➡I accidentally bought Balut eggs: 2 live ducks! Now a Chat Thread!

[RUNuts]

You make me extremely nervous!

Good! It keeps the blood pressure up!

@PirateGirl hope your garden goes well this year! I've got stink bug/sap suckers/seed suckers in the sunflowers bad! I'm dropping them into soapy water, but I've lost quite a few seeds already. And leaf hopper things.

I picked up 9 more Bananas trees and have been planting them this weekend. The cucumbers have started and taste great! Better than store. I need to find another cherry tomato. These are good, but not sweet. I'd like to find a sweeter variety. They are coming strong! We are eating as fast as they ripen. Second zucchini is on the counter for tonight. The bugs got one, so the chickens got it. I'm pulling squash vine borers out of the spaghetti squash the chickens planted. Hope we get some!

@KikisGirls how are your peppers? Mine struggled. The banana peppers finally started growing. All but one jalapeno died and I've replanted some to replace them. I also killed all but one sweet potato. Go figure. I usually kill the tomatoes before they fruit.

I was supposed to plant peas this weekend, but the free bananas interrupted that.

The 3 week old 6 EE are growing feathers. So happy! All are now eating mealworms from my hands. Big improvement. I can either wrap the 2x3 wire with something to keep them in, or wait until they are bigger to let them out of the tractor. They are next to the fence with the layers, so I hope that starts integration proceedings. Got to figure that out now. Either way, they need to be tamer. Seem to be flightier than the others at this age.

 

[Kiki]

Good! It keeps the blood pressure up!

@PirateGirl hope your garden goes well this year! I've got stink bug/sap suckers/seed suckers in the sunflowers bad! I'm dropping them into soapy water, but I've lost quite a few seeds already. And leaf hopper things.

I picked up 9 more Bananas trees and have been planting them this weekend. The cucumbers have started and taste great! Better than store. I need to find another cherry tomato. These are good, but not sweet. I'd like to find a sweeter variety. They are coming strong! We are eating as fast as they ripen. Second zucchini is on the counter for tonight. The bugs got one, so the chickens got it. I'm pulling squash vine borers out of the spaghetti squash the chickens planted. Hope we get some!

@KikisGirls how are your peppers? Mine struggled. The banana peppers finally started growing. All but one jalapeno died and I've replanted some to replace them. I also killed all but one sweet potato. Go figure. I usually kill the tomatoes before they fruit.

I was supposed to plant peas this weekend, but the free bananas interrupted that.

The 3 week old 6 EE are growing feathers. So happy! All are now eating mealworms from my hands. Big improvement. I can either wrap the 2x3 wire with something to keep them in, or wait until they are bigger to let them out of the tractor. They are next to the fence with the layers, so I hope that starts integration proceedings. Got to figure that out now. Either way, they need to be tamer. Seem to be flightier than the others at this age.

I killed all of the wild chile pequins.
The rest of the peppers are all doing crappy.
I have picked some tomatoes already and a million cucumbers.
That's about it on the garden front for now.

 

[PirateGirl]

@RUNuts I have yet to plant my sunflowers! They are about the last thing to plant, those and some herbs. I got sidetracked by unplanned trees and berry bushes. As for cherry tomatoes, I quite like the yellow variety (not sure what they are called). Also I was told that peas and beans are good to plant with/near your sunflowers. Apparently they will lean on them and climb on them and you won't need a trellis (apologies if you are the one who told me this in the first place).

My cat caught his first ever prairie dog yesterday! He is graduating to the big time. I'm not sure if he made the kill in the end, I made him come inside when the lightening started. This is promising for my garden though, if he can keep the prairie dogs away my odds of success are much better. The rabbits have pretty much all moved down the street since we moved in with our dogs (there have been fewer rabbits on our property each year, my dogs don't catch them, but they know to stay away and make their dens somewhere safer).

 

[RUNuts]

Yay cucumbers! Peppers are having a bad year. Sorry to hear about yours. Not sure what I did wrong.

The one banana tree we got in January survived the freezing weather in the house. We have 8 leaves (puppy ate 2 leaves, so I stacked more fluff around it to discourage her). I'm worried that she thinks bananas are play things. I'm not happy.

Are you keeping the horse egg pullets? When they hatch...

 

[RUNuts]

I might have told you about that, but all the peas close to sunflowers died. According to the internet, sunflowers are poisonous and kill everything near them. Except grass. The grass is doing good. In spite of my efforts. The peas are dead.

I'm planting more peas. Soon.

 

[PirateGirl]

I might have told you about that, but all the peas close to sunflowers died. According to the internet, sunflowers are poisonous and kill everything near them. Except grass. The grass is doing good. In spite of my efforts. The peas are dead.

I'm planting more peas. Soon.

What? Poisonous to plants around them? If this is correct, I am glad I have not planted them yet. I will choose a different location for the sunflowers! I have a hard enough time with my vegetable garden, I don't need to poison everything I've already planted!

 

[RUNuts]

Sorry, I am exaggerating. My peas died. Wandering around the internet, you find all kinds of information and misinformation. I planted cucumbers too and they are starting to take off although the zucchini started last January is just sitting there. We have had very dry weather and old seeds. I have no clue why the peas died. So looking at companion planting sites, for example:
Same-Soil Companions from http://homeguides.sfgate.com/plants-grow-well-sunflowers-45806.html
Some plants grow well together because they thrive in the same type of soil. Numerous bush bean varieties, such as wax, lima and green beans, are good sunflower companions for that reason. All of these plants are well-suited to acidic soil, with a pH level ranging from 6.5 to 7.5. Because bush beans provide their own nitrogen and don't require heavy amounts of nutrients, they don't compete with sunflowers for food, preventing the two kinds of plants from harming one another.

Then in another spot on that same site:
http://homeguides.sfgate.com/sunflowers-harm-garden-61282.html
Allelopathic Interaction

Sunflower seeds have what's called an allelopathic chemical -- one that inhibits the growth of plants in the area. One on hand, this helps a garden because it can keep the weeds down. On the other, it can weaken the growth of the plants you do want. Beans and potatoes are especially susceptible to this chemical and cannot be planted near sunflowers. Do not till the sunflower remains back into a vegetable garden either, as the chemicals will remain in the soil for some time.

I also killed everything last year. Trying to figure it out this year, the place I am getting free mulch is covered in this vining grass that wasn't there last year. I'm starting to wonder if they sprayed weed killer on the mulch. Would explain why it suppressed ALL plant life last year. I need to go ask questions.

@PirateGirl don't change your plans. Try it and see. That is what I am doing. It's not a failure if you learn something. Right, @KikisGirls ?

 

[PirateGirl]

@RUNuts I have bush bean seeds from last year, so I will go with them with the sunflowers in the original location. I have not tested my soil PH, but based on things I know about it, I have always assumed it to be acidic, so this will be a good experiment.

I learn lots of somethings from my failed gardening attempts every year. Some things in pest control and some things more tied to climate. It's all an experiment!

 

[RUNuts]

@PirateGirl - edited at the same time, see new paragraph in the above post. I hope the bush beans will work!

 

[PirateGirl]

hmm.... my potatoes are right there too... things to think about... maybe I'm making this decision too complicated.