Gardening 2024

[Chris 3,379]

While mowing again today I took a look and we have both peaches and apples coming in. We need some rain though; while planting the two berry plants the ground was awful dry. And the creek is kinda low already. I'd really like to be able to press cider again this year, man that last batch was delicious!

Things are sprouting in the garden and in the pollinator plot I see lots of little seedlings popping up. Some of them are weeds I'm sure, but at this stage who the hell knows. I'm already thinking of getting some more seed and sowing it this Fall just to beef things up over there next year. We'll see. I still have a bag of milkweed seed in the freezer that needs to go to ground. 

Speaking of milkweed, I seem to have a patch of it coming up just across the walking path form the pollinator garden. So I mowed all around it to keep the Japanese knotweed at bat and give it a chance to flourish. Every bit helps. 

[Hal 567]

32 minutes ago, Chris said:

I'd really like to be able to press cider again this year, man that last batch was delicious!

Might be small batches but the press stands ready and I got new press bags the last time . And yep some rain would be welcome, watering the bug and bird plot even with the sprayer and four wheeler is downright tedious! 

[Chris 3,379]

It's not much to see yet, but there's a lot of stuff sprouting.

There's some weed plants in there as well, but I expected that to happen. I'm really hoping for some good, soaking rain to give these sprouts a boost. 

[Hal 567]

Hey , I did my rain dance this AM , but of course on second thought maybe not such a good idea lol! 

[Chris 3,379]

I don’t have any scientific data to back this up, but I’m fairly certain I produced more water at 4am than the skies did last night.

[Chris 3,379]

The skies are making up for it right now. I think I heard two sighs, one from me and one from the earth.

[Chris 3,379]

All sorts of weird looking sprouts coming up now:

[Chris 3,379]

I also cut some Romaine lettuce for dinner, along with some mint to start drying:

That lettuce is "second cut", meaning it grew here entirely, not at the nursery. With the way the weather is, I should be able to get at least one more before it gets too hot. Plus I have a whole other two rows of it to cut. 

[Chris 3,379]

Things are looking promising so far. 

Apples:

Peaches:

Garden:

[Hal 567]

10 minutes ago, Chris said:

Things are looking promising so far. 

Apples:

Peaches:

Garden:

Very nice … you suck LOL 😂. I have declared open warfare on woodchucks in the hedgerow. They clipped three of my butternut plants ! Then tonight while working on the beds i broke one of my cucumber stems … can’t seem to win ! No more guitar noodling on the back - back , bringing out the big guns … the banjo , that should do the trick ! 

[Hal 567]

The orchard is looking promising this year with the Galas being most productive. And the Deer Repellent has been doing its job so I decided to take a pic of a nice young Gala that the damn birds will get before I do ! 
 

[Chris 3,379]

A few shots from the pollinator project:

The Monarch butterfly plot:

Closeup of some of the plant varieties:

I'm pretty happy with how it's coming overall. Could use a good rain right about now:

[Chris 3,379]

Among other things I got done yesterday, I finally got a grape plant in the ground. The rain we had yesterday and what should be coming today will do EVERYTHING a wolrd of good, because that soil was dry several inches down. 

[Hal 567]

I spent most of the morning fencing in the lower bed where my climbing cucumbers reside as the Wife  saw two woodchucks checking them out … more about those critters later ! 
Hilling the potatoes was an experience in itself as I use an old ( 1966 old ) Sears garden tractor and the implements need to be dialed in which is a monkey puzzle for each project . Hilling and cultivating complete time to cool off and entertain the neighbors lol . 
So , yeah woodchucks… had 5 of them last week out in the hedgerow by the pollinator patch and the garden so as posted I got a woodchuck deterrent. Right , so in the meantime I threw a tantrum or as my old man would say “ threw my ass “ by using my walking stick as a weed whacker , Sumacs , berry bushes , anything green and between me and those damn “ timber charlies “ was down and now brown! Some of those critters moved on ( under the neighbors wood shop apparently) lol . Or more the case they got the hell out of Dodge  cuz of the raging old fart with a walking stick … and yes I felt better afterwards lol 😆 

[Hal 567]

Well great , just freaking great … 

I lost one of my best Dwarf Apple trees to the wind last night and it was very promising as it was loaded with Sweet Sixteen apples . Why couldn’t it have been on of the others that were difficult to get a good vase shaping , no it had to be one of my favorites! . I believe thats one reason I don’t like grafted to rootstock trees as that is always a weak spot . Oh well watcha gonna do … 

[Chris 3,379]

I'm starting to see some flowers blossoming in the wildflower plot and in the Monarch plot, there is definitely milkweed coming up. Additionally I believe some of the milkweed seeds I planted have begun to sprout, so apparently the time in the freezer worked.

[Chris 3,379]

The most recent lettuce harvest:

Looks like we’re eating salad for a while!

[Ann 463]

12 minutes ago, Chris said:

The most recent lettuce harvest:

Looks like we’re eating salad for a while!

You could use some of that in a light summer soup like you would add kale or spinach.  Ask #1 son to try using some of this for making beans and greens.

[Chris 3,379]

More pics from the wildflower/pollinator project ( if anyone cares LOL ) :

We’re starting to see some blossoms:

And things are looking good in the Monarch plot:

 

There’s going to be ample milkweed for sure.

Across the creek I came upon a lot of wild Scarlet Bee Balm:

I had to mow through some of it, it was right on the trail, but thankfully there’s enough on the sides as well. I’ll be watching and collecting seeds to plant.

 

[Chris 3,379]

It was time to pull at least half of the lettuce, so I was left with a big empty space in the garden bed. I decided to fill it with basil, and popped over to Banfield Baker for some. It was pretty leggy, so I did some pruning before planting it and the cuttings are now drying. You can never have too much basil! 

While I was there I looked to see what they had for grape plants, and they had two called "Tomchord" or something like that. But I decided to pass on them. I'll find some and get them in the ground with the one I have planted, if not this year, then next. 

[Hal 567]

I needed to start working in the orchard as the apples are weighing down the branches making mowing difficult. Hit around the bases with the trimmer ( the heavy duty one ) and tomorrow will be making limb crutches so the branches don’t snap from the weight of the apples.. After then it’s spraying deer repellent time again , expensive in a concentrated form but worth every penny. 
The other gardens are goin gangbusters with the rain we finally got and with just a bit of triple ten fertilizer things are popping , pics next post .

[Ars76 142]

It's looking great!! ❤️❤️

[Chris 3,379]

Here's a couple shots from this morning. And up closer 😉

[Hal 567]

9 hours ago, Ars76 said:

It's looking great!! ❤️❤️

Sure is !! 

[Hal 567]

Went with something different, for me that is , for planting cucumbers this year I really like it . Vertically grown they take less space and the end product is less seedy cukes . Anyone else grow them vertically?