Weekly Garden Thread - January 22-28, 2022 [Reading & Resources Edition]

January 22, 2022 | Diana in Wisconsin/Greeneyes

[CaptainPhilFan]

I will, thank you! I didn’t realize the extent of your gardening past and present.
Today I’m on the trail of free pallets to cobble a fence around the garden spot I’ve chosen; and to make an open compost pile with.

[metmom]

Stores are more than willing to hand out cardboard boxes.

I have quite a collection and have laid them down with grass clippings, wood chips, and shredded up leaves on top of them.

I’ll toss on some manure once the plants go in.

I found some places with decent soil, too and hauled that over and mixed it in with the rest of the stuff.

I’ve got two compost bins going but they are frozen solid right now. It’ll be spring before they thaw out enough to turn and then I’ll have to be diligent to do it a couple times a day. One is almost ready, the other is in the filling it up stage.

[Ellendra]

https://mountaintimefarm.com recently changed the prices on all their trees to $5 each.

The majority of their trees are grown from seed, not grafts or cuttings, so the results are less predictable. Nuts will probably be fairly consistent, but apples and pears will be a gamble. But, you get a strong tree for a very low price, and if you don’t like the fruit then you can graft something you like onto it later.

[LibWhacker]

Wow, never seen woodpeckers like those. Very nice!

[Pollard]

Thanks, “Garage Ready” - interesting.

They have multiple sizes; https://www.geappliances.com/ge-appliances/kitchen/freezers/chest-freezers/

[ApplegateRanch]

Trying one more time: ordered a 10 frame nuc box, with 6-8 active frames, from a local source. After 3 ‘packages’ of bees absconded over a 2 year period, it’s time for a course change: once more into the breach!

Already have most of the garden accounted for, between saved seed; early purchases; and thriving beyond all reason potted sweet potato vines on the kitchen windowsill.

As to favorite resources, The Weekly Gardening Thread; Duck-Duck-Go links; The Western Garden Book, any of several annual editions I have; Older Garden Way books, including an early Joy Of Gardening.

On another note, took the pickup & 24’ flatbed to (near Greeley) Colorado & back yesterday, to pickup my “new” tractor: 1980 1500 Ford diesel, with the Ford bucket loader, box blade, bucket forks, PTO mower, an old drag-behind chisel tooth harrow, and set of new tire chains. Came with the complete set of manuals, and history. 13 hour uneventful round trip, despite 90 miles of thick, icy, hard packed, pressure-ridged snow in Wyoming. On the bright side, the plow was clearing the narrow SHOULDERS!

I already have the 8’ multi-way rear blade, boom-lift, and middle buster that also fit it; plan to sell the old Ford 2N.

[ApplegateRanch]

If you like work; or need exercise, you can always try double digging.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_digging

[Pollard]

BTDT and it sucks and only lasts a few years it seems like.

CaptainPhilFan described it as red clay and I don’t know if that’s the top soil and there’s a redder clay down below or if the top soil is simply gone. If it’s gone and there is no stratification between a topsoil and subsoil, double digging won’t do much. She/He/The may want to dig dig a hole a couple of feet deep and see that’s what. See if there’s layers or just all red clay.

I got lucky when I bought this place. We do have red clay for subsoil and a lot of rocks and many people don’t have much of anything for topsoil but this place has a flat spot with anywhere from 1-2 foot of fairly rock free clayey loam and according to the USGS soil survey, this type of top soil/subsoil combo is considered prime farmland. I only have 2-3 acres out of 14 that’s not rocky as can be but that 2-3 acres is enough for me. The goats seem to be fine with the rest and I don’t have to trim hooves because the rocks do it for me.

[Bon of Babble]

Love those bird photos - especially the woodpeckers.

They used to peck at my dad’s house and finally ruined the wooden siding. He didn’t know how to get rid of them.

You reminded me that when I get home (I’m traveling at the moment) to re-stock my goldfinch, humming bird and regular bird feeders.

[cherry]

OT but has anybody heard anything from greeneyes...he/she had surgery back in december of a serious nature I think and no one has heard anything....Diane, perhaps you know a way to reach her...

[cherry]

I save my egg shells, plus tea bags and coffee grounds all winter in the freezer....my compost pile is also frozen solid...

[Diana in Wisconsin]

We have 50+ acres of woodland, and we’re always planting more trees, so we have plenty of massive, old, dead trees, which are their favorites for finding beetles and bugs and for living quarters.

The ones we have here are: Red Headed, Red Bellied, Downy and Hairy. Downy and Hairy look alike, except the Hairy is about 2x the size of the Downy.

We’re too far south for the Pileated, (Woody Woodpecker-type) which prefer our Northern woodlands, but they do pass through once in a great while.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I will pass that on to The Chairman! :) We planted 400 seedling evergreens (Norway Spruce) in Spring 2012 - the year we then had that horrific drought. About 200 survived. On the 4th of July that year, in 100 degree heat, we hauled 800 gallons of water to all of them.

That was a LOT of fun - NOT! I did learn to drive the 1954 Allis-Chalmers tractor that day, though! :)

Picea abies, the Norway spruce or European spruce, is a species of spruce native to Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. It has branchlets that typically hang downwards, and the largest cones of any spruce, 9–17 cm long. It is very closely related to the Siberian spruce, which replaces it east of the Ural Mountains, and with which it hybridizes freely.

Our 'survivors' are about 1/2 this size right now, so it was well worth it. It's on land we're preserving to grow some Big Bucks. They're a pretty tree and a good wind-break - we have mature ones on the west and north side of the house where they really do their job.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

You are so industrious, talented and ambitious! :) Great deal on that tractor; so many EXTRAS!

Also, don’t get your ‘Joy of Gardening’ and your ‘Joy of S3x’ books mixed up - I did once and it was NOT pretty, LOL!

*SMIRK*

[Diana in Wisconsin]

We had snow overnight, so this morning I went out and re-filled the feeders and knocked the snow off of them. The birds were up in the trees watching me and when I was done, you could hear their collective *SIGH* as they headed for the feeders.

Beau thinks I’m nuts to feed them all, but he gets as excited as I do when I see a ‘new friend’ at the feeders. :)

[Bon of Babble]

I notice this when I water in hot weather - birds are in the trees waiting, dragonflies are hovering about, bees and other critters waiting for me to fill up the birdbaths and spray down the garden. Then they descend en masse when I’m done. It’s quite a sight.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Pete and I are working on it. My theory is that she went from the hospital to a rehab center; her husband is in poor health, so she probably wasn’t safe at home right now.

I know she has a daughter who helps out from time to time.

I think she just can’t get to the WWW in rehab right now, to contact us.

I have two more places to check, and I will report back if I have any news.

[cherry]

thx....

[LibWhacker]

Amazing there are so many kinds of woodpeckers. I don’t even know how many we have around here. I hear them pecking at the house sometimes, but when I go out to take a look, they hightail it and I can never get a very good look at ‘em, lol. Ah, well, maybe my bird app will help.

[CaptainPhilFan]

Hello! I’m grateful for your considerable knowledge. I have been reading soil maps and such. Some seem to be saying the area has “clay-y loam”. When I dig in my yard there is a covering of weedy grasses growing in what appears to be just red clay, at least 2 feet deep.

More reading, there are some crops that will grow in clay. others will need highly amended soil or pots. I’ve tried to find info on the Roanoke Cooperative pages, not much, and they don’t seem as active as other Extensions in the larger area.

If this year wasn’t so fraught with unknowns and uncertainties I’d not be so nervous, and just try a small plot and see what happens. As is, I’ll just do the best I think I can and most of all, keep the dogs out of it.