I was hoping someone would start a new thread. Thanks Amy. I am planting onion seed on 10/23. It’s my dad’s birthday so easy to remember. I planted celery collards last week. Lettuce and spinach this week

Amy, thanks for starting the thread.

I just got through planting 220 garlic. I have room for another 220, but the kids will be over in a while and I will ask them how much they can handle. I have a bunch of cloves left, and a lot of heads that will need to have something done with them.

I am just going to have to break down and throw some of my onions away, I just don't have the space to spare to plant everything I have.

I have cats using my garden for a rest room, that wont go much longer or I will be planting cats.

I had a good day, I got to visit with the kids, and I got rid of more produce. The kids did take most of my garlic, but I did manage to plant a little more than 500, if I counted right . I think that I will try to pickle the rest. Now, next spring I will be griping about not having any room, and needing to get the garlic out to plant a summer crop.

I deleted the other Week 4 thread. I'll be back to read all the comments later.

:)

Amy, I'm pretty sure I got the pixie cabbage from you. Well, not the actual plant but the thought that I want to grow it.

We talked about small cabbage when I was marketing. Dawn thought it would make good crop to sell. I never could find seeds and then forgot about it. I’d like to try that.

I wasn’t done yet. A friend of mine at work got a bunch of free 4 ounce jars to put my herb blends in to sell at Market and gave them to me today. When I looked them up to order it is $40 for 66 jars, including 600 labels. I am going to order a box on Friday and get busy making more blends to sell at the next market. I wish I had a little greenhouse that I could put a heater in and grow herbs year around. that would be very helpful.

Talk to a tree trimmer this morning. Hopefully they will be delivering and load of chips this afternoon.

I need to move some wood chips to both of my gardens. I like to keep a low berm along the low side of my garden to catch the eroded soil.

I get a lot of plastic pill bottles in the 1 to 4 oz. size that I use to store seeds in. I also have some zip lock bags about 1.5 x 2 inch, but they are too small for a lot of seeds.

Ok, the other cabbage was Gonzales, don't know where I got the idea it started with m. Kim, check Renee's for small vegetables. They tell you if it's suitable for containers. Either Pixie or Gonzales came from there. I ordered a lot of varieties for containers last year. I also got baby Napa there.

Did anyone get rain last night?

I hear the call for rain. It's getting beyond ridiculous now. Extreme drought per the map, as predicted. No rain predicted the rest of the week. I haven't seen a cloud in ages.

No rain here and back in the 90's. I read that cabbage stops growing aboveabove 78°

It is ridiculous, Josh.

The only reason we're not in drought (although that "drought free" spot in Cleveland County is getting smaller and smaller every day) is because we had those 6 inches or so of rain about a month ago.

My AC is running again as of this afternoon.

Busy1, my cabbage is growing although it's been pretty hot for this time of year.

Kim, I hope the wood chip pile comes to you. They are so useful, but we're trying to tidy up our property.... plus grass and weeds have grown up in our pile so we're going to tarp the entire thing and let it sit.

I had this wild thought today about making my kitchen garden all herbs. Probably won't do that, but it is tempting. I just ordered a package of different herb seeds from Botanical Interests. I just need to figure out where to put them all. I love them so.

I am still up to my ears in garlic. I had ask a few days ago about what you could do with garlic and it was mentioned about pickling garlic. I just watched a video on fermenting garlic with just salt and water. I have never fermented anything, other trying to make some wine as a kid, that was a flop. I just put some wild cherries in a quart jar, put a lid on it and buried it. ( the burying part was just to keep from getting caught. Anyway, have any of you tried fermenting garlic with just salt and water?

I keep getting depressing reports from my doctors, but as strange as it sounds, working in the garden seems to make me feel better than any doctor I have been to. I am tired and weak, so I cant work long, but I am getting ready to go goof around in the garden, and I fully expect to feel better, and have lower blood pressure when I come back in to rest.

I've not fermented just garlic, Larry. Garlic cloves have been in some of my cucumber ferments, tho.

Yay me

It was steaming this morning. Jennifer said that was normal

It may be steaming 6 months from now also. They can sit for a long time cooking, I have often gone in for a bucket full with the tractor, and as you raise the bucket the steam and/or mold dust would just fog from the pile, and what the loader would lift out. I tried to always wear a mask when working with the stuff, but never the proper mask because I don't have one, but anything will help.

Tried to clean some of the garden today. I have a strip about 4 x 25 feet ready to plant something, and also pushed out a row of okra. I still need to harvest more seeds from the stalks, and take them to the burn pile. Maybe someday the burn ban will be lifted, and I can get rid of yard and garden waste.

The same can happen with any overwinter composting.

I don't bother composting much.

Just manure .... and then till it in along with some pea vines also..

Ol fashion me...

Rick

I like compost, but it is a lot of work to make as much as I want. I don't try it anymore. I may try some cover crop tho, which can also run into work. The native soil around here needs help, and organic matter is the best help that I know of. Neighbor still haves several loads of wood chips that have been sitting for over a year. I hope to be able to move some down here and place some at the edge of my garden, but I don't want to get too far ahead of myself because of health issues.

I am not trying to make compost. I am laying down cardboard and put about 6 inches of wood chips on top to hopefully smother the grass out. It is not Bermuda, but it is as crazy as a grass as I can deal with. I came home today and it looks like my neighbor kids have been running across the top of it so they are having fun with my mulch mountain.

Larry I wish you’d feel better.

Thanks, Kim, I really don't have anything to complain about, getting old can be inconvenient. I live within 5 miles of where I was born and have never lived more than 25 miles of where I was born. We had a graduating class of 60, more than half of them are dead, you might say that I am one of the lucky ones. I am happy for your concern.

I don't have as much trouble with grass as I use to, but if you are not able to stay after it, it can become a problem pretty quick.

I haven’t been able to use my mower for two seasons now and it is so hard for me to keep up With everything with just the weedeater. When I kept everything trimmed and just weeded around the garden, it wasn’t as bad but now the grass gets in the garden and takes over little areas here and there. I’m thinking about digging out my bed where I had my Black Eyed Peas and I want to put the onions in there. But I have too much grass and it will compete too much with the seeds. So I’m thinking about digging it all out the soil laying down cardboard and then putting the soil back. Just writing that out sounds like a lot of work. But I am home with no car for two days so I have time.

Kim, once you spread that mulch out if will for sure stop steaming. Mine stopped within a few days really even before spreading it.

Rick, manure used to be such a great thing for building a garden. I remember Dawn saying that's how she built hers until the persistent herbicide issues started popping up, destroying and poisoning gardens. So sad and frustrating. She stopped using anything that didn't come from her property except Black Kow, if I remember correctly.

I've started dumping chicken droppings on the now cleaned out garden beds and will continue with that for a few months. I have droppings boards under the roost bars that I scoop every morning before work. Those go in a 5 gallon bucket until it's full.

Work has been hard lately. I'm really having to stretch myself and learn new things as well as deal will dumb things like a semi truck load of nearly donated candy ($400) for a community event next week. The logistics of that have been difficult and time-consuming. Anyway....I'm not complaining. It's good to learn new things and stretch. It's good for our brains and bodies too.

However, it can become too much when there's little time to rest. Because rest is important too. That's where I'm lacking. And, as a result, have landed myself an annoying cold. But there's really no time to worry about it. Just kicking myself for slacking off on the elderberry syrup.

I almost didn't make it through work today, but pushed through. It was the school Halloween party, so there's sugar-highs and fired-up kids. They were good really, just loud and excited. Normally I don't work all day at the school on Fridays, but did because of the fall party. And, then had to finish a project at my other job before heading home. It's done, tho. And the semi-truck situation is done too. Except it's not really.

And...so much more.

BUT, I'm only saying all of this because you all can relate. You're a bunch of hard-chargers too. You push yourselves and can relate.

On that note, I'm going to put some Breathe Ease essential oil in my diffuser and head to bed soon.

I'll look at the garden tomorrow.

I got my first tomato off of the pink Brandywine. It’s not fully ripe, but if I wait till a tomato is fully ripe, the grasshoppers get it. Except for the sweet Sue. I don’t think they prefer those, but I’m not taking any chance on these big brandy wines. Jennifer, I can relate to work things because even though I only work 20 hours a week, mine has been a little challenging lately.

If I have any Brandywine left, they will be small. I also don't have many grasshoppers. I sort of agree with the grasshoppers, I am not very fond of the Sweet Sue either, and it is one of Jerry's favorite, I think that I still have a few left in the north garden, but I have not been watering them.

I have been working on weeding the fall garden, henbit gives me fits every year. I have sweet potatoes coming up everywhere, but for the most part I just leave them alone, the frost will kill them, and any growth will just decay into the soil.

I have a few garlic coming up, but less than I expected. I did not plant the garlic as deep as I normally do, I hope that is not a mistake.

I was not impressed with the sweet Sue, but it has abundantly produced great amount of tomatoes in the last month. Most of them are still green and I just picked them and take them to my neighbors.

This one is obviously cat faced, but it is still a very meaty tomato. I may start a container in the freezer and put all the tomatoes as they ripen in there. See how many I get.

Lil visitor

Larry, henbit is beginning to come up in my garden beds again too. It's so annoying. I like it out in the fields, but not in my garden.

I'm just leaving it be and will deal with it next spring. Except for the bed I'll put garlic. Has anyone done garlic in a hoop house?

I haven't looked at the garden today yet and it's nearly 3. I do feel better, but we've been busy with other stuff. We were able to get the antique bed set up in Ethan's room. And the cute black and white checkered curtains up. It's going to be a cute room.

I've kept a lot of houseplants in that room mostly on the windowsill. There are mealy bugs on the coffee plant. I took it outside and sprayed it with Neem. And the other plants that didn't have any (that I saw), got a treatment just in case. I'm wondering if that coffee plant came with them. Tom gave the plant to me several months ago.

I have several succulents that need to come indoors soon. Three need to be up-potted. Where to put them all, tho?

Green onions are beginning to pop up in the Vego beds.

As soon as it rains, I'll put the garlic in.

They're still saying rain is coming on Wednesday. Of course, that is the day of my giant community event, but it's okay. I've got plans to move the entire thing indoors. The companies that are donating food, candy, drinks, etc. are all supposed to deliver on Tuesday.

Anyway, yes, garlic. It will be planted soon.

I have strawberry runners, but have failed with replanting them twice, but I need to try it again soon. They look so healthy. I just wonder if they weren't ready to be separated from the mother plants. They're in the Greenstalk, so it's a bit more difficult to keep them attached even if stretched to another pocket.

Do any of you have frost showing up on the 9-day?

I look forward to having house plants again. I don’t have room right now. No frost in the forecast but we have 3 or 4 days of rain forecasted. I’d like to get a rain barrel set up before then. I raked a bunch of leaves, hauled a load of mulch and harvested quite a bit of stuff. I wasn’t terribly busy today, but I did get a few things done. I was gifted strawberries and managed to kill 14 of the plants. I have two left and they’re hanging on OK

Looks like garden web has kicked me out.

Well Larry did you use a bad word

I don't think I used a bad word, but I did try to post a picture of some good onions.

Maybe it was just a glitch. I started a new thread.