A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Banter Hall Gardener's Chat What did you do in the garden today? #6

I pulled up the squash plants. I may have gotten a few more squash from them but after all the rain they were soggy. My cukes and tomatoes still look pretty good.

I stared out the window at the zinnias. Then I fertilized the indoor plants. I can't wait to get outside.

Hope your feeling better soon TK. Time to get out those tonsils?

I deadheaded some things and cut back some more stuff. My black raspberries are ripening, very late this year...

I'm going out in a few to weed out(oh if Carol seen me she'd tan my hide ) some gallardias, they have taken over my side flower bed.

Hey there ladies and all missed chatting with you during the summer and I've been trying to catch up a bit going through the forum.

I've been sooooo busy this year, but definitely did not have a good year in my garden. We haven't had much of a hot summer and a late summer to start with. Now we're supposed to get frost this week .....way to early, will cover my squash hoping I'll get something out of them yet.

Some of the cool loving veggies did good like the peas and my cauliflower and broccoli. Had lots of radishes, romaine lettuce and leaf lettuce, so I'm thankful for the little we had.

Maybe we'll get some nice weather after this frost....who knows.

Hey there rosepetal. I remember that name that I have not seen in a while. I just planted broccoli, lettuce, peas, and cilantro a few weeks back. I either completly forgot about doing cauliflower this year, or the feed store was out of them when I got my other fall seeds. it's still too hot here for radishes. oh yea, and I planted some carrot seeds last weekend too.

Just in again...I cut back the ornamental crabapple tree, it seems to grow more on the right side, dead headed everything else, dug out two burning bushes that seem to draw in the snakes...and cut back my weigela(I really planted it a little too close to the house). De seeded everything I don't want to re seed and pruned back the rose bush again. I am tired and chewed up by flies so it's time to rest.

Rosepetal, can you just imagine if we tried to plant anything this time of year...Cricket you sure are lucky.

I gotta admit, you canadians make me feel like one lazy gardener! I have such respect for the hard work you put into gardening with the season you are given.
my garden hasn't done real well this past year. we're in a pretty wooded lot and the trees have really spread. the extra shade has made a big difference this spring and summer! hubby took out one tree and tomorrow I'm gonna see if he'll take out one more. he makes fun of me for my reusing and recycling, but it takes some real persuading for him to cut down a tree even if it's dead. now you tell me, who's the tree hugger??? he he. If I wasn't scared to death of a chain saw, i'd just do it myself. but chain saws and getting on the roof are very stressful for me. (lizards freak me out a bit too) he he

I think we work so hard because we only have a short time to do it in then we shovel snow for the other 7 or 8 months of the year.

Start spray painting the trees you want cut down and send him out.

you have no idea of the barter system we have!

did anyone have a great garden this year? Ours was ok but nothing to write home about. Seems everyone was either too dry or too wet. I did plant a few things today that I picked up at Lowe's. I went for bird seed and couldn't resist the flowers. I got a few portulacas, petunias, and snapdragons.

great question, sheri! who had a great garden this year?

Of course I had a great garden. for the first time in my life it was my own. Even if I do grow more weeds than anything else right now lol.

Not me....too much rain.

I weeded a flower bed and planted some seeds in place of the weeds

Well got my pine tree trimmed up and my apple tree as well, things have a tendancy to over grow in the Eastward facing direction. I've got one apple on my tree, first time ever...maybe now we can figure out what kind of tree we have It was a tree pulled out of the pasture many years ago..

that's awesome you got an apple tamara!

Awesome for sure, that poor tree has been to hell and back. It got run over in the pasture with the hay mower then run over in my yard with the lawn mower. Broken twice from ice storms and now is finally making something of itself. I've been pruning it over the years to try get a shape back to it, it lost it's central leader and just had 4 prongs growing out at the sides. Ugliest tree I had ever seen Now I've got a leader training it self upright again and keep trimming back the rest to try equal it out.

All that work over about 8 years and all I have is one apple

I think I had a pretty good garden this year. Everything grew really well, and it's the first year that my plants have filled up the beds I dug. my castor beans are taller than me (I'm 6'3") and my first attempt at brugs rewarded me with blooms! but my garden's nothing compared to most...i was inside most of the summer, there wasn't really much for me to do. the rain (surprisingly) didn't do much damage to my plants...the humid and wet weather didn't even bring powdery mildew to my peonies until two weeks ago and it hasn't spred since, so I'm not complaining.

Well today and yesterday I got out in the tree bed and did some weeding. There is still a lot to do but I'm getting there. And as I work around the trees I dig up the moss set it aside increase the soil level up against the edging and then lay the moss back down. It's time consuming but it will help keep the soil in place I hope. At least on the shady side of the bed.

That amended soil is really getting incorporated into the clay so it is much softer.

After I dig up the weeds I rake over the area so it is getting nice and smooth on the sunny side where I don't currently have a wide spread ground cover. That area still has to fend for itself pretty much. I've started mint, and my spring yellow flowering groundcover over there. Hopefully it will take off next year and I can begin dividing it and spreading it around.

A good garden you ask, I'm just thankful for what I got and forget about what I didn't get.........

I just came in from pulling all my pepper plants out of my greenhouse. The aphids were still crawling heavily this morning after spraying and treating them with whatever I could think of the last week. So this morning I said enough is enough I must save my tomatoes at all costs and out they went.

I washed down every space I could spray water on and gave my greenhouse a good clean up.....it seems so empty now even with some flowers and my tomatoes still there but I'm only too glad to get it cleaned up.

We had a good hard frost this morning, had my squash and zucchini covered so they'll be alright. I wander though if it's still worth covering my squash, they're only as big as a big baseball, not sure they'll do anything this year anymore.

still working on getting rid of all the grass that took over everything this summer

Grass grows where you don't want it and doesn't where you want it. It should be renamed mule weed lol.

"Great" is certainly a relative term. I had a great garden-- but nothing like Tamara's. (I've enjoyed your pictures!) I'm sitting here knowing I should be outside but I just can't bring myself to. I love the hot weather-- like Fall but know that Winter is truly awful here in Cincinnati-- but I'm postponing this morning's chores until... I guess later when the heat index is 99 degree. So I've been poking around the forum.

I joined A Gardener's Forum earlier this spring. It's the only one I belong to and I like it. So since I'm just goofing off, and found this thread, I thought I'd tell y'all about my garden this year. We moved into this house about 8 years ago. We bought it b/c it had the most spectacular back garden area. Potentially spectacular, that is. The first year I just cried b/c I knew it could be a beautiful place but there was so much work... . (Who hasn't been there?) But bed by bed, step by step, I got it going. Here's a pic part of the perennial garden, followed by a pic of The Synaptic Junction (my husband's outdoor kitchen and our hang out).

[img]<a href="http://s72.photobucket.com/albums/i175/clc0312/Marica_garden/?action=view&current=05-29-08_2003.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i175/clc0312/Marica_garden/05-29-08_2003.jpg" border="0" alt="The shack"></a>[/img]

<a href="http://s72.photobucket.com/albums/i175/clc0312/Marica_garden/?action=view&current=05-29-08_2003.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i175/clc0312/Marica_garden/05-29-08_2003.jpg" border="0" alt="The shack"></a>

This year I decided to rip up the front yard and put in a vegetable garden that could sustain us through the winter as long as possible. (It's a weird front yard b/c the house sits way back from the street; the front yard is just a very long narrow (10') strip that runs beside the driveway.) Here's what it looked like in early June.

[img]<a href="http://s72.photobucket.com/albums/i175/clc0312/Marica_garden/?action=view&current=06-02-08_1945.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i175/clc0312/Marica_garden/06-02-08_1945.jpg" border="0" alt="early June"></a>[/img]

Here it is later in June.

[img]<a href="http://s72.photobucket.com/albums/i175/clc0312/Marica_garden/?action=view&current=06-20-08_0945.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i175/clc0312/Marica_garden/06-20-08_0945.jpg" border="0" alt="mid-June"></a>[/img]

I spent a LOT of time last winter imagining what it might look like and it turned out pretty much like I had hoped.

[img]<a href="http://s72.photobucket.com/albums/i175/clc0312/Marica_garden/?action=view&current=07-26-08_1818.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i175/clc0312/Marica_garden/07-26-08_1818.jpg" border="0" alt="imagination"></a>[/img]

(That's Doris Scaredeer leaning on the stone pillar in the background.)

Of course, then came the squash borers, and powdery mildew, and too much rain (fungus issues) and not enough rain (stunted second crops), and the sunflowers were so heavy they fell over, and as soon as I had decided that tomorrow was the day I was going to pick that melon, Spud (the groundhog) would eat it over night, and if I see one more lemon cuke... . But over, all I've gotten a pretty good harvest. Here's a few day's worth.

[img]<a href="http://s72.photobucket.com/albums/i175/clc0312/Marica_garden/?action=view&current=08-23-08_1838.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i175/clc0312/Marica_garden/08-23-08_1838.jpg" border="0" alt="leftovers"></a>[/img]

(That's a gallon of homemade raspberry wine at the end of the table.)

Anyway-- my total harvest to date is about 150 lbs., and that doesn't include the tomatoes and peppers that are out in back garden.

The idea was that I was going to grow a LOT so that we could just bypass the produce department this winter. I have good days and bad days when I assess how well I've done, but here's the deep freezer a couple of weeks ago (with lots more canned & pickled).

[img]<a href="http://s72.photobucket.com/albums/i175/clc0312/Marica_garden/?action=view&current=08-24-08_1130.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i175/clc0312/Marica_garden/08-24-08_1130.jpg" border="0" alt="ant's storage area"></a>[/img]

Over 40lbs. of frozen veggies, with two 12 lb. banana squash, lots of fall greens and tomato sauce still to go.

Don't know if you all would consider mine a "great" garden-- but if the zombies attack, at least we'll have frozen beans to eat!

Thanks for letting me share!

oh no! no pics. I'll try again.

Sorry about that. Here're the rest.

Looks great Marica!! It looks like you have had a great harvest! Good for you! The raspberry wine looks yummy too!!

WTG I'm at the crying stage. At this point I'm just wondering if I'll live long enough to get the front yard done. Not even considering the wooded area or the back yard for now. I had no idea how much work just to maintain this amount of lawn. Without having to consider the current and future flower and veggie beds. I've started with clay and rock so I have a very long way to go.

Today I got the lawn between the house nad the tree bed cut and the lawn between the driveway and the tree bed cut. So all I have left in the front is the street side and the future veggie garden. Woohoo. That's much better than I did last time around. I'm definitely getting stronger which is a wonderful thing. Of course my arms currently feel like jelly but that's ok. Now it's time to hang out the laundry. That should be interesting with Jelly arms.

tkhooper the more you do the better you'll feel, that's what I find out each summer.

Had a good day today canning corn and freezing some too.

Most of my garden got hit hard by our frost early this week, even my corn look horrible. But hopefully I'll still get more out of them.

Good luck with your corn. I noticed that most of the people with gardens here have harvested their corn. I didn't have a veggie garden this year so no corn.

Your right the more I do the better I feel and the better I sleep although usually that means a nice long nap during the day so I'm up most of the night but I hope one day to be able to stay awake all day and then get a good nights sleep.

today it was all inside plants that required care so nothing got done outside. But my back doesn't seem to care that it was inside stuff it still hurts.

moved some plants around this morning

and got some bulbs planted for next spring.

what kind of bulbs?

It's raining here. Hurrican Hannah.

here too!

i'm trying to wait until the end of the month before I plant my spring bulbs. But it is hard to wait.

It's raining here so I won't be doing any lawn cutting today. It's a nice soaking rain for me but I've heard it could cause flooding in other areas around me.

I've been pulling out the last of my garden..the frost nipped it all.

all but one of my cucumber plants has given up the ghost. They were fine day before yesterday and full of blooms. We had some hard rain and now they are dead. Why does a lot of water kill them if they've been so dry?

I planted some more collard greens, broccoli, and cilantro. none of my fall seeds are coming up. I just figured every other weekend I'll just keep putting the seed out. tomorrow I plan to put out more cilantro and lettuce. something is eating some of the seedlings, but some are just not coming up at all????

I have no luck with direct planting. So I start just about everything in pots unless it just won't transplant. And then I usually end up not growing it at all.

I don't know why plants will do that. But, I have seen the same thing as you mentioned.

Today I plan to go out and assess what damage my garden might have sustained. The rain got very heavy before it stopped. Enough that I am reassessing what I'm going to do with the sidewalk garden.

That's so opposite of me TK. I have started seeds but would much rather plant a plant. It's so much easier. One year I did all sorts of winter sowing then it was a nightmare getting everything moved to bigger pots then finally into the ground. It drove my husband crazy - all the pans and pots everywhere and me following the sun around the house trying to keep them alive. I had good luck with them though.

I think I'll do some tomatoes and other veges from seeds next year. This year I did all plants because of school and my new job and all, but I like having special types of veges. Hopefully we will do a seed trade on here and I'll get some wonderful tomato seeds that aren't in the stores.

This morning I was out with the stars watering a few plants and thinking about calling Diane. I didn't do it but one early morning I'm going too.

Good luck to all who are planting another garden.....I'm going to pull a lot of mine today after school with my boys.

We had another hard frost this morning so out it comes.

some of the gardeners around here have pretty much dug up their summer gardens and have just fall veggies out now. I guess that means it's time for me to dig out the pots for the peppers and get to potting them up. Good thing they don't have large root systesm.

I've about got my aphids under control. and the grass hoppers I believe have moved on as well. all I did today was water in some seeds (that will never come up, I"m sure)

I'll send you some ladybugs Cricket.

thanks..........and sending a bit of luck wouldn't hurt either. I hear 'even a blind hog finds an acorn every now and then'. well.....???
got any blind hogs you can send?

I see more frost this morning, a light dusting across the grass.

OMG frost already

I mowed yesterday and cleaned an area that needed weeding, now I'm covered in chiggers

Oh Belinda, that's so awful. Is it mostly your legs? I hope!!!!

Cricket, I don't have trouble with aphids because of these ladybugs I reckon. I don't know which is worse except that aphids aren't all over your house!

It's damp and very humid here. No frost.

aaaa little higher I have this cream I put on them but hey I got places I can't reach, I had ashley do those before she left for school this morning

I did some mowing today to. I did as much as I could but I still have about 1/3 of the front yard to do.

Before I did that I put up two wrought iron plant stands on the side of the shed they look great. I'll have plants in them next year. This year it's too late.

I didn't get any of the tropic put in pots today but maybe I'll do better tomorrow.

I did get my first experience winding the thread on the weed wacker bobbin. That was interesting. I of course got grass all over me in the process.

some naked ladies and some irises, got some still in a bucket that I need to get planted

you sent me some naked ladies Remember? Hope they show up next year.

O.k. question for y'all. I hear the word 'chiggers' mentioned often. What are they?

We had 4 yards of mulch delivered...Our beds were created last year and we never mulched. It was so hard thanks for the hubby i did the spreading and he did the hauling

oh boy dhuber. They'll be great from now on.

Hmmm Bill. Maybe they'll show up at your house.

Well today I transplanted the outdoor celosia into a pot and brought it indoors. Then I did the same for one of the begonias. It is not happy. But then I didn't figure I'd success but since I have 5 outdoors I figured it was worth the risk. Then I reweeded the tree bed where I weeded last week. There are many many weed seeds it that area I guess.

Then I dug out the weeds that were comming up in the sidewalk bed. This is one weedy area here. It's going to take some work to keep it weed free I can see.

I didn't do any lawn cuttings today but I'll be back at it tomorrow.

I trimmed around everythign with the weed eatter today

I dug out all my carrots....

Would love to do my carrots and potatoes this week too, but we just had an inch of rain last night so I have to wait until it dries up a bit. I love this time of year......don't you all love it too.

do you get the lady bugs in your house? last fall/winter I had a ton that came in. they hung out in my big bathroom. hubby freaked out about having 'bugs'. I thought it was cool. when the weather was going to be above freezing for a few days, I'd try and swoosh them out so they could get something to eat. ha ha. they would always find their way back in, since I like to open up the house when the weather is nice. They were like my pets!

You want no part of them!
you will itch like you've been in poison ivy!
do you have a question about them? I don't know that they hurt plants at all?

they start coming into my house in November and it's horrible.

What is a chigger, I meant? I have never heard that term ever in my life. Is it a fly or bug....

Have to cut the grass today. Kind of sad though because it'll be the final cut before winter....

wonder if it's just too cold for them there
this should help, and they make a red bump like a misquito bite

http://mdc.mo.gov/nathis/arthopo/chiggers/

Wow, I've never seen such a thing. We have nothing like that here...Makes me glad we get so much cold and snow well, only for a minute or two

Well this morning I went out and planted my lacy red maple tree. It's only been sittng on the deck for 4 months now. But I found a bare spot and I'll be able to see it changing colors in the fall from the deck. So I'm very happy with that. I hope it survives.

Then I finished cutting the front yard woohoo. Now I just have the side and back to go. Hopefully not more than three more days of work.

well..the chigger bites are better today, so I'm ready to get back out in the bushes okay wait and pull some weeds, that sounded that was my sister that got in the bushes

okay, I'm clearing off a ditch a little at a time and planting stuff as I go

That is so cool. I cut the ditch area the other day and I want to put some of my ditch lilies out there alittle later this year. I think they will do really well there.

I mowed and weed wacked everything.

I just need to weed things probably one more time before winter as well, tomorrows chore .... More frost for us tonight.

it' too dreary and damp to do anything today.

Have you had the really high humidity too where you are?

It's sprinkling here so no lawn cutting today. But I did get out in the future veggie bed and dig out a bunch more big rocks. And I took the rocks over to the tree bed and filled in the border almost to the third tree from the bottom of the bed. So a little more to go and I'll be done with about half of the border. This is a definite woohoo for me.

I cut a quarter of my back yard but is was still heavy with dew so I gave up. That's very heavy going.

Yesterday I cut the rest of the back yard. I'm getting stronger. That's the most I've cut in one day I think.

Today it's raining so my Garden chore is going through the seed box and picking out what seeds I want to plant this fall. And then deciding where I want to put them. Woohoo.

Well the rain stopped so I went out and moved the bird feeder to the back deck. That way when they fling the seeds it will end up in the lawn no problem rather than in the tree bed. That was getting to be a problem. I can't spend all my time weeding one little area.

Then I went out and dug up the white onion and some of the egyptian walking onions. I'm thinking I want them in my top ramen. Then I mixed my potting soil with the clay and transplanted 4 of the miniature chocolate peppers into pots. I'll get them inside as soon as my arms recover. Wet clay is heavy. But that means that about 1/3 of the future vine garden is cleared. As soon as I get the rest out I'll put in the clemetis seeds and will see if they are still viable.

today I cut down three saplings that were crowding my future veggie garden. And talk about wear me out. I got them chopped up and the branches put in the second compost pile but that was it. Well I also got 4 peppers moved indoors. I'd like to have done a bunch more but it will have to wait until after a nap. I have no energy left at all.

Yesterday i got out there and planted iris and gladiolus and the day before that I planted crocuses, hycinthia, daffodils and tulips. I still have plenty to do but it went from 80+ yesterday to 69 today and I'm waiting until afternoon to go out and do some of the seeds. I'm hoping to do the seeds for the sidewalk bed today.

it warmed up today and guess what I got done...

the sidewalk flower bed is planted woohoo! I alternated orange blackberry lilies, persian onions, candy lilies, daylilies and yellow blackberry lilies for the outside row. That's going to look so cool with the crocuses and hycinthia in front and the tulips and daffodils in the center. I'm lookingforward to next spring I really am. Of course I'll still have to find what I want to add for fall color. I haven't figured that out yet. Unless I just want to plant mossroses in amongst everything else. That would certainly work.

I love moss rose but have never seen one for real, only pictures so I can only imagine the scent! You HAVE to try autumn crocusfor fall colour, especially the waterlily ones! the only drawback is that they're $10 a bulb (well up here anyways, maybe they're cheaper where you are)

I've never noticed a scent from the moss roses. They are also called portulaca and aren't a rose at all.

I've never heard of an autumn crocus but it sounds very cool. I'm going to look into them. Although if they are 10 per bulb there is no way I could afford them.

The mums are out around here and I thought if they were still here on the 3rd when I get paid I would try and get some.

Well I planted the leftside of the fence flower bed. I'm so thrilled. Now along the actual driveway I'll put in gladiolus as I get baby bulbs from the foundation bed but that's going to be a few years away. But at least with the front planted it won't look quite as folorn out there. Wish I had mulch for that area but I can't afford it and the soil is good enough that I don't need it. I planted chinese lanterns, Missouri Primrose and Tomato red daylilies out there. That could cover from late spring through the fall I hope.

The I planted the top tree in the tree flower bed with columbines. So in that area I have lily of the valley and columbines for shade and Hollyhocks for sun. I'm getting more and more done. I'm really proud of myself. But I need some more doan's backache medicine. I'm completely out and there is still 11 days until payday grrrrh.

WOW TK you are one busy gardner!
I have been doing alot lately, now that I have 2 new OOPS 3 new beds I have started.
I added Composted cow manure to one thats my shade garden, Did alot of weeding, And played with my new law mower. ITs going to be great this year with a mulcher and bagger, The raking was starting to kill my shoulder last year.
Today is the first day of fall, ~Sniff~ But the weather is beautiful and I am going to enjoy outdoors as long as I can. I HATE winter!
I am going to do more weeding, and some cutting back of some things, Put ferilizer spikes in for a few trees, And You guessed it! Mow! :wink: