GARDENING 2025!

[RJ2019]

I spent a good part of the morning pulling up the drip lines and clearing old vegetation. I reclaimed the tomato cages and am sending the Bermuda grass to hell where it belongs. Sheet mulching and throwing down foot-thick layers of straw doesn't cut it with the Bermuda grass, so every so often I have to lay down black plastic and cook the evil stuff. It's been a worse problem since I laid down the irrigation lines.
Here's a couple pics of my Bermuda crop before and after plastic treatment.

I'm not a huge fan of using the plastic but if I mulch over it in the summer it lasts about 4 years. Last time I resorted to this was 5 years ago...except where I planted the berries.

On the side I didn't lay down plastic I cut down the growth and emptied the poop out of the chicken coop onto it to soak in over the winter. I left an area unfertilized so I can go back out and plant onions and garlic this afternoon.

 

[Pearl]

I spent a good part of the morning pulling up the drip lines and clearing old vegetation. I reclaimed the tomato cages and am sending the Bermuda grass to hell where it belongs. Sheet mulching and throwing down foot-thick layers of straw doesn't cut it with the Bermuda grass, so every so often I have to lay down black plastic and cook the evil stuff. It's been a worse problem since I laid down the irrigation lines.
Here's a couple pics of my Bermuda crop before and after plastic treatment.

I'm not a huge fan of using the plastic but if I mulch over it in the summer it lasts about 4 years. Last time I resorted to this was 5 years ago...except where I planted the berries.

On the side I didn't lay down plastic I cut down the growth and emptied the poop out of the chicken coop onto it to soak in over the winter. I left an area unfertilized so I can go back out and plant onions and garlic this afternoon.

Looks like you have good helpers

 

[RJ2019]

Looks like you have good helpers

They try... for the 5-6 minutes I can keep their attention.

Here's the onion and garlic planting help I had. This is a tiny auger that chucks into a drill. Kids with power tools, what could possibly go wrong!?

 

[old tex]

My wife STRONGLY suggested a winter garden crop for this winter. I told her that I have a couple of planters ready, all you have to do if pick the plants & stick them in the dirt............(YOU being the key word)....So no winter crop this year.

Now the real reason for this post. It's leaf raking time here where I am. Each year I blow the leaves in a pile, pick them up & GRIND THEM UP, & put them out for the garbage men. Last year a neighbor saw me & asked for the bags of leaves. I was doing the same today (grinding them) & a guy stopped to ask me what I was going to do with them. Duh! I had put some in my new planters but didn't think about passing on the info. About 5 years ago I bought a leaf grinder on Amazon. It was made by WORKS & cost around $130? It works like a charm. Even if your not using it in your garden it does reduce the number of bags for the garbage men (about 3.5 down to 1). I also bought a "thing" that looks like a pup tent to collect the leaves in on TEMU. You rake them in (it holds a lot) & dump them into the grinder. It works GREAT! If you want more info just let me know. I HATE doing leaves but with the right equipment I've cut down the time I spend doing it by at least half.

 

[Neb]

I started stratifying garlic seeds. About 1500 or so. Germination rate is something like 10% so may be enough for 150 plants. Could be fun exploring a bunch of different garlics.

The elder clones are not disappointing.

View attachment 169094

Roots forming.

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Some buds are opening on the English walnut cuttings.

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Ben

11 days later the elderberry cuttings are developing nicely.

Root development

Meanwhile the walnut cuttings are stubborn. So I took another set of cuttings and started another batch using a different approach.

I used a razor knife to cut the bottom instead of pruning shears thinking the shears may be crushing the ends. I also scraped the bark from the bottom and used rooting hormone. Instead of soaking in water they went into moist sand.

What a difference between the elder and walnut. This made clearly obvious when I emptied a bucket holding excess cutting that had been out in the yard. I found an elder cutting in frozen block of ice with roots forming.

So wait another month and see what happens.

Ben

 

[RJ2019]

11 days later the elderberry cuttings are developing nicely.

View attachment 170060

Root development

View attachment 170061

View attachment 170062

Meanwhile the walnut cuttings are stubborn. So I took another set of cuttings and started another batch using a different approach.

I used a razor knife to cut the bottom instead of pruning shears thinking the shears may be crushing the ends. I also scraped the bark from the bottom and used rooting hormone. Instead of soaking in water they went into moist sand.

What a difference between the elder and walnut. This made clearly obvious when I emptied a bucket holding excess cutting that had been out in the yard. I found an elder cutting in frozen block of ice with roots forming.

So wait another month and see what happens.

Ben

I suspect the walnut cuttings will be much more difficult because of their juglone content. Essentially, they are keeping themselves from rooting. Try very frequent water changes, it might help somewhat.

 

[Neb]

I suspect the walnut cuttings will be much more difficult because of their juglone content. Essentially, they are keeping themselves from rooting. Try very frequent water changes, it might help somewhat.

Will try that!

I have been changing every 2-3 days. Will try every day.

Ben

 

[RJ2019]

Today I turned over the old chicken pen ground and mixed the leaves into the chicken poo mud. Will be great planting for squash in the spring. Also brought a load of leaves over from a neighbor's house and spread them in the northeast corner of the garden. I got the fruit trees that need it sprayed and treated the broccoli and cabbage with bt. I also saw some slug damage on them, will have to find the slug bait I bought. Then I cleared out the mess that was older kid's garden and cleared the Bermuda grass around and in it, then planted garlic in there. We go through a lot of kiddie pools around here for the kids and the dogs, so guess what I use when I want a raised bed?

 

[joel]

Today I turned over the old chicken pen ground and mixed the leaves into the chicken poo mud. Will be great planting for squash in the spring. Also brought a load of leaves over from a neighbor's house and spread them in the northeast corner of the garden. I got the fruit trees that need it sprayed and treated the broccoli and cabbage with bt. I also saw some slug damage on them, will have to find the slug bait I bought. Then I cleared out the mess that was older kid's garden and cleared the Bermuda grass around and in it, then planted garlic in there. We go through a lot of kiddie pools around here for the kids and the dogs, so guess what I use when I want a raised bed?
View attachment 170142

We are going to want lots of pics

 

[Patchouli]

@old tex I am finally going to get a leaf blower vac whatever. Small property so will get an electric, not cordless. I'm also concerned that one with a battery would not suit me. It seems like a ton of leaves have fallen in the past couple of weeks and the acorns are nonstop and the dog hates walking in it. LOL I'm done with raking! I'm sure I could get a teen over here from church to get the leaves up and clear the gutters. Maybe over this holiday break.
I am a little concerned about how the leaf blower will handle the acorns. For as small as the yard is, less than a 1/4 acre, I had at least 30 bags of leaves last time. THIRTY.

 

[OldSchool]

“What are your plans for the coming year in your garden?"

Since you asked… I gave it some thought. I’m thinking I’ll plant Sunflowers. Why? They’re easy grow, and when they no longer point towards the sun… it’s time to run for the hills.

Edit: Forgive the NPR link, but it came up first in a search looking for info about such things and it’s good info, for those interested in such phenomena….
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo...-why-sunflowers-turn-to-follow-the-sun-solved

 

[Pearl]

@old tex I am finally going to get a leaf blower vac whatever. Small property so will get an electric, not cordless. I'm also concerned that one with a battery would not suit me. It seems like a ton of leaves have fallen in the past couple of weeks and the acorns are nonstop and the dog hates walking in it. LOL I'm done with raking! I'm sure I could get a teen over here from church to get the leaves up and clear the gutters. Maybe over this holiday break.
I am a little concerned about how the leaf blower will handle the acorns. For as small as the yard is, less than a 1/4 acre, I had at least 30 bags of leaves last time. THIRTY.

Hubby is OBSESSED with blowers!! I don't even know how many he has now!! Yes, it's so bad he gets the Pearl triple eye roll!! The ridiculously large commercial backpack blower does do a nice job keeping the woods trails clear! As for the acorns, an older guy I clean for has a battery blower and it does pretty good with the acorns! Hope you have good luck with your's Patchouli!!

 

[Pearl]

I'm seriously thinking about running hot fence around a garden area this year! I have a new area in mind! It's my own fault the deer are so tame and enjoy my veggies! I've got some planning going on!!

 

[old tex]

@old tex I am finally going to get a leaf blower vac whatever. Small property so will get an electric, not cordless. I'm also concerned that one with a battery would not suit me. It seems like a ton of leaves have fallen in the past couple of weeks and the acorns are nonstop and the dog hates walking in it. LOL I'm done with raking! I'm sure I could get a teen over here from church to get the leaves up and clear the gutters. Maybe over this holiday break.
I am a little concerned about how the leaf blower will handle the acorns. For as small as the yard is, less than a 1/4 acre, I had at least 30 bags of leaves last time. THIRTY.

I've tried a leaf blower that also sucks & grinds the leaves. I don't recommend them if you have 30 bags of leaves. You will be emptying that bag all day long. The route that I took was a stand in place leaf grinder (Works brand) & a powerful blower. And this year I added the picker upper that I found on Temu that looks like a pup tent from our childhood days. The "tent" almost weighs nothing & you can put a HUGE amount of leaves in it. The tent doesn't weigh much & the leaves don't weigh much so it's easy to hold it above the grinder & feed them in. The ratio of regular leaves verses ground up leaves is something like 3.5 bags to 1 bag. The only drawback that I've found with the tent is that you have to make sure it doesn't blow away in wind.

This year was a huge year for leaves. I've already given a neighbor 11 bags of ground up leaves & I'll probably have 5 or 6 more bags. Here's my thinking: I want a powerful blower to blow the leaves farther & make a pile of them. Then a few strokes with a rate to fill the tent up & I'm off to grind them. I want to use the rake as little as possible because it's slower going. I used to spend at least 2 afternoons doing leaves & then a few hours clean up of what's left. Doing it the way I do it now cuts that down to about 4 hours (2 per afternoon) for the main part & then final clean up. I figure that I've cut the time in half. The grinding adds time to the process but I'm not moving 30 or 40 bags of leaves around.

 

[Patchouli]

@old tex That sounds good! Yes, a blower that can also be used to vac and grind leaves is what I was thinking but your method sounds efficient.
You didn’t say, but are you also dealing with acorns?

 

[elkhound]

@Neb i dug a few elderberry and currants i cloned in a fake quarter whiskey barrel thing from lowes this year from cuttings. Wow and just wow...i put about 12 cuttings in a barrel....now i have one huge root wad mess....i had to cut a circle around the plants i pulled out and potted up to give to a friend....massive roots of all sizes. All i did was stick cuttings in the soil in February and kept watered.

i am in business now of expansion for sure at literally no cost on some items now.

 

[Pearl]

@old tex That sounds good! Yes, a blower that can also be used to vac and grind leaves is what I was thinking but your method sounds efficient.
You didn’t say, but are you also dealing with acorns?

And watch what you buy, some of the leaf grinders won't do small sticks or acorns!!

 

[Snowman]

“What are your plans for the coming year in your garden?"

Since you asked… I gave it some thought. I’m thinking I’ll plant Sunflowers. Why? They’re easy grow, and when they no longer point towards the sun… it’s time to run for the hills.

Edit: Forgive the NPR link, but it came up first in a search looking for info about such things and it’s good info, for those interested in such phenomena….
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo...-why-sunflowers-turn-to-follow-the-sun-solved

Delving into the depths of the article :

The researchers compared mature flowers facing east with those they turned to face west, and found that the east-facing blooms attracted five times as many helpful pollinators.


That's because the east-facing flowers heat up faster.


And, "bees like warm flowers," as Harmer puts it.


"Just like people, plants rely on the daily rhythms of day and night to function," Anne Sylvester, director of the National Science Foundation's Plant Genome Research Program, says in a press release. "Sunflowers, like solar panel arrays, follow the sun from east to west. These researchers tap into information in the sunflower genome to understand how and why sunflowers track the sun."

 

[joel]

I am going to sow carrots in February, a friend said they plant them in February in zone six.

 

[Neb]

I am going to sow carrots in February, a friend said they plant them in February in zone six.

I still have about 8 in the ground. They get sweeter in the cold.... if you can dig them out of the frozen garden.

Ben

 

[OldSchool]

Delving into the depths of the article :

The researchers compared mature flowers facing east with those they turned to face west, and found that the east-facing blooms attracted five times as many helpful pollinators.


That's because the east-facing flowers heat up faster.


And, "bees like warm flowers," as Harmer puts it.


"Just like people, plants rely on the daily rhythms of day and night to function," Anne Sylvester, director of the National Science Foundation's Plant Genome Research Program, says in a press release. "Sunflowers, like solar panel arrays, follow the sun from east to west. These researchers tap into information in the sunflower genome to understand how and why sunflowers track the sun."

The short explanation is: The mature (and wise ) east facing sunflowers do so to soak-up the sun’s energy early in the day seeing it as necessary for having a productive day.

 

[Snowman]

The short explanation is: The mature (and wise ) east facing sunflowers do so to soak-up the sun’s energy early in the day seeing it as necessary for having a productive day.

You mean it has Nothing to do with the Birds and the Bees...?!? There lots of Pollinating going on there...!!!

 

[OldSchool]

You mean it has Nothing to do with the Birds and the Bees...?!? There lots of Pollinating going on there...!!!

Lol…. I have nothing against Birds and Bees activity.

 

[joel]

I still have about 8 in the ground. They get sweeter in the cold.... if you can dig them out of the frozen garden.

Ben

Yes, sugar is better in the cold.
I plant potatoes in February, so the question is, will the young seedlings die from the cold nights.

 

[Neb]

Yes, sugar is better in the cold.
I plant potatoes in February, so the question is, will the young seedlings die from the cold nights.

Carrots?

Don't know.

Ben

Edit
Can you get the seeds to germinate at low temp ?

 

[Snowman]

https://oldworldgardenfarms.com/2023/02/02/common-seed-starting-mistakes/

"If there is one thing many gardeners struggle with, it is starting seeds indoors. Whether it is not getting seeds to sprout, having young seedlings die off, or growing plants that end up weak, skinny, and unable to survive outdoor planting, it can certainly be frustrating.


But here is the good news – starting your plants indoors from seed doesn’t have to be difficult. In fact, by simply following a few tried and true practices, it can actually be quite easy. And to boot – more rewarding than you ever thought possible!"

...

#2 Starting Seeds At The Wrong Time – 6 Common Seed Starting Mistakes​

Starting seeds indoors at the wrong time is another common mistake when it comes to growing your own plants. But again, there is an easy fix!


If you start seeds too early, your plants can become large and overgrown well before it’s time to transplant outdoors. And if you start your seeds too late? Unfortunately, they may not get large enough to transplant outdoors when the time comes. And that can lead to plants that die out or don’t have enough time to produce.


So when should you start your seeds indoors? It all comes down to knowing your specific area’s average last frost date. From there, simply count backwards the number of weeks required to grow for each seed variety to be ready for transplanting. See: How To Know When To Start Seeds Indoors


Most vegetable and flower seeds need about six to eight weeks before getting to transplant size. But to be sure, always check the back of your seed packet. Nearly all seed packets contain transplant and seed starting information right on the back of the packet to help you find the right starting date.

 

[RJ2019]

Carrots?

Don't know.

Ben

Edit
Can you get the seeds to germinate at low temp ?

Carrots are relatively hardy, they get planted as a winter crop here and once they are up they will withstand some (I'm not sure exactly how much) snow and frost. I had trays of carrots at my last job in a greenhouse that collapsed in a snowstorm (and couldn't be repaired, the tube framing was crap) and they survived the February snows. They don't germinate that well in the cold, but if you direct sow them in the ground they'll come up when they're ready.

 

[old tex]

@old tex That sounds good! Yes, a blower that can also be used to vac and grind leaves is what I was thinking but your method sounds efficient.
You didn’t say, but are you also dealing with acorns?

You didn’t say, but are you also dealing with acorns?

One of my trees in the front yard does drop acorns (3 others drop pecans). I don't do anything with the acorns. Using a blower I rarely move them into anything that I've used to pick them up. I just leave them & generally they rot in the grass. They are dense so if I raked, I would be picking them up & I rake as little as possible.

I should be raking now but I bought 240 lbs of bird food today & had to cart it into the back yard. Plus I filled all the feeders so that's my 1 "project" for today. I figure at my age 1 project per day is enough unless I'm really in the mood. Of course I'll probably have a beer or 2 later & get bored & end up grinding & bagging leaves.

 

[old tex]

Worx WG430 13 Amp Electric Leaf Mulcher​

Is what I use to grind up the leaves. And no it doesn't grind up medium & larger sticks & I'm sure it doesn't do acorns. But as I'm dumping the leaves in the top I generally see & throw sticks to the side. It's a very simple machine & uses a weed eater line to cut up the leaves. When the line wears out it takes about 3 to 5 minutes to change it out. And it does a pretty good job I am NOT interested in buying an expensive machine to sit there 11 months out of the year.

The one thing I didn't like about it the first year was that you couldn't fit a full size garbage can under the frame. The 2nd year I got smart & put the leaf bag on the frame & then set the top back on. One warning though, you condense those leaves enough that if you fill the bag you can't pick it up without the bag ripping (too much weight). The title above is what it's listed on Amazon as. Be sure to read the negs, like always.

 

[SoJer]

..This count?

..but, Srsly, only grow it to make 'Canna-butter', as 'Deep-Pain Balm'.. Pinky-Promise.. Stuff is Awesome for that..

Overall, This is how I personally feel about the Importance of the need to Learn and Practice LTGardening:

Yep.. ..But, indeed, the 'Reality' is harsher than people Think..

We, at least, Constantly grow our own 'Countertop Herbs' (Mint, Basil, Green Onion, etc, etc) and Have 'proven out' the Soil-quality, here by growing from 'just scraps'.. Tomatoes, Potatoes, Romaine, Celery, Cantaloupes one time, Strawberries, 'bucket Carrots', etc, but..

..Just don't have the 'Space' (nor are we in Our 'BOL', currently ) to yield 'Enough to be anything Serious', but.. Know-how is there (at least for raised-beds / 'Poly-Barrel growing') and Do have some 'Greenhouse-understructure' materials stashed in One of our 'caches' (up in NorCal, tho..) and Pumps / Hoses / fittings / drip-line, etc, etc.. But.. Yah - 'Long term Gardening' eludes us, for the moment, still...

..But, IF we can manage to 'Survive the die-off / First Year'.. I think we'll make it thru, one way / another.. Do have "Plans B, C and D", but.. As-always... We shall see..

jd