What have you done today in the Garden?

You've demonstrated the feature of this board that, "includes a typo or something that doesn't make sense, between "Post reply" and it appearing on the board."

I guess we've all suffered from that on occasions.

 

Ya, like I wrote hoe the other day instead of how. I didn't notice until MG quoted it... boy, did I look like I couldn't spell. derp!

 

Today I finished mulching my back bed, and ate a few garden fresh strawberries.
I want to post some photos, but I need to resize them first. Bugger.

 

Cayuga,
You let your lettuce go to seed? Do you have cold winters? I know here in Milwaukee I can plant early, before the last frost. But can I do the same, letting it go to seed?

Today I put up my trellising for the cucumbers and zucchini. Tomorrow morning, when the herbs are stronger, I'll go out and cut some thyme to dry.
Then my granddaughter and I have to go to her school and pick up the things that were left when school closed. While we're out we'll go get some worms and crickets for George. Then to the grocery store to get more sugar for a batch of jelly. I think I'm going to check and see if Wisconsin has wild honeysuckle. In Texas honeysuckle was everywhere and I made honeysuckle jelly.

 

Nothing, it’s raining. I also let my lettuce go into seed.

 

planting more today. so far today I have planted 46 kale plants, 192 pepper plants 18 eggplant out in the front garden . moved some cosmos from the high tunnel to the front flower garden watered all the plants again thankfully out of all the hanging baskets and pots I planted up this year I am down to next to nothing. maybe 35 hanging baskets and 30 or so large planters and I still have a fair amount of peppers and tomatoes left in cell packs. bummer. I thought they would sell better with all the stress of the food chain in mind but my road is under construction and many people don't come down the road right now. maybe I can donate some to the new community garden

 

@TheBip someone here (Dirtmechanic? DoghouseRiley?) told me about Lit Photo, an app. It's free and super easy to use. This is for shrinking photos.

@Willowisp0801 looks like Odif in part answered your question, although I suspect he gardens in a warmer climate.
Yes, you can let them go to seed in Milwaukee and you will be rewarded with hardy lettuce babies in the spring. You may
have to thin them out a bit, but they will do very well. I garden in zone 6. I suspect you are a bit colder.... Zone 5? But with that Great Lake right next door, it bet is has a moderating influence on your climate, yes?

@carolyn you never cease to amaze me.

Today I weedwhacking the h**l out of our property around the house. My arms are still tired. Things look much better though.

 

@Cayuga Morning ... I don't intend to amaze anyone. this is an enormous amount of work but I couldn't do it without a little help. my DH and son do a lot and i have a friend I swap plants and the seconds and leftovers for her watering and waiting on customers etc. I am very thankful for her.

 

@carolyn I am glad you have a supportive team!

 

What did I do?

Apart from feeding the birds and the one squirrel, when it stopped some time after this, nothing other than give it "a coat of looking at," as it was chucking it down.

I quite like the look of the garden in the rain.

It always make me think of this.









With a heavy downpour, we can end up with three inches of water on the main patio.




That's because there's steps front and back and a low wall on each side. There's several drain holes I drilled into the wall at the level of the flags, so once it stops raining the water slowly disappears as our soil is a bit sandy so drains well. It clears in about an hour.





Mr Blackbird on the steps on his way down to the bird bath.





This starling was waiting for his turn. This one's a regular visitor in the morning. In the afternoon around 4.00pm, up to a dozen may appear, grab any remaining food in the ground feeder then they're away after only a couple of minutes.



The fountain, just vacated by a bathing bird.






I'm pleased that we still don't get any standing water on this new patio in heavy rain, since I cemented up the gap between the flags and the perimeter rocks, instead of having loose sand and replaced it with several short alkathene drain pipes.

 

GP-- Spinach tips: Well, GP, there is not a lot that you can do. I try and sow mine as early as I can because the coolness helps to keep them from bolting. I also water them every day...deeply. Being moist enough also seems to help retard bolting. More than that I just cannot do. One can keep them moist and plant them early, but there's little that one can do about the dryness and temperatures that Mother Nature throws at us.

That yellow-green plants that you asked about are Limnanthes douglasii. I am not sure what the English term is for these beauties. I just cannot recall the English name for this at the moment. The butterflies and bees are crazy about it over here. Now you listen to me young lady---don't you go and stay away so long next time, y'hear.

ODIF--Mate, I had never heard of that combination of companion planting. Thanks for the tip. BTW--your friend and his rotted radishes--I have never heard of that ! My country is a very wet country, but I do not know of any gardeners that have experienced this.

JANE--I lurved that hummingbird foto. Nice zinnia's as well.

CAYU-- How good that your daughter came by and helped you. When I hear how she helps you from time to time, I am beginning to like her more and more. hahaha. No but really, it is nice of her and who knows, she may someday catch the bug. The world cannot have enough gardeners and nature lovers, knowwaddahmean.
Great to hear that your boy is home from Spain. I read with interest your account of his analytical comments. Yeah, I had to smile too. But I could tell that he was spot on with his comment. I am sure that he was not at all trying to be funny, but still...the way you wrote it was funny--so honest and matter-of-fact. Give that boy a gold star.

Ahh, but what did we do in our own lottie?
Well, we harvested some lettuce, peas and broad beans. We tied-up the toms (for the second time), suckered them, watered and fed them and removed some of the lower leaves. We schoffeled the veggie and flower gardens/plots. Whew! It has been so hot and humid that when you work the sweat just runs off you--drip, drip, drip, drip....

Sad news about that new queen. She is not in the hive. So sad. Usually when this happens, it is because she goes on a "brides' flight" and gets picked-off by birds or dragonflies or something on the way to the drone gathering place or back. Well, today I am meeting up with a colleague beekeeper and we are going to put some more larvae and eggs in the little hive and try again. The dames are bereft. I shall head out in a couple of hours.

 

We can get to -15celsius here -5farenheit, so the hardiest lettuce survive in winter. A polytunnel or bell over the lettuce will help them grow well.

 

@Growingpains The only real success I have had here with spinach is sowing in winter in a polytunnel. They bolt too soon otherwise. I really love spinach and I like chard which is similar in taste. Amaranth is a good summer plant that tastes like spinach @Sjoerd my friend whose radishes drowned was because he moved to a new place and started a garden on a fertile looking spot. After the heavy rains his garden was underwater for 10 days. His radishes rotted and half his plants were washed away. He now wants to plant rice.

 

I managed to get in the garden and weed a bit this evening. We have 164mm of rain this month and still more to come. I hilled up some beans and potatoes too.

 

Weeded and hilled potatoes. Harvested a few strawberries and raspberries. Then it started raining again. My maize and cucumbers have sprouted.