Oooh! Ok good things to experiment with. My sunroom is very dry, so I’m hoping continued plant hoarding will continue to increase the humidity.
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I guess I am already sort of experimenting with this, albeit a bit unintentionally:
I got a fig tree and a meyer lemon in the fall. The fig had already gone dormant but the lemon only sort of started to. My original plan was to put the fig in the basement, which stays around 55 degrees (at least, it has so far, even when it has been in the teens overnight and barely above freezing during the day) and has no windows, so would likely remain dormant until spring, at which point I would bring it up, acclimatize it to the outside, and possibly plant it out if I found a good enough sheltered spot. Instead what happened is it stayed inside too long and started leafing out:
So now I am tasked with trying to keep it happy and growing until spring, as I don’t want to shock it my shoving it in a cold, lightless room at this point. So far, so good?
The lemon is in a different state (I won’t add a photo, it is pretty sad), as it still had most of it’s leaves when I got it. In that case, I left it outside too long (temps in the 40s) and it started losing leaves. I brought it in more consistently, so it stopped losing leaves and is now a collection of green twigs and branches with like the 7 leaves that it didn’t drop and that are still green. It is now very slowly starting to form buds to produce new leaves. My goal is to try to keep it happy enough that this is successful.
It’s not a great time for it I don’t think, but I need to repot both as well, which I hope doesn’t just kill them. But I don’t think they will survive all winter in their current pots. Citrus also can be finicky about pH (I think it’s pH?) and there is special citrus food you can buy, which might be especially important for potted citrus. I haven’t yet, I figured they can survive a while with dilute fish emulsion.
It’s certainly a learning process!
ETA: the fig 12 days ago:
https://forum.ohmydollar.com/t/calbals-bobcat-ranch/3208/1937
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Converted the Christmas haul of Hammerbarn gift cards into a garden watering system hooked up to an existing tank.
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Ooh very nice.
I’m glad I finally worked out how to access all that water and make it useful. All up it was ~$300. Should have done it when we first moved here.
Job to do in the next couple of days is clean the roof and gutter of the shed to maximise tank inflow.
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How did you go with cleaning? I really need to clean out gutters and hire someone to empty our soakwells.
I have a “subpod” - putting it together today, along with the garden bed. It’s going in a sort of temporary location, and then I might move it after we’ve renovated… So temporary position may be for a year or two. I’m very excited to have so much potential worm farm & composting space. I think I’ll need to buy some worms for it, but I have some tiny homemade in-ground worm farms that the local worms do great with, so I’ll start putting stuff in and get the worms in the next week.
I need to finish the renovation plans so we can get started on designing the landscaping around the new windows and doors.
I also planted some watermelon seeds. Way late but I want to see if the tops of milk bottles protect them from bugs.
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We harvested our corn @GJT
I was shocked to get anything after torrential rains while they were trying to pollinate and the fact that we probably didn’t plant enough for reliable pollination in the first place (I think we ended up with 10 plants).
So pretty!
I think ours looks more purple than blue.
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Nice one 
We’ve found the longer you leave it to dry on the plant the more colour they get.
Hoping my Red ones we have planted this year grow enough to actually make cobs.
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I read this too then got worried about all the rain and pests so decided to bring them in. They are a lot of fun. I’ll probably try a different type each season. Glass gem has me intrigued too.
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I’ve seen pink ones this season as well. The Urban Veggie Patch on the gram has them. She also does Glass Gem.
If we do OK with the red I’ll send some your way.
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What a pretty friend.
I replaced a bunch of irrigation with drip line today. The tiny sprinklers kept breaking, this should be better.
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I should check my compost. I’ve just left it to do it’s thing and haven’t set up the next tub yet. I also have a pile from 12+ months ago that had nice and ants at one point, so that will need a child-free day to be sorted…
Meanwhile, planning the side yard for after we’ve renovated. We have to include a 4sqm she’d somewhere on the property, so I’m testing how I like the layout if I include it in here.
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It’s raining. Like proper raining. But my rain gauge is busted so I won’t know how much we get.
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That happened to all my tomatoes last year (winter crop) even though they were mostly saved seed from the previous season where we grew all the same open pollinated variety and none had it happen. 
I wondered if it was too much nitrogen? We also got smaller fruit sets than the previous year but it was kind of a bad year for tomatoes in Brisbane in general I think.
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Has anyone done the three sisters corn/squash/beans thing? Would they all be planted at the same time? Kiddo keeps bringing up growing corn so I think I’ll try that this summer.
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I have, and yes, all at once. Be sure you have climbing beans, not bush beans; the point is the corn is strong enough to support the beans by the time they need it. The squash leaves shade the ground to keep it cooler/ hold moisture in. To be truly traditional, bury a dead fish in the mound when you plant for fertilizer.
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Hello! I am in zone 6 I guess. I am making a small garden for my son in my parents home this spring. What should I build to keep out deer and other woodland pests? We live literally in the woods.