Make An Easy Garden Weeder, Mini Hoe

 Garden Tools, Gardening  6 Responses »
May 262012
 

Beating the weeds is always a challenge for gardeners.  I watched a video by Imstillworkin a little while ago and she showed how she weeded her garden.  One of the tools she showed in her video was a mini hoe made using a dandelion digger.  She bent the end on an angle, and it works well in tight areas!

I mentioned to hubby how I would love something like this, but we didn’t have a dandelion digger.  He thought that a BBQ fork would work just as well.  He quickly found our old one and put it in his vice, then bend the forks over.  We tested it out in the raised bed and adjusted the angle until it worked really well.  What an easy and simple solution!  You could also attach this easily to a pole with some hose clamps.  That would make it easier to use when working around tomato cages or beans.  It would be simple to undo them when you wanted to work in a raised bed again.  I prefer short handled tools when working in my raised beds.

While we were working on this, we also found another weeder we bought for the kids a while ago.  One side has a prong cultivator and the other side a hoe.  But it was so dull, it only had a squared end.  Hubby ground the edge on it to make it a sharp chisel.  This worked great in the raised beds to!

 

Kim Mills on Google+

We Missed The Frost & Garden Photos

 Around The Homestead, Gardening  3 Responses »
May 172012
 

Well last night the temperatures dropped down to about 2C.  Hubby picked up some more floating row cover/frost blanket and we finished covering everything up.  Thankfully we did not have any frost, but I’m glad to have the plants protected anyway.  Tonight is only suppose to go down to 6C and after that it looks really nice for the next week.

 

Our flowering crab apple is in full bloom.  Oh does it smell wonderful.

This past week our strawberries started to flower!  I fed them with some liquid seaweed last week and have been trying to keep them watered.  I need to get mulch for them soon.

Our first garden bed as it looked last Sunday night.  Last night we finished covering the next two rows with the floating row covers.  I also had to add heavier weights to hold it down.  The storm that came through Sunday night lifted the cover off the last two rows.  Now I have bricks and logs holding it down.  It gets very windy here!

I’m going to wait until Saturday to finish planting out the rest of my seedlings.

*Disclaimer Amazon links are affiliate links.

Kim Mills on Google+

Garden Update May 15 2012

 Around The Homestead, Gardening  No Responses »
May 162012
 

Sunday afternoon we were busy in the gardens again.  We tilled up the garden patch a second time.  Then we raked the sod clumps out.  Normally the front garden isn’t bad for weeds, but we had such nice weather early in the season that they started growing early.

Hubby bought rolls of landscape fabric that was 3 feet wide by 100 feet long.  He found a good deal on them for only $10 each.  We will be getting some more!  We cut them in half, giving us 200 feet for the same price, can’t beat that!  We laid out the first strip, using bricks to hold the ends down.  Then had our little ones help hold the edges down so we could rake the soil over them.  That will keep the fabric held down well.  We are planning to use a living mulch in this garden plot, so we used the width of our push lawn mower to space the rows.   We need to put down two more rows of landscape fabric then there will be enough for the tomatoes and peppers.

We are supposed to get lower temperatures Wednesday and Thursdays night so we are using our floating row/frost covers to protect the plants.

Kim Mills on Google+

Garden Update May 12 2012

 Around The Homestead, Gardening  No Responses »
May 162012
 

This past Saturday we were finally able to start tilling the gardens.  We would have loved to start working them sooner but between hubby’s back and the crazy weather this spring we were running behind.  But the weather this past week has been wonderful!   On Sat. were tilled up all of our gardens and I soaked the corn and bean seed.

 

Kim Mills on Google+

Garden Photos

 Gardening  5 Responses »
May 142012
 

The weather this past week has been just wonderful!  So I’m following cues from the weather and starting to plant out early.  The long range forecast for the next few weeks looks nice.  They are saying a few cooler nights, so I can just cover up my plants if need be.  These photos were taken a few days ago before I started to plant outside.

 

Heinz Tomatoes

Our Heinz tomatoes were growing really well!  They always do well for me, they are my staple tomato here.  They really needed to be repotted.  But the nice weather saved me from having to do that.  They went into the garden yesterday and most had flower buds on them already, one had an open flower!

Heinz Tomatoes

Peppers

Our sweet peppers are off to a good start this year.  I hope that we get good yields off of these.

Squash

I’ve started our summer and winter squash in the greenhouse a few weeks ago.  I did this last year and they did really well for me.  So far I’m having mixed results.  The germination rate continues to be low.

Lupins

Delphinium

Some lupin and Delphinium flowers for my garden boarders.

 

Raised Bed

This is out of our raised beds.  I turned it over a few weeks ago and transplanted my onions, broccoli, purple cauliflower and cabbage into it.

Onions

Broccoli

Purple Cauliflower

Asparagus

We have been harvesting from our little asparagus patch for the past week.  Weeds have always been an issue with this bed.  This year I’m trying something new.  The old time method of salting asparagus patches.  I just applied salt the other day and I’ll let you all know how it works.

Whats growing in your gardens?

 

Kim Mills on Google+

Some Of What I’m Growing This Year

 Gardening  4 Responses »
Mar 122012
 

In early February a package that I was eagerly waiting for showed up.  Yes, my seed order from Baker Creek!   Seed orders coming in the mail are always a bright part of winter to look forward to.  I posted this video a few weeks ago on our YouTube channel, but with being so busy I forgot to post it up here. :(

Some of what is going into our gardens this year is:

  • Albino Beets
  • Golden Beets
  • Mammoth Red Mangle Beets
  • Yellow Cylindrical Beet
  • Purple of Sicily Cauliflower
  • Couer De Boeuf Des Vertus Cabbage
  • White Belgian Carrot
  • Giant Prague Celeriac
  • Lemon Cuke Cucumber
  • Telegraph Improved Cucumber
  • Pandora Striped rose Eggplant
  • Giant Cape Gooseberry
  • Early White Vienna Kohlrabi
  • Early Perple Vienna Kohlrabi
  • Tigger Melons
  • Stuttgarter Onion
  • Red Mini Bell Peppers
  • Lemon Squash
  • Patisson Strie Melange Squash
  • Tondo Scuro Di Piacenza Squash
  • White Scallop Squash
  • Zucchino Rampicante Squash
  • Jersey Giant Tomato
  • Stupice Tomato
  • Sub Arctic Plenty tomato
  • Golden King of Siberia Tomato
  • Cream of Saskatchewan watermelon
  • Stowell’s Evergreen Sweet Corn
  • Paradicsom Alaku Sarga Szentes Pepper

 

Kim Mills on Google+

Getting A Little Snow And A Deep Freeze

 Around The Homestead, Gardening  14 Responses »
Jan 152012
 

Well the winter storm the news had been going on about didn’t really materialize.   But we did get a little snow yesterday!  It started in the afternoon and by this morning we had 2 inches of fresh snow.  Not a storm by a long shot, but pretty. :)  What we have had are frigid temps on the homestead!  Today it was -15 C and the windchill -22 C.  Tonight and tomorrow will be colder.  Burrr, times like this I’m so grateful for the wood stoves.

I’ve been suffering from spring fever, I want to get back in the gardens!! Maybe I’ve been watching to many gardening videos on YouTube lately.  It has inspired me to make room for my grow lights again.  Tomorrow I’ll be making room in the summer kitchen to set them up.  Hopefully hubby and I will be able to get the stand up from the basement ok.  It’s very heavy!  He built it for me the first winter after we moved in to this house.

We’ve both been thinking next summer will be a cold one.  I checked the Farmers Almanac online and for Southern Ontario they are saying a cold and dry summer.  Hopefully it wont be to bad!  But I’m planning my gardens for a cold season.  I’m just about done my seed order and there will be many Canadian and Russian variety’s this year!

 

Kim Mills on Google+

When To Harvest Butternut Squash

 Gardening, Vegetable Gardening  2 Responses »
Oct 042011
 
Cucurbita moschata 'Butternut'. Original descr...

Image via Wikipedia

To harvest winter squash for storage in a root cellar, wait until the skins are hard enough to resist scratching by your fingernail.
Then cut them off the plant leaving 2 – 3 inches of stem attached.  Let them sit in a room that stays between 50 and 60 F for a week or two.  Then store on shelves or pallets in the cellar.

Kim Mills on Google+

How To Make Compost Tea

 Gardening  9 Responses »
Aug 062011
 

Compost tea is black gold for your garden!  Compost is full of living microbes that help to build your soil and nourish your plants.  But some times it’s inconvenient to  apply compost to your plants through the season.  If your plants are in containers, eventually the soil would reach the very top of the pot!  But container plants especially need fertilizing through out the yea r, as constant watering washes out many nutrients.

The solution is to make compost tea.  It concentrates the nutrients and makes it very easy to apply.  It’s easily watered on your lawn, containers or vegetable gardens.  It can also be sprayed on your plants and dose and amazing job at warding off fungus and pests.  As both are normally symptoms of plant stress.

I hope this video on how I make my compost tea is helpful to you.  I’ve heard some have improved it further by adding an aerator, such as an air stone from a fish tank to it.  As aerating the water adds more oxygen and encourages microbe growth.  I haven’t tried that yet as I’ve had wonderful results with just stirring the mix.  But if you have tried both ways and found an advantage to one or the other, I would love to hear about it!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Kim Mills on Google+
 Older Entries  Newer Entries