute. I have a fair bit of clean up to do, but its nice to always have something to do - and the toys to do it with!
 
Over on BYC there was a guy talking about his tomatoe plants that he put into "self watering buckets". I think that might be an idea for you to think about.
It is in the thread called "Gardening for Old Folks (adaptive gardening)" in the Miscellaneous/ Gardening forum. Post #3132. He has good pictures and explanation of how he did it.
I copied the address for the post, I don't htink it will work as a link, but should help you find it.: https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/gardening-for-old-folks-adaptative.1211633/post-23131460

Instead of poking holes in the bottom of the bucket, you put a 1" hole in the side of the bucket, about 2" up. Lay a piece of drainage pipe (minimum 2" diameter) flat across the bottom of the bucket - place it so the hole in the side of the bucket opens into the drainage pipe. Fill the bucket with your planting medium and plant the plant. Water in well. The bucket will hold water, but only 2". Any excess water or rain will drain out through the 1" hole in the side of the bucket. The plant will grow roots down to the water level, thereby getting water as needed, but not frowning and getting root rot. As long as you keep water in the bottom of the bucket, your plant is watered.
The climate where he lives gets about 36" of rain a year, so that is why he didn't have to water for 4 weeks, we had plenty of rain, lol.
 
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