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.

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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.

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Root development

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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!!