Ecnerwal wrote:

Well, for the first time in forever I ordered seeds way early. But not
for the first time I planted the garlic way late.

it makes a little difference, but not too much.
i had our garlic planted shortly after the red
pepper plants got frosted out.


As mentioned when I
did my kraut experiments, I'll be growing cabbage for the first time as
a direct result of the kraut experiments.




I have hopes to get the expletive fence rebuilt, cat-tight and deer
high (one of the neighbors trained the local deer by growing sunflowers
a few years ago. Used to be a 4 foot fence was sufficient - they could
have jumped it but didn't bother - now they jump like crazy.) Related is
rebedding. Going to try woodchips (deep) on the paths. Related is...

i like the woodchips here that we use in a lot of
mulching for the perennial gardens and i use them for
filler underneath some gardens to get more elevation
to help with flash flooding.

after a few years they get rotted enough that they
make good compost/humus addition to the clay soil
here.


Got more drainage to do.

Need to haul more poop, since poop is the essence of garden here in
"throw pots from the sub-soil" land. If you ain't got poop, you ain't
got topsoil.

worm poop is my favorite. i move a few
hundred lbs of that a season for the most
heavily feeding plantings. the rest get a
mix of whatever is on hand that will get
digested by the worms. seems to be working
as most gardens keep gradually improving each
season.

noticed the most differences in the gardens
where i'd grown cover crops and then turned them
under. buckwheat, winter rye, winter wheat,
turnips, radishes, etc. turns this clay into
butter.


Tilt at the bleeping windmill of creeping buttercup. It makes me think
about 2, 4, D which is not exactly my normal thought direction on
gardening. Nothing all that new there, though - it's been a battle for
years.

luckily, only patch of that here is on the south side in
a grassy area that gets mowed. hasn't shown up in any of
the other gardens (so far!). i'm always keeping an eye out
for new invaders because i've well learned over the years
that it's much easier to head something off in the early
stages than to have to deal with it later.


Might actually redo the grape trellis, but I've been saying that and not
getting it done for a few years.

*nods* i have an old trellis that i'd like to put up
some wire fencing for some climbing beans, but i've not
gotten to that yet either.


songbird