Today was a busy day! Almost all of the perennial beds got mulched after mowing (don’t worry, there’s still tons of long grasses and clovers for the bugs). Our plums are setting fruit, blueberries and serviceberries are ripening, and I’ve confirmed that the birds know about all of my haskaps. Tomatoes are climbing, pumpkins are running, and my replacement peppers are looking happy, but I’ll be more excited when I start seeing them fruit.
What’s growing on with you all?
I’m very excited that my Zanthoxylum americanum is fruiting for the very first time, just noticed today. Can’t wait to see how it compares to Sichuan peppercorn
Huzzah! That sounds like such a neat tree!
Picking some fresh raspberries every couple days and trying to keep everything on the balcony alive while it’s 30°C out. Seems like most of my sage plants have given up even though I trimmed their flowers, that’s unexpected. Fig cutting seems to be thriving in this weather, so that’s nice, since it was definitely dying before.
Have you tried telling your sage how proud of the fig you are? That and some additional nitrogen inputs might get them to bounce back too
Haha, thanks ill try both!
I have a bunch of salads growing in some self-watering containers that is working well. Four different varieties, of which one is a spinach that is currently flowering and I’m going to collect the seed from, the other three I use for salads and as additional greens on bread. Other than that I have three different kinds of cherry tomatoes growing, two of them (Garderner’s Delight and Venus) are producing fruits and the last kind (Ildi) is flowering, but not yet any sign of fruiting.
I have a bunch of chilis and peppers, the chilis yielding a bunch of fruits and the peppers flowering, but no fruits yet (they were started from seed about a month and a half after the chilis).
I also have some fava beans coming up, but no where close to yielding any beans quite yet.
Will be cutting down my blackcurrant bush this week end. Can’t get rid of the spider mites. Also have them on my chilis, but they are more manageable there. No fun… :( No berries this year either, got the bush last year.
Indoors I have some borage growing as microgreens. Not the best taste in my opinion, better mixed in with a lot of other greens than as stand-alone garnish. Just finished of eating my tray of red cabbage microgreens, and will be setting a couple of new trays this week end. Got some other herbs coming: new batch of basil and cilantro, some thyme and rosemary (if I can get it growing this time, last time they were very difficult), some chives and some summer savory (never actually tested or knew about this until recently).
Will also be finally setting up my vermicomposter when I go out and fetch some worms. Got a horse farm nearby, and been tipped off by a biologist that horse manure (or at least close to where it is not so warm) is where it’s at for these guys! First time doing that.
That sounds wonderful! I really enjoy letting our lettuce cross and seeing the patterns of the next generation.
Got a horse farm nearby
Always ask what their deworming schedule is like, or how long they’ve aged their manure. It’s good stuff, but even a few ppm of common deworming treatments can persist and cause problems for gardens and especially worm bins
Oh, that is a very good tip - didn’t think of that. I did find what appeared to be an older pile during a “recon”, and found quite some worms there then. How long since the deworming treatment would you consider safe? They have a larger depot of manure around the corner, with fresher stuff.
A general rule of thumb is aged 1 year, especially if you don’t know what they use or if they board/breed horses since there’s a lot of variability there. If the part of the pile you’re digging into had a good worm population that’s a good sign for that section, but if you get into another area and the worms vanish then don’t include that in what you take
Thanks! I’ll keep that in mind!
