5marshallsstrong wrote: »

I am glad y'all are as excited about planting as I am! I don't have pictures yet but so far I have a lot of basil, German & lemon thyme, two big Rosemary plants, sage, pineapple sage, as well as Greek & Italian oregano for the herbs. My kids planted a dried avocado pit and dried cherry seeds..lol. They check them every day!!

Since normally I have the "thumb of death" I only plant herbs. However this year i bought 3 baby tomato plants. The purple Cherokee has matured beautifully and has some fairly large tomatoes already. The German queen has a few small fruits, and the pink brandywine has some flowers. We will see if I battle the squirrels. I put the basil near the tomatoes because I read the worms hate basil... Otherwise I have no clue and look forward to learning as I go!!

I'm trying brandywine this year too... Look for horn worms every day as a grown one can eat a tomato plant over night!!! Their horn doesn't sting but I've never been brave enough to grab with out glove to find out lol. They are very hard to find so look hard lol

My beans sprouted... After the first round rotted due to cold weather.

I know your excited!!! By the time I get back from vacation I will have to start my mid season seedings lol. Soo. Much fun!

First harvesting of kale! Slathered in avocado oil and garlic and baking into kale chips.

Last week's rhubarb flower stalk pull. Keeps the stalks tender no matter what size they get to. My DH is 5'10" to give you a bit of perspective. No time for other gardening, but I love to share in my dad's bounty (Italian garden of tomatoes and radicchio.)

Update...

Here is garden, just started filling with topsoil (I got from previous garden ~ I'm relocating garden to get more sunlight): (the large compost pile in the upper right, is my neighbors compost, he is giving it all to me.) I have my other neighbor's tractor to scoop it up and transfer to my garden. The compost is about 4-6 years old, some of it on the upper 40% is not broken down as much as I would like, but the lower 60% is very nice, looks like dirt.





Ya know, I always wanted a fish pond next to my garden, OK lets get r done...



9' wide, 21' long, 3'2" deep:



Then it rained and since this is the lowest spot on my property, it promptly filled up. :noway: :grumble: But that wasn't according to the plan! I have to drain it and install the liner.



Here is close to the end of today. I have all dirt smoothed out and about 4"-6" of compost on top of dirt. Plenty of earthworms. Some of the compost is a little too coarse to plant in, so I'll use some potting soil on top of compost. Or I may screen/sift some of the more mature compost I have.

@midwesterner85
Wikipedia - and grab a friend, lol. and pi
"The girth measurement is commonly taken by wrapping a Measuring tape (tape) around, and in the plane perpendicular to the axis of, the trunk, at the correct height. In spite of the apparent simplicity of wrapping a tape around a tree trunk at breast height, errors in this measurement are common. The most common error is mixing measurements of single trunk trees with those of multi-trunk trees and not distinguishing between the two. Even with single trunk trees irregular bumps and hollows are common. Some trees have low branches that split below breast height. Other trees have epicormic sprouts, suckers, or dead branches. Some tree trunks stand slanted at an angle rather than vertical. Girths of trees with these features may be measured by competing methods by different surveyors and result in differences. The basic guidelines for dealing with the above difficulties were developed by American Forests,[3] and most of the guideline used by other tree measuring groups around the world are based upon American Forests guidelines. The Native Tree Society measurement guidelines[1][2] also generally follow the American Forests prescription, with some additional elaborations. Many trees have burls bumps, and knots along their trunk. If these occur at the 4.5 feet girth measurement height, including them in the measurement would falsely inflate the girth measurement. The girth measurement should then be taken at the narrowest point below the odd growth and the height of the girth measurement noted. In some cases a girth taken just above the odd growth will be more representative of the actual girth of the tree. In these cases the measurement should be taken there and the height above the base of the tree noted."

Holy smokes!
For multi trunk trees here's the site:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_girth_measurement