What have you done today in the Garden?

Well, After getting so many hanging baskets planted up... it is supposed to be 12f.. tonight 14 tomorrow night and 16 the next night. . Oyvey. I condensed everything in the greenhouse and hung a sheet of old greenhouse plastic in the center of the house and am hoping that we can keep 1/2 of the house above freezing for the next three nights.

 

Carolyn, I have my fingers crossed for you! On the rare occasions when we are having an unexpected dip in temperatures, and I have tender plants in the gardens, we take gallon jugs of almost boiling water out and place them strategically among the plants, then cover with tarps or plastic. It wouldn't work for the amount of plants and gardens you have, but it does keep our seedlings from freezing.
We are supposed to be in the 40's tonight, so I'm very glad I don't have tomatoes and peppers outside, hardening off. I checked the onions, turnips, and garlic today to see if they needed water. We've had high humidity, and they seem to be doing fine.
We'll be thinning the lettuces within a week--first salad of the season from the thinnings!

 

thanks Jane. We kept it well above freezing last night but tonight it has dropped already to below 50... I guess I will be checking periodically all night long again. sigh.

 

Too much yesterday and my knees suffered in the night, last night.
The standard rose I bought for my late sister the stem broke (stupid removal men left peanuts in the same pot.) I believe some animal broke it going for the nuts. Last week I noticed a new shoot from where the stem seperated from the roots.

I bought a new Peony and planted it. I also planted a white and a pink (bought together) Bleeding Heart. Removed some of what I don't want.

Be a couple of days to get my knees some bit like...
K

 

oh, Kate. I feel for you. My husbands knees hurt and the last several days was excruciating for him... must have been the weather. I rubbed his knees twice yesterday and the day before...I hope you feel better soon. I don't know if it works, I just read it... but I read to drink a bit of water before and after... but soak on a bathtub full of nice warm water with a cup of applecider vinegar added... it is supposed to help joint pain.

 

I have heard of that before Carolyn: Cider Vinegar. I never knew how much is ok. The water before and after is worth a try but I had an xray and its Osteo Arthritis but it won't stop me gardening, just rest some days inbetween.

I don't drink enough water in any case.

If you can get it, Biofreeze gives me some rest at night. Its a cold treatment you keep it in the fridge till you need it.

http://tinyurl.com/zeybfyj
Thanks Carolyn!
K

 

Well, the move is finally complete...more or less and I can begin doing garden things. It seems as though it has taken forever.

The first things that I did was to plant onion sets and spinach. At hope I planted broad beans and some geranium cuttings. I shall plant some spinach clumps at home tomorrow, I hope.

It has begun...a bit late, but none-the-less a begin has been made. Compost pick up is this coming saturday.

Oh, I almost forgot--I emptied one of our compost bins and got 12 wheelbarrows full which went onto two beds.

 

Sjoerd, happy you are moved and pretty well settled in! Now you can also settle into gardening
Today we filled in the potato trenches (this is known as the "Sjoerd plant in a trench, fill in, and no hilling needed potato planting method), picked lettuce, and weeded onions. The turnips really need thinning, but we have an elderly neighbor who loves turnip greens with the baby turnips still attached, so when I thin the turnips I'll make sure she gets the thinnings. Please don't tell the hens!
The tomato, pepper, and herb starts are on the garden table hardening off, and with luck I'll be planting tomatoes later this week.

 

S... YAY, So glad you are done and we get you back. hip hip hooray!

Anyway, today I took a few more cuttings, planted up a few plugs, transplanted the rosemary seedlings and worked on scrubbing the last greenhouse... my shoulders hurt. moving the 12' benches by myself is a huge job. now I am done for the night.. off to a shower and bed.

 

JANE--Thanks for your kind words. It is REALLY good to be back in the garden now. REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-ly good. chuckle. I also had to chuckle about that technique that you use for your spuds. That was a good one. I hope that it works for you again this year. The rest that you mentioned sounds like it is coming along well.

CAROLYN--Thanks loads. It really is good to be on here again. I missed you and the rest quite a lot. It sounds like you have enough to keep you busy as a bee(ver). Good luck this year. As always, I shall keep my eyes open for your posts about your gardening-on-a-grand-scale progress postings.

 

We had a rare hard freeze this winter and it killed all our banana palms. I waited till now to amke sure they were pretty much all dead and started wacking them up they are very heavy stalks filled with water. So its little at a time wack them down then up then haul them to the compost heap. It's hard work for a chubby ole guy but its do a lil rest a lil and repeat.

 

Jolie our Border Collie pup helped me with the banana wacking. Problem is she thinks she needs to bring some of the stalks in the house.

 

Planted up another 60+ hanging baskets today mostly petunias... more tomorrw. cleaned and leveled some of the stone under the ground cover in the greenhouse as it has gotten compacted in the isle-ways and higher under the benches and a few rodents have tunneled under the plastic to make nests this Winter and made humps, bumps and valleys... fixed that. gathered up some concrete block from the back forthy... what a job! up hill all the way to the top of the property... have I ever mentioned how unlevel our property is... 100 ft elevation from the back of the property to the road... through the muddy driveway... up to the hairpin turn... pulling a wagon to get the blocks. then down hill the whole way... me hanging onto the wagon as I steered from the back all the way to the greenhouse... whew. I almost lost my footing once. that would have been a disaster... if it had hit my hives which aren't too far from the driveway there. all three are full of bees... hip hip hooray! Then again back up to the barn...1/2 way of the block distance, to go get a load of potting mix on the wagon... I was looking for the Gator.. but well, we don't have one... it sure would have made it way easier. I am tired tonight. I also had to repair a few rips in the greenhouse plastic where something scraped across it a few weeks ago and nobody mentioned it to me...

 

Sjoerd, Hope your new home brings much happiness inside, and success outside.

K