What did you do in the garden today?

[BirdsBeesTrees]

Looks like everything made it through the storm. My peach trees took a beating. One of my peach trees lost a large part and of course it was loaded with the biggest peaches...

 

[jerryse]

Okra is up. I see a female zuke flower formed. Soon to bloom in the next week. Second round of cuke seed is up. We have been having cuke, onion and tomato salad. Love it. Someone was having yellowjacket trouble. Did you get them?

 

[TJAnonymous]

View attachment 3574936
This pile is about knee deep and 15-18 feet (?) long. It's straw, leaves, and poop from my neighbor's chickens. And it's only half of it. The other half went on her mother's garden.

Do not post any smiley/happy emojis. This is out of her coop, not her run. The coop is WAY too small for the number of chickens. There is WAY too little ventilation. The coop STANK, and I mean, nose-hair curling STANK! of ammonia.

I actually had written how many chickens, the size of the coop, and the amount of ventilation. I had to delete it.

Very sad...

I'll be the first to say that I have WAY too many chickens for the size of my coop. BUT -

1. I have an enormous run (125 ft x 32 ft).

2. I have multiple nesting boxes in other places in addition to my coop(s).

3. I (normally) clean my coops weekly.

4. I use sand litter which cuts down on any ammonia.

5. My entire soffit area is open for ventilation, in addition to 3 windows and a fan that runs all summer.

The only time my coop size becomes a problem is when it snows because the chickens don't want to go outside. Thankfully that's only once or twice a year. Working on something to solve this in the future.

 

[Smokerbill]

I make recommendations. I offer suggestions. I showed my neighbor my coop.

I really can't do any more, without damaging the neighbor relationship, I guess.

That's sad. Did you mention that the ammonia wreaks havoc on chickens' respiratory systems?

I had a similar experience last winter when I went to pick up some free rabbit cages I found on OfferUp.

He was selling some rabbits, too. They were in cages inside a small utility building with no ventilation. When I stepped inside to look, my eyes literally started watering from the ammonia smell, and I could barely breathe. Poor rabbits. I might have taken one or two, but I figured their lungs were probably shot.

 

[fuzzi]

Okra is up. I see a female zuke flower formed. Soon to bloom in the next week. Second round of cuke seed is up. We have been having cuke, onion and tomato salad. Love it. Someone was having yellowjacket trouble. Did you get them?

I have yellowjackets. I think I will get a professional to vacuum them. I can't run fast enough to get away.

 

[Smokerbill]

I have yellowjackets. I think I will get a professional to vacuum them. I can't run fast enough to get away.

I get on the Jayco owners forum a lot (a travel trailer forum) and one member had yellow jackets build a nest under his trailer. It was recommended that he secure the nozzle of a shop vac next to the nest hole, and use a timer to turn it on at dawn and let it run for a few hours, then off, then back on a few hours before dark. Not sure of the logic of the timing, but once the shop vac is in place there's no need to be close to the nest.

Maybe after a few days most of the wasps would be trapped in the vac canister.

 

[jerryse]

I have yellowjackets. I think I will get a professional to vacuum them. I can't run fast enough to get away.

Running works. As a kid I would dig them out of the ground and not ger stung. The secret was running. I would get the shovel into the ground and pry up the shovel of dirt. Run! Wait until they calm down and repeat. By the time the nest is uncovered they have left. Might take 3 hours.

 

[Tstraub]

Not really in the garden but garden adjacent enough I suppose. I work at a grocery warehouse. When I went to leave work on Tuesday morning they had a pallet of strawberries at the door for the employees. I thought oh great I’ll grab some and make strawberry shortcake or something.

The guy working the door said don’t be afraid to take more we need to get rid of 6 pallets because they are too close to the sell by date to ship them. So I grabbed 2 cases and bought them home. My wife and I put up 16 pints of strawberry jelly.

Since this is a garden thread I’ll add a picture of the kohlrabi I harvested yesterday from my garden

 

[BirdsBeesTrees]

Not really in the garden but garden adjacent enough I suppose. I work at a grocery warehouse. When I went to leave work on Tuesday morning they had a pallet of strawberries at the door for the employees. I thought oh great I’ll grab some and make strawberry shortcake or something.

The guy working the door said don’t be afraid to take more we need to get rid of 6 pallets because they are too close to the sell by date to ship them. So I grabbed 2 cases and bought them home. My wife and I put up 16 pints of strawberry jelly. View attachment 3575229

Since this is a garden thread I’ll add a picture of the kohlrabi I harvested yesterday from my garden View attachment 3575228

There is a preserving thread too! https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/preserving-your-harvest.1485715/
Your jelly looks beautiful, what a good find on the strawberries!

 

[muddy75]

Ugh, I'm tired and sore. Been on my feet for hours... Harvested 20 lbs of potatoes, around 2 dozen onions, a couple green peppers, a cup or so of ground cherries, and a 15 lb pumpkin. Most of the onions were small because I didn't have them on the irrigation system so I chopped them up and froze.

I still haven't pulled out the rest of the sweet corn. Probably have more tomatoes tomorrow too....

I attempted ground cherries last year but didn’t really get much from them…..what do you do with yours?