What did you do in the garden today?

[Birdsonghill]

Although chickens can eat the fruit of an eggplant like us humans, the eggplant plant itself is considered toxic to the chickens. It always shows up on the list of things not to let your chickens eat. I'm talking about the leaves of the eggplant. Eggplant is in the nightshade family and your chickens can get sick, or die, if they eat too many eggplant leaves.

I grow eggplants at home. I toss all our bits and pieces from the eggplant fruit into the chicken bucket. But when I pull the plant, it goes into the pallet wood composting bin and not into the chicken run composting system.

A person should protect the nightshade plants from the chickens and/or the chickens from the nightshade plants. Either way, your chickens will be better off not eating the leaves from those plants.

I had six sheep get into and eat azaleas and barely saved them with stomach tubing them with charcoal in water. That's a lot of work to stomach tube flush 6 adult sheep, better to prevent it! Chickens and sheep are domestic animals and are not as savvy as wild animals about what to eat. I lost a few chickens over the years from them eating poisonous plants(beware of castor bean plants, they drop seeds) and commercial lawn fertilizer many years ago. Chickens do not throw up toxic stuff like dogs might. They just die usually. I have learned to keep many plants or dangerous granular substances away from where my bachelor rooster flock and sheep that I allow to roam are. Actually I have retired from the sheep business now. I intend to keep chickens till the end, if able. Happy chickens everybody!

 

[chickengr]

I had not considered that. The plastic ammo box I got smells like plastic, not ammo, but metal ammo boxes have a smell to them as well. I had not considered that the plastic smell would affect the seeds themselves. I mean, some gardeners with serious storage systems use plastic container cases with individual plastic boxes. I don't know if that plastic smells any different that the plastic used in the ammo box I bought.

When I was looking online for seed storage suggestions, I found a number of people with small amounts of seeds like I have, are using these small ammo boxes for storage. Nobody ever mentioned your concern. So, I had not even considered it.

But, if all those people using plastic ammo cans for a number of years don't report any problems, I am thinking it is probably OK for seed storage.

once I watched a youtube video where a university professor grew different veggies in plastic bottles (vertical). when asked about toxicity he said that plants were able to protect themselves. unfortunately I didn't bookmark that video.

 

[chickengr]

Nothing in the garden today. It started out pretty rainy. Today I turned 72. DD drove me and the “grandkids” to the Clam Box in Ipswich for lunch. This is an annual trip we go on but decided to make it my birthday trip this year. When we got home we ate the yummy chocolate cake the kids baked for me. It has been a very nice birthday. Tomorrow I’ll be getting back to work picking tomatoes and working on the new chicken coop.

happy birthday!

 

[chickengr]

Although chickens can eat the fruit of an eggplant like us humans, the eggplant plant itself is considered toxic to the chickens. It always shows up on the list of things not to let your chickens eat. I'm talking about the leaves of the eggplant. Eggplant is in the nightshade family and your chickens can get sick, or die, if they eat too many eggplant leaves.

I grow eggplants at home. I toss all our bits and pieces from the eggplant fruit into the chicken bucket. But when I pull the plant, it goes into the pallet wood composting bin and not into the chicken run composting system.

A person should protect the nightshade plants from the chickens and/or the chickens from the nightshade plants. Either way, your chickens will be better off not eating the leaves from those plants.

my chickens and geese found the way to eat tomato leaves. luckily never had any problems. I guess if they ate it on a daily basis that would harm them.

 

[Acre4Me]

Nothing in the garden today. It started out pretty rainy. Today I turned 72. DD drove me and the “grandkids” to the Clam Box in Ipswich for lunch. This is an annual trip we go on but decided to make it my birthday trip this year. When we got home we ate the yummy chocolate cake the kids baked for me. It has been a very nice birthday. Tomorrow I’ll be getting back to work picking tomatoes and working on the new chicken coop.

Happy birthday!!

 

[littledog]

Ants also hate rosemary.

What did Rosemary do?

Rosemary must have snitched on her Aunt.

 

[dirkandlorie]

1 out of 15 didn't seal. Darn, we have to eat a jar. It was probably my fault too, I was in pain & just wanted to get them done so I probably didn't wipe good enough or get the top on great. My bands were pretty rusty & giving me a hard time - I need to throw some old ones out.

I feel like there should be a recipe out there for cowboy candy green beans. I have more beans than I know what to do with, candied would be great! Slap em on a burger...yum.

Make those green beans the same way you do bread and butter pickles,, they're great! Can't get enough of them on my salads! I do the same with beets and jalapenos.

 

[fuzzi]

I am thinking I need a better way to organize and store my seeds. Right now I just have them in a small 4X6 inch cardboard box...

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All my current seeds fit in that little box. However, I am starting to save seeds from plants we are growing. So, I can imagine needing more room for the seeds. Also, I have been reading and watching that it would be better to keep them dark and airtight if possible. Another consideration is making the seed box mouse proof. Last year Dear Wife saved some seeds, left them on a plate to dry out, and one night a mouse must have found them and ate them all. She was devastated. So any storage system will have to be mouse proof as well.

I looked on Amazon and their "Seed Boxes" are pretty darned expensive. I mean, some of them are nothing more than a metal can with "Seeds" painted on it...

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Well, heck, I know that Harbor Freight has waterproof and airtight ammo boxes on sale all the time. I found this 11.6 X 4.25 X 6 inch ammo box on sale this month for $3.99...

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That's the smallest ammo box they have at the store. They have larger sizes, too. But this small ammo box would be double what I currently have for storage.

My goal is to stop buying new seeds every year. If possible, I will save seeds from our plants when we can, but I would also like to buy seed packs at the end of the season at great discounts and save them for the next year.

I also checked YouTube to see if anyone was using these water resistant ammo boxes for seed storage and found this video short...

The small ammo box (with twice the capacity I am using right now) looks like it might be good enough for my current and immediate future needs. Any thoughts or suggestions appreciated. I am open to all suggestions. Thanks.

Video about saving seeds:

https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/dis...dening-journal-episode-36-saving-garden-seeds

 

[WthrLady]

I just spent 3 hours in the orchard.
12 trees had to be removed either because they died or have failed to thrive, or were overly damaged by deer. OMG I only have 12 trees left. I started with 40 9 years ago.
Every tree in the original 40 had been replanted at least once, except for the original 5 pears, which rarely produce pears, but the trees are 18 feet tall.

I also had to plug their irrigation line and pull the deep drip tubing.

UNBELIEVEABLE.
Depressing.

All the trees but one are in the lower orchard. THe one lone tree is smack in the middle of the upper orchard. It has apples on it. It can stay, but it needs to start thriving or it goes as well.

 

[igorsMistress]

I just spent 3 hours in the orchard.
12 trees had to be removed either because they died or have failed to thrive, or were overly damaged by deer. OMG I only have 12 trees left. I started with 40 9 years ago.
Every tree in the original 40 had been replanted at least once, except for the original 5 pears, which rarely produce pears, but the trees are 18 feet tall.

I also had to plug their irrigation line and pull the deep drip tubing.

UNBELIEVEABLE.
Depressing.

All the trees but one are in the lower orchard. THe one lone tree is smack in the middle of the upper orchard. It has apples on it. It can stay, but it needs to start thriving or it goes as well.

That’s sad, I’m sorry.