Gardening 2021

[gungirl65]

I'm gardening on a much smaller and realistic scale this year. I'm going mostly with raised beds instead of planters. My yard is mostly clay and not fit for planting.

I picked up organic dirt at Orscheln's. Their plants all looked too sad to take a chance on.

Luckily Meijer's had a pretty decent selection of plants.

I picked up a pepper plant, a couple of tomato plants, a six pack of kale, some strawberries, and some wheatgrass.

I've got all of that planted so now I'll see what else I can find. I'd like to pick up a couple pumpkin & cucumber plants.

The pumpkin and cucumber raised bed still needs weeded and perhaps even expanded to account for the shoots that go over the edge into the yard.

The raised bed herb gardens from last year seem to be doing quite well. It looks like I only lost rosemary and cilantro.

I've replanted some of my volunteer romaine lettuce into one of those five tier planters. That's where I planted the strawberries too. I still have some open slots so I'll have to see what other kinds of fun salad like things I can put there.

Lowe's usually has decent plants. I haven't been out there yet to see if theirs survived the frost.

On my days off I like to work in the yard/garden for an hour or so when I take the dogs out first thing in the morning. It's a nice way to start the day.

 

[NKBJ]

Yardlongs are replanted due to the last arctic blast. Scarlet runners are reaching for the trellis.
Chilies, cilantro, tomatoes, potatoes, zucs and yellow squash are planted or transplanted. Wife has several herbs going. The deer & bunny proof flower garden is a hit!


Tried out one of the LED grow lights this year; made things more spindly than I'm used to seeing with grow lights. Some just too spindly. Going to toss them and plant seed.

 

[Virch]

I always put buying one of these off as pricey. Ended up using someone else's and had to get one. So far so good...

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Hori-Hori's are amazing gardening tools. I wouldn't garden without one.

 

[Jaybird1980]

I always put buying one of these off as pricey. Ended up using someone else's and had to get one. So far so good...

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Sure could have used one of these the past few days

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

They look like the same one's I remember seeing as a kid? I remember seeing one eat a captured bee once.

Bumble bees seem to be doing most of the pollinating here? They are the most of what I see.

Me too. Anyways, I wouldn't want it to be said that I treated an Asian mantid differently than an American mantid.

 

[bwframe]

Get off of my asparagus!

 

[Expat]

I haven't seen any locusts here yet.

 

[Jaybird1980]

Something's eating my cauliflower.
Not sure what it is though.

 

[Pepi]

Trying 'Worm Casting' this year on my plants

 

[Jaybird1980]

Trying 'Worm Casting' this year on my plants

It works good, I use it in my potted plants. To expensive to use on everything

 

[Leadeye]

The gardener makes sure that the vegetables and berries are surrounded with beauty. I can't eat them, but the do look nice and smell good.

 

[spencer rifle]

I haven't seen any locusts here yet.

I suppose you mean cicadas. Locusts are grasshoppers. We just started seeing them in Allen County in the last few days.

Peas are blooming, pumpkins, peppers, okra, sweet potatoes, red and gold potatoes, squash of several kinds, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kale, basil, cucumbers, sweet corn, watermelon, marigolds and cauliflower are all in the ground. Spinach and lettuce doing well.
Made new trellises and tomato cages out of concrete reinforcing mesh. Difficult to work with but they should last for years.

 

[Expat]

I suppose you mean cicadas. Locusts are grasshoppers.

I know what they are officially called. People called them the 17 yr locust as long as I can remember.

 

[NKBJ]

Night before last I was tired and didn't close the man wide gate into the veggie garden. Dumb. A deer went in and devoured some tomatoes and bit off a grape branch. Outside of the protected area it laid waste to some volunteer potato plants from last year in the compost pile and some sunchokes.

Made me oh so happy to have constructed the bambi proof flower garden for the better 2/3's.


Checked the lumber supply this morning. Need some more stuff to make a self closing gate.

 

[spencer rifle]

I know what they are officially called. People called them the 17 yr locust as long as I can remember.

I remember that also growing up. But it's just as easy to be right...

 

[Expat]

Night before last I was tired and didn't close the man wide gate into the veggie garden. Dumb. A deer went in and devoured some tomatoes and bit off a grape branch. Outside of the protected area it laid waste to some volunteer potato plants from last year in the compost pile and some sunchokes.

Made me oh so happy to have constructed the bambi proof flower garden for the better 2/3's.


Checked the lumber supply this morning. Need some more stuff to make a self closing gate.

I don't get a lot of deer activity here. But when they show up, they just jump my fence.

 

[NKBJ]

Expat, I think I've got a handle on the bambis.
Last year was the test of an idea on how to keep them out with only a short fence; that if they don't see a safe place to land they won't jump in. It worked. Now the flower garden has no visitors. And if I do my part and don't leave the veggie garden open it will be OK too.

 

[bwframe]

 

[bwframe]

I have not been bit yet, but have seen some of those striped wing flies (deer flies?) landed in areas on the back porch. Flies of other sorts also have been sneaking in the back door also. I went ahead and hung the three fly traps, two at the back of the garden and one above the compost operation.

I was blessed to catch some crappie a couple days ago and the guts make pretty good stink bait for the fly traps. Especially since the remaining fish parts end up in the compost after processing anyway.

These traps are 40 to 80 yards downwind of the house. They don't completely eliminate flies from the house, but the rotten smell seems to pull some. At the very least, I feel really good seeing the qt jars of dead flies.

Hate to jinks myself, but don't seem to get bit as much by the biters when the traps are up.

 

[jerrob]

Trying 'Worm Casting' this year on my plants

Just before closing up a couple of my raised beds late last fall, I added about 2" of partially composted rabbit manure, topped it with a mulch and covered top with landscape cloth, just to see what would happen.
I just transplanted squash, cucumbers, cantaloupe and peppers into those raised beds and I was pleasantly surprised to say the least.
The rabbit manure was all but gone and replaced with a ton (figuratively) of worm castings. Every scoop of my hand held shovel produced multiple worms, so I went with hand digging holes for the rest.
I have used store bought castings and some from a worm farm I had a few years back, had great results from both. The sheer quantity of castings in the raised beds have me hopeful for this year's harvest.