Whatcha Up To???

[w_r_ranch]

Nice plan, Wader!

Today I finished mixing the starter soil & filling the seed starting pots in preparation for Saturday, which is when I will get them going.

 

[majorcatfish]

everything has been frozen rock solid for the last month finally we are getting some warmer weather our way.
so going to fire up all the toys and let them run awhile and write down everything i need to service them next weekend.
not going to spend to much time outside today been battling the flu..

 

[ErnieCopp]

I got the raspberries transplanted, and that will be a big improvement. Seeing more small leaf development, and hoping no more frost.
Still have some more grapes to prune, but in pretty good shape for a while.

Ernie

 

[w_r_ranch]

Got the seed flats planted, watered & put them in the greenhouse. Turned the heat up to 70 degrees.

 

[w_r_ranch]

Attached the last of the PVC pipe to the last 6 risers & moved them out of the garage, in preparation of installing the bull panel trellis'.

Rainy & 54 here (it never made it into the 60s as forecast)... hope I don't get sick again.

 

[Mike]

Rainy/Icy and 30 degrees here today. Got about a total of .25" of ice everywhere and trees down in a number of places. Luckily no trees down in my yard.

 

[w_r_ranch]

Picked up the 'Red Pontiac' seed potatoes from the feed store & put them in a cooler to hasten eye development. I will cut them & get them dusted up with powered sulfur a few days prior to planting them (on or about February 21st.

While in the greenhouse, I noticed that the 3 new fig tree cuttings are doing nicely & have developed a number of fat green buds,

 

[ErnieCopp]

Figs may turn out to be one of my favorite crops. I have been enjoying a few of the dried figs on my cereal each morning. I only partially dried them, and then put in the freezer, but will dry them a bit more next year. Supposed to be raining here today, but that is pretty hard to do when the Sun is shining brightly.
It may be worse in CA this year than it was in Kansas in 1935 during the Dust Bowl Drought. Ottawa was about 20 miles up the river from the town i lived in, and they had signs in the Ottawa toilets that said: "PLEASE FLUSH THE TOILETS. OSAWATOMIE NEEDS THE WATER."

Ernie

 

[w_r_ranch]

Got 3 flats (144 plants) of french marigolds going. These will be interplanted with the vegetables to ward off any nematodes that may have been brought in with the new soil.

The french marigold flower exudes a potent substance (thiophene) in their roots and leaves. The theory is that the in the immediate vicinity, the substance might catch and kill some of the pests called ‘root-knot nematodes’, a common pest of many vegetables, flowers, and shrubs. Aphids /White flies also hate the smell of the Marigold.

The French Marigold is particularly beneficial to tomatoes, squash, eggplant, broccoli, potatoes & peppers (but don’t plant them with beans).

 

[majorcatfish]

funny you brought that up, was digging in one of my books yesterday on pests of course it covered nematodes and the use of
marigolds throughout the garden.
it mentioned if you have a problem with nematodes to not plant in the garden for a year, but to plant marigolds as a cover crop and till them in
before they go to seed..just think a whole garden of marigolds, dang you would score a whole bunch of points with the wife..

after that went back digging on pest control and the use of spinosad, bt, neem. planning on going less petrochemical this year since the discovery of a wild bee hive here on the property. hope they made it though that extreme cold weather we had.

was planning on servicing all the toys but between the highs in the upper 40's and recovering from the flu, what's another week to do it..
did finally order all the seeds getting that time to get the grow table ready. getting that time to start the tomatoes, bells, eggplant.

the dogs took me for my walk this morning, we stopped at the raised beds while there had a good long look at the last gumball tree that has to come down< love the tree, but hate the gumballs>dang that tree has some wicked twists to it, all the wrong way. will have to get a couple more chains and falling wedges to tackle this tree.

 

[ErnieCopp]

Had a good short day today. Finished stringing wire on the Raspberry trellis, removed a Perlette and Thompson Seedless grapevines, as not ripening sweet enough in this climate. Replaced with tip layered cuttings, a Himrod and a Concord, huge amounts of roots on both plants, so hoping for a lot of growth. Saw more earthworms than before, so they are coming back slow.

Mowed lawn, and knocked off early.

Ernie

 

[45 ACP]

I pulled up what little was left of my fall garden with the exception of my onions and carrots... they are still growing. I shoveled about half the dirt from my original bed into the newly built bed, to the point where both beds were about half full. Then went and got a load of fresh garden mix and filled the remainder of both beds till they were both full. This way they both have the same soil mixture with the older dirt on the bottom and fresh dirt on top in both beds.

 

[ErnieCopp]

I finished the Raspberry trellis last weekend but just took the pix yesterday. The berries were growing through the fence so the picking will be easier now. The tilled ground is where i plant cantaloupe and watermelons.

ErnieView attachment 612

 

[Ibtsoom]

I made it out to the local nursery on Saturday and hit the jackpot with herbs and a few early tomatoes and peppers. I'll just have to baby them through the last of the winter. I'll plant the rest around the first couple weeks of march but this should get me started.

On another note.. Some time on Sunday my appendix decided it had enough and ceased to function. After 15 hours of so of excruciating pain and an emergency surgery here I sit in the hospital. Wonder if I can get my wife to do the tilling for me now.

 

[w_r_ranch]

Trimmed all our ferns (hanging baskets) & watered everything in the greenhouse. The tomatoes, eggplant & peppers are getting their first real leaves. The buds on the fig tree cuttings are starting to leaf out too!

Hopefully I can continue raking the dirt level in the garden tomorrow.

 

[w_r_ranch]

Well crap... I went out yesterday to finish the leveling & my 30 yr.old lil' tiller burned out... Ok, I go over to the barn & break out the big tiller, it fired right up, so I let it idle for 10 minutes before heading to the garden... as soon as I engaged the tines it died. GRRRRR!!!

I messed with it for an hour & said "that's it". I took it to the shop this morning... if it's not one thing, it's another.

 

[majorcatfish]

i know your frustration about that, inherited my father in laws 1974 ariens rocket 5 tiller 11 years ago it has been a money pit, but on a plus side, it has been basically rebuild from the ground up.
replaced the b/s 5 hp with a 7 hp tecumseh < oh yes wishing for that to die>
all the the bushings and seals replaced
replaced tires
etc etc
last year replaced the tines<cough cough> according to the the dealer there is only 2 sets available though them<ariens>

will say this over the years of being here it has been a very dependable work horse in the garden, but have to say enough is enough
once something major breaks it's time to put the old girl out to pasture and look to replace her...

since i am going towards mainly gardening raised beds a good cultivator is needed, but there are times that a big boy is needed
once the day the old rocket does fail me looking to purchase a troy bilt iron horse...

hope your tiller problems are small....

 

[ErnieCopp]

I had a wonderful front tine Honda tiller for seedlings on the Nursery and it is still running, but i thought i would like a rear tine tiller so when i moved here i borrowed my daughter's rear tine tiller. Wonderful machine, easy to use, but i soon found out the tilling depth is very limited because of the frame and wheels.
So, i bought a Husqvarna, and it will dig twice as deep when you need it, but is very easy to handle with one hand for normal tilling.
One important point. The Husqvarna came with a straight anchor pin, that would dig in, and i had to but a back curve in it so the resistance could be changed gradually as desired while tilling. The resistance is how you control the depth.
And for raised beds, it would be easier to lift in, till close to corners and maneuver around.

Ernie

 

[ErnieCopp]

I picked my first crop of Oranges from a young tree today, and suffered a terrible shock and disappointment. I had been picking them and eating them off the tree, one at a time, and kept waiting for the peeling to thicken and come off easy like i expected it to. I picked the rest and took them into the house, and finally realized they were not Navel Oranges. That was the only kind i wanted and made sure when i bought the tree that it was labeled that, but now. 3 years later, i find out the label was wrong. I probably have a Valencia, and will keep it, but if any of my other trees fail, i will replace it with a Navel.

Ernie

 

[majorcatfish]

View attachment 615 View attachment 614 View attachment 614 View attachment 614

I finished the Raspberry trellis last weekend but just took the pix yesterday. The berries were growing through the fence so the picking will be easier now. The tilled ground is where i plant cantaloupe and watermelons.

ErnieView attachment 612

very nice trellis you built for your raspberries !!!! what did you use to build them.
my blackberry trellis's are showing their age need to replace the end's at least they are bowing in due to all the weight.

 

[w_r_ranch]

Line trimmed everything & cut the grass. New garden tractor worked like a charm!!!

 

[majorcatfish]

the feed shop called this morning told me that their onions and potatoes come in, so after breakfast and checking on supplies dw and i drove down there picked up.
5 lbs of yukon gold potatoes
1/2 lbs yellow onion sets
1/2 lbs red onion sets
1 lbs shallot sets
50 lbs lime
120 lbs 10-10-10
3 36 lbs greensand
50 lbs triple phosphate
2 4 lbs nitrate of soda
2 4 lbs muriate of potash
4 6" falling wedges

asked when they were going to get neem and spinosad in, she laughed 1st of april why you have bugs already.....
she rang me up...cough <oh well if your going to play, you better be ready to pay>

after lightening my wallet we drove over to the dog park to let nola blow off some steam, that dog ran and ran finding every mud puddle she could find, wish i had my camera. thank goodness there was a blanket in the car, once home she was given a bath.

after that unloaded the car and proceeded to mix up batches according to whats going in each bed and their ph / n-p-k needs and tilled them in, the beds that are going have potatoes and carrots received extra greensand.



while out there side dressed all the garlic and trimmed off all the dead leafs. this winter has been hard on the garlic.



with this years extreme cold winter think our rosemary did not make it, if it did ,it did.if not thats another 3 ' in the main garden.
surprising enough the thyme and oregano have held their own.


was going to lime/ triple/ greensand the main and potato areas, but due to all the snow and rain we have received lately and my high tech
pokie stick it's still to wet to even think about doing anything in them.

well thats what has been done so far, going to start seeds next weekend....

 

[majorcatfish]

glad that's over...... just finished organizing and repairing the germination table as well starting some seeds

24 opalko tomatoes
18 howard german tomatoes
2 umberto tomatoes
6 red bell peppers
6 green bell peppers
6 yellow bell peppers
2 ancho san luis peppers
4 sweet banana peppers
2 sweet cayenne peppers
2 sweet heat peppers
2 fooled you jalapeno peppers
2 maule hot peppers
4 purple eggplant
12 rosemary


in about 2 weeks will start the rest...

 

[ErnieCopp]

Major,

I used treated 4X4s and painted them before i placed them. I set them 18" deep and set the end posts in concrete. Raspberries support their own wait better than blackberries do. For my blackberry trellis, I sat the posts the same way, but only used two wires, one above the other, with holes drilled in the posts. But I had some extra tube top rail for chain link fence, so i drilled the posts near the top and set the rail up there, so i can hang some of teh weight from the rail if necessary, but I am about to give up on the raspberries. The thorns would not be so bad if the vines would just set there, but i am thinking the damn things jump out and grab me because i get hooked before i even touch them, I am leaving them in for this one more year, and if they hook me as bad as they did last year, i am going to take them out and put raspberries up there, too.

You have a nice set of planter boxes there, and i hope you have a good crop.

ernie

 

[majorcatfish]

Major,

I used treated 4X4s and painted them before i placed them. I set them 18" deep and set the end posts in concrete. Raspberries support their own wait better than blackberries do. For my blackberry trellis, I sat the posts the same way, but only used two wires, one above the other, with holes drilled in the posts. But I had some extra tube top rail for chain link fence, so i drilled the posts near the top and set the rail up there, so i can hang some of teh weight from the rail if necessary, but I am about to give up on the raspberries. The thorns would not be so bad if the vines would just set there, but i am thinking the damn things jump out and grab me because i get hooked before i even touch them, I am leaving them in for this one more year, and if they hook me as bad as they did last year, i am going to take them out and put raspberries up there, too.

You have a nice set of planter boxes there, and i hope you have a good crop.

ernie

Lol I know the feeling about the thorns, when we moved out here there was wild blackberries everywhere and if you grabbed one to deep you would get hooked, many times you would have to ask for help to get out........
When i decided to grow blackberries went with thornless.
Did the same as you have done 4x4 and used a 2' spread
on the cross arms, you are so right about all that weight hope the end posts can last one more season...

Thank you about the beds we are looking forward to having another great season..
Hope you have one as well