What did you do in your garden today?

[Meadowlark]

Thats an old belief all threw the Appalachian mountains also .
Me personally, I can't really taste no difference in sweetness after frost hits, but then again, I love turnips anytime and tend to gobble them down pretty fast.

Do you like them raw? I peel, slice, salt and "gobble" 'em down 

They make a great snack which is much better health wise than processed chips...especially if they are grown in nutrient dense soil.

 

[Heirloom farmer1969]

With temps falling into the mid-twenties (F) here every evening some might say gardening is finished for the season ...the Turnips ignore that kind of talk and produce wonderful food all winter long here. Today's harvest will be repeated many, many times before spring.

Man, what I would give for a few of them. I love the smell and taste of freshly pulled turnips and a salt shaker in my hand. I've been replacing all my electric fencing since early fall and the deer totally destroyed my whole mustard, Kale and turnips. Used to be around here everybody grew them but unfortunately, most of them have passed away and if you don't grow your own or if you have a bad crop like me this year, you're out of luck. Meadowlark, you're lucky I don't live anywhere near you cause id definitely be knocking on your door

 

[Oliver Buckle]

It's still freezing, so the snow hasn't melted.

There was just one job to do....

View attachment 106489

Tough North of Watford, innit.
There is a flock of tits, various species, that visit ours every morning, whizzing back and forth. There are three feeders, seed, fat balls, and peanuts, and there can be two or three birds on each. Robin comes along on the ground and picks up what they drop.
Chopped a bit of wood, and planted a couple of beans in some of the manure I collected, just in case, it certainly does not have enough weed killer in it to do for nettles and buttercups, but better safe than sorry I guess. After yesterday I didn't want to overdo it, eight hours on a hard chair in A&E is enough to make me cautious.
Potatoes arrived today, A cheap collection, 1kg each of Charlotte, Desiree, King Edward, Maris Peer, and Pentland Javelin. Should do two of us nicely. The missus says it isn't worth growing them, they are so cheap, I reckon it's like tomatoes, they taste so much better, also commercial potato plants get sprayed about eight times between planting and harvest.

 

[Heirloom farmer1969]

Do you like them raw? I peel, slice, salt and "gobble" 'em down 

They make a great snack which is much better health wise than processed chips...especially if they are grown in nutrient dense soil.

Yes raw for me . My parents would cook them and I loved the smell of them cooking but didn't like the taste for some reason .

Do you like them raw? I peel, slice, salt and "gobble" 'em down 

They make a great snack which is much better health wise than processed chips...especially if they are grown in nutrient dense soil.

Raw definitely. My parents and older siblings loved them cooked. I can still smell them when my mother's was cooking fresh turnips, soon as I got off the school bus the smell would hit your nose from 500 feet away.

 

[Meadowlark]

I've noticed that also @Heirloom farmer1969 "used to be around here everybody grew them". I don't see hardly anyone here that grows them now. I don't understand why that is. They are a fabulous plant, easy to grow and wonderful to eat.

I often use them in my winter cover crop and this year have them with clover, daikon radish, and cereal rye. They are a little droopy right now at mid-twenty temp but will perk up as it warms.

Come on down and get you some!!

 

[Heirloom farmer1969]

I've noticed that also @Heirloom farmer1969 "used to be around here everybody grew them". I don't see hardly anyone here that grows them now. I don't understand why that is. They are a fabulous plant, easy to grow and wonderful to eat.

I often use them in my winter cover crop and this year have them with clover, daikon radish, and cereal rye. They are a little droopy right now at mid-twenty temp but will perk up as it warms.

Come on down and get you some!!

View attachment 106497

I noticed last winter once it got below 15deg mine didn't recover but that wasnt until after new years . They're definitely a cold hardy crop .

 

[shorifseo247]

I thought I'd start a new thread that can be continuously updated by everyone any day of the year. We have people on the forum from all around the world, so there is always somebody doing something with their garden. I think it would be nice to check in and see what our members have done. So whether you've been busy today or busy three months from today, here's the question... What did you do in your garden today?


I spent today preparing my vegetable garden. I had tons of weeds to pull. There's some kind of invasive grass that pops up in there, along with creeping charlie, so I pulled as much as I could find. I can start planting in about four weeks, so it's nice to have it all ready for the season! If I remember right, peas seeds can be planted before the average last frost date, so I might plant them soon. As some of you may know, growing fruits and vegetables is only a small hobby for me. I'm not into it as much as other forum members. I grow peas for my pond fish, as well as couple of tomato plants, pumpkins for decoration, strawberries, a blueberry bush, and a peach tree. I'm also trying lettuce this year. Tomorrow, I may add a few native plants to the outside edges of my vegetable garden so it looks a little more showy throughout the season.

Thanks

 

[Sean Regan]

It's -6c, sunny, with a clear blue sky.

I've put some boiling water in the big plastic saucer in the birdbath in the foreground, which was solid with ice.
No snow since Wednesday night.
I fed the birds and squirrels and taken the bags of peanuts, suet pellets and bird food that I bought yesterday, down to the shed. I went into the garden via the French windows, which let a lot of cold air into the lounge, as the padlock on the door of the side fence is frozen.

I'm glad I turned off the water supply to the "freezer room" basin and tap, the water heater and the tap on the side of the shed before the freeze. There will be water in the water heater, but it has a frost stat, so what's in there won't freeze.

 

[Sean Regan]

We're up to +4c today, the snow is beginning to melt, but it will take some time, as the ground is still frozen.
The birds and squirrels have been fed.
One of my concerns is our tall mimosa, I hope it has survived. The previous one we had didn't, a few years ago when we had just as cold weather, but that was in a tub.
This one is planted in the ground so should have a good root system.
The other concern is water.
The main feed to the taps, basin and water heater in the garden and garage, is off at the supply on the back wall of the kitchen and all the taps are open but obviously frozen.
The supply to the garage is via alkathene 25mm plastic pipe. There's a bit of insulated 15mm copper pipe in the "freezer room" in the back of the garage. The exterior supply to the tap on the side of the fence from there is "speed-fit" plastic pipe, so should be OK.
There is a further supply to my "leaky hose system" that runs along the length of the side bed and turns to feed plants and the bamboo along the back fence. But again, that is all plastic and should be OK.It's very rarely used.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Much the same as Sean really, snow melting a bit during the day, but still there, and cold as soon as the sun goes down.
Lots of birds, six long tail tits at once on the fat balls at one point; what look like deer tracks, and poo, across the front lawn, badger visiting under the bird feeder at night.
The water butt overflowed as the roof melted, but it is still frozen, waiting to see how the system connecting to those down the line held up, it's mainly plastic, and it is not pressurised like a mains pipe.
Most of my outside today was chopping wood and bringing it down the garden. I could use the wheelbarrow, but I do a bucket full at a time and walk down and back for each one, it's good gentle exercise and a change in activity.

 

[Sean Regan]

We're up to +5c today and the lawns now, are only half-covered with melting snow.

I checked the water supply to the garden and garage as the taps are no longer frozen.
Despite my best efforts, I still had a "burst" in the room in the back of the back of the garage. I say burst, but when I turned on the supply very low I could see water coming out of one of the pipes under the basin, so turned it off again.
The problem was with the horizontal pipe under it. Although it was insulated and all taps left open, the water in part of the system, if it expands before freezing, has nowhere to go. You can get a burst anywhere, when it's freezing, it just finds the weakest point.

Anyway, it wasn't a problem, I just turned it all off again and removed the damaged length of pipe, measured and cut a new length, (I'm always prepared) then with a couple of olives and a bit of ptf tape, it was all done and dusted with the insulation replaced, in ten minutes.

I checked the water heater, that's working fine as is the basin tap and the tap on the side of the shed. So everything is back to normal.

But I turned the supply off and opened all the taps, again, in case it freezes again.
No gardening of course, but there's been plenty of tennis, from Australia on Eurosport. They are 11 hours ahead of us, so there were several live matches to watch, as their night games don't finish until at least 1.00pm here.

 

[Meadowlark]

Curious @Sean Regan, is there much usage of the relatively new Pex pipe in UK?

I really love it as it expands making it resistant to freeze-cracking...haven't had a single instance of cracked pipe since I moved over to using Pex. It will never corrode or contaminate the water supply and water flows silently through it.

I converted my entire farmhouse over to Pex and have no regrets.

 

[Sean Regan]

What we use is called "speed-fit" No tools required other than something to cut it. We have it in our bathroom and kitchen. The copper pipework in the garage is 35 years old.

I used it to install two "pop-up," sprinklers in our small lawn twelve years ago.

This was the "dry run".. well.. wet... run to make sure they would work with just mains pressure.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Outflow from my butt was leaking where the pipe had popped out of a compression bend and water was coming off the snow on the roof, but the butts are still frozen solid. I pushed it back together and left it, nothing that can't wait until the water is liquid, and my hands don't instantly freeze I hope.
There is a bit across the patio, under the bedroom window, which is copper for the appearance, but the main part is blue plastic, mains water pipe buried under the grass, so should be fine.

 

[Sean Regan]

The snow has all gone. Temperature up to +8c. I've had an e-mail from my golf club that they'll have 10 holes open by mid-day. This will mean that by tomorrow morning, at least 125 holes will be open, so I'll be playing in the competition as it will be "on."
I've not touched a golf club, neither will have many, for a month. So it'll be interesting.

Nothing to do in the garden. I won't know for a few days whether the tall mimosa has survived.