Gardening Gardening

They come with one drain (with a screw-in plug) already installed so currently I am trying them with just the single drain. Since they are raised, I can always use an angle head drill to make some more holes underneath if necessary.

I put 5-6 inches of 3/4 stone in the bottom of each tank to aid in draining.

 

Got rabbit fence around my front yard garden that up until last year never needed a fence today:
20 T posts 10 feet apart and a couple ibuprofen. Except the ends that are 15. I'm gonna try the Wedgeloc 205 bracing so there will be more t posts at the corners.
There will be rebar for posts to support the chicken wire fence half way between each T-post as the chicken wire doesn't stretch and hang too nice with ten or twenty foot post spacing like straight/barbed wire does.

There's a hummingbird nest in a tree branch overhanging the garden. It wasn't too happy with me pounding in posts and hanging around.
There was a hummingbird nest in almost the same spot last year. Maybe the same one again this year. It buzzed around me last year too. Sorry. I got things to do too. I got a long row of late carrots sprouting with no signs of slugs. I'm not feeding rabbits carrots.
Not done but the framework is in. Garden isn't a perfect rectangle and neither is the fence.

 

This morning’s garden activities.

I spread out four bags of leaves on the lawn before mowing/bagging. It makes a good nitrogen/carbon mix for my ongoing composting operation.


Mowed, raked, composted and watered one of my strawberry beds.


Thinned mother plants around asparagus.


Corn is about 10’ tall and starting to tassel.

 

Fresh made bread, my first bell pepper from the garden and some fresh picked lettuce. Salad for lunch.

 

So I harvest my garlic. A bit disappointing for me. They came up rather small with only four or five a decent size. My garden isn't doing well this year and I think it was too washed with rain over the winter. I probably needed to add a lot of sea soil to enrich the soil before planting. Only thing coming up well are the horsetails. A planter box that campinspecter made is doing well as I mixed a lot of sea soil into it before planting. Two squash plants and carrots are coming along great.

I think next year in the spring, I will have to get a trailer load of sea soil and mix it in well before planting anything.

 

Getting quite the wash out here in NY too, seems like it's rained every day for the past 2 weeks until yesterday. Not seeing much issue with my plants other than maybe the zukes getting too much water - most of the female buds being put out on the plants turn yellow well before even reaching a flowering stage. I would assume it's just over watering related but I don't know. They look totally healthy other than that, and between 4 of them I'm still getting enough zukes throughout the week anyway.

I pulled one garlic bulb a couple weeks ago and thought it seemed small but everyone I've talked to said it's the norm for our area. Next year I'm going to feed them more/prep the soil better and see what happens.

My biggest nuisance lately is Japanese beetles and cucumber beetles. Can't even really treat with neem oil since it rains constantly, but might give it a shot this week since I only see one day of rain on the forecast.

 

I haven't really posted on this thread, but does anyone use 6 foot deer fencing?

We are thinking of a garden next year, but we absolutely need fencing. I was planning on round PT posts maybe every 8' feet and was wondering if the corners had to be cabled for support? Maybe a 24' x 32' area. Also would a galvanized top perimeter wire make sense? A bit of work and material for this, I want to make sure it is done right. Planning stages now, need an area cleared too. Will need buried wire mesh for woodchucks too.

 

I was thinking about these. They sell larger diameter. My neighbor must have ten footers for his garden.

 

I use 6' deer fence but my posts aren't too pretty - just 8' T posts driven down ideally 2ft or so. Some are a little more uneven due to how rocky my yard is. The fence is 6' tall, 1"x1" grid and plastic coated metal fence, so it is chew proof. Kinda pricey but worth it, I can send you a link for it if you want.

 

Thank you woody5506, I should be able to find similar. We use a plastic 8 ft deer fence at work around the shrubs. I'll have to check the packaging. Wire coated would be better. I was talking to our neighbor over the weekend and he had a garden. Between chipmunks and rabbits, he lost a lot vegetables over the years.

 

I tried the plastic bags hanging off things this afternoon. The deer got in last night and ate grapes vines and all my cauliflowers. Then went across the yard ate the tender shoots on the two apple trees I just planted outside of the fenced in area and then went and ate all the flower buds off the hostas. Not the ones that were blooming, the ones that had big fat juicy buds. I can't work fast enough on the fence, I have pneumonia and I'm not really supposed to be working at all, but how long can you lay in bed/sit in a chair. I get sore after a day. But right now I can only work about ten or twenty minutes and then my chest starts to hurt pretty bad. Don't get much accomplished at this rate.

 

So here’s a first for me with peppers. I save seeds year to year of varieties I like. This year I had some bell peppers on one plant that were on the small side, and red when they should’ve been yellow. I cut them open and I could smell capsaicin immediately. Took a bite and it bit back! This is an accidental hybrid of a cherry bomb and yellow bell pepper. Hopefully the plant produces more peppers so I can save the seeds (although chances are high they could be cross pollinated further) This is a fun surprise

 

open pollination is like a box of chocolates ...

 

Especially in my cramped raised beds. I’m surprised I went as many years as I did without an incident like this. Sweet, spicy, super hot, everything gets tossed in together.

 

My biggest peppers yet. Must be the weather. And the composted manure.
Jalapeno and hot banana peppers.