Green thumb is itching, anyone else?

[rancher hicks]

I am sorry about your wife's recent dx.

My cukes started great but they now are dying a slow death from mosaic disease I think.

My garden was depressing this year, really really poor outcome. I need to regroup and replan this whole thing out.

Same here. I've been weeding and covering beds with newspapers and then black garden cloth so when spring come next year they will be weed free and ready to plant.

 

[rancher hicks]

My tomatoes crashed and burned this year too, really bad. They looked awesome early summer then death and destruction. I am definitely moving them next year. But I am really getting tired of buying plants $$$$ and not getting any tomatoes. Seriously thinking about preparing the planting area in fall and buying a few seed pkts casting them in the area in winter and letting them be "volunteer"

I had plants all started but then this thing with DW and I couldn't focus to take care of them. I prefer to start my own plants because purchased plants can carry blight and you import it.

 

[rancher hicks]

We've started another granny square swap if anyone is interested.

2014 Crochet square swap, colorful circles.

 

[drumstick diva]

my raised beds seem to be just a potty stop for neighbor cats, and a digging area for the blanket-blank squirrels.

My green thumb isn't itching but my mosquito bites sure are.

 

[rancher hicks]

my raised beds seem to be just a potty stop for neighbor cats, and a digging area for the blanket-blank squirrels.

My green thumb isn't itching but my mosquito bites sure are.

Squirrels and cats are what traps are for. I use rustic fencing to keep my chickens out and rat traps for squirrels.

Even groundhogs and rabbits didn't climb over my plastic fencing. There is a 24" poultry wire behind my rustic fencing so the chickens can't get throughj.

 

[queenchick16]

Sorry to hear of your wife's illness Rancher. Hope you have people to help you.

Just read that the blight is so bad for the farmers on the east end of Long Island, that if it continues they will be comparing it to the potato blight in Ireland .
It's been bad for the last 5 years here. I only got it last year.

 

[rancher hicks]

Sorry to hear of your wife's illness Rancher. Hope you have people to help you.

Just read that the blight is so bad for the farmers on the east end of Long Island, that if it continues they will be comparing it to the potato blight in Ireland .
It's been bad for the last 5 years here. I only got it last year.

Yes we've had folks to come and help.

I used to grow my own. The one year I did not everyone got hit with the blight. It was brought up from growers down south.

I like to grow a variety of tomatoes, hoping that if one gets hit the other doesn't. The same with other fruits and veggies. I also don't plant them in the same raised bed from year to year.

Being Irish I know that the famine would not have happened so bad had they not planted only one kind of potato.

I like to buy seeds from Baker Creek as they have a larger variety of everything. Couldn't find Pole Beans in the stores except Scarlet Runners.

You also want to chose those varieties good for your area. Southern and Northern etc. etc. Here in the N.East we need to chose those that ripen early or start in a green house.

 

[harveyhorses]

My tomatoes are really strange, I have one bed that just will not grow, they look perfectly healthy, just staying at about 10-14 inches. The rest are just really slow. Not one of my better gardening years. My potatoes did o.k. replaced them with a watermellon and a squash plant, also seem slow to grow. Hens are doing fine, even though I replaced their coop (CHANGE IS BAAAAD) and took down their old one, which had been built on a sink hole. Oh the trauma.
Rancher Hicks, sorry you and your DW are going through this, poistive thoughts and prayers sent your way.

 

[rancher hicks]

My tomatoes are really strange, I have one bed that just will not grow, they look perfectly healthy, just staying at about 10-14 inches. The rest are just really slow. Not one of my better gardening years. My potatoes did o.k. replaced them with a watermellon and a squash plant, also seem slow to grow. Hens are doing fine, even though I replaced their coop (CHANGE IS BAAAAD) and took down their old one, which had been built on a sink hole. Oh the trauma.
Rancher Hicks, sorry you and your DW are going through this, poistive thoughts and prayers sent your way.

Thanks for the prayers.

As for your garden. What kind of soil do you have in the bed? You can amend it with lots of manure in the winter/off season. Use peat moss to help with drainage. If you have compost add lots of that too.

Tomatoes come in two species. Determinate and Indeterminate. Indeterminate varieties keep growing like a vine. Determinate varieties reach a certain height and stop.

If you live in a dry area you may need to water often.

Chickens do not like change. ANY change in the coop can result in a molt or decline in laying. One thing you must understand is that they are imprinted on YOU. Spend lots of time with them and they'll bounce back faster. Remember I said YOU. Strangers can upset them, even when the stranger lives in the same house with you.

I've noticed their behavior changes when I'm outside working. They are much more calm. If they're all congregated in one area they relax and stretch out.

Don't you just love chickens?

 

[rancher hicks]

oops.