How does everyone deal with acorns? Went down a rabbit hole and found this http://baganut.com/small-acorn-picker-pick-up-basket/ But it's 500 bucks and doesn't have great reviews. I was thinking about mcgrubering something like this To something with wheels and a container, but I'm sure there is a better way.
Last weekend we had this Today it was 74, so I went into the hives to see how they were doing. One hive was empty and the other was full of dead bees. I'm assuming the second one's population was too low to stay warm. The rest were doing really well, so hopefully I can pull them all through the rest of the winter.
So I'm probably ahead of everyone else because I live in the desert and everything pretty much dries up and dies by June, but got my spring garden all planted yesterday. Had a couple holdouts that made it through the winter: peas and roma tomatoes, then added spinach, bell peppers, onions, corn, potatoes, cantaloupe, watermelon, and broccoli. I over-planted and had too much stuff last year for the space I have so some things got choked out. Cut back this year so hopefully everything will grow well.
Last of my seed orders arrived this week. Unfortunately I live in MN, so I still have a few months before I can really get planting outside. Earliest things to start indoors this year will be onions. I've always grown them from sets, but I want to try growing seeds to transplants into the garden this year and see if they turn out any larger. Sounds like onions are fairly slow growers from seed so I'll be starting them at the end of this month. Anybody grow onions from both seed and sets? Notice any difference? Trying some cover crops for the first time this year. I have a blend of field peas and oats from Johnny's and some crimson clover from some place on Amazon. I'm expanding a section of garden this year and will utilize the cover crops in that area. I'm also going to seed in cover crops following my garlic harvest in July. My goals are to decrease weed competition, increase soil nutrients, and improve overall soil health. I'm curious how each cover crop will turn out and to see how much winter kill I can get from each species. This will be my second year gardening at our new property and after holding back last year to assess what I have, I've decided to increase my fruit production quite a bit. I already have strawberries, raspberries, apples, and pears. I'm putting in a new bed of blueberries (2 plants each of Northland, Northblue, and Superior). I'm also going to try a couple gooseberry plants (Hinnomaki Red) and a dwarf cherry (Carmine Jewel). If my local nursery has another spring rootstock sale this year, I'm likely going to grab one more pear tree, a different cherry variety, and perhaps some currants. Curious to hear if anyone else is trying anything new this year and how the garden planning is coming along.
I'm going to plant a couple Paw Paw trees to see how they do. Clemson developed a method using baggies to minimize the spraying you have to do for fruit trees, so I think I'm going to try that this year to for my apples, peaches, and pears. My plum trees are just starting to bud out and there's no freeze in sight with warm temperatures, so I may have a banner year for plums with my bees jumping on them.
https://www.clemson.edu/extension/hgic/plants/vegetables/tree_fruits_nuts/hgic1354.html http://www.clemson.edu/extension/peach/commercial/diseases/clemsonfruitbags.html Diseases & Insects In South Carolina, control of peach pests and diseases is a challenge. For more information, please see HGIC 2209, Peach Diseases and HGIC 2210, Peach Insect Pests. The most damaging peach disease is a fruit rot commonly called brown rot. There are a number of insects that cause damage and entry ports for rots. These insects include plum curculio, stink bugs, grasshoppers, beetles and moths. Commercial growers typically spray fungicides and insecticides on a 7 to 10 day interval between bloom and harvest to protect the fruit from damage or rot. If the homeowner opts to use a spray program, it should begin with dormant sprays and be carried through the growing season. Although products are available at gardening stores for homeowners, many gardeners are not inclined to use pesticide applications for home fruit production. Instead, hobbyist gardeners may use bags to protect fruit from pests and diseases. Clemson University has tested and is promoting the use of specialty bags that, if used properly, allow for production of high quality fruit with very little pesticide input. The bags are recommended for use in a three step fashion: (i) properly take care of your trees to minimize tree stress; (ii) protect your fruit from pests and insects between bloom and the day of bagging; and (iii) enclose nail-sized, green fruit (typically 3 weeks after bloom) with a specialty bag to be removed at harvest. For purchase information and use instructions please see: Clemson Fruit Bags or simply google this page using the key words “Clemson Fruit Bags”. Clemson Fruit Bag developed for the home orchard and hobbyist fruit gardener. Homeowners now have a way to actually harvest peaches or apples from their garden trees without the need for weekly applications of pesticides. Clemson University has shown that fruit can be produced in specialty bags even in the hot and humid southeastern U.S. environment. The bags are designed to completely encase the fruit allowing for minimal chance of attack by fungi and insects. Furthermore the Clemson Fruit Bags allow proper light penetration needed for the desired red blush on peaches and apples. Some studies even indicate that bagged fruit has increased aroma. The Clemson Fruit Bags can be used by organic peach growers to protect valuable fruit from the dreaded plum curculio insect and the commonly devastating brown rot disease. Our research has shown that if the bags are used properly(click here for instructions), insect and disease incidence is dramatically reduced while fruit quality is maintained. Bags can also be used by conventional growers to grow a ‘priority peach’ or ‘low-residue peach’ for specialty markets and premium pricing (click here to see a related video).
My parents got me some maple tapping equipment for Christmas, so yesterday we went out and tapped the few maple trees we have on the property. Got about a gallon of sap overnight, boiled it down today, and got this. It was surprisingly easy, but I understand why the stuff is so expensive. From a gallon we got maybe 4oz of syrup.
Thinking of starting a worm composting bin. Anyone have one? Seem pretty easy and cheap to get going and should really help with my garden.
Finishing up a couple of 4'x8' raised beds this weekend. What do you guys usually put out this time of year (in Alabama)? I'm thinking it's too early to put out most of the veggies/peppers that I want to grow, but I don't want to waste any time if there's anything I can go ahead and get in the ground.
What part of Alabama? Coastal, you can certainly plant now - but Montgomery to Birmingham, Id be cautious. Though, you'd probably be fine. I put in a bunch of peppers, jalapenos, tomatoes, and okra last weekend.
Auburn If I get stuff planted, worst case is we get a frost, everything dies, and I have to replace it all, right?
With your garden, you can probably cover the beds and be fine. Im sure we will have another cool snap, but odds are it wont be bad. Yes, absolute worst case is you re-plant.
I already know I planted too close together but I couldn't say no to anything. I'm a little more concerned about lack of sunlight, the above pic was taken at 3 pm and it's nearly full shade. Planted tomatoes (3 types), romaine lettuce, Serrano peppers, jalapeños, Meyer lemon tree, cilantro, carrots, broccoli, blackberries, blueberries, rosemary, bell peppers, thyme, strawberries, parsley, green onions, scallions. No clue what I'm doing but gotta start somewhere.
Built a 9'x6' raised bed a few weeks ago and filled it with a couple of cubic yards of soil and compost. Planted tomatoes (6 types), cauliflower, patty pan squash (green and yellow), rosemary, basil, thyme, oregano, and sage. Still have a good bit of space so will probably plant some beans and such as well.
Your probably fine long as your not losing morning light. It's pretty impressive how much higher the sun gets between now and June so that spot will be getting a lot more sun. I use the sun seeker app which is pretty neat and helps to show what kind of sunlight I'm going to get at different spots in my yard.
Those are strawberries right next to the closest red tomato cage, correct? The berries are going to cause a big problem with your lack of space and cause a big mess in a short time. If anything, I'd try and move those strawberries to the far right end and train them to run out into the lawn.
I read once that strawberries are terrible neighbors in gardens so when I grew some a few summers ago I tried container planting using cut in half wooden barrels. The barrels worked great but I only ever got a handful of strawberries big and ripe enough to eat because I couldn't keep the birds off of them. I even put some netting over them but then the squirrels got in on the act. I'm sure they would have been good.
Been meaning to contribute to this thread, this is more on the homesteading side of things. My dad has 5 acres and is getting older so with my new job I've had some more free time to help him out. It was was abnormally rainy this winter in California so it put off some projects but I did get around to pruning the oaks we've got and clearing away the under brush. It was a lot of chainsaw/pole saw work and burning but nice to get it done with, something we wont have to do for another 10+ years. I didn't take many pictures of pruning but this is a photo out back after some pole saw work, only probably about 10% of what was eventually done. Got around to burning when the weather cleared. Just a nice sunset.
Today though we just about finished up putting in about 300' of 1 1/2" to get water down the hill, have a little bit of back fill left to do tomorrow morning. This was purely a convenience thing so we dont have to run a bunch of hoses to our burn piles at the bottom of the hill, threw in 3 spigots along the way. Had a friend with a mini ex do the digging so that saved 90% of the labor. Down the hill After finishing up back filling the top half.
Thanks. Its my folks place and my dads put a lot of work into it over the years. As he gets older (65+) I just try and help him out on with the physical labor portion.
Caught the first swarm of the year in Clemson today. They still have a hive living in their cinder block wall. I'm 99% sure this swarm came from there.
I still have snow on the ground, but I should start thinking about what I'm going to plant this year. Last year I did 7 tomato plants, two tomatillos, and four pepper plants in addition to my three blueberry bushes which got zapped early in the season. We had a really warm streak in February last year for a week or two that caused everything to open up then the weather decided to be winter again and froze everything and mostly killed the bushes for the year. I graduate this semester, have a three week trip to Europe in June, and start my first job in July, so I'm not exactly sure what I can plant that will be lower maintenance because the 7 tomato plants last year were out of control and I was eventually begging people to take tomatoes. My indeterminate tomatoes were well over 10 feet tall when I chopped them at the end of the season, and I don't want to deal with all the staking again. Will probably do a few tomato plants and some peppers, and maybe throw in something else. I'm not sure yet.
I planted 7 tomato plants this weekend (one tomatillo) and 4 pepper plants, along with some squash and cucumbers my wife picked out for some reason there were no Jalapeno's out for sale at the place we went, someone told me there may be a shortage of jalapenos in our area this year which would be a travishamockery
Found this frame of pollen in one of my hives. I think all the different colors make it neat. Also a picture showing the difference between a queen, drone and worker bee. A drone is at 4 o'clock of the queen.
is the queen the one with the long ass? also, tons of rain this wknd/wk for most of the midwest/east. things will be poppin shortly.
had to resort to planting seeds for patty pan squash and okra. We'll see what kind of germination rate I get. Hope it's not too late for the squash. Should be right in the sweet spot for okra. Wanted the patty pan squash because it grows more compact and bush-like than regular zucchini/squash vines. I found the green patty pans at my local nursery, but got the yellow ones from here along with the Louisiana Jewel and Burgundy okra http://www.davids-garden-seeds-and-products.com/buy-vegetable-seeds-home-page.html
I decided to try and raise my own queens through a method called grafting. It's where I take a thin reed like tool, pick up the young larva, and put it in a cup that I then install a bunch of them in a hive that doesn't have a queen. Out of 9 of these cups, 7 were taken up by the bees and turned into queen cells. So I'm ecstatic so far. Larva to be moved
Went a couple years ago to visit a friend who was working at a vineyard. Just really beautiful. Cool downtown too.