Jane Marr

I have a creek absolutely bursting with wild onions, garlic, and leeks (yes, all at once, lucky me!). I haven't tried to store them before since I just gobble them up fresh, but there's such an abundance this year I couldn't possibly use it all. A quick google search was disheartening, telling me that the wild alliums don't last as long as their cultivated counterparts. Is it still worth a shot braiding and trying to store them? I'm talking a quarter mile of creek lined on both sides--can't pass it up!

Trace Oswald wrote:I think I would try some manual manipulation as well.  Even something like a broom handle with a long nail attached to the end and used to stab some holes would help a great deal to get some water sinking in I think.

I definitely need to do some dirt stabbing in tandem with the soaker hose, I think :P Great suggestion!

Jeff Steez wrote:I imagine the entire garden needs to be watered equally and deeply, rather than the individual plant locations, as the rain does.

I will admit I use a watering can only because I have yet to purchase one of those 100 foot Water Right potable hoses, which are rather pricey. It takes an absolutely absurd amount of jug refills to water the entire garden, so I stagger things by day... trees one day, one section the next.

If the entire bed area isn't watered, the water will wick and dissipate to its surroundings, while the top layer evaporates. Is your soil a lot of peat/loamy substance? When I am making my soil blends peat moss is extremely difficult to wet. Once it's in a pot having been thoroughly wetted, it takes water no problem, which is interesting.

When I transplant anything, I use the dirt that was dug up to create a "ring" around the base of the plant, acting as a barrier or dam. I then water inside that ring, so that the water goes as directly downwards towards the roots as possible, rather than spreading out horizontally. Mulch mulch mulch some more!

Being in Florida, I have since chosen things that barely need water at all besides rain, but that will differentiate from your experience if you want to grow plenty of non-natives.

Perhaps try out some olla watering vessels?

Some soaker hoses are definitely on my shopping list then!

There's no eat in my soil to my knowledge, but I think you're right about the water just running off to its surroundings and not soaking in the spots I'm watering.

That's very smart on the "dam"/"ring" around transplanted plants. I definitely had an issue with the blackberry where the water just "ran away" from it, so I'll be using that idea to keep the water in a circle around it, thank you.

I've been wanting to use ollas for a long time--this could be a good time to install them.

I'll keep adding more mulch and compost, and along with the soaker hose I hope to see things turn around soon.

Recently I had a bunch of transplanted tomatoes die. Confusing because I'd been soaking my garden beds daily on account of the drought in my area (south Kansas).

So, curious, I dug them up to inspect the roots: soil underneath the top layer was so bone dry that dust flew up when moved.

Checked on my houseplants, that also hadn't been doing well ever since I used local soil from around my garden/yard to repot them.......... same problem.

My newest blackberry is in steady decline, dropping leaves, no new growth despite daily watering. Suspecting the same problem, I yanked it up. It slid out of the dry soil with no resistance.

Edit for added detail: I don't rake, don't til, let native clover run rampant every summer, and own chickens, so the soil shouldn't be lacking in organic matter.

So... what's happening? My soil won't accept water anymore! It repels it like those pockets of still-dry cocoa powder you'd get drinking hot chocolate as a kid.

I've seen hydrophobic soil in old bags of potting soil, but now the outdoor soil is doing it. What can I do? My garden is usually full in this season, but this issue has halted my planting in its tracks. Is it as simple as the drought or is something more going on?

EDIT: My whining worked, we got a nice long rain just a few hours after I posted. Not sure if it'll solve all my problems but it's certainly going to help.

greg mosser wrote:8 and 6 look like black walnut - crushing a leaf would ID it if you know the smell, it’s pretty distinct.

14 could be an apple or something related.

12 is an oak for sure, but it’s a little hard to tell species before the leaves are fully enlarged.

That's very helpful, thank you! I will definitely do a sniff test on the potential walnut, but looking at pictures of black walnut saplings, I'm inclined to agree with you already.

I am leaning towards a volunteer crabapple for #14 given that there are many of those in the area.

Mercy Pergande wrote:Tried a very cursory id of some of these and came up with the following:
#6 Bitternut hickory Carya cordiformis
#7 Silk tree Albizia julibrissin
#12 Bur oak Quercus macrocarpa
#16 Green ash Fraxinus pennsylvanica
#18 Siberian elm Ulmus pumila

Several of these tend to be in areas with water and a couple aren't as cold tolerant, but without knowing more specifics about the region where they were found, I just did a bit of rough research based on the photos. I hope this gives some kind of jumping off place for better/more detailed identification!

Some of the others I too assume to be mulberries, but I don't know much about how to differentiate  and narrow down mulberries without seeing the fruit.

Oh, I should have included that information! This is in Southeast Kansas. It's quite dry, the grass has been dead in that area for years.

Here are the photos! Hoping I can get some ID help.

Photos # 1 - 5: An abundance of young mulberries.

# 6 - 8: Unidentified fuzzy sapling. Leaves are velvety. Dark is dark, smooth, and speckled. What is this fella?

# 9 - 11: Small unidentified sapling. Smooth, grey bark with light speckles. Bright/yellowy green, round leaves. What's this one?

# 12 and #13: A young oak, maybe?

#14 and #15: Can't begin to guess on this one. It's speckled and has round leaves!

#16 and #17: Unidentified sapling.

#18 and #19: Unidentified, but one branch fell over and broke at the base, then kept growing leaves and shoots anyways. Good for it.

John C Daley wrote:What a great idea, I am keen to see it progress;

I'm glad there's some interest! I got online later than I planned to today, but I will be uploading the photos in just a moment. :)

City keeps cutting down some lovely trees along an overgrown fence line. This overgrown fence has tons of lovely volunteer plants--mulberry ect. that I can't stand to see go to waste. I am making a thread here to "journal" clearing the fence line/overgrown parts of the yard and attempting to dig up and save what I can.

I am aware that I probably should have done this when everything was dormant.

Hoping to identify everything I dig up. I do believe I have a few volunteer crabapples/fruiting trees in the mix, judging by the smooth, speckled bark on some of the saplings.

I am watering everything tonight, and will post a picture of all the trees of interest in the morning. The one I am most excited for is a young white/lavender mulberry.

I took home a few logs from the woods of various mushrooms that I've seen flush in previous years. They've still got some crusty dried mushroom bits on them, and I suppose I'm worried that they've gone too dry as we had zero snow or rain whatsoever this winter.

I'm going to soak them and see if they produce again. Can they get ""too dry""? Any tips for cultivating wild logs are appreciated as well.

For extra detail, the logs I gathered are Hen of the Woods, Comb Tooth, and Witch's Butter. This is my first time growing mushrooms from logs. Super excited!