Lunar Eclipsing in My July Garden

Today, there was a lunar eclipse, but, since it happened at about noon our time, yah, we don't get to see it here.  Best visibility was the eastern hemisphere. Nonetheless, weather-wise, we have been sweltering in the Pac NW for several weeks now, with no rain. We are on a well system for our water, so we try really hard to conserve how we water. Grass, except where we are planning to place chickens, is rarely watered.  We only water garden soil by hand to get maximum water placement. Yes, that means every day, we go water something.  

Our little micro crops are doing fairly well. I harvested green beans (1 pound off of one plant) and a lot of basil leaves. Will pick more berries this evening after it cools down. Cucumbers are blooming. The July planting of lettuce is coming up. Some of the tomatoes are ripening. Corn is silking. Bell pepper plants are continuing to mature. Dill is starting to flower, although there are not a lot of branches on them, and I don't think I will get much that I can dry from the stalks. Carrots are fine. 

Planning to fall plant cilantro and more spinach in about two weeks. Will also fall plant more carrots and lettuce. 

All the Rhode Islands are laying one egg per day.  One of them will occasionally lay an extra large egg, but for the most part, they are cute little eggs that would be classified as small in the supermarket. The Welsummers are currently laying one ever other day.  On average we are getting five eggs per day.  We are looking at some fresh mayo recipes to use up some of these eggs. 

2nd Harvest of Basil	Blooming Cucumbers
July Lettuce in Buckets Keeps the Slugs away	"July 4th" are getting ripe
Mortgage Lifters	Sweet 100s
Tall Corn 6ft	First Silk is Circled with Red
More Silks on the Corn

The Sweet Side of a Hot July

The Blackberries are coming, the BlackBerries are coming! 

Yes, the tart sweetness of wild blackberries. Free, but at a cost to life and limb. Hands get beat up, shredded and turn a very dark color. Must wear heavy pants, thick soled shoes, and long-sleeve shirts out in the hot sun for the battle with the thorns. Must also be prepared to do battle with the yellow jackets and other insects competing for the sweetest berries. There is NO easy way to pick these black glistening jewels. Each and every berry must be earned with some blood, a lot of sweat, and sometimes, a few tears. 

We have a ten-foot tall wall of blackberries running approximately 300 yards between our property and a neighbor. One must use a walking stick to slowly traverse to the wall of berries so as not to fall in a gopher hole, or into a sticker bush along the way. 

When the berries are ripe, we can make jams, jellies and pies, or simply freeze the berries for sprinkling on top of a bowl of ice cream. They are great in smoothies, too. 

The first bowl of Ripe Berries 2018

Mostly Green Berries on those Thorny Branches

Blackberries are Worth the Battle

Too Flipp'n Hot In July

Today was way too hot for a lot of thing.  99F and way hotter than anticipated.  It burned the leaves on my tomato plants. In fact, on one of the plants, it even singed the stalk. I have taken them out of the direct sunlight and put them in the shade of the tree to protect them for the next few days.  We have already trimmed off the most damaged leaves to hopefully prevent disease. None of the fruit looks damaged. But time will tell.

The hot sun also burned a few of the corn leaves.  They don't look too bad, but too many days like this and I don't know what I will do. The tassels on the corn are popping up.

Other plants appear fine.  I shaded the bell peppers a few weeks ago because the fruit can easily blister even on days that it is not super hot.

I planted some lettuce a week ago, and it is coming up. I have it in a location that does not receive full sun. Cucumbers are doing well. I need to thin out my carrots.  Always a work in progress.

But as some plants are just starting to show progress, others are done. Garlic is being cured in the garage. I harvested the oregano yesterday when I noticed that one of the plants had bolted.  I knew I needed to act fast to save it.

One of the basil plants is ready to harvest. The rest are still pretty small but growing well.

I pulled half of my onions because they were done, albeit very small. Every year is different when it comes to gardens, that's for certain.

Below are the photos of many of the plants as of mid July.

Fresh Harvest of Oregano	This is the 2nd Cutting this Year
Young Dill	Mature Basil Ready for Harvest
First Cherry Tomato - Leaves are burnt	Corn Keep Growing
Corn Tasseling	Another Tassel
First Bush Bean	Lots of Beans on the Bush
Too Many Bell Peppers

July Garden Journal

The corn is growing quickly as you can tell in this latest photo.

July 3 - Corn Patch

We dug out the potatoes. We planted more Red Chieftan this year. The other potatoes are Cascade White and were developed for growing in the Pacific NW. They are smaller than we had hoped for. We  have not grown them before so we are not certain about flavor and texture.  They are supposed to be great for frying purposes. In the past, we have tried Fingerlings and Yukon Golds. The little fingerlings were great, but difficult to work with. The Yukon Golds were a great size, but the texture was funky. The Red, we like to quarter up and roast in a buttered pan. They are always great.  We only ended up with enough to last for a couple months. We don't have a fruit cellar, so we can't really store much over the winter. Since it does not get exceptionally cold here, cellars don't work all that great, to begin with.

Red Chieftans and White Cascades

Tomatoes are picking up, finally.  We have at least one tomato on each plant. The early yield plant, the July 4th, has had fruit on it for a couple of weeks now. The Sweet 100 Cherry tomatoes are in memory of my mom. That was her favorite. There are a half dozen fruit on that one. The Mortgage Lifter (a later yield) has one tiny tomato on it. I tried to be creative and take photos from the bottom up. HA!

July 4 - Nice size for Early Yield	Different Angle of July 4
One of the Sweet OneHundred	Sweet 100s should be getting red soon
The first of the Mortgage Lifters	Better Photo of the tiny Mortgage Lifter

Some of the basil is growing well while others seem a little on the slow side. Not certain why. The first green bean (bush) that came up is blooming. The oregano is ready to harvest, and the poor little cucumber is slowly growing even though I have added blood meal to perk it up.

Radish & Basil	Green Bean Bush is Flowering
Time to Harvest Oregano	Slow Growing Cucumber

No Sooner Said. . .

We got our first egg from the Rhode Island Reds. Pretty good size, in truth. That means that they will get larger over time and practice.

The Welsummers are NOT happy that I accidentally left a thistle in their run.  They knocked down everything around it, but, yah, I don't blame them.  I will get out there tonight and get that sticker out so that it doesn't continue to be a hazard for them.  They will, on occasion, lay an egg in the fresh grass as though it is a pile of hay in the nesting box. Sillies.

New Egg was laid next to the fake egg.  I have the circle on the fake egg so that the kids won't carry it in thinking it is a real chicken egg. The comparison photo is a bit blurry. Sorry 'bout that. 

Photos of the RIRs also include the new feeder.  That little black knob that sticks out at the bottom of the opening becomes a weight that pulls the opening closed if a rodent gets on it to get into the feed. The RIR are very curious birds.  Much more so than the Welsummers which are a bit stand-offish. 

1 year Welsummers
Please Remove This!	The Grass is Cooler than the Nesting Box
First Rhode Island Red Egg & Marked Fake Egg	Rhode Island between 2 Welsummer Eggs
Hen, Water & New Feeder	Safety Knob
Rhode Island Red in New Pen
Whatchcadoin?	Another RIR Close Up

20 Week Marks Maturity for Rhode Island Reds

While different breeds of chickens mature at different rates, the Rhode Island Reds are showing their maturity with right red combs and broader hips.  I don't have photos today and it is a cloud filled day, so the photos typically don't turn out well on overcast days. I will get some photos soon.  The pullets have been moved into the smaller coop (the one designed for three large hens) and are adapting to the new space.  They had a lot of space while in the hoop coop because, of course, that was originally designed for two turkeys. 

So the Rhodie's space is now about one-third of what they originally were maturing in. I will also take photos of the new feeder that D purchased that is designed to keep mice and rats out of the feed. His intent is to pick up another one if this one works.  The rats and mice are thick in our fields, so it is always a battle to not feed them. The feeder is designed to close down when ever a mouse/rat pulls on the lever to get into the feed. I have a mini-cam that I will also be putting out into the run to see if this thing is actually working. 

He purchased it last winter, but the Welsummers were not smart enough to figure out how to get their food out. He decided to wait for the Rhodie's to mature to the right height to see if they would figure it out.  And they did, within minutes of it being set up.  Go figure? 

This was the coop that we discovered had been leaking last winter.  We got the leak handled, but it did in the flooring. That has been replaced with painted particle board. We bleached down the walls, installed the floor and aired it all out for the new flock. We will paint the outsides of it soon, in preparation for winter.  We have new shade screens for both runs since the weather has been harsh on the one we picked up several years ago. We also need to create some new wind screen boards this summer before the fall east winds kick in. With all the rain that we get, the wood rots and gives out after a couple of years, even when it is painted/stained. 

We had a bit of a scare.  When I was carrying one of the pullets to their new digs, I stepped in a hole and my legs went out from under me. I fell forward, almost crushing the poor chicken. It all happened so quickly, I didn't have time to react to let her go and we both went down together. She is fine and I'm healing.  

Since the RIRs have hit "maturity" time, I have hay and a fake egg in the nesting box to help spur them into laying now. 

Garden is better than last year.  We have several bell peppers already, about four tomatoes on one early plant, the potatoes are ready for the dig out, the corn is about knee high, the onions are starting to grow, the first of the three bean plants is flowering, oregano, basil and dill, plus the carrots and radishes are growing quickly.  The garlic is basically ready for the dig up, although they are smaller than I had hoped, but, they survived the winter, so that's a plus.  I did notice some aphids on one plant, so that's likely to be the next battle. If we can have a relatively unhumid summer, we should have a pretty good crop of the plants in the ground. I am hesitant to mention it, for fear of jinxing anything, but I have not seen any slugs!  Usually, by this time of year, we have massive slugs moving around. On the other hand, we have tons of snakes this year, and it may be that they are eating those slugs for lunch. Hope so.  I would much rather have snakes than slugs in my garden, any day of the week.