Lawn and Garden 2022

[bill_g]

Last year's thread has hit 11 pages. Starting fresh for this year.

So, yesterday was the first official lawn mowing of the season at Chez G and neighbors. I still have my Widows Route though it has whittled down to just two other lawns besides my own from a high of five a dozen years ago. I just don't have the energy anymore. But, the other homes have changed hands because time marches on, people die, and my services are no longer required. My energy allowance and the necessity for my assistance seem to align very naturally.

The first step is always rake out the flower beds, dead head flowers, and trim bushes. Place all debris in the lawn, not a bin.

The next step is to sprinkle bales of compost on the cleaned up beds. The bales were purchased last year and left in the truck bed to give it ballast traction for the winter. Fold the tailgate down, pull a bale out, slice the bale open letting it pour into a large bucket, and spead the material evenly. Top with alfalfa pellets. blood meal, and bone meal.

Break a book or two off the straw bale in the truck bed all winter for the same traction purpose, only now after several months it is very wet, sprouted, and started to rot on it's own. Spread that about the lawn as well.

The final step is to Hoover up everything you put in the yard with the lawn mower, while simultaneously mowing the lawn. Spread that back on the beds as a mulch. Despite the illusion of looking like magnifiscently huge piles of yard debris when you start, the lawn mower does an excellent job of grinding it all up, condensing space, and turning it into just a few bags of mulch. On every yard yesterday I was wanting more. It seemed like I barely got a whisper thin sprinkle on each bed. All that material will feed the soil flora and fauna.

Today is attack my veggie bed. I have the holiday off, and the weather seems to be cooperating. It's time to pull back the thick leaf cover I put there last fall, wake the dirt up, and maybe, possibly, get the pea fence ready. A tad early to plant, but not too early to get the row ready for planting.

[BeastofBourbon]

I love reading about your garden, Bill.

I posted on the Food Not Recipes thread about making passata, which I'll include below.

Does anyone have a favorite tomato variety that they use for sauce? I am searching for the ultimate sauce/paste variety. I have tried, and been unhappy with: Roma, Opalka, Amish Paste, Goldman's Italian-American, Cour di bue, Purple Cherokee. The paste types have all produced fairly bland sauces. The others produce overly sweet sauce. This year I'm trying San Marzano, Jersey Devil and Jersey Giant, and giving Opalka another shot if my seeds will germinate.


And, any suggestions for making your own passata? I searched online and found many different ways to do it. Last year I froze several quarts of my own version: throw cored and halved tomatoes in a large pot and simmer without stirring until they are broken down enough to pass thru a food mill, and freeze. I also ladled much of the clear juice off the top as the tomatoes broke down, since I wanted a more concentrated result. In past years, I have canned tomato sauce after cooking it down, but I was hoping I could shorten the total cooking time from last year's crop by making a concentrated passata and freezing it. I'm still not excited by the result, but maybe my expectations are off. I've tried countering the sweetness with balsamic vinegar, but I'm not sure how much is enough. Any suggestions?

[Azastan]

So, yesterday was the first official lawn mowing of the season at Chez G and neighbors.

I have lived at my place for 12 years now. Each year I vowed to make sure that the grass didn't get away from me. Each year in the past I wouldn't be able to mow until the grass was around a foot high, because the soil wasn't dry enough to accommodate my yard tractor.

This year, however, I got out there and mowed both the front and back pastures LAST WEEK, because it was dry! I've harrowed and dragged the arena several times as well (the arena is too wet in the winter to drag and consequently it gets rather green by this time of the year).

I am pleased about this.

Also, I've spread the waste hay from the horses on the dahlia beds and will be rototilling it in soon. I separated the waste hay from the manure this year, and have a manure pile which will be nicely rotted by now. The manure pile will get loaded into the manure spreader and be sent back onto the pasture.

[humblescribe]

Beast of Bourbon,

!	Message from: Foggy
	Fixed the spelling

We don't grow paste tomatoes. What I have learned over the years is that certain varieties of food crops perform differently based upon one's climate, and even micro climate.

There must be someone around your neck of the woods (perhaps your county extension service or land grant university) that might have some insight as to the right varieties to grow where you live.

I'm in the Central Valley of California. We used to have a seed store in Stockton (sadly the internet and lack of home gardening/truck farms forced them out of business.) The owners and employees knew just the right varieties of melons (extreme heat here in summer), slicing tomatoes, cruciferous vegetables, and other foods that would do well with our climate.

Moreover, depending upon where you live, some of those varieties might perform to your satisfaction if your planting time were different. Maybe it is too cold or too hot or too wet as the fruit matures on the plant. So many factors other than variety can affect the final outcome.

Anyway, apologies if you know this. If not, perhaps something worth looking into! Good luck!

[bill_g]

I posted on the Food Not Recipes thread about making passata, which I'll include below.

(blushing) I had to look up passata, and figured out we make that ourselves. We grow San Marzanos. They are the gold standard of Italian cooking tomatoes, but their flavor is controlled by your soil, water, and weather. And the dirt they have in Italy is different than the States except for perhaps regions of New Mexico and Arizona. Sadly, the black loamy earth we cherish for lush plants doesn't necessarily translate into heightened flavors. It's almost the opposite.

Mrs has bemoaned the lack of flavor of our tomatoes for years. But, each expedition she makes to find her Holy Grail of Flavorful Fresh Tomatoes at farmers markets and good produce groceries has returned unsatisfied. She always finds beautiful looking tomatoes, but none of them ever have the flavor she remembers as a child.

I on the other hand am satisfied with my results from the garden, but do appreciate a better flavored tomatoe when I get one. I have made purchases of canned tomatoes from Italy, and can say with confidence it's a coin toss. I forget the brand. The can was undamaged with a beautiful label, but the contents were awful. They were bitter. Thankfully I tasted them before cooking with them. Other products were sour. Some were quite good, but no better than Hunts basic sauce, and certainly not worth the extra expense.

So, perhaps the answer is our own expectations. I honestly don't know. But, if I leave tomatoe sauce out of a recipe, even my own bland frozen puree sauce, the recipe is not the same.

ETA: Hat tip to humblescribe for his advise.

[bill_g]

I have lived at my place for 12 years now. Each year I vowed to make sure that the grass didn't get away from me. Each year in the past I wouldn't be able to mow until the grass was around a foot high, because the soil wasn't dry enough to accommodate my yard tractor.

This year, however, I got out there and mowed both the front and back pastures LAST WEEK, because it was dry! I've harrowed and dragged the arena several times as well (the arena is too wet in the winter to drag and consequently it gets rather green by this time of the year).

I am pleased about this.

Also, I've spread the waste hay from the horses on the dahlia beds and will be rototilling it in soon. I separated the waste hay from the manure this year, and have a manure pile which will be nicely rotted by now. The manure pile will get loaded into the manure spreader and be sent back onto the pasture.

How do you till in around the dahlias without making a mess of things? Or do you pull the bulbs first, and prep fresh beds every year?

[Azastan]

How do you till in around the dahlias without making a mess of things? Or do you pull the bulbs first, and prep fresh beds every year?

The dahlia tubers are lifted every year, as it is too wet to leave them in the ground during our winter. They would rot. So it's easy to pile the composted manure on the bare ground and till in when it's dry and warm enough to put the tubers out.

[humblescribe]

How do you till in around the dahlias without making a mess of things? Or do you pull the bulbs first, and prep fresh beds every year?

The dahlia tubers are lifted every year, as it is too wet to leave them in the ground during our winter. They would rot. So it's easy to pile the composted manure on the bare ground and till in when it's dry and warm enough to put the tubers out.

Decades ago, I was lucky enough to receive a sizeable donation of fresh road apples from a friend who boarded our equine friends. I dug a large pit in my garden and dumped (guessing here) about ten ft³ of the hot stuff to overwinter and let the rain leach out the salts and other undesired effects from fresh horse manure.

Come spring I tilled that well-composted and dried manure into a bed whereupon I planted sweet corn. My gosh, those stalks were almost seven feet tall (quite tall for sweet corn), and they all had two large, luscious ears. Loved all that nitrogen!

Good stuff, indeed!

[Phoenix520]

The best tasting tomato I’ve had in the last decade was an heirloom…something…I got at a farmers’market. I don’t know what variety it was . The others I bought from the same bin weren’t as tasty. I’ve had terrible terrible luck growing tomatoes for at least 5 years now. Planting them at “tomato planting time”, mid-march here when all the tomato mania sales happen, is too late. April is often ok weather, but then we have the May grey and the June gloom, right when the fruit is supposed to be setting. Not enough sun. Three tomatoes all season. I have three plants in whiskey barrels now, planted three weeks ago just before our balmy interlude. They’re thriving.

Because we live in a canyon now, I’m putting them in pots to better protect them from the raccoons, possums, squirrels, and other critters who just.won’t.shareshare, nibbling holes in ALL the fruit, leaving none for us.

I’ve been making tomato soups lately. It’s one of my comfort foods. Tomato soup with and without cream; tomato basil; tomato/roasted pepper. During the winter I use canned San Marzano, whatever Italian brand I can find, but I love to get lowly-looking summer maters from the farmers’ market and slow roast them first.

[humblescribe]

Tomatoes have persnickety pollination requirements. Nighttime temperatures are more critical than daytime temperatures. Tomatoes will shed pollen from the anthers to land on the stigma when the temps overnight are between 60-70. Daytime requirements are more generous, with daytime highs below fifty and highs above ninety when anthesis shuts down or no new blooms are produced. Sometimes a gentle shaking of the flower will assist in getting the pollen dislodged to do its voodoo.

Chilies also have similar pollination requirements.

[bill_g]

Yea! Someone who understands Maters! That's a bonus. Thank you humblescribe.

I'm a successful dirt maker. I know how to grow thick, lucious black earth that most flowers and vegetables go nuts for. I can keep my yard air tight so the neighbors are off my butt. I compost every bit of yard debris, kitchen scraps, and even most cardboard just to see if a home owner can do it without a lot of effort. It's become what I excel at. Growing something worthwhile is secondary to my purpose. Feeding birds, squirrels, and a litany of soil fauna was not a consideration. Those were pleasant discoveries along the way. Composting is so central to my being, even my first bulletin board - The Information Dirt Road (TIDR) - is an anagram for dirt.

How a tomatoe grows, or what it requires to pollinate is a bit fuzzy to me. I can grow some monster plants well over six feet tall, but they don't necessarilly bear a lot of fruit. In fact, our old neighbor the Army War Nurse grew more and better tomatoes than I could. Every year I'd get several starts planting a couple in her garden for her. Her dirt is the compacted yellow orange silt this whole valley is made from. She never watered regularly. The bed got good morning and early afternoon sun with partial shade in the late afternoon from a tree. Her plants were stunted, and the fruit smaller, but they always bore more fruit. They kept her well supplied, and she was happy to share. A much concentrated flavor compared to mine. After decades of work, I have no soil that resembles hers. So, I have a project in my retirement.

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

Tomato Trivia: Hubby grew up in Warren, Bradley County, Arkansas, which has an annual Pink Tomato Festival. Lots of maters grown there.

https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entr ... ival-2124/

The Bradley County Pink Tomato Festival celebrates the pink tomato industry in southeastern Arkansas. Originally a one-day event, it has become a weeklong celebration that attracts approximately 30,000 people each year.

In June 1956, the first Bradley County Pink Tomato Festival was held in Warren (Bradley County). Loran Johnson, who was director of the Chamber of Commerce at the time, was one of the founders of the festival. The one-day event included musicians, a carnival, and exhibits. Each year, a chairperson of the festival was chosen. A parade and beauty pageant were added the second year.

Another festival event began after Jean Frisby, who was the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service (UACES) home economist for Bradley County, and Loran Johnson, who was serving as the county extension agent, gathered with other people in celebration of the festival in the Southern Hotel on the town’s square; young women who ran for Tomato Queen that year were also crowded into the un-air-conditioned hotel. This inspired Frisby to establish a more proper event for the next year: the All Tomato Luncheon held in Warren’s Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) building. Approximately twenty-five guests attended the first luncheon. The next year, the extension homemakers planned for the same number of attendees, but more than 100 people arrived. The luncheon, which served fresh tomato juice to waiting guests in the lobby, frequently featured a speaker who represented the UA Cooperative Extension Service in appreciation for that organization’s role in the county’s tomato production.

[MN-Skeptic]

It's still a couple of months until planting season is here in Minnesota, but I needed something springlike so I bought a pot of planted daffodil and hyacinth bulbs last week. The daffodils are blooming and it's so cheery!

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[bill_g]

Crocuses and dafs are blooming in the dirt around here. The violets around our maple make a carpet of purple. We see more awakenings every day.

[MsDaisy]

I started yanking weeds and mulching the big garden inside the pool fence yesterday, it’s about 40 feet long and 3 feet deep and my poor back is really feeling it this morning. Thank doG for Advil Liquid Gels! And the good news is I found 12 baby Hollyhocks growing along the fence line. They have all been rescued and put in seed cups until the rest of the gardens get cleaned out and start growing so I can see where to put them. I love Hollyhocks!

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[bill_g]

Today will planting day. I've spent several weekends digging out the compost pile, flattening the lawn, tilling the veggie garden, and in general neatenfying the whole yard. Basically I'm ready to plant the early stuff like peas, lettuce, and carrots. Gotta build the new box frame for the carrots first. The old one decomplapsedated last year. (technical term for rotted)(the Zen of gardening is everything becomes one with nothing)

I had some winter broccoli from a neighbor last weekend. She is a very talented gardener, does everything in raised beds, and grew a lot of broc during the winter under plastic over simple wire frames. Beautiful plants, and great broc minus any bugs.

My potatoe bed is looking pretty good. All the rows have missing plants. At least 2/3's came up. I just have to fill in a couple russets, reds, and golds. They will catch up.

A Canadian Thistle mysteriously started last year. It came from our back yard neighbor who likes his bushes so thick, he doesn't notice when noxious weeds take hold. It's not malicious on his part. He doesn't understand how they can propagate by seed and root. Digging on his side would damage much of his hedgerow. So, this will become a perennial problem. I'll probably have to build a buried fence to stop the roots from spreading my way. Ugh. The good news is it will help stop the moles his yard sends my way too. Bonus.

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

3F9D682B-6B31-486C-B02F-08F84C3BB40E.jpeg (148.27 KiB) Viewed 2420 times

Camden Iris and violet.

21081906-791F-467F-B25D-D748B464DEDB.jpeg (71.26 KiB) Viewed 2420 times

[Azastan]

So, this will become a perennial problem. I'll probably have to build a buried fence to stop the roots from spreading my way. Ugh. The good news is it will help stop the moles his yard sends my way too. Bonus.

Why not just keep picking it off when you see shoots coming up? Eventually you will starve it out.

[RTH10260]

nasty critter

Prevention and management

A sound management plan is necessary to manage this species and will take a commitment of several years to ensure that the population has decreased significantly and is not a serious problem. Because this is a perennial species that produces a lot of viable seeds, in addition to a vast underground network of spreading roots, management efforts must focus on both the prevention of seeds and eliminating root growth. Management plans that combine fall and early spring applications of specific foliar herbicides and pre-flower mowing throughout the growing season have shown to produce excellent results, especially when follow-up management occurs for several years until the population is significantly reduced. Restoration of treated sites by fostering existing or newly planted site-specific native plant species can also sustain management well into the future and prevent new populations from developing.

Mowing or cutting of stands prior to flowering in late June can significantly reduce the overall seed production of a population. However, Canada thistle will continue to flower after mowing, so repeated attempts must be made throughout mid and late summer to prevent overall seed production. Mowing in a single year will not be sufficient to control large stands. Multiple years in succession will be required and it is important that any equipment used during the process is inspected and thoroughly cleaned to ensure that seeds are not being distributed to new areas.
Fall and spring applications of foliar herbicides that mobilize their active ingredients into the root system of the plant have been shown to provide the most effective management. Infestations need to be monitored for several years after initial treatments and follow-up applications should be administered for surviving plants and new seedlings. If using herbicide treatments, check with your local University of Minnesota Extension Agent, co-op, or certified landscape care expert for assistance and recommendations. There are several businesses throughout the state with certified herbicide applicators that can be hired to perform chemical applications.

Several biological control agents are commercially available. However, the results have been variable and non-target impacts not thoroughly tested. More information is needed at this time before these agents can be considered a viable means of control.

Canada thistle lifecycle and treatment timing graphic


https://www.mda.state.mn.us/plants/pest ... adathistle

[Volkonski]

Last fall's pansies survived the winter. Sadly they will not survive the summer but for now we can enjoy them.

[bill_g]

So, this will become a perennial problem. I'll probably have to build a buried fence to stop the roots from spreading my way. Ugh. The good news is it will help stop the moles his yard sends my way too. Bonus.

Why not just keep picking it off when you see shoots coming up? Eventually you will starve it out.

That's not my experience. It continues to spread underground despite individual shoots being cut off above. You have to dig it up carefully, find a root thread, and trace it out removing all you can. Each root bit can potentially turn into another plant. Absolutely pernicious and invasive.

[Azastan]

That's not my experience. It continues to spread underground despite individual shoots being cut off above. You have to dig it up carefully, find a root thread, and trace it out removing all you can. Each root bit can potentially turn into another plant. Absolutely pernicious and invasive.

Huh, I have managed to completely eliminate it here by doing this, although every once in a while a plant tries to sneak its way in from seeds blowing in from neighbours (none close by, I manage the pastures on either side of me as well).

[Phoenix520]

Yikes! I haven’t seen it here, but reading up on it, it looks nasty! Unless you have TB, then it would be helpful.

I belonged to a community garden in WeHo many years ago. Our monthly service was nearly always digging up patches of nut grass.

[humblescribe]

The early April report:

I've been harvesting from six to ten asparagus spears per week since mid-February. Enough to enjoy for dinner or as an appetizer. The staminate plants seem to have pushed forth earlier than the pistillate ones. The staminate plants are more slender than the thicker pistillate ones. I planted the beds in 2020, and I let them fern out for two years.

Next weekend I'll be picking the blood oranges and squeezing them for juice. We generally get about 2 1/2 gallons of juice to enjoy. The navel orange, blood orange, and tangerine are in bloom, and the front yard smells divine!

The two Blenheim apricot trees and the Santa Rosa plum will need thinning mid-month. It never ceases to amaze me how much fruit is set and how little the tree aborts on its own.

The grapes received their first elemental sulfur spray last week. I'll be spraying sulfur as long as the weather remains < 80 when I'll have to switch over to copper sprays and usually one nasty fungicide spray until veraison in mid-July. I thinned out the new shoots before spraying, and will continue to thin out shoots, remove leaves, trim and rearrange the bunches after bloom. Most people don't realize that labor crews walk the rows in commercial vineyards about 15-20 times per year to make sure the bunches receive just the right amount of sunlight and are hanging sufficiently free from impairment.

Onions and garlic are chugging along, and the onions should start bulbing up in another 30 days or so as our days reach 13 3/4 hours of daylight.

The Fresno chilies are starting to push blooms (had to buy plants as we lost the seeds to a downpour when we forgot to bring them indoors!) Tomatoes and watermelons are just now pushing true leaves.

[Phoenix520]

My tomatoes are going gangbusters! The Early Girl has lots of clusters and will ripen soon. I dont expect great flavor but hope I’m surprised.

I have two Mr Stripey heirlooms next to each other; one plant is doing great, the other is half its size with no flowers.

The San Marzanos are also great. The rest are slow fruiters, about where I’d expect them to be.

The salvias I bought at the plant sale are Wendy’s Wish. I tried to look it up but couldn’t find anything about the program - a portion of each sale of Wendy’s Wish ( and other Wish’s) go to the Make-A-Wish Foundation.