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joel said:
How do you keep deer out of your garden?
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1st defense is a german shepperd. Works pretty good! If they are really bad then i break out the peanut butter. That always gets them!

I run a single strand of electric fence around the garden. Nothing special, simple fence about 3ft high. Then i get a jar of peanut butter, the cheapest, oiliest brand at the store and a plastic knife. I smear peanut butter on the fence. About every 7/8ft.

Deer can't resist peanut butter, they love it! They have to lick it off the electric fence! With predictable results... They won't be back for a month or so! 🤣

Edit to add… One year when corn was getting ready I had a problem with raccoons. I just lowered the electric wire to about 6 inches off the ground. Raccoons love peanut butter too!
 
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We had a serious frost last night, but today is lovely. No damage at least. Spending the morning in the poly, tidying up, sorting through pots and broken plastic and watering. Reclaiming wayward strawberry plants into pots, and putting out small savoy cabbage plants in some beds I made from pallet ties. Very poor return on seeds so far, but I'll put a few more down. Need to start weeding outside also. I have figs on the small tree I was given last year.
 
Peanut said:
1st defense is a german shepperd. Works pretty good! If they are really bad then i break out the peanut butter. That always gets them!

I run a single strand of electric fence around the garden. Nothing special, simple fence about 3ft high. Then i get a jar of peanut butter, the cheapest, oiliest brand at the store and a plastic knife. I smear peanut butter on the fence. About every 7/8ft.

Deer can't resist peanut butter, they love it! They have to lick it off the electric fence! With predictable results... They won't be back for a month or so! 🤣

Edit to add… One year when corn was getting ready I had a problem with raccoons. I just lowered the electric wire to about 6 inches off the ground. Raccoons love peanut butter too!
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Who doesn’t love PB?
 
One year I had a couple acres of purple hull peas in the highfield. Still had peaches and sometimes planted corn and peas to have more to sell at the farmers market.

Deer were horrible that year. My solution worked but it wasn’t easy. I had an old dome tent I set up in the the middle of the peas. I’d sleep in it some nights but… Not my bed so I tended to wake up several times during the night.

I pointed the tent flap up hill towards the woods. I had a 22 rifle. When I woke I’d shoot a few rounds out the tent flap then go back to sleep. The deer never knew when I was in the tent or when I’d start shooting.

It worked... kept the deer out of my peas. Only had to do it for a couple weeks until the pea harvest was over. Only 3 nights a week in the tent. Annoying yes, but effective!

Peas...
Highfield Peas (3)a.jpg

This is mosby white corn i planted one year in between rows of peach trees.

Mosby Corn (2).jpg
 
This is what 2 acres of peas looks like. A good cash crop but a lot of work and an aching back. I never liked picking peas on this scale. Spend 3 hours bent over in the hot afternoon sun. I'd put the peas in the peach house (little air conditioned building), over night then be at the farmers market by 5am with a load of peas, peaches, melons, corn. Dad would take a load to a market in one truck. I'd take another load to a different market. The markets were open Tues, Thru and Saturday.

Peaches were the big cash crop. We'd pick and sell 12K to 14K pounds in 30 days.

Highfield Peas (5)a.jpgHighfield Peas (6)a.jpgHighfield Peas (7)a.jpg
 
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I cut back a bunch of
Elaeagnus pungens - Alchetron, The Free Social Encyclopedia

Elaeagnus pungens​


This plant from around my central unit, the builder used it as a shroud for the unit, and I hate this stuff.

My neighbor in the other house planted it along the fence line and it grew all the way up to the rear power lines.
He could not keep it cut back so I took a pole saw and cut it back and hauled of three BIG truck loads of the cuttings.

The first time I trimmed it I burned the stuff on a pile of leaves, DO NOT DO THAT!!!!! it makes the thorns on these things like IRON nails.
I mowed over the spot and had flats on my mower. Then I raked the soil out and put it in the washouts under the road culvert and packed it down.
After that I let the county deal with the clippings at the brushfill.

Don't plant this stuff!!! it spreads runners and comes up from the roots like cane.
 
Too funny, I was sitting here thinking about the shop electrical problem. A neighbor called and asked if I wanted any sugarcane. I guess a change in plans was in order..

We grew sugarcane here on the farm when I was little, about 60yrs ago. Just one year and we made syrup. I don’t remember much at all and nothing about growing it.

So, my neighbor gave me a crash course on how to plant. Basically I bury stalks in a deep furrow. At the joints of the cane it sprouts roots and will put up a new stalk at each joint. It needs to be buried deep, 6 to 8 inches. I gave it a little mound on top.

I guess I’ll have sugarcane come fall. I don’t know how the stalks are preserved over winter. I got til fall to figure that out. Then I should have plenty to plant next year.

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I have 2 weeks until threat of frost is passed. The forecast for next week is well above freezing. So I planted my first raised bed of broccoli today. The Princess brought home two more raspberries that added to the raspberry bed. They were lame looking plants. Packaging claimed they were " dormant". I would have called them " almost dead". ;)

I started the spring weeding of the strawberry patch. Finished 1/5th of the patch. The Princess feels the strawberry patch is her responsibility so she was pleased.

Tomorrow more broccoli out planting. Maybe tomatoes..

Ben
 
I planted the remainder of the broccoli I had in the greenhouse and 7 cabbages. I still have 8 cabbages that will be heading north on the next trip up there. Up-potted some tomatoes and 8 bell pepper plants and moved them to the greenhouse. They’re going outside in the beds around Mother’s Day.
 
Bacpacker said:
Those are blooming here to. Beautiful, but are horribly invasive
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A guy on youtube said he had the American Tenn. wisteria & it is not as invasive as the Asian type.
I never heard this before, he told me.
 
Not sure what variety mine is but I suspect Japanese. It was dug out of the woods where I used horseback ride. There were a lot of summer cottages for the NYC dwellers around the “golden age.” I’ve trained it along the chain link fence that separates the building’s yard from my father’s yard.

I checked the photos you posted in your link above @Peanut and funny thing is, there was an old airplane in the middle of those woods where we were riding the horses.
 
We drove over the mountain today to the nursery I like. I am not quite giving up on the older honeysuckle but I did get a new one and will probably put it in a pot just in case.
@joel this is the one I got (both times) only as it fades, it gets a very slight hue of pink in it. It is beautiful and the hummers love it of course.
IMG_7042.jpeg

ETA also picked up some other plants that I will hopefully get planted tomorrow.
 
@Tommyice that is beautiful! 😍. I took about a dozen cuttings last year from my in-laws place. 4 have made it through the winter and are just getting leaves. I am hoping to keep them going.
@Snowman I think you like seeing the blooming process so I snapped these: my irises are just opening. And second is my peonies are just about to.
IMG_7038.jpeg
IMG_7041.jpeg
 
LadyLocust said:
We drove over the mountain today to the nursery I like. I am not quite giving up on the older honeysuckle but I did get a new one and will probably put it in a pot just in case.
@joel this is the one I got (both times) only as it fades, it gets a very slight hue of pink in it. It is beautiful and the hummers love it of course.
View attachment 128908
ETA also picked up some other plants that I will hopefully get planted tomorrow.
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Are you going to make medicine from it? From one of my herb books… Lonicera japonica – Honeysuckle is good for lungs, asthma, the spleen, aids childbirth…. To many uses to name, an odd one though, honeysuckle ointment is great for making skin discolorations fade.

Here in the US the blooms are used. In arabic medicine the whole plant is used, even the root. I’ve never messed with it though. It looks nice growing on my corral fence. I noticed today it had about finished blooming. One of the years I’ll get around to making medicine from it.
 
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Peanut said:
Are you going to make medicine from it? From one of my herb books… Lonicera japonica – Honeysuckle is good for lungs, asthma, the spleen, aids childbirth…. To many uses to name, an odd one though, honeysuckle ointment is great for making skin discolorations fade.

Here in the US the blooms are used though. In arabic medicine the whole plant is used, even the root. I’ve never messed with it though. It looks nice growing on my corral fence. I noticed today it had about finished blooming. One of the years I’ll get around to making medicine from it.
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I did not know that- medicinally. I have known I could make syrup from it. I will definitely look into that since asthma and lung things is how my system reacts from allergies- even mild 😏. It’s annoying. And fades age spots to boot - hot diggity!
 
LadyLocust said:
@Tommyice that is beautiful! 😍. I took about a dozen cuttings last year from my in-laws place. 4 have made it through the winter and are just getting leaves. I am hoping to keep them going.
@Snowman I think you like seeing the blooming process so I snapped these: my irises are just opening. And second is my peonies are just about to.
View attachment 128909View attachment 128910
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You May Love this Site then :

https://www.almanac.com/plant/peonies

"In mixed borders, peonies bloom with columbines, baptisias, and veronicas and combine well with irises and roses. Plant white peonies with yellow irises and a froth of forget-me-nots; set off pink peonies with blue Nepeta or violets."😉

☃️👻👻
 
Snowman said:
You May Love this Site then :

https://www.almanac.com/plant/peonies

"In mixed borders, peonies bloom with columbines, baptisias, and veronicas and combine well with irises and roses. Plant white peonies with yellow irises and a froth of forget-me-nots; set off pink peonies with blue Nepeta or violets."😉

☃️👻👻
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I’ve had my peonies for about 30 years. This is the 3rd house they’ve lived at. They were given to me by a dear friend who I hope to see again someday on the other side 💖
 
Unfortunately, I wasn't able to start seeds this year, so I had to bite the bullet and buy plants *sigh*

Went to walmart before dawn and bought about $60 worth of veggie and herb plants. Ouch

Thing is I forgot to grab some zucchini, so now I'm hoping I can throw some in some potting soil and hopefully get a couple to germinate in time. I can get away with waiting until the end of May to plant them I think

Did get some sweet potato slips going so I can plant those once I get the barrels ready. Have to read up on growing them again since this will be only my second try.

I've recovered really well from the surgery, so doing any gardening shouldn't be a problem (yay)
 
I was able to play in the garden a good part of the day. Planted broccoli, Brussels, cabbage, and some various flowers.
Some good garden news: I think my hollyhocks finally seeded and it looks like there are a few little starts 😁. I’ve been trying to get them going since moving here and each year I only get the couple I planted.
Also, I purchased a new honeysuckle yesterday so today I was pruning back the old one. I didn’t want to completely give up on it but thought I’d prune it back pretty aggressively and see what happens. Well guess what I found. I think the main stock is dead but look: 👀
IMG_7044.jpeg

Please disregard all the messy bits. Once I discovered this, I didn’t want to disrupt the roots. I’m so excited.
Also at the nursery yesterday, they were pruning the honeysuckles. The owner was telling a young fella how. I asked if they would mind if I took a stem or if that was poor etiquette to ask. They said help yourself. We don’t have time for those. Then after we paid and were loading up, the young fella came out with a couple more and said they were from the other variety. They are all in water. If they all root, I will have a lot of honeysuckle 😂. We’ve gone there for several years. I probably need to take them some goodies. The old fella is a hoot!
Also, my corn is sprouting.
Happy day.
 
Didn't do much in the yard today, did Hopefully what was the last of Laundry and Hung it out to Dry the Old Fashioned Way...!!! Took some measurements for a New Idea on the Wooden Project of the Backyard...!! More L8r on That...!
☃️

👻👻
 
seeing life in 15 out of 20 bench grafts so far...we shall see...to be continued...dont wanna count my chickens ya know !
 
Tommyice said:
@LadyLocust if I remember correctly you enjoy wisteria. Well they are just about popping here

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I have some wild wisteria. It hasn’t bloomed. It’s all green and hanging off a dead tree and a trellis. Didn’t bloom last year and hasn’t bloomed this year.

And to put salt in the wound, my Pampas grass did not return this year. I have no idea why. We trimmed it back last late fall/early winter. Isn’t that what I was supposed to do?
 
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