What's going on in your garden (2023)?

Status
Not open for further replies.
My folks are away on vacation for a few weeks, so they gave me custody of their hanging basket. It needs quite a bit of water, but it is really stunning.
CE0B74E2-FA55-407A-A54D-8668ED60EDEE.jpeg

Dad got it as a birthday gift for Mom, but it’s really partly for him too! My dad loves flowers/gardening.
 
Herbaceous said:
My folks are away on vacation for a few weeks, so they gave me custody of their hanging basket. It needs quite a bit of water, but it is really stunning.View attachment 102288
Dad got it as a birthday gift for Mom, but it’s really partly for him too! My dad loves flowers/gardening.
Click to expand...
I love those colors!

I’m like your dad as far as flowers go - I’m always the one who insists one them. They make everything so much nicer!
 
Weeded the kitchen garden patch today, where I grow herbs, ginger and (occasionally) some tomatoes.
Not really a good moment to do it, as we've had torrential rain for about a week. Took me over two hours because the earth was waterlogged. Never mind. It's done, the tomatoes & chiles are in there, now lets see what happens!
 
We hit double figures today for the first time in quite a while and because they chooks can't free range unless supervised (fox issues) I spent the afternoon (2-3 hrs) weeding the front flower bed and starting to deadhead some of the agapanthus. Seems my chooks love the seeds, so I'll collect the massive seed heads for then tomorrow and take them up to their enclosure.
And tomorrow I'll get to tidy up the weeding I did today. When you weed with chooks they scatter your nice neat piles everywhere, so it will be a rake job to tidy up after them.
 
My goal for right now is to keep my garden alive. It's VERY hot and dry -- 102F/39C today. As soon at the sun gets low enough, I'll soak the garden again. I'll have to do that every day for a while.

I need to get a rain barrel before next summer, so I'm not using city water to water my garden. I figure I'll place it behind my garage, and put a gutter on the garage roof to channel water into it. I can put a ball valve on the side at the bottom, and attach a garden hose. Here is the spot...

1689204121394.jpeg


I actually have room for two barrels. 💡

CD
 
caseydog said:
My goal for right now is to keep my garden alive.
Click to expand...
Yep, and that in itself is a big challenge with the heat you're getting. Rain barrels are great. My brother had 3 in his garden, and that was in England, where the temperatures are much lower but the droughts seem to be more and more common.
 
I’ve got a rain barrel for my garden - it’s great. We have had a fair amount of rain this year which has helped, but so far I haven’t had to use city water for the garden at all.

The water from the rain barrel is also better for the plants (according to my dad, anyway).
 
My bee balm is blooming! I planted it last year and didn’t think it would make it through the winter. Only one flower this year, but hopefully with time it will get more flowers.
0ACA6323-BD1E-4A11-84D8-98F19FFD68C9.jpeg

Also discovered what’s been digging up my plants every night - it’s skunks. Pair of them have been coming around and destroying things. They’ve dug up several plants multiple times. I’m going to try citrus peels in the garden first (apparently they hate the smell) and if that doesn’t work, I’ll see if I can find coyote urine.
 
I finally needed some potatoes for this coming week, so dug up one of the bags I put some in last spring. I don't typically dig them up until they are needed, just cover them over so the soil is dry at the top and doesn't get wet. The cold weather does the rest.

20230723_145706.jpg

This was clearly the mixed bag! There are 3 varieties, though the pink fir didn't do very well at all. But this bag was the one that died back first (too much sun). The others were progressively more protected from the summer sun.

I'm happy with that haul. The actually spuds are a decent size.

20230723_145715.jpg


And my chooks have started to lay again (well 1 has, so the rest will follow in the next week), so the coldest part of winter is about to happen.

20230723_165752.jpg
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
I finally needed some potatoes for this coming week, so dug up one of the bags I put some in last spring.
Click to expand...
When I was very small, before we moved to the house with proper acreage, my folks used to bury potatoes in a small barrel in the ground. I hadn’t thought about that in ages.
 
TastyReuben said:
When I was very small, before we moved to the house with proper acreage, my folks used to bury potatoes in a small barrel in the ground. I hadn’t thought about that in ages.
Click to expand...
There are quite a few tricks like that that I still use. When we still lived in the UK and my mother wasn't gluten free, I used to use a straw box to prove the pizza dough during the drive to their place, only I used towels for insulation in the lidded box and a wheat bag for the heat source. It worked a treat.

If I was doing it correctly, I'd use sand to reduce the chances of anything in the soil eating or spoiling the potatoes, but I've not had issues doing it the lazy way provided they were grown in a container. If they are in the ground, it's another story entirely.

I'll be cooking them later today.
 
An unwanted surprise on Tuesday night. I was watching TV, about 8pm, when "KABOOM!!!" from outside.
The wall which separates our plot from the neighbours above gave way under the pressure of heavy rainfall, and crashed into our garage/parking space. Fortunately, no-one was hurt and nothing was damaged. The car was further down the driveway.
So now I've got about 5 tons of huge rocks and rubble in the drive, and the neighbour peered over the wall to say " I told you so". :hyper: :hyper: 👹👹 It's obviously their wall (their house was built first)
Derrumbe 1.jpg
Derrumbe 2.jpg
and because they water the garden every single day, all through the dry season, the drainage obviously got blocked and down it came. Now we have to work out how to clear all this rubble away and see if we can assign "reponsibility" and claim damages.
 
karadekoolaid said:
An unwanted surprise on Tuesday night. I was watching TV, about 8pm, when "KABOOM!!!" from outside.
The wall which separates our plot from the neighbours above gave way under the pressure of heavy rainfall, and crashed into our garage/parking space. Fortunately, no-one was hurt and nothing was damaged. The car was further down the driveway.
So now I've got about 5 tons of huge rocks and rubble in the drive, and the neighbour peered over the wall to say " I told you so". :hyper: :hyper: 👹👹 It's obviously their wall (their house was built first)View attachment 102916View attachment 102917 and because they water the garden every single day, all through the dry season, the drainage obviously got blocked and down it came. Now we have to work out how to clear all this rubble away and see if we can assign "reponsibility" and claim damages.
Click to expand...


Is that dry-stacked rough stone?

CD
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom