What did you do in the garden today?

[Elyrian1]

I think I had shared here a few weeks ago that I let my broody cuckoo marans have a single egg to sit on. I didn't want to mess with trying to break her out of it, as that may have taken nearly as long as just letting her sit. The idea was also to test her quality as a broody, see if she had what it takes to sit there for the 21 days and tend her "nest."

So yesterday morning I go out and hear the loud and telltale "Cheep cheep cheep!" of a baby. Sure enough, she hatched that one dang egg. Now she just has to keep the others off the baby. So far she's an appropriately cranky mama. I put water and food there for the baby to get to and yesterday at least once I heard the mama doing that particular sound they make when they call the littles to food. Too cute, lol.

So if mama hen does a good job raising baby chick, she'll get a special leg band.

Still no frost here, and none in the forecast either.

 

[TJAnonymous]

YAY!!!!! Congrats!

@NewBoots - those cherry tomatoes look delish! I might have to try some next year. I bet DH would love them & I'd enjoy them in a Bloody Mary for sure.

We don't kill the critters around here unless they cause trouble. We have caught & let go a million skunks this year because they don't bother us & do actually eat the grubs. We did let a raccoon go too - caught him by accident but he never caused any trouble so he's free. Now mice & chipmunks are another story, those little &(*^$($^%* have to die. Whatever works for you is good with me! My biggest concern is that dang bear...the only thing I can't keep out of my chicken set up. (*knockonwood*) I did lose a chicken to a bobcat, but that was my fault. I have seen evidence of one in the snow jumping up on my bird netting, but it immediately jumped down & didn't come back.

I've been thinking about your bear problem. Is it possible to get one of those game cams that send you an alert when there is motion detected? Maybe you can set it for night time after the girls are in the coop. It could alert you to trouble which allows you to go clang some pots together or whatever other solution you might want to employ. Thoughts? Maybe this has been discussed?

 

[TJAnonymous]

I watered the garden today. Sowed in some fava beans to act as a cover crop in the hoop house. Hopefully this will help put some nitrogen back into the soil. I might try to mix some random fava beans in with the fall pasture seed as well since they are equine friendly.





Anyone else have a chance to attend the Johnny Seeds webinar yesterday on cover crops? I did. It was OK but I wish they had given a little more focus to home gardens instead of bigger plots. But they did talk about a method that I might try next year... When I plant my corn, I might inter-plant peanuts with the corn. They did this with different crops and legumes but I like the idea.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

YAY!!!!! Congrats!

@NewBoots - those cherry tomatoes look delish! I might have to try some next year. I bet DH would love them & I'd enjoy them in a Bloody Mary for sure.

We don't kill the critters around here unless they cause trouble. We have caught & let go a million skunks this year because they don't bother us & do actually eat the grubs. We did let a raccoon go too - caught him by accident but he never caused any trouble so he's free. Now mice & chipmunks are another story, those little &(*^$($^%* have to die. Whatever works for you is good with me! My biggest concern is that dang bear...the only thing I can't keep out of my chicken set up. (*knockonwood*) I did lose a chicken to a bobcat, but that was my fault. I have seen evidence of one in the snow jumping up on my bird netting, but it immediately jumped down & didn't come back.

Skunks eat mice. I don’t mind them hanging around my yard.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

I got the garlic bed primed for now. We are supposef to get a lot of rain next week so hopefully all will be good to plant next weekend. I want to throw some aged compost on top then cover with my portable hoops and plastic. Fingers crossed. My poor balding PBR was looking bad this morning so I gave her warm chicken feed mash with scrambled egg. She’s looking much perkier this afternoon. Ok, time to feed the chickens and the dogs. Oh, we got the DNA results back from my rescue dog Chloe. She 49% Miniature Pinscher and 51% ChiWeenie.

Here’s poor Princess’ naked butt.

 

[karenerwin]

Wandered out to the garden when I was outside feeding and watering chickens and rabbits Garden is definitely dead due to freezing. Artichoke plant still alive. Luffas on the vines are starting to dry out. No sign of freeze damage. All luffa vines are definitely dead though.
High today of 81. 2 nights ago the low was 21 and the high was 62.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Wandered out to the garden when I was outside feeding and watering chickens and rabbits Garden is definitely dead due to freezing. Artichoke plant still alive. Luffas on the vines are starting to dry out. No sign of freeze damage. All luffa vines are definitely dead though.
High today of 81. 2 nights ago the low was 21 and the high was 62.

Same. All the leaves are dead on my loofahs but I left at least a dozen on the vine to dry. Some of the smaller ones will likely rot. I don't think there is enough fibrous material matured in those that they will be salvageable but that's OK.

 

[NewBoots]

I've been lazy today and only did critter care, oh and I did dump the garden litter into the outside run to the amusement of the ladies. The rains are supposed to start this evening so between the ladies and the rain it should break down.

Oh and I had been sad to not be able to find a canning recipe for shakshuka, but that's solved, my canned salsa works great for that. I just added a chopped sweet pepper and a chopped jalapeno as well as chili, and chipotle powder and let it cook for 20 minutes or so. It was great!

 

[Sally PB]

I drained the water cube and put the water in a tote in the green house, as that's where I'll need it. It was pretty hot up there; it's sunny and very nice today and for the next 2-3 days.

The last "big thing" I want to get done is to transplant the iris that is in the planter close to the house. The really pretty one gets a long flower stem that leans over and then the flowers get kicked. So I'm taking all of them out and planting them somewhere where they will be enjoyed and not knocked around. That area is going to be for herbs. I have oregano and sage there. I want to add dill, cilantro, and basil.

 

[TJAnonymous]

I think I'm going to try to seed some daikon radish in my pasture too. It will help with the soil compaction and this crappy rocky soil.