What did you do in the garden today?

[Liz Birdlover]

Haha! Mine's about that old too. There's no switch on it, just plug it in and it goes.

View attachment 3777397

No switch? Cool! 1 less thing to break, right?

 

[Liz Birdlover]

That is so beautiful! I've never seen that type before. I'd love to plant some. Where can I get some good seeds?

The 80 acres by me will rotate corn or soy. It's usually the horse corn type. A friend of mine 45 min west gets the delicious sweet corn. I usually get some every summer.

Been working on job sites all week, so only had time to care for flock afterwards, nothing got accomplished in the garden. This morning it was 30 degrees here, brrrrrr, after hitting 60s & even 70 last week, my arthritis & fibro are not liking 30 degrees. The Daffodils, Chickens, Guineas & Pigeons don't seem to care, so that's good. Today is supposed to hit the 50s then down to 29 tonight.

Well, after hauling a load of carpet & padding we ripped out yesterday to the dump, I need to stop at 2 places for special electric plates & floor transitions, pick up more feed, cuz if I'm ever by Tractor Supply that's what I do, makes sense gas wise, then home by 2pmish to do Something in the yard & let the flock free range. If that darn wind finally stops...right now it's fairly quiet but it blew crazy loud all night long.

I'll fill the gas can & fire up the tiller, work on a new future garden patch...this particular garden will be for the flock to enjoy. They always gravitate to an area where there are trees & shrubs, for the bugs & natural cover from hawks, so I'm going to create another area like that for them, as well as plant seeds of stuff they'll love to graze on. I want to expand the wildflower garden area, too. I made one that's mostly shady behind the garage & I'm so pleased at how well it bloomed all summer. I'm going to expand so it wraps around the garage, adding more types, bee & butterfly friendly, as that side gets partial sun. I have a few types of seeds for the Monarchs I will plant, Swampweed flowers.

I will finish inspecting & dusting each chicken for mites, too. I've done about 10 birds a day after work all week, til dusk, then flock goes nighty night, I get a shower & cook us dinner. My life tends to revolve around weather & daylight, not what a clock or calendar says. Sometimes DH gets peeved, tells me I must've been a farmer in a past life. If you want to eat sooner, your arms aren't broken...so now he cooks at times, it's all good, what he cooks is edible. Really, he makes awesome scrambled eggs & he's made great spaghetti sauce with the garlic & hot peppers. If I get an emergency or injured critter to tend to, sorry, that takes priority to dinner time. He knew that when we met.

Anyway, about the mites...never had them like this before & I know it's due to so much rain, making it muddy. Seems like most hens are dustbathing & rarely have them, but some of the Roosters had them bad, by vent or head. We have more rain coming this weekend. I need to create a covered dustbathing area that Stays Dry despite the weather. I can't really cover the entire pens, too big & can't use tarps due to wind we get. I'm envisioning mini run-ins, chicken size, or something like a dog house...but then I may get hens laying eggs in there...gotta think on it. I did try a large pan with dustbathing stuff inside coops but oh my, it was way too dusty inside the coops then.

Oh yeah, we really do have the stuff to build a greenhouse, well the glass panels at least, not the wood...yet. I'm going to make a few drawings tonight after dusk, show DH. I have a tablet I sketch drawings & ideas...The "to do" list is growing. I love it! (DH not so much)

Have a great day everyone!

 

[Liz Birdlover]

They are delicious fresh or dried I planted them cos I love eating them, iy you have white berries dried they are so sweet you can use them as sugar substitute ( in cereals ) or eat them with coffee or black tea , the dark ones are not as sweet and kind of bland, but you can make jam out if them

Sometimes wild birds will plant them, may need to move to a better spot as they get so huge, very productive trees, tons of delicious berries.

 

[fuzzi]

I decided to try to hack away at some privet this evening. Got a good pile chopped down until my new mini-chainsaw battery died. I'll have to finish the rest this weekend. Hoping we don't get any more freezes. It looks like I have damage to the blueberry flowers too....

I bought a cordless mini chainsaw, too, but I do more work on stuff like privet and small trees with my hedge clippers.

For the bigger stumps I use my reciprocating saw (I use a longer blade than pictured):

Example of before and after using them:

 

[fuzzi]

Mine are purple. I eat them raw, a pain to remove all those stems for jam. I don't eat anything to use jam on anymore. Wheat makes my joints hurt. The substitutes have a lot of strange sounding stuff.

Sorry to hear about that. Corn in any form makes me sneeze, but nightshade crops make my joints hurt.

Sweet potatoes/yams and pineapple are anti-inflammatory, eat them if you can.

 

[Sally PB]

I don't know what kind of flower it is. Does anybody know???

Yes, that is a hyacinth. They smell lovely! The bulb is about the size of a fist.

Here's something my mom taught me about 55 (!) years ago. If you want to pick them, pull the stem straight up.

Sweet potatoes

Are anti-inflammatory?? Going to have some with lunch today!

 

[Sally PB]

Thanks for the popcorn link, @CluckNDoodle!

 

[Molpet]

pineapple

I was eating them a lot until I read an article about 80% come from Costa Rica. CR uses a tremendous amount of pesticides to grow them. Along with chopping down the forest to meet the increasing demand.
That said I probably can find something wrong with just about anything on Google
I try to grow as much as I can. I have some black raspberry but they have rust from the wild.

 

[jerryse]

Rain coming tonight- tomorrow. Trying glass gem corn this year. I have not grown popcorn in many years. Found some old popcorn seed that I need to test germinate. It is my own creation of a Indian or calico type. First started it 50 years ago when none were available. I like striped kernels.

 

[Liz Birdlover]

I bought a cordless mini chainsaw, too, but I do more work on stuff like privet and small trees with my hedge clippers.
View attachment 3777694
For the bigger stumps I use my reciprocating saw (I use a longer blade than pictured):
View attachment 3777695

Example of before and after using them:
View attachment 3777700
View attachment 3777701

I use my Sawzall alot