Gardening Gardening

lasagna mulching - probably the easiest way to transform lawn to garden. Lay down some cardboard or newspaper over the lawn and then cover that with mulch of some sort. Wood chips, leaves, lawn clippings, whatever you have. Excludes light and the lawn withers and the worms transform it for you. It takes time. Several months. Some people cut holes in it and plant in it instead of waiting also. I considered it but just don't have enough cardboard and mulch and just chose the hard way of removing the sod. Some people also compost (sheet composting) this way. It works well with lawn grasses but not so well with some weeds as they'll find the new environment a bonus without the competition.

edit: I have a stack of pizza boxes from Sunday nights that normally get tossed in the swamp but I don't go out there this time of year due to the mosquitos and ticks and whatnot. Can't recycle them with cardboard so nature gets to do it. They're just paper. Like leaves. Worms and bugs appreciate them.

 

The drip lines doin their job in 97* temps yesterday on the Cole crops.

 

In addition to the 50 or so garlic I have already pulled, I just pulled another 70 garlic. I am going to plant second crop of spinach and beets in this bed for late summer harvests.

I have another bed of about 100 garlic that will be pulled within a week.


Spanish Roja in hand. Some music garlic in the background.

 

Did you use the scapes from your garlic?

 

Are those the round porous tubes or tapes ?

 

Those are tapes Bill . Emitters are every 6 inches. 1/2 gal per minute per 100 feet.

 

Yes Farmer Steve. We used some of them in our cooking along the way. I also froze a bunch which will be incorporated into our yearly supply of garden pesto, which I put in 1/2 pint jars cover with a layer of olive oil and freeze. I am down to one jar from last season, so I will need to get busy with that project soon since I have the garlic now, along with a bed of lush basil that is growing very well. I will finish up the dill beans, and then start in on our yearly supply of cucumber pickles, jams and pickled beets soon. Then there will a short lull in canning until the tomatoes come in for sauce (50-60 quarts).

 

That's a lot of garlic. How do you store all that? Can you can it.

 

My soil leaves round witness marks with emitters. I've tried the porous soaker hoses and ended up throwing them all out. I haven't tried tape yet as I have a lot of different hoses and emitters that still work.

 

We eat a lot of garlic year round. I dry it, trim off the leaves and roots, dust it off a bit, then store in the basement in mesh bags hung on hooks (about 25 heads per bag). I save out the biggest heads for planting in October. I also give a lot a way. If stored properly it keeps well until spring no problem. It also stores well in pesto, which is frozen. I have heard of people mincing it and submerging in olive oil to store it, but am not comfortable with this method, unless I come across a lab tested recipe that I know is self stable and safe.

 

The tape has to be laid with the emitters facing up. I'll try and get a close up pic of it for you tomorrow.

 

Basically the same tape they use under film ?

 

yes, Here is the place i use to get growing supplies. Home Page | Martin's Produce Supply

 

First pic is the emitter hole/slit and the second is about a minute after I turned the water on.

 

Love music garlic! It seems to keep for a long time.

 

Harvesting Brussel Sprouts

 

Finally !

 

The first cherries and grapes here:

The hot sun is doing the trick.

 

The cherries look like Tiny Tim. I tried those this year. I got my first red ones about two weeks ago, but the plants got all top heavy with fruit and fell over. Plant most definitely needs a stake/support of some sort. Plant is too dense to get one in late. We got an inch+ of rain Friday and half of mine split and popped.

 

Hate

Hate it when they split! But OK for sauce if you pick them fast.
The cherry is:
The grape: