What did you do in the garden today?

[Acre4Me]

Rain all day, with the potential for storms tonight.

yesterday the poults and chicks managed to use the pop door into and out of the brooder. Yay! Of course, I had to chase down every one and by hand move them through the door to put them outside. The previous day they would not go through the pop door bc I had picked them up and passed them through the window -not the pop door- so, they treated the pop door like it was very scary and avoided it.

I’m noticing that the poults are harassing the chicks a bit, but they a at least 2-3x their size. So, they will move out to their pen this week. We will have a chance to add in a few needed additions before they are put into the pen.

only other garden activities I need to do are to up pot the last round of starts, and actually plan where things will go -into which beds.

 

[WthrLady]

Thank you everyone

Big rat snakes....ugh. I don't mind them. The last 6 footer we found we picked up by the tail and let it slither down the nearest ground squirrel hole. We never saw him or the rats on that side of the hill again. He probably got to fat to get out of the burrows.

Huge lightning storm, but all the thunder was drowned out by rain between it and us. It went on for hours. Picked up .76 of rain, so the irrigation is off for the week. NICE treat.

Cooler all this week, finally.

My older horseradish plant is going to bloom ! I can't wait. LOL.

The strawberry plants look amazing. I have some tomatoes to up-pot this week, but beyond that, just keeping the greenhouse watered and critters alive.

I'm STILL trying to find another weeping willow tree for the pasture. It's one of the few trees alpaca can eat safely, so I don't have to worry about them nibbling if they reach something.
I've tried 6 places here, now I'll start calling places two hours away. ROAD TRIP!

LOL
Have a dirty day all.

 

[igorsMistress]

Good morning gardeners. I managed to get a few things planted yesterday. About half the tomatoes, more cucumbers, lettuce and bush string beans. The winds are finally letting up a bit but looking at the long term forecast it is going to be a soggy week. The rain moves in this evening then continues through Wednesday. Not complaining, but had to rearrange my daily schedule. I'll be mowing the back yard and trimming things up while things are relatively dry. Tomorrow will be my regular Monday chores of laundry and bread making. I'm not all that terrified of snakes. Growing up on the East coast fishing and camping trips were always an opportunity to encounter water moccasins and copperheads. Only saw a few garter snakes. When I lived in the South there were water moccasins everywhere as well as King and Corn snakes. I've only seen one tiny garter snake here. I wasn't sure if it was a garter snake at first. The chickens had it cornered and were trying to make it a light snack. When the little guy coiled and started striking at them I intervened. Snakes don't usually bother people or pets unless you surprise them AND they eat mice. That said, I did have the experience of reaching into the nest box for eggs (this was in the South) and a water moccasin popped his head out of the straw. Needless to say I didn't get eggs for a couple of days.

That must have been a fright! I remember having to keep an eye out for water moccasins at the swimming hole when I was a kid. Those suckers can swim fast, but we didn’t have issue on the farm with them.

 

[igorsMistress]

Good morning gardeners. We might get our first triple digit temps this week. I can’t believe we’ve made it to May and it still hasn’t happened, not that I’m complaining mind you! It has been windy here almost every day and my allergies are going berserk but hopefully that’s calming down for a few days.

 

[WthrLady]

That must have been a fright! I remember having to keep an eye out for water moccasins at the swimming hole when I was a kid. Those suckers can swim fast, but we didn’t have issue on the farm with them.

Our florida neighbor went for a nighttime swim with his wife, when something kept banging his leg. He thought it was the hose for the pool sweep. Need I elaborate?

(Saltwater pool)

 

[igorsMistress]

Our florida neighbor went for a nighttime swim with his wife, when something kept banging his leg. He thought it was the hose for the pool sweep. Need I elaborate?

(Saltwater pool)

Yikes! I bet they didn’t swim at night without a light after that!

 

[BReeder!]

We had two lovely days in the 80s with sunshine. Today is just in the 60s though and it's wet and cloudy. At least the garden and grass are getting water.
The 10 day forecast has 6 days of rain spread throughout it. I will not be watering outdoors again for a while.

In running out of 4" pots. I bought a while sleeve of them this year. I have so many plants growing though and need to get them outside to free up pots for younger starts. Yesterday we got all the marigolds out. I reused their pots for the sunflowers. I up potted yellow squash. I only had 3 starts from 9 sides. I reseeded another 6 cells. I also up potted 2 more sugar pumpkins (we have 3 now), black diamond watermelons and a few other things I don't recall. I need to still up pot the remaining cucumbers, kale, and brussel sprouts though.

I'm hoping my potatoes and Jerusalem artichokes pop up soon. With all this rain coming, I don't want the tubers to rot in the ground. Waiting eagerly for corn too, particularly the glass gem so I can get the beans in around it.

I saw yesterday that onions are popping up. Parsnips, carrots and lettuce are sprouting. Kale and brussel sprouts that we transplanted a month ago are slowly growing. Almost all the radishes are sprouted and growing nicely. I did have to pull a few that were too close to each other. The new strawberries are showing good signs of life. We are still weeks from picking our first vegetables (likely the radishes), but things are going in the right direction.

 

[gtaus]

I did get this year's raised beds built and placed them where they're supposed to go in the garden, but I still have three more to level and fill - I'd better get a move on,

Just got done building one 16 inch high raised bed frame and another raised bed half built. I am thinking about making them into sub irrigated planters, where there is a water reservoir in the bottom 3.5 inches of the raised bed. Already have the drain pipe to fill the bottom of the raised beds if I decided to go that route. If not, hügelkultur beds would be my second option.

I have lots of chicken run compost as last year I turned my chicken run into a composting system, laying down wood chips, grass clippings, leaves, garden weeds, and various kitchen scraps throughout. The chicken run litter is about 16 inches deep at the moment, and when I dig down a few inches, it's pure black gold. That stuff has aged enough to go into the raised beds.

 

[AmeliaBedelia]

Didn't do anything yesterday, and today may be the same. Hopefully tomorrow both my schedule and the weather will cooperate. Got a few things to plant.

 

[WthrLady]

Yikes! I bet they didn’t swim at night without a light after that!

He did not.