Weekly Garden Thread - February 4-10, 2023 [Winter Got You Down? Join a Plant Society Edition]

February 4, 2023 | Diana in WI/Greeneyes in Memoriam

[Alas Babylon!]

You could probably make something like this from produce department plastic trays...

I use something like this, by cutting off the lid and flipping it upside down.

They're free when you buy produce. Ask your friends and neighbors to save them for you!

[MomwithHope]

Looks good but we don’t grow strawberries. I just thought
those green supports looked good.

[Qiviut]

The only info I had was what he posted & I copied. Evidently, he has additional info coming out (video, blog) that will have more details & maybe answer your questions.

I get my eggs from my SIL next door & I know she gets her chicken feed at Tractor Supply - I haven’t paid attention to what exactly she’s feeding them. I’ll have to take a walk & check it out.

[Pollard]

I should have thought of that. I worked with sheet metal my whole life, cutting, bending etc.

[Pollard]

I never realized how low to the ground strawberries grew until I grew some. For home use, potted/hanging plants. For commercial or if you just have a lot plants, plastic mulch.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

That will certainly make it easier for the Chipmunks to take ONE bite out of EACH berry, then leave the rest for me!

It’s like a little ‘Chippy Dining Table,’ LOL! :)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

As with feeding any critter, free range is obviously the best choice, if you have the room to do so. I can see 'chicken tractors' getting more popular if feed problems continue.

[Fury]

Not sure what the strength of that wire is. Welded wire is the way to go.

Great-horned Owls can tear open most mesh with ease.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

There are lots of different designs for the Chicken Tractors; I though this one was cute, showing that even little girls can operate them.

Usually, they’re just out during the day, then back to the coop for protection at night.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

It was nearly 50 degrees here, yesterday. Back to ‘Snowmageddon’ today!

Temperature is relative:

35° above zero: New York landlords finally turn up the heat. People in Wisconsin have the last cookout before it gets cold.

20° above zero: People in Arizona all die. Wisconsin closes the windows.

0°: Californians fly away to Mexico. People in Wisconsin get out their winter coats.

10° below zero: Hollywood disintegrates. The Girl Scouts in Wisconsin are selling cookies door to door.

[Ellendra]

Thank you for the update.

Clearly I need to get back to my nutrition research!

[MomwithHope]

HaHa like I said I don’t gro strawberries. I did like the gutter pic you posted, although the birds might like those. Seems to me tubebender grew a lot of strawberries. Pinging him and hope to hear how he and Mrs. Bender are doing.

[Pollard]

37 here and my heat mat is on all the time and won't get past the low 70s in the chilly room even with the little mini-greenhouse closed up. I have some foil lined bubble wrap insulation under the mat and just put another piece over the tray like a tent to see if that helps.

Bought this to put up as a ceiling in my shed. Works well for reflecting that heat from the metal roof.

[Pollard]

Protect your garden from pests with chicken patrol tunnels.

Saw where some woman had done this in between the rows of her garden too.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I love that! I’ve also seen where you put chickens in your raised beds with a wire cover over them, and they do the ‘tilling’ for you in the spring.

Not as handy at tipping as pigs are, but any little hit helps! :)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

* tilling *

It’s COWS that you tip! ;)

[Pollard]

You can have at that whole pig tipping thing:)

I work the weekend plus Monday so peas get sewed indoors tomorrow.

[MomwithHope]

One thing that works great for ceiling insulation in a shed is egg cartons, staple the lid where you want it then close up the carton. Before our barn was built our goats were in a shed and we had the whole ceiling covered.

[MomwithHope]

We have a lot of coffee grounds in our compost. They basically help with drainage.

[MomwithHope]

I had a nice score yesterday. I needed a stalk of celery from the store and it being so close to spring I thought about sprouting it. I had a beautiful tall very green head harvested last year, my first try. So I looked over about a dozen stalks yesterday and was very surprised to find one with roots already. Bonus!