What did you do in the garden today?

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Good morning gardeners. I'm not sure how much I'll be able to accomplish outdoors today. The wind is awful. I did get a wee bit of cleaning done in the 16 foot bed this morning. I had to stop because dear Chloe alerted to something in the front yard and was determined to figure out how to get through the fence. Oh well. I have a batch of sourdough rye on it's first rise already. I've decided to make it into all rolls and no loaves. Rye flour is getting harder and harder to find now (and a little expensive). I bought 2 bags each of organic rye flour (3 pounds each). I keep them in the freezer until ready to use. I'm really hoping I can get outside for a bit and finish up on that garden bed today. I have some Black Kow to mix in the dirt in there along with a bag of chicken run compost I've been saving. I also would like to at least set the hoop frames on two of the beds in the big garden area. I did finally put some fertilizer on the starts I up potted earlier. Of course Chloe is now drawn to sniffing the leeks. LOL! Speaking of bird houses @WthrLady, I would really like to put up 2 or 3 bluebird houses. I noticed a mated pair last Spring and this year with all the trees gone there are more of them and they are loving the open spaces here. From what I learned, they like open fields as opposed to heavily wooded areas. I do have one bluebird house at the end of the row of birdhouses. I haven't seen any activity in there this year. It's been used by the sparrows and one year there was a wasp nest in it. That wasn't too bad unless I mowed to close for the wasps liking. Time to get busy now. Have a great day.

 

[Elyrian1]

Sooooo..... We're going to look like kicked ants this week. Hubby decided he wants to move out to the homestead immediately. My list of things to do is long, and my time is short. He also wants to get a garden going asap out there.

Y'all wish me luck. Things are about to get a little crazy 'round here. I thought I still had at least a month, dang it. Oh, and I have a broody sitting on eggs! Good times.

 

[jerryse]

Lawn mower started right up so I mowed some. Heat mat came today and lights yesterday. Need to set them up. This heat mat has a probe and digital temp display you can set temp. Dug up 2 thornless black raspberry starts. Divided a tall phlox. Break time over back to mowing

 

[WthrLady]

Good morning gardeners. I'm not sure how much I'll be able to accomplish outdoors today. The wind is awful. I did get a wee bit of cleaning done in the 16 foot bed this morning. I had to stop because dear Chloe alerted to something in the front yard and was determined to figure out how to get through the fence. Oh well. I have a batch of sourdough rye on it's first rise already. I've decided to make it into all rolls and no loaves. Rye flour is getting harder and harder to find now (and a little expensive). I bought 2 bags each of organic rye flour (3 pounds each). I keep them in the freezer until ready to use. I'm really hoping I can get outside for a bit and finish up on that garden bed today. I have some Black Kow to mix in the dirt in there along with a bag of chicken run compost I've been saving. I also would like to at least set the hoop frames on two of the beds in the big garden area. I did finally put some fertilizer on the starts I up potted earlier. Of course Chloe is now drawn to sniffing the leeks. LOL! Speaking of bird houses @WthrLady, I would really like to put up 2 or 3 bluebird houses. I noticed a mated pair last Spring and this year with all the trees gone there are more of them and they are loving the open spaces here. From what I learned, they like open fields as opposed to heavily wooded areas. I do have one bluebird house at the end of the row of birdhouses. I haven't seen any activity in there this year. It's been used by the sparrows and one year there was a wasp nest in it. That wasn't too bad unless I mowed to close for the wasps liking. Time to get busy now. Have a great day.

We have houses on every cattle post down the property. Those are mostly for chickadees and sparrows. We've lost a few the past year to age, rot, and overzealous cattle. The swallows live everywhere. The owl is in the tree at the bottom of the field. The bald eagle is in a cottonwood tree at the end of the lane. The vultures are in the base of a cottonwood in the cattle field. The purple martins have their high post with gourds.
Yes, bluebirds prefer meadows and no neighbors. We have solitary field posts for those houses. They aren't up yet, but I'm getting there.

 

[TJAnonymous]

I bought my "Gorilla" cart at Menards about 5 years ago, on sale, for around $140.00. It was a Menards brand, not the original Gorilla brand cart, which is why I think it cost less. The Menards non-Gorilla cart had the same specs as the Gorilla cart, so, I decided to save some money and get the Menards' cart. But, everything has gone up in price since then.

If you have a riding lawn mower, then be sure to consider getting a cart with a handle that converts between manual pull or attaching to the hitch on a riding mower. Not all carts have handles that can switch to tow mode behind a riding mower. I have a big property, and I use the tow feature of the handle as much, if not more, than the manual pull mode.

View attachment 3458277

Also, there are some of these carts with wire mesh walls and bottom.

I have one of those, too, and certainly having the open wire mesh works great for some things. Again, I bought one with a handle that converts between manual pull and tow behind the riding mower.

After having and using both types of carts for about 5 years, I prefer the Gorilla cart with the waterproof tub for most things. I mix top soil and chicken run compost in the Gorilla cart tub, whereas you just can't do that in the wire mesh carts. Also, sometimes I mix soil and water in the Gorilla tub, and obviously you can't do that with the wire mesh carts.

I probably use the Gorilla cart twice as much as the wire mesh cart. Having said that, the wire mesh carts are usually much less expensive, and I do use my wire mesh cart a lot. It can carry the same load weight and works just like the Gorilla cart - except it does not have a waterproof tub.

I use my Gorilla cart for literally everything. I use it to haul compost, firewood, cleaning the coops, putting out hay for animals, hauling stuff between the house, garden, barn, and shop, and even as a wagon for the grandchildren (after thorough cleaning, of course). When I had the ball hitch on the 4-wheeler, I just looped the handle over it. Worked perfectly fine. I took the ball off so I could hook up the seeder which means I had to use the hitch pin. No biggie...

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

So exciting seeing the seeds sprout and grow in the starter pots.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Good morning Gardeners we have Murray mower yard tractor by Sears.
About 25 years old Green runs like a top. Parts are not hard to find.
Have a manual for it also. Bought a red dump bed tow behind.

 

[gtaus]

Practice so I can send my good knives to you to sharpen! I cant find anyone around here that does it so I mail them out to be sharpened. For a couple sharpenings I could buy new knives at this point. I think I may try & find a new chefs knife soon, I’m not thrilled with the Wustof. Anyone have a knife they love?

I imagine it might take awhile before I get the sharpening of the knives down. I am just hoping to make our kitchen knives sharper. If I had to send out our knives to be sharpened, it would not take very long to just buy some new, sharp, knives. The labor rate for sharpening stuff is too expensive unless maybe you had a very expensive knife.

Speaking of sharpening costs, I had a few wood chipping "knives" that I wanted to get sharpened. Doing my due diligence, I got a price quote up front. Then I sent them into the shop to be sharpened, waited a few weeks, and they came back to the store. I went to pick them up but the price to sharpen them was 4X more than what I agree to. I complained to the store manager, showed him the price quote I had agreed to, and showed him that I could buy brand new wood chipper "knives" for less than the sharpening service!

Long story short, manage let me take the wood chipper "knives" no charge. He said he would talk to their service guy who does the sharpening and let him know that you can't accept a job at one price and then charge 4X as much for the service - especially when the sharpening service is more expensive than buying new blades.

I never went back there for sharpening service. I just shapended the wood chipper blades as best I could at home. I am hoping that my new 1 X 20 bench sander will sharpen up my wood chipper blades because they get dull in only a few hours. I could really save some money on those blades if I can sharpen them myself.

 

[gtaus]

So DH took the mower deck off and it's now my towing trailer.

If you have a mower for towing, then all the more reason to make sure any cart you buy has the handle type that converts between manual pull and towing. That feature you might expect to see on more expensive carts, but it's really not price related from the carts I have seen. I think it's more a feature of the brand of cart you get.

For me, it was worth only considering carts with the conversion handle because I have a big yard and haul lots of heavy soil, etc... I have no problem hitching up the cart to the lawn mower and saving my back, arms, and legs some stress.

FYI, the heaviest loads I have put into my carts have been tree trunk rounds I cut up with the chainsaw after a big storm. The 1,200 lb. limit on the cart was too much for me to pull by hand, but no problem at all for the riding mowers.

 

[gtaus]

I use my Gorilla cart for literally everything. I use it to haul compost, firewood, cleaning the coops, putting out hay for animals, hauling stuff between the house, garden, barn, and shop, and even as a wagon for the grandchildren (after thorough cleaning, of course).

Yep, there is no end to uses I find to use my carts. All that mentioned by you and more.

When I had the ball hitch on the 4-wheeler, I just looped the handle over it. Worked perfectly fine.

I suppose a person could rig up a way to attach any handle to a riding mower. I don't have a ball hitch on any of my mowers, just the flat fender with a hole in it for a pin to hold the trailer. My point is just that I was able to find carts with the conversion handles for the same price as carts with just the manual pull handle. As much as I use my carts towed behind the mowers, I knew that was a feature that had value to me. I suspect a lot of people buying a cart for the first time might not even consider the function of the handle.