What did you do in the garden today?

[BReeder!]

geese/duck pen finally finished. I have to fence their run too and saturday morning off they go

still have to butcher at least the bantam roo and see if my naked neck cockerel will stay inside the run. otherwise he will become soup as well.

I could not resist and bought about 20 curly lettuce, 20 french lettuce - not sure what it is like, first time to grow, parsley, celery (2 varieties) and carrots. still don't know where to transplant them but once they are here I am sure I will find time to do that.

How many ducks? What type?
Prepare to have mud!

 

[chickengr]

How many ducks? What type?
Prepare to have mud!

I plan to keep 2-3 muscovie ducks and a pair of african geese. I don't mind mud in their run but dirty water is the reason I want to separate them from chickens and turkeys.

 

[BReeder!]

I plan to keep 2-3 muscovie ducks and a pair of african geese. I don't mind mud in their run but dirty water is the reason I want to separate them from chickens and turkeys.

Yes, the water will get dirty. We have 9 ducks at the moment. They are all Rouens. I'm downsizing to 5 here soon for the winter - removing extra drakes before Spring hormones. Our pen is 12ftx15ft plus a small duck house next to that area. There's two kiddy pools in the pen that we dump, rinse and refill daily. Is amazes me how dirty they can make two small pools in just a day.

Note, of you have a drake make sure there are multiple female ducks for him or he will over mate your female. Not sure about geese - I think they pair up.

 

[chickengr]

Yes, the water will get dirty. We have 9 ducks at the moment. They are all Rouens. I'm downsizing to 5 here soon for the winter - removing extra drakes before Spring hormones. Our pen is 12ftx15ft plus a small duck house next to that area. There's two kiddy pools in the pen that we dump, rinse and refill daily. Is amazes me how dirty they can make two small pools in just a day.

Note, of you have a drake make sure there are multiple female ducks for him or he will over mate your female. Not sure about geese - I think they pair up.

I plan to keep female ducks only. muscovies male/female ratios is 1:2-3. geese are ok in pairs.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Good morning gardeners. We had our first hard frost overnight. It was 30F when I finally rolled out of bed this morning. My rooster is really slacking these days. Yesterday I got my Covid booster. Fortunately no big side effects. Just a little tired. But yesterday afternoon I pulled my lima bean plants and cleaned the chicken coop so I think I'm doing OK. I made a nice beef stew and put it in the crockpot earlier just in case I fizzled out by dinner time. This morning I pulled all my carrots. I know I could have left them in the ground awhile longer but I want to clean up that bed and get it ready for winter. But all cleaned up and trimmed the 8 foot row produced 1 pound of carrots. These will last me for awhile. I've done fairly well with carrots so I think I will plant more of them next season. The chard and the rutabagas are still in the ground. We don't have frost in the forecast until the middle of next week so I'll leave them be for now. After that I think we are heading into more early winter-like weather, 45F during the day and 30F overnight. Another reason to get working on completing the garden chores. Have a great day everyone.

 

[WthrLady]

I read that WAY too fast @Wee Farmer Sarah . Quite the GOOD side effect of the booster if it makes you rip out lima plants and clean a henhouse!! LOL.

I tossed a tomato seed in with the zinnia seed in the kitchen window box. Does that count as gardening?

 

[WthrLady]

FYI everyone....if you have clear skies Saturday and Sunday nights, watch for the aurora. We had quite the CME blast our way. The aurora have a good chance of being very far south this go, like the 2003 solar Halloween storm.

 

[Sueby]

We're getting rain this weekend, of course @WthrLady.

I'm jealous of your frost @Wee Farmer Sarah - I really need one!

Nothing happening here today, but it's chilly out there. My shallot sets were delayed so who knows when they'll get here.

 

[BReeder!]

Parsnips: to pull or not to pull? Tis the question.
I still have tons of marigolds too. I need to harvest some of the seeds for next year.
I have straw now, so I need to put some around the strawberries. I just spread a whole bale on the duck pen.

 

[Elyrian1]

FYI everyone....if you have clear skies Saturday and Sunday nights, watch for the aurora. We had quite the CME blast our way. The aurora have a good chance of being very far south this go, like the 2003 solar Halloween storm.

Sunny and clear here, or supposed to be. I will be looking, though I doubt it'll be this far south... What time is best, do you know?

I'm such an astronomy nerd I know what CME stands for without looking it up. Lol.

I think my frost cover is sitting on the steps, having just been delivered. This is good because, as I said the next few nights look clear and we're going to be dipping to 45 Sunday night. My carrots, lettuce, mizuna, and kale are doing respectably. The radish and mizuna are coming up like crazy. I'm going to have to thin the radish in a few days here. The spinach and bunching onions are taking their time, but I'm seeing sprouts there. So happy to have green things.