Posted on 03/12/2022 6:45:42 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
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Oooo! Can’t wait to see more progress on your greenhouse! :)
I’m going out to play in mine before Beau ‘unleashes the puppies from H3ll’ upon me, and they decide to ‘help.’
Destructive little buggers!
People who have actually had to work with a shovel and 4 inches frozen mud caked on your Sorels know that Farm and construction machinery and the fuel to run them are wonderful things!
Will you deep trench your leeks? or do you use the 2 boards method? :)
June Bearing strawberries set ONE crop early, then the plant still lives until frost, but doesn’t bloom or produce more.
Everbearing will give you a continual supply of berries all season, as long as you water daily and fertilize weekly.
Since they are in a container, treat them like this:
https://strawberryplants.org/growing-strawberries-in-containers/
Remind me of your growing zone? I’m 5a in SW Wisconsin. No mountains, but big, BIG hills! My strawberry patch is just 4’ x 8’ in a raised bed.
Burpee’s organic seed starting mix. Walked by it at Menard’s and my arm just reached out and grabbed it. I had made my own from peat, biochar and a little 2 year old sifted goat manure but when I bottom watered the tray which was half burpee and half mine, mine didn’t pick up the water so I dumped mine out and refilled with burpee.
Just now started 4 broccoli, 8 collards and 4 each of southern giant and Japanese giant mustards in my coffee creamer container bottom pots. Started those in some DG potting soil that I got last year. It’s pretty chunky so I dropped the seeds on top and then added 1/4” of the burpee to cover and then pressed with another pot.
My second heat mat should be in tomorrow to go under those. Those coffee creamer pots measure 3 inches across and 24 of them just fit inside a lid to a tote, 4 wide by 6 long - 12”x24” so the 1020 mat should work fine.
I made my driveway with a 1969 Sear Suburban garden tractor that has a grader blade attachment. Also pushed up some pretty big piles of brush/branches with the snow plow blade.
Then I graduated to a little 18hp Mitsubishi tractor with PTO and lift arms. I built a draw bar and forks for the back and use the forks a lot. I keep anything I can outside on pallets. I built a trailer the same width as the tractor for hauling firewood out of the woods. At 42 inches wide, it will go anywhere in the woods. Tractor has been a major back and labor saver. Even the Sears Suburban was a labor saver.
Would love to have a 25/26hp Kubota with loader/backhoe but I don’t have $35k to spare.
Yeah those are beautiful rigs but priced like a Lexus LOL.
It is already being used in Europe under the label Nemaslug. I have not found any US sources so I do not know if it is approved for U.S. I suppose the U.S. agricultural concern is that wipes out Aquatic water dwelling snails.
https://today.oregonstate.edu/news/microscopic-worm-liquefies-slugs-may-be-answer-controlling-invasive-pest
https://theconversation.com/why-zombie-slugs-could-be-the-answer-to-gardeners-woes-94348
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phasmarhabditis_hermaphrodita
Hello all!
Anyone have experience or knowledge about raised beds in areas where carpenter ants are prevalent?
I use lumber (2x8s etc) to build my raised beds here in the Pacific.
Northwest but have realized my soon to be new home in Texas has a lot of wood eating ants.
Does anyone have any input on raised beds in this type of area?
I don’t want to spray bug killer around my vegetable garden and I won’t use treated wood either.
Is there a way to deter the ants without contaminating my veggies?
I could replace my raised bed frames every few years....I really like the system ai have now because it gives me a place to sit in the edge of the bed while I work.
Thanks in advance.
I moved to and retired from desk work, haven’t worked construction since the early 1980s, but I still miss my truck. (Although not the gasoline cost!)
A truck, a tractor and a few implements makes all the difference in the world. (Deer hunting! Augie uses his front end loader to transport venison! :)
I need to go do some garden stuff!
Love that coffee! Not doing much gardening these days. Mostly because of the weather and also because I’m not feeling too well. Had a check up with the doctor late last year and she is following me for complications with diabetes. Going for more lab work tomorrow.
Started a dozen marigolds. One’s a bright orange decorative and the other a yellow version that’s more of a wild marigold. Thinking maybe it will be a better companion plant.
That’s pretty much everything that can stand the cool weather or that I can start this early. I will be planting more of some things in a couple of weeks for succession planting.
Heading out to put a short chunk of fence up for peas to climb up and I found a 12 inch tall middle section of a 55 gal drum that I can grow carrots in. Have to make my own soil for that as ours is too heavy and acidic.
I’ve only had an ant hill in a raised bed once, and I just got the hose and drown them out! I don’t know a thing about carpenter ants. The first thing that comes to mind though is Diatomaceous Earth, of course. Nobody likes that, LOL! Use ‘food grade’ of course.
Do the carpenter ants actually EAT the wood that makes up the raised beds?
I looked around a bit and I did find this ‘organic’ solution:
“Combination of Cornmeal, Borax, and Honey
Are you looking for the cheapest alternative? You may find this useful. This method is more likely to wipe away the entire colony!
Even the queen will be no more! Here is how it works.
Mixing cornmeal and borax (commonly found in toothpaste) posses a considerable risk to ants health when they ingest it or even pass over it.
Going an additional mile by adding honey to the mixture, conceals the taste of borax and invites more ants.
The honey will make sure the mix gets carried to the ant Hill where the queen will also have a taste hence killing all of them.
This mixture is friendly to your crops and humans. You should not get worried about your safety while using it. Unfortunately, this method may take some time for you to notice its effect.”
I’m curious to see if anyone has any Real Life experience with this situation.
https://gardenersyards.com/ants-in-raised-garden-bed-how-to-get-rid/
Popping back in.... Kubota. A good company! Used to advertise in Organic Gardening Magazine when it still existed! (IICR).
Buy used and do some trenching and grading on the side to pay for it? (Its not like you don’t have that other business....)
My brother owned a Case and used to do trenching and grading where he lived in N. Illinois. He got out of it. Expensive to maintain. He went on to working other heavy equipment for some construction companies and eventually Great Lakes Naval Base.
Maybe Augie has some thoughts on it.
(Ok back to gardening stuff.)
We scrounged a bunch of cinder blocks we found on the property and built my raised beds from those.
They are not very tall, of course, but considering how boggy my garden can get when it rains a lot, it raised the plants enough to keep them from rotting in the water.
Hydraulics are mankind’s greatest achievement.
Any piece of machinery requires maintenance. The older it is, the more it needs.
I would love to replace my cranky old Nanner with a 75hp skid-steer, but when I start looking at how much it would cost to do that it brings me back to my senses very quickly. I can do a lot of repairs for $35k.
Carpenter ants are a huge problem here. West Michigan. Plus we are in the woods for the most part. Our house originally had cedar siding and treated wood for all the retaining walls. We had a big carpenter ant problem. In 2009 we had the siding replaced with vinyl siding, got rid of all the retaining walls, rebuilt with bricks. Got an ant and termite service which we still use for around the house. We haven’t seen an ant in a few years now. We are going to keep the termite service but chuck the ant service. We’ll buy those Terro granules again. We have a short brick retaining wall around our garden. So all I can advise is to not use wood at all if you are in an ant or termite area.
Looks great!
That looks fantastic! What are you using for flooring? I have gravel in mine, which works just fine...until you drop something SMALL that you really, REALLY need, LOL!
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