In The Garden April 2024

[wildhorseluvr]

indianjoe, welcome to the forum! 

Share a little bit about yourself if you’re so inclined. What’s your general location? I’m in SW Idaho…formerly from central Oregon.

[laurazone5]

Mowed 1/4 of my back yard. The other 3/4 is wild with tall grass and clover and nettles and violets! I left it wild for the pollinators and they did not disappoint.
Almost ever flower on my peach tree is now a baby peach!!!!
I let the Kale and Rhubarb go to flower to give some 'variety' in treasures for the bees.

Made 3 more buckets of Jadam fertilizer.

Started winding my hops around the wire so they can take off.

Elderberry's are growing like crazy.

Had to bury a baby bunny Monday. Poor little guy. Not sure what killed him.

Plants are going crazy in the house, but I think I over fertilized my tomatoes.........they are not looking so good.

I'm so far behind, with so little time to go! LOL

[fixitguy]

I put in a row of lettuce and radishes in the 14th. We got 3 more rows of lettuce in the ground on the 21st. We have had a warm snowless winter and a nice spring here in west central Wisconsin.

[mzgarden]

Wow, I'm jealous of you folks in warmer weather, but we'll get our warm up eventually. We had 30F temps 2 nights ago. My peas in the garden are coming along. Harvested our first lettuce and spinach for salads and our asparagus has been producing nicely. Seeds are started and some are doing well and others are just sitting. Lost some leaves on the figs in pots due to the below freezing temps but I think they're ok, in general. The quince, pear and peach trees were covered in blooms - not sure if they all froze 2 nights ago. Time will tell.

[Txsteader]

Busy, busy. Should be picking yellow squash by next week, if not sooner - zucchini not flowering yet. Picked my first mess of bush snap beans. Rattlesnake pole beans are covered with blooms and tiny beans. I'm excited about those, this is my first year growing them and they're doing so much better than Blue Lake pole beans. Slowly clearing out the carrots as they fill out.

I've got baby tomatoes! Glacier, a very short season variety started blooming when it was less than a foot tall. First year growing those. I'm trialing a few other varieties to see what will grow well; Super Sioux, Homestead 24, Wes. Varieties I'm growing again are Cherokee Purple, Stupice and Gardener's Delight which was described as being very similar to Cherub tomatoes in the grocery store. I agree, they're delicious tomatoes and produce like mad - those are the plants that grew 8' tall because by late summer, I'd started neglecting them. But they were still setting fruit occasionally.

Bell peppers are in the ground. Some other varieties I planted late are still in pots; Italian Frying pepper, Cubanelle and Pepperoncini. Asparagus still putting up a few stalks - they're so dang good that I planted some more 2 y.o. roots. We could eat bushels of asparagus! Sunflowers got off to a slow start b/c I didn't realize what heavy feeders they are. Dosed them with liquid organic fertilizer and they're looking much better.

I had some extra pots this year so for grins and giggles I planted some grocery store russet potatoes. I planted 2 pots initially, only 1 came up. I found some more potatoes that I'd overlooked and were sprouting so I planted 3 more pots with them. My first attempt at growing potatoes a few years ago was so-so, I'm hoping to get results like I see others doing on YT.

[ohiodreamer]

I have peas, spinach, and kale seeds in. Not seeing much growth, yet. But that's fine. Going to be in the 20's tonight Most of the apple trees are in bloom Looks like it's not likely to be a good apple year, locally.

[wildhorseluvr]

Umm, my lilac tree is blooming. That and a LOT of tulips. That’s about it. 

[laurazone5]

PRAISE THE LORD my peach tree is HEAVY with baby peaches.
Hops are growing like mad
Elderberry is HUGE and I wacked it WAY back.
The flower seeds I planted are starting to pop, especially the sunflowers.


"planted" my winecap and morel spores today when I got home from work.

So get all that done, go to sit on the front deck for an adult beverage and cigarette?
The )(&(^*&%$*()_ ground hog runs off the deck, and underneath.
Oh. Hail. No. we are not doing this again.
I have a trap set for him..........but I swear by all that's good and right, I will SSS that rat. IN CITY LIMITS.
He will NOT destroy my garden this year.

I have Monday and Tuesday off so I am going to go to my son's house and surprise him with some 'beds'.
I'm gonna plant some sunflowers but he said "plant something I can eat".
SO I will do a mushroom bed for him, some elderberries, some onions, etc......
I bought some solar lights for him so he will be surprised when he gets home from work!!

[fixitguy]

Any varmint that is burrowed underground can be easily remedied with a push mower or other gas engine and some flexible aluminum drier vent hose. You can load up the gas with extra sea foam or two stroke engine oil to give you a smoke signal on other openings around the yard.

[laurazone5]

fixitguy, my mower is electric....
Sometimes he hides under my deck, but usually he comes from the creek 3 doors down, walks on the opposite side of my privacy fence, digs under and comes in the yard.

[woolybear]

laurazone5, Step 1, find his holes, all of them. Step 2 go to store and get some Tomcat/blue death or other rat/mouse bait. Step 3 shove the pellets as far down his hole that you can, use something with a long handle so you can get the pellets into the hole. Shoving the pellets as far down the hole as possible should keep any nosy dogs out of harms way. Now wait.
I had to do this last year with a groundhog that set up shop under a stack of round bales of hay. And started making babies like crazy. I managed to shoot the youngsters, but could never get mom. Finally got her towards the end of summer with the bait.

[Billy G]

Catch him in a live trap, slap a diamond studded collar on him and drop him off at the humane society. Tell them he identifies as a chihuahua. Or get a conibear.

[fordy]

Apr 28, 2024 11:08:58 GMT laurazone5 said:

fixitguy , my mower is electric....
Sometimes he hides under my deck, but usually he comes from the creek 3 doors down, walks on the opposite side of my privacy fence, digs under and comes in the yard.

............badgers make excellent pets , IF you can obtain one as a baby ! They'll dig a condo under your home and live very comfortably year round . You'll want to acclimate them to 'inside livin' as they mature so you can bring them inside for short periods and introduce them to your dogs and cats , etc . Once mature your under ground visitors will probably be turned into dessert ! 
.............Also , they can't bark and wake up your neighbors ! They can easily be leash trained and when taken on short walks around the neighborhood they'll also trim the length of their 'Diggin' claws on the sidewalks !  , fordy

[ohiodreamer]

Yippy, got in the garden! 5 cattle panels are in place in the in-ground portion of the garden (I move them yearly). Also re-arranged the in-ground area (versus my raised bed area). I dug paths and tossed that soil to hill the "between rows" part. We will grow in the hilled area. The plan is to fill the paths with wood chips, grass clippings, and straw. Then it can hold the water and "feed" the hills as needed. Next year I'll clean up the paths tossing that decomposed material on top of the hills and continue that cycle. If I decide I don't like it, it's easy enough to rake all flat again in the future.

Extended weather says things look good to start the garden. I'll hold off on the tender plants, but I may transplant the cabbage and such soon. Tuesday will rain, again. So....maybe I should take my outside-loving grandson outside tomorrow and get some plants in. He's not walking, so he won't get too far too fast, lol. And I can introduce him to digging in the dirt. I have given up one of my raised beds to become a play space for him. This year he won't do much in there....dig and toss dirt mostly. But in future years I can see him terraforming all kinds of truck paths and such. I have a few "outside play" cars I bought for $0.25 from a thrift store. Easy to replace if left outside or get "overplayed with", lol.

[laurazone5]

TRAPPED HIM!!!

Cam home from work, and he was in the trap.
Threw him in the car and drove him to the park, by the river so he could get a drink.
When I tell you my butt cheeks were clenched driving him I kid you not. I would have wrecked the car if he would have gotten loose. LOL

I reset and baited the trap in case he told his friends!