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!!!!

Garden & Chicks - Early May Update 2020

Yes, still have a lot of chicks.

Lost a few small ones and nursed a couple more that seem to be doing better.  Yesterday, one of the little Rhode Island Reds cut her head, right behind her ear and others were picking on her.  They were chasing her away from food and I thought we were going to lose her. Washed her little face off and isolated her in a separate cage inside the pen, to ensure that she was able to eat, drink, and sleep.  Within a few hours, she was alert and ready to go back. The others didn't pick on her anymore and all seemed better.  Then, today, I noticed one of the Barred Rock chicks had pasty butt.  It still had food in it's crop, and was still eating, so I think I caught it early. I had to soak the chick in a pan of warm water to  get the poop off.  Holding it on a warm washcloth just wasn't doing a thing and the cloth just kept getting cold. Within a minute of putting the chick's butt into the water, the pooh released and fell off into the water. I wrapped her up into a little wash cloth and held her on my chest to keep her warm until I found the hair dryer.  Set that up about eight inches away and let it blow on her until she was all dry. Wasn't even ten minutes because she's so small. Put her back with the others, and she went right to the food and started eating. Fingers crossed on both of them.

We decided to add an extra feeder into the pen and put the other warmer into the pen.  That's been a big hit. Plus, every day is Sheet Cleaning Day with this many chicks.  I try to change the sheets every day simply because, well, there are a lot of little poopers in there all at the same time. Normally, I can wait about three days between changes. But not now!

24 hours of pooh from 16 chicks

The baby RIRs are starting to fly and jump over things. That's a good sign that we are about ready for shavings.  BUT, the baby BRs are not quite there yet.  They seem to be about three or four days behind the RIRs at this point.  When we got them, the RIRs were much smaller than the BRs.  Now the BRs are much smaller and somewhat delayed in abilities.  It's all good, but I would like to have them all in shavings at this point so I won't need to keep washing sheets.

The other BRs finally figured out their dust bath!  It was almost full and now it is almost empty.  They are mite and lice free at this point with just a few nits left. I am still keeping the heater going as that will help those nits hatch and fall into the DE.  One more week and I will clean out the entire cage to ensure we have all mites and lice out of there, and put all fresh stuff in there and we should be back on track, pest free. These BRs have gained weight and have more feathers, so they look much better.

4 or 5 wk Barred Rock Pullets

Dust Bath Emptied

In the greenhouse, we have tomatoes, bell peppers, cilantro and lettuce.  I had transplanted the plants from the nursery into gallon milk jugs because they were getting root bound in the containers. They were doing really well outside until the storms came in and started pelting them.  One of the bell peppers got the most damage, so they are back in the greenhouse for now.

Cherokee Purple Tomato Clones

Sweet Bell Pepper Clones

My starts, from seed in March, are finally looking good.  The lettuce also is doing very well.  I have three types of leaf lettuce.  The cilantro just sprouted this week. I will need to thin that out.

My Itty Bitty Starts are Growing

Potatoes are finally looking good. Strawberries are still blooming. Peas  (planted on two weeks apart three times) are all doing very well. The marjoram that I started last fall in the green house, then struggled to keep the bugs from killing it, is actually thriving. Last winter, I just took the pot outside and figured I would just start over in the spring. But it just came back on its own. Go Figure?

Cilantro Sprouts	Leaf Lettuce - unknown type
Leaf Lettuce - Red Sails	Topped Off Potatoes with Soil
Strawberries still blooming	Marjoram Revived itself
Peas Planted 2wks apart

And lastly, the clover seed that we sprinkled out last week has already sprouted. We tried to dig out all the thistles that had taken over some areas of the back yard and it looks like the clover is going to fill it all in.  So today, we scrapped out some areas that were filled with moss in the shade to see how long that will take.  Little by little.  I purchased 10 pounds of seed, so we have lots of areas to experiment and see how it does.

Crimson Clover Sprouts

Last September Week 2019

ARGH! Did I mention I hate slugs. So, they wiped out two well sized cilantro plants in the past two weeks. Totally annoyed with that.  Earlier this summer I picked up some hearty copper wire strands that won't pop apart if touched like the copper foil does. We wrapped it around the square garden bed, on the outside, twice, hoping that if they get past one, they won't get past the second one. Finger Crossed.  Also sprinkled more slug bait around the outside of the garden, but, unfortunately that vanishes quickly with rain, and we have been getting lots of rain late this summer.  Well, now it is fall, and waiting to see what October brings. 

Hoping the new cilantro seeds take root now, and it is obvious that the only thing saving the spinach plants was my cage of tulle!!!!  I see a new fifth sprout of spinach coming up, so we should have some nice plants this fall. Peas are coming up.  I think slugs did wipe out a couple of them, as well, but we still have enough if we can save them.  Blood Meal whole nitrogen around all of them.  Also, I saw a few sprigs of the carrots coming up that I planted a couple weeks ago. So I think we are on track for the fall. 

Bell Peppers are coloring now.  The one green bell pepper is actually some weird looking red peppers that look more like mini red pumpins than peppers. The yellow pepper is actually an orange pepper and the red, well that's actually red. The Marjaram and the Parsley is coming up nicely. 

We had enough thyme, after we dried it, to put half of it away into a plastic bag for next year's spices.  We have two bags of fresh dried oregano that, in time, we can break down and mash up too. The herbs did well this year.  For now, that's where we are at with the garden. 

Orange Bell Peppers	Red Bell Peppers
Weird Green but really red peppers	Five Little Spinach Plants in a Cage
Green Peas in the Fall

Mid September Full Harvest Moon

Well, here we are mid September, corn is no longer being watered.  I have planted cilantro, spinach, a short row of carrots, and a full row of peas in the square garden. I have pulled out all the carrots and the dill. Basil is still growing. I dug up half of the thyme and put it into a 5-gallon bucket for wintering over for next year. I hope it works like the oregano. 

Because of all the issues I had last year with the leaf miners on my spinach, I have created a cover tunnel with cheap tulle and some PVC bits and pieces.  I think this will work.  I may need to use some clips to keep the tulle in place, but we will see.  I can adapt as needed. So there are two spinach plants that are about two inches tall. Then I planted two more a couple weeks later that are each about an inch tall, and then I planted three more today to fill in the south end of the box. I can adjust the height of the tunnel to higher or lower, depending on how tall the plants get. 

Larger Spinach on this side	Younger Spinach on the right side
Spinach From the top

Then, I also put tulle over the broccoli plants that I replanted after the cabbage worm invasion. They seem to be doing fine. No pests, whatsoever.  So I planted another four broccolis and two cauliflowers in a different tub and hopefully, they will start growing in a week or two. And as soon as they start, I will make certain to get them covered. 

Baby Broccoli Protected

The rosemary and parsley (I think those are the herbs I planted) are peeking out of the ground. I moved the romaine into the greenhouse and that should keep the blasted slugs out.  I must say that the Garlic Fire Spray DID the trick with the thrips and aphids.  Keeping it in the greenhouse will help, as well, plus warmth will help with growth over the next month. 

Mystery Herbs - Probably Rosemary

Mystery Herbs - Probably Parsley

I forgot to snap pix of the orange and red bell peppers that are ready to pick.

Mid August 2019 Garden Update

While August has been cooler than the past few years, it is certainly not the coolest August ever. On the other hand, it is already the wettest.  Thunder clouds and lightning moved in just before the the weekend, then a downpour of rain. Lightning struck near our place on Friday night, August 10, and when the wireless router started smoking, I knew we were in trouble. Even though we use a local Internet provider (based on our region) there are no stores nearby. The two closest stores are both over a four hour drive away... one to the southwest on the coast, and the other to the east, each over 230 miles away; just to pick up a replacement would have meant an 9 hour drive round trip. So, the replacement was sent out Monday afternoon and arrived this afternoon. Thank you, UPS! Then, the tech support needed to reset the FiOS box (I don't know what they called it). While on the phone, I had to find the FiOS box, unplug it from the power, they did something to cause a "reset" and then I plugged it back in. So, let's just say that even when electronics are plugged into surge protectors, that's not always a guarantee that a huge bolt of electricity won't end up frying the electronics.

On the plant front, the cooler temps and rain over the weekend switched over to 80+ temps on Monday with lots of sunshine, which resulted in a lot of plants ripening up right quick.  The corn is on the edge of ripe. Most of the carrots are done, and I planted spinach seeds in that area of the garden. I replanted lettuce for the next round. I harvested the thyme before the rains hit. I picked six nice sized cucumbers and forgot to take a pix before they were all gone. Radishes are mostly done. Beans are still producing like crazy so we are eating fresh green beans every other night. Real sized Tomatoes are finally starting to ripen.  The Sungold cherry tomato plant is so heavy with fruit, it keeps falling over.  We cut a lot of the tops off to help it from being to top heavy.  Threw away about 25 green cherry tomatoes because, in truth, there are just way too many.

Trying to stay ahead of the garden so that we don't end up having to throw away too much.

Purple Cherokee almost ripe	Nice Sized Purple Cherokee
Blurry Purple Cherokee Tomato	Huge German Tomato
Almost the last of the radishes	Almost the last of the carrots and the start of the corn

UPDATE - August 15

The bumble bee in the dill was an nice thing to see this morning.  Also, took some updates on the cucumbers. There is one bee that seems to have adopted the task of pollinating for me on the cucumbers, so that's a nice bee to be thankful for.

Remember the corn tillers (suckers) that I left on. Well, it turns out there are a bit hermaphrodite-ish on the tassels.  Although many of the tillers have tassels now, and several have ears of corn on them, a few of the tassels on the tillers also have two or more kernels on them. None of the main stalks' tassels have kernels of corn (and silk). Just a few of the ones that are are tillers are that way.

A little more reading from corn experts, this is known as Tassel Ears and sometimes a whole ear of corn forms on the tassel which typically occur on the tillers.  They nothing more than "bird food" so to speak and if they occur on the main stalk, it is because of damage to the stalks, or field.

11 weeks after planting, we have ripe corn and we pulled three tonight for dinner. Sweet corn on the cob!

Square garden beans did much better this year, than last.  So I will need to freeze beans to keep from wasting them. Carrots also did much better this year.  Despite the crazy summer weather, the plants seem to be working through it. In about a month, mid September, I should have cilantro and spinach. My favorite fall plants.

BumbleBee in the Dill	BumbleBee different angle
Baby Cuke	Pickle sized Cuke
Salad Cuke	And All Three Sizes Together
Square Garden Growing	Green - String Beans
A handful of ripe Sungolds	Corn Mostly Ready
A few Kernels on Tassels	Tassels, kernels with silk