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.

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

Definitely Fall 2019

Fall hit hard and fast this year.  We have already had temps drop into the 30s with frost.  The frost killed the basil plants. You can see them pulled and waiting to be disposed.  Of the six pea plants, two remain.  The slugs attacked the cilantro then headed over to the peas.  So, new copper wire has been added around the outside of the garden bed. Fingers Crossed this works.  Also, the carrots and spinach are growing. The only other outdoor crop now is the broccoli in the tub.

Four Pea Plants survived Slugs	Spinace in a cage
Broccoli in a Caged Tub

Corn was just taking up space and holding dirt in place (so to speak) so today was clean up day for that patch.

Dead Corn

Clean Patch

The Greenhouse is done with a few things that needed to keep it warmer this winter, but for now, it is protecting my lettuce and herbs from the cold nights.

Greenhouse from East	Greenhouse from West
Romaine, Parsley & Marjoram	Red Sails Lettuce

Picked the last of the bell peppers.  The plants are dying in the cool temps and peppers needed to be picked before they start to die with the plants.

Briming Bowl of Peppers

Bottom of the Bowl of Peppers

As for chickens and moulting, the Rhode Islands started to moult about a month ago, but have continued to lay eggs and we are getting eggs from them every day. The Welsummers started to moult a week or two later, and there is only one that is still laying an egg every few days, so we are stilling getting some eggs every day, regardless. We ate our first of the summer chicks this week.  Very tasty. 

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

One Month into Fall 2018

Here we are, one month into the fall season, and the weather is polar opposite of this time last year. We have sunshine, albeit breezy, and temps in the 70s during the day. This year, my fall garden is so much better than last year.  Some things I learned is to have most of the fall veggies in pots/buckets in order to be able to move them quickly into the green house, in the event the over night temps drop into the low 30s.  Otherwise, I leave them outside over night, for any rain or dew.  One thing to watch for closely are bugs that want to lay eggs in the soil.  One way to cut down on this is to sprinkle DE (diatomacious earth) that is "food safe" around the plants onto the soil.  This will kill and/or detract most bugs. Also, watch for leaf miners that lay little white eggs on the under side of the leaves. The culprit looks like a house fly. But, the eggs, as they hatch will take all the nourishment from the leaf, causing it to look like a slug crawled over it.

So far, the bell peppers (in the green house 24-7) are still producing cute little peppers. The strawberry starts all took and are looking great, as the older berry leaves are turning red and brown. The oregano has slowed its growth, but we can still harvest any that we want.

Fall plants, carrots, spinach, garlic and cilantro are knocking it out of the park this year. Could not ask for a better bunch of plants. I have planted a second fall start (fingers crossed) of spinach and lettuce.

30 carrots in a container	Topdown carrots
Fall Cilantro	Fall Leaf Lettuce
Fall Strawberry Starts	Fall Spinach
Leftover Bell Peppers	More Bell Peppers

Three of the four Welsummers are in full moult, while one continues to persist laying an egg every other day. She seems quite proud of herself.  The Rhode Island Reds are continuing to lay three eggs per day for us, so we are plenty in the eggs this fall. Considering that there are only about 11 hours of daylight per day, and we have yet to put any wattage into their coop yet, I am in no hurry to take the electricity out there, just yet, while they continue to lay an egg per day. 

The Freedom Rangers are 10 weeks of age, and we will process them next weekend. They are good sized.  I speculate that they will each weigh about 5 - 6 pounds processed. There are three cockerels and three pullets.  The cockerels are crowing every morning and every evening... they seem most intrigued by the hens in the other coop, since the pullets are not mature enough for mating purposes. 

All six Freedom Rangers	Two Pulls and Two Rels
Pullets Leaning into the Breeze	Good Size!
Back to the feed trough

September Time, Squawk Flock & Fall Plants

The Freedom Ranger chicks are three weeks now, with most of them having their long necks established. Although the chicks are growing faster than layers seem to grow, they are not quite the equivalence of the Cornish Cross, especially in the legs and breast areas.  The pecking order happens quickly with these chicks.

Natural Lighting	Squawk Flock with Flash for Light
The Long Necks are Here	Two Roo Face Off?

The garden is winding down.  I did harvest the last of the carrots out of the garden space. I cut back the basil and cut half of the dill.  One has gone to seed, so we may save those seeds for next year. The few remaining onions were toast.  I ended up putting a lot into the compost bin. The corn is on its final stand.  The nights are getting too cool and the few remaining ears of corn are not in the best shape. The final tomatoes are getting red. The bell peppers are blooming again and we have a few small peppers developing.  We will keep them in the greenhouse for protecting and warmth at night. 

Fall plantings are kicking in. I planted another row of spinach today.  The center row is leafing already. The cilantro is looking better. The fall planting of carrots is in a deep planting bed that is movable, if we need to haul it into the green house. I have two new buckets of leaf lettuce planted.  I planted them about two weeks apart so that we are not so wasteful with it. I hate when I have to throw out plants that rotted. It is one thing if it is because of bugs, but a whole different feeling when we had too much and could not harvest it in time. Oregano is popping up with gusto. 

Carrots	Cilantro
Leaf Lettuce	Oregano
September 1 Leaves	Fall is near