Posted on 05/01/2021 6:36:52 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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The dang deer ate the top foot of all my pea plants just as they’re ready to flower and make pods! @#@#$$!!!
I put up a seven foot deer fence around them—hope this keeps out further damage.
I think they’ll grow back but I’ll be pushed back at least 2 weeks without peas.
Odocoileus Virginianus - Dang giant rats!!!
Great choice of animation, Diana. Thanks for the smile.
“Boldly Bolting Where No Asparagus has Bolted Before!” :)
We are being inundated with deer ticks.
Anyone have any good suggestions?
We’ve been getting them from the grass around the house. I know mowing it short helps, but what can be done insecticide wise.
I don’t like using them but I am NOT going to take a Lyme disease risk.
March and April have been cold. Not much rain; but everything is green. The stalks are over two feet high. Only difference from last year is I put down a healthy coat of cow manure.
Beef a bit pricy? have to say that grass fed tastes different too.
Were these the smaller Northern Pecans or the regular sized Pecans? Already shelled?
About 40 years ago I read an article about a Pecan Tree found growning in Illinois along the banks of the Mississippi river. ( Now named Carya Illinoinensis) The article was in Rodales Organic Gardening, and they were looking for growers to trial them. ( I was living in Chicago at the time so I didn’t!)
Here is an interesting website by a Pecan breeder who discusses Northern Pecans. (Augie this might interest you too!)
(He has a PHD but his picture shows him wearing his Oshgosh overall so apparently does not hesitate to work around his Pecan Orchard/Plantation)
https://northernpecans.blogspot.com/
Discusses a number different Pecan varieties. A number from MO mentioned. Probably go for the ones that do not have scab and form a good windbreak. (Probably want on the north side of your fields in any case!)
(My Notables in his list of pecans are mostly Scab resistant, shell well, and the nuts do not blacken quickly: Greenriver, Hark, Kanza, Lakota, Oswego, Shepard, Surecrop ( early, some scab resistance; This one patented by Stark bros) Waccama (2nd earliest.) Warren 346 (Very Early, scab resistant., small nut) Origin: Native pecan tree found by Dale Warren in his native grove located in the Grand River floodplain south of Wheeling, MO.)
Anyone who wants pecans should read to see why, and why NOT, to get certain pecan varieties. (Have scab, enormous trees, Crops grow Alternate years, etc.)
I keep trying to find ways to simplify making wood-burned plant labels. I finished the batch I was making with hot-stamp tips, but they took a long time and the spacing is messed up on a lot of them. Next attempt I’ll try a metal stencil plate and see how that goes.
Yesterday I got to work on my farm for a while alone. Solitude is such a rare thing these days!!! I had enough stamina to disassemble trellis #2, and even managed to pull up all the rebar. I’m feeling it today, though!
Only one trellis left, and then I can finally till.
My order from St Lawrence came this week. 5 berry bushes and 5 apple trees. They’re heeled-in in the backyard for now. The berry bushes are going in part of my field, so those need to wait until the tilling is done and the section is marked off. I’m thinking the apple trees can go where my failed strawberry patch was. (Yes, it was that big a patch.) I also have a bag of horse chestnut seeds that I’ll plant downhill from there, and a few bushes I want to take cuttings from and livestake all over the hillside.
(Livestaking is basically a super-simplified way of growing from cuttings. No rooting powder, no fancy treatment. You just take a live twig and poke it in the ground. It doesn’t work with everything, but some of the species I have growing are on the list of good livestaking candidates, and I really want a privacy screen. The fact that some of them are food plants is a bonus.)
I’m late getting seed trays planted. Hopefully that won’t set things back too far, I still want seeds from some of them.
Cow manure is pure Nitrogen, so I’ll change my answer - they’re growing faster than they normally do and once they hit a certain height, they WILL frond out. Let those spears do their thing - they’ll put energy back into the root system for next year.
Other than mulching them well during the season and over winter, and making sure they get enough water, I will occasionally use a fertilizer that has a high Phosphorous number in the N-P-K formula. (Nitrogen-Phosphorous-Potassium)
You’ve now seen what happens when they (or any veggie plant) gets a big shot of Nitrogen. :) Jack and the Beanstalk-like growth! :)
You can also use a well-balanced 10-10-10 granular if you prefer, but just fertilize every few season. Asparagus is one veggie you can pretty much ignore except for it getting enough water. If manure is your go-to, then give them a top dressing in the Fall, versus the Spring. It will break down more over the course of the winter and not be as nitrogen-rich come spring. If it was FRESH cow manure, don’t use that, anymore. Let it sit in the compost pile for a season before using it on anything in your garden.
I picked enough asparagus this morning to roast for supper, tonight. The skinny spears I’m saving to chop up and add to scrambled eggs for breakfast, tomorrow. There is NEVER any leftover asparagus to use up around here. ;)
Here is some good info from Consumer Reports:
https://www.consumerreports.org/pest-control/tickproof-your-yard-without-spraying/
I also see the insecticide ‘permethrin’ mentioned a lot for tick control. You may want to follow the guide above and make yourself some ‘Tick Sticks’ which get permethrin to mice nests. Ticks use mice to breed more ticks.
We make sure all of our dogs and cats are treated with ‘Frontline’ from Spring through Fall, and we’re vigilant about checking each other for ticks, too.
There’s nothing I hate MORE than finding a tick in my bed! Ick! Yuck! Gross!
There are nematodes that will attack and eat ticks, along with a long list of other bugs. I just found out about them recently, so haven’t tested them yet, but I bought a package and have it ready for when I get my garden sprayer out.
This is the one I bought: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B086683PNS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
There are other brands out there. The important part is that it contains Heterohabditis bacteriophora and Steinernema feltiae.
According to the article that pointed me toward them, these nematodes kill a tick within 48 hours of infecting it. But they don’t harm plants or animals, and supposedly most beneficial bugs are safe too. And because the nematodes are living things, they’ll reproduce as long as there’s enough food to sustain them.
I’m REALLY hoping these things live up to the hype!
Bought a portable 8x4 greenhouse cover for a box garden and and put in our cucumbers and tomatoes (started from seeds with a grow-light). This gives us a three-week head start on the growing season.
Turned and cleared three other box gardens - it'll be a few more weeks before the squash and peppers go in.
Garlic is looking strong - once they get pulled we'll put in bush beans - they grow fast.
Winter is fading in the rear-view mirror.
My wife has me dig it up every fall, put it in a huge pot and lug it into the dining room.
It's almost time to take it out and replant.
Do they look like that in real time? I would be scared to see that, lol, and figure it was UFOs coming in
If you can keep poultry - guinea hens LOVE ticks. They can be a bit on the mean side, but they decimate ticks. It’s their favorite delicacy.
LOL!
I just buy a new one in the Spring.
I have heard of that stuff!
Thanks for the reminder and link.
I would prefer something like that.
And they will not run out of food here.
I have heard.
I’m not at the keeping animals stage yet.
But I hear some neighbors have them. Maybe I could borrow them......
Today is my deceased mother’s birthday, before I got the job I have now it was always may day as in flowers but now that I am a police officer for the last almost 2 decades may day is always protest day
Go to an arts and crafts store and see it they have a metal stamping kit.
Most of the arboretums and shrubbery commercial growers use them because they last indefinitely, and are easy to read even years later.
You just need a hammer and the raised lettering (like in an old newspaper linotype writer)/ perhaps estate sales/auction houses ?
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