Garden Planting and Harvesting

Gardening and Household tips. Good food. The Lighter side...

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Post by Fan » 05-29-2015 04:16 PM

Diogenes wrote: Fan,

Yiu know I gave up on that as well when I read Ruth Stouts book and ever since then I direct compost. Like you I cook a lot so I have an old Volrath tall pot on my butcher block island and throw all the scraps on there. When it is full indid a hole and in goes the scraps and even the cardboard egg cartons broken up.


Pretty interesting idea... you don't have varmints trying to dig it up?
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Post by Diogenes » 05-29-2015 10:25 PM

Fan wrote: Pretty interesting idea... you don't have varmints trying to dig it up?


Interesting you say that- the holes are dug deep enough so that we don’t encounter that. Also I would bring in Hay and then lay that down over the beds. I haven’t done that in a while, but again if the holes are deep enough, the varmints don’t seem to bother it.

I think you would enjoy Ruth’s book - her brother was the mystery writer Rex Stout. Ruth was an interesting woman and quite hardy. She called her way of composting the lazy man’s method of composting. For years I tried to traditional method and yes I got compost but found it much more work as compared to simply directly depositing the scraps in to the beds.

I do this in the desert as well and now where there was only sand have beautiful soil and earthworms.
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Post by Cherry Kelly » 06-01-2015 09:46 AM

Rotating crops helps too ya know - even in gardens. "But those perennial flowers - well they just need some compost added above ground as you can't dig down lose enough or you could harm roots."

Heard that on a garden radio show - and said - ya no kidding. So how were they doing this -- soaking those scraps and using the water. OK..

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Post by Fan » 06-01-2015 09:48 AM

what I really need is a worm box for the long winters, but I have been banned from doing this inside the house :)
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Post by Doka » 06-01-2015 10:26 AM

Worms do have a "particular scent" after all it is worm poop that gives us that wonderful soil to work in. :cool:
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Post by LeslieV » 06-01-2015 10:37 AM

Good old worm poop, best thing for the garden. :)

Still have many beds too wet to work so it will be another week until I can get much done.

Farmers reporting about 50% of crops lost due to the heavy rain or hail we have had so they hope to get a crop in over the next couple weeks and if not then plant a cover crop to till in for next year.

What I do have in such as tomatoes and some peppers are doing fine and I notice some of the corn in with the peas is starting to come up along with a few squash seeds that seem to have planted themselves in the pea patch.

Big job has been mowing and trimming and weed whacking to try to get ahead of all the rapid growth.

Only good thing is the tall grass will make a nice mulch for the garden beds when it dries out a little.

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Post by Cherry Kelly » 06-02-2015 09:46 AM

Ahh -- had an old old fridge -- years ago - with a couple of those large deep type drawers -- filled with worms and buss bedding. Worked like a charm!

----
Still wet and cloudy and windy -- am hoping sun does come out this afternoon so I can get out and do a bit with the runaway grass...

---

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Post by Cherry Kelly » 06-15-2015 10:43 AM

Few warm days made the peppers happy! growing nicely.

tomatoes forming, green beans, peas and a few peppers on the plants taken outside and growing. Corn will be knee high soon (early)

flowers blooming and growing

now if the lawn dries so it can be mowed again....

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Post by Fan » 06-15-2015 11:35 AM

yes my pumpkins bloomed today for the first time :)
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Post by LeslieV » 06-15-2015 11:52 AM

You're all way ahead of me. Just getting flowers on tomatoes and a few small ones are forming, saw the first yellow squash flower this morning. Everything else is still trying to figure out the weather.

We get a nice day or two then back into cool and rain. Saturday and Sunday were nice and now on Monday it is cool again and the storms are to be severe with heavy rain and hail.

Way behind on everything now except the cool weather plants. I am getting a good share of salad greens, onions and radish. Cucumbers are still thinking about it so maybe they will get going in a few more days. I planted them on the east side of the house where there is usually good sun for a few hours before the storms, guess I'll see if that idea works.

We're mowing and trimming like crazy now as the grass is more like a jungle. Got to get it tamed to make sure any damp spots are dry so the mosquitoes don't hatch.

I can't get the grasshopper bait down as I need at least 3-days with no rain so they eat it and we seem to only get two days at best.

Back out to mowing and trimming, glad we only do 2-acres worth and keep the rest wild.

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Post by Fan » 06-15-2015 12:58 PM

we had a beautiful weekend after a week of solid rain and now Monday it is back to cloudy skies and rain.

Planted all sorts of decorative stuff, lots of cedars, butterfly bushes, honeysuckle, something called rhamnus, etc...

Also put in 2 blueberry bushes and a saskatoonberry bush.

I spent yesterday moving a large fallen maple that had been cut into huge logs. I must have lifted at least a ton of wood manually. Chainsawed up all the big branches and had a fire all afternoon burning the crap that fell everywhere.
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Post by Fan » 06-15-2015 12:59 PM

...and at some point I expect I may be able to just enjoy the backyard. I figure around 2033 it should be ready.
The heartbreaking necessity of lying about reality and the heartbreaking impossibility of lying about it.

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Post by Doka » 06-15-2015 06:54 PM

Oh how I wish we had some of that moisture you guys seem to have too much of! It is about 90* here, with 12% humidity , then the winds come up, so far no major fires. I did have my 1st tomatoe though. And I dug my garlic a bit early, but it is fine, sure doesn't take much to get it cured. I do feel like all the moisture is being sucked out of me, all I need is a camel!
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Post by LeslieV » 06-16-2015 08:28 AM

Doka, if I could send this to you I sure would. Joke here is we have now moved to Seattle with all the rain and clouds.

This Tuesday morning it is windy up to around 20MPH from the SE so we're seeing the lead edge of the storm system coming in from the Gulf although it is to turn east and not head this way, guess we will see.

We are to have more rain today and tonight then it tapers off and it looks like from Thursday on we dry out into the weekend so I can get the hopper bait down. About time as it is near expiration and I hate to loose that money.

With luck I may get a little more mowing and trimming done today before rain moves in.

Going out to harvest some salad for lunch and dinner, at least that is growing in the crazy weather.

We're to get more hail so the netting is in place rolled up on top of the hoops ready to be dropped this afternoon before the storms.

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Post by Cherry Kelly » 06-16-2015 09:35 AM

OH ya - drippy rain here. Mon afternoon in about 2 hours -- 1/2" of rain followed a bit later by drizzly stuff that just kept on during rush hour traffic. Am so tired of this old road used as a major rush hour drive (KS>MO and v/v).

Mowing half done before all the rain.
Got windy the rest of the night and dried enough to finish mowing - then ohoh -yup more drippy drip rain.

AM SOOOOO glad I have weed/water paper between garden rows or I'd never be able to keep up with weeds and grasses.

Leaf lettuce here just keeps on keeping on and onion bulbs growing to where am giving serious thoughts to hanging some to dry this year. pulled one out to cut for salad and oops was over two inches diameter. (from supposedly a table onion?) okkk

Hopefully later this week we will get more sunny days.

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