What did you do in your garden today?

[Esther Knapicius]

hope over the next few days, there is no snow and its dry, have got to rake and burn some leaves again.

 

[alp]

View attachment 30617 I will dump 1,000 worms in it once the mulch is down and then it will rest till March. A year ago this bed was orange clay. After loads of cow and horse manure, a trailer load of peat moss, two loads of saw dust and every bit of compost I could get my hands on, it is starting to resemble soil. Now I will start working in the green house.

Whoa! Did you buy the worms.. I'm amazed at the scale of things..

 

[alp]

Zigs, at this time of year we gardeners take what we can get. I"m glad your salsify is budding.
We are down to harvesting broccoli and spinach. We may have another cutting of lettuce, but that's pretty iffy.
I added to the compost pile (kitchen scraps) and looked to see if there were any roses to cut and bring in. Judging from the buds, we may have a rose bouquet on our Christmas dinner table.

have no idea of what salsfy is! Will google when I have time.

 

[Silentrunning]

Whoa! Did you buy the worms.. I'm amazed at the scale of things..

I will get them locally. We have a guy here in N.C. that sells crickets and worms to bait shops and I will get them from him. I also have bought worms on line with excellent results. Earthworms don't seem to be too plentiful in a clay soil.

 

[alp]

That sounds serious. I wish I weren't so penny pinching. Even my wormery was a victim of my meanness. I got the worms from my own compost. I googled it and they looked similar.

Today I have been out 2 hours before lunch and 1 and a half hours after lunch. Got rid of a lot of stagnant water and trimmed some of the dead branches. I was told not to get rid of all the dead branches as they provided a bit of insulation to the plants during severe cold.

 

[CanadianLori]

Only knocked the snow off my solar panels. Got the led lights in the greenhouse set to chritmas colours and need the batteries to charge.

 

[alp]

I have 2 sets of Solar LED lights and they are fully charged up and they were £2.99 each for nearly 200 LED tiny lights. Son keeps saying that he needs to save the charge.. I must have them on on Christmas Day. It's getting absurd.

 

[CanadianLori]

My batteries might be a little different than yours @alp.

Mine are 12v 35ah deep cycle units. I have 4 of them. One to power each of the smaller greenhouses and 2 for the one that's a bit bigger.

Guess I'll turn on the timere to manual and test all the lights... it has been rather cloudy lately...

 

[marlingardener]

I prepped two raised beds for onions--got rid of the weeds, added some compost, and raked the beds over. Our local hardware store has onion sets, and I'll be picking up red, yellow, and white onion sets next week to plant.
I checked the broccoli plants and found they had survived the recent cold snap. In fact, they have side shoots starting!

 

[Colin]

Hi,
Well done Marlingardener; you've done a lot more than I have.

No Blackie; no Gale today in fact brilliant sunshine but very cold. I've just enjoyed a potter around up the mountain collecting lots of roots I've dug out and a bit of a general tidy but nothing too serious. In the shed I looked at the two plug trays one planted with french lavender the other with assorted cuttings; I was rather too keen to get into gardening with these two trays and the bitterly cold weather has beaten me with no heating in the shed. The lavender did get off to a good start with seedlings popping through to delight me but I've killed them with kindness watering too freely plus of course now the very cold weather too has knocked them back; they were very stringy and weak so I've just spread the lot on the garden as I have with the cuttings that show no sign of rooting so the shed is clear. The Pachysandra cuttings however potted in the cold frame still appear in decent condition so my fingers are crossed with these.

The frost has damaged a few of the potted shrubs I planted in the garden a couple of months ago but I think these might survive; a number of the daffodils I planted are now pushing through but usually our daffodils end up being snowed upon.

I'm learning and in future I'll only sow seeds and take cuttings in springtime but I've lost little whilst gaining a lot of experience so I'm happy.

The top of the garden still remains hard with frost.

Kind regards, Colin

 

[Esther Knapicius]

Speaking of frost damage. Funny, I have hardy geraniums. in ground, and no they are not damaged. BUT a few years ago on a whim I put one in a hanging basket, and only that brown stuff protects it from the winds as it hangs freely down in a garden area. Every year it comes back stronger than ever in the hanging thing, it has even pushed through the protective brown straw stuff. So swinging it does in this 10 degrees, down in my valley garden. Its just amazing .

 

[DirtMechanic]

Finally got the last of the leaves into the garden and fired up the tiller. @Colin that is a nice looking machine! There was a little frozen ground but I had it set at 2 inches so it did not jump too badly. Now to keep tilling and freezing those nasty nematodes. The planting clock has started. Impatien seeds are out of the seed box and I am collecting the starter pans out of the shed for sterilizing.

 

[Colin]

Hi,

Thanks DirtMechanic; I'm looking forward to using the new rotavator for the first time but this could yet be months away given our dire climate; I've not even run the machine because it's pointless filling it with oil and fuel yet. If the ground isn't frozen then it's wet and sticky making walking up the steep garden a challenge let alone trying to balance and drag the rotavator around but I like a challenge; the top of the garden is more level and it's this area the rotavator will come into its own.

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day but perishingly cold; today is back to the usual black hole and Blackie so I'm spending time planning for when I can get into the garden. I was making rapid progress in spite of soakings from Blackie and being blown around by Gale but now it's much too cold to be up the mountain. The picture below shows some of the digging I've been doing; I'm unsure if I will be able to use the rotavator here due to the steepness but out of sight at the top of the garden I dug a big area over and the rotavator will be very useful there. The corner of the extension gives an indication as to the steepness of the garden. If only it was dry and warm outside I could really enjoy myself being so full of enthusiasm to get stuck into the gardens.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[DirtMechanic]

To add insult to their injury I sprayed Huma gro Pro Max on the garden and some of the beds and around the mailbox. I will try to be consistent all season with hopes that it knocks out nematodes and deseases as advertising. It has a strong smell and its beat to change clothes and wash. I see why thyme is used as a spice because a little goes a very long way and it just clings to you. Still its organic so hopefully no need for harsher chemistry later in the season and I will deal with the smell in trade for a safer garden.

 

[alp]

@DirtMechanic If it smells like walking into a pizza restaurant, it should be fine!

I feel like putting some slug pellets round my snowdrops. I bought one of of each kind as they are very expensive and the only flower came up. The blessed slug/snail attacked the flower and left a big hole in one of the petals..