Posted on 03/01/2025 7:23:36 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
The MONTHLY Gardening Thread is a gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you.
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This thread is a non-political respite. No matter what, you won’t be flamed, and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked.
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In between sessions of picking up deadfall I've been making steady progress on outdoor projects in spite of my sore back. I finished the first raised bed, filled it up with garden soil, and sowed the whole thing to kale for Mrs. Augie. Cost of materials was a little over $200 for the 3' wide x 10' long x 2' tall box. Not terrible compared to the plastic beds that you get at the store. I hope to have two more of them done by time for fall garden planting. The low beds behind this one need to come out to make space for the other two that I'm planning, and the bit of garlic that didn't freeze out over the winter needs to be harvested before I can tear out the beds.
Saturday I got the tiller tractor out and worked over the spot where we installed the new freeze-proof faucet. Knocked down the high spots with a rock rake and threw some fescue seed on the ground. From there I moved to the new garden patch and made one light pass over it with the tiller.
I stopped by the plant nursery while I was in town Saturday morning and picked up five rhubarb plants and a bundle of ProMix. I've been having a devil of a time getting rhubarb to survive after transplanting but I'm determined to make it happen. I re-potted the plants as soon as I got them home and put them all in the greenhouse. I'm going to give them a couple months to make some roots before I put them in the ground outside.
Yesterday I raked the winter mess off of my asparagus bed. No signs of new shoots yet, but with a foot of leaf mulch on top that's no surprise. That bed has been there for 15 years. I should dig the plants, renovate the bed, and then reset the crowns but it's not worth the trouble. I just ordered 50 new crowns from Jung's that I'll plant in the new garden after they arrive. The old bed can just keep on keeping on where it is now.
We're due for a refresh of our chicken flock this spring so I've cleaned out the brooder house and tuned up the fence around that space. Still need to put the feed/water containers in and replace the heat lamp, but those things take two minutes to accomplish and can be done when I bring chicks home.
ugh...
Looking good!
We had so much fun with our little ‘balls of fluff’ last Spring. They’re Workin’ Girls, now. Between the 11 of them, we get 7-10 eggs a day!
This is the FR HTML resource.
Regarding "Hot Links", Click it to open, go down to the section for "Links" which has the information on how to post a link.
I would suggest that you open the HTML Sandbox in a separate tab. Cut and paste the commands directly into "Your Reply" Box. Always "Preview" before you post. Play with the HTML Elements until the preview formats the way you want. As Diane said, you may need to play with it to make it work. At some point you may want to put HTML formatting you use over and over on a Word Document on your Desktop.
***For educational purposes.....If you ever want to see how FreeRepublic (or any website) coverts your reply to HTML, right click your mouse. Select and click "View Page Source". This is so you can see what the page looks like in HTML. You can scroll down until you come to your entry, or, you can review how someone else's post to see the HTML used, and maybe copy some of it. Hit escape to return to the Non-HTML text.
**Thanks Jim Rob for Designing and sponsoring FR! Thanks Shadow Ace, thanks for your HTML Guide!
Thanks, yeah, I probably should get onto a photo hosting site again.
Last frost ((almost guaranteed) for us is supposed to be April 12. Normally it’s around March 27-28. But by April 12 we could have a high of 87+ deg. F, too.
Today we are forecast for 84 deg.! Which is what’s going to power the storms on the way — which are apparently going to be followed by an extended cool period. Assuming we don’t blow or float away...
This is not good...
That was supposed to be*,
I figured out what I was doing wrong - I was using < a >< href... > instead of < a href... >
*I should just use a mouse. "Touchpadding" over to uncheck preview I went over "Post" and triggered the post prematurely... (eye roll)
Yes, I use Notepad for that. :-)
I used to use " < a > " and " < a/ > " fairly often, back when I had a website for my business*, and I guess I was just automatically typing that instead of " < a ".
*MANY moons ago...
Thanks!
Augie; Rhubard, I have had a hard time getting it to survive here in 6B. It does not like our 90F + midwest heat and sun, and in my case,
being planted on the south side of a sun reflecting 6 foot fence. I replanted in the shade, but it did not do well there either.
(Tree roots sucked up the water.) Maybe a slightly raised bed with afternoon shade?
Its a nice raised bed! Too high for the rabbits! The high tunnel should work well until warmer weather.
I’ve got a spot in the new garden that should work for the rhubarb. There’s one there now that I transplanted last year and it seems to be very happy so far. That spot gets some shade after 2:00pm-ish during the summer.
I bought five different varieties of asparagus - 10 roots of each. It’s going in the ground - there’s no space for a planter box in the spot where it will be planted.
I would never suggest anything else.
Rhubarb; Good! Strawberry rhubarb pie is an excellent pie! (Or crumble, or cake, etc!)
Link to new thread at post 584!
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