What did you do in the garden today?

[Sally PB]

Oh no, that means they'll be here soon! This is what I use & they work REALLY well. You need to place them properly depending on wind & stuff. I still pick them off the garden plants, but I catch hundreds & hundreds in the traps.

My chickens love them, so that's where they go. I asked DH if I could store some in the freezer for the winter (fully expecting him to go EWWWW! NO!) and he surprised me by saying that ok! I'll be going full out collecting them this year.

 

[Sueby]

I need to go out & water, but my legs hurt too much. Was hoping for rain, it was in the forecast for every day this week but we haven't gotten any & it's gone from the 7 day now for the most part.

All 3 of my littles are laying now. I had to block off the area under the roosts in the big coop, they insisted on laying there. Today will be the test, I took out the blocks. I think they have the nests figured out now.

Everything here is growing well. Watching the strawberries rot since I can't bend to pick them. Just put some in my shopping cart, how sad is that?

 

[Sueby]

My chickens love them, so that's where they go. I asked DH if I could store some in the freezer for the winter (fully expecting him to go EWWWW! NO!) and he surprised me by saying that ok! I'll be going full out collecting them this year.

Mine won't touch them, the little brats. Look at me like I'm crazy if I bring them to them.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Good morning gardeners. Got the weed whacking done behind the fence and the weed barrier down yesterday. I just ordered mulch to cover it all. It's so much easier walking back there now. I measured off the perimeter of the new, and last garden bed earlier this morning. DD helped me clear that on Sunday so I'm hoping to at least get the fence around it today. It gives me an additional 290 square feet of gardening space. However, I'll need to go slow with the outdoor work today. The wildfires in Nova Scotia are sending a lot of smoke here today. The sky has been red and hazy all morning so far and very little breeze. The good news is this new garden is not really on a slope so no extra strain installing the fence. I'm using the plastic garden fencing so it's not a real heavy job. I see the tree branches swaying in the breeze now so hopefully the air will be clearing up. I've not had much of a problem with Japanese Beetles here. Maybe I'm just too far north. No complaints. Same forecast here pretty much @Sueby. However it started raining on Friday and we got constant drizzle all weekend up to yesterday morning. We are forecasted to get scattered showers all this week but so far everything is dry. Right now I'm enjoying the cooler temperatures. Much easier to get work done outside.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Mine won't touch them, the little brats. Look at me like I'm crazy if I bring them to them.

Mine won't either but I've never tried offering them during winter when bug pickings are slim. I wonder if they might feel differently about them...

 

[TJAnonymous]

Did a little bit of trimming today. Tomatoes need pruned but I'll do that this evening when it cools down. I sprayed neem and insecticidal soap all over because aphids are killing my nasturtiums. Better than my veggies I suppose. I also ordered a new blacklight since mine died. I picked 4 tomato hornworms off my potatoes on Sunday night and another one yesterday. They seem to prefer my potatoes over tomatoes. For now anyway. Picked my first Purple Dragon carrot. Looks beautiful!

 

[Smokerbill]

Will rooting compound help my sweet potato slips root faster? I've read that they don't "need" rooting compound, but I feel like I got cheated out of precious time. I need every day I can get for them to grow some tubers this time.

I grew a different variety under different soil conditions, and got zilch. I'm hoping the sandy soil will make a difference.

If the worst happens and you get no tubers, you'll still have a big mess of sweet potato greens to eat.

https://www.epicurious.com/archive/blogs/editor/2012/08/cooking-with-sweet-potato-greens.html

 

[fuzzi]

My neighbor did that in Virginia clay. Her neighbor down there couldn't believe the difference over one winter!

When we were faced with red clay we couldn't even rototill, it would bounce off the ground. A friend had a TroyBilt Pony which did better.

We started the process by digging small holes by the front steps where I wanted to plant flowers. We took an old blender and pureed watermelon rinds, poured them into the small holes and covered them with dirt. It didn't take long before our holes turned into loam.

We no longer live in red clay country, but gray clay and sand mix. Now when I want to dig a garden I plan ahead. I cover the area with leaves/yard clippings, water it, then put a sheet of cardboard on top, then something on top to hold it down, usually more yard debris. It's ready to dig in a couple months.

 

[gtaus]

What should I do with empty eggshells? I have a whole bread bag full of them.

My first thought was to crush up the eggshells and put them into the compost. But I have been reading that eggshells don't decompose and release all that calcium into the soil for something like 100 years.

My second thought was to crush up the eggshells and feed them to the chickens, either mixed in with their main commercial feed in the hanging 5 gallon PVC bucket feeder, or by itself in my smaller grit and calcium feeders.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

 

[fuzzi]

What should I do with empty eggshells? I have a whole bread bag full of them.

My first thought was to crush up the eggshells and put them into the compost. But I have been reading that eggshells don't decompose and release all that calcium into the soil for something like 100 years.

My second thought was to crush up the eggshells and feed them to the chickens, either mixed in with their main commercial feed in the hanging 5 gallon PVC bucket feeder, or by itself in my smaller grit and calcium feeders.

Any suggestions? Thanks.

I've added eggshells to my compost for years. They do break down, not sure about how much calcium is released.