What did you do in the garden today?

[AllenK RGV]

@AllenK RGV my friend gave her to me about 5 years back. My friend kept losing her chickens to predators and "Fanny" was the only one left. She's now the Queen.

Someone told me was a black Cochin bantam so I have no idea of her origin? What do you think?? She weighs about a dime and is sassy as hell. She's pulled some pretty crazy stunts when she goes broody. Now we just let her rage on until the storm passes

Speaking of rage, she must've had words with someone this morning as I found a broken egg in her clutch. But as of noon, we have 2 new eggs to add so she's currently sitting on six. Hence, I started marking them since I know she's officially broody...

As for gardening...weed picking and weed whacking was the theme for today. I also planted some pepper seeds I collected; and planted some other seeds from a small gourd or pumpkin leftover from fall19. Treated the greens for aphids too. They're going to seed soon so I have to be very 'careful' when treating them. Esp. my rainbow chard. Next: planning to move the nasturtiums to a bigger venue since they're getting a bit big for them britches.

Hey, since this is my first time raising wild daffodils (previous owner planted them) what do y'all suggest I do after they bloom?

If she makes it to 4 pound I would say that she is a lovely pet quality Sumatra. The red face or bleed through is very hard to get rid of. Half of our Sumatra have red faces, but there isn't a single hen I would cull. They all have names and they react to their names if you call em up for a treat.

 

[AllenK RGV]

Something like that, haha! I'm not too sure myself, someone mentioned it amd off to google I went.. This is what I've mapped out, with basil and marigolds sporadically planted..
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My grandmother grew rhubarb man it almost makes me want to move a bit northerly. I still miss her rhubarb sauce. Put it on hot buttered homemade bread... I go back to my happy place and am 5 years old again. My grandmother was a big influencer in the days before the internet. Yep, we went out to the fields and snapped those rhubarb stalks then had em for lunch. This was in Upper Sandusky County OH.

Ok I really need to take out the pool and build a refridgerated yankee grow house.

 

[AllenK RGV]

Great day!!! Sunshine and warmth with a breeze!

however, look at the Mothers Day weekend forecast....so cold for nearly mid-May!
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pretty sure tomatoes are getting planted in a couple of weeks. They are looking good now.

The potatoes are growing well. I just planted Bean and soybean seeds -they should be ok bc they are in raised beds and get first sun and sun all day.

I’ll be starting melon seeds and cucumber seeds Today or tomorrow. Packages say to do so about 2 weeks before last frost. Should also start squash seeds.

the clover in the big bed is growing well, along with the volunteer pumpkin seeds. Hopefully we can till this in for green manure around the beginning of June.

I'm cold just looking at that forecast. Honestly I do not think I could set my AC low enough to achieve those temperatures. I really should ask my freezer how it does it.

 

[Sueby]

My grandmother grew rhubarb man it almost makes me want to move a bit northerly. I still miss her rhubarb sauce. Put it on hot buttered homemade bread... I go back to my happy place and am 5 years old again. My grandmother was a big influencer in the days before the internet. Yep, we went out to the fields and snapped those rhubarb stalks then had em for lunch. This was in Upper Sandusky County OH.

Ok I really need to take out the pool and build a refridgerated yankee grow house.

Thats funny, all my rhubarb memories are from my grandmother too. She would grab a bowl of sugar & we'd go out to the patch & snap the rhubarb off & dunk it in the sugar & eat it. She also made a great strawberry rhubarb jam that I miss every time I look at my rhubarb. I so wish I had gotten her recipe.

Anyway, morning gardeners! It was a beautiful day yesterday so I got some beans, squash & cuke seeds in the ground, mulched & watered. I also traded a friend some plants so I have like 6 batches of black eyed susans I need to transplant around the garden today. I need to do some baking today too. I put the lime tree & rosemary back outside, waiting on the grapefruit as it's much harder to bring back in if I had to.

The littles are doing pretty good with the mean girl, she's bothering less & less with them. They're still in their own coop to sleep for now but maybe next weekend I can move them to the big girl coop if they continue to get better.

Does anyone grow horseradish? I got some from a fiend last year & stuck it in the ground, I have no idea when it's ready to dig up! It was a small chunk, couple inches. It has just 1 stalk coming up - do I need to wait a year or 2 before I dig some up?

 

[Acre4Me]

So.. Anyone have tips on companion planting? I drew up a map that I'll share in a moment, but curious if anyone has tried it for veggies.

Easy to find info on companion plantings. However, there is a book called “Carrots love tomatoes” all about companion planting. And, I’ve planted carrots among my tomatoes. The best thing about that is when you go to cleanup the garden and remove tomato cages, you can dig up some pretty big carrots! But, easy to pick ones prior to that.

I’ve been planting beans along the back of my potato beds. My beds are raised and I’ve successfully been able to dig up my potatoes without disturbing the beans, and the beans aren’t heavy feeders like the potatoes.

In your garden plan, given your location, the only items That seem out of place are the lettuce and cabbage. These like cooler weather, so they should be planted early spring or later, around fall. There should be planting guides for your area/garden zone to tell you planting timelines. For myself (zone 6A), I’m planning on cabbage and Brussel sprouts for a July/early August planting. Should get a good crop before mid-October frost. You have a longer season, so your Dates would vary.

 

[Acre4Me]

A nice day ahead! It rained last night, but should be good today. More rain coming, and cold temps this week.

sadly, our Dorking cockerel died yesterday. We don’t know what happened, and I posted pics etc in the emergencies forum but got no replies. Anyway, he died and now we put some harassed hens in his pen so they can hopefully heal and grow some feathers back. Might need to pen up the other male to lessen the mating and anyfights between the two males currently in the run. Lots of females and space, but 2 males will still preferentially mate the most docile hens.

I’ll be starting some seeds today, planting others. I have so many seeds, and it’s hard to select a few varieties out of many. We picked 3 watermelons to try, and 3-4 musk melons. We had good success with the muskmelons. I’m not hopeful for the watermelons, but the gardener in me needs to try!

because we had great success with pole beans, we are going to make more permanent take-apart-for-winter-storage frames That can be placed over the raised beds (will sit on the ground and be anchored). The pole beans produced well, and it was easy to wait until they were dry to pick, and they didn't mold bc they were nowhere near the ground. Contrast to bush beans, which we will also grow, where the pods were sitting on dirt at times, so the dry beans were sometimrs moldy. I’ll have to try to put up some supportsfor the bean plants to stay upright better when storms blow through.

 

[igorsMistress]

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Making rows when it's 85 degrees out is miserable.

Welcome to the thread!

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This is Zelda.
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This is Lucky.
They are both female Lab/Rottweiler mixes.

OMG, Karen, adorable!! Are both of Luckys eyes blue?

How do you guys find people to get manure garden fertilizer from? Do you guys find friends?

This time I was lucky to get it by a miracle.

But if it hadn't happened where I literally bumped int someone giving it away I would have gone without. And its too expensive to buy bags of it at Cal Ranch stores or others because even though their bags are cheap it takes literally dozens and dozens of bags just to coat the back yard from all the lost fertilizers of previous years!

And it took awhile also to convince other family members also that it wouldn't stink and be worth it when they were digging in their heels the last 2 years that also needed it.

The most frustrating thing with gardening for me has been other family members interference. Like my dad wants to wage a 3 month war against star of bethlehem and white top weeds because he's bipolar, and doesn't really want to get serious on actually growing stuff.

I don't know about the others but I compost chicken poop so I've always got it around.

I planted some gorgeous annuals in the shade, picked up sticks from our 200+ year old White Oak from the storm, and tried to figure out what weird plant came up in the fifth row of all the beans, potatoes and corn we planted . Showed some nice people around our flocks and sold some eggs. Got advice on goat tending if we decide to go that route. Great day to watch my hennies and guineas dust bathe and enjoy Spring.

Hello! Welcome to the thread.

Sounds like you really are hooked up. Rabbit is supposed to be great and a cold fertilizer also, meaning less waiting time to grow with it in there.

Rabbit poop is excellent and it doesn't stink. I dump my rabbits litter box right into the garden.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Good morning gardeners. Welcome to the thread @Faerhill and @MissTracy. Companion planting and crop rotation: check out the Old Farmers Almanac website. Loads of good information. I put my annual garden plan in an excel spreadsheet so it's easy to keep track year after year and really helps with the crop rotation. OMG @karenerwin, your puppies are adorable. Best of luck with them. Yesterday was a lovely day. A bit breezy, but nice. Today it's already 62F and heading up to the 70's. My potatoes are starting to peek through the soil. That was a really good thing to see. I got some dirt moved yesterday. It's slow going because it's still really wet and very heavy. But I just need to move a few more buckets today and that will be done. I opened the ends of my little hoop garden for now. The radishes are doing really well and the lettuce, cabbage and endive are doing well also. I'm flip flopping over whether to plant now or wait another week. Right now it's nice and warm, however, the forecast is looking a lot like yours @Acre4Me, a cool down with the possibility of frost. I may go ahead and plant the asparagus, but that little bed is easy to cover if necessary. If I wait another week to plant the remaining garden I can spend some time on the grow out pen build while the weather is dry. My fig tree has leaf buds on it but they haven't completely developed yet @Sueby. I'm not too concerned because the apple trees are just now getting leaf buds on them. So I'm sure they will be opening up soon. I just hope I get a few figs this year. My baby chicks are doing really well. They are still at the very cute and not so messy stage. I'm shocked they haven't pooped in their food. Of course they have pooped in their water a couple of times a day. Be careful what you wish for @AllenK RGV, It has taken me quite a few years to learn how to grow in this northern climate. I grew up in the South where you had most of your garden planted by the end of February. Growing things here in zone 5 is a challenge. Have a great day everyone.

 

[WthrLady]

How do you guys find people to get manure garden fertilizer from? Do you guys find friends?

This time I was lucky to get it by a miracle.

But if it hadn't happened where I literally bumped int someone giving it away I would have gone without. And its too expensive to buy bags of it at Cal Ranch stores or others because even though their bags are cheap it takes literally dozens and dozens of bags just to coat the back yard from all the lost fertilizers of previous years!

And it took awhile also to convince other family members also that it wouldn't stink and be worth it when they were digging in their heels the last 2 years that also needed it.

The most frustrating thing with gardening for me has been other family members interference. Like my dad wants to wage a 3 month war against star of bethlehem and white top weeds because he's bipolar, and doesn't really want to get serious on actually growing stuff.

I have my own production factory. But around here you can send a nice note in the real mail to just about anyone with cattle or horses and they'll say, yes, please take some poo. LOL.

 

[AllenK RGV]

So we are going to have cool fronts coming through Wednessday and Saturday this week, can anybody tell from this 7 day forecast? I know they are showing an 83 degree day on this graphic. I'm Texan enough to recognize magical thinking when I see it.

Also down here on the coast we need a few more words for "Breezy" how many do eskimoes have for snow? Last count I know 10 diffrent descriptions for a Grey sky in Germany.

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