Gardening Thread - Show me your gardens!

Yeah, I thought so at the time. The Apartment itself was tiny, so during the summer we made it feel 'bigger' with the screen door.

 

"Hey honey, I'm feeling a little closed in today, can you open the front door?"

 

Saturday I turned over the garden beds to loosen the soil up after the winter snow compaction. Then I went through and added the amendments (old horse manure and compost, and lime in one bed because the soil was too acidic) and mixed those in, so I ended up turning them over twice.



Trusty garden hoe

Then once I was finished I got curious about what kind of weight I was moving, so I did some math-ing.
A random sample of my garden soil weighed in at 80lbs per cubic foot, after I'd gone through and loosened it up and added the good stuff. I turned over roughly 190 cubic feet of garden space, so that means that I moved around 15,000lbs of dirt. Twice. With a garden hoe.
Rawr

I think I'll borrow a rototiller for the 8' x 35' bed, though, lol.

 

So on Sunday I played lazy and just did light-duty stuff instead. Got the peas and beans planted, got the hoops set up on two of the garden beds to warm the soil up enough for tomatoes and cukes to go in (but didn't get pictures )
And I got sick of messing with plastic sheeting every year to warm the small beds up for my pepper plants, so I turned them into actual cold frames instead.




The lids hinge up and hook into anchors I added to the brickwork, so as the season goes on I can keep them out of the way. Haven't decided yet if I want to paint the interiors to add to the heat gain or not. Probably won't need to; the thermometer I had in there yesterday afternoon was reading around 100 degrees after just a couple of hours in the sun with the completed frames.

 

I walked outside on this beautiful day and was devastated to find that my kale has been gorged on by a rabbit.
I planted it 4 weeks ago and it was about 4 inches high. They stayed away from my broccoli which is much larger.

I will obviously just have to replant. Anyway to stop these buggers?
I cannot build a fence as I live in an area where HOA doesn't allow it. I organically garden so any way to keep the fight to a more natural means would be great.

I also have evidence of voles in my lawn and garden. So far no casualties if those.

 

I'd suggest the $.02 cure, but if the HOA won't allow fences they're probably against guns...


Hot red pepper, the higher the capsacin content the better.
Add 1 tablespoon of hot sauce/ground red pepper/ground cayenne pepper, 1 tablespoon of dish soap to a gallon jug and fill it with warm water. Mix everything together in good shape and then fill a spray bottle and spritz it onto your plants. The bunnies will learn to leave them alone because they won't like having their mouths on fire.

 

Currently battling a neighborhood cat at our place. I'll likely end up buying a motion sensing water sprayer and leaving it on at night when he usually comes in and shits in our garden box.

Lowest cost model is about $40 on Amazon, so not low cost - but it should work great and I'm at the point where that means a lot. Having a kid now makes me less patient when it comes to dealing with annoyances like that.

 

We have vole issues too, ate all my potato plants last year and took down a fairly large rose bush a few weeks ago by eating the roots. Tried poison, didnt do anything, and dont want to keep using it for fear of poisoning the chickens. We bought 3 solar powered noisemakers that you stick into the ground. They buzz and vibrate every 30 seconds. Too soon to say whether they're effective.

 

Unfortunately I will likely get arrested if using one of my weapons on the property. Wish I had more land so I could shoot the fuckers. Will try a pepper spray.

My grandfather used to put black pepper in his garden soil in the past to deter cats. My fear with cats pooping in the garden is parasites (that's why you should never let your kids play in sand boxes, that's where most parasitic infections come from).

 

I've read all kinds of things to add to soil, including laying chicken wire down before you plant because cats apparently won't walk on chicken wire.

I'd try them all, but don't want to experiment anymore. I want him out of my yard. A water blast should change his mind. Luckily he's the only pest I have to deal with, at least so far.

 

I need to get some photos of the garden my wife and I are working on. we have a few raised vegetable beds and working on a butterfly/bee garden.

 

Do you have the space to put in a hive?

 

We will next spring this year is hoping to just to attract a few that are in the area. there are some really nice flowing trees and gardens around us so we have bees passing though a good bit.

 

For sure. That's why when I built one of my honorary nephews a sandbox for his birthday I put a lid on it. That way when he's done playing his parents just close the lid.

Edit: Of course, by now he's shoveled so much sand out of the box that it's a moot point anyway.

 

If you live in a state where it is legal to do so of course.

Put a foil perimeter around it. Cats hate walking on foil

 

Garden in its current state, lots of bulbs and seeds planted and we have already had one harvest of lettuce. Don't mind the scrap wood pile or the Jeep engine block those will be leaving soon.

 

This is the east coast, we dont have the silly "I was here first, this is MY water" laws of the western states.

 

You're correct. You just have silly "I need to have my truck inspected every year" and "you can't off road here" laws

 

Ha ha!! True, I always envy you guys with seemingly limitless space to offroad. Also, publicly accessible coastlines are awesome.

 

https://www.truthorfiction.com/collecting-rainwater-is-illegal-in-some-states/