What did you do in the garden today?

[NH Homesteader]

Send it up north please! Very dry right now! I haven't done a thing in the garden. I planted some herbs in containers. I pulled out two more containers for either herbs, or flowers. Or maybe lettuce? How deep do lettuce roots grow anyway?

 

[BarredBuff]

Inter planted marigolds in my tomato patch. Then planted a marigold with each of my cucumbers. Supposedly, they repel insects but at any rate they are beautiful. Added some soil to the raised beds, and getting them ready to plant. Corn and green beans are coming up great too.

 

[CrealCritter]

1 week of spring and on and off rain for the past week, I am so behind it's not even funny!

 

[sumi]

Finally got my future lawn seeded. Now I'm waiting for rain, because there isn't a snowball's chance of me running up and down from the garden to the kitchen with a watering can 50x to get it wet. I really need an outside tap, or one inside I can attach a hosepipe to.

 

[BarredBuff]

Scored 12 100 gallon bags of old straw from the hardware store for a buck a piece. It wasn't free, but I thought it was a steal! Going to use it to mulch my tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and peppers when they get big enough.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Nothing today - but if it's not pouring rain I'll be finishing off the mulching during my looooong weekend. I've been picking zucchini, yellow squash, green beans,, tomatoes, peppers, leeks, a little bit of salad greens and radishes pretty regularly. Also been harvesting some blackberries that are taking over a corner of the back yard. I'm gonna hate having to eradicate those canes. The Red Rippers are about to bloom soon too!

I'm thankful that one of my lemon trees is re-blooming because the first bloom bit the dust. Hope this one does better. Kumquat bush is covered with blossoms. Woo hoo! Persimmon trees and pomegranate tree are doing exactly nuttin. There was exactly one bloom on the pomegranate tree and ZERO on the persimmons. Fig tree is LOADED but won't be ripe for another few weeks. I bought a new dehydrator so hoping I can get a bunch of figs dried and stored. Yummy!

 

[Beekissed]

Scored 12 100 gallon bags of old straw from the hardware store for a buck a piece. It wasn't free, but I thought it was a steal! Going to use it to mulch my tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and peppers when they get big enough.

BB, you might want to take the time to ask the store about the source of their straw, to find out of that crop has been sprayed with herbicides. Straw is more likely to have been done so, particularly if derived from a commercial crop of barley, wheat or oats. I've heard some horror stories from folks who put such straw in their gardens and had trouble thereafter with growing anything in that spot.

https://sustainableneseattle.ning.com/profiles/blogs/herbicide-contaminants-in

 

[Beekissed]

Got sweet and hot peppers planted today, as well as all my greens, carrots, broccoli, more cukes, even a few watermelon. Need to plant more root crop in the left side of the right hand raised bed...want to plant more carrots there and also some turnips.

This hay is even easier to plant into than the chips...planted everything with an antique silver spoon, that's how soft the soil is under the hay. Rich from the wood chips but also soft due to the worm activity under there....tons of worms, tilling that hay into my topsoil.

Hope to call about some square bales of mulch hay on Friday...$1.50 per bale. Will keep some of them out in the garden so they will get good and soaked, starting their breakdown process and making them easy to plop down on weeds.

Planted my peppers into landscaping fabric laid over the hay...hoping that will heat up the hay under there and keep the peppers roots warm enough for a good crop. Usually this mulch layer keeps the soil too cool for good growth this early in the year, so if I get peppers to grow at all it's usually not until August when it's hot day and night, then I get a crop in Sept. or Oct. but not a good one as they stood there all season doing nothing but being a victim to disease and pests.

I'm really disappointed in the germination rate of the half runner beans. The Fortex all sprung up like they were on steroids and the bugs aren't eating them up, but any of the HRs planted that did come up~and those are few~are all eat down to a nub by bugs. Don't see any on there but definitely eaten up by something. I'll presoak these HR beans prior to planting next time and see if that helps them germinate. Never had to soak a bean before...usually they germinate quickly and always for us. Could be bad seed....never got it there before.

Zinnias, lettuce and marigolds planted into trays the other day are up and now transferred to the growing table...will soon be able to set those out in the beds and into garden.

Still need to plant yellow squash, succession plantings of greens and the flowers, but for the most part, the garden is hereby planted.

 

[BarredBuff]

BB, you might want to take the time to ask the store about the source of their straw, to find out of that crop has been sprayed with herbicides. Straw is more likely to have been done so, particularly if derived from a commercial crop of barley, wheat or oats. I've heard some horror stories from folks who put such straw in their gardens and had trouble thereafter with growing anything in that spot.

https://sustainableneseattle.ning.com/profiles/blogs/herbicide-contaminants-in

Good to know. I will work on that. I have used their straw as bedding (then compost) and mulch before without any trouble. Hoping that continues.

 

[NH Homesteader]

OK.... Silly question time... I'm doing a teeny tiny garden this year and we're wanting to do a couple raised beds... What is the best thing to fill them with? Our soil is garbage and I will continue to work on it in the main garden but I really just want tomatoes, lettuce, herbs... And don't mind buying soil, compost, etc if that will make it happen this year.