What did you do in the garden today?

[igorsMistress]

Sounds like a beautiful place! I'm from CA, my grandmother had a beautiful yard & garden!

Oh yeah? Where did you live?

 

[igorsMistress]

Creative gardening! Your garden must start about the time ours is going to sleep!

Yes pretty much fall through spring. Just need something to cover crops in case it freezes December through early February.

 

[drstratton]

Oh yeah? Where did you live?

I was born in Stockton. My grandparents lived in Waterford about 20 miles from Modesto! My dad couldn't stay in one place for very long, so my grandparents place was home base!

 

[igorsMistress]

Has anyone here tried getchipdrop.com? I just signed up for it to get a load of wood chips when they're available.

 

[NewBoots]

Send me a pm if you would like the recipe I used to make my sourdough starter @NewBoots.

Sent and thank you!

I just love toast and butter and jam or preserves with my breakfast.

I had to look up a Oregon hardy peach, I was reading posts to DP and now she wants to try a peach tree. It's really hard to beat fresh picked peaches. Either for cooking or fresh eating.

Our blackberries are now ripe but need to stop long enough to pick the
darn things

A neighbor near us picks wild blackberries and huckleberries, I have to get some before the season ends.

Check out this mushroom I saw in the yard:
My potting bench is all done:

I get those mushrooms a lot here, I figure I tend to water too much but I'd love to know what they are. And I love your new potting bench.

You kinda have to build a forest. Something big to give afternoon shade to stuff underneath because the sun is so hot.

That's what we're doing in the back of our property, there are shore pines on the other side of the fence and one on our side and we've been adding young trees to get us some shade for the native shrubs and flowers that live on forest edges.

And thanks, @Wee Farmer Sarah and @Sueby, I'm sure you're right, I'll use fresh only for the salsa. I would think water bath canning would be fine for salsa, I'll add citric acid as for tomato sauce.

Still no rain but I watered late last evening after getting the mowing done (I was fantasying about showers as I mowed, the dust was terrible) so I just had to spot water today. Decanted the borage compost tea and used it all up. I paid more attention this time, a 5 gallon bucket of packed borage makes about 3.5 gallons of concentrate which made about 32.5 gallons of finished fertilizer. I wouldn't grow borage just for that but since I will grow it as a pollinator attractant anyway, it's a great use of the spent flowers and foliage. I don't have enough borage left to fill another 5 gallon bucket so I'll top the next one with unfinished compost and see how that goes. It sure smells terrible but not as bad as fish fertilizer so there's that.

Looks like our amber links have started laying, we got one small odd looking egg this morning from one. And just about everyone crouches if I touch their backs now, or sometimes just stand close to them. Makes it much easier if I need to check leg bands or the like. You folks with roosters, do the roosters notice when a hen crouches for you? Do they object if they do notice?

Speaking of laying hens, I was posting on facebook and someone said that giving too many tomatoes to chickens would make them stop laying. Anyone else hear of this?

I was taking a picture of this pretty dragonfly

when this female (I think) mantis flew over and landed very close. The mantis was shy and hid her head.

Or was sneaking up on the dragonfly.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Have you tried it ? I hate signing up on those things

 

[NewBoots]

Has anyone here tried getchipdrop.com? I just signed up for it to get a load of wood chips when they're available.

I did but after a month and a half hadn't gotten any. I dropped out and got two loads from a local arborist. Free and he was happy and I was happy and I still have a tiny bit left.

 

[Sueby]

@NewBoots I think they are parasola plicatilis - they don't last long & when they wither up they turn into stars, they don't start out as stars.
I feed my chickens all the bad maters, I haven't noticed them not laying but they are red sexlinks, egg laying machines!

@igorsMistress I use chipdrop - they are awesome. You have to expect & be ready for a huge load of chips & have some way to move it around because it's usually a lot of chips. We've probably gotten at least 5 drops in the past 2 years from them.

 

[igorsMistress]

@NewBoots I think they are parasola plicatilis - they don't last long & when they wither up they turn into stars, they don't start out as stars.
I feed my chickens all the bad maters, I haven't noticed them not laying but they are red sexlinks, egg laying machines!

@igorsMistress I use chipdrop - they are awesome. You have to expect & be ready for a huge load of chips & have some way to move it around because it's usually a lot of chips. We've probably gotten at least 5 drops in the past 2 years from them.

Thanks Sueby! I have a lot of yard, we'll use them for sure. I got a handy wheelbarrow and 3 shovels lol.

 

[pennyJo1960]

I am worried about the work in it did 5 50 ft rolls of wire run pretty thin..
Not sure if we want nor need it we get allot of grass and tree crap right here