What did you do in the garden today?

[Acre4Me]

Yesterday finally found some larger bags of poultry grit. My usual supplier (a feed store we buy the feed at) has been out every time I've asked.

Does anyone else notice something silly about the label?

Large letters that say "Insoluble Crushed Granite"

Yet...

NO preservatives!!! NO artificial Ingredients!! Wow! <whew> Thats a load off my mind You know, one of my top concerns about GRANITE is that it might be preserved or include artificial ingredients. OK, OK, of course not a big deal. However, occasionally one comes across non-sense marketing and I think this might very well be one example. Maybe an intern was tasked with making up the label or jazzing it up and that was all they could think of adding - exactly how does one make crushed granite sound awesome?

 

[Sooner Magnolia]

New momma and babies are doing well. I decided to graft them to the one that had been broody the longest. These BLRW girls are the easiest broody hens I've had as far as handling them with chicks goes. I also got my "dealer" to bring me some strawberry runners. I'm going to go put them in my straw bales before it gets hot out. She said epsom salts would help with the transplant stress. Not getting PNW hot today, but I'm sure it will warm up.

 

[TJAnonymous]

I am on the island. waiting for the proprty value to rise and then to sell.

they are talking about covid dictatorship from september again so I am thinking what to do. my new place has no feed store and there are more issues with lockdown. I cannot believe how people all over the world became so stupid and don't react. covid has the lowest mortality rate and I don't see the reason for lockdown.

I've been trying not to post anything publicly because I don't want to lose my job... But I can tell you 100% for certain that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was a bioweapon. There is intelligence data that the pandemic was planned and part of a psyop. I, personally, do not trust the vaccine and will not get it....although I don't fault others who do. I have worked with the intelligence community and with government for a very long time. I have never seen anything quite like this before.... This is like sleeper cells on steroids. No one trusts anyone anymore. I have seen so many agents retiring right and left because of the shady things happening behind the scenes. Same with law enforcement.

Anyway, I can't imagine being stuck on an island and being in lockdown. Especially for something that is nothing but a fantastic lie. My thoughts, prayers, and concerns go out to you.....

 

[Acre4Me]

Potato beds (2) still look really nice, but I can see the the earliest flowering type (Carola, a yellow potato) is on the downswing, although still putting out a few new flower clusters, even now. The "Blackberry" purple variety is now flowering more...I think all plants have emerging clusters or open flowers. And the Russett Burbank is also getting going with flower clusters and a few flowers. However, the RB is the longest season variety.

Carola is on the left side. "Blackberry" is on the lower right side, and RB is on the upper right side

Second patch: you see mostly Carola as I only have 2 RB on the right and 2 "Blackberry" on the left.

Gourds continue their quest to fill in the south side of the run. They are really looking for more height to climb! The far left side is over 12' tall.

New learning: When you exclude the #@*! Cabbage Looper from the Brassicas, they will lay eggs on all the Nastursium you are trying to grow - and the little baby green caterpillars will happily devour the leaves of the Natursium. Guess I'll only plant Marigolds next year.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Aloe is kind of difficult to kill, they grow and make babies.. a lot of babies. Good for burns too. You can eat aloe too, but just want to eat the gel, not the rest of it.

Aaron

I bought an aloe plant several years ago when visiting my mother. I accidentally left it at her house. She has been growing that plant ever since and refuses to give it to me. Finders Keepers.... I keep meaning to buy another one because I'd like to use the aloe gel in all kinds of things....soap, burns (which happens a LOT in this house....), lotions, etc...

 

[TJAnonymous]

I have a aneurysm on my aorta . Need to have that fixed .

Umm....that's kind of serious. My grandmother died from that....

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Good morning gardeners. Not much going on in the garden today. Yesterday it only got up to 88F and the humidity was OK until late afternoon. That's when I turned the AC on for a few hours. This morning it was 77F at 6:30 am with about 80% humidity. Icky! AC came on at 8:30 am. Laundry day and hoping to do a little something on the chicken coop extension. I did give the flowers, peppers and fruit trees a good drink this morning. Although I watered everything in the back gardens yesterday the tomato plants in containers needed a drink. Rain is not forecasted until Wednesday or Thursday. It's 86F right now and likely to hit 93F today. That makes it difficult to get ant real work done outside for me. When I let the chickens out yesterday afternoon they were more interested in their cool dirt baths first, then eat grass and bugs later. I'm not all that crazy about commercially made fertilizers either @chickengr. When I do buy, I get a locally produced cow manure product that does pretty good in the garden. I do buy the packaged garden soil just because I can get small quantities. If I buy that local the nurseries will only deliver bulk amounts with the smallest being 5 cubic yards. I've pretty much run out of places to put the dirt now so I'll stick to the little bags for now. I hope the heat wave is over for all of us soon enough. At least we are getting enough rain from time to time to keep us out of a drought. The garden is coming along well enough so far, however I'm beginning to think the lima bean bed is cursed. LOL! Sounds like I need to just go ahead and plant carrots and onions in there. Have a nice day everyone and stay cool.

 

[Elyrian1]

Morning all, rain in our forecast for a bit. Cooler temperatures because of it, which I'll happily take, but my prospective garden is under water at the moment. It was good for dh to see where the water is, how deep, how it just sits on the hard ground that's already here, etc. We're going to bring in some material, cheap crap, to level it all out a bit and hopefully fix the flooding issue. I need to order cardboard rolls for weed control.

One of my favorite YouTube people likes to say that mother nature is a modest lady, she likes to be covered. If she isn't covered in mulch, weed barrier, or beneficial growing things, she'll cover herself in weeds! In our case that means wild amaranth, the occasional lambs quarters, some variety of prickly lettuce, useless grasses devil's bouquet, and silverleaf nightshade.

Granted lamb's quarters is actually edible, as is the wild amaranth, but I'll save those for when we've got chickens. After some deep discussion, we've come to the conclusion that a stationary coop and run practicing deep litter is going to be our best option for the space. The neighbors have birds as well, all barnyard mix and game fowl that get grouped under the Spanish gallina, but their birds live in a muddy, fly infested yard. This will increase the challenge for us to keep our own fly population down.

 

[WthrLady]

Same here on the flies.... They are crazy bad. DH bought 3 cans of Raid to use in the house and tack room of the barn. I wish I had something organic to use for the flies in the coop. I didn't do my routine cleaning of the coop this weekend just because of the flies. Driving me crazy.... It was bad enough just collecting eggs.

I read an article today about the biblical plague of grasshoppers. Due to the heat and dry weather... I couldn't help but laugh at the comments section. Somebody wrote that it's a veritable feast for your free range chickens. So maybe you can lend a few to your neighbor...

I found one tiny section of one of the blackberry patches that didn't get burned down last winter. It had a small handful of blackberries. So sweet, plump, and juicy! I can't wait for next summer when the regrowth begins to fruit.

I still have 2 of the thornless blackberries to plant, too... Just gotta figure out WHERE to put them. I don't really have a good spot that isn't already growing something or a jungle that needs to be cleared first.

And.... I ordered a dozen Rainbow hatching eggs. In case any of you were following the Chicken Poop Bingo contest. DH is going to absolutely KILL ME for getting more chickens... I'm going to incubate them in the house instead of giving them to a broody but I'm hoping that I can give them to one as day old chicks... Will luck be on my side that I can be successful that way twice?

She HAS chickens and turkeys, but refuses to let them out. The bug problem wouldn't be if she'd let them freerange.

 

[WthrLady]

Tossing in - RAW milk on the pastures is AWESOME! Coming from a dairy farm background, and people have been doing it for centuries! It's good for the soil and adds back in so much mineral and bio-organics, good bugs.

Overage is routinely sprayed on fields.