What did you do in the garden today?

[sourland]

Picking tomatoes daily.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Ok, I caved. It’s like 82F outside but the humidity is 75%. I just turned on the AC.

 

[Sueby]

@gtaus - it's just moving more chips into the run for a good base before winter. Aspergillus molds (among others) grow well in wood chip piles & can be toxic to humans & chickens. I have some health issues where I have to be very careful & I'm very allergic to molds. There have been a few cases noted here of people losing chickens to it too. I'll just let the pile dry out for a while & then start spreading it out across the run. (with my respirator on, of course, lol)

 

[BullChick]

There’s nothing to do outside in the garden, so I mixed up some soil, then repotted and transplanted some jade. I might have looked at some more plants to buy. I really need to find someone to swap transplants with.

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

We butchered 8 more meat birds today. One yesterday was 11 pounds dressed out, we didn't weigh any today.

 

[BReeder!]

I feed all my extra large cucumbers to all my birds. The chickens, turkeys, peafowl and even the geese love to eat the seeds out of them and clean them out to the rind. I throw them hard at the ground to bust them up, if I don't they won't even eat them.

I break them open too and toss to the ducks and chickens. The ducks can ve picky, but the chickens go crazy. Today they both got cucumber, greens and corn. I pulled all the sweet corn and threw the stalks in the duck run. I need as much carbon and fiber material as possible in there. I put two bags of mulch I made with our chipper in their run too and all could add several more to help keep the soil loose drainage and carbon to compost their waste.

We collected all the cucumbers of the vines. The straight eights are still growing well and have more flowers and tiny cucumbers, but the Boston pickling are dying back. It looks like bacterial wilt hit the Boston pickling plants fast and hard. I'll be pulling them soon.

I still need to pick tomatoes as there are plenty ripe ones out there. Peppers are growing really well still and the habaneros are ripening now so I need to get ready to make salsa and hot sauce with them.

 

[gtaus]

@gtaus - it's just moving more chips into the run for a good base before winter. Aspergillus molds (among others) grow well in wood chip piles & can be toxic to humans & chickens. I have some health issues where I have to be very careful & I'm very allergic to molds. There have been a few cases noted here of people losing chickens to it too. I'll just let the pile dry out for a while & then start spreading it out across the run. (with my respirator on, of course, lol)

OK, I might have been thinking of mycorrhizal fungi as beneficial, not molds. In my chicken run, the wood chip base has been covered with grass clippings and leaves. The chickens are always scratching the compost litter and I have not noticed any mold issues. However, this year there has been hardly any rain so maybe mold would not be able to grow. I certainly would not want to have toxic mold in the run.

 

[Acre4Me]

Hot, but not as muggy!

Ripped out the VB damaged pumpkin vines - they tried, but the damage and the heat lately really made them go downhill. Next year, I'll start them later in June, hopefully can keep the VB away, when they are still small. Also, will need to plant them in another area so the VB moths that emerge won't emerge under any insect barrier, right where they are planted.

Poblanos: Made Chili Rellenos. I roasted them to remove the skins, then seeded them. Then added cheese, closed with a toothpick. The batter in the recipe I used was interesting - it was whipped egg whites (stiff) to which egg yolk, flour, salt was added. It was a fluffy batter, and so the coating was browned and fluffy. They did taste good, but WOW - some were too hot to eat! I wasn't expecting so much heat on some of them. I'll look up some other recipes, or other options for the next round - it was too much work for a good (but not amazing) meal. On the plus side, the recipe also called for a homemade tomato sauce to put on the plate, under the fried Chili Rellenos pepper. The sauce was very good - a mexican tomato sauce, with oregano, cumin, touch of cinnamon.

Fall plantings are looking good so far: Mustard, turnips, beans, beets, carrots. Wont be harvesting until September sometime.

 

[Sueby]

On another does anyone remember when it was cold, BITTER COLD and we couldn't wait for summer what were we THINKING! Lol

I never wish winter away - only summer! I love cold & snow & can't wait for it. Again, I'm weird. LOL

OK, I might have been thinking of mycorrhizal fungi as beneficial, not molds. In my chicken run, the wood chip base has been covered with grass clippings and leaves. The chickens are always scratching the compost litter and I have not noticed any mold issues. However, this year there has been hardly any rain so maybe mold would not be able to grow. I certainly would not want to have toxic mold in the run.

I don't worry about the chips once spread in the run, the chickens will keep it turned & there won't be any issues. My worry is because the storage pile of chips I have is sitting in the wetlands in deep shade so it never gets to dry out it, it just wicks up water all year long. The pile is (ok, was before this) 10-12 feet high or so - it's probably 8-10 full commercial truckloads of chips. It grows all sorts of stuff deep in there - good & bad I would imagine!

I picked a couple haberneros, jalapenos & tibetan chilis today. I'll pick beans soon for dinner, probably a few extras to blanch & freeze too. I got to all the tomatoes before they burst open, so I've got quite a few on the counter. The new squash plants are getting big, I expect flowers soon. The lettuce is coming back up, but that packet of seed was pretty lame, I'm going to need to plant more. I need to pull the rest of the onions too. The first batch should be done curing this week hopefully.

The cukes are losing the beetle battle, the vines won't last much longer. They're sucking all the new little cukes dry before they grow. I have a few more that are a little bigger, once they're full size I'll pull the vines & burn them & call it a year. My tomatoes will appreciate a little more sun!

I stabbed myself in the foot with my heavy chicken shears. My hands don't work well sometimes & I dropped them tip first into my foot. Foot is pretty sore & my shoes hurt to wear & make it start bleeding all over, lol. I'm my own worst enemy.

 

[Swiss]

Yup you can cover the whole area in DEEP straw and water away. The straw will compact and the worms go to town. If you can put down a layer of compost under the straw, and I mean DEEP straw like 12 inches plus, then that's even better.

I have more questions... Are hay and straw the same thing? And should I put the cardboard on top or on bottom, or does it even matter? Right now, it's on the bottom. Amish farms would have compost to sell, right? So many questions...

I also decided to move my garden away from those trees. The new spot I chose is probably the lowest point of our entire yard (not including in the woods), so using our water collection would be pretty easy. It is on the southern edge of the cleared lawn. The grass is pretty green and lush, so I'm guessing it's a good spot water-wise, although I question how much direct sun it gets during the day... it is still in dappled shade at 10 am, will get some shade in the middle of the day (I need to keep an eye on it today), and it was shaded as of 6:30 pm yesterday... Now, I'm tempted to put it somewhere else... it shouldn't be this difficult to decide, right? I just don't want to put all this effort into it, just to have a terrible garden next year, and have to move it. I do tend to overthink these kinds of things (as if it isn't obvious from my rambling).