The Joy of Gardening

[j9c]

Based on a few conversations at work, I think I need to mention these plants here for their stellar performance:

Tatume squash
Beloved in Mexico, this summer squash resists vine borers, has a buttery taste, loves the heat, and has replaced zucchini for me both because of its resilience and because it just tastes so good. Nice on the grill as well, just like crookneck and zucchini.

Roma green beans
They climb. They take the heat. They produce well as long as they get the requisite water (same as Provider, and Kentucky Wonder, etc.). They taste superior to the usual green beans. Larger, kinda flattish pods. I have to use the word “buttery” again. Yes: they are that good. If you love a good authentic minestrone, Romas need to be a part of the soup.

Aromatics in your highly-targeted veg patches
I had a “garlic” fence to keep out armadillos–I just bought a lot of cheap bulbs at the grocery, and planted a perimeter around most of the fenceline. Many basil starts get planted in with the tomatoes to try to fend off hornworm et al. I cut the bottoms (say, 2-3" long, roots and all) off of scallions from the grocery, and plant those around my kale starts. I have mint (doesn’t matter which kind) planted around my chard starts. I get pollinator support, I get a kind of covercropping over the soil to keep the sun off it, and I get to eat the… uh… companions. Plant companions.

Fencing project continues apace.
Saw a roadkill adult-size groundhog yesterday on my way back from work.
There was also one in April. Bodycount is up to 3 now. That’s barely a dent in their reproduction curve… “nature red in tooth and claw” and all that.

Not sure if the bunny family is still here or not. It would be a good idea to make sure they’re gone before we close the fence up. It’s a couple of rolls of this:

NEW Critterfence® 700 8 x 330 Poly Fence (Graduated Reinforced Bottom +...

We saved a few bucks getting the 8’ instead of the 10’ because we’re looking to run baling wire across the tops of the T-posts.

Pictures pending. The backyard looks a mess because everything is “in progress” which as we all know is shorthand for “gets done in short bursts, between all the more urgent stuff.”

[Docosc]

Man, groundhogs are a menace around here. I have, in the past, trapped, shot and tried to exclude them. As far as I can see, getting rid of one just puts up a “This space available” sign and another one moves in within weeks. Fencing them out if really tough because they tunnel so effectively. I have not found a solution. I will not use poisons, which I suspect would work, but… Currently I try to outproduce them, but that gets frustrating. I keep my tomatoes in cages and my potatoes on pots near the house. Raised beds seem to help some, making it less convenient for them to get comfortable. They do a pretty good job of cleaning up the windfall fruit in the orchard, but (honest to God) we have seen them up in the trees eating pears and apples. I have no answers.

[FGD135]

JASPER CARROTT - The Mole (Animated)

[gyrofrog]

@Docosc

Man, groundhogs are a menace around here. I have, in the past, trapped, shot and tried to exclude them

Groundhogs 2 - 0 Gyrofrog
(I have caught 2 squirrels, so far.)

[gyrofrog]

P.S.:

@Docosc

As far as I can see, getting rid of one just puts up a “This space available” sign and another one moves in within weeks

We have a couple of spaces (effectively, caves) beneath our concrete porch, where the ground underneath has eroded away between the walls? footings? that form the foundation. It’s like the groundhogs can sense that there’s an already-hollowed cavity there, & they just have to dig in a foot or so to get there - but not just them, we’ve had cats & foxes raise their litters under there (but they dont do much, if any, of the digging). I’ll put a big retaining wall brick over the newest hole (which works, right there), once the latest critter is gone, & then the groundhog will look for the next available soft spot (I keep thinking there can’t be much left).

[KeybillyJefe]

some of the cayenne peppers i picked today:

these are pretty hot, but quite tasty fresh. i chopped two into poke bowls last night and it really lit up the flavors! they are also a fair substitution for Thai chilies in dishes that call for them.

[mindysan33]

Very pretty!

[IronEdithKidd]

A metric measuring tape?!? Heretic!

Anyway. Lovely first picks, they’re always the largest fruit that we get up here.

[zfirphdn]

The picture looks like they’re so hot they scorched themselves!

[j9c]

Provisionally positioned black poly fencing, with 10’ T-posts, driven by hand (not a rented groovy machine), and yes we used a 4’ bubble level but some posts went in easier than others…

16’ x 24’ greenhouse framing going up, the cross members need to be installed, just in time to be a shade house for lettuces. The small shed in the background is at the edge of our property boundary and belongs to our neighbor the groundhog sniper:

Chard and lacinato kale with sage, unplanted Italian flatleaf parsley, lemon balm and the chocolate-mint-that-must-be-removed (it has a job to do at the base of our house foundation, smelling minty and driving the rodents off):

Ooopsies, the (stake-caged) Arkansas Black Spur Apple planted last year with cover-cropping purple vetch, red clover, et al) needs a cleaning… ok, maybe this weekend (gosh, vetch gets really tall here! must be the soil-rainfall thing):

We are reliably informed this is a butternut tree, and good luck to us getting any nuts bc the animals here are crazy for them:

This is a (North American) native black walnut, getting a glow-up because the native grapevine over the fence had jumped across and was climbing all the way up… I have plans for the many many uses of walnut hull powder, including dye, tincture, and gosh darn it just smells so lovely when fresh (if you find a fresh walnut hull and nut, scratch the green surface and tell me if you like the fragrance!):

Our home was apparently once an apple orchard and this is the very last soldier standing… not in good health, but we haven’t cut it down yet, mostly because we are wondering what cultivar it is and whether it’s worth grafting (saving); janky chicken coop from previous owners is being disassembled and harvested for parts:

A (stake-caged) Arapaho blackberry looking surprisingly robust after the crazy late freeze we had, was planted last year rather late, undoubtedly mining the nutrient plume from the adjacent compost bin (all Rosacea are heavy feeders, and this is one way I can get lazy and let Nature Take Its Course):

Before anyone on this thread gets all swoony, please know that our over the fence neighbor who rents the big ag field routinely sprays various pesticides, this year more than ever, and periodically, I get a big ol’ whiff of a drifting plume. Not ideal. It’s going to be a struggle to adhere to “organic” cultivation methods here with practices like that drifting our way. Ugh. The ag field is just behind the hedgerow in the old apple tree picture, in the background, behind Janky Roofless Chicken Coop; you can also see how our fencing parallels that hedgerow in the first picture here.

[Docosc]

@j9c

periodically, I get a big ol’ whiff of a drifting plume.

Common problem around here. The farmer who (formerly) owned the land behind us liked to spray round-up pretty routinely, and I lost several nice fruit trees to that. The current owner raises cattle and does not spray much, if any, as far as I have seen over the last several years. That all looks like it is comming along great! Very jealous of the greenhouse. That’s on my wish list.

[j9c]

@Docosc

Common problem around here. The farmer who (formerly) owned the land behind us liked to spray round-up pretty routinely, and I lost several nice fruit trees to that.

With any luck, the drifting will kill off our Norway Maples that volunteer inside the hedgerow. So far, the airborne and soilborne poisons have failed to take them out though. I am having very mixed feelings keeping those species specifically. On one hand, they are a sacrificial shield as they are girthy and starting to really get tall. On the other hand, as you well know, they are a bad decision to keep near our driveway.

If I could, I’d make the entire half-acre backyard a giant high-tunnel. I don’t have that kind of money. But it would keep our getting drifted to a minimum.

The repetitive “dream on” and the screaming here are very much applicable:

- YouTube

[mindysan33]

Finally got a couple of snaps of my little garden bed…

The first is the sundrop tomato…

And the husky tomato…

the potted potato plant…

And some strawberries…

[KeybillyJefe]

yay!
just noticed our first little plum tomato has appeared on the vine!
so excited to grow our own tomatoes for the very first time down here!

[mindysan33]

Okay guys… I was wondering… I have my chizza john, and we’re about to run out of chia seeds again… so, I thought I might try using some other seeds and see if I could make them work? I got a couple of different kinds of wild flowers, and thought maybe I could do that? These are small bags of the mixes of different kinds of flowers. I am unsure if it’ll work the same (soak the chizza john for a day, soak the seeds, which then will stick on the planter)…I suspect that if I put the wild flower mixes in water, it’ll be more… muddy? I guess I might be able to get that to stick?

Thoughts from the gardening crowd here on what I might try?

Chizza john…

[Grey_Devil]

Certain seeds will do well for short periods of time even without soil. One that comes to mind you could try is wheat grass, but you could try other seeds that are used for microgreens and you can harvest them to use in salads and food when ready.

Something else you might be able to make work that would be more long lived in the right conditions is moss.

[mindysan33]

Moss is an interesting idea!

I did find this, which is not technically a chia pet, but… seems like an interesting project…

How to Make an Upscale Chia Pet Alternative in Five Easy Steps or: ONE MAN’S...

[Grey_Devil]

To add, if you use other seeds you might need to prepare some kind of soil paste to schmear it to the terracotta, it could flake off but if you keep it ceran wrapped long enough for the seeds to sprout the roots of the seedlings should affix themselves to the terracotta.

[mindysan33]

Yeah, the soil paste is similar to what the woman in my post did to her make-shift chia pet thingie… She put moss on hers.

[Grey_Devil]

I’ve seen some cool moss projects, i think its worth a try and if the air is too dry you could always try putting the whole thing in some kind of decorative glass box or lantern. I bought a big one to use as a cheap greenhouse for plants that need the extra moisture if they’re struggling. My partner is currently trying to help an orchid of hers in it atm.