What did you do in your garden today?

[Mini Horses]

I was excited about a large patch of wild blackberries that had tons of flowers, along the driveway to back of farm. Two days ago the farmer leasing the farm back there behind me -- cut them down! . They weren't the technically on my property, so.... A part of his annual clean up of ditches. Access ways, etc.

There's more around. I'm good. Just a great, easy accessible location. My goats have thinned out a LOT of my vines...along with the honeysuckle. My patches of elderberry get fenced off. They got some of that last year!. Boo. But still good with all but that one area...coming back....blooming heavy elsewhere.

 

[Mini Horses]

Speaking of elderberries....I know I have more than I need growing ON my own property. That wasn't always the case and I watched for patches to forage. So why can't I relax with that?

I still anxiously look for patches! I have qts canned. Dehydrated. Frozen. Growing. This concern for all things to stock is sometimes beyond control.

 

[CrealCritter]

Wild Blackberry thicket close up. I want to believe they are sawtooth blackberries (Rubus Argutus).

Jesus is Lord and Christ

 

[Trying2keepitReal]

Putting up insect netting in the covered beds on the deck, something is eating the lettuce--I think it might be a squirrel-hopefully this works, I haven't had to do this before.

Has anyone used butterfly netting before on their berries or tomato plants?

I don't want to have to use anything but will consider neem oil-which I believe some of you use, but how does that work on veggies? Do you have to wash your veggies with an actual soap and water? I use an organic veggie wash on the veggies that touch the dirt but only vinegar and water on other veggies.

Thanks for the help, I can't lose my harvest, lol

 

[flowerbug]

@Trying2keepitReal i would expect anything that could be chewed through would not work for a determined animal. i've never had great luck fending off certain creatures short of using a good fence.

 

[flowerbug]

yesterday dug up horsetail and weeded other garden spaces, emptied out some gallon flower pots that someone had from last year that they gave to us, so now i have two gallon flower pots where i reused the soil from a few that i'm going to try growing some beans in here in my room and the rest of the potting soil went into several gardens where i'll be planting onions, peppers and beans. i'm always very happy to get free potting soil like this and my gardens can use all the organic materials i can scrounge up.

i also weeded some pathways and areas of gravel mulch.

today it is a lot warmer out and we mowed so i'm tuckered out - i suspect the rest of the day the most i'm going to be doing is some watering.

 

[R2elk]

Putting up insect netting in the covered beds on the deck, something is eating the lettuce--I think it might be a squirrel-hopefully this works, I haven't had to do this before.

Has anyone used butterfly netting before on their berries or tomato plants?

I don't want to have to use anything but will consider neem oil-which I believe some of you use, but how does that work on veggies? Do you have to wash your veggies with an actual soap and water? I use an organic veggie wash on the veggies that touch the dirt but only vinegar and water on other veggies.

Thanks for the help, I can't lose my harvest, lol

I have used bird netting to protect strawberries from robins.

I had a spider mite infestation on tomato plants last winter. Sprayed them with Neem oil and it killed the mites but it also killed the tomato plants.

 

[Trying2keepitReal]

I had a spider mite infestation on tomato plants last winter. Sprayed them with Neem oil and it killed the mites but it also killed the tomato plants.

Boo. I think I will just use insect netting and build hoop frames for my beds on the deck, those are the only ones that are being bothered.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I picked more zucchini. Is it too early to be tired of it yet? LOL. I added up the poundage of what I've harvested so far and by the time I walked from the dining room to the living room - I forgot, lol. But, it's somewhere near 40lbs of golden zucchini, green zucchini, and PD beans. Everything is showing some heat/drought stress. It seems I can't water enough. We're on the rain list for this weekend so maybe some nice rain water will perk everything up a bit.

 

[CrealCritter]

First "harvest" banana peppers, probably go good on salad tonight.

Weeded onions, needs nitrogen. But many many tomato volunteers popped up. Odd because tomatoes were at the opposite end of the garden last year. Lots of red clover also, which is a nitrogen fixation blind of weed. I pulled some of the clover, left others and all the tomato volunteers, live and let live.

So windy I was thinking I might need to make up some landscape staples and staple the tomato roots down. Then I remembered I trench planted them, we're good .

Jesus is Lord and Christ