Today I need to get into my (neglected) garden, and so will forgo a time-consuming post about chickens. For the last two days we had chilly temps and rain. Today is my chance to get the last of the tomato plants in. Also, now that the ground has softened up, I can pull up weeds (it’s a difficult task when the soil is like concrete.) A thorough weeding now will greatly reduce my workload later in the summer.
The deep winter snows provided cover for voracious voles, who girdled the rose bushes and the grape vines. A hard pruning has brought those plants back, shoots are growing on the stumps, but it will be a long time before they are once again the tall plants that they were last year. On the other hand, my shade garden thrived with that blanket of snow. The bleeding hearts are more robust than I’ve ever seen them.
Are you getting into the garden today? What chores do you have to tackle?
Our bleeding hearts are taking over, both pink and white ones. My husband “moved” them, so he thought, so now they are everywhere. Our grand daughter loves them.
I love them, too.
We found a bleeding heart in our neglected compost pile over the weekend. :) We have been tending to our garden and yard for a few weeks now. I like to get it all done early so we can enjoy the scenery during the summer. My very young cucumber plants did not fair well in the immense rains we got over the last few days. Everything else looks good. Our garden fence has been constructed and so far it has kept our resident Woodchuck at bay. Still keeping our fingers crossed as we know how smart and determined these critters can be. And it has a baby or two! This weekend we’ll “pretty up” the area with an arbor around the garden gate. Have fun with your chores!!
Woodchucks are the worst! One year every single plant in the garden was mowed down by one.
We had a woodchuck one year that figured out how to climb our fence. Grrrrrr…
After a couple days of softening rain here, I spent a couple hours yesterday morning pulling weeds and grass out of my sad, neglected iris bed. I got very few blooms from it this year; it needs to be overhauled but who knows when I’ll have time to do that. Our garden is about half planted; we are picking strawberries and the first few raspberries already.
It’ll be another month before I see a raspberry.
Well..I finally tackled mine about 3 weeks ago..got the soil going and got it all weeded..I planted 3 types of tomatoes (one was called a “Heat Lover”), cucumbers, carrots, corn, onions, and a mixed lettuce blend. So far everything is coming up..not like last year….which was a total bust…
After the discouraging year, I’m glad to see you’re trying again!
Garden season here in the Smokies has been underway for weeks. Right now the Mountain Laurel is blooming and the Rhodies are beginning . Most chores completed now just to maintain. We have had mixed weather. The other day a storm that provided hail with a couple inches of the stuff. Bringing many leaves off the trees. We have mulched, weeded and planted a few things. Hoping it is not going to be an ungodly hot summer. The Fireflies are starting to put on their show. It is like a mini firework display. Happy Gardening to all!
Off topic, how is Miss Lily doing.
Miss Lily is in denial. She’s determined to get around -as usual – on three legs, and to use the hurt one as needed. She goes out on a leash, and I keep her penned near me in the house, but that doesn’t stop her from play bows, etc. The plan is to let her rest and get used to the new way of going and not to do the surgery. We’ll see how that goes.
Its hard to believe that with 3 plus feet of snow that your ground is/was hard.
Once again the dummy that I am I decided to try my had at green beans, lettuce and corn. The rabbits around here sure are fat.
Ken, one word – FENCES. :)
But I did. The rabbits are smarter than me.
I just harvested a refrigerator drawer full of potatoes out of one of my three wire compost hoops. These contain mostly chicken poop and grass clippings and the potatoes are grand. The hoops are inside my electric mesh hen yard so the rats didn’t get them. (Rats ate my sweet potato crop this year. )When the potato harvest finished up last week I began scooping the nice finished compost onto my pole beans and broccoli that are my daily producers right now. Poha Bushes ( cape gooseberry) are also producing, as are a number of three year old kale. artichokes remain small and the asparagus is disappointing. The hens love poha and their seedlings are in my compost even after it heats up and steams. So I’m weeding all year round With the garden under attack from kikuyu grass, poha, and some aggressive little creeping things that break up and replant themselves everywhere. I will have two bunches of bananas in a couple of weeks.
Such a different world in Hawaii! Bananas in a garden!
My chives, lemon balm, and mint survived the winter in pots in the garage and are going gangbusters. I’ve got basil, rosemary, marjoram, and eggplant waiting for pots. I’ve got tomatoes, lettuce, and cucumbers in pots waiting to be put in the ground. I splurged this year and bought some tomato plants that were already 18 inches tall. The cherry tomato plants have baby tomatoes on them already. Yay! Needless to say, I need to get on the business end of a shovel. I’m waaayyy behind ’cause life has not been fun here. But I’ve been helping myself to the basil at lunch and it is inspiring me.
I don’t know if you already do this or not, but I get the pitch fork out and loosen the soil tine deep before weeding. It doesn’t take a lot of time and it helps tremendously in weed pulling.
You have some strange beasties in your gardens over there! I had to check out what a Woodchuck was. I thought it was a bird until I read that it had learned to climb Robin’s fence. Having looked him up I have to say he looks quite cute but then I’m safe in the knowledge that he can’t wreck my garden.
The weeds here don’t seem to realize that there is a drought. They’d grow 5′ tall if we let them. My husband has been diligent with the weedwhacker and I use a shovel to cut them down just below the ground. The chickens have done a good job keeping the weeds (and some flowers!) down in the flower garden but I can’t trust them in the vegetables. I just made a raised bed for the asparagus that I’ve had in pots for the past couple of years while we were building retaining walls. Other things in the ground right now: corn, tomatoes, basil, jalapenos, red and yellow onions, garlic, cabbage, zucchini, patty pan squash, kale, okra, green and purple beans, beets, artichokes, cantaloupe, and watermelon. I have to take short showers to stay under my water limits!