A gardening thread

I was able to roll my mower onto car ramps, and then lift up the front end and put some cinder blocks under the frame. It is a riding zero turn, so the weight is in the back. I also added a bagger when I bought it, which needed a counterweight added up front where a bumper would go... it was good exercise! All my shoulder could handle, but it got the job done. Now waiting for a new belt, blades and fuel filter to arrive, and I'll do a total tune on it (have oil filter and air filter waiting already).

As for weed killing, that's why I am going homemade and without anything that harms bees or other insects (other than maybe a few that get gummed up by the spray).

My recipe is a work in progress, but I am going to start with a gallon of water, two cups of cheap vinegar, a cup of dish soap and a cup of salt. This will be sprayed on my mulch beds to kill surface weeds that made it through the pile. Zero neonicotinoids, or whatever that word is that kills our pollinators.

Boiling water is just too impractical for me, despite my constant efforts I cannot keep up with everything as a One Man Band. So, spray is the way and hopefully this will do as desired.

Right?!?

The recommended approach there is to use tea spout with a longer, narrow-ended spout. I don't drink a lot of tea and we just boil water in a pot if we want it, so this just isn't practical for me.

I use boiling water to clean residue from one of my "instruments". Works far better than the chemical crap that is sold for the purpose, costs significantly less (like, significantly lol) with no environmental concerns. I do have to be careful because the heat transfer is instant through the material. Worth it, just can't be a twit.

That's a lot different than walking around with a big kettle of boiling water in my yard sloshing on me - the neighbors have had enough trauma

The fruits on my holiest of holy plants in my garden are starting to ripen. Wineberries. Hard to cultivate, takes long to get them to bear fruits, plants are hard to come by, fruits are basically impossible to come by around here.

They may look a lot like raspberries but they taste completely differently and the plants are also totally different.

A red Dahlia I'm trying not to kill:

Harvested my poe-tay-toes and onions today.

I promised to tell you about my escapades in metal detecting, so I now will, but first some background. We bought our property five years ago, and it became clear almost immediately, that previous owners had dumped all kinds of refuse there: bottles, jars, bricks, scrap metal etc. There’s also an area I suspect has been used as a dumping ground.

As much my son likes to dig up these “buried treasures”, I thought enough is enough. So I bought a metal detector, the Garrett Ace 250. For those not in the know, it has been extremely popular all over the world, and for a good reason: You get a surprisingly good detector for the money, and since it can pinpoint, you don’t have to invest in a pinpointer right away.

So, off we went, my son and I, armed with a shovel, the Garrett and a bucket for trash. Didn’t really expect to find anything valuable, so no brush, ziplock bags or water. And oh boy, it was just as bad as I thought; the detector was beeping everywhere! Lids, stoppers, ring pulls (oh yes, they are a thing), lots and lots of aluminium foil, nails, screws, batteries, hinges, rusted cans and aluminium cans, pins rusted beyond recognition, a pillbox and a massive metal hook.

After three days of detecting, results started to show: Those frequent beeps became scarce, and our finds were smaller in size, usually nails and screws. But there was a new problem: my trusty helper was getting frustrated because we had not found anything of value. I was a bit puzzled myself; you’d expect to find at least one coin or a button.

When in doubt: Youtube! I watched some videos about where to detect if you want to find valuables, and one thing stuck out: clothes lines. I remembered removing remains of an old clothes line when we bought the place. So once again we started detecting, and almost immediately got a good hit. My son dug it up and showed me what looked like a toy ring. I gently removed some of the dirt when it struck me: this was no toy! We went inside where I washed the ring and sure enough, it was a real gold ring with gems. I was flabbergasted: You don’t find gold rings in your back garden, not when you’ve just started. That just doesn’t happen, but there it was.

Now here’s something they don’t tell you in Youtube: if you don’t have an ultrasonic cleaner, that dirt won’t come off easily. I had to soak the ring for a week to make something out of the markings. Eventually I could tell what we had found: a gold ring with embedded diamonds and a single blue sapphire. No engraving, but according to the markings it was made by a known goldsmith in a neighbouring city in the 90’s. As for the price, well, it’s a small ring with small stones. I could find similar used rings for sale for about 50 quid. But for us, all that mattered was, we had found treasure!

Finally my noob tips:
-weather is your enemy. It’s no fun digging dirt in the rain, and the Garrett isn’t waterproof. Equally, if it’s sunny, you’ll get sunburnt. Either way, wear a hoodie or a hat that will protect the back of your neck. Always carry sunblock.
-get a pinpointer. I haven’t bought one yet, but you are trying to find very small objects in less than ideal conditions.
-always carry a bag for trash, you’ll need it.
-get a proper shovel. There are shovels made specifically for the task (Google metal detecting shovel). It will make your life easier, and you want that.
-most countries have strict rules for detecting, make sure you know them.
-if it’s not your land, you’ll need a permission to detect. Make sure the permission states who gets to keep the finds. If you actually make a historical find, contact your Finds Officer, or whoever applies in your case.

Ambush Beetle coming home from work and looking after his new exotic plant.....

"Grown for centuries by indigenous farmers in rural Mexico, this incredibly rare corn can self-fertilise...this wonder crop could help tackle world hunger, and even end farming's toxic reliance on chemical fertilisers for good!"  Currently being researched by scientists.  Good news that the local community are going to get royalties for future seed sales.

My trusty rototiller won't start so i cannot rototill my garden plot!!!!

(Even after putting in a new spark plug)

Wail! Panic! Whine!

Check the spark and drain the float bowl into a cup, and check for water. If you have spark, you know it's a petrol problem. Draining the carb may do the trick, as long as there's no water in the tank. If you see water, empty the tank too.

My Raspberry bushes are just ridiculous this year, in a good way. They love the early summer hot dry weather and are producing just a ton of really good berries. They are so thick I can't get into parts of the bushes that have nice berries on them. just spent about 15 minutes picking. Had to wear long pants and a hoodie in the hot weather though as mosquitos love raspberry bushes and are just thick.