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

[PirateGirl]

We have a whole truck load of new top soil. Perhaps I make a new box somewhere else on property just for the sunflowers. More building projects!

 

[itspebbl]

I really enjoy gardening, but for some reason, most of my plants fail to thrive. Except potatoes and these little tomatoes that are virtually useless for human consumption and are more like weeds around here anyway.
This year, I created a little bed and planted a bunch of potatoes. They are growing like weeds. I am also further exploring a method I call cinder-block gardening. I hoe and fluff up the soil, place a cinder block on it, holes up, and fill the holes with dirt. The plants (or seeds, I suppose) go in the holes, and viola: a tiny raised bed with a small surface area, reducing the weeds, but still connected to the earth so that the roots can reach down into the soil. They make a great, living entrance to my mini garden.
Here is a picture of what I am talking about, along with a cameo by my girls

It may not be the prettiest, but it gets the job done!

 

[RUNuts]

Potatoes! I live in a swamp. In the low part. Potatoes rot in the ground.
I was trying sweet potatoes. Killed all but one. Wish me luck!

Also, choosing between peppers and potatoes, the peppers win! Same family and they share too many bad things. Real close to tomatoes too.

I'm just tickled that the tomatoes lived so far and we have so many! I pulled off my first hornworm this weekend. Little bitty thing. I usually find them at 4" long.

@ECSandCCFS because I live in a swamp, I too built raised beds. Slowly getting the wood chips and mulch in to improve the heavy clay soil. Gardening is a slow process and the chickens help! In fact, their garden is growing better than everything I planted. Tomatoes and squash. I just have to keep asking them to stop stomping it all down. The fence is flimsy in their flight cage. That was ALSO on my list for last weekend.

They are enjoying the shade under the big tomato cage. I'll have to grab a picture. Cheers!

 

[Kiki]

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...

No.

Not keeping them.
If they even hatch. One already died sometime during the night. Day 8

 

[itspebbl]

Where will they be going?

 

[Kiki]

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 ?

Correct. I never fail.

 

[Kiki]

Where will they be going?

The horse man's son.

 

[itspebbl]

 

[Kiki]

Heading to see the blue water...I think I'm only a few days late.
@RUNuts

 

[RUNuts]

Road trip!!!