What's Growing in the Garden

When you have more japanese persimmons than your dear wife can eat before they spoil - especially while recovering from surgery - what do you do with them. Pulp and freeze. But also make Persimmon Cheesecake Jelly Roll. Did not roll without cracking - but will taste purdy darn good anyways. Saving for Thanksgiving!

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djg said:
Renovation Day

Yes I know it's late but it took me this long to prepare the area I wanted to transplant the strawberries in. After I got started, I realized is wasn't big enough so I tilled up more ground. Ended up with a 14' x 20' patch. Most were only rooted in the mulch of the flower bed. So, I planted fairly thick in case some don't survive. If I end up with 50% I'll be happy.

I planted, watered, applied mulch and watered again. Once the leaves become erect, I'll mulch heavier and then weed whip the leaves. I'll set up a sprinkler for daily watering in this heat.
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I had to move (again) my soon to be garlic raised bed (box at top). I've got to find a new place for it. I don't think it will hold all the garlic I ordered. It'll go in a new row in the garden.

Anyone know approximately how many cloves are in 2 pounds (4 varieties) of garlic?
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Time to start the 2026 Garden Season. A couple days next week, the temps are to be in the 60s. I hope to spend a couple hours each day working in the garden.

The above mentioned strawberry endeavor was a bust. Too late in the year to transplant despite mulch and constant watering. I guess since most transplant were bare rooted only in the compost of my front flower bed, most did not survive.

I've got another set of plants that I left in the flower bed. I want to transplant them this year. I don't care if they produce or not; just take root.
We've got rain coming Wednesday night, so I was wondering if now would be a good time to transplant them? Or would it be better to wait until Spring?
 
I don't do any transplanting this time of year as our ground is frozen....

If your ground isn't frozen, you can transplant, but the only advantage is to maybe save a little time later. Lot of potential disadvantages, all related to root damage and dessication. Also possible you could break dormancy in disturbed plants by roots warming during the process.

My thoughts are that if plants will be lost to construction, moving soil, other activities, move them now so it's not a total loss. If you are looking to save time/work later, I'd leave them in place.
 
trc65 said:
I don't do any transplanting this time of year as our ground is frozen....

If your ground isn't frozen, you can transplant, but the only advantage is to maybe save a little time later. Lot of potential disadvantages, all related to root damage and dessication. Also possible you could break dormancy in disturbed plants by roots warming during the process.

My thoughts are that if plants will be lost to construction, moving soil, other activities, move them now so it's not a total loss. If you are looking to save time/work later, I'd leave them in place.
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Yeh, just getting antsy. I've got plenty more other things I can do instead.
 
As I mentioned before, I'm considering putting up an electric fence around my garden this year. Mostly for the deer. I've got 4 indoor/outdoor cats now that will take care of the smaller critters. Went to local farm store to see what they had. Ended up buying a 0.25 joule charge for $20 (clearance). Most low end ones I've seen on Amazon are only 0.1 joules. My garden is only 100' x 100' tops,and I'm only running a single strand waist high. So I should be good.

I'm a little ignorant about the type/gauge of wire to buy. I've seen Aluminum and Galvanized in both 16 or 17 gauge. Any combination preferred?
 
I bought a spool of aluminum wire more than 10 years ago and am still using pieces of it. It will corrode and break in places over time, but easy to splice by hand without any tools. Galvanized needs a pair of pliers to do a decent splice. Don't know what gauge that I got. Areas that I use fence around change every year, so I've got tons of splices. If you had runs if hundreds of yards, galvanized is the way to go.

Looked at Farm King's site and all I see is 17 ga, so that is probably what I got.
 
Not sure about a preference on gauge. I do think a single strand waist high may not help with deer if your garden is full of tasty treats.
I have had good luck with two strands one about 2ft and one about 5 ft.
Then outside of that run a single strand about 3 ft and 4-6 ft away from the double fence. It messes with their ability to judge height and depth.
I’ll see if I can find a link to explain better, but if you look it up I’m sure you’ll find it.
I also recommend baiting it. So they get their nose right on it. A good supply store I use also has excellent resources and info is Wellscroft fence.
 
Not sure about a preference on gauge. I do think a single strand waist high may not help with deer if your garden is full of tasty treats.
I have had good luck with two strands one about 2ft and one about 5 ft.
Then outside of that run a single strand about 3 ft and 4-6 ft away from the double fence. It messes with their ability to judge height and depth.
I’ll see if I can find a link to explain better, but if you look it up I’m sure you’ll find it.
I also recommend baiting it. So they get their nose right on it. A good supply store I use also has excellent resources and info is Wellscroft fence supply in nh
Wellscroft.com
 
I meant to say 5 strands sorry. I run one about 8 inches off the ground for coons, possums and other small animals. Then go about 1.5 feet after that for the deer. Gives me plenty of height on the posts. I have seen deer step through a three strand and never touch a wire. You can also drive your posts at an angle due to deer not having great depth perception. Helps keep them out. The pb on the wire, well they lick that and get a "little tingle" and don't want anymore of it.
 
I still find it amazing that you guys do so well with so little. We do patch work plots. If we did a 100' x 100' the deer would just wipe us out. The deer exclosers in our area are a flop. Only a 10' tall fence. We watch deer jump it all the time. We lack any crops in our area to gardens are prime targets for deer and bears.
 
Well I'm definitely going with an electric fence this year. Sitting around the fireplace today around 4P, I looked out my front window and saw a dozen or so deer running down the plowed road toward me. When they got to the bend in the road, they detoured off into the woods at their normal opening. Five minutes later, Another 10 or so came running across my neighbors yard straight toward me. They ran along the tree line about 25 yards from the house and then slipped into the woods.

I never knew 'my' herd was that big. I've only been able to identify 8 or so on trail cameras in my yard. Tomorrow I'll follow their trails in the woods so I will know the trail they take for shed hunting.
 
Another pre-garden shopping is Montmorency Cherry trees. Still looking. I've seen dwarf, semi dwarf and standard sizes. Is it difficult to keep the latter two pruned down to the size of a dwarf? I didn't prune my last trees and they got thick inside. Wind storms took them both out because of their size, hence dwarf.
 
djg said:
Another pre-garden shopping is Montmorency Cherry trees. Still looking. I've seen dwarf, semi dwarf and standard sizes. Is it difficult to keep the latter two pruned down to the size of a dwarf? I didn't prune my last trees and they got thick inside. Wind storms took them both out because of their size, hence dwarf.
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Depends on how tall your ladder is! I’ve planted dwarf trees that have reached 15+ feet tall, and I pruned them religiously. Different types of fruit trees require different types of pruning. Keeping trees pruned is key to fruit production, and tree health, and is not all that difficult if you keep the regimen. Chuck
 
My Montmorency is a semi dwarf and I have no problem keeping it manageable. It has stayed in the 10-12 ft range without any significant effort. The hardest thing with cherries is convincing yourself to thin enough through the middle. I even net mine each year with a 40x40 bird netting.

I don't particularly care for dwarf trees of any kind as many have a weak root system and are susceptible to being blown over without staking. I also prefer the look of semi drawer as dwarf are just too scrawny.

If this is your first time with a cherry, spend a little time reading up on training and pruning. Different methods are generally preferred over the central leader that is most common with apple and pear.

You can prune semi dwarf and standard to a dwarf size, but it can take a lot of work. If you want to do that to stay off ladders, but want the stronger rootstock, I'd go with a semi dwarf. Could easily keep that to dwarf size, or maybe let it go a little larger to maybe 8-10'. Then you'd have a smaller size, but only a step or two on a ladder would be needed for pruning and picking.

If you really only want a dwarf size for space or physical (ladder) reasons, I'd just get a dwarf and save yourself a lot of work.
 
We are lucky that we have crops on three sides and pasture/timber on the other. Lots of deer - saw a herd of over 50 within a mile of here on Friday - but lots to eat besides the garden/orchard.

Most of my fruit trees are mature now, they get some feeding around the lower branches, but not enough to bother me, the few young ones get enclosed with fence and bird netting to prevent feeding. I really only have two areas the deer feed on, the strawberries early with new growth, and the sweet corn when it's nearing time to pick. I use electric fence around the berries at waist high with a second about 6" to keep coons and groundhogs out of ripe berries.

Since the fence goes around the berries first in spring, I always bait the fence with peanut butter in a folded piece of aluminum foil. They learn within days to avoid the wire. They avoid it so much, I don't really need to even have it electrified after a while. Last year they started eating raspberry new growth and all I did was hang a piece of wire along the trellis and they stayed away after that.

Other problem is the sweet corn. That gets 3 strands, waist high for the deer, ~12" and 6". The lower ones keep out the coons. The fence is spaced just far away from the corn that blowing leaves don't touch it. As mentioned before, the deer don't see a "landing zone" because of the corn, so they don't jump it.

Another issue is birds that will snap off young transplants. Those always get bird netting stretched over hoops made from sections of fence. That also keeps the deer from chewing off the transplants.

I do have to fence tulips early, but just use a lot of chili flakes to repel them from all the hostas.

Of course the best is to have a farm dog that lives outside, but our last one died a few years ago and we never got a new one.
 
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