What did you do in the garden today?

[FrannyNZooey]

… while I was digging around in the shed along with rat poop. I heard something in there a couple nights ago, so I’ll have to deal with that later today.

I finally broke down and decided to buy this outdoor electronic rat zapper thing. I saw some beady little eyes glowing in the dark on our chicken cam that we have outside the run. Not giving them a chance to find their way in. It arrives next week.

 

[WthrLady]

love our electric rat traps..... @FrannyNZooey

 

[Sally PB]

We're visiting FIL in Charlotte, NC. Since he's 85, we're doing any outside chores we can find to do. Like hoist the HEAVY extension ladder up and clean out the gutters. DH and I had all we could do to get it vertical, and then extend it up to two story height.

Today we raked and bagged leaves. Sigh. They won't fit in the car to take home with us. I'd love to have them in my garden and/or chicken run!

 

[karenerwin]

We got up to 76 today. It was gorgeous!! The trees are showing lots of beautiful fall colors. Tomorrow we are supposed to hit 80. The back to the 60’s after that. Nothing in the garden today. I had to have one of my grandsons crawl/ shimmy under the chicken coop to pull a meat bird out that seems to have gone blind. No way I would have fit that far up under the coop. The last 2 nights I had been trying to get the bird to come out by using a stick to coax it along but that wasn’t working. I put the bird in a smaller area with food and water and it will be the next one I butcher. Couldn’t do it today as I had to drive my son to his doctor appointment an hour and a half away and then back home again and cook dinner. By then it was full on dark outside .

 

[Happy hen lover]

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Those 4-inch drainpipes with the socks are very nice. I just use the perforated 4-inch drainpipes and cover the ends with some landscaping fabric. You don't need to cover the entire pipe with a sock. The soil will not seep into the perforations and clog the drain pipe as long as the ends are covered. For me, it saved a little money.

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Anyways, for those who don't know, the 4-inch drainpipe fills with water which acts as your water reservoir. Then you need to drill a hole in the sidewall, so the bottom of that hole is at 3 inches on the side. That gives you a 1-inch air gap so your plants don't drown.

Those wicking beds and planters are my favorite because it's impossible to overwater them and the water reservoir lasts for a long time. On my planters, I only have to refill the planter about once a month if we get average rainfall. One summer we had a terrible drought, and I had to refill the reservoir once a week. But the plants in the wicking beds never suffered as they had a constant supply of water. Very nice.

The only drawback to the wicking beds is that you have to invest in that drainpipe. However, there are a number of people who use empty plastic bottles and containers in their wicking beds and that works good for them. I'm saving up some half-gallon milk jugs to see if I can get them to work as well in the wicking planters as the drainpipe works. That would cut down the cost.

I use milk jugs, Gatorade bottles, water/ pop bottles etc. just drill 4 holes in top and bottom and cover 80%of bottom of tub with bottles then add soil and tube to tub. ,( I have free access to cattle mineral tubs. I have used these tubs for 4 years now, and I love them my soil is 3rd peat moss, 3rd potting soil 3rd regular soil(or chicken run dirt which is like compost). I love these tubs saved me in last year's drought .

 

[gtaus]

I am looking into expanding the material I shred at home for use as chicken coop litter and later compost for my food gardens. I have been shredding all our paper, newspapers, light food box cardboard, and most junk mail for over 2 years now.

Recently, I bought one of those power cutters at Harbor Freight and am now shredding almost all our heavy cardboard packing boxes. I just cut them into 2-3-inch-wide strips, and they go down the center of the shredder without any problems.

One of the few items I am tossing into the recycle bin has been all those color magazines I get in the mail. Like the magazines I get monthly from AAA...

I have always been told not to compost color magazines because the ink is toxic. Well, I think that may have changed for some magazines. I looked at the inside cover pages with the Contents, and found these logos...

It appears to me that these magazines are now OK to shred for use as chicken coop litter and compost for the food gardens later. But I'm not 100% sure. Can anyone help me with the Enviro/Tech*Ink logo and let me know if that means the ink is safe for composting? I am thinking that the ink is soy-based, or algae-based, and is not toxic.

It would be nice to start shredding up some more of these magazines at home instead of dumping them off into the recycle bins. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Dadanga]

I have to see if Ozito make one of those little machines. I also want one of those cut-off types that look like tiny grinders but have a saw blade. I was just cutting strips of cardboard last night and thought about how dangerous it was using a craft knife. It was annoying and a bit of a chore and a few times almost got the finger.

The only things that didn't go through the shredder were the strips where the nails were. Because these were boxes the incubators came in the staples holding them are pretty big.

 

[gtaus]

I have to see if Ozito make one of those little machines [power cutters]. I also want one of those cut-off types that look like tiny grinders but have a saw blade. I was just cutting strips of cardboard last night and thought about how dangerous it was using a craft knife. It was annoying and a bit of a chore and a few times almost got the finger.

Those power cutters are really handy. It makes is much easier to cut up all that heavy cardboard that I used to just dump off in the recycle bins. Now, I easily cut the heavy cardboard into strips and feed them down my shredder. Better for me to use all that cardboard as free chicken coop litter than buying litter for the chickens.

I have all kinds of utility razor knives. I only use them out in the garage. You have to be careful not to slip and cut yourself. With the power cutter, it is just so much safer.

The big reason I got the power cutter was because my old hands would start to cramp up if I used a heavy-duty manual scissors to cut that heavy cardboard. The heavy-duty manual scissors will do the job, but it takes a toll on my hands. When I found one of these power cutters on a great sale, I bought it. For me, it was well worth it considering the price I paid for the power cutters. I use it a lot more than I thought I would. Of course, it cuts many more things than cardboard, but that is mainly what I use if for.

Lots of companies make basically the same power cutter item, just under their brand. You might find a good deal with Christmas sales coming up.

 

[gtaus]

I use milk jugs, Gatorade bottles, water/ pop bottles etc. just drill 4 holes in top and bottom and cover 80%of bottom of tub with bottles then add soil and tube to tub. ,( I have free access to cattle mineral tubs. I have used these tubs for 4 years now, and I love them my soil is 3rd peat moss, 3rd potting soil 3rd regular soil(or chicken run dirt which is like compost). I love these tubs saved me in last year's drought .

I wish I had access to free cattle mineral tubs. You must be a fan of Leon's gardening channel on YouTube. He uses those cattle mineral tubs all the time.

Do you use the fabric weed cloth on top of your bottles before you put in the growing medium mix? I have built 3 sub-irrigated planters using 4-inch perforated drainpipes. I cover the ends of the drainpipe with weed blocker, but I don't put any cloth on top of the drainpipes. I just packed the growing medium between the drainpipes and called it good. If your holes drilled in the plastic bottle were small enough, I don't think you would need to have that extra weed blocker fabric that Leon uses.

We had a terrible summer drought here a couple of years ago. My sub-irrigated planters worked just fine, although I had to refill them with water maybe once a week whereas normally, I only fill those planters once a month with our average rainfall. My hügelkultur raised garden beds kept the plants alive and I got maybe 70% of normal harvest from them. My in-ground garden, however, dried up and died with nothing bearing fruit that year. I did not have running water out in the main garden.

Living through a drought summer really opened up my eyes to the different methods of gardening. I ended up moving most of my gardening to my backyard where I have running water from a hose from the house. Also, I now make all my raised garden beds with the hügelkultur method. If we get another drought summer, I am ready with the garden hose and sprinkler.

 

[CNJ]

I am going to try Prairie Fire tomato, Purple Bumble Bee cherry tomato and Heavy hitter okra next from Bakers Creek. I especially want to taste the Prairie Fire tomato; it has a level 10 Brix reading and positive reviews. https://www.rareseeds.com/tomato-prairie-fire

I also want to try growing their new purple tomato that will be available in 2024. I'll order them as soon as they put it up for sale on their website.