What have you done today in the Garden?

Carolyn...couldn't get in because you've had a lot of rain?

What flowers do you sell at the farmer's market?

 

Got some Delphiniums planted today

 

I managed to get the entire yard mowed and put into compost. Then weeded for eighteen million hours and wondered if there was a better way without putting chemicals down. It seems there is. Cornmeal, news paper and vinegar.

 

CAYU--I mean that plants that can bolt easily. sorry for being so unclear and confusing.

 

mary... it rains almost every day here. one or two nice days and then torrential down pours.. Saturday was great most of the day and then a storm moved in at 6:00 1/2" of rain in 15 minutes. I was blessed.. at least we didn't get the inch of hail the other side of town got. Rain in the fore cast evry day this week and it is thundering right now. I just came in from moving all my hanging baskets back in out of the weather, Last thing I want is my whole crop of hanging baskets destroyed from the storms moving through. *sigh* ...

Flowers for the market are gomphrena, statice, snaps, gladiolas, zinnias, echinops, green wizard echinacea, eryngium, carnations, baby's breath... etc. anything that I can use for cut flowers. this is the first year I am making a concerted effort to grow enough for several markets. today I put in 4 rows of zinnias, maybe 75 per row, 4 rows of snaps, one row of glads (about 120) and room for two more plantings of them, one row of green wizard, etc... last year I grew enough for one market each week. it was amazing how many flowers I needed just for that.

well, off to bed.

 

well, it depends on what it is. for the non-noxious weeds that probably will be fine. for the noxious weeds such as bind weed, thistles, garlic mustard, mile a minute weed, mugwort... I finally gave in to using roundup this year. I just couldn't battle them any longer with pulling and/or sissy methods... they were winning the battle, but I won the war.

 

Busy, busy, busy---up early and out to the lottie.
Watered things in.
Planted the summer leeks [I am going to plant 10 more (winter leeks) in a few weeks].
Planted three courgette plants.
Planted a block of sweetcorn.
Planted French climber beans and runner beans.
Planted the Parsnips.
Cleared away the last of the mulch and used some more of that to stuff under the strawberry plants.
Looked in all four of the bee hives--all well there. They are expanding their populations, building up the wax foundations and storing - away pollen and honey. We've had some hot and humid weather lately, and that is exactly what the flowers here need to produce nectar.

Pulling a furrow to plant the corn:


The parsnip trench:


The leek trench:


....Oh yes, and of course had a couple of tea 'n bikkie breaks with the neighbour ladies....very important aspect of community gardening. Plans have to be made and garden progress discussed. It was on one of these breaks that we decided to help one of the ladies out--Nettie. She has just gotten over a long pulmonary illness and is still a bit weak. The rabbits are decimating her new plantlets and her direct neighbour refuses to do anything about the fence between them.

So then...We decided to help her out and extend her fence vertically. We just planted some poles every so many meters and attached the new chicken wire fencing to the old and to the poles.

One of the ladies and I went out and sunk the poles and attached them to the poles and my bride and the sick one came along behind attaching the fencing properly. It only took about an hour-and-a-half. Then more tea and back to work.

The spinach experiment just before harvesting. The plugs did so much better. An interesting footnote here is that the conventional wisdom all say that spinach ought to always be planted in the full ground and never transplanted. ..same for sweetcorn. Gad--I am beginning to sound like a maverick here!


Packing the strawbs in:


The Wisteria is doing so much better than ever before:


It was hot and the small birds were bathing one after the other. Here a Coal Tit flouncing about:



We were busy until nightfall...and fall is exactly what I did when we got home--fall into the shower, then fall into bed. Jongens--it was a good day.

 

Ok everyone....here is an update on the hydroponic project!! Yep going to have to move the cucs (bush variety/pickling) into a larger container in about a week. This is so exciting and contagious to find different containers to use...I need to order grow lights to go over the maters and other plants. Just need a bit more I think.

4-30-16 Coke bottles and Styrofoam cups with nutrients


Finished product - time to wrap with paper or foil to keep the light out.



5-10-16 Cilantro having issues... Maters are well and cucs, peppers & strawberries (bareroot) are in the window for now. Those are the cucs wrapped in foil from previous photo.

4-26-16 First attempt at hydroponics...ice cream bucket lettuce


5-10-16 Success I think with the lettuce..cucs and Chinese cabbage doing well


5-10-16 A little burn on the leaves. I was watering the plants and didn't realize that the light was on the lettuce...but have bounced back. Had to raise the light.

But I'm soooo excited.isn't it pretty...almost time to pick ...I assume the roots are now in the nutrients.

I'll post more next week or over the weekend...birthday weekend!! Yay!!!

 

Sjoerd....I loved the pics...so much progress and color in your garden, even though I do not like wisteria...it's gorgeous. The bird is amazing. You guys were very busy but that's what I loved to do also...enjoy where you live especially with the neighbors. Again...love the pics!!

 

Finally got off work and home in less than 13 hours. Worked on weeding and such, found out that rabbits or squirrels (vile creatures, but they taste good) have nipped 5 of a dozen cabbage plantlets. Ah well, bugs, weather, varmints, weeds...the life of a gardener.

 

Sjoerd, I'm amazed by your spinach. It looks good enough to eat!
You're the perfect gardener, along with your "Bride".
Hummerbum, your gardening method looks very interesting. Just what are the small, round pellets in each cup? Some type of plant food?

I have covers over some outdoor plants due to fear of frost. The potato patch will just have to take it like a man because it's larger than I intend to cover. I think the plants are large enough to withstand a light frost.
My garden is a continual work in progress. I plant a few things each week and wait and see.

 

All plants have survived cool nights.
Today I planted a row of spinach, a row of beets, set out a Sweet potato plant. I hope for the best as this is my first time growing Sweet potato from a plant. Does it need a companion, or will it do well on it's own?
Also re-potted several tomato plants and several pepper plants.

 

Thanks GP--glad that you liked the looks of that spinach. It was indeed tasty.

Those are clay balls in the hydroponic cups.

Today was the day that we could take care of the garden for our pal.
We removed dead bits, pruned, ruffled the soil and planted the new plants. Afterwards the whole postage stamp sized garden was thoroughly watered in.

Now the rest is up to him. Good luck.

We did a little bit of weeding in our own garden at the end of the day.

 

Sjoerd, what is the object of the clay balls?

 

As I understand it, they hold moisture and give the plant's roots something to hold on to...thus offering support to the plant. They also make good drainage possible. Additionally, they allow a better aeration of the root system because of their shape.