What did you do in the garden today?

[Swiss]

Tomorrow I have ice cream squares, shoo fly cake, and cooked french toast sticks going in. All are for boy scout summer camp.

Oh my gosh! That sounds incredible!!

I wonder how that might work on wisteria, poison ivy?
View attachment 3836108
I weeded this a couple weeks ago, see all the wisteria popping up?

Definitely DO NOT burn poison ivy. I know someone who did, and they had such a bad (thankfully, only external) reaction to it that they couldn't really bend their knees for A MONTH!! Her legs were super swollen with a really bad rash. It just aerosolizes the bad stuff in the poison ivy. I've heard of people dying because they burned poison ivy.

I'm not trying to be dramatic, but it scares me so bad every time I hear (or read) someone mention burning poison ivy.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Can you share how you save your seeds?

Seed Savers Exchange has a really good book on their website about how to collect seeds from just about everything. I've used it quite a bit over the past few years.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Well... I did it. I bought the Small Harvest Right freeze dryer. I have a farm table that's in a little breakfast nook in my kitchen. We don't eat there as it's right by the door to the garage, opting for the dining room instead. I'm just going to put it on that farm table... Not ideal but will have to do for now.

 

[WthrLady]

Oh yes... It was stupid hot and humid today. DH was outside hanging laundry on the line. I was like "you know that's going to take FOREVER to dry in this humidity?!?!". Thirty minutes later he came back in the house and I thought he'd doused himself with the house. Um.. Nope. He was just sweating that badly. We pretty much stayed inside after that until dusk when it was cooler.

We've had over 8" of rain in the past 2 weeks. Mosquitoes are CRAZY at the moment.

I swear, if I find one more tick in my hair....
=======
We had a good breeze going today, and I worked outside most of the day. DH was wearing firehose pants, I was hot just looking at him. But he was walking behind the push weed eater, so I can't blame him. But I'd be out of those long heavy bush pants for everything else the second I was done with the fence line weeds. TOO HOT.
The house was too warm too. So during breaks we were outside in the shade and breeze, until it stopped. Then ugh.
And the cottonwood is flying, so I sneezed so hard last night I woke myself up and pulled a sternal tendon. I swear.
Upside, the freeze dryer is done.
The french toast sticks are amazing!
The ice cream squares are divine.
And the cake crackers, delish!

Storms tomorrow and Monday, so I won't be running the machine then.

Next up I think is sweet potato chips.

 

[WthrLady]

Well... I did it. I bought the Small Harvest Right freeze dryer. I have a farm table that's in a little breakfast nook in my kitchen. We don't eat there as it's right by the door to the garage, opting for the dining room instead. I'm just going to put it on that farm table... Not ideal but will have to do for now.

I'm an enabler!
Holler if you need help. YOU MUST let it rest 24-36 hours after you get it and you MUST do the bread run.

 

[TJAnonymous]

I swear, if I find one more tick in my hair....
=======
We had a good breeze going today, and I worked outside most of the day. DH was wearing firehose pants, I was hot just looking at him. But he was walking behind the push weed eater, so I can't blame him. But I'd be out of those long heavy bush pants for everything else the second I was done with the fence line weeds. TOO HOT.
The house was too warm too. So during breaks we were outside in the shade and breeze, until it stopped. Then ugh.
And the cottonwood is flying, so I sneezed so hard last night I woke myself up and pulled a sternal tendon. I swear.
Upside, the freeze dryer is done.
The french toast sticks are amazing!
The ice cream squares are divine.
And the cake crackers, delish!

Storms tomorrow and Monday, so I won't be running the machine then.

Next up I think is sweet potato chips.

Do you have any shade trees around your house? That's one of the main things that drew me to want this property when we were house shopping... There's at least a dozen enormous hardwoods all around the house and yard. They provide critical shade to help keep our house cooler... Of course the trade-off is that I always feel a twinge of anxiety every time we get tornado weather.

And yet my A/C was working so hard lately (it was set at 71 degrees) that the condenser froze over.

 

[WthrLady]

Do you have any shade trees around your house? That's one of the main things that drew me to want this property when we were house shopping... There's at least a dozen enormous hardwoods all around the house and yard. They provide critical shade to help keep our house cooler... Of course the trade-off is that I always feel a twinge of anxiety every time we get tornado weather.

And yet my A/C was working so hard lately (it was set at 71 degrees) that the condenser froze over.

Nope. It's Nebraska. Trees don't grown on the hilltop, it's glacial chip clay, no topsoil to speak of. They only grow down in the valley. That plus our regular 70-80 mph winds....recipe for disaster. I planted a few, but double the possible max height of the species of tree from the house, minimum.
The house in Florida was surrounded by TOWERING top heavy yellow pines. Hurricanes would twist and snap them halfway up.
The house in Ohio was surrounded by ANCIENT 3 foot diameter massive hardwoods, every large storm and tornado had me worried about one falling on the house.
I prefer the naked hill and letting the wind blow through.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Nope. It's Nebraska. Trees don't grown on the hilltop, it's glacial chip clay, no topsoil to speak of. They only grow down in the valley. That plus our regular 70-80 mph winds....recipe for disaster. I planted a few, but double the possible max height of the species of tree from the house, minimum.
The house in Florida was surrounded by TOWERING top heavy yellow pines. Hurricanes would twist and snap them halfway up.
The house in Ohio was surrounded by ANCIENT 3 foot diameter massive hardwoods, every large storm and tornado had me worried about one falling on the house.
I prefer the naked hill and letting the wind blow through.

Yeah, mine are the ancient 3+ ft diameter trunk hardwoods. Knock on wood, we've never even had a heavy limb fall from any of them. The danger for us are the old dogwood trees that are about 20-25 ft from the house. The trunk of the dogwoods are also over 3 ft but dogwoods are notoriously weak wood. One in particular has been struck by lightning at least twice...once while I've owned the house. Luckily my daughter was at work or it would have crushed her car as it fell where she parks. It did hit my truck and dent the hood slightly.




You can see from the picture how the tree splits into multiple trunks. Another good portion of the remaining trunk fell during a storm last fall and landed on the chainlink fence to the backyard. Just barely missing the house.

I really should cut it down but it does provide such good shade and it very pretty when it blooms in the spring.

 

[Minanora]

I'm done with Baker Creek.

My SIL had issues with her Baker Creek seeds this year; I didn't order from them for this season. I ordered from Johnnys select seeds and MIGardener. out of everything I planted; aside from the tray of seeds that I cooked on accident... TWICE... Same tray... Ehem; aside from those, everything germinated except a single corn seed, my detroit gold beets that I direct sowed (two sprouted), and one icicle radish seed. The beets I think were my fault; too wet/cold. I'm going to try again in September.

and changed furnace filter.

Hey! I just did that last night.

I bought the Small Harvest Right freeze dryer.

Congratulations!!!!


Today I looked at the garden. it was 62 today; going to be cool for a few days. not digging this weather. Low 40s at night. I really want my peppers to take off, at this rate I may have to buy larger plants.

I haven't even gotten the eggs for the day yet. Long day with other chores and a trip down to costco. That eats up a lot of time and usually a good chunk of paycheck. Ugh. Worth it but still frustrating. Getting ready for DS' 6th birthday party in a few weeks. Monday is his actual birthday. Hard to believe it's been 6 years. He's growing up!