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

Bad Bug - Good Bug Book

I found this online today while checking for different types of Bug Eggs.  I found some unusually large eggs under some tarp and some wood that I used to hold down the tarp.  There appeared to be about 40+ eggs per pile and I did not know if they were snake eggs or what?  I learned that they are slug eggs!!!  So, I gathered up about 160 slug eggs today and disposed of them before they hatch into ravenous slugs. UGH!  Anyways, here is the link to the PDF Book of Bugs, how to attract them and how to get rid of them without harming the environment.

So, anyways, what I read was that it can be hard to find slug eggs as they tend to lay them in areas that they feel are very hidden and secure.  But today was garden clean up day.  We were getting things ready for next spring. I was picking up boards and things that I use to secure the tarps when I cover the garden beds, and the wood also helps to keep weeds from getting too close to the corn patch so that it is easier to mow around by picking up those boards and blocks of wood just before mowing. Based on what I read, as soon as they hatch, they start devouring plants, so that is at least 160 less slugs this year!

Slug Eggs by Garden	Closer shot of Slug Eggs
More Slug Eggs Different Location

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. 

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.

Nasty Little Thrips - Garlic Fire Water Spray

When I was picking lettuce for salad tonight, I noted that there were some holes on my new Romaine sprouts. Checking more closely, there were eggs hatching on the backsides of the leaves and little green and pinkish things wiggling.... Ugh, thrips and something I've never seen before.  I decided to mix up some Garlic Fire Spray. 

10 Garlic Cloves
1.5 Tbs of Hot Chili Powder
1 tbs Vegetable or Olive Oil
2 c Hot Water

Put the cloves of garlic (I don't even peel them) and powder into a blender.  I use an electric coffee grinder). Then scoop it out into a the hot water and let set for five minutes. Pour out the concoction into a fine mesh strainer or cheese cloth, or if nothing else, a coffee filter to strain into another cup or container and add the oil.  Pour half of the strained concoction into a clean spray bottle and add water to make one quart. Refrigerate the rest of the concoction until you need more. 

Spray the leaves (tops and bottoms) with the mix every few days until you notice that the new leaves are in better shape without holes and fewer bugs. You can also spray around the plants with this.  It is supposed to help with cabbage worms, leaf miners, thrips and aphids. We will see! If this works, then gradually cut back the applications to about once per week and after rains. 

I have found another version of this Bug Spray.

Onion and Garlic Fire Water Insect Repellent

1 Whole Onion (A hot one is best)

1 Whole head of Garlic (6 to 10 cloves)

1 Tbs Hot Chili Powder or Cayenne Pepper Powder

1 Qt Water

1 Tbs Liquid Dishsoap

Basically liquify the onion and garlic with a blender, a blender stick or food processor. In a sauce pan, add the garlic, onion, pepper and water to cook on low simmering for about 45 minutes or longer if you did not get the garlic and onions quite down to being liquified. This will stink up the house. Cooking this outside with a hot plate is the better option. Strain the concoction through a cheese cloth, squeezing as much of the juice out as possible. (I recommend wearing rubber gloves.)  In a quart spray bottle, pour the Fire Water concoction into the bottle, add water to bring it back to 1 quart if necessary, and add the dishsoap to create a "sticking" effect for the spray.  Spray plants a few hours after watering them but not on a hot day. Best to spray this when the day is cooling off in the evening at least once per week.  

Fried Green Tomatoes

Yes, Fried Green Tomatoes; never had it and never thought I would like it.  As of tonight, I have and I do. We had all those large green German tomatoes and doubt that they will ever get ripe so we decided to give it a try. All that remains of the 15.5 ounce tomato, which is still impressive!  A few days ago, we have a strong wind from the NE that toppled the topheavy German tomato plant.  We were able to save some of the larger tomatoes.  A couple were starting to change color so we have them in a paper bag in the garden window with hopes they will ripen.  The largest was this one, shown below.  Smallest that we saved weigh at least 11 ounces. 

Giant German Tomato

Insides of Tomato

The broccoli is toast.... I set up a new tub with fresh soil and planted some more seeds.  Will see if I can salvage any of the first crop, but I have my doubts. I covered them the other day, probably a few weeks too late, but, covered, nonetheless. I picked off about 10 of these little chew masters.  The one plant had three on it at the time I had my camera! Cabbage worms or Cabbage White Butterfly caterpillars. Neither/nor, the diatomaceous had absolutely zero impact on them.😩

Ugh velvety green caterpillars	Three Ughs on One Demolished Plant
More Demolished Broccoli	Moth/Insect/Butterfly Covers

Final Week August 2019

The chicks are a month old now, and are all getting quite large.  Poor lazy confused birds.  I threw an ear of fresh corn in the pen and they just stood there and looked at it.  We patiently waited for them to figure out that it was food, but alas, that never happened.  They laid on it, instead.  Now, when we throw an ear of corn in with the hens, one will grab it and run, trying to keep it for herself. Today, they each got their own ear, and there was no chasing necessary by the others because they truly cannot grab two ears at the same time.  :) 

1 month old Cornish cross

A lazy afternoon

As we head into our fall planting season, we are wrapping up the harvest of beans, corn, and dill. I pick a hand full of Sungold cherry tomatoes every day and this is going to be a long harvest through September. The German tomatoes are massive. Too heavy for the plant to stand on its own. Had to put the bucket into a tub and place a cinder block next to hold it up. We are getting about one ripe Purple Cherokee Tomato per week. They are not as large as the German but there are a couple that are fairly large. 

Large Gold German	Bucket in the Tub
Purple Cherokee Tomatoes	SunGold Tomatoes

The cucumber plants (at least the older ones) are starting to die back so that was a fairly short season, but we did get a bunch of cucumbers.  I am hopeful to get three more here at the end of the season that I can pickle. 

Older Cucumber Plant going Yellow

Crazy Carrot - I kept watching this one carrot in the center of the others that never seemed to mature - no orange top that popped up through the soil. But today, Noticed that the of the leaves was thick and very spinney looking, like a wild carrot would look.  So I pulled it up, and to my surprise, it WAS a wild carrot! Crazy. 

Wild Carrot in Garden The Lettuce and the Broccoli are in a battle with Slugs and Beetles.  On the Broccoli, I think the tiny holes are from flea beetles, while the large chewed away sections are from slugs.  For the past few nights, I have been sprinkling a layer of diatomaceous earth (DE) around the broccoli starts and I think it is helping.  As for the lettuce, I wrapped Copper tape around the pots. But it only works until a leaf falls over the side and the slugs reach out and pull over over the copper! Smart Slugs!  Poor damaged broccoli sprouts Baby Romaine We pulled 18 ears of corn today.  I blanched 15 of them for frozen corn packets. That will give us five meals of corn. I found another ear with conjoined baby ears. This one actually had two baby ears attached. Some seriously weird corn this year. We also picked a bunch of green beans.  I had tried to freeze some green beans earlier this month, using an unblanched recipe, and we were not too impressed.  So today, I chopped the beans in half and blanched them for three minutes before putting them into individual serving (sandwich) bags for the freezer. We will get three meals from what we picked today.  When they are totally frozen, I will put the bags into large freezer bags to avoid them getting freezer burn... if they last that long. So we are heading into our final week of August.

77 days to Ripe Corn

So the corn is ripe a little sooner than I anticipated.  The corn I planted this year was Early Sunglow which has a maturity date of 65 days.  Supposedly, the corn is ripe 16 days after the silk appears... Last year, that's exactly how it happened. But this year, the silk was forming at about day 58 and was truly ripe at day 77, 19 days later. But, this year, weird things have been happening too.  Perhaps the really hot temps early in June, then the really cool temps and humidity back and forth over the month of July to now caused the corn to be stressed?  The amount of tillers, for one. The kernel ears on the tillers for second. Plus the baby corn inside the husk, right next to a full sized ear.... it's definitely been a year for strange corn growth that I don't have any experience with. (I'm still looking on corn sites to find an explanation for conjoined ears of corn.)

So I am done fertilizing the rows and now it is just a harvest and watering from this point on. Then we knock back the stalks and if we were proactive, we could cover the garden this fall to kill any and all weeds until we are ready to plant again next year. 

Ears are ready to pick

Tassel Ears

Conjoined Ears Separated