View Full Version : Gardening updates for April?
Not much going on in my garden. I did plant snow peas this morning. But it's been so consistently rainy that it's pretty much too wet out there for anything. I tried to dry out the soil for the snow peas.....not sure it will work.
If you try to work in even slightly wet soil, it turns into cement.
I did buy 2 more stock tanks. One is 6' long and is for Roma tomatoes in the garden. The 4' long one is in the back yard with the other 6' long stock tanks.
I've been focusing more on my water gardens.........cleaning them out, cleaning the pumps, trying to make a little waterfall in one, trying different sized tubes, etc. Have about 6 large tadpoles in there. I hope the snakes leave them alone.
Transplanted some of my Joe Pye weed to where it would get more sun. Joe Pye weed is probably one of the best plants to attract butterflies. My Dutchman's pipevines are coming back to life. I hope I have pipevine swallowtails butterflies this year.
Bought some onion sets and various lettuce/spinach/chard seed to plant soon.
So what are you up to in your gardens/yards?
catherine
4-19-15, 10:42am
Last year when we were raised bed newbies, we bought a Home Depot kit, which was like putting Lincoln Logs together--so easy! This year, DH built a raised bad, and it is ten time sturdier and half the price.
Yesterday I bought a bunch of seeds: green beans, arugula, lettuce, chard, radishes, cilantro, basil, cucumber--we're planting those today.
I have to also clean up my front yard flower garden. It's a mess, and the rabbits ate my tulips again.
For my birthday, BIL bought me onion sets and a blueberry bush, and DH bought me horseradish, so I have to plant those as well, but I think that will be next weekend's project.
Chicken lady
4-19-15, 10:44am
yesterday I finished planting the last raspberry canes for the year - still have one bed that needs to be cleaned out/cut back.
We also planted 60 trees - we cut deadwood for heat and try to replace the cut trees with quality natives, plus we are clearing the invasive honeysuckle and replacing with flowering native understory for beauty/erosion control a little more every year when the soil and water conservation district has their tree sale.
The first group of tomato seedlings needs to be potted up and I am trying to weed and prep garden beds on days it is dry enough. like you I should be planting but there is no point in mud.
I saw the first strawberry flowers this morning and the apple and cherry trees are gorgeous.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-v4w9C8trDFM/VTPh0l4Q1LI/AAAAAAAAPUA/2nOxygxMC0Q/s720/Awesomized.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-OX-klg7f6d8/VTPiH5LSRuI/AAAAAAAAPVA/g7WlgtEgZ1g/s720/Awesomized.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-5SrylxGwm7I/VTPicaAX5BI/AAAAAAAAPV4/5CioqT82Oo4/s720/Awesomized.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-udrNiKKt9Fo/VTPiQrF4TlI/AAAAAAAAPVY/-eBzAxImfHA/s720/Awesomized.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-WnfJPgYihEA/VTPhV1yLd2I/AAAAAAAAPSI/BM4-6rA9w7k/s720/Awesomized.jpg
bae, those are just the kind of pergolas I want. The ones I see available for purchase are not rustic enough. Did you make yours yourself?
Beautiful pics.
Those are hand-made from mostly-on-site materials over the years. We have a nearly infinite supply of great driftwood, if you are patient Just The Right Piece will wash up sooner or later.
catherine....be careful with the horseradish.......it really likes to spread!
I can't have tulips either. I planted a whole bunch of them one year, and I think the mice ate all the bulbs. So now I stick with just daffodils.....which everyone seems to leave alone.
My stock tanks (Behlen food grade poly tanks) are up on cement blocks, so I won't have to even lean over! :)
Chickenlady.......we struggle with japanese honeysuckle bushes that have taken over most of our 35 acres. The only thing we can do now is clear them from small areas that are important to us. It's a real bummer that they have taken over so aggressively.......but at least they provide shelter for animals. The man who originally owned this property (40 years ago) bought many honeysuckle bushes from the DNR and planted them. Had we known how bad they were, we would have pulled them all out when we first bought the place in l982. Now they are unstoppable. We probably have thousands of those bushes here. :(
And keep your eye on those raspberries.........The original owner planted a small group of them, and they are almost as numerous now as the honeysuckle...but grow very tiny berries.
Wow..........60 trees? Cool! What kinds did you plant? We've planted a bunch here, but have to protect them with fencing until they are pretty big because of the deer.
I planted 2 persimmons about 10 years ago, and now they are sending up tons of runners, which is good.
I try to plant pines/firs/spruces whenever I find smaller ones. The original owner planted several groves of black walnut trees, and now they are everywhere too. At least they're native! It's fun seeing what's growing up new each year (besides the invasives). haha
I would love to build a large fruit cage and grow some blackberries and blueberries. Its all so much fun!
Small garden in the UK ... We sold our old wooden patio furniture and bought new fake rattan (much, much nicer that it sounds) and a black and white damask outdoor rug. The Mr bought a new bbq, we replanted the wall round our patio so instead of trying unsuccessfully to grow herbs (now in pots) we have slabs to sit on with ground cover planting in between. Our next job is to move the raised beds we grow veg in and replace the water butts .... So far, much of this has been funded by selling off what we de cluttered from the garage.
Two projects today:
1) Moving my succulents that I overwintered inside to the deck so that they can soak in the rain tomorrow.
2) Building a new beehive. It's taking longer than expected and I'm missing a few pieces so it won't be finished today. But it has me outside enjoying the sunshine so that's a plus.
Not much happening on the veggie or flower gardening front just yet. Our snow finally melted last week.
Chicken lady
4-20-15, 8:03am
CathyA, the raspberries are fine - I put them along fences - on one side of the fence are goats, which keep everything nice and short as far outside of the fence as they can reach, and on the other side of the fence is a mowed area. If they spread across the mowed area, they will eventually hit another fence and more goats. I really don't care if what gets mowed between the fences is grass, raspberries, dandelions, or escaped mint, as long as we can mow it and walk on it. around here anything you don't tend will be an impenetrable tangle of wild blackberries, poison ivy, young maples and honeysuckle in three years. Without the goats and the brush hog on the tractor, I would probably give up.
We planted redbud, dogwood, linden, pecan, hazelnut, spruce, willow, and a yard ginko for dh. Osage orange, sycamore, black walnuts, maple, locust, sassafras, and oak plant themselves, along with a few cherry and cedar. All the ashes are dying from the emerald ash borer, so that is mostly what we will be burning for the next ten years.
I want goats! haha...........I've heard how great they are at keeping problem things at bay (and everything else too!). I've heard of people who "rent out" their goats to people who need help clearing areas.
Your assortment of trees sounds great! My DH has always wanted a gingko too! I still need to buy one, but am quickly running out of space...haha
For some strange reason, all the redbuds I've planted have died........and they are supposedly great to grow around here. We also have black locust growing all over the place.......which is good for keeping us in firewood for a long time.
Our ashes are slowly dying too, which is very unfortunate since they grow in great numbers around the property. I've been thinking about planting some sassafras too. I do have 1 linden, but man do the japanese beetles love to eat those leaves. Fortunately, the jap. beetles haven't been in great numbers here for a couple years.
Made the mistake of planting a Norway maple in the back yard long ago, and it makes millions of seeds that are sprouting everywhere. I have ignorantly/inadvertently caused some of my own problems with invasives around here.
As I've said before, I'm trying to accept that these invasives are here to stay, and find good in them..........if that's possible!
What area of the country do you live in, Chicken lady?
Chicken lady
4-20-15, 9:29am
southwest ohio.
I would never rent my goats out! they are mostly dairy girls and i worry about disease and their nutrition. Some of whatever goes into the goats eventually goes into me and my family.
I totally understand and agree Chicken lady.
Gardenarian
4-21-15, 12:35pm
Thanks for starting this thread!
Our new yard is pretty big, with one section that has deer fencing. I got a bunch of wood chips and compost and am making beds and paths and working out what to plant where. I hope to get one bed finished today and put in mesclun mix, arugula, peas, and chard (direct seed.)
New climate zone for me - it snowed last Wednesday and then was of 80 degrees for most of the weekend, so I'm going to have to do some experimenting. I've been going to the local garden club meetings and picking up a lot of tips there.
I'm still trying to identify some of the trees and shrubs in our yard.
It turns out we have three enormous lilacs, just coming into bloom now- what a nice surprise! And the fig tree outside my bedroom window is getting leafy.
Cutting the grass yesterday, I came upon some Morels. I'm taking them to a mushroom expert I met to make sure, but they certainly look like Morels to me. It seems odd to have them just growing out in the middle of what is more or less a meadow. We'll see.
I got a milkweed plant yesterday and am considering where to put it. I don't know how aggressive they are in this zone. I want to feed the Monarchs, but don't want them milkweed popping up all over the place.
Hi Gardenarian.........I had several morels pop up in our yard last year! Haven't seen them yet this year. Not having ever had morels before, I took them to our ag extension agent to make sure they were edible! DH still refused to eat them. hahaha
I'm in Indiana, so I'm not sure how milkweed grows in your neck of the woods, but I had problems with it popping up all over the place in my garden last year. They grew to about 9' tall! I think they really were sapping the nutrients out of the area.
But....they are very easy to pull out when they are little, so that probably won't be a problem for you, if it even happens. Those and Joe Pye Weed are the best for attracting the butterflies.
iris lilies
4-21-15, 6:55pm
Today I was pretty bummed that after 3 weeks of retirement, my gardens still look like crap. At this point about 60percent are weeded and 20 percent are mulched.
but later I realized that we are 3 -4 weeks away from the hight of iris bloom, and by then I will have everything weeded, if not entirely mulched. I've decided to pull all of the top ground weeds and work on the nasty grasses underground after everything is made to look spic and span.
I have a infestation of Bermuda grass that is quite serious, and the Johnson grass is absolutely horrific. It reminds me of those scary shrimp like people in the film District 9.
southwest ohio.
Me too, east side of Cincy. Howdy neighbor!!
Chicken lady
4-21-15, 8:05pm
I thought you looked familiar!-lol
Alan......any interesting animal visitors recently?
Alan......any interesting animal visitors recently?No, just the usual. Frogs have again taken up residence in my pool, a pair of pileated woodpeckers have bored into an old oak tree in the back yard, I'm hoping for a chance to see their offspring once they're large enough to stick their heads out, and we've had several red tailed hawks hanging out in the area. I had one glide over my head, within about 10 feet, while standing out on the deck this past weekend, close enough that I had to rush our little Miniature Pinscher into the house, ya know, just in case the hawk was hungry.
Wow........sounds like lots of wild things going on there, Alan! I have just recently started seeing some pileateds. I would love to see them more. But I should be careful what I wish for......they love making huge holes in living trees too. While I was cleaning out my 300 gallon stock tank pond recently, I found 8 dead, rather large frogs. :( I did see a live one more recently, and a toad. The other day I did start to hear the tree frogs. Are those the kind you have in your pool? I remember when I was younger and went to camp, we'd go swimming in a pool in the woods and there would be hundreds of tiny frogs in the pool.
Yeah.....keep a good eye on your little doggie. I hope those hawks leave the pileateds alone too.
Happy Springing!
Now that its May I can calculate the final April garden update. The verdict? April is too d*mn much work! We terraced a gawd awful slope in the corner of the back yard, including building three stone retaining walls. Tilled 10 cubic yards of compost from the landfill into the entire yard, front and back. That also meant removing all the "grass" from the front yard and most of it from the back. It will try to make a comeback, but I will win in the end. Had all the seeds started in Feb. and March so those are now plants in the ground. Thirty-two tomato plants (18 varieties) and the appropriate numbers of everything that goes with them. Some of those are experiments in parts of the yard that have various levels of shade and were never available for planting until the recent tilling so I don't expect much yield from them, but it will be fun to see. All in all its been worth it, but I'm hoping for a pina colada and a lawn chair in May!
Have lettuce, kale, kohlrabi and spinach up, baby plants. Have tomatoes and peppers still under the grow lights. Still too early to set them out. I've started some zinnias which are about 4-5 in. tall and I am going to set those out this weekend.
We have 3 raised beds (actually square-foot raised beds) ready to be planted, and 2 which we need to clean out. When we moved in here last year they were up to my waist in weeds and we're still cleaning them out.
I'll probably start some more spinach, lettuce, carrots, this weekend, too.
iris lilies
5-1-15, 9:38pm
I have been working out in the gardens a minimum of 2 hours daily. Being so much out of shPe, I had to start small. This long cool,April has been fabulous although it has started up botrytis in some of my lilies. Hope that doesn't get more serious.
Tussiemussies
5-2-15, 12:45am
We are still unable to set up raised beds this year. Unfortunately it will have to wait until next year, but I did see on the internet on how to grow a plant right out of a basg of soil. Has anyone tried this? Also will be getting two composters soon and it is all new to me. Anyone with advice on ratios of what to put in the compost? Thanks, chris
iris lilies
5-2-15, 1:01am
We are still unable to set up raised beds this year. Unfortunately it will have to wait until next year, but I did see on the internet on how to grow a plant right out of a basg of soil. Has anyone tried this? Also will be getting two composters soon and it is all new to me. Anyone with advice on ratios of what to put in the compost? Thanks, chris
Why bags? Why not us traditional pots, large ones. A tomato plant will do fine in one. These bag things are a trend, and I see no advantage to them.
For you compost: Put in all of your kitchen scraps and any animal waste from non-meat eating animals. But I'm not so sure aobut how much green stuff nd how much brown stuff to mix in. We compost everything, but I don't use our own household compost since I use the big vats of compost from out city for my garden. DH claims tht our own household compost turns out fine, but I don't know,I've seen it slimy and smelly and I wasn't impressed.
I have 10 different varieties of tomatoes, 3 peppers, 7 eggplants, winter and summer squash and Chinese long beans planted and growing well. Oh and a tomatillo and cucumbers. My garlic and potatoes are almost done after growing over the winter. I have 5 raised beds, each 4 x 8. They are packed full this spring too.
For compost, the mix is by volume, 50% brown to 50% green. I do not put anything animal in my compost and use shredded newspaper when I do not have leaves for the brown. Water it also, I have to water mine weekly in the summer to keep it from drying out.. Once I stop adding to it, I turn it weekly. I have 2 compost bins running at a time. One that I am adding to, and the other I am turning. I actually have a couple more that I am not using, my space is pretty tight though I could really use the 3 bin system if I had the space.
Tussiemussie........For some extra room, I use Tractor Supply white 5 gallon buckets....they are food-grade. I drill a couple 1" holes in the bottom and fill with compost. They have handles. Some people grow regular-sized tomatoes in them, but I use them for cherry tomatoes. I also have chives and flat-leaf parsley in them. If you need support for the tomatoes, you can put something in the ground right behind the buckets.
Birdie.......any straw bale gardening this year?
I sure wish I had a bigger device for turning our big compost pile. (I have pretty bad arthritis). Would love to have a bob cat with a scoop!
I've gotten one of my raised stock tanks filled with onion sets, seeds of spinach, swiss chard. I also planted 2 cherry tomatoes in those buckets I just mentioned. I still need to plant things in another 2 stock tanks, but am waiting for consistently warm temps. The big garden is still too wet, but has lots of weeds. :( The snow peas I planted haven't come up, and I see a mouse hole close by. Dangit. They probably ate the seed. I didn't pre-sprout it in this year, which usually seems to deter the mice.
Bought a hardy regular-sized water lily and a dwarf one and they are in a couple of my stock tank water gardens. Probably in a month, a tropical lily I ordered will arrive. (Yes....this is the land of a thousand stock tanks) :)
Also bought another jack-in-the-pulpit to plant in the woods.
Am transplanting some Joe-Pye Weed to a sunnier place.
We're finally getting several sunny, warm, dry days, so we can mow the back yard. DH catches all the grass and it goes into the compost pile.
We thinned the lotus bog a couple weeks ago, but no sign of any growth. I hope we didn't kill it. It's probably just waiting for more warmth.
I put out the hummingbird feeders yesterday. They always show up the first week of May. I wonder with the slow spring if they'll still show at that time.
My body is tolerating working outside less and less. I'm not sure how to keep doing the things I love, with so much pain.
Chicken lady
5-2-15, 8:04am
I think Tussiemussies meant just cutting holes in the bag of pre-bagged planting soil/compost/whatevr and planting - simple and cheap, not those fancy collapsible bag things. Although I'm thinking about growing potatoes in used feed bags next year.... too much going on this year.
Cathy A I am so sad for you. I'm just reaching the point where I'm accepting that my elbow is always going to hurt. It's hard. My knees stop hurting after a while, but the elbow has been non-stop for five months, so I guess this is the new normal. I think about the time when I won't be able to work on the farm anymore and I don't know. Sometimes I think maybe ds will have the place and we will go live in the city and enjoy what it has to offer instead.
Got a late start to the garden due to snow and cold. But now my kale, spinach, lettuce, and peas are all up. I've started some tender plants in pots. My daffodils are smiling cheerily all over the yard, and the plum/cherry/apples are blooming.
http://www.amazon.com/Amazon-Home-Services-Hire-Grazer/dp/B00UBYDXXQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1430568900&sr=8-1&keywords=rent+goats Apparently you can rent goats through Amazon in some places now. I'd love to have a few, the poison ivy is horrible here and I hear they even eat that with no problems.
This year...I'm taking a break from gardening. Not going to do a thing. I didn't put the raised beds to bed properly in the fall and they are overrun. If done properly they are less weeding but not if you get lazy.
Gardening in bags is one way to build soil and get started early http://www.houselogic.com/blog/gardens/garden-in-a-bag/
Our seeds are germinating and I'm so excited! This is actually the first time we've planted vegetables from seed (we've done flowers before, but not veggies). We have all different kinds of lettuce, chard, beans, spinach, cucumbers, arugula. We'll stick with seedlings for tomatoes, and we have a new raised bed for those.
This weekend I'm planning on planting my onion sets, garlic, strawberries, horseradish and my new blueberry bush.
Chicken lady
5-2-15, 10:39am
so funny about the goats!
they do love poison ivy. I am horribly allergic to it and a friend told me that if I let my milk goat eat it and drank the milk raw it would protectme. I didn't believe her. I still don't believe her, but anecdotally, I do drink the milk raw and I did not get poison ivy the whole first two summers when the goats hadn't eliminated it from their field yet.
Oh man....I could really use those goats for our poison ivy. I wonder if it's true if, at the beginning of the season you expose yourself to a little bit of it, that it gives you immunity for the rest of the year? Anyone want to try it and get back to me? :~)
Tussiemussies
5-2-15, 6:59pm
Thank Birdie and Iris for the advice on the compost....that is what I will do birdie 50/50, do you keep yours in the sun? Ihave always seen them right in the gardens in the sun..I thought until I get the hang of it, I will use a starter...
Thanks to all who gave me advice about growing some veggies, I really just want to buy a bag of soil, put a slit and coffee filter in the bottom, and then cut open the top and put my plant in there. I had recently read about this and they said one tomato plant per bag, other veggies I might be able to do two.
I feel for you Cathy A and the other poster who also doesn't know how much longer they will be gardening. I know I have some heath issues too that have to be taken care of by next year so I'll be free to,garden. It is very hard when you think you, might lose doing something that you really love to do...
Chicken lady
5-2-15, 7:18pm
well Cathy A, I usually get my first poison ivy in March and then pretty much have new spots constantly into November.
So I'm going to say no on that one.
Shouldn't we start May?
I planted peas today - only a month late. tomorrow I'll plant lettuce (also a month late) and the rest of the peas, and then if I can get the beans, brussels sprouts, ground cherries, corn and watermelon in by the end of the week, I'll only be a week behind. I'm trying really hard to keep everything I've already planted weeded and mulched before I plant more. So I would have finished all the peas and lettuce, but I weeded the strawberry beds first and also had to clean out the bucks' lean-to and shift their fencing for new pasture.
Gardenarian
5-2-15, 7:46pm
I've got seeds in, greens and peas, and have been given some basil seedlings. I don't know if it's safe to put the basil in the ground - think I'll wait another week. I better get moving on the tomatoes, too.
Tussiemussies, I do have my compost bins in full sun. And when we are expecting rain, I take the lids off and let the rain wet the compost. We don't get much rain these days in CA, and none in the summer months which is when I fill my bins. That is why I have to water them.
Cathy A, we are planting 2 straw bales again at the Horticulture center. We're installing a trellis over the bales and planting small butternut squashes and melons in the straw bales. We started the preparation process this week. We will sling the fruit to the melon using t-shirt material.
Tussiemussies
5-3-15, 12:46am
Thanks Birdie for your tips!
I'm also wishing CathyA many years of gardening with minimal or no pain…
As for the composting thing, chris, you got good advice, but let me just say that I started composting 3 years ago, after I took my permaculture class. I bought one of those Envirocycle things for a couple of reasons: I live in a suburb and my back yard faces a park and a lot of other houses around the quad, and I didn't want anyone to complain about open, rotting food. The Envirocycle just kind of blends in. Also, it seemed to be "compost-101-friendly"--I didn't have to build anything.
I made up a sheet to post on my refrigerator with the 50/50 ratio, and then I listed the common things for each column. Then I posted another column of what NOT to put in it (mainly for the benefit of DH). If you follow the right ratios, the compost should never stink.
I LOVE composting. It just satisfies my soul to know that the whole loop is being closed, right in my backyard. Yesterday we prepared a bed and we dumped the compost and just marveled at how what we ate last fall is now this beautiful dark stuff that's going to feed the next round of our dinners. It's so miraculous and wonderful! I'm a bit obsessive about composting, though. When the township mows the grass in the park surrounding us, I go out and grab those nice big clumps of grass clippings that their mower leaves behind--sometimes I grab fresh and green, sometimes dried out. DH gets embarrassed by my clipping harvesting, but to me it just goes to show you how much nature loves to give.
I really need another compost pile because we have to take out the uncomposted bits and put them back in the com poster when we dump it into our garden. It would be nice to have a "cooked/nearly done" pile and a fresh one.
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