How Does Your Garden Grow??????

StonedGardener

Well-Known Member
I manager to dig 11 holes along my fence and get maters and cuke seeds in. Yes, @xtsho I let the starters I had go. Stayed frosty too long. LOL. Hate being wrong. But I guess I was clueless this spring.

Any suggestions on a light weight hang tool besides a pick axe for busting up my now concrete hard soil with our near drought of late? 3 hours to gig 11 18" x 12" holes is frustrating, ridiculous and discouraging.

TY all and get on them plants. Too hot too fast here. A big water bill is getting all going nicely now. And the only plants I messed with and got pictures of are my girls. 40 MPH gusts all day. Had to go mobile. Off to the nursery soon here. My boy used $50, 3 bags of my 301 potting soil, weed, in his flower bed. Will be healthy plants. Sadly I made 40 gallons of dirt for him at under $20. I'll have to exploit his regret and get some labor out of him. If I can get him out of bed. View attachment 4917470View attachment 4917471View attachment 4917472View attachment 4917474View attachment 4917476View attachment 4917477
I've used a masons hammer for decades to dig rock/clay soil.......many types, hope you got a big screen for that hardpan
 

StonedGardener

Well-Known Member
I manager to dig 11 holes along my fence and get maters and cuke seeds in. Yes, @xtsho I let the starters I had go. Stayed frosty too long. LOL. Hate being wrong. But I guess I was clueless this spring.

Any suggestions on a light weight hang tool besides a pick axe for busting up my now concrete hard soil with our near drought of late? 3 hours to gig 11 18" x 12" holes is frustrating, ridiculous and discouraging.

TY all and get on them plants. Too hot too fast here. A big water bill is getting all going nicely now. And the only plants I messed with and got pictures of are my girls. 40 MPH gusts all day. Had to go mobile. Off to the nursery soon here. My boy used $50, 3 bags of my 301 potting soil, weed, in his flower bed. Will be healthy plants. Sadly I made 40 gallons of dirt for him at under $20. I'll have to exploit his regret and get some labor out of him. If I can get him out of bed. View attachment 4917470View attachment 4917471View attachment 4917472View attachment 4917474View attachment 4917476View attachment 4917477
How deep ?
 

MICHI-CAN

Well-Known Member
I've used a masons hammer for decades to dig rock/clay soil.......many types, hope you got a big screen for that hardpan
Kid and I took turns with my homemade 18# wood maul. Splits wood faster and less back strain. Violently brutal still in dirt. I'll post it. Wood burners wood kill for one. LMAO.
 

Bareback

Well-Known Member
Are you gonna share a good receipe? Im growing this kind of pepper for first time, I wish i can make slice pepper garniture
It’s a pretty simple recipe , here’s what I do for rings .
Brine.
50% water 50% (5% acid) white vinegar, clove of garlic per jar , 2 pepper corns per jar , a little thyme, some pickling spices, a pinch of sugar, 1/4 tsp of canning salt . Bring to a boil then let to cool. You can add or take away spices to taste.

Jars.
Boil clean jars for 10 minutes to sanitize. 1/4 tsp of canning salt and 1/4 tsp of pickle crisp in each jar. Boil lids for 1 minute .

Determine how many jars and what size you will be working with. Make appropriate amount of brine, place one garlic clove from brine in each jar, place pepper corns from brine in each jar. Place prepared pepper in jars , pour brine over contents.
Follow standard hot water bath canning techniques to finish.

Or just YouTube it for a million ways to do it. Just be sure to use standard canning practices for all your canning…… check ball preserving book .
 

xtsho

Well-Known Member
The corn is coming up on the side of the house.



The peas have started producing. They got slowed by a couple 90 degree days. The ones on the side of the house didn't fare as well as the ones in the backyard. They would have done better but they don't like the heat. I can't control the weather though.



I have some overwintered kale going to seed in between the peas. The seeds will be good for sprouts to eat. The flowers also attract bees.



My tomatoes and peppers got a little stressed waiting to be planted. They were not looking very good but they greened up really fast and started growing rapidly. Next year I'm going to start them a couple weeks later. I say that every year but when the time comes I'm busy sowing seeds in early February. I planted basil and parsley around the edges.

I'm using the cheap crappy tomato cages for the bushier varieties and I stuck some PVC in the ground for the beefsteaks which I'll train to grow straight up. I did the same thing last year and it worked ok. I'll have to brace them once the plants get bigger and heavy from tomatoes. Next year I'll make some like @MICHI-CAN. I wasn't going to use the cages but the lady bought them for me and she asked why I didn't use them last year. I stuck them in the ground to make her happy. Her happiness is important to me. When she's not happy I can't be either. :mrgreen:

That mess in the back bed is some carrots, radishes, and turnips that overwintered and I'm letting go to seed. I have some lettuce and kale in there as well and just planted some bush beans where I could. The turnip and radish seeds will be good for sprouts. I'll mix them with the kale seeds after saving some for planting. The bees also like the flowers.



I'm anxiously waiting for the Tayberries to start ripening. It's going to be a wall of berries.

 

xtsho

Well-Known Member
I was toying with the idea of digging up some more grass but I decided not to. This is enough for the 2 of us. Plus the lady only eats a few things I grow. She's not like me where if it's a vegetable I'll eat it.



A view from the back of the yard. This is where I go to hide when I get in trouble.

 

MICHI-CAN

Well-Known Member
I spend a lot of time back there. :mrgreen:
I dig the lay out. About same sq footage here. My wife would kill me if I transfer any more sod. Wife also only eats corn, carrots, cukes and maters only. And loves showing off the greenery and wildlife to her friends. Strange we are the only house on the street with a few if not all the critters in our yard. I see 14 beautifully manicured lawns from my front window. All sterile and devoid of life beyond IV fed if not bought or mobile on its own.

I used those cheap 24" cages for drop and forget tomatoe grows. My soil and methods improved. Too big for that now. And going to stack two fence cages for towers of cucumbers. I could not get close enough to get a good picture of this. I thought a red squirrel as I have seen it a few times over the past couple years. Until it flew over me from the tree in my front yard to this one outback. I have flying squirrels. Nocturnal, so suprised. And a very long time I've seen one.

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injinji

Well-Known Member
Yesterday and today were good transplanting days. I got a lot done yesterday, but the plan was to get back to it today after I got in from the office. Big thunderstorms saw to it that that didn't happen.

Speaking of getting rid of weed. . . . .

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I pulled the grass and weeds out of the citrus and put the better looking ones in gallon pots. I ran out of pots, so I put the 10 I had in gallons into 3 gallon pots. Also did a couple three tomatoes.

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^^^^^ 2nd Firecracker bush I bought for the wife's b-day got transplanted too.
 

injinji

Well-Known Member
It was really hot yesterday. The sun chased me until under the house was the only shade. This was my soil mix setup. My citrus mix was 2 parts re-used tomato soil, 1 part each of mushroom compost, sungrow potting soil, and peat moss. The tomato mix was the same, just 2 parts mushroom composts.

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MICHI-CAN

Well-Known Member
It was really hot yesterday. The sun chased me until under the house was the only shade. This was my soil mix setup. My citrus mix was 2 parts re-used tomato soil, 1 part each of mushroom compost, sungrow potting soil, and peat moss. The tomato mix was the same, just 2 parts mushroom composts.

View attachment 4918521
TY. Too close to my mix. Fighting with 2 here. A midget bush and this 6' foot mess. 30-40 MPH winds made a pretzel out of her. Wired up and waiting for calmer days. 013.jpg
 
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