However, they turn into the beautiful, night feeding Five-Spotted Hawk Moth which can sometimes grow as big as a Hummingbird:
Posted on 05/30/2020 5:51:59 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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A higher end restaurant here does that and then drizzles them with balsamic vinegar and some parmesan shavings. So good I have made it at home.
We have not seen them in years but when I did I took a coffee can and a scissors and just cut off the branch they were on. Can’t touch them either. Next add some charcoal starter fluid and toss in a match. Entertainment!
I think there are lots of us container gardeners. My whole garden is, for years now. Sugar snap peas & most greens are done cuz it got hot, but I have tiny green tomatoes, peppers & eggplant blossoms. Growing bush Romano beans in tubs this year, too, first try. My plants keep me sane. Sort of.
just catching up on the thread....so sorry for your loss.....I hope he died peacefully.....
we appreciate all that you do....
my husband bought himself a new air rifle and he has become a pretty good shot at the squirrels...he also has traps for the pocket gophers....
the squirrels are really a menance....I saw one go into one of my bluebird houses and then we found a dead bluebird....not to mention they raid my garden and eat all the birdseed, even the suet....
so that's my story....
Thanks....it is much more calm anf lower numbers tonite.....so far. Hopefully no need to push them back and they just kind of peter out.
No dill?
Any chance you know of a source for that type of garlic?
As a beginner, I’ll tell you our secret:
“Grow Romaine (Cos) lettuce!”
You cannot fail!
And with that success you’ll find more.
So plant Romaine lettuce now!
It needs practically no attention. Give your attention to tomatoes ( theyu always need it) that you need for salads.
No volunteer tomato plants this year.
Breen getting them for 3 years from a friend I gave plants to. But not this year.
Sad, I thought they were suited for this area.
And they were delicious!
Oh well, have some heirloom seeds seedling to share with my friends, will see what they do.
ALL beginners.
Romaine lettuce, it’s “no fail”.
That sounds good too. Sometimes, I do garlic and parmesan cheese.
I have forgotten where I got it. I can share some Chinese Early Red with you if shipping is not too high. I am growing one other variety but can’t remember the name.
Hi, Ellendra,
I think I need some more “fowl” advice: ;-)
After having no problems raising chicks in the past, my attempts this year to build our flock back up to about 10 hens per rooster have been disastrous. First was “missing” twice on getting Buckeyes, then there were the failures with the Black Copper Maran eggs (two destroyed by a rooster, then our broody hen left the rest, and the attempt to incubate them failed), then “mutt” eggs we had put in a little incubator also all failed to hatch. We had another hen go broody and so left her 8 eggs to try to hatch: Two were broken, one hatched and is ok so far, and the other 5 have not hatched and at this point I’d say they won’t. (One is cracked but I think the chick inside is dead - will check again shortly.)
So... I went to Rural King a few days ago and got a mix of 8 chicks, and that’s where my new need for advice comes in.
The mix was 1 Black Sex-link, 1 Asian Black, 2 ISA Brown, 1 Black Australorp, 2 White Leghorns, and 1 Rhode Island Red.
Though we’ve had no problem with buying & raising mixes in the past — never lost a chick — this time, 3 have died. One ISA Brown died the morning after the evening I brought them home, another a couple days later, and now (another couple days later) the RI Red last night. Temperature in the brooder is good: About 93 deg. F this 1st week, with cooler spots ~ 85 deg. F at the far end. Behaviors seemed fairly normal all around until I would discover a chick dead (the two Browns) or nearly so (the Red). Chicks were (and the remaining are) fairly active, feeding and drinking, and not all bunched up at one end or the other.
The two “oddities” were that @ purchase the Leghorns were only slightly larger than the other birds, with the Asian Black, the 2 Browns, and the RI Red the smallest - I’d guess 3-4 days younger based on size alone, but, the Leghorns immediately spurted in growth. I’d guess their weight more than doubled in 3-5 days. The rest grew more slowly, and the Browns hardly at all - granted they didn’t live long enough to notice much increase. :-(
We have had much larger size disparities @ startup previously, with no problems.
The other thing I noticed is that the Leghorns from the start seemed out unusually inclined to climb on top of the other chicks, often jamming the smallest, against the feeder, etc. I would not be at all surprised if the deceased simply died from smothering and / or internal injuries.
In the past we only had one White Leghorn at a time, and had no such problems - at last not that we noticed or that seemed unusual. I also don’t recall any Leghorn “outgrowing” the others so quickly.
Size? Heck, one time we had a couple tiny bantam chicks in the brooder with a mix that included a couple Red Rangers - no problem. (Granted that the bantams were really active and quick - I don’t recall seeing them scrunched by other chicks. The little Asian Black seems similar in this regard. In fact, a couple times I’ve seen her climb & stay on top of a resting Leghorn, much the way chicks with a mother hen will climb on the hen.
As it stands now, the Asian Black seems feisty & active enough to avoid getting hurt, the Black Sex Link is big enough now to hopefully be ok, and I’m a bit worried about the Black Australorp as it’s 2nd smallest and least active of all the remaining chicks, but, so far it seems ok.
My best guess, probably a lousy one, is that having two slightly larger (and now much larger) very active chicks (the Leghorns) in with the passive Browns and the Red, was a mistake, as the Leghorns unwittingly(?) just beat the crap out of the Browns and the Red.
My FIRST guess was that there was something wrong with the ISA Browns from the get go (too young, trauma in shipping, etc.), but with Red dying too, it seems there must be something else going on.
Maybe I’m just too sentimental (chicks are such sweet little creatures!) but on top of all the other crap going on (virus / income destroyed causing great stress on the family front, riots everywhere, yada-yada) I’m really discouraged at this point. Losing what should be two really top notch efficient egg layers has me particularly groused. (Pun intended.) Maybe I’ve just been spoiled by not losing any purchased chicks in the past!
Anyway, “rant off”. Thoughts on the notion that some chick mixes are a bad idea even when they are just chicks???
I’m the same - never stepped on a rake, but have done all the others. Daily, in season! :)
However, I DO hold the World Record for the times I’ve tripped over a wagon handle, or accidentally dumped whatever I was carrying in my wheel barrow, LOL!
Roasted is the best! I’m into roasting all kinds of things, now. Broccoli, Cauliflower, etc. Really brings out the sweetness in things. :)
BTW, I do want to thank those repliers to my inquiry on a prior thread about tomato starts:
So far the starts (tomatoes and peppers) are looking good. Celery - we shall see. Few of the strawberry seeds have even sprouted.
I moved the light* closer, to a few inches above the plants (now adjustable with hanging chains), and installed a second light** similarly over the 2nd shelf. I have a small fan blowing @ the plants overnight***, and the seedlings were started in 18 oz. plastic cups (holes pinched in the bottoms) rather than reused “6-packs” from the young plants sellers. That last so I don’t have to drown the plants to keep them from drying up if I’m away 2-3 days.
I would appear that light sufficient to overwinter various plants in good shape was NOT enough to sustain seedlings.
*It also appears that light #1’s spectrum is sufficient to work well. (It is a 5000K 5000 Lumen 4’ LED “shop light”, but I’d note that the light quality suggests to me a fairly wide, broad, respectably smooth spectrum. It likely lacks a bit in the reds, but, I don’t need strong “red” here.) “Close up” seems to provide enough of the right spectrum components to make the seedlings happy: Leaves are a nice dark green, stalks are not so “spindly” as before”.
**The space for #2 is a bit more limited, so, a couple days ago when I added more “cups”, I squeezed in a 36” 3200 Lumen / 4000K light for that second shelf. I’m slightly worried this light has less “Blue” in its output, but, we shall see how it goes. So far, so good. Later I can rework for a 3rd shelf and another 5000K 5000 Lumen 4’ light.
***The fan overnight instead of during the day should reduce soil water evaporation. (Long explanation - basically that room is cooler / more humid at night.)
Other than “volunteers”, I’ve not had much success trying to start from seed in the garden itself (they start and then die, for one reason or another - too fragile?), so I’ll try to get these seedlings fairly strong B4 moving them out, even tho’ frost would literally take a Krakatoa type event to happen now.
Crossing my fingers...
However, they turn into the beautiful, night feeding Five-Spotted Hawk Moth which can sometimes grow as big as a Hummingbird:
Thanks, Cherry! :)
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