What did you do in the garden today?

[ShrekDawg]

I planted the two remaining eggplants today.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Got the corn planted. Four rows 18 feet long. Getting worn out. I finally took the mulch out of my car and set them all on a pallet I keep near the garage for stuff like that. These are 2 cubic foot bags that got soaked at HD in a downpour they got a few days ago. Heavy stuff now. I’ll use my dolley to get them into the backyard after I finish with the chickens. The regular white and red seed potatoes I planted over a week ago are growing. I wasn’t sure they would because the potatoes were a little shriveled up. I’m planning on finally getting the backyard mowed tomorrow afternoon. The wee beasties get their mani pedis tomorrow morning. That’s such a joy / Not! Chloe barks her head off and sweet adorable Max turns into Cujo when the vet techs touch his feet. I’m certain one of his lower legs was broken before I rescued him. Poor guy. At least I can take it a little easier now that all the gardens are completed. I’m nearly finished lining the path behind the fence with logs. I grab a log from the slope every morning at the end of my garden walk and add it to the path. I’m hoping to be putting mulch on the pathway later this week. We’re finally doing ok with the “sky water.” That takes one chore off my list of things to do. Wishing all you in need a beneficial rain comes your way soon.

 

[fuzzi]

I do this. In the fall DH bags up the leaves with the mower & I save them in the shed for the winter & a make a big pile next to the compost bins to use for layering. It also keeps the critters out of the pile more if the greens from the house are buried under leaves. When it snows I spread them on the ground so the chickens can walk on them. When winter is over the leftovers go to the compost bin & the chicken run. The chickens got a bag last weekend, as a matter of fact, & boy did they have fun tearing thru a bag of 8 month old leaves.

This!

We have a huge sycamore tree in the front yard, by the road. In the fall the road is ankle deep in leaves, so we "mow" the street and put the bags of chopped leaves on the compost pile. We also use chopped leaves to mulch around the shrubs to protect their roots from winter cold snaps.

When the chicks destroyed all the green growth in their run I added some of last year's chopped leaves, which they loved. It and some straw kept the run floor from getting muddy. Now that we are regularly mowing the yard we're adding a bag or two a week of green stuff to the run. It's getting deep, and there's little to no smell.

"Ooh! Grass and leaf clippings!"

Below is my current compost pile that is yard wastes and cardboard. The barrel is full of kitchen wastes.

It's not pretty, but it works. There are NO smells. I have not seen mice or rats, but we do have a lot of snakes, which might be keeping rodent populations low to a point that I don't notice them. Earlier this afternoon I saw a Black racer cross the driveway and disappear into the area to the left in that photo.

"Good hunting, Kaa!"

 

[CNJ]

These cloning jigs did not grow any roots on my mango tree after one month, so I took 3 off and put them on my Princess Yum Yum cherry tomato suckers. I left one jig on my mango tree and will take it off after 2 months. Next time I will take off only 1 inch of bark instead of 2 inches. The roots normally grow on the top section of the cut, this will give it better cover on top.

I did not do anything to the tomato sucker, I just clipped the cloning jig on the sucker and gave the sucker some support.

 

[fuzzi]

Wrapped up a few projects and still scratching my head about my feather loss/pecking problem. Greens and beets seem to be going slow…not sure what that’s about. Other plants seem to be taking hold after their transplant.

For garden and coop things:

Finished the garden gate (close enough).
Put a rain gutter on the coop to keep water from splashing on the sides.
Installed an automated coop door in the coop. (This is going to help so much.)

Gate looks good!

 

[fuzzi]

Yesterday afternoon I was outside for maybe an hour, tying up the Summer squash and picking beans, and I felt drained from the heat.

So I resolved to do my watering early today, before we headed to church. I deep watered all the gardens and shrubs as rain is not in the forecast except as possible thunderstorms. I have seeds sprouting, don't want them stunted or killed waiting for rain.

Beans!

Tomatoes, peppers, and squash got a deep soaking.

I also pulled the last of the turnips before they bolted and got "woody", top right quadrant. Swiss chard is top left, beets bottom right. Not sure what to plant in the open beds. I may leave it fallow for a month, when I plant more carrots. I'll probably plant more turnips on the right side where you can see carrots, but not until late July.

 

[Sally PB]

It's still raining...

Tomorrow *might* bring some rain, but Tuesday is a better bet. I won't be watering for a few days, at least.

 

[Sueby]

We *might* get some rain tomorrow.

Like this, but without the bar.
Just wide enough for the quarts.
There's only the two of us here, so I'm not canning as much as I used to.
https://www.dehydrate2store.com/build-canning-shelves/

That is exactly what my neighbor had & it looked so fantastic.

I used to give my girls the yard clippings too, till I lost one to an impacted crop. We no longer collect grass clippings which makes DH happy he doesn't have to run the vacuum system on the mower.

 

[SheaLoner]

'twas a Long battle. Hard fraught, over multiple days. Battling the sun, the clay, the most vile of enemies, Deer Flies. And the clock ever ticking onward.
Victory was achieved tho, At such a late hour.
The Potatoes are In.

 

[DotToDot]

I overturned a lot of soil today. Weeded a bunch, put the tomatoes in, put a fence around it, and took out the old fence. I also learned what savages chickens are. I found a cute toad while weeding, and, to my horror, watched as my favorite chicken grabbed it and ran away. I attempted to rescue the toad, but by the time I caught up with Lovelace, alas, the toad was dead. My favorite chicken had the AUDACITY to peck out his innards, shove it in her beak, and swallow the thing whole. Unbelievable.