What's Growing in the Garden

Got something in the mail yesterday, useful thing for gardening types... I've had several of these both inside and outside the house for several years now, finally decided to get more to get my outdoor pots off the ground, further away from the slugs.

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Supposed to be a deck hanging on that ledger board but, yah... Life goes on.

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Here are a couple of pics. First are the Bristol berries. This picture is pointing straight East. The berries get sun starting about noon and full afternoon sun.

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The wild berries are deep on shade, but maybe get a couple hours of sun a day. The berries start in the yellow circle and continue into the brush following the yellow dots.

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Got something in the mail yesterday, useful thing for gardening types... I've had several of these both inside and outside the house for several years now, finally decided to get more to get my outdoor pots off the ground, further away from the slugs.

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Supposed to be a deck hanging on that ledger board but, yah... Life goes on.

.
If I used those clay pots like i'd like to, I'd be watering 2 or 3 times a day right now. We're not Texas but we have 98 Dec without rain for 2 weeks and only 2 rains in 6 weeks. And they've raised our water rates to pay for all this uncontrolled growth that it is painful to water.
 
My yard is heavily forested, more shade than anything and I have many wild Rasberries which all seem to prefer the shade/part sun areas of the yard.
I have a 100'+ row of wild blackberries running N/S along a tree line that was shaded most of the day. One year I picked 12 gallons + of berries. Now it's over run with weeds and only produces small ones. I plan on mowing them down and taking care of them as I replant them.

My Mom's Bk Raspberries were on the North side of a shed and did great. The house is sold so I have to take care of what I've got. Next year, I'll put in a soaker hose earlier and if that doesn't help, I replant them down by the Blackberries along the tree line.
 
Here are a couple of pics. First are the Bristol berries. This picture is pointing straight East. The berries get sun starting about noon and full afternoon sun.

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The wild berries are deep on shade, but maybe get a couple hours of sun a day. The berries start in the yellow circle and continue into the brush following the yellow dots.

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Yes that's how my wild blackberries were too when I bought the property to build on. One of the reason I bought the property.
 
If you pay attention to the rasberry bushes, you'll notice new stems growing hard this year that won't produce any fruit. Those that were growing new last year are the ones producing fruit this year and those that produced fruit last year were dead this spring. So, every late summer/fall I go through and prune out all the stems that produced fruit this year, usually taking all the leaves to dry for red raspberry leaf tea (very good medicine). This allows the plant to put all it's energy to the growth of the stems that will produce next year.

Also, everywhere you let a long stem fall over where the end touches the ground, it will take root and produce another new plant...

I try to trellis them up a bit too, keep them untangled, spread out and off the ground so it's easier to get to the fruit and the ground rodents aren't steeling it.
Some of them are still kinda wild and overgrown. Too much work, too little time.
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If I used those clay pots like i'd like to, I'd be watering 2 or 3 times a day right now. We're not Texas but we have 98 Dec without rain for 2 weeks and only 2 rains in 6 weeks. And they've raised our water rates to pay for all this uncontrolled growth that it is painful to water.
Surprised it's so dry there. We've been getting dumped on regularly and it's been mostly humid all the time so things aren't drying out too bad. You need to move to the country where you water comes from a well... I don't like/trust the municipal water, even though ours comes primarily from four Twp. wells, I've been watering entirely out of my rainwater collection system so far.

Don't even get me started on these developers that overgrow the infrastructure by an order of magnitude and leave the people with the bill & problems. Deeper and deeper into the woods I go.
 
Storm woke me up (we got rain!) so I thought I'd post last week's activities.
I got the sunflowers transplanted into the garden. My plan was, when I collected the heads, to plant rows in the down hill section. I wanted to attract yellow finches so I can photograph them. But that area (see later photos) is overgrown with weed and Hawthorn saplings. Use to be my strawberry patch. Just haven't reclaimed it yet.
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They were mostly bare rooted and haven't bounced back yet. To the left, Horseradish in my Spinach raised bed. Potatoes to the right. Strawberry raised bed at top.

My current Raspberry row:
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Pretty pathetic. The brush in the background (center frame) is the overgrown old Strawberry patch.

Here's a better pic of my Strawberry raised bed, made from a barrel, after I mulched it.
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This Spring when I transplanted them, The rains drowned them out and they started to die. I pulled off the mulch. They bounced back until the heat. Then they started to die off again. So I put mulch back on and watered heavy. Runners have started so I replaced the dead ones. Some critter is eating the leaves so a short 12" chicken wire fence and cover go on next. Next Spring I'll put some type of rain cover on it.

Sorry for the long post :lol2: .
 
I wish I had that much space to grow things. I could clear out a bit more but not putting any more energy into this place, just concentrating on moving north.
Sounds like you may want to think about row covers for certain crops. Helps you modulate both the sun/temperature and the moisture. Even helps keep the destructive insects off to some extent.

Do you have any idea if your plants/seeds are coming from zones comparable to yours? I've been making a greater effort to buy from suppliers that are in zones that match my climate and things are doing a lot better than when seed was coming from the hot south and California... Found a really great seed supplier in the Finger Lakes region of NY and another in Maine.

Hawthorn is another outstanding herbal medicine... Could save your life one day. Pick a couple good ones and give them what they need to thrive. Real nice wood for spoon carving too, at least from what I've seen. Still waiting to get my hands on some.
 
I was actually trying to cut back on the garden. Too much to take care of, finally almost caught up. This is the best it's looked in a long time.
I buy my seeds locally so I really don't know.
I've got a large roll of black mess. I thought about cutting strips out of it and ad some lumber and it to my Raspberry fence for some shade.
Cold be Honey Locust too. Has thorns.
 
First potatoes from the garden. 'Superior' is the variety. Having them for supper along with the first head of broccoli and some ham.

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I wish I had that much space to grow things. I could clear out a bit more but not putting any more energy into this place, just concentrating on moving north.
Sounds like you may want to think about row covers for certain crops. Helps you modulate both the sun/temperature and the moisture. Even helps keep the destructive insects off to some extent.

Do you have any idea if your plants/seeds are coming from zones comparable to yours? I've been making a greater effort to buy from suppliers that are in zones that match my climate and things are doing a lot better than when seed was coming from the hot south and California... Found a really great seed supplier in the Finger Lakes region of NY and another in Maine.

Hawthorn is another outstanding herbal medicine... Could save your life one day. Pick a couple good ones and give them what they need to thrive. Real nice wood for spoon carving too, at least from what I've seen. Still waiting to get my hands on some.
I'll keep an eye for some Hawthorn for you. Two years ago they cut a few 8-12 inchers (DBH) under a local powerline. Being I lacked the time to properly ID them for species, I let them go....
 
I'll keep an eye for some Hawthorn for you. Two years ago they cut a few 8-12 inchers (DBH) under a local powerline. Being I lacked the time to properly ID them for species, I let them go....
That would be awesome and much appreciated...
I've never seen one more than just a couple inches diameter. I don't remember off hand and don't know how many of them are local but I remember reading there's some absurd number of different species of Hawthorn. I know for the Brits it near as common as Beech is here, as a full size tree.
 
What'd ya do, wash the skins rite off?
They have a little skin, but at this early stage, it's still very tender and pale. Even at maturity, 'Superior' has a very white, thin skin.

We've had a lot of rain, so didn't even need to scrub these, just hosed them off and put them in the pan to boil.
 
I grew my first ever potatoes this year, in 5 gal buckets. Got enough for one meal and they were very good

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Surprised it's so dry there. We've been getting dumped on regularly and it's been mostly humid all the time so things aren't drying out too bad. You need to move to the country where you water comes from a well... I don't like/trust the municipal water, even though ours comes primarily from four Twp. wells, I've been watering entirely out of my rainwater collection system so far.

Don't even get me started on these developers that overgrow the infrastructure by an order of magnitude and leave the people with the bill & problems. Deeper and deeper into the woods I go.
Yeh, Its been often like yesterday, a pretty good, solid block of showers had dead aim on us. Being in construction, I've become a radar watcher. The closer the "band" got, I could see it start breaking up about 20-30 miles out. The middle of it basically broke up and the two remaining parts passed to the north and to the south. Pretty common occurence. Or like early part of next week, I watched one heat/popup shower pop up about 50-60 miles to the NW - headed straight for us, but 10 miles out - it popped down! I mean, I've heard about the "Island Effect", but this is extreme! And No! The Island effect does not result in Crazy Islanders - at least I don't think it does!
 
Yeh, Its been often like yesterday, a pretty good, solid block of showers had dead aim on us. Being in construction, I've become a radar watcher. The closer the "band" got, I could see it start breaking up about 20-30 miles out. The middle of it basically broke up and the two remaining parts passed to the north and to the south. Pretty common occurence. Or like early part of next week, I watched one heat/popup shower pop up about 50-60 miles to the NW - headed straight for us, but 10 miles out - it popped down! I mean, I've heard about the "Island Effect", but this is extreme! And No! The Island effect does not result in Crazy Islanders - at least I don't think it does!
Ever thought your water company was paying the weatherman?
 
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