Good Morning. I am currently on daily squirrel watch as one comes around to “help” early in the morning. My herb garden is in full swing. I have been enjoying fresh peppermint tea all week.
I will be making my first batch of pesto this week. I put three basils in one pot, a large Genoese, mid sizes red, and tiny leaf Greek basil. The guy that sold me the basil plant told me I’d have a pretty pot and he was right.
I put in some Johnny Jump ups and have been adding them to cocktails as a garnish. They are pretty and give off a hint of violet.
Lots of dill, oregano and sage flavored dishes right now.
The Swiss chard is almost ready for the first picking. Hopefully I get as much as I did last year.
Hey Diana, I have a question for you and your followers..
Was given some black gold, old manure, which I spread on my garden and I think the horses digested some hay that, while growing, was treated with weed killer. Now certain things won’t grow well in my garden.
I’ve decided to let the garden go fallow for a year. Do you think this problem will resolve over time?
Garden is OK this morning.
The bird netting kept everything upright.
And I have this to report, that almost a month after planting these toms in the garden in this densely-populated city, with temps ranging from 40's to some 90's, and plants which began as seeds in cups about 4-6 weeks previous and were grown under some window sun and cheap grow lights, then this is what we have in the front section which gets sun about 6-7 hours a day, thank God (the bucket and cover on the ground are there to prevent water from the roof splashing in that area as it does):.
In case you are wondering, the containers around the plants are my attempt to reduce watering by concentrating the water around the plant (pour H20 in container as needed).
Then we have the side which gets about 4 to 6 hours of sun, with the rest of al;most 50 tomato plants, and 14 butternut squash, and even a couple pepper and watermelon plants a neighbor gave us:
In contrast to 5-15:
But then we have this (is it Early Blight?):
As some may know, last year some sort of blight wiped out most of the crop beginning about August, and I cut and sprayed copper fungicide, and the plants were recovering, but then they frost came. I could not find the fungicide I bought until today (prayed) and so I intent to use some.
To reduce the amount of the water bill for the landlord (who gives us a real break on the rent) then I save water in barrels that I cover to keep the mosquitoes out (though a one second spray of non-stick pam keeps them from flying out if some get in). The screen on top is a homemade rig used to screen soil (1/2" screen) and is places on top since the squirrels insist on tearing open the porous covering to see what is inside. Though they only have done it once per season.
Then (for the women) there is the aesthetic section, with fence built with donated lumber by a neighbor from a demolition job, thank God, and flowers that needed a home and showed up incrementally, mostly from the landlord.
Thanks and glory be to God who has granted us grace and help to serve and praise Him.
Amen to that! Just shared that with several.
Got up early to cut grass. It has been raining every day for about two weeks. Was a low chance for more this morning. Got all dressed to cut and went out too see my very tall grass soaked from all night rains. No cutting grass this morning. But my garden is growing like crazy!
Greetings from southern New Hampshire!
I have two pallet lumber full-sized and one narrow raised beds completed. I ran out of compost to fill them, and just got a trailer load (2+ tons) this morning. I have one long side for a full-sized raised bed completed and ready for the plastic sheeting lining and a bunch of side boards ready to assemble. I have three large-sized left to build, this spring. I hope to be done sometime Tuesday afternoon, assuming that I will need to get another load of compost, then.
Household Six is busily planting all of her seedlings. We put in an additional cattle panel trellis, and I have two more panels to put in as soon as I get the new raised beds finished. Then I can start working on the woven wire fencing around the garden area, tied to the duck pen, so that we can let them out to graze for bugs. Then, the electric fencing around the metal fencing to protect the duck pen, garden and bee pergola.
Speaking of bees, we haven’t seen any, recently. I am very concerned. I need to refresh my swarm traps as there hasn’t been any sign of swarms or even scouts.
When I bought our home, 13 years ago April, I put in a small rose garden and an oriental poppy, along with two Rose of Sharon. One of the rose refuses to die off. It is blossoming along with the poppy.
My hibiscus in the front planter bed, under the bay window, is pushing up sprouts and daughter plants. I have to do something to protect them as we just refinanced our mortgage and will have the house resided with vinyl siding. Also finally going to have an asphalt driveway.
Retiring from seasonal RVing was one of the best decisions we have made!
One of the best memes EVER!
We have had an inch & a half of rain since Thursday evening - should be clearing out today. I had just done a 'heavy' watering Thursday, thinking the storms were going around - the big one (heavy downpours) 'blew up' on radar & came over around 9:30 pm, then off on all night & yesterday. Everything is growing great!
Flower gardens:
Snake report - none in the hen house since we removed the last two on back-to-back days; however, my mom spotted one Thursday in the shed where I keep my Gorilla cart, tractor mower & she keeps her gardening tools - she was pretty traumatized. I'm sure it was looking for mice.
Chickens are laying beautifully - I made two quiches last week - really good & a great way to use up an abundance of eggs.
Good Morning, Everybody!
(((HUGS)))
Hello all!
It’s been a minute.
Not much doing in garden. A few maters. Flower seeds spread out here and there. Squash, melons and more tomatoes started waiting to pot up.
Lot going on so late start on garden.
Nice to see everyone’s beautiful pictures.
With that being said,I just got home after spending two nights in the hospital since Saturday morning. Thursday morning my cat barely bit my hand but enough that I developed a horrible infection that required those days to be hooked onto an anti bacteria IV..The hand and arm were incredibly swolen and my Temperature spiked to 102.4 by Saturday afternoon until the antibiotic started to kick in.......
That is just too funny! lol
Checked on my seedlings. They are growing, but slowly. Pleasantly surprised to see a couple of tomatoes sprouting up. Pretty late for that to happen but everything is late this year. Guess I’ll have a great crop of fall tomatoes. Other than that, things are pretty much the same. Still have plenty of pansies to pick. The weather is heating up so I’ll enjoy them while I have them.