Grandpas Garden

Efundies Staff

September 01, 2022 (Last Updated: March 06, 2023) | Reading Time: About 1 minute

GrandpaÃ¢ÂÂs Garden is a collection of hints and tips to help you get more enjoyment out of your garden.

Grandpa in his native habitat - the garden.

Suggested Grandpa's Garden Articles

We Have 25 Degree nights In The Forecast

We have 11 of them, and need to use them all winter long to keep the horse troughs full, so they need to be easy to get to. I wrap them in old rags to insulate them, and cover them with a bucket to keep the rags dry.

This Is The Time Of Year You Feel Water

Sitting under them in the shade you can also see them. It reminds me that grape vines output a tremendous amount of water every day, and are not a good choice for garden borders.

I've Been Reminded How Important It Is

They tend to make your soil more acidic as they decompose. I used to lime my melon and squash hills but could detect no significant difference so I quit.

Global Warming Has Caused Our Last Average

We are in zone 8b according to Frostdate. com.

I Have A Row Of Beets That Just Too Pretty to Pick

Their cranberry colored stems and dark green leaves with cranberry colored veins are in contrast with all the other assorted shades of green in the garden. They are uniformly tall and evenly spaced and I hate to ruin the symmetry by picking some.

One Of The Best Garden Chores

Who doesn't like a roaring hot fire on a cold overcast day. Heck, even the neighbor kids will come over to help you.

The Other White Powder In A Zip Lock

It was a very popular insecticide back in the day because it's organic. I became disillusioned with it when I learned it is only effective when dry.

To All Of You Still Harvesting Fall Lettuce

The birds are enjoying mine and I'm ok with it. I've left the plants in the ground for them, and feel like it's the right thing to do.

Watering My Seed Rows And Transplants

As soon as the seed sprouts get tall enough to fall over I drag a furrow along both sides of them so I can walk along and fill it with water that doesn't run off away from the plants. I get to do this every day for awhile.

I Cannot Believe That My Bloomsdale Long Standing Spinach

What it does have are jagged leaves from birds eating it. Either the birds are keeping the fly's that lay the eggs away, or they are eating the maggots that emerge.

I've Been Raking The Trampled Hay Out

I can get about a pitchfork full a day and save it up until I've accumulated a wheelbarrow load. Having my mulch available a little at a time keeps me constantly gardening.

I Found An Onion Set Laying On top of the Ground

Must have been a cat digging that caused it. It had a full beard of one inch roots spreading out from the bottom and no stem tip showing.

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It's Time To Make Up Your Christmas List

The stems that came out from your main plants, touched down on the ground and rooted, are called daughters. You can cut the stems and dig up the plants, replant the daughters, and double your strawberry patch.

Letting All The Volunteer Swiss Chard Grow

I have swung back to a more formal preference, with defined borders. I would prefer the chard plants all in a row somewhere, but they are so deep rooted that transplanting them could be a disaster.

Photography of Leafless Tree Surrounded by Snow

My Youngest Son Got a Pop up Greenhouse

He doesn't want to 'pop it up' until snow is out of the forecast because he doesn't want to start his flower seeds in an igloo.

Spring is Right Around the Corner

Broken stems, missing tips, chewed spots, bent, twisted and pathetic. This was not a good year to try and get an early start.

Yesterday I Discovered Baby Carrots Growing In the Shade

I had planted them in early spring and thought the slugs had gotten them. I forgot about them and some germinated, grew a bit, and then went dormant due to the lack of sunlight.

Another Warm Sunny Day and I Begin Thinking

I did the first batch of them on February 10th last year and struggled to keep them alive through innumerable freezes and relentless rain. Our last frosts we're on May 7th, May 18th, and I heard the wind turbine early on May 25th.

Getting The Weeding Done In The Garden

I had broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and Brussels sprouts in rootbound six packs, and didn't have time to weed outside the areas they were going. They got planted in assorted rows in two patches because they have the same water requirements.

I Made a Funny Discovery Today

With a week of rainy weather forecasted I would be wise to postpone my traditional April 15th planting of corn. I planted it on March 20th last year in my over abundant optimism at being re zoned at 8b, and had 10 frost nights all the way up to May 20th in which they required covering.

It Got Down To 20°F Last Night

I've got a clean raised bed in the greenhouse that's just begging to grow something. I even dragged two furrows 10" apart in it because it looks better that way than flat.

Had a Prankster Visit the Garden Last Night

I found the zip lock bag that I keep my bar soap in shredded. Half the bar is missing and what's left is full of teeth marks.

I Found a Wilted Corn Patch Today

90° temperatures and full sun all day so I shouldn't be surprised. Watering is becoming an every day necessity now, and I'm glad the plants can tell us when they need it.

All of the Garlic Are Up Now

I've had to weed the patch already to, not because of weeds , but because of a plethora of poppies plants. When poppies finish going to seed their stems are tan colored like straw mulch, so when they fall to the ground I leave them, hence I'll never run out of poppies.

Green and White Bird on White Flowers

A Flock of Sparrows Dive Bombed

They were everywhere, covering all the plants, and scarifying the ground.

It's Time To Get Your Winter Squash

Acorn, spaghetti, and butternut squash will start to mold if they sit on the damp ground for too long. Cut them from the vines leaving an inch of stem, wipe them down with a 1% bleach solution, and put them in a cool place that doesn't freeze.

The Garlic and Onion Sets Are Already Coming Up

I'll move my mini greenhouses over them when the weather turns cold and see if we can't have chard all winter again like last year. It's been such a warm November that all the cauliflower came to head and the two rows of transplanted Brussels sprouts are forming sprouts.

I Picked the Last of the Artichokes

Some of the chokes were wilted. I'll add artichokes to my list of wilted veggies.

Well the Frost Was On the Pumpkin

It seems early, but with 70°days in the extended forecast, maybe I'll get my Indian Summer after all. I don't actually have any pumpkin again this year.

Grandpa in his native habitat - the garden.

Grandpas Garden

Grandpas Garden is a collection of knowledge from an avid grandpa who happens to have an amazing garden.

December Gardening Is, You Guessed It, A Lot like November Gardening

If you've been getting your compost spread, mulch applied, weeds removed, bushes trimmed, vines cut back and areas cleared for spring planting, you are probably running out of things to do. I start my spring garden in six packs, in the house, on a seed starting mat, on January 1st, so I'm looking at the garden differently this month.

December is Time to Think About Next Years Seeds

One of the first things you learn about gardening is the importance of crop rotation, and you will try to follow it, and be destined to failure. I never have enough room to rotate effectively nor do I think it's required in small backyard gardens.

I Was Surprised at How Well the Brussel's Sprouts Overwintered

It seems a shame but they were only eye candy. Peas are one of natures edible candies.

Who wouldn't want to sit in this bench, surrounded by tulips.

Gardening

Gardening is a perfect hobby for automation. You can automate your watering, heating, fans, and temperature sensors.

I Scored a Whole Wheelbarrow Full of Wet Hay

It's a welcome looking contrast to all the melon mounds that are encircled by leaves. I don't have any leaves in storage for spring yet because I keep finding more places for them.

Corn's Up - I Was Surprised

I was surprised. I only looked under the board to see if there were pill bugs or slugs hiding.

There Was Dirt Scattered Across the Shavings

The birds had been scratching in the Perpetual Spinach bed. At first I was annoyed but quickly realized that they were eating the leaf miner larvae that were overwintering in the soil.

My Discomfort With The Scattered Around Swiss Chard

With every rain squall that causes me to take refuge in the greenhouse, a bunch of sparrows decend upon them, eagerly ripping at the leaves in haste because they know I'll be back shortly. They must wait in the surrounding grape and blackberry vines for me to disappear.

No Gardening Got Done On Christmas Day

Once you get out of the house and start moving around lots of things will dispel your cabin fever. Being cold makes you want to go back in but a fire keeps you entertained.

Garden Chair

I move it from sun to shade and do most of my prioritizing from it. From this throne I can see when the corn leaves are starting to turn dull, or the zucchini leaves wilt and know it's time to water.

I'm Delighted To Have A Coyote Patrolling The Garden

Every garden invader is at risk now. Mice, gophers, rats, possums, raccoons, rabbits and squirrels are all prey, so I should be having fewer invasions.

Planting Onions and Garlic

The planting diagram on the package showed you should make the holes 5"deep and 4" wide. The planting instructions said to plant them "only deep enough so that the tops of sets are covered with soil".

A Giant Jackrabbit Was In The Garden

It leaped up onto the compost pile and over the fence. Such a large, strong, athletic and mobile adversary left me a bit stunned.

It's Time To Pick Out That Perfect Pumpkin

I've not always had pumpkins but I've always been able to find something to decorate. One year it was an old watermelon that refused to ripen.

Photo of Pathway Surrounded By Fir Trees

I Got a Bag of Fir Shavings

It smells nice too.

The Lettuce That Got Transplanted

Shout out to fish emulsion, which always moves the plants along at top growing speed. I didn't even used to grow lettuce until my son introduced me to Deadline.

My Garden Often Feels Like A Dissertation

An extremely complex body of work composed one word at a time. I find myself absorbing it one word at a time and letting sentences unfold.

I got to Fish Emulsion my Crucifers Today

Plant asparagus once, and harvest it for 20 years. If everything in the garden was as easy, we'd have nothing left to do except weeding.

I've Never Had Aphids Up In the Florets of Cauliflower

They got up into the tiniest crevasses and sucked the plants juices until they got too fat to get them out. I kept breaking the head into smaller and smaller pieces and spraying them with the hose until I got down to quarter inch florets with aphid still stuck inside.

Green Grass Under Blue Sky

While Removing the Bermuda Grass Runners

They followed the 'sweet spot' in the black, decomposing straw on top of the ground.

We Had Kale Last Night

I guess the cold nights that sweeten up the brussels sprouts also make the kale more tasty. Dunno, gonna pick some more today.

There Are Two Foot Tall Snapdragons Growing

They are too big to transplant so I will either have to make a new trellis or plant my peas on the fence line. If I had a north side of my garden fence, that wasn't covered in grape vines, this would be fine because the majority of the peas would develop on the south side of the vines, and the deer couldn't eat them.