Author Topic: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019  (Read 93681 times)

Trifle

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #500 on: May 30, 2019, 07:07:23 AM »
My gardening thoughts always seem like complaining about my various problems, but I love all of the fussing. It's like a living puzzle!

It is!  My thoughts swirl about those things too.

Buntastic

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #501 on: May 30, 2019, 07:17:05 AM »
My gardening thoughts always seem like complaining about my various problems, but I love all of the fussing. It's like a living puzzle!

It is!  My thoughts swirl about those things too.

I find farming/ecology far more mentally stimulating than anything I ever learned in school, including coursework towards the PhD I abandoned.

Roadrunner53

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #502 on: May 30, 2019, 07:20:24 AM »
Anybody know of a carpenter bee repellant? We have these menace bees swirling around our deck the last few summers and makes sitting out miserable. We have found holes drilled into the deck and have plugged them up and killed numerous bees but they keep coming and coming.  We built a new wood deck 6 years ago and did not paint it and I know they are drawn to untreated wood. However it is pressure treated. I bought a bee trap and it doesn't work at all. We have used that hornet spray that sprays something like 20 feet to spray them with some success but waste a lot of spray due to the bees erratic fly pattern. I have heard loud music repels them but I can't blast music and annoy my neighbors. Is there any kind of a phenerome that I could put in the woods to draw them away from the house? Some kind of ultrasonic noise that repels them or anything? We have had two other wood decks in the past and never were bothered by these demons! Why  now?

Tris Prior

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #503 on: May 30, 2019, 09:18:38 AM »
Well, I'm glad I didn't throw out the mint in a pot that looked totally dead. It just now, like within the last few days, started growing back. It's nearly June, I've never had it stay dead for so long!

Jon_Snow

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #504 on: May 30, 2019, 09:57:15 AM »
Jon_Snow, Jon_Snow, how does your garden grow?

Very well, thanks. :)









I built a potato "cage" with some landscaping fabric so that I could mound up around them aggressively without having to worry about soil spilling out the raised beds. I believe it likely I will have a record tater haul this year. :)

The ring of various berries (and Wild Rose) around my garden is already a frenzy of pollinating activity. Lots of hummingbirds battling over dominion of the black berry patch as well. They can really be little a-holes to one another.


So great to see everyones garden dreams coming to fruition.


Lastly.... @Trifele and @Frugal Lizard, your stories of your family connections with gardening were wonderful to read.


Serendip

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #505 on: May 30, 2019, 12:53:43 PM »
Oh your potato cage looks amazing @Jon_Snow

We just have a few spud plants in our planter box and they have been super slow to emerge but just today I saw a few leaves starting to push themselves up (I was about to dig down on one to suss out the situation!)

Our little community garden plot is starting to look really good. We are in a mountain zone so have a very short season but this spring has been a nice mix of sun & rain.

Radishes, mesclun greens, kale and peas are thriving
Harukei turnips, carrots, beets and potatoes are just emerging
Shiso basil, ancho chili, lemonbalm and sage are doing really well in containers...so satisfying!!

Indio

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #506 on: May 30, 2019, 09:34:20 PM »
@Jon_Snow Garden is looking good, especially the spinach. What is the red plastic form? Is that the potato tower? It looks as if the potatoes are in the black square bin in the foreground, but I can only see the leaf tips.

@Roadrunner53  the only way I know to stop carpenter bees, without killing them, is to plug their holes. I had a few determined bees that moved into the raised bed supports. Everyday for two weeks, I checked the holes and stuffed a piece of woodchip into them. They eventually gave up and moved out. As far as I know, they could be hiding someplace else on my property that I haven't discovered yet.

We've had such an amazing amount of rain this week that wild mushrooms are sprouting up all over the place. Last year, I mixed winesap mushroom spawn in with a huge pile of woodchips. The woodchips have decomposed and I was hoping that the winesaps would start sprouting with the moist humid conditions.

I read tonight that 5% tariffs are being imposed on products from Mexico. Made me think that I should use every spare flower pot to grow more food since almost 80% of the fresh supermarket veg comes from Mexico in winter. My summer canning and food dehydrator projects are going to multiply to keep the winter food bill under control.


Jon_Snow

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #507 on: May 30, 2019, 10:44:40 PM »
Oh your potato cage looks amazing @Jon_Snow

Thanks!

@Jon_Snow Garden is looking good, especially the spinach. What is the red plastic form? Is that the potato tower? It looks as if the potatoes are in the black square bin in the foreground, but I can only see the leaf tips.

The red objects are bags which fit over the tomato cages to provide the crop inside, in this case peppers, a little extra insulating warmth. Days are nice, it was 24C in my garden today, but nighttime temps are still going down to 10 to 12 Celsius. I think the bags probably bump that up a few degrees, trapping the radiant warmth of the sun warmed soil. I remove the plastic during the day to allow for pollination.

A sibling of mine came over today and took quite the haul of spinach away. This is good because this warmer weather means a mass bolting is not far off. But the spinach has been wonderful this Spring.

Yep, potatoes are in the black sided thing. They will be spilling out the top in no time. 😊

Trifle

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #508 on: May 31, 2019, 04:26:32 AM »
Love the pictures @Jon_Snow!  The potato high rise looks amazing.  Looks like you'll have a bumper harvest. 

I got home last night after almost three weeks away and wow have things progressed!  I picked a few Sun Gold tomatoes (first of the season) -- delicious.  The carrots are as big as my thumb and ready for their final thinning.  The kale is huge, and the cabbage caterpillars are causing some damage, but not too bad.  Several summer squash are ready to pick.  Tonight I'll make dinner exclusively from the garden -- I love doing that for the first time each year.   

nessness

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #509 on: May 31, 2019, 06:58:23 AM »
@Trifele @Buntastic the main coop is about 40 square feet, and we have 9 chickens total. We let them out a couple times a week, when we're home to somewhat keep an eye on them. That should be okay, right? We had nine chickens in that coop previously with no problems, but we haven't introduced any new chickens since they were all pullets.

I haven't tried putting them all in the main coop together again, but when they're all outside they do okay except at feeding time, when the bully chicken chases the new ones away.

Also, the new chickens haven't laid any eggs that I know of, I'm guessing because they're still recovering from the stress. Ugh.

Trifle

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #510 on: May 31, 2019, 08:18:31 AM »
@nessness -- FWIW, when we lived in the city we had a combined coop/run with about 50 s.f. for 4 chickens, and we let them out when the weather was good.  We still had some aggressive behavior, especially in bad weather when they were cooped up for long stretches of time.  We installed multiple branches and perches out in the run so at the least the chicken who was trying to escape could flutter up off the ground to a perch.  @Buntastic can chime in with his set up, but 40 s.f. for 9 sounds a bit snug for new hens to be integrating.  They may sort it out, but there may be plenty of harsh words and fighting until they do. 

In the coop is there anywhere for the lower ranking hens to go to get away?  Something to hide behind, or get up on top of?  That could help reduce stress and aggressive behavior.  I think you probably hit the nail on the head when you said this is the first group of new chickens you've introduced since your flock was young.  IME chickens have a very strong sense of 'family' and 'home'.  When chickens grow up together, they're all in the same family -- so 9 may happily share 40 s.f. without much trouble.  Chickens introduced later are strangers to them who suddenly appear in their home.  When that happens there's a fair amount of unpleasantness until the existing hens finally accept that the newcomers are not going away, and they sort out where the newcomers fit into the flock. 

Imagine if suddenly a strange human showed up inside your house, and didn't leave.  It'd be very stressful for everyone.   Also, the way we'd respond would depend a lot on who the intruder was (child, man, woman), how much space there is, and our personalities.  Chickens are the same -- they're individuals with different personalities, some 'spicy' and some mild.  :)

I've done many integrations over the years.  We had some high drama this spring when we tried to bring a young rooster into our flock of 12 hens.  We kept him crated within their sight for a month before we finally let him free range with them.  The hens' reactions ran the entire gamut from immediate welcoming and flirting, to aggressive hostility.  We let the drama play out for two more months.  At the end of that time 10 of the 12 hens had accepted the roo and were mating with him.  Two hens -- our alpha and her sister -- were still in rebellion, giving him the middle finger.  The rooster beat on those two whenever he could catch them, and when the conflict reached the point of serious wounds, it was a choice for us between him and them.  We culled the rooster.         

Tl;dr -- I'd try first giving the newcomers somewhere to hide, and if that isn't possible you may need to think about culling the aggressive hen if the behavior is bad enough (she's causing actual injuries, and it's not decreasing).  Unless you want to permanently set up another coop?  Good luck!   
« Last Edit: May 31, 2019, 09:23:10 AM by Trifele »

Tris Prior

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #511 on: May 31, 2019, 10:59:09 AM »
[quote author=Indio link=topic=100566.msg2385283#msg2385283 date=1559273660

I read tonight that 5% tariffs are being imposed on products from Mexico. Made me think that I should use every spare flower pot to grow more food since almost 80% of the fresh supermarket veg comes from Mexico in winter. My summer canning and food dehydrator projects are going to multiply to keep the winter food bill under control.
[/quote]

I'm planning on canning tomatoes as usual, but most of my canning is fruit and, living in an apartment, I can't grow much of that in my community garden or scrap of yard. I have raspberry bushes, and strawberries, and as mentioned earlier my blueberries aren't going to bear this year, and that's it. The Cheap Produce Market where I would buy bucketfuls of fruit for ridiculous prices (like $1 for 8 lbs of strawberries when in season) suddenly closed and there's nothing comparable in the city as far as I can tell. One source in the suburbs that would involve FOUR buses to get to, ugh. This really depresses me but I'm trying to focus on what I CAN can. Haha, see what I did there ;) I'll still get my 10 lbs of local blueberries from the CSA in July, and things will still go on sale, and hopefully I'll get a shitton of tomatoes off of my plants (I am growing fewer tomato plants this year, though - I only have.... 15, I think? Hahaha. Only. Usually I'm in the low 20s.)

The pepper that got pummeled in the storms has now pretty much shriveled up and died. It had barely any leaves left so I guess it wasn't enough to sustain it. I only paid 99 cents for it so I don't feel too bad about pulling and replacing it. But I'm always sad when something dies.

Seven tomatoes now off of my tomato basket and it is not even June yet! Probably another 3 will be ready today.

nessness

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #512 on: May 31, 2019, 09:43:01 PM »
Thanks @Trifele. Having them in two coops is working okay for now, but the small coop is cheaply built and kind of falling apart, so we need to repair and predator-proof it if we're going to keep them in there. I might make that a weekend project.

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #513 on: May 31, 2019, 10:24:36 PM »
Love the garden stories and photos. Inspiring.

I had volunteer potatoes emerge earlier this spring so did something like @Jon_Snow, but not so well thought-out. Nevertheless, nature works and those potatoes are now mounded up two feet with old leaves and mulch.

It's delightful to get something from nothing but some old wire trellis, decomposing leaves and a bit of time. The other delightful thing right now is our hammock chair; the weather has been amazing for sipping coffee and contemplating all the green.

Buntastic

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #514 on: June 01, 2019, 05:17:59 PM »
Thanks @Trifele. Having them in two coops is working okay for now, but the small coop is cheaply built and kind of falling apart, so we need to repair and predator-proof it if we're going to keep them in there. I might make that a weekend project.

Nothing really to add from me, I think space and/or lack of “hides” is definitely a big factor. I have no experience with flocks at that stocking density. My density has ranged well over 20 to now about 7-8.

ender

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #515 on: June 02, 2019, 07:35:41 AM »
ugh our tomatoes are already showing signs of blight :(

Roadrunner53

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #516 on: June 02, 2019, 07:41:09 AM »
ugh our tomatoes are already showing signs of blight :(

Have you used Tomato Tone? Is the blight from calcium deficiency or from too much rain or watering?

ender

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #517 on: June 02, 2019, 08:20:24 AM »
ugh our tomatoes are already showing signs of blight :(

Have you used Tomato Tone? Is the blight from calcium deficiency or from too much rain or watering?

Well it's pretty much rained on a continuous and regular basis since we planted them... so I'm going to guess that :)

We have not used Tomato Tone. Does that resist blight?

Roadrunner53

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #518 on: June 02, 2019, 09:29:47 AM »
ugh our tomatoes are already showing signs of blight :(

Have you used Tomato Tone? Is the blight from calcium deficiency or from too much rain or watering?

Well it's pretty much rained on a continuous and regular basis since we planted them... so I'm going to guess that :)

We have not used Tomato Tone. Does that resist blight?

I was getting black bottom tomatoes and didn't know if it was too much water or calcium deficiency. I bought Tomato Tone and used it plus, some other stuff that I don't remember that you spray on the vines for calcium deficiency. It fixed the problem almost immediately. I guess it was the calcium deficiency. The new tomatoes did not turn black on the bottoms. This was a few years back and I have to buy some TT soon too! This was a few years ago. Where are you located? I am in CT and only planted maters last week of May. My plants are small right now!

Raenia

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #519 on: June 02, 2019, 03:07:27 PM »
Today I found out that the tree in the yard of our new house is a mulberry tree!  I thought I was going to have to wait until next year to get produce from the yard, so this was a bit of luck!  The other times we saw the house, it hadn't leafed out yet and we couldn't tell what kind it was.  It'll still have to come down eventually (it's shading all the garden-able space in the yard, and we want to replace it with something smaller) but I should get at least one year of crop from it before then.  Any ideas what to do with mulberries?  Jam/preserves is my go-to, but I don't know what mulberries taste like.

Frugal Lizard

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #520 on: June 02, 2019, 03:55:57 PM »
I love mulberries - I make a syrup or thick jelly from them and use it in yogurt or soda water.  And I make jelly.  I find eating them straight is less satisfying because my tree has really thick cores.

I worked all Saturday afternoon on seed and seedling planting: black beans, yellow beans, arugula, beets, mesclun mix, parsnips, three kinds of carrots, snow peas, shelling peas, sunflowers from seed, more fennel and more Brussel sprouts.  All the onions starts are in.  Most of the zinnias, asters, calendula, nicotiana, strawflowers and cosmos seedlings are in.  All the butterfly milkweed I can fit is planted.  Bed for the herbs is ready - just waiting until later this week to pop them in. 

The temperature tonight is going down to 3C so I have everything covered and since I have meetings in the city tomorrow - I have to get it uncovered for the day tomorrow before catching the train.  Otherwise it will get baked by the time I get home at 6:15.

I have given away a number of seedlings but still have oodles of tomatoes and sweet banana peppers.  Have to get on Facebook and start the dispersal.
The garlic is looking fantastic!  The strawberries are flowering
The squirrel ate my green warty pumpkin plants - they were a gifted seed and I was dying to know what they would look like.

Harvested a huge container of salad greens and dill from the greenhouse.  Made a huge rhubarb crisp for a shindig Friday night from my rhubarb.  Finally it is getting established enough to harvest a decent quantity. 

First planting of telephone tall and avalanche peas are up, as is the mesclun mix.  One of the beach plum shrubs I planted looks dead.  You need two for fruit so that is a bummer.  And one of my pears had no flowers at all.  Again needing two for fruit.  Also going to try and find a second arctic kiwi because I think that they need two as well. 





CalBal

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #521 on: June 02, 2019, 05:21:43 PM »
@Roadrunner53 (and @ender and anyone else who might be interested), blossom end rot (ie black bottoms) is caused by calcium deficiency, but I have never heard of if being caused by too much water. Rather, it can be caused by inconsistent watering. So your soil could be deficient in calcium, to be sure, but in many places that isn't true. It might not be as bioavailable as well, depending on other properties of the soil. But it is generally caused by the watering issue, and this is because calcium is a very heavy molecule. When you stress the plant with inconsistent water (and yes, I know some people really advocate this with tomatoes (and peppers, which it can also affect)), the plant can't move the calcium to the blossom end of the fruit, thus the "rot". Where I live, calcium is almost never a limiting nutrient and it is a watering issue. They still sell the sprays and such to "prevent" it here, because a vast majority of consumers don't actually know a whole lot about gardening/farming/plant biology/ecology. It won't hurt your plants, but it doesn't address the actual cause.

(If your soil actually is calcium limited (and I would guess you wouldn't really know unless you got it tested or live in an area where it is talked about in gardening circles), adding calcium will help with this issue. You can supplement with gypsum or lime (medium-long term) or a liquid fertilizer that includes nutrients in addition to NPK. It is important to know the pH of your soil or area, however, as you don't want to use lime in an area with alkaline soils (like I have - lime should never be used here).

As for yellowing leaves, that can be caused by a number of deficiencies, and diagnosing it would depend on how exactly the leaves look/are yellowing. But getting tons of rain can just generally wash many of the nutrients straight out of the root zone of plants, causing them to look sickly. Magnesium deficiency can cause a certain kind of yellowing, as can iron deficiency. If it's just nutrient deficiency, a feeding of liquid fertilizer will quickly perk up plants. Both early blight and late blight do include symptoms of yellowing leaves, but present differently. Early blight often occurs in persistent wet weather + warm temperatures, but it starts as spots with rings, and then the leaves yellow. Late blight occurs when cool, wet weather is persistent, and plants will go down REALLY fast.

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #522 on: June 02, 2019, 05:54:13 PM »
I was not going to plant a garden this year. There were all these really good reasons for that, and it was a totally sensible decision made after a lot of careful thought. Then I saw an ad for free tomato starts, and before I knew it, had gone out and picked up two dozen baby tomato plants (nothing fancy - roma, sweet 100s, early girls). They're a little small, but already hardened off, so I am pretending that this is a very clever frugal win, instead of just a complicated way of justifying my inability to stick to a plan.

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #523 on: June 02, 2019, 11:44:02 PM »
@ender what, specifically, is happening to your tomatoes? Pictures would help. There’s a variety of possible foliar diseases that affect tomatoes, and all have different possible cures and/or lessons to learn for next year if not easily cured in time to save these plants. 

If for some reason you don’t want to post pics, see if you can get a positive ID on the exact condition via your local Ag extension, master gardeners group, or knowledgeable garden center by putting a sample in a sealed plastic bag. Every season is a learning process!

Tris Prior

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #524 on: June 03, 2019, 07:32:34 AM »
Our weather forecasts keep being wrong - saying that we're going to get heavy storms all day or overnight, so I don't water, assuming the plants are shortly going to drown as they did all last month in our constant rain. The skies turn dark, sometimes there's thunder....and then we get maybe a sprinkle, if that. Frustrating! And, I'm worried that I'm going to get rot now because of "inconsistent watering."

ender

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #525 on: June 03, 2019, 12:40:01 PM »
@ender what, specifically, is happening to your tomatoes? Pictures would help. There’s a variety of possible foliar diseases that affect tomatoes, and all have different possible cures and/or lessons to learn for next year if not easily cured in time to save these plants. 

If for some reason you don’t want to post pics, see if you can get a positive ID on the exact condition via your local Ag extension, master gardeners group, or knowledgeable garden center by putting a sample in a sealed plastic bag. Every season is a learning process!

I'll take some pictures tonight. But I'm pretty sure it's early blight (we had a lot of that last year too).

Blueberries

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #526 on: June 03, 2019, 01:29:17 PM »
I've had a pest-filled Spring in the garden.  The bunnies have almost all left.  There is one young holdout and I'm doing everything I can to scare him, but he isn't taking the hint.  I'm not violent, but s/he is testing me with all the feasting, digging, etc.  I've also caught and relocated two chipmunks so far.  I'll see if I get anything tonight.

@ender what, specifically, is happening to your tomatoes? Pictures would help. There’s a variety of possible foliar diseases that affect tomatoes, and all have different possible cures and/or lessons to learn for next year if not easily cured in time to save these plants. 

If for some reason you don’t want to post pics, see if you can get a positive ID on the exact condition via your local Ag extension, master gardeners group, or knowledgeable garden center by putting a sample in a sealed plastic bag. Every season is a learning process!

I'll take some pictures tonight. But I'm pretty sure it's early blight (we had a lot of that last year too).

If you aren't familiar with it, you might want to read about aspirin and early blight.  If you're comfortable trying, it might be worth a try. 

My plants tend to survive early blight when I trim them well, though they almost always succumb to late blight.

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #527 on: June 03, 2019, 01:45:34 PM »
@Blueberries something to consider, when you trap and relocate nuisance animals, now you’ve just made your problem someone else’s. I don’t think that’s very neighborly.

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #528 on: June 03, 2019, 05:53:56 PM »
Harvested a pint and a half of boysenberries today!

Feels like such a win. I like to think that it was because of my years of soil building but this year’s lush garden is most likely because of this winter’s unusually high rainfall.

Blueberries

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #529 on: June 03, 2019, 07:13:19 PM »
@Blueberries something to consider, when you trap and relocate nuisance animals, now you’ve just made your problem someone else’s. I don’t think that’s very neighborly.

I suppose that could be the case if they weren't relocated to a state park and a 150+ acre public park.  If the animals are seeking a home outside of the places they were relocated to, there isn't much I can reasonably do.  I refuse to kill them and chipmunks are known to be destructive.  I'm comfortable with my decision, but I appreciate your concern.

Trifle

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #530 on: June 04, 2019, 04:27:23 AM »
So our blueberries are nearly ripe and I was covering the bushes yesterday, and looked up to see a family of bluebirds watching.  Mom, dad, and two little fledglings.  Sooo cute.  Ok guys, I'll leave a couple bushes uncovered and we can share.  :)

Harvested about a gallon of sweet cherries and a bunch of carrots.  The carrots look good.  I did a better job tilling this spring than I usually do; not too many weird crooked ones.   

On a less happy note, spent about two hours yesterday working on controlling the oriental bittersweet.  Aggressive vine that will climb and smother anything.  Lots more work to do there.  I'm going to enlist my troops, aka my teenagers to help.  It's war. 

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #531 on: June 05, 2019, 08:31:31 AM »
@Roadrunner53 the only thing I've ever heard of working well for carpenter bees is staining your deck. They don't like the taste of stained wood and will move on to something else. It worked for me at the last place I lived. You could also set up some logs for them to use in a corner of your property to help entice them away from the stained deck.

Our pumpkins and winter squash are growing like mad. Fingerscrossed I'm able to keep the squash vine borers away once they start blooming. Cucumbers and zucchini are slow so far.  For our first year at this property we're pretty happy even though not everything has been that successful. My leaf lettuce is going wonderfully and the kale and chard are even looking like they might get big enough to at least taste despite the late season. I daydream that it will eventually look like Monty Don's veg patch, but I think we'd have to be full time and a lot more knowledgeable before that happens. It makes a great goal to shoot for though.

Unfortunately the flower beds are not fairing as well. I rigged a fishing line fence since it's around our back patio and we didn't want to put deer fencing there. It actually did well until we went out of town last weekend. Something got in and ate our black eyed susans and echinacea down to stubs. Our deer seem lazy enough to avoid any barrier so we're considering a miniature waist high split rail fence. We're trying to figure out a way to discourage them without blocking the view.

Roadrunner53

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #532 on: June 05, 2019, 09:03:18 AM »
coffeefueled, thanks for the input and I have heard of staining too. However, I don't think we will do that. My neighbor always has a pile of firewood out near our property and if they like that, they should be drawn to that pile. Maybe my neighbor is causing the source of the bees. We have pressure treated wood on our deck so you would think that would repel the bees.

My Hub went to get his hair cut yesterday and the subject came up about these damn carpenter bees and the haircutter said she was getting them at her house and many of her customers were complaining about them too. We seem to have some kind of invasion going on. My friend half way across the United States has them too! We have lived in this house for over 40 years and never had them before.

Tris Prior

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #533 on: June 05, 2019, 09:19:47 AM »
First strawberries harvested!

My tomato plants look bigger than they should given how shit the weather has been. Two, not counting the hanging basket one which had ripe tomatoes when I bought it, are making tomatoes already! The Sungold and the Juliet.

I made my first batch of homemade pesto from my basil and it was delicious.

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #534 on: June 06, 2019, 07:16:44 AM »
A tour of my garden: https://youtu.be/uuqZVslOp7M

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #535 on: June 06, 2019, 07:41:02 AM »
This video is a tour of my rabbitry and chickens : https://youtu.be/_CMG52r4wpo

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #536 on: June 06, 2019, 09:48:10 AM »
Nice videos @Buntastic!   Curious about your chicken run.  It looks like there's a nice amount of airflow.  And it looks like the chickens roost right in there.  Do you have to set up windbreaks in the winter? Or is that location pretty sheltered?

When we lived in Wisconsin our main winter chicken task was setting up windbreaks, and trying to maintain good ventilation at the same time.   

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #537 on: June 06, 2019, 10:39:02 AM »
Nice videos @Buntastic!   Curious about your chicken run.  It looks like there's a nice amount of airflow.  And it looks like the chickens roost right in there.  Do you have to set up windbreaks in the winter? Or is that location pretty sheltered?

When we lived in Wisconsin our main winter chicken task was setting up windbreaks, and trying to maintain good ventilation at the same time.   

This coming winter will be my first year with this roost setup. Previously I had fewer birds and there was a 4x8 foot coop inside the run. Tentative plan will be to put either clear plastic or solid tarps (but then I’d have to add more aritificial light) up along most of the long side and leave the rest open, that should be a nice balance. It is somewhat sheltered, being between the house, garage, and my two privacy fences but snow will definitely drift in to cover about half the run in the right kind of storm.

Usually here in Milwaukee I really only worry about January and February. I tore out the old coop and built the roost pretty early this year, and I think we had nights down to 15 or so with the open air roosts and no windbreak and they were fine.

Note: they have gotten frostbite on their combs (we got down to -30 this year) but it always scabs, heals, and falls off. Some of my oldest hens have combs about 1/3-1/2 their original size now.

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #538 on: June 06, 2019, 03:07:34 PM »
I need to drop a garden update soon. Things are progressing wonderfully. First planting of peas is just about ready....I've already had a handful of sugar snaps, not being able to resist. Peas off the vine are one of life's true pleasures. I've had to extend my pea trellis upward a few more feet. I thought 7 feet would be high enough, but they had already eclipsed that by 6 inches. I've had a significant mass of peas collapse under its own weight by not having my trellis tall enough before. Not happening this time. Will they reach 9 feet tall? It would not shock me.

« Last Edit: June 06, 2019, 10:37:30 PM by Jon_Snow »

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #539 on: June 07, 2019, 04:31:45 AM »
Beautiful peas @Jon_Snow !  I have big pea plans for next year.  Love them.  And I'm now in a really good climate for them.  And I have a deer fence!  Joy.

Question for @Buntastic and everyone else -- What do you do with elderberries?  Mine have taken off and I will have a bumper crop, even if I leave half of them for the birds.  I can make jelly, but I'd also like to get creative.  Has anyone made wine (is it called wine? Or is it a cyser?)  Or -- schnaps?  I don't have a still yet, but I'm thinking hard about it.  I've also heard you can infuse vodka with elderberry.  I'm not clear on that last one, whether it would be more medicinal, or if it would be tasty enough to drink just because.




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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #540 on: June 07, 2019, 05:12:12 AM »
I make tincture with it and gift it to friends and family. My mom, who’s skeptical of any alternative medicine, swears by it. I can’t use it anymore myself because I’ve got a ridiculous alcohol intolerance. I may try making some sugar free syrup this year but fake sweeteners are also not very great for my body.

I’ll probably give away or sell raw berries to any interested neighbors as I’ll have way more than I need for my own gifting.

I don’t particularly enjoy the taste of elderberries even with crap tons of sugar, so YMMV on whether other uses like pie, jelly, etc is worth it. 

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #541 on: June 07, 2019, 06:36:05 AM »
Thanks @Buntastic.  Ah!  I see from a little more googling that people seem to make tincture for medicinal purposes more often than they make liqueur.  I take that to mean that most people don't find the taste good enough to drink it recreationally?  I think elderberries taste good, but yes -- there is a distinct cough-syrupy thing going on.   I think I'll give both a whirl and see what's what.

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #542 on: June 07, 2019, 06:52:36 AM »
Personally, I think bourbon or a dark rum (either standard proof or 151) makes the best tincture base, not vodka.

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #543 on: June 07, 2019, 06:58:18 AM »
Personally, I think bourbon or a dark rum (either standard proof or 151) makes the best tincture base, not vodka.

Oooh.  That sounds good.  We have a distillery near here that makes really good rum, and a number of bourbon and whiskey places as well.  Some experiments may be needed here.  It's a tough job, but someone has to.

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #544 on: June 07, 2019, 07:11:47 AM »
My great grandmother used to make elderberry wine. (And plum wine and apple cider)  But it was always for medicinal purposes......


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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #545 on: June 07, 2019, 11:28:14 AM »
I second the idea of using bourbon with the elderberries. I make vanilla extract using good quality bourbon and it makes a huge difference in baked desserts, pancakes, coffee cakes, etc. A few years ago, I made a quart size infusion of vodka and valerian root. It tastes awful but a few drops in water about an hour before bed helps me with sleepless nights. Got the idea when I noticed an organic version of this for sale in Whole Foods and decided to make it myself.

It's so nice reading everybody's garden updates. Loved the videos of your chicken/rabbit set up and garden @Buntastic, especially that hardcore nest box you added. Having all of that rabbit manure must make your plants huge. We used to have an angora rabbit, for spinning the fur, and the manure was amazing since it didn't need to age/compost. If I planted up my front sidewalk area, my neighbors would think it was for them to pick. They are just that kind of people. Instead I have roses planted along the street in front of my house. I harvest the rose petals to dry them and put in the nest boxes along with mint, oregano, and comfrey. It smells and looks so good next to the shavings.

My garden is fully planted now. The first flowers on the peas have come out. The pink and purple colors are so pretty.  Sadly, June peach drop has begun in earnest. Squeezed in two celery plants and 3 broccoli plants I found at the garden shop, while picking up hay mulch to put on top of the soaker hoses. Have been feeding the tomatoes with fish emulsion and seeped comfrey water. Will attempt homemade worm casting foliar spray next week. I have comfrey coming up all over the place. The chickens are so happy to get their morning comfrey snacks. They race into the run every morning excitedly looking for it. Ten week old pullets are almost finished with their chick starter and will be upgraded to pellets soon.

The kiwi vine has really taken off this year. Last year it branched out a lot but I was able to tame it, not sure that will be possible this year because it's growing so rapidly. I hope this means it puts out a lot more larger fruit.

Have graduation party coming up so I've been weeding, trimming and weed wacking to keep everything under control so it isn't a massive last minute effort.

Out of curiosity, has anybody been to any of the mother earth news fairs that are offered around the country? I've been following them for a few years and have wanted to check out the PA event.




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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #546 on: June 07, 2019, 11:33:48 AM »
My sugar snap pea plant is making pea pods!

Two of my mini bell pepper plants have their first tiny tiny baby pepper on them!

Lettuce still at "OMG, how are we going to eat all this" levels. I picked a big pile of dill to dry. Tomorrow I'll pick some thyme to dry because that's nice and bushy now.

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #547 on: June 07, 2019, 02:26:38 PM »
@Indio the only thing I know from friends who have gone is that if you’re trying to see (insert big name speaker) it is worth paying more for some sort of dedicated ticket instead of waiting in line for a first come, first serve seat.

They have had one near me several times but timing has never worked out.

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #548 on: June 07, 2019, 05:54:18 PM »
Beautiful peas @Jon_Snow !  I have big pea plans for next year.  Love them.  And I'm now in a really good climate for them.  And I have a deer fence!  Joy.

Yes, go big with peas next year! From your comments I'm going to guess that you have moved from a warmer climate. Peas do love a bit of coolness to truly thrive. Between peas and brassicas, I'd be hard pressed to say which crop loves the cooling effect of the Pacific more. I took a tape measure to my peas today and they are mere inches away from 8 feet high! The seed pack says a trellis of 6 feet should be sufficient. I say they are mistaken. ;)

Question for @Buntastic and everyone else -- What do you do with elderberries?  Mine have taken off and I will have a bumper crop, even if I leave half of them for the birds.  I can make jelly, but I'd also like to get creative.  Has anyone made wine (is it called wine? Or is it a cyser?)  Or -- schnaps?  I don't have a still yet, but I'm thinking hard about it.  I've also heard you can infuse vodka with elderberry.  I'm not clear on that last one, whether it would be more medicinal, or if it would be tasty enough to drink just because.

I am following this discussion closely. I am now wondering if I can make use of my ample supply of salal berries in this way. This is a shot of a portion of my salal "wall" that forms a living barrier at the back of my garden. Each one of those little blossoms will become a dark purple berry with a flavour reminiscent of a combo of blueberries and Concord grape. 3x the nutritional value of blueberries as well. A virtually unknown Superfood.





Getting close to my last harvest of Spinach. Planted in early March, I have been enjoying it quite a bit and am sad to see it all start to bolt before I could quite use it all up. As an aside, if someone had told me 5 years ago I would possess such feelings about SPINACH I would have chortled mightily. Or outright scoffed.



Inspired by our resident master urban gardener, I'm going to post a video of my garden here soon. Just a side to side panning shot, with no commentary....sorry. :)

BONUS PIC: Lots going on here....beautiful broc on the way, calendula patch, umpteenth planting of lettuce, gorgeous Swiss chard (wish it tasted as good as it looks), and the bottom of my SNOW peas. And....a random piece of brick....because...I'm not really sure. :D



« Last Edit: June 07, 2019, 06:02:06 PM by Jon_Snow »

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Re: Planting/Growing Your Own 2019
« Reply #549 on: June 08, 2019, 04:56:44 AM »
Gorgeous pics as always @Jon_Snow!  Your chard doesn't taste good? Or you just don't like chard?

@Indio -- yes, I went for one day to the Mother Earth News Fair in Asheville a few years ago.  It was a last minute decision, so no research done beforehand on topics or speakers.  I was there with a ten year old who only wanted to visit the [hundreds of] vendors with his birthday money and hold baby goats, so I wasn't able to do as much as I hoped.  It was fun though, and I did manage to sit in on a few talks and watch a couple of interesting demonstrations.  The speakers I saw were high quality.  If you ever want to attend the Asheville event you're welcome to stay at our place.  :)

And hey!  I've been researching homemade liqueur, and I'm going to try it with some of my own fruit.  I was always thinking I'd make schnapps someday when I got a pot still, but infused liqueur looks easier for a beginner.  I'm picking black raspberries right now (huge bumper crop this year), and I'm thinking that might make a fine liqueur.       

 

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