I have 2 spruce trees here by the house that are dieing out too. --- i just keep cutting dead stuff off them and eventually they will be gone. I plant cedar seedlings that i find growing in the wild and have the best luck with them here. Hardy but the worst part is they grow slow!
2026 gardens
- Thread starter SONNY
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I have had no luck with apple trees over the years so about 12 years ago I planted a few pear trees...Bartlet and Sickle. They have grown well and tall and I get a million flowers every spring....and about 6 pears every year. I have pruned, not pruned to no avail. I even verbally told them I would chain up the 3020 to them and yank them. Nothing.
workinonit
Well-known member
I planted potatoes yesterday. Have had 1/2 of my strawberries in for a week or so. I plan to set the other half today. I have tomato plants started and planted radish, onions and carrots yesterday. Corn is right around the corner.
workinonit
Well-known member
I've seen where wood ash is great for lots of things that like alkaline soil especially peppers.
Looking specifically to treat apple and cherry trees plus some small conifers. Put some down yesterday and noticed that two small fir trees were stripped of needles and all buds by deer. The protective fencing had been knocked down on them so today some repair is on the agenda between raindrops.
Don McCombs
501 Club
If exclusion doesn’t work, try eradication. 
Playing whack a mole around here I'd burn up a barrel in no time.If exclusion doesn’t work, try eradication.
Don McCombs
501 Club
On a more realistic note, we’ve had good success with Liquid Fence Deer Repellent, in both the liquid spray and granular forms. It can get rather expensive, since you have to re-apply after every rain. There are recipes on the internet for making a much less expensive homemade version, though.
After your recommendation about liquid fence, I had great success with it on my vegetable garden last season. Sure is some stinky stuff! I have too many trees to keep after them with the spray. I simply must do a better job of securing the protective fencing. Less work and less expense in the long run for this project. I'm feeding about 100 wild turkeys daily and the deer get in on it. Been doing so for years, so for the most part it's my fault when they eat stuff.
Don McCombs
501 Club
Same problem here with turkeys vs deer. Depending on how you feed the turkeys, feeder(s) or broadcast on the ground, there may be a solution to feed the birds, but not the deer. A friend/neighbor uses a section of cattle fencing (the heavy wire mesh type) raised up about 2 feet on t posts over the area where the feed drops. This allows the turkeys to get under and at the corn, but excludes the deer. Has worked very well for him. Another option is to use cracked corn. The deer will eat it, but it’s less attractive to them than shelled corn.
Don McCombs
501 Club
High of 75 here today. Too hot for March 7th. Felt good, though.
78 or so here ---today cold and wet high wind--nasty day. Got a few things planted in the greenhouse the other day. radish and lettuce in the earthboxes and a flat of cabbage and 1 of cauliflower to start with--- gotta wait til the last of Mar before i get to wild and crazy at starting plants!!
Hail,---horseradish, -- onions planted just an hour before an inch of rain/hail, the new water tote idea. This thing holds 275 gallons as opposed to the 100 gallon trailer on the garden tractor plus easier to get around with. I will set the little 1" water pump on it later to get water close to the rows instead of having to carry it! --- ( old cripple is gittin a bit smarter !!!!!)
Acouple pix of the bottom side of the big mower after shreding 137 acres of big bluestem! looks like it was sandblasted--now i gotta get primer sprayed on it before it rusts.
Acouple pix of the bottom side of the big mower after shreding 137 acres of big bluestem! looks like it was sandblasted--now i gotta get primer sprayed on it before it rusts.
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Don McCombs
501 Club
78 today, 36 tonight. Sounds like great gardening weather.