What did you do in the garden today?

[Rick589]

Today I’m thinking of NOT doing anything in the garden, just because. Then again, I have been known to lie to myself. So, there’s that.

Well, I did it. I lied to myself. Went out not 15 minutes after this post to check and pick a few berries and to trim the tomatoes.
Broody is off the eggs early today, countdown enters day 19ish. Taking my timeline from when I first noticed her sitting, which was the 8th.

 

[Rick589]

I tried sprouting okra seeds from Hoss Tools in a seed tray with a humidity cover, but nothing came up and I gave up. I saw this video and decided to try again with the same packet of seeds. The only thing I did different was, I used a microwave to heat up the water and filled and emptied the water about 4 times after a minute. I let it sit in the warm water for around 5 hours and placed them in a tray with wet paper towel and covered the tray like the video. I checked the seeds the next day and all the seeds sprouted. A small step for mankind.

We planted three eggplants last year, black beauty, for the first time.Although we liked the eggplant I think we ended up overeating them to the point of them falling out of favor, at least for the time being. Currently placed right next to kale in our sphere.

 

[jerryse]

Yesterday afternoon storms gave almost no rain. Winter squash bloomed 2 male 1 female flower. Nice to get both flowers at the same time. Another persimmon graft started growing after nearly 6 weeks. I was ready to give up.

 

[Molpet]

I hang the Japanese beetles traps in the poultry yard. The ones that don't make it in the trap, fall to the waiting poultry. I freeze some of the beetles for winter poultry snacks. They don't die right away just slow down. So if you give them to chickens after a day they are slow enough chickens can catch them . Poultry don't like dead ones until winter when there's no bugs.

 

[TillyPeeps]

Yesterday afternoon storms gave almost no rain. Winter squash bloomed 2 male 1 female flower. Nice to get both flowers at the same time. Another persimmon graft started growing after nearly 6 weeks. I was ready to give up.

My winter squash (Sunshine Hybrid Kabocha) plants are loaded now. And my persimmon tree has flower buds for the first time after 4 years in ground! I'm very excited!

 

[TillyPeeps]

I hang the Japanese beetles traps in the poultry yard. The ones that don't make it in the trap, fall to the waiting poultry. I freeze some of the beetles for winter poultry snacks. They don't die right away just slow down. So if you give them to chickens after a day they are slow enough chickens can catch them . Poultry don't like dead ones until winter when there's no bugs.

I haven't see Japanese beetles yet. I'll get my trap ready this weekend though.

 

[dirkandlorie]

I haven't see Japanese beetles yet. I'll get my trap ready this weekend though.

Haven't seen them yet in my area either, but you can bet they're coming! They never fail to visit my garden every year.

 

[dirkandlorie]

Was so disappointed yesterday, been keeping my eye on a couple big beautiful tomatoes ripening on the vine. They made it to the orange ish stage and rotted out on the vine. All that darn rain! Is it too much to ask of mother nature that she just give us a nice drizzle 3 times a week? Preferably at night, and with no bugs! Lol I'm not sure which of those I would enjoy more, mother nature doing the watering or the no bugs.

 

[WthrLady]

90 miles west of me 7 inches of rain yesterday. here almost nothing.
UGH
Oh well.
Foggy and 75 at the moment
First 3 giant blackberries of the season went into DH last night.
3 juicy hornworms into one tiny pullet last night as well. EW

 

[Smokerbill]

The lettuce seeds I planted last week are starting to sprout. I'll probably dig out most of the extras and scatter them around the garden wherever there's space. I've found that little lettuce plants handle transplanting very well, as long as they're kept watered regularly.

I'm starting to integrate my nearly 8 week old chicks with the flock today. The 12 week old pullets seem threatened by them and pecked at them too hard, but the older hens didn't mind them much.

I was able to separate the teenagers away from the old hens and chicks for the day so the chicks can start getting used to the day run and living with some of their flockmates. Later on, when I integrate the chicks to the entire flock they'll know how to interact with the old hens at least, and might feel a little safer when running from the teenagers.