What did you do in the garden today?

[igorsMistress]

We went for a walk this morning, but the flies were too bad. So we came back to the hotel for A/C, no bugs. But no gorgeous scenery, either. I have a fly bite on the back of my head that is the size of a grape.

I sure am missing my garden. I want fresh green beans, my first vine ripened 'mater, and to dig some potatoes. Instead of freakin' McDonalds oatmeal.

And I'm missing my chickens. And their eggs.

McDonald’s doesn’t hold a candle to a fresh egg that’s for sure!

 

[WthrLady]

Thanks! I kinda had a feeling cuz several had ber, but i didnt know it could be internal. One weird thing about the video, it says dont bother adding calcium. Ive always heard to do just that. Even @WthrLady does it, and she lives in NE (just in case it was location specific advice).
These are the ones that look half dead too, while all other tomatoes look perfectly fine. I got them from Bonnie, but all others were my own from seed. I know i will not be buying them again. I only did cuz I thought id missed my window. I hadnt seen all my volunteers then

Our soil her is very nutrient deficient. Prairie grass goes gang buster here as long as it burns every couple of years to release nutrients back in the soil. They didn't not, not mention calcium. But honestly if the soil isn't properly amended for vegetable production here, or anywhere, you are just going to be banging your head against a wall trying to get anything from your garden.
Most of the new hybrids are susceptible to BER and wilt, and blight, no matter how often they try to breed it out, so best practices must be followed. Not following that only drives people to varieties that say they are resistant and abandoning the heritage types and loosing the skills to deal with the problems that will creep in anyway.

I had a customer last year complain that her tomatoes she got from me all got BER. Turns out it was a first year pandemic garden, that until that Spring had been a Chemlawn treated lawn that they dug up and tilled under. So the decomposition process of lawn was stealing nutrients from what she planted, plus she killed her biome layers, and lord knows what chemlawn had in the soil. SHe never fed the garden, didn't know she was supposed to. She basically wanted free replacement plants from me for this year. UM, no.
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Day 8 of feeling like a bus hit me. Still coughing here and there. The animals and people still need taken care of, but the house is a mess. I get breathless too easy, which brings on the coughing. I ache like I've been rolled down the stairs....of the space needle. Bleh.

Garden is watered. Rain should be coming tonight. Heading for feeling like 110 later. Double Bleh.

New nest box came yesterday, with NO hangers. UGH. Ordered those and they won't be here until Tuesday, project on hold.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Are yall watering down your runs for those that do not forage outside of the run?
Mine do not as a rule cuz of hawks. I let Joey do morning chores with me outside the run but that's it.
I'm wondering if a fan that's 4' high on pedestal and hosing down the run is helping or hurting em.
To me it feels like temp drops inside the run similar to how a car wash drops temp on vehicle...for a while at least.

I've tried hosing down the dirt in the run but they aren't interested in the mud. What they do like (which I discovered by accident) is standing in SMALL bowls of water. I tried to bring in a baby pool and put an inch or so of water in it hoping they would stand in it. No luck. They used it like a giant waterer. But I had these small rubber feed bowls I was using for fermented feed experiment. They are only 2-3 inches deep. I began filling them up as additional water bowls in the shade but I quickly learned that they all REALLY liked to stand in them to cool down although they drink out of them too.

I did put a 20" box fan in their coop to help with air movement. I know they don't sweat like we do but the fan helps lower the temperature inside the coop just through the air circulation so they are more comfortable, especially at night when they are locked in.

Another note, I've been dumping some eggs in the back corner of the pasture near the compost pile. These are eggs that are cracked, developed a couple of days and died, or ones that float. Basically not anything I want to boil and feed back to my flock. Anyway, the crows have been having a heyday down there with the tossed eggs. The crows will help keep the hawks away but they will also steal & eat baby chicks too. Luckily I only have 3 really small chicks (about a week old) at the moment and their mamas don't go down there and usually keep them close to the coop or within the cover of the oak trees & shade. I have about a dozen chicks who are somewhere in the range of 6 - 9 weeks old. They are just starting to venture further from the coop. They are almost as big as a crow. Surely a crow wouldn't kill and eat them, I hope?

Lastly, I planted 2 types of broccoli - purple broccoli and Lieutenant broccoli. As I mentioned the other day, the purple broccoli (3 plants) has tons of healthy foliage but ZERO florets. The Lieutenant broccoli, on the other hand, is STILL producing in spades. I just collected a gallon bag from 4 plants and it's probably my 2 or 3rd collection like that. In this ridiculous drought & heat, no less! I'm extremely impressed.

 

[WthrLady]

I tend to agree with them in my case, the year I had ber I had my soil tested & it was def not low on calcium. I have never added calcium & have never had it again. I believe it was either the plants themselves or my inconsistant watering.

Picked a couple cukes. The garlic is dry, I think I'll braid it next weekend, or maybe even tomorrow.

My chickens have deep shade in the run, they dig holes & sit in them most of the day. I don't wet it at all. I did give vits/electrolytes a couple days ago. Tomorrow (supposed to be the worst day) they'll get frozen squash guts & a couple cukes I missed that are over ripe. So far everyone is doing fine, even copnsidering the wormer they're on.

Your soil may have had enough calcium, but with out the right balance of phosphorus, magnesium, and potassium the plant is unable to take up what is there. The calcium actually strengthens the tomatoes and allows them to fight off pathogens.
Last Spring, we had a horribly wet start and the battle to re-balance the soil was long and hard.

 

[Sally PB]

I had a customer last year complain that her tomatoes she got from me all got BER. Turns out it was a first year pandemic garden, that until that Spring had been a Chemlawn treated lawn that they dug up and tilled under. So the decomposition process of lawn was stealing nutrients from what she planted, plus she killed her biome layers, and lord knows what chemlawn had in the soil. SHe never fed the garden, didn't know she was supposed to. She basically wanted free replacement plants from me for this year. UM, no.

No. Really, really, NO.

Yeah, a newbie who needs to learn, but she needs to be responsible for her own garden too.

 

[WthrLady]

A lot of people did this around here down in the city. These are also the people that think gardening is a free, easy, and cheap way to put food on the table.

 

[TJAnonymous]

they are winter crop. you should start them in july and have them ready for harvest in winter. they can stand freezing temperatures but not heat.

See my earlier post today about the Lieutenant broccoli. It's doing great in this heat...

Anyway, I am going to start more broccoli plants for the winter garden but not until mid-August. It simply gets far too hot. We've had triple digit weather every day for almost 2 weeks. It's usually not this bad even in August which is always the hottest month of the year. I dread to see how much worse it's going to be this year. If I start them indoors in August, hopefully I can move them outdoors in mid-to-late September. The temps are usually back into the lower 80s by then.

 

[Sally PB]

A lot of people did this around here down in the city. These are also the people that think gardening is a free, easy, and cheap way to put food on the table.

The kind of people who think the word "garden" is only a noun?

 

[TJAnonymous]

A lot of people did this around here down in the city. These are also the people that think gardening is a free, easy, and cheap way to put food on the table.

I've probably spent several thousand dollars earning my gardening "education" in the past 3-4 yrs. This is the cost of amendments, soil, mulch, building materials, failed plants, successful plants, and so much more.

Yeah, it'd have been MUCH cheaper to simply go to the store.

 

[Iluveggers]

I've probably spent several thousand dollars earning my gardening "education" in the past 3-4 yrs. This is the cost of amendments, soil, mulch, building materials, failed plants, successful plants, and so much more.

Yeah, it'd have been MUCH cheaper to simply go to the store.

No sense of accomplishment until you learn & grow though, and definitely doesn’t taste as good!