What did you do in the garden today?

Being born and raised in Tornado Alley, I am just as crazy as every other native here. I would rather go outside than hide when I see that ominous yellow/green sky, to watch the storm roll in. It is beautiful as much as it is ominous. These storms are tangible proof that mother nature is not very sentimental.

I grew up hearing the sirens being tested every Saturday at noon. I grew up with a weird complacency that my life or part of it might get sucked up and scattered without much warning, or even time to get out of the way.
 
Vetwrap...not just for chickens!

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This is an attempt at a hugelkultur bed, lots of big and little sticks covered with several inches of sawdust. The logs had been rotting a couple years before we added the sawdust. This spring we made holes and filled them with a scoop of rabbit manure and dirt. I would say the Luffas we planted are really doing well, they’re growing at an insane rate. I planted pumpkins a little later and they’re only about 6 weeks old and 4ft long with tons of female flowers.
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Wow, beautiful! I'm jealous! Not much green here. What kind of pumpkins?

Our monsoon season has begun so we will be planting our corn and pumpkins in the next week. Supposed to be good chances for lots of rain this year.
 
Gorgeous jungle and also the HK bed! Very nice.

I have two little bunnies and one medium-sized bunnies. Dammit. Now they ate almost all of the leaves off my sweet potato plants. I still have a couple in grow bags in the driveway, but still.

No chicks yet. Tracking says they're in SC and will be here tomorrow, but I'm really really hoping that they get here this afternoon. Nervous they won't be able to handle two days. They were shipped express--not sure what's up with the delay. I'm getting two appenzeller spitzhaubens, a barnevelder, an olive egger, a welsummer and a speckled sussex.
 
So, unsurprisingly some of my beds are having more calcium troubles than others.

The bed I built last year is having trouble delivering calcium to the zucchinis in it. The ones in the bed behind it are doing fine, though, as that bed is older and got a major influx of calcium from egg shells planted with tomatoes last year. The older the bed the better the soil over-all... Building soil takes time. This year I'll add calcium to the newest beds to stem off problems next year.

We've been going through our milk like crazy lately, so I'm going to be trying to leech calcium from some of our plentiful eggshells for a foliar spray. I'm going to soak the eggs shells in water with some citric acid and give it a good shake for a few days and then spray it. I'm going to hit the tomatoes too since they are in the same bed.

Today I harvest the black raspberries I netted a few days ago. A lot of them are getting ripe under the netting and I'm pretty happy about it!
Yesterday I got to have one of my favorite foods; Buldak Bokkeum ramen with fresh veggies. I love to chop the french breakfast radishes into these along with some mushrooms and carrots. Yum! It's very spicy food, though.
 
Avoiding it like the plague! Have to make some outdoor pens for broody and her 10 chicks, and the other broody who just earned her real eggs last night. Will press cattle panels into service for first broody pen.

My Jewel weed is sprouting! Evidently, the stuff thrives on abuse. I wrapped it in wet paper towels, then refrigerated it, alternating with cycles in the freezer. Finally took it out of the freezer last month (found it buried under some pork chops!) and set it on the kitchen counter. A month later, first tiny little hair root showing on one seed. I intend to toss the whole mess of seeds in the ditch in front of my house.
 
So, unsurprisingly some of my beds are having more calcium troubles than others.

The bed I built last year is having trouble delivering calcium to the zucchinis in it. The ones in the bed behind it are doing fine, though, as that bed is older and got a major influx of calcium from egg shells planted with tomatoes last year. The older the bed the better the soil over-all... Building soil takes time. This year I'll add calcium to the newest beds to stem off problems next year.

We've been going through our milk like crazy lately, so I'm going to be trying to leech calcium from some of our plentiful eggshells for a foliar spray. I'm going to soak the eggs shells in water with some citric acid and give it a good shake for a few days and then spray it. I'm going to hit the tomatoes too since they are in the same bed.

Today I harvest the black raspberries I netted a few days ago. A lot of them are getting ripe under the netting and I'm pretty happy about it!
Yesterday I got to have one of my favorite foods; Buldak Bokkeum ramen with fresh veggies. I love to chop the french breakfast radishes into these along with some mushrooms and carrots. Yum! It's very spicy food, though.

Let me know how your foliar spray works out. Where you getting your citric acid? Did you know that Lemi Shine is 100% citric acid? It may be cheaper than the "for canning" quality.
 

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