Happy Memorial Day Weekend Fellow Gardeners

Bob Bauer

May 27, 2017 (Last Updated: March 06, 2023) | Reading Time: 2 minutes

May 25, 2017

Awoke to the sound of the wind turbine at 6:00 am this morning. Checked the temp. and it was 36ÃÂ°, so I got my coffee and sat and watched to see if the back deck turned white. It didn't so no need to go out. I wonder if our neighbor is just firing it up now to see how many people he can get to go out and turn on their sprinklers..

It sounds just like a helicopter, so the other morning when one flew over, my wife, (who's just as parinoid as me) said "there's that noise again". We really should be done with frost for this spring, but I do remember one on June 9th one year. Nobody believes me so maybe I just dreamt it..

May 26, 2017

The lettuce under the shade tunnel is growing faster than the ones in direct sunlight. I thought the shade would slow them down but I guess they prefer it. Hopefully they won't bolt as quickly because I love picking by the handful rather than by the leaf. I'm eating it by the handful too..

We could probably solve our countrys obesity problem if we could get people to eat more lettuce. If we could flood the market with cheap iceburg lettuce, and convince kids it's cool to eat it by the wedge like watermelon, maybe we could start a healthy fad..

May 27, 2017

Happy Memorial Day Weekend fellow gardeners, it's time to get the mulch on the ground. The soil is warm and retaining moisture so let's get it covered to kill the weeds, keep new ones from growing, and start feeding the micro organisms that feed the plants. It's hard to have enough mulch this time of year which is why I save some leaves from fall. My son has started using cardboard this year. It kills the weeds before it decomposes to feed the plants. It's an organic gardners answer to "weed and feed"..

He mulches on top of it, so the garden looks rich, and his mulch lasts twice as long. I'm still using straw, and noticed it's not as shiny after it's been sprinkled for awhile. The freshly applied straw is glareing, but turns yellow then gray. and then tan over the course of time. The turkey went along and flipped most of it, so once again we're on the same team..

More from Efundies

My Artichoke Plants Look Terrible

Yellow wilted leaves and green droopy ones. The soil is moist around them but they have not the will to live.

Leggy Veggie Starts

Sometimes I intentionally "test" one theory against another, and sometimes nature forces that test on me.

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.

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.

Artichokes are a fun and easy to grow plant.

The Artichokes That I Divided Are Growing Already.

The leaves are spreading out and the plants are getting taller.

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.

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.

Green Peas on Black Round Plate

PGIF (Peas Go in First) Spring Planting

(Peas Go In First) Spring planting is hearlded by the planting of the peas.

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.

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.

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.

Happy New Year Gardeners

Sitting inside the greenhouse door, watching the snow blow horizontally by, listening to the freight train roar of the wind, I wondered if I should put off starting my spring garden. Some days gardening is just an excuse for not doing other things like work.

Snow is a Good Insulator in the Garden

All my "pretty pictures" are gone as if someone wiped the whiteboard clean. It reminds me of a moonscape and it's still coming down.

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.

Good News All You Pizza Lovers

Now that tomatoes have risen on the nutritional scale so has pizza, because tomato sauce counts. If you put onions, peppers, mushrooms and olives on it you get health food instead of junk food.

The Only Problem With the Incredible Amount of Kale

I'm going to try putting Apple Cider Vinegar on it to kill the taste. It's the jagged leafed purple and green kind that used to taste more like spjnach.

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.

I've Always Liked Bringing the Cauliflower In

That won't be the case anymore. Each of the four cauliflower heads that I just harvested had between 6 and 10 cabbage moth cattapillers hiding up inside.

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.

Lettuce and Zucchini

The lettuce are getting dappled sunlight, not complete shade , so they can continue to photosynthesize. They also enjoy the extra humidity when I sprinkle water on the stalks.

My First Attempt At Gardening

I had caught two toads and wanted to keep them as pets. I got some small potted plants, rocks, sticks and sand and created a mini jungle.

You Can Mulch With Shavings

I've seen little yellow birds in the spring doing that and named them Chard Birds, but I've never caught sparrows at it before. I cut off all the large outer leaves and covered the plants with the pop up mini greenhouses I got for Christmas.

Whelp I Did It Again - Rigged Up My Shade Cloth

Rigged up my shade cloth and got a huge chunk of ground cleared. I was glad I had watered it the day before because it took only about 15 min.

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.

Extend Your Artichoke Season

New shoots should come up now and produce a fall harvest. Around them are 4" thick flakes of moldy hay that I put down last winter under which is a teeming mass of earthworms and sow bugs.

The Double Row of Beets

The answer is yes, but I couldn't find it. It may have gotten too brittle from all the sun exposure and I didn't save it.

I Got A Row Of Peas Planted

The puppy's name is Anny, and my garden may never be the same. She thoroughly enjoyed running up and down the bird netted trellis, barking and biting at it.

November Is a Good Time To Get Garden Pathways Mulched

Leaves are plentiful this time of year so that's what I use. They stay in the low spots, which my pathways are, so l don't need to continually rake them back.

I Trapped Another Rat In The Same Place

It was the same size too, and I'm wondering if I got two adults or two adolescents. I guess I'll find out by resetting the trap and waiting.

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.

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.

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.

The Carrots are Up

I've been holding off until warmer weather to plant summer crops, but it rained today and I had my choice of kneeling down in the rain weeding, or sitting on the rug in front of the fake fireplace planting seeds. I realized that I want the perpetual spinach to be mature by the fall so I can cut it back to overwinter, so I needed to get it started now.

Gardening Resolutions

Im'a gonna get more exercise. I think we Grampa gardeners could all get on that bandwagon.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.