The Gardening Thread

[Keep Looking]

Oh, wow, that is a lot of mozzie bites! I genuinely did not know you could get that many. Also, your garden looks absolutely lovely!

[Jitter]

Oh, wow, that is a lot of mozzie bites! I genuinely did not know you could get that many.

Neither did I! I have never ever gotten so many before. But I was bending down for the plants wearing a thin shirt, and this is a particularly bad mozzie year I hear. And then I think there must have been several instances of one of them getting inside my shirt and then getting interrupted by my movements and therefore restarting over and over... Also, I got stormed by the ants (deservedly, sorry ants). Srill, this is very exceptional. I think I actually had some temperature during the night caused by them. But, It’s not like we live in the Midgewater Marshes

Luckily the allergy medicine I have alleviates also mozzie bite itch, so they are much better now. It also helps I can’t reach them, as scratching only prolongs the reaction

Man of the plants are stil waiting to go to the ground, there’s so much to do! And here I am, procrastinating talking about it rather than doing

[Annuil]

Ew-ew-ew, Jitter, that must itch! I bet that causes discomfort to you! Hope it heals soon
Your garden is so lovely! You’re even making me homesick with those pics, though it’s not a bad feeling. It reminds me a lot about the type of nature we used to live in in the north of Russia (we lived some 10 hours away from the Finnish border, and that region is similar in nature, though we have less lakes).
Here in Michigan everything is green and growing with the temperature of 30 degrees (C) in the shade
We have planted a field of potatoes but went on a vacation for almost three weeks and returned to a field of extremely thorny plants! We had to weed the whole thing with the potatoes and then just mow whatever part didn’t have anything planted in it.
We spent three nights on that field, every night returning home with all the limbs soooo itchy from those pocky plants!.. it was a nightmare! But thankfully it is done and the potatoes are already billed, most of the vegetables planted. Watermelons, cantaloupes and stuff like that are still waiting for their turn, but at least we have a start. And thank God we don’t have mosquitoes or flies here! But we do have ants.
I’ve spent some time walking around the house with the anti-ant spray and killed their colonies (also sorry ants, but we can’t live on the same territory with you  :'D).
And another problem in Michigan is deer and rabbits! They eat everything, so a garden without a fence is no use. In the matter of a night everything you plant will be eaten, so that also takes so time to deal with. I’ll add a few pics of those thorns here, they aren’t on my device at the moment.
So, these are my garden adventures. 
Edit: the pics of those thorny things...
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AsSnHPIBASO_3E0Nfr0UhPpwfjTT

[Róisín]

Those spiky plants look like some kind of thistle or maybe wild lettuce? Where are the spikes exactly on the leaf: all over, down the middle of the underside of the leaf, or just on the edges? The reason I ask is that many of the thistle family plants have uses, including most best poultry food, some are edible for horses and  cows, a few are edible or medicinal for humans or have other uses, whereas some can be poisonous. Also some kinds can be destroyed by mowing, while others need the root grubbed up to stop them spreading. I can’t make out enough detail from the picture but if you put up a more detailed photo of a leaf and a single plant I can likely tell you what it is. Also if you do use them for something, don’t get any potato leaves mixed up with them because those are very poisonous.

 Anent the deer and rabbits: if you don’t hunt them for food, I tried various other things when I lived in places where they were a pest. I did hunt, and the deer in particular avoided the yard if I had a deerskin drying on the porch rail.  They also avoided areas where I had put down blood-and-bone fertiliser. One of my friends tried various recorded noises and found that the best results were from a fairly quiet recording of normal background noises for the tiny bush town where we lived interspersed with sudden random loud noises such as a dog sharply barking or snarling, gun firing, car backfiring, door slamming or a loud yell. The randomness was important as was making it a long enough tape that the sounds didn’t repeat in an obvious pattern - deer are smarter than you might think!

[catbirds]

Jitter, wow, VERY pretty garden, and a very unfortunate mozzie situation... (what a cute word for them!)

I think garlic is good for keeping mosquitos away for a bit, but I'm not sure! It miiight be a good idea to try it next time considering your situation, though I'm not sure how it works!

Annuil, cool field! It's unfortunate that it got overgrown by some other plant, but good that you managed to save it. That amount of potatoes looks like it'll last a while. Or will it? I'm not that familiar with potato volumes. Hope you get to planting the Fun Fruit soon, though!

Sometimes I'm happy that I live in a city. There's a bit less Garden to Garden, but at least there aren't bugs eyeing my back and deer eyeing my plants

[wavewright62]

I *do* live in the middle of a city, and whilst I don't have large-format fauna issues, I have a suspiciously large population of green sucky bugs-things and whitefly, and even cabbage looper caterpillars!  I suspect they came in with the plants I bought last year, rather than descending upon my tiny balcony from ...I have no idea wherefrom.  The nearest community vegetable garden I know about is some kms away.  I can't see *any* plants on any of the other balconies of my apartment building (although I can't see the north side), even.  The nearest park has some grass, low shrubs and one humongous oak tree.
We don't get much of a freeze here (it might get to 0C once a winter) so I am doing my best with oil and manual squashing, and next season will plant seeds instead of buying plants.
On the plus side - very very few mozzies in the inner city, at least not last summer.  Many sympathies to you Jitter, but your garden rewards your work.
Annuil, I fondly remember the hexagenia hatch about this time of year up your way - BIG dragonfly things coming off the river!  Summer in MI is blessed.

[Róisín]

I remember the Hexagenia hatch! Pretty, weird and the best bait for trout! They are actually a kind of giant mayfly, and typically for their kind only live for a day as adults, and don’t actually eat at all once they have wings, living only to mate and lay eggs.

[Annuil]

Thanks, guys! catbirds, that potato field might last us a winter, maybe leas than that. We always cultivated potatoes back in Russia for winter and such a field was about enough for a family.
Róisín, I think those are thistles, though I’m not that great at knowing the names of the plants. They have spikes by the edge of the leaf and also on the trunk. They bloom with purple flowers (but we usually don’t let them bloom, because if they do we lose the game :'D they’ll give seeds and cover everything else around, what wasn’t covered yet).
Also, thanks for the tips about the deer! People do hunt them on the property where the field is, so the animals there are rather shy, more shy than in the town (yeah, we have deer on the main streets sometimes). And we have a fence, for now it works.

Huh, that is very interesting, I know about the Hexagrnia hatch, we also enjoy trout and salmon fishing here in MI, however I don’t know which time of year exactly they come up. In Russian they are called “falling ones”, since when they hatch they fly up and fall down, fly up and fall down, as their mating dance.