Some Big and Little Growth Spurts 2020

First off, the Broccoli and Cauliflower were outgrowing their hoop covers as shown in earlier posts. So we created a tent with PVC and were able to wrap the cover around them to keep the vicious cabbage moths away. Those critters will ravage the small plants in a matter of days. When the plants are larger, we will take the tent down. I'm betting neighbors are wondering what on earth we are growing in there.  But I want to keep these plants protected because with all the rain, there is nothing "natural" that I can treat them with, without the treatment being washed away in the rain. I refuse to use crop pesticides. Won't do it.  I didn't want to cut all the PVC down, so that top support piece, is 10 ft long.  The plants outside of the tent are my bush beans that are finally looking a bit better.  They were quite yellow and shriveled a little over a week ago. Used Blood Meal the first week, and then 10-10-10 this week, brought their coloring and new growth back in line.

Tent to protect broccoli & cauliflower

Other side of tent

Next, the lettuce plants in the buckets in the greenhouse are, absolutely, to die for.  I've been using the special liquid 10-10-10 on them, as well. I honestly have never had my lettuce looking this wonderful.  That's one seed, yes one plant per five gallon bucket! The cilantro is also doing very well this spring.

Buttercrunch Lettuce	Salad Leaf Lettuce
Two Red Sails	Cilantro

Struggling still with the squash and the cucumber plants.  I planted more in the cloth pots in the green house, while also planting some in small pots in the new "mini" growtent that we got on sale. The special light is helping to start our plants indoors MUCH better. As you can see from the green house pots, only the squash in one (of two) buckets came up, and there are two cucumbers, one in each bucket that came up. And let's just say I OVER planted the seeds in there this time.  Part of the issue is the inconsistant temps, too hot, too cold and not enough sunlight.  Then, compare them to the seed I started in the growtent, and Santa Vaca, what a difference.  Today, I planted some dill, basil and lavender seeds in an egg carton. Will see how long that takes for them to sprout and then I can put them out into the garden soon.

Greenhouse Acorn Squash	Greenhouse Cucumber Start
Growtent Cukes & Squash Starts	Just plantes Dill, Lavender & Basil

Potatoes are starting to bloom, so that's an indication that they are almost done.  The Strawberries are starting to get ripe.  I think we will actually get some this year.  I had to put petroleum jelly on the bottom lip of the buckets to keep the ants out.  So far, so good.  Again, used the special organic liquid 10-10-10 on these berry plants, and we should have some nice sized berries this year.

Potatoes are Blooming

Berries are turning red!!!!

Early June Garden Updates 2020

I truly don't have as much planted as I hoped.  We have had some rather crazy weather. But plants are happening, little by little.

On May 30, there were thunder storms and downpours.  So I covered the most delicate of the plants to keep them from getting knocked down.

Protecting beans, broccoli and cauliflower	Protecting Corn
Protecting Onions and Garlic

Monday was great. I was able to get the tomatoes transplanted into buckets. This year, we are going to put the buckets into the ground (as shown in photos below) and put plastic tarps and bark mulch around the buckets so that we don't have to mow around them, and can protect them from the winds and rains during the summer months.

Comparison of plants	Cloned Starts are almost 3x larger
Keep Ants/Slugs away from Strawberries	Corn was started inside this year!
Oregano thriving 2nd Cutting	Potatoes starting to bud/bloom
Creeping Rosemary transplanted

Spring Garden and Chick Update

Moving the chicks outside this week was quickly followed by a lot of cloudy rainy days.  So there are no photos.  I don't want to stress them out in their new coop.  They are adapting, eating, drinking and pooping.  I have the tall brooder warmer in the pen and they will get under there when they get chilled. But mostly, they are loving their roost bar and acting like "big birds."

The new 12 chicks arrived that are already presold.  They are, of course, cute little fluff balls. Six Barred Rock and six Rhode Island Reds.

Garden is the big factor here this week.  Plants in the greenhouse are finally picking up.  I had purchased some cloned plants to supplement the plants that did not start well in the greenhouse. The Onions and Garlic starts are looking good in the back section of the square garden. We have covered the broccoli and cauliflower starts to help keep them a bit warmer but also protect from the cabbage moth, and other bugs that like to eat broccoli.  The strawberries, peas, and lettuce are looking quite good. Also, the wintered over plants are thriving.  I have already cut half of the oregano for drying and cooking.  The rest will be cut in a week or two. Potatoes finally came up and are looking strong.

Pea starts planted 2 weeks apart	Potatoes - not sure which are what
Potatoes popped up a little later	More Potatoes that finally popped up
Strawberry blossom	Wintered Over Parsley
Wintered Over Oregano	Wintered Over Marjoram
Winters Over Thyme	My starts next to a Cloned Tomato Start
Pepper, Tomato & Lavendar Starts	Some of my lettuce starts 1+ month old
Lettuce Start 2+ mo	Onions Left and Garlic Right
The new garden space	Cover tunnel for Broccoli & Cauliflower
Inside the tunnel	Wet dandelion Seed Head

RIR Chicks Moved to Coop Early 2020

The Rhode Island Red Chicks (4) that we picked up last month are in their new home. They are in the 3x4 coop designed for four hens. They will have a lot of room to wander around until they get bigger and actually grow into the space.  I hooked up the light in there on a timer for a few days until they are comfortable with going outside. I also included the tall brooder warmer for them 'cause we are likely to have a few cool nights for the next few weeks. Their food and water is inside the coop with them until they are bigger and better feathered.  

It worked well to get the meat chickens early in the season, got them processed at seven weeks, clean/bleach down the hoop coop and moved the three year old Welsummers into that coop on fresh ground. Since the hoop coop does not have a nesting box, I improvised a nesting box out of a five-gallon bucket.  The first few days, we had some issues with that, and ended up wiring two buckets together so that it looks like there are two nesting boxes for them, and they are much happier. The first few days involved a lot of broken eggs and eggs being laid outside of the buckets.  Now they seem much more content with the set up and no more broken eggs.  

Next Friday, the chicks that we already have presold will arrive and we will raise them until June, in time for them to be picked up by their new owners and transported to their new homes. So fingers crossed, all will go well.  A component is that with the Coronavirus (Covid-19) Pandemic, a lot of people want to try to raise some of their own food, but we all know how hard it is to raise chicks successfully.  So we will do that and make a little money on the side, in the process. Not a lot, but mostly to help people out in this middle of these crazy times who want chickens but don't want the mess and fuss of trying to raise chicks. 

Garden business here.  Most of the broccoli (11) and cauliflower (5) starts came up.  We put them into the new garden bed and have them covered to keep pests away.  The cover worked really well with starting the onions and garlic while it was still super cold and rainy outside.  Hoping it works just as well on the broccoli and cauli. The surviving tomato and pepper plants are starting to get their "real leaves" on them, so that's good.  I also picked up some clones that will at least start producing before my starts will.  So hopefully, between the mixed groups of starts, we will have an abundance of plants.  We can chop up the bell peppers and freeze them for use in stews, sauces and pizzas. Tomatoes can be pureed for sauces and paste in the freezer.  We really should have plenty of tomatoes this year for storage into the winter and spring of next year. That's the plan. 

Also, we are going to start a mini plant startup so that we can have more selection without having to wait and then go looking for the plants we want. We have ordered a grow tent that we can use to start our veggies and herbs indoors, then sell them from our driveway in the spring. We can advertise on the weekends and sell them to folks who need a few starts in the spring.  We're looking around to figure out which are the best and most popular for our area.  Thinking tomatoes, bell peppers, lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, onions, garlic, and a good variety of herbs that are our favorites to grow and use in cooking. We can see how this goes in conjunction with the eggs that we already sell. 

No photos today.  Later in the week, maybe. 

Signs Sing Spring 2020

Winter hit early last fall, just as most of the hens were moulting.  After that, we have had a mild winter, but who knows what February will bring.  We had a pretty cold Feb last year as we were getting our chicks started. 

Making some comparisons.  Last year, I put no light in the Welsummer coop. We had a lot of winter weather, snow, ice, etc. We decided not to add light to their coop wanting to see what the difference would be. One Welsummer hen laid her first post moult egg on January 28, and gradually, by the end of February, they were all laying one egg, every other day.   The Rhode Islands, in their first year, continued to each lay one egg every other day throughout all the freezing, snow, etc. 

One year later, the Welsummers' coop light was installed about December 20 on a nice day when I could crawl into the coop for a quick set up. Interestingly, one lone Welsummer laid her first egg of 2020 on January 28! Exactly the same date as last year, without any light in the coop and a much colder, darker winter. So.... that tells me that the in the coop may not really be doing anything! [Shaking my head.]  

In the Rhode Island coop, with no light installed, the one hen laid an egg almost every other day all through December and January.  January 20th, another RIR hen started to lay an egg every few days-ish, and last weekend, all three hens laid eggs on the same day. 

Looking back, it would seem that adding the light to the coops don't really make any difference to spur along the winter egg laying production. 

Now that it is February, our chick order is in.  In three weeks, we will receive eight Cornish Cross chicks and hopefully, we won't be in a big deep freeze again. In March, we have four Rhode Island Reds on order and this summer, we will sell out our Welsummers. This will keep our egg production a bit higher this year since first year hens don't moult. 

On the greenhouse front, we had just enough broccoli that survived but certainly did not flourish from the ones I had planted last August. The florets were starting to go to seed, so we cut them all off, and had one single meal of fresh broccoli. All that energy for a few small florets! With Fall being our Winter, and Winter seemingly being our Spring, it will be interesting to see what Spring is going to be like this year. 

I have our potato barrels set up and ready to go.  I pre-filled the bottoms of the barrels this year with sandy loam and sprinkled in Potash to let it perk all winter long.  As soon as the starts arrive at the feed store, we can start gardening again.

Early Winter Update 2019

The broccoli never quite matured.  There were only small florets, and the biggest of them which was a little more than a silver dollar in size, is changing to flowers and not edible. So, that's pretty much it for the fall/winter attempt to grow the broccoli this year.  The parsley is fine and I've gotten two cuttings off it so far.  The Marjoram became an aphid magnet.  I cut a sprig and washed it before setting it out to dry.  That does seem to hold potential, but I'm still waiting for it to totally dry before I try it with a larger cutting. 

One Rhode Island hen is laying an egg every other day.  The two others are still recovering from their moult which was probably a bit of a shock for them with such an early freeze this fall. But they are all re-feathered now and should be laying eggs again soon.  The Welsummers are ready to start laying eggs again but need the light.  I installed the light/timer today for them.  Set to light up at 4:30 am every day to spur them into laying again or we will be waiting until the end of February before they start again.  They truly need that light to kick them back into gear. 

Planning for the late winter early spring of chickens.  Will put in an order for four new layers (Rhode Islands) and eight meat chickens (Cornish Cross) for February/March arrival. Will probably need to raise them separately this year as the Hoop Coop is just not big enough for 12 chickens to live in.  Will need to figure out an option for the layers since we don't plan to get rid of the Welsummers until next summer. 

Fall Broccoli Bloom'n

Yes, indeed.  The broccoli that I have in the greenhouse is surviving even with the extra frosty nights.  The marjoram and parsley are too. I checked on the broccoli today to water when I discovered that the florets are starting to form (finally). Granted, I realize that we had a crazier summer and fall than we tend to have in this region. I was beginning to wonder if it would ever happen, or if my efforts would turn out to be a big dud.  The cooler nights have probably contributed to the slow development.  Nonetheless, I gently scraped some more blood meal around the stalks, added some center stakes to give more room inside the cover, watered and covered them back up tonight. 

We may have snow next weekend as we prepare for December.  So for the hens, we need to set up the water heaters.  The Welsummers are finishing up their moult, so I plan to add a morning light to their coop next month. Rhodes, one is done with her moult, but the other two just started moulting a couple weeks ago, so we are back to square one with them.  Will probably need to wait until January to start putting a light in their coop. Oh well. That's the nature of chickens. 

This morning a coyote was right up to the coop, sniffing and trying to figure it out.  So far, so good, but that's getting a bit too close. 

Cold Fall Dry Fall 2019

Well, fall hit hard and fast. First, there were a lot of cool rainy in October. Then the last week of October, it turned super cold, frosting at night and daytime highs were only in the mid 40s, but sunny and dry. So that has worked out well for the plants in the greenhouse.  The plants outside, not so well.  Today, I sacked the garden plots and covered them for the winter.  As you can see in the square garden photo below, nothing was thriving. The spinach, cilantro, carrots and peas essnetially gave up. They were surviving barely, but not really growing anything for the past week, despite the sun. It needed its own little greenhouse tunnel.

Inside the greenhouse addition, things are thriving and growing. We might get some broccoli (fingers crossed).  The red sails lettuce, marjoram and parsley are doing their thing, but we have been covering the lettuce and broccoli at night even in the greenhouse, just as an added precaution. Inside the greenhouse is getting into the 80s and 90s during the day with the all the sunshine while the outside highs, the past few days have been low 50s. 

Chickens have fully stopped laying eggs because it has just been too cold and windy. Winds out of the North and Northeast have been gusting up to about 35mph most days, but not all.  Today has been quite mild by comparison to the past two days. Mostly just a breeze with a few gusts hitting about 10mph. So I took time to get more winter prep done while it's not raining. 

One of my winter preps is to beat back the mice. Mice have been moving into the garage in droves so we have been setting out rat poison in "hidey holes" in hopes of combating that invasion early. 

Dead Square Garden Plot	Broccoli in Greenhouse
Marjoram/Parsley Greenhouse	Red Sails Greenhouse
Rhodes on a Crisp Fall Day