(no subject)

[hlmauera]

I made a little video of my garden this weekend: https://www.instagram.com/p/B_LBxlAntKO/

My parents came by to help me this weekend... I feel guilty but mom was 100% not concerned. I've been out about once a week during the "Stay Home Stay safe" order. We worked outside most of the day.  We ate together and mom went with me to buy lunch but that was all the contact we had. We've all been very careful to wear masks when we go to public places and washing hands carefully.  I hope it's ok.

We loaded the trailer with yard debris. Then took it to Lane Forest Products to dump and then refilled the trailer with 1.5 yards of compost (veggie boost) and I loaded up 5 20-gallon planting bags with hemlock bark.  I distributed the bark among 10 20-gallon fabric planters (1/3 full) and put a little on the back shade bed.  Then we topped of the garden beds and the bags with the compost.  It was a whole lot of shoveling.

I also got all the seedlings transplanted.  I'm going to have a ton of tomato plants which will need new homes.  I'm thinking about raising cucumbers hydroponically.  I don't have any luck normally.  It would be an experiment this year. I think I'll get two 18-gallon totes and fill them with water and food and put a cucumber at each end.  I want to make pickles!

I've got spring fever bad.  All I want to do is spend time in the garden but it's really too early to put plants in.  I'm also going to put weed barrier on the beds and plant through it.  It should last longer than the black plastic so it's a little more environmentally friendly. I got the idea from several homestead videos.  I've been making lots of plans but we'll see how it actually works out.  I'm doing a little more companion planting and I'm planning to prune the tomatoes this year and see how that works.  I've been watching way too many gardening videos but maybe I'll get a good harvest.

Comments

[vesta_aurelia]

Your garden looks lovely--I like your little shade garden/area, with the quince tree in it.
Are those drums open bottomed or close bottomed? they look awfully convenient...

[hlmauera]

They are fabric bags-very thick fabric (1/4") but yes they have bottoms. The fabric helps to air prune the roots and make them form a nice root ball. I'm hoping the squash will do better in them than in the 5 gallon buckets.

[vesta_aurelia]

...are they from your garden center? I've honestly never seen them before for *plants*...
I need to grow potato plants, so...

[hlmauera]

I got them on Amazon. I know some people would rather not do business with them but I didn't find them locally. (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07H4JR2CF/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) This is partially because I can't actually go hunting for them at every nursery. I have Potato grow bags too, they have flaps so you can harvest potatoes without pulling the plant. I must have gotten those locally but I don't remember where. It's been a couple of years. The potatoes grow well in them and you can harvest most of them fairly easy at the end of the season by dumping the bag.