What did you do in the garden today?

[AllenK RGV]

More garden pics.

Just have to share bc it is our first time with such a nice Tomato set. We do have tomato Hornworms this year - they really did a lot of damage on the plants on the deck. One plant showed damage in the garden, but I've sprayed Bt 2x now - to hopefully get as much coverage as possible for those voracious beasts. I also sprayed the cabbage types with Bt - bc they were getting eaten up by the cabbage moth caterpillars. The cabbage isn't looking too terrible, but not great.

Japanese Beetles out in full force - creating havoc on my bean plants. Set out a second bag trap - and caught about 50 in the first couple of hours it was hanging. Changed the bag on the first one as it was pretty full of bugs.

Cucumber beetles out and causing problems, but the population doesn't seem too high.


This tomato is really big - its not just the perspective.
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Nice shape and so shiny!
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All crammed in - just looking forward to some ripe tomatoes!
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Another plant with good set.
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ripening Compari
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ripening Black Cherry
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I think I'll pick this one today
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Here's the tomatillo. TONS of the little female flowers. But, we only planted one plant bc the other plant died. THEN we found out there should be two plants for pollination!
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What a ton of peppers! Sometimes it amazes me how many peppers a single plant can make.
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Another pepper, also with a heavy load. Not all the pepper plants are this heavily loaded, but for such small plants they sure are productive.
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Chicken and mockingbirds love hornworms. They are free but destructive treats. You can also blacklight them to great effect.

 

[Acre4Me]

Chicken and mockingbirds love hornworms. They are free but destructive treats. You can also blacklight them to great effect.

Yes - gave the chickens some hornworms already! The chase ensued!

Blacklight - thats true - and might have to do that if I can find a portable blacklight! Does the whole hornworm light up or just certain parts?

 

[WthrLady]

THey glow a funny green but those white dots/stripes glow neon in that light!

It's a woods open air coop. It has a vent door on the north west wall for added venting in the summer. Has windows on the east and west side in the front that open for extra venting and a large window up top to let in winter sun and out summer heat. The whole SE wall is open at all times. The run is all open, just hardware cloth.

It's in my link below.

 

[WthrLady]

got mine on amazon, battery powered flashlight $12 delivered

Yes - gave the chickens some hornworms already! The chase ensued!

Blacklight - thats true - and might have to do that if I can find a portable blacklight! Does the whole hornworm light up or just certain parts?

Newest Photo - with the winter panels

 

[Sooner Magnolia]

I'm going to have to catch up in a bit. Had to chuckle @NightingaleJen. I thought you referring to my injured hen as "Olive." Now I realize you meant my olive tree. It seems fine. Tough sucker ( I never moved it inside or to the greenhouse at school through the winter).

Olive is a pretty good name for her since i enjoyed reading "Olive Kitteridge" and the sequel. I highly recommend them. Tough old lady and an interesting character.

Olive seems good in the kennel on the porch. She's eating, and her friends are coming to visit.

They have volunteered to make life easier for me by laying by the porch. I decided to encourage it with a little hay and maybe a golf ball or two. Can't keep the snakes out of the coop with the door wide open and i saw another one in there yesterday.

9 year old daughter is finally piling up broken limbs for me. She's found lots of other things to keep her busy before now, but needs my help with something.....

 

[AllenK RGV]

Yes - gave the chickens some hornworms already! The chase ensued!

Blacklight - thats true - and might have to do that if I can find a portable blacklight! Does the whole hornworm light up or just certain parts?

Pretty much they just glow a bright green vs the rest of the plant whick goes a dull red under the UV. I use 365nm lights for my scorpions and hornworm and even egg lighting.

 

[Sooner Magnolia]

Aloha gardeners,
No gardening, only watering, selling rooster and cockerel and cooking today. Made the usual carrot muffins for my sweetie and a bow tie pasta salad because i was feeling a little dinner boring. I'll make a big salad along with the cold pasta salad and a turkey burger tonight. Yum! I have been on my tofu salad kick for breakfast/lunch again. You know it is summer when... and it just tastes so good plus, I needed to be good to myself. I think I am just a little sad about the last few sales, I did not want to part with them. Think I'll go for a quick ride this eve. It's a little warm but that ot to brighten my mood. Plus Hombre is still clean and his tail looks so awesome might as well go get it salty.
To all of my mask wearing compadres- you rock!!! I appreciate your inconveniences, keep up the great work and stay well, me ke aloha!!View attachment 2242553View attachment 2242552View attachment 2242566

. Very jealous right now, wrote a grant with some colleagues 5 years ago to visit the Big Island and meet with a Chemistry teacher there about how he incorporates culture and local flora into his lessons. Awahpui for surfactants in shampoo, etc. My aunt’s best friend and his now husband had moved there from Atlanta and it was nice to see them when I was there. They had lots of ferile chickens/jungle fowl running around. I suggested he put some golf balls somewhere covered and they might start providing them eggs. Doubt they did though.

 

[AllenK RGV]

I dredged up an old post regarding blacklighting eggs. I find it interesting you can tell which breed laid which egg.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...-blacklighting-for-eggs-hidden-nests.1341510/

And all my lights are amazon cheapies too. Usually based on 18650 lithium ion batteries.

 

[NightingaleJen]

Sorry you had to give up some birds, @TropicalBabies. :/

Plus Hombre is still clean and his tail looks so awesome might as well go get it salty.

When you do gallop Hombre along the beach, do your hold your arms out to the sides and hear the score from <i>The Black Stallion</i> in your head? Does Hombre hear the music in *his* head?

Sorry about all that hutch work, @NewBoots. Did you gain a few new shoulder bruises, too?

The white borage is beautiful, too. Usually I grow them together. But apparently our local cottontails have no appreciation for the blooms, only the greens, because they've been nibbling, and seem to have wiped out "Bianca," the white I plant. Even Hubby is getting irritated with it (we've joked about naming our little farmlet "Bee & Borage" or "Bombus & Borage") and last night said we may have a LOT of rabbit in the freezer once hunting season begins. Fine by me. Fricassee, coming up!

Those peppers sound fantabulous, @Compost King...

@Acre4Me Everything looks so beautiful! Those wee yellowish peppers are...well, they're just cute, really. Sorry about the bugs. :/ It seems to be one of those years, something decimated our arugula, and the bites are too tiny and round to be bunny or chipmunk. Also, Roots & Refuge on YouTube just today (IIRC) posted a video about using a blacklight to find hornworms. As @WthrLady and @AllenK RGV pointed out, it's a very effective hunting method.

Ha, sorry for the confusion, @Sooner Magnolia. Thank you for the book recommendation, though! Your porch-laying girls are adorable. "Why did it have to be snakes...?"

Didn't get much at all done this morning other than watering; had an early appointment with my hairdresser (first time in six months, thanks to COVID—my hair is kept long anyhow, but it was down to my waist when I went in this morning). Hey, guess who else has chickens now? So I suggested BYC right away, of course. Many of her clients keep chickens, so she definitely has a lot of help and information coming in.

Will make my Sriracha Spray to ward off the rodents (I hope) and head out tonight. Possibly with eye protection... It is actually warming up again here, but we have a lovely breeze rolling through.

 

[AllenK RGV]

I have a soft spot for my chicken. I only hunt hornworms for them and the joy it brings. BT is more efficient, but I do not get to see hornworms getting their day in chicken court that way. Those things look toxic and had me scared of them for most of my youth. But owning a chicken posse was the equalizer.