What did you do in the garden today?

[WthrLady]

#2, 3, 4 and 7 Their top tail feathers are longer and curl down. We call them magic feathers.

 

[pennyJo1960]

I see four cockerels. (I also raise marans)

Guess for me have had just enough one local member entrusted me with 5 young cockerel for a week to take to auction for him then sent him the money he was surprised at how much he got for them

 

[WthrLady]

YAY! Marans are great birds. I enjoy their dark eggs and the greens I can get when I mate with my blues.

 

[pennyJo1960]

see I get more green and blue than any other colour but has been a real challenge to get pullets I do have a couple cuckoo marans

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Good morning gardeners. It took me awhile to catch up on the thread. Candied citrus rind is tasty, but no grapefruit for me as it doesn't go well with statins. @Sueby like @WthrLady said, thump your melons, also look for the yellow spot on the bottom. Only a suggestion @perchie.girl but I have a two chamber tumbler composter as do some of our other posters here. It's a lot easier to turn and doesn't require as much water. That old expression, "if there's a will, there's a way." Yesterday was rainy. I was able to give the chickens about 30 minutes of grass time before the sky opened up. Thunderstorms and heavy downpours. I picked another zucchini and another handful of cherry tomatoes this morning. The pole beans are slowly starting to bloom. Most of the tomatoes are getting the glow they get before ripening so I need to be caught up on my chores before they all explode into color. I had planned on making pickles today, however the forecast is for 86F and very humid. Not the type of weather for canning. Have a great day everyone.

 

[IamRainey]

It's never the weather for canning in HOT SoCal but I use my BBQ. It has a gas burner on the side and that baby can put out some BTUs! It's a much higher flame than anything on my range.

I do the food portion inside in my kitchen. I carry the filled jars out there in the rack set up for lowering and raising the jars. Happily, the BBQ is in a service area on the side of my house just outside the kitchen.

For the water bath portion of the operation I fill the big kettle with the garden hose right on the burner. A hillbilly pot filler faucet of sorts. The hose is so much faster than my kitchen faucet. And I don't have to lift the heavy kettle. It's boiling in no time and all the humidity and heat is left outside.

 

[Sueby]

I have the Ball freshtech waterbath canner & I love it. It doesnt put out nearly the heat my old pot on the stove method did so I have no problem canning in the house no matter how hot it is. Did I say I love that thing? Lol

@Wee Farmer Sarah I have figs on my poor, beat up fig tree! They are tiny & probably won't ripen in time, but they are there.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Morning gardeners never been big fan of figs here so never tried we have decided we want a peach tree BF is not a pear fan we have a ancient pear tree it and our apples planted in the mid 30's

 

[IamRainey]

Having just got planted there isn't much for me to do but weed and wait. But I did turn my attentions to this cacti/succulent garden that's been hanging on the chainlink fence that screens out my compost area.



It's been hanging there for 8 or so years. Since there isn't any irrigation it has to withstand brutal sun and long periods of dryness and neglect but a few of the things in there are original. Or second generation clippings that moved from one spot to another.

I got in there with tiny scissors and cut out some of the sad stuff and then I added those two grafted cacti for color and to fill in. Then I refreshed the stone mulch.

Don't know if you can see it but there's an adorable mini opuntia that I took a baby from. I'll pot that up and see if it will root. Don't know where I'll put it because the parent plant has been happy there for the last year and is really growing so there won't be room for a second one.

When it cools down I'm going to give that tall grass-like stuff a serious haircut. It's one of the originals and the portion at the base looks dead -- tho it's still putting out healthy stuff. I'd just like it to look healthier near the roots.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

It's never the weather for canning in HOT SoCal but I use my BBQ. It has a gas burner on the side and that baby can put out some BTUs! It's a much higher flame than anything on my range.

I do the food portion inside in my kitchen. I carry the filled jars out there in the rack set up for lowering and raising the jars. Happily, the BBQ is in a service area on the side of my house just outside the kitchen.

For the water bath portion of the operation I fill the big kettle with the garden hose right on the burner. A hillbilly pot filler faucet of sorts. The hose is so much faster than my kitchen faucet. And I don't have to lift the heavy kettle. It's boiling in no time and all the humidity and heat is left outside.

That wouldn’t work with my canner. It’s too big for the grill burner.