Weekly Garden Thread - July 15-21, 2023 [Too Many Zucchini Edition]

July 15, 2023 | Diana in WI/Greeneyes in Memoriam

[Qiviut]

No fishers in our area. My brother worked really hard to make the coop raccoon/possum proof. I do not believe it’s a ‘coon. It has to be something that can squeeze through the wire. Also, it’s killing the hens with very little muss/fuss - usually, there are feathers everywhere - very few feathers, so the hens are likely being killed on the roost. They roost way up in the rafters - coop is an old shed my brother re-purposed - it had a flat roof he took off & added a tin roof with rafters.

The hens were fairly friendly - I really liked this bunch. All were Americaunas with one odd hen. Evidently, as a chick, she was accidently mixed in or perhaps the hatchery was one chick short & she filled the slot. She’s more buff in color & lays brown eggs rather than blue/green. She is more of a ‘loner’ & ventures off by herself instead of staying close, like the rest of the flock. I believe she was the hen the fox had in its mouth last year, trying to carry off, but dropped when the Collie was in hot pursuit. Of all the hens to be the ‘lone survivor’, she’s probably the one who will handle it the best.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Boy, that’s a puzzle, then! This might be of some help:

https://sorrychicken.com/how-to-determine-what-killed-my-chickens

[Qiviut]

Still looking like a weasel. First chicken was half or more eaten. The 5 last night were not eaten at all. They were dragged under the nest boxes (where first hen was eaten). It did not try to get them out of the coop.

“Weasels are elusive creatures and generally only enjoy the sport of the hunt. They don’t generally even eat the chickens; instead, they kill and leave them in the coop. So, if you see a dead chicken in your coop that is fully intact but dead, these critters are the culprits.

On occasion though, you may find that all of your chickens are dead and one eaten. Weasels are crazy like this; if they are really hungry, they will feast.”

[Pollard]

Today's haul. It was tough. Almost couldn't carry them in one hand.

After I took the pic, I stood there looking at them and noticed how well the Red Deuce hybrid and Chadwick Cherry heirloom match in color.

Hit the Amish store today because someone told me they got really good peaches from there. Didn't have any this afternoon so I grabbed a cherry/grape mater mix quart and the yellow has to be Sungold because there is no heirloom equal in taste. They did have a little section of heirloom tomatoes of unnamed varieties. They were pretty fugly. Also grabbed green beans and little sweet peppers. Also scored on some very fresh dairy stuff. Raw milk from within past 24 hrs and raw butter.

I'm going to try and make the raw milk and butter our regular items as much as possible.

[cherry]

its been very hot and dry in my area....cukes are great...already have some fermenting....tons of beautiful zukes......had beets, garlic, some lettuce.....

my peppers are terrific....

its my tomatoes....almost all I grew from seed and were very proud of them until they developed blossom rot......sprayed them once and will spray them again shortly....plants look sickly to me and I've been cutting them back like crazy....most are paste tomatoes and I wanted to can a bunch this year.....

I have found success with cukes and zukes by using heirloom or disease resistant varieties.....

I have peas but my beans are just not vigorous....

[Paul R.]

Well, we really got slammed. Over 8” of rain yesterday following a pretty heavy MCS the day before that dropped 5” dia. hail somewhere the name of I didn’t catch. But at least no hail here. Then we got another heavy MCS followed by lighter rain until ~ noon, today.

We were in drought before this, and a lot of the rainwater ran off because it came down so fast, but, some plants responded like crazy. One of our Opo grew over 3 ft. yesterday! Today it added another 18” or so...

I don’t know if these rains had particularly high nitrate levels? These storms did seem to clear out a lot of haze / smoke from the Canadian wildfires, so perhaps some other “nutrient” was involved.

[Augie]

Ouch. 8” of rainfall in one day is too much.

5” hail is too much ever. Glad you didn’t get hit by that.

Gourds are crazy plants. Given the right conditions they can grow really fast. I started some birdhouse gourds in the greenhouse this spring and set them out early in May. They are loaded with fruit that’s twice the size of the gourds I grew last year.

[Paul R.]

Agreed on the gourds (not just Opo, although for us the Opo seem the most radically variable.) Some years they do wildly better and it’s not always completely clear exactly why.

As for the rain, a place called “Fancy Farm” got, I believe, over 15” in 3 days. But Mayfield with 11.28” in 24 hours is a KY statewide record for any day ever recorded. I’m pretty sure they don’t want THAT “prize”! Heck of a way to bust a drought.