Bkmk 4 later.
Anyone doing no-till?
Meanwhile, Mother Nature is putting on quite a show this spring:
Giant amaryllis are exploding. I think these might be from Christmases past:
Planted these before I knew how poisonous they are.
Scent-sational roses:
She likes to hide in the cactus garden:
Sorry some of the photo are flipped to the side - I have NO idea how to fix the problem and it only seems to happen here.
The zucchini are already outside and beginning to really take off.
But first - the Saturday omelette.
Happy gardening, y'all!
It’s raining here in Eureka Ca this morning...
Pollard's F/R profile page has been the location of his Prepper links and Data Base. It is now the new home of the Gardening Resources Links. Click on the Greenhouse to link to his homepage!
I have some lavender plants growing in what is peat moss in a covered area.
A nearby Walmart has flowering lavender in peat moss, but the plants don’t seem to have a smell.
My balsam seeds have spouted and are growing in partial shade.
The broccoli heads I got didn’t grow large before showing signs of flowering.
My asparagus plants are producing spears but of a quarter-inch size that tend to be tough.
The bleeding heart vines I planted are blooming.
The broccoli heads I got didn’t grow large before showing signs of flowering.
My asparagus plants are producing spears but of a quarter-inch size that tend to be tough.
The bleeding heart vines I planted are blooming.
Gardening hacks and tips are a great topic. One I do is use a half flake of oat straw in the bottom of a planter where we put salvia every year for the hummingbirds. Don’t separate the flake just set it in like a block. You’ll use less soil and it will weigh less. As the salvia grows taller the whole thing sinks down as the hay starts to rot. So the plants have a nice compact look all summer. Dump and compost everything in the fall. Can’t wait to learn a bunch of new tips. Still too cold by a month to plant outside but everything doing well inside. I am psyched for thus years garden. Happy Easter to all.
Time to sprout some more cat grass seed.
Stack on another pallet as we go and for now, set them behind the shop which faces North and doesn't get sun. When the trees leaf out, we'll find a shady spot in the woods because once summer comes, the back of the shop won't have enough shade. Even in our little valley, we might have to use a little shade cloth. Keep them from drying out in Summer and come Fall, we should have mushrooms.
Might try a little cultivated ginseng someday. It grows wild in a few places around here but never has on this property according to the old timers. There are plants in this area that people dig for roots that have value too.
When you've got forest, do Forest Gardening.
Got a whole bunch growing in our small garden.
A few orchids:
A few nice plumeria (very fragrant)
Crabclaw
And adenium
As for tips, we are recycling an old badminton net to help with our long beans (basically green beans that are about 2 feet long when done)
Also note our baby papaya tree. Should start bearing fruit in a couple of years.
Green papaya is great for making slaws. Thai recipes generally call on shredding it and mixing with a dressing with hot peppers, lime juice, garlic, and fish sauce (if fish sauce is not to your taste, I'm sure you could substitute it with some vinegar and oil. Wouldn't taste the same but would still be good).
Also some Chinese morning glory.
To cook that, it's great sauteed lightly with some chili, garlic, light oil, and Maggi (if you can't find Maggi, soy sauce would work too)
Ozarks weather.
Weather forecast last night right before going to bed. Rain today after 3pm.
Wake up at 6am this morning - to rain
Korean Natural Farming (KNF) takes advantage of indigenous microorganisms (IMO) (bacteria, fungi, nematodes and protozoa) to produce fertile soils that yield high output without the use of herbicides or pesticides.[1] A result is improvement in soil health, improving loaminess, tilth and structure, and attracting large numbers of earthworms. KNF also enables odor-free hog and poultry farming without the need to dispose of effluent. This practice has spread to over 30 countries, and is used by individuals and commercial farms.[2]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_natural_farming
Cho, together with his son, Cho Yongsang [or Yongsang Cho], has since held seminars in various countries of Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Europe. [5] [6] As of 2014, they have trained over 18,000 people at the Janong Natural Farming Institute.
It's fairly new to the West but seems to get good results.
Stumbled across a book that the son, Yongsang Cho wrote on his updated method called JADAM. 341 pageshttps://lafarrucanews.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/youngsang-cho-jadam-organic-farming_-the-way-to-ultra-low-cost-agriculture-jadam-2016-1.pdf
The Dunstan Chestnut trees that I bought last summer arrived on Thursday. I unpacked them and stuck them in the greenhouse until the ground settles up a bit. I've never had good results from trees that were planted in the mud so I'm going to wait for the mud to go away before planting these. I forgot to order the grow tubes ahead of time, so I couldn't plant them now anyway, not unless I wanted the varmints to eat them. So it's no big deal to wait until the grow tubes arrive.
Went on a woods stomp Saturday morning. Found soil temps still below 50° in the two spots that I checked. Zero morels. Went to work in the garden after I got home from that. Got the cucumber fence up on the morning shade east side, and got the pole bean arbor installed on the sunny west side. Things were just dry enough to scratch up a couple spots to stick some seeds in the dirt - beets, lettuce mix, kale, and radishes. It might be on the cool side yet to get good germination from the beets. If those don't come good I'll replant in a couple weeks. The rest should take off no problem.
Come fall I'm planning to cover the panel frames with plastic sheeting and turn them into a low tunnel. I'm determined to have fresh greens all winter long, and I think doing that would improve my chances of success. If nothing else I wouldn't have to pick kale through a foot of snow.
Well, the garden is apparently being put on hold for the next couple weeks.
We are expecting a significant storm tomorrow here in the northeast and according to Joe Bastardi, he’s expecting a colder than average May. He says we are not past the last frost date by any means.
It’s in his Saturday Summary here…..
Might be list pingworthy.
There's a fairly new method called biosolarization that sounds interesting.
Biosolarization combines solarization with anaerobic soil disinfestation (ASD). ASD creates temporary anaerobic conditions in the soil that encourage anaerobic microorganisms that break down available carbon sources, producing organic acids, aldehydes, alcohols, ammonia, metal ions, and volatile organic compounds that are toxic or suppressive to soil pests and diseases
https://attra.ncat.org/htmlpub/soil-solarization-and-biosolarization/
Advantages of biosolarization over regular solarization:
The time needed for biosolarization is five to nine days in order to accumulate volatile fatty acids to inactivate weed seeds and soilborne plant diseases
All have to be done in summer but the biosolarization can be done in slightly cooler locations than solarization. Good for prepping a spot in Summer where you want to grow stuff that Fall or the following year after a fall/winter cover crop of legumes.
