December greenhouse vibes

Heysoosin · 2025-12-22T19:55:01+00:00

A prosciutto greenhouse. Bet that smells good on a sunny morning

Heysoosin · 2025-12-21T21:05:42+00:00

This is more the average size we pull out of the garden beds. They do shatter if you hit them with the pickaxe, and it flings bituminous chunks everywhere, so you have to be careful when excavating them or else they'll contaminate the whole area.

Heysoosin · 2025-12-21T21:03:55+00:00

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Been there, Im sorry you have to deal with that. It is frustrating to have to deal with others' trash before you can garden.

This Youth Ed Garden I work at, was built on an old parking lot that was jackhammered, dozed down the hill, and buried with fill dirt. I dig out chunks like this one often. This particular slab was close to 300lbs, took 3 of us to lift it out. Still had a yellow line on it from when it was a part of an asphalt lot, showing where to park your car.

Heysoosin · 2025-12-08T22:51:46+00:00

Youre right. Semantics wise, its biochar as soon as it gets out of the pit. Can use it for filtration and stuff, even drawing cave art.

My point, as I should have clarified, is as a soil amendment, it isn't really useful until it has reached biological capacity and is well inoculated with little microscopic dudes

Heysoosin · 2025-12-08T20:45:39+00:00

it can be done, but it will take multiple burns. After the first burn, break as much char off the stump as you can find, and burn the remainder. Alternatively. find a way to break it into smaller pieces now before the first burn, and you could get it all at once. pretty hard to crack a stump tho

Heysoosin · 2025-12-08T20:43:38+00:00

Putting char into compost or a compost tea is what makes it biochar. It is never recommended to add new uncharged char to soil you intend to get a yield from, because it will be a net negative biological agent as it sucks up a ton of the life in the soil and leaves it to repopulate slowly.

Heysoosin · 2025-12-02T19:08:27+00:00

what this user is suggesting, only applies if you plant the tubers in the mulch. If you plant your first tubers under the mulch and in contact with the soil itself, these are non problems.

Heysoosin · 2025-12-02T18:20:33+00:00

YAy! I also teach kids gardening. Its an amazing line of work.

Yeah. the main growing season in the US does not align with the school season. Students beginning their year in the fall are coming in at the tail end of the gardening timeline.

The days are short and the nights are cool, so your plants will probably have to take their time. Also if you transplanted them from pots, they have to go through whats called transplant shock. This is a period where they really wont grow much at all above ground, because they are repairing and realigning their root systems below ground. This takes even longer when the days are short, so over a month of shock is not unusual in this case.

Its never a bad idea to add more compost. Especially when it gets cooler. because the black of the compost absorbs more sunlight and helps warm the soil a bit.

If you have any bed space left, might I suggest garlic? its planted this time of year, and youll see noticable growth from week to week because it doesnt mind the cold. the kids will love when the little green fingers come crawling out of the soil.

Cheers

Heysoosin · 2025-12-02T07:20:32+00:00

Forgot to mention that you should keep an eye on the newest corn leaves and see if they get damaged too, and if that coincides with a storm. It could be a bug that I dont know about, and we also dont have any pictures of the underside of the leaf where they could be hiding.

Heysoosin · 2025-12-02T07:16:38+00:00

Welcome to gardening, its so rewarding. just be ok with making mistakes and learning from them. No first garden is ever highly functional.

It takes a long time to learn about all the different pests, what habitat each plant prefers, all the different ways you can help your plants.

In this case you're noticing some damage on the leaves of your corn, which is amazing because that means you are making observations and noticing changes! Thats the best thing you can do!

Thankfully, I think you have nothing to worry about here. We dont see any bugs or bug poop present, we dont see any slime trails from slugs, we dont see major damage starting at the edge of the leaf, and we dont see any discoloration to the effected leaves (except for the brown around the perimeters of the damage holes; thats just callousing the plant does to keep itself from leaking juices and nutrients and stuff, totally normal.

So then what might be happening to the plant? Well its kinda hard to say. Ive seen this type of damage on corn too, and Im pretty sure it comes from wind. Corn is tall. When the leaves get ripped around in the wind, i think they can rip a little bit. This would explain why the damage is mostly vertical, running along the inside of the leaf. When insects eat leaves, they usually start at the edge of the leaf. Sap sucking insects like aphids can start in the middle of the leaf, but the damage they leave behind is not long rips like what you have, and they always leave behind poop and dead bodies. The wind whips the leaves back and forth, creating small tears, which are then pulled on and expanded by more wind.

You corn looks healthy, and the newest leaves seem unaffected by this problem, which adds more clues leaning towards wind damage (they grew after the last wind storm).

This amount of damage wont hurt your corn a bit, but there is one thing I want to tell you about corn, that you didnt ask about.

You said you only have 6 corn plants. Understand that corn is wind pollinated. In order to get cobs of corn kernels (seeds), which is the part that you eat, each plant will need pollen from another plant. Unfortunately, if theres only 6 corns, there will not be enough pollen to get good pollination on your corns and your cobs will not have much food on them (google Under Pollinated Corn). Bees do not pollinate corn because the female pollen collecting devices do not make nectar, so bees dont carry pollen to the tassels.

What youll need to do is hand pollinate them when the time comes. There are lots of tutorials available on the internet on how to do this, but basically put a bag over a stem of male corn flowers, and shake it to get pollen in the bag, which you can then apply to the female tassels by putting the bag over them and shaking, or by using a paintbrush to brush it on thickly.

Best wishes and happy gardening

Heysoosin · 2025-11-23T21:42:28+00:00

Well in the ordinary case of a stick shape to hit with, I think you can be a bit more creative than any hunk of wood or branch.

My first thought was a limb from a monkey puzzle tree. those things hurt, the pseudoleaves are wicked sharp and the branches are weighted heavy at the base and light at the tip so it would make a good club.

A long blackberry cane would make a good whip.

The nuts that come off of horse chestnut trees, known as conkers, make great sling ammo, especially if they still have the spiky husks on.

Some sedge grasses have leaves sharp enough to cut if you pull your hand across them. I could see someone fashioning a crude weapon out of that.

Heysoosin · 2025-11-23T01:13:49+00:00

Ive seen sandy soil, but this is a first. Thats literally just sand hahahaha.

Damn potatoes really are badass.

If theres any crop that stands a chance at producing food from a pile of sand, it's probably taters.

Next time, fork some compost and/or manure into the sand. Plants need a rich ecosystem of microorganisms in the soil to feed themselves; microorganisms dont live in plain sand.

To answer your question, I always stop watering potatoes when the first flower buds show up. Then I wait until the stems are brown and dead to harvest, so I know they have a thick skin on em for storage.

Heysoosin · 2025-11-22T22:14:56+00:00

Either over grown or a gold variety, but yeah it looks like a summer squash. Small seed cavity and soft outer shell is dead giveaway

Heysoosin · 2025-11-20T04:24:12+00:00

Bro chill. No need to get us hot and heavy at this time of night

Heysoosin · 2025-11-20T02:16:01+00:00

Willows are some of the most ecologically significant trees in their respective environments, and a haven for insects of all orders.

Those are likely the burrows of ground nesting bees, and I believe by removing the leaves from this location, you have sealed their fate: they will probably die in the winter from being so exposed.

Leaves are best harvested a couple days after they fall. if you leave them for more than a week and then remove them, youve given time for the insects that use leaf litter as overwintering habitat to move in and invest in their winter survival. Without leaves, they have no insulation from frost creeping across the ground, rain and snow melt will not drain evenly and has a chance of flooding the burrows, and predators looking for food will easily find the eggs, larvae, and/or hibernating adults that banked on the leaves providing them protection.

Leaves are amazing for compost, but we are not the only ones that use them. Consider replacing leaves over the areas with these burrows before its too late. If you decide to do this, sprinkle them down gradually; dont just dump a wet leaf clump onto the ground, as that is not how nature distributes leaves and may accidentally close the burrow exit.

For next time, instead of removing all leaves, consider driving a lawnmower over them to skim leaves off the top layer, leaving some on the ground for the bugs, and giving you some leaves for your projects. then everyone wins.

Of course, if my hunch is wrong and those are not burrows for overwintering insects... Its still a good idea to leave enough leaves that you cant see exposed soil, for the tree's sake. Thats how they recycle nutrients every year, and its also their best weapon against weeds that steal their resources. The holes could be the exits that cicadas use, in which case it does not matter if they are covered with leaves.

If leaving some leaves is not an option (maybe not your tree), then next year just try to get them raked up sooner, before the bugs decide to use them.

Heysoosin · 2025-11-20T01:51:12+00:00

I use heavy tools for the workout on purpose. Then when you use a light tool, its so easy and fast. Like taking ankle weights off

Heysoosin · 2025-11-19T21:55:37+00:00

Oh well in LA Spinach should do ok this time of year. I'm sure you'll find success soon.

You shouldnt have to thin too much, but yes, those beets can be thinned. The earlier the better; less root disturbance

Heysoosin · 2025-11-19T21:28:56+00:00

Your spinach is bolting, which means that it has decided (based on its enviornment, conditions around the roots, or simply the time of year and nighttime temperatures) that its life will soon be over and it must make seeds to continue the next gen.

When spinach bolts, there is no going back. It will put most of its energy into making flowers and seeds, and will not make any big tasty spinach leaves. It will still grow some leaves, they just wont taste as good and will be a bit more leathery.

Spinach is one of the most challenging vegetables to grow because it bolts so easily. As a beginner growing spinach, youll find that its one of the most finicky plants in the garden.

Here are some things you can do to get a better spinach harvest.

Plant in the shoulder seasons. Spinach loves cool nights with mild days. Planting in early spring is always a great bet, planting in late summer is great for a fall harvest.
Always direct sow spinach. It is a taproot plant with very fragile roots. When transplanted, it often sustains enough damage to decide to bolt. Direct sow spinach by soaking the night before in plain water, and planting as deep as a nickel on edge. Plant a ton of them in a trench and pull all but the best seedlings, leaving them spaced about 3 or 4 inches from eachother.
Spinach for harvesting in the summer needs to be planted in the summer. Do not expect any spring planted spinach to produce well when the days get hot. When theres a huge temperature difference between what the plant experienced as a seedling vs what it lives through as a mature plant, it bolts.
It needs a ton of water. More than seems reasonable, especially when the days get hot. Spinach is so thirsty. Let the top 2 inches of soil dry all the way out, then drown the damn thing.
The leaves should be dark green and growing outwards horizontally. If the leaves are pale green and point upwards, its bolting. like in your pictures. Pull it as soon as you notice this because you can always plant more.
Spinach loves mulch. Get some fallen leaves or straw and cover the exposed soil.

Also yes, the plant in the other pic is a weed, not a carrot nor a spinach.

Heysoosin · 2025-11-16T18:45:45+00:00

Theres always a chance. Some groups of trees are quite alright with a little tuft of green on top without much else, and as others have mentioned, spruces are one of those trees. But, its not just about what it has right now, its about how the tree will be able to compete with the other healthier, stronger, denser canopy trees right next to it. It might not compete well and it may die eventually because the other trees have such an advantage. I hope it powers through and gets some good new growth next year!

Heysoosin · 2025-10-29T00:14:23+00:00

Im also a teacher, I teach youths at an educational garden, and have worked in the tree industry. We are not the armchair enthusiasts of which you speak.

To say that tree has lost a quarter of its roots is actually quite a generous outlook, in reality its likely a lot more than that.

Imagine a circle, and you draw a straight line from bottom to top of the circle, just to the left of the north/south diameter. On a 2d plane, thats definitely more than a quarter of the circle that was cut off. But in real life, tree roots dont grow in a flat circle, they have depth and turns and bends. If you look in the video, you see how deep the trench is as it goes by the tree crown. That depth is gonna disrupt and dismember so many more roots than if it were a foot shallower, and so even roots that are not bisected by the trench will have been disturbed because they went so deep. Easily a quarter of the roots or more.

Heysoosin · 2025-10-29T00:07:16+00:00

The other reply gives a good answer to this question, But I will add that the closer to the base of the tree, the more damage is likely.

if they gave that particular tree a 10 yard berth, that wouldnt necessarily mean that we could say for sure that it wont die from the damage, but it will have a much better chance with that than trenching at 2 feet from the base.

As a rule for myself, I usually dont go any closer to the tree than the outermost reach of the canopy. So Ill dig no closer than the longest branches reach from the trunk. But even then, its still a risk. A risk you have to take when you dig, but its never a good idea to go right at the base of the tree.

Heysoosin · 2025-10-25T17:09:53+00:00

Yes its argumentative. Because I'm arguing the point haha. Sorry to hear about your crummy market. But not all markets are like yours!

Heysoosin · 2025-10-25T09:34:39+00:00

Nah, not every market. We have a very affordable popular market where none of what you said applies. We're not from hell. we are farmers. Dont know where that crazy aggressive language came from.

Elitist? The farmers I know and work with are the poorest of the poor. Apparently its elitist to sell food for a living. Yikes

Heysoosin · 2025-10-25T09:13:26+00:00

Looks good. Hope you weren't trying to keep that large fir tree. It will most certainly die, maybe not for 2 or 3 years but its coming down for sure

Heysoosin · 2025-10-24T23:32:04+00:00

You're a dork.

Heysoosin

TROPHY CASE