What did you do in the garden today?

[Ascholten]

Mine are the same way, they'll trample it and poop on it for 3 days like it does not even exist, but pick it up or let ONE of them start nibbling at it, next thing you know they can't get enough of it.
I think they associate 'high up snacks' with 'treats' the other day i grabbed a handfull of oyster shells to toss around to make sure they have enough. Ill do this once a week, spread the ground shells around for them. Well they seen 'hand' which MUST mean 'treats' so they start jumping and dancing and ate I mean gobbled down probably half a cup of oyster pieces before they realized they were eating rocks.... THEN the grumbling started

Aaron

 

[Ascholten]

speaking of other habits.
I think I just invented a new musical instrument.
the Chicken Chime.
Well you heard of wind chimes, it's sort of the same.
You take a pan,put a little water in it and hang it with some string. with the little water in it, if you hit it it makes kind of a gongy sound from the water echo and all.

Now, hang this pan about an inch off the ground so the birds can see it, and throw a handfull of pellets in it so they have to peck it and peck the bottom of the pan each time they get a pellet. now you got a chicken chime.. lettem all gonga away.

aaron

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Good morning gardeners. The weather forecasters have been missing the mark lately. What was supposed to be dry and cool turned out to be wet and sloppy. This morning I was greeted by 3 inches of new snow. I can't really complain about the snow because it's adding nitrogen to my dirt, however, the loggers can't operate their heavy machinery when there's snow and ice on the ground. There's still a lot of debris on the ground including smaller trees. Way too big and heavy to clean up by hand. In the mean time I found a reasonably good deal on field fencing. The best price is for a 330 foot roll of it, however, that is way too heavy for me to manipulate. I found 132 foot rolls on Amazon so I ordered 2 rolls. Each roll weighs about 70 pounds per roll. I can manage that much easier. The price difference wasn't all that much either, only 3.5 cents fer foot more for the smaller rolls. But it's 10 gauge wire field fencing. I'm still looking for a good price on T posts. I would really prefer wooden fence posts but there are just too many rocks in the dirt around here. I may try a few wood posts and space the T posts in between. I plan on using plastic garden fencing around the new garden beds to discourage small animal foot traffic. Did I mention I ordered seeds from Ferry Morse last Friday and they were in my mailbox on Saturday. That was surprising. DD was very disappointed in the purple fingerling seed potatoes she ordered from the Maine Potato Lady so she cancelled her account with her. She's thinking of getting organic potatoes from Whole Foods and try planting them. I'll likely get my seed potatoes from either Home Depot or Lowes. The prices are better than the online vendors. Not much else to do but but go shovel the driveway. I don't think 3 inches or so of snow is snowblower worthy. Looks like I'll get my exercise the old fashioned way. Have a great day all.

 

[allenw]

I need to start some onion seed and have chicks coming the end of the week.

 

[TJAnonymous]

For anyone with fruit trees/vines.. How do you keep the birds from getting your cherries, grapes, apples, etc?

Do shiny objects or streamers work? The plastic owls? Scarecrows?

I'm trying to avoid having to put netting on the trees. Mostly because I know it will be a real pain in the butt to get on and off.

Good question. Birds took all my grapes last year. I was going to cover mine with netting this year when it gets closer to them ripening up.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Another good sign would be "I don't remember what I planted here!"

Or IF I planted something here....

 

[Ascholten]

in my case the sign needs to be..
Hey !! I didn't plant you here !! You are supposed to be over there. What are you doing here? and there, and HERE TOO !!!

 

[Sally PB]

I see a number of people are putting grapes in. Is this the time of year to be doing this?
I am looking for something that perhaps will run along the fence and grapes might do the trick. Any suggestions for some that are sweet and fairly easy to take care of?

Aaron

Let me add: I know about nothing when it comes to grapes. Just that you can make wine from them.

Since your climate is so different, I can't advise you on the when. I'm sure it's earlier than my zone 5b area. Check out doubleavineyards.com. They have MANY varieties, and you can sort them by type (table, wine) and also by agricultural zone. The descriptions are helpful; one tab at the bottom lists disease susceptibility, though some just say "unknown." I have no idea what diseases might be lurking in my area, so this will be a big experiment. The only grapes I know that do well are my neighbors, and she's going to give me some cuttings. Oh, and wild grapes, they're all over. But they have tiny, seedy little fruit.

DD was very disappointed in the purple fingerling seed potatoes she ordered from the Maine Potato Lady

Ah! What happened?

I got some Magic Molly purple fingerlings from MPL, and they did MUCH better than the purple variety I ordered from somewhere else. The MM potatoes are small-medium, for the most part, but they are fingerlings. I have enough of the 3 kinds I planted left that I won't need to order any kind of seed potatoes this year.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Potato being planted here is all from Costco. They do not treat the potato the sprout great.

 

[Ascholten]

any ideas or personal experiences what grapes YOU think taste the best?
Looking for sweet and not too tempermental to take care of.

aaron