Busy Busy

Sorry for the lack of posts...

Been very busy in the yard and garden since the last post.

Clearing the "middle garden"

I cleared an area that we've come to refer to as the middle garden. This used to be a part of
my stepfather's main garden but has become overgrown with some kind of tree as well as bittersweet, grape vines and brambles. Most of it is cleared now but there's more to go. I will have to keep up with the part that's done or it will get taken over again. There is also a pear tree, more pear or apple trees (not sure), some lilacs, forsythia, grapes and a volunteer peach tree (there is an old badly out-of-shape peach tree nearby and at least four volunteers in the yard).
I am trying to rescue the pear trees from the grape and bittersweet vines. It's a crazy mess!

So much to do.

Rhubarb just showing up for another season.

The middle garden is also where the rhubarb is, but I'm in the process of moving it to the current garden. I'm only moving several plants a year so that there are always some that are established.

Same Rhubarb just a couple-few weeks later.

This is the second year of the move. I may have run out of space where I was moving them to but the ones I moved are divisions so the amount of rhubarb is very much increased, once it's all established.

lower left was moved last year - upper right, this year

The rhubarb could have all fit in the row where I have been moving them but I chose to plant asparagus in the other half of it. Yes, I finally did it! At least twice, I bought roots and never got a bed prepared for them and the roots sat there and dried out. This year, my son Jason and I got the area ready first and then bought some 2-yr roots and got them planted right away.

Now I'm watching intently and nervously, waiting for the asparagus to show signs of life.

Asparagrass - will it start growing?

I finally got some Egyptian Walking Onions (scallions). I ended up getting some on ebay.

Scallions - Egyptian Walking Onions

These will grow year after year and produce small bulbs on their tops. These little bulbs are saved and planted in the spring for scallions while the grownups are left to produce next spring's bulblets. If left to nature, the weight of the bulb clusters causes the plant to lean over to the ground and the bulblets will take root and so the cycle continues. In this manner the onions "walk" across the garden, hence their name. I put them in a small edge of the strawberry bed for now, so they won't doing any walking any time soon.

Compost bin - almost done but in use now.

I built a new compost bin from pallets, as many YouTube gardeners have been doing. Mine is based loosely on the one by GardenFork. It's all painted and pretty much finished. I just have a couple minor things to do still. Going to do a separate post for this.

 The garden is about ready to rock. Just needs to be raked out smooth-ish and planted. The guy just did the tilling Sunday. I always call him a little late for the season but not too late. Not for any good reason, I just get busy and forget to call him.

Tilled and ready to start planting

Last year I had to call him twice because he forgot about me. I started to wonder if he forgot me again but he didn't. He was just concerned about the rain and the soil being too wet.

I have a smaller garden that I planted peas in. A lot of them didn't come up or the birds ate them, so I recently filled the spaces with Italian Green Beans and planted a row (about 8') of swiss chard. We'll see what happens. The garden is only 8x10 feet roughly and is handy for early plantings when the main one hasn't been tilled yet.

8'x10'   "Early Garden"

Last year or the year before (it's all a blur) I planted corn in it, which didn't do well. I have never been good at growing corn. But the critters liked it, being less picky than us humans.

So this pretty much catches us up. Now I can try to stay caught up and show the progress from here, as well as anything I might have missed in this update

Happy Gardening!

Burning a brush pile in the garden.

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