Southern NY, Dutchess county and below

[HippyChippy]

Morning all,
Pip and Christina are your currants taking root? Mine were doing fine until yesterday when my 50 pound sulcata decided to have them for lunch. Because of the new. Fence I put up for the chickens he is being driven nuts as far as roaming the back yard as he has done in the past.

My currant is a little droopy but still doing well so I am really hopeful so have kept it close to the house so I can water it regularly

 

[lalany]

Hi Carolyn

I just want to introduce myself and say hello.

We are neighbors!!

I bought a house a couple months back 2 blocks north of Atlantic Ave

I am trying to get a few showgirls from Roberta to start off, I  am going to PM her to see if there is an update.

So if you ever need any help, I am probably like 5 minutes from you

I got a pretty good green thumb too, I just planted some hostas, bleeding hearts, fox gloves and some canna lilies.

I hope you are feeling better

 

[lalany]

Good people here! So uplifting to read this!

 

[queenchick16]

Christina, you know how some towns have a crazy cat lady, well for a while I was the crazy turtle lady. Between people tying sick turtles in plastic bags to my husbands door at his practice and my landscaper leaving them in boxes on my porch, I had 5 at one time. A box turtle that was crushed by a car that Richard did multiple surgeries on. A box turtle with 3 legs 'cause of a lawn mower accident. The sulcata was the size of an Oreo cookie when Richard received him. He is now over 50 pounds and I can barely lift him. Eats me out of house and home and SHIrTS like a cow. I am terrible with getting pictures on this site or I'd show you photos. Lilly would love the sulcata he is a real dinosaur.

 

[HippyChippy]

I spent a great day in my vegetable garden today. There were a ton of weeds... Toast and Jelly have been brooding for about 3 weeks now. I pick them up out if the coop and cuddle them and then put them on the ground in the veggie garden. (It is the only place that is completely fenced in). They are very happy to peck around in the garden and attack my German thyme but as soon as they can they go back to brooding in the coop. I actually lock them out so the two babies can't get out. I won't let them out until they can co-habitate without any squawking. I thought Seramas didn't go broody. It was probably a good time to introduce the new babies because of that. I put the safari dog crate in the run with the door closed for the first week and now the door is open at all times and they can run behind it if the older ones chase them too much. But I am pleasantly surprised so far.
My peas are about 12" now my arugula is doing well. My cukes are about 6 inches. My beans are of varying heights from just popping out of the earth to about 8". Thank you Christine. My pumpkins are doing well in a huge container. Thank you again. I know they will grow out of it all over the terrace but that will be fun. The potatoes are coming up in fits and starts but so far about half of them are above ground.
I just took the "walls of water" off the zucchini plants today. I put them on because they were tiny when I put them in and some animal ate half of them one night. Several rows of carrots are coming up too. So I was weeding around everything very carefully. I leave some containers by the shed to catch some water because I get lazy and don't want to keep walking back to the hose all the time... It works pretty well. So far I haven't seen any mosquito eggs floating on top. When I do I will get rid of them. Or if I don't catch it, as soon as I see the larva swimming around I dump the whole thing in the garden and start fresh.
With all the bending and weeding I did no wonder I'm tired tonight!
My currant is still green and maybe not quite so droopy so I think I will plant it with my gooseberry bushes and black currant bush. I had more black currant bushes but I had to take them out of the ground because they were getting over run with bindweed (awful weed!!!) I had to check the roots to make sure there were no roots of that noxious plant because a small bit will send up a shoot and send down a root! So being in containers for 2 years took its toll on some of them. Next year I will order some more. I just love black currants and I had red currants too, oh well, sigh. Next year. Now hopefully this champagne currant will make. Thank you Carol.
I think I'm going to have to read up on what to do for brooding chickens...
Ok nite all. I need some sleep...ZZzzzzz

 

[JerseyHen]

Pip! You are a machine!!! Pumpkins in a container on the terrace? That should make for a really fun display, especially with the varieties I put in that packet! The most fun way to break a broody is to give her some eggs to hatch ;-) Otherwise keep the eggs collected (they probably are not laying anyway) so they don't have anything to sit on. You can also put them in a cage with a wire bottom and no nesting materials for a few days. It sometimes works. I have 5 broodies sitting on clutches at the moment (friends down the road want some barnyard mixes).

I can relate too the garden chores. I don't even have my beans in yet. I am doing all of them this weekend. I was sidetracked with the new grow out coop construction and getting caught up on weeding and mowing. Finally there, so the warm weather crops can go in finally! My greens are going crazy. I harvested my spinach last night and cooked up half and ate half raw in a salad. I have been thinning the lettuces for the past few weeks to get them to the point where they can head up a bit. The baby lettuce salads are one of my favorite things, so that has been less of a labor and more of a treat. My broccoli rabe is done, and my radishes are bolting, so I need to deal with those beds again.

I was pondering why I put in so many beds and often think I would prefer to just sit on the deck with a book and a cup of tea instead of laboring in the dirt, but then I remember how much satisfaction there is to bringing in that harvest and having an excuse to play in the dirt is pretty outstanding. I imagine it is much the same with the rest of you who garden. So we spend the summers covered in feathers and pine flakes, with dirty hands. I think it is a life well spent.

 

[JerseyHen]

Where is everyone these days? I miss my chicken peeps.

I am in lockdown day 20 on 24 eggies. So far, 12 are out. Those bantam chicks are so incredibly cute. I am totally hooked on those little guys now. Of course, of the first 6 moderns I got in April, 5, 5!, are boys. Oh well, looks like DD will have plenty to show at the fair and/or sussex show in the fall. Then she can sell them. Not one of the red pyle's turned out to be a hen

.

 

[Biologrady]

Hi neighbors,
All well in chicken world, but not so much in my garden...everything is going gangbusters except my beans...I've sown three sets, two different varieties, but they look awful...shriveled leaves and kind of stunted, if they break through the surface at all. I have one plant that I bought as a seedling and planted that is doing well, but it would be rediculously expensive to buy my usual 20+ plants as seedlings. At first I was thinking slugs, but that's been eliminated, must be some disease in the soil, but no other plants, including my peas, are being affected. My next plan is to try to germinate a batch in potting soil and transplant those in a few weeks, but maybe you guys can save me some time....know of anything going around? If it's going to be a bad year for beans no matter what I try, I may as well pull them and put something else there, space is at a premium in my 8x16' plot!

 

[Glasshen]

Hi neighbors,
All well in chicken world, but not so much in my garden...everything is going gangbusters except my beans...I've sown three sets, two different varieties, but they look awful...shriveled leaves and kind of stunted, if they break through the surface at all. I have one plant that I bought as a seedling and planted that is doing well, but it would be rediculously expensive to buy my usual 20+ plants as seedlings. At first I was thinking slugs, but that's been eliminated, must be some disease in the soil, but no other plants, including my peas, are being affected. My next plan is to try to germinate a batch in potting soil and transplant those in a few weeks, but maybe you guys can save me some time....know of anything going around? If it's going to be a bad year for beans no matter what I try, I may as well pull them and put something else there, space is at a premium in my 8x16' plot!

Do you have a Cooperative Extention in your area? Sometimes a call to the master gardener can help.

 

[Biologrady]

I do, but probably couldn't get there any te soon... But maybe I can send them some pics. Good idea, thanks.