What have you done today in the Garden?

@Daniel W - I used similiart grow bags last year for the first time. A neighbour gave me two to try for potatoes. If I was to use them again ( I passed them onto my daughter who moved to a condo with a balcony) I would adopt your idea and shelter/surround them, although it would be no where near as creative or well done as your cedar planter.

Your design and idea look great and I think would have solved the problem I had with drying out ( it was a hot windy summer, and I had them on the deck not the ground) , as well as a little too much sun creeping through the fabric. (That could have been the quality of the grow bag). The potatoes I planted grew well, but along the outside circumference of the bags they were all green from sun exposure creeping through the fabric. I'll be interested to see what your thoughts are in the fall! If you're happy with it I may give it another go.

 

Logan, I use TP rolls for my green beans to give the plant a fighting chance against flea beetles and help with my pokey cool soil temperatures. I love Calendula and have struggled to grow it here from seed. I have few full sun areas. Are they in the rolls long before you transplant?
I put a piece of TuckTape along my bean rolls to keep everyone contained and together, and then cut it away carefully. Even then, the paper is really ready to go.

 

I save TP rolls and the tubes from paper towels, cut them into 2" or 3" lengths, slit them top to bottom, and place them around broccoli plant stems and anything else that cutworms may attack.
My husband looks shocked when I tell him not to throw away TP cardboard centers. He has adjusted to my way of saving, reusing, and being a bit strange.

 

@Doghouse Riley your roses are ahead of ours. Can't wait to see them blooming in their new containers.

@Melody Mc. thanks for the info. One of these days I should try containers for potatoes, I still grow them in trenches. It's getting to be too much hard work. Many years ago I grew some in a half barrel. They did OK. Not great, but OK.

I did wonder about the sides of the bags drying out sooner. I may line the box with a plastic liner. I do think the box will help quite a bit.

 

Today in my garden, I moved some big horseradish sections. I didn't get the main root but maybe it's enough, The main root must be as thick as my wrist! I also moved a big Helleborus to the border I've been putting together.

I up potted some peppers. I feel apprehensive about the potting soil, but we'll see how they do. They look rather puny. I also thinned the tomato seedlings and some others.

The snow peas and snap peas are an inch tall. They are my favorites! Hyacinths and daffodils are blooming. And peaches and plums.

 

Those bags are for air pruning? I suggest the plastic be oriented underneath for bottom watering, and not internally. The airflow is helpful. Placing something that can support root growth against it might get the plant into travel mode and get it bigger than you intend. Bags usually will wick and grow moss here, but then the bag dries and its not too bad to keep it watered. When mine (tomato) went dry I drenched until the saucers filled and they (7gal) would go 4-7 days before watering in our hot summer sun. More watering than in ground to be sure, but a reservoir really helps that be a much reduced problem.

Today I fertilized the seedling starts and took apart all the hose reel nozzles and valves for maintenance. I keep 8 hose reels and a good dose of silicone grease gets the handles and springs and valves working after hibernation. I cracked open the compost pile to re-cover roots on a knock out rose that my puppy tried to dig up.

 

@Melody Mc. I keep the calendula in the TP rolls and plant them out at the end of may. When they're big enough I'll harden them off and keep them outside.
I start them off in my propagator but only have the heat on for night time.

 

Started cutting the old flowering stems off the lavender. Then hubby asked me to help him tidy up after he cut the hedge.

 

Picked up sticks for the burn pile, filled doggo holes, turned on the irrigation for the season hopefully, near miss last week at 23f. Fertilized some compost eating roses. I heard the asian jumping worms eat compost like crazy so I must have them everywhere.

 

@Dirtmechanic thanks for the info. I have never used the bags before. I don't know much about them. They are 25 gallon each, the same size as plastic and wooden containers I've used before. There will be ten of them in the wooden planter box, sitting on a platform to raise them a bit higher for ergonomic reasons. Their sides deform somewhat and they will be up against each other. I will use it sort of like a like a raised bed, with the sides of the bags acting like dividers. I hope they don't dry out too fast. They will contain compost-amended topsoil, same as other containers the same size. I will have drop irrigation for them, I'm thinking either loops of soaker hose or 1gal per hour drip emitters. Last year the drip emitters worked better. Soaker hoses clogged up too fast even though I have a filter, so I used a pin to punch a lot of holes in the soaker hoses and made them into minisprayers, which worked fine. My well water has a lot of sediment.

Maybe if the sides are going to let them dry out too fast, I should line then with plastic?

 

Our first kitchen garden crop. It's not much but still a treat to have them fresh. These are Egyptian Walking Onions, from bulbs overwintered in the garden.

 

I have pruned, weeded, put a layer of top soil here and there, been at it for days and I'm not even a quarter done. I need to downsize the flower garden, make a bit of blooming meadow, and a little bit of lawn to sit on underneath the apple tree. Giving up the plant collecting habit is going to be tough, but needs must. We really have enough out there.

 

@Droopy, I know how you feel. I'm struggling with reducing my garden work and making it more accessible. This year I didn't replace the few fruit trees that died. I'm also making a low-maintenance (I hope) wildflower area.

Here is a fig tree I pruned today. Just took pff a little from the top (ha ha). Fig trees have an amazing ability to regenerate, and this one was mostly out of reach for me. This variety produces fruit entirely on new growth, so maybe it will produce this year. Or not.


Snap peas are up and threatening to grow like crazy in the Spring weather.



I pruned some of the other (much smaller) fig trees but it was wet and I was tired and sore, so stopped.

 

Daniel— i know those walking onions. My neighbour lady at the allotments gave mr a few plants one year and we grew them for two seasons. They are interesting to grow and observe as well. I haven’t thought about these for some time now. Congrats on your first harvest.

It was 15 march yesterday and that date is historically a date for the use of sharp instruments. It is a tradition for me now. It was the butterfly bushes (Buddleja) who got the blade.

 

If hubby heard that he would hide them all from me, he doesn't like me using sharp instruments, he thinks that I go too far.