What did you do in the garden today?

[WthrLady]

No trees on this bald hill, except for the ones we planted when we got here. Luckily, the winds are so high, those blow off to the next acreage. LOL.

Windchill of 7 this morning. Managed 2.7 inches of snow. A couple hours west of us got hit with 14 inches. YIKES, too early for that crap.

Back in the 50s by Wednesday.

I have horseradish to get into some soil. Will eventually.

 

[Sueby]

Wow @WthrLady! It is early for that!

@Compost King I can't believe how quickly your greenhouse came together & is growing stuff. Nice job!

@littledog well it's nice to know I'm not the only one! & not the only one that would maybe steal leave & hide it from DH.

Morning all. Back to work. I think I will open the pop door for the littles today. They probably won't venture out, but we shall see! They seem to be relaxing a bit.

Have a great one all!

 

[WthrLady]

It's not too early for us to get a winter wake up call. It's FAR too early for the 14 inches out west got, but they're so far into drought, while a pain in the butt, they need the water.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Good morning gardeners. Cold rainy morning here in the mid 30's. I did manage to get a little work done in the garden yesterday. Today is another shopping day since it's supposed to be mostly wet outside. The temps here are now finally in the normal range for this time of year. However I'm hoping that little chance of snow this coming weekend is just a flurry or two. I'll work on moving more dirt tomorrow and hope to have it gone before the weekend. I did get a nice surprise in the newer garden bed yesterday. I found a carrot. A lovely Danvers Half Long. I had it with my dinner. Nothing else going on, just hoping the week after this one is drier so I can blow the leaves out of the backyard. I don't really get leaves hanging around in the front yard, thank goodness. Have a great day everyone.

 

[BReeder!]

Last year, I noticed my neighbor filled up a bunch of bags of leaves from their huge maple tree, and the bags sat by their garage for awhile - I thought about stealing them, but came to my senses. This year, I'm watching for more bags, and I plan to ask them if they would like to trade some eggs for their leaves. And get the leaves dumped on the garden before Mr. Dog finds out and calls me crazy, LOL.

Our neighbors across the street are a friendly older couple we talk to all the time. The husband uses a riding mower with an attachment to collect leaves. Once they heard we use the our leaves for the garden and chicken coop he offered to dump theirs by our side gate. I had enough leaves the last two years to cover my beds and the chicken run with nearly a foot of leaves. It's much less when I mulch them, which is what I prefer to do. It's still a kit of leaves though. I have the huge silver maple trees, a medium sized red maple, and two other small maples. My neighbor has several small trees and one huge maple.

 

[NewBoots]

Below is the leaky tray full of soil where I poured a bunch of that "Chick Mix" forage seed. Many of the seeds in this mix can be planted in fall so I might plant directly in the run with wire cage over it. Kinda like a rabbit cage except it would only be a few inches tall. This will allow plants to grow but prevent beaks from getting down to the roots.

I have to confess I ordered some of that same mix and I have a couple of leaky trays I will be planting some in too. The light leaky trays I'll just put in the run and let the girls tear it apart. But I also ordered some mesh-bottomed sturdier (I hope anyway) trays that I plan to fill with soil, plant, and then wire one over the top of the other so it will not get demolished. That's the plan, we'll see.

always put avocado peels and skins in the compost, too! Is that a bad idea? I know the fruits are toxic to all animals except primates, but the seeds and skins should be fine to compost, no? No animals have access to my compost bin, and I always bury kitchen scraps so wild birds or rabbits aren't attracted. Never had an avocado tree grow, though!

Avocados are such a funny fruit. I read recently that they were once the food for giant herbivores that have long since gone extinct. Like giant ground sloths or those ginormous rhino things, and they would eat the fruit and poop the seeds and that was how avocados survived. And that if humans hadn't developed a taste for them, the avocados would have gone extinct along with the giant herbivores that ate them.

Morning all. Back to work. I think I will open the pop door for the littles today. They probably won't venture out, but we shall see! They seem to be relaxing a bit.

Let us know how they do. They are so cute.

Moved more of the finished compost into the beds yesterday and planted the last of the garlic. The crazy asparagus is sending up at least 1 spear, no idea what's up with that. Getting back on a regular watering schedule since the rains seem to have pooped out on us. We planted so many trees and shrubs that even though a lot of them are natives, they need a little more babying before we can leave them to their own devices. I still have more fall planting to do, I'm going to try some green onions again and I ordered a lot of mustard and others green seeds. DP put a new light on a timer out in the rabbitat to encourage the ladies to get pregnant, I'll let you know if it works.

I can smell the ribs starting to cook in the oven, I mixed up another batch of the buffalo rub mix I found on line. It's great stuff, I use it on roasted meats of all kinds, rabbit, chicken and pork so far. Not super spicy, just a little bit of a kick and lots of flavor. And I should get going on the pear butter too today.

Tossing Dotty's butt out of the nest regularly seems to be starting to work, she did get in the nest last night (took her out and put her on a roost) but she wasn't back in the nest first thing this morning, nor when I later took them a treat of warm oatmeal with yogurt. It was in the 30s last night but probably the high 30s, and only 40 when I went out for eggs. And sheesh, when do the cabbage loopers quit attacking my brussel sprouts!?

Later all, out to pick those little green monsters and collect egg(s).

 

[Dottie the Chicken]

That isn't a Buff Orp, could be a blue maybe. This is an old picture but the middle one on the right is my bo Amilia. She's a great layer and big eggs too.View attachment 2385448

Please excuse my hijacking your thread, but what breed are those speckled ones?

 

[Compost King]

Please excuse my hijacking your thread, but what breed are those speckled ones?

I am going to guess Swedish Flower, not that I know what they look like but I like taking wild guesses. I do not even believe the thread starter/OP is even active and everyone on here keeps birds (I assume) so I doubt anyone is going to object to you asking what breed that is. I don't even consider it a thread hijack myself. I can't really speak for others even I though I sorta just did.

 

[Dottie the Chicken]

Thanks!

 

[Sueby]

@NewBoots care to share the buffalo rub mix? I might just do a rack of ribs this week, it sounds good! The littles did venture out pretty quickly. They found their way back in too so that's good. I just left them dust bathing & zooming around outside, I guess they are feeling a little more at home today.

I am going to guess Swedish Flower, not that I know what they look like but I like taking wild guesses. I do not even believe the threat starter/OP is even active and everyone on here keeps birds (I assume) so I doubt anyone is going to object to you asking what breed that is. I don't even consider it a thread hijack myself. I can't really speak for others even I though I sorta just did.

Totally agree with all of that from ask away to Swedish Flower!