Posted on 05/01/2024 6:00:41 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Olives are at the top of my no thanks list. Even picking them off a piece of pizza is borderline intolerable.
Great pictures! Garden bed looks fantastic.
Epsom Salts is good stuff when used properly! ;)
I bet we are all working hard, we are in the process of getting plants in the ground. Here’s a funny. I only got two Costa Rican Pepper seeds to sprout this spring, have two nice plants going outside. But I started many more inside that did not sprout. Also same with the shishitos. I had to buy two plants from Bonnie. Not enough. I have come to the conclusion that neither of those like to be sprouted inside in peat pots. So several days ago I took a pot filled it with soil and put a ring from a container in the middle. I dumped the rest of my shishito seeds inside the ring and the rest of the Costa Rican outside the ring. It’s been outside. Today I counted 6 tiny plants coming up in the center and about 20 in the outside ring. And yes they all look like pepper plants. Two tiny leaves each. It was clean soil. I almost can’t believe it and will take a picture soon when I am sure.
Our iris garden is loaded with buds, and the bowl of beauty peonies too.
We have many more orioles coming too for grape jelly. Happy gardening!
Great news on the peppers, Mom! :) I was at Walmart amongst the ‘Bonnie’ plants and there were no Shishito for sale. :( I see that they’re selling both ‘Bonnie’ and now another brand called ‘Expert Gardener’ which is one of their bagged soil lines. The plants were small, in 4-packs, but they were MUCH less expensive. Walmart panders to the ‘cheapskate’ in all of us...as they should! ;)
“Our iris garden is loaded with buds, and the bowl of beauty peonies too.”
My ‘Festiva Maxima (white with red speckles) is ready to bloom, and the ‘Sarah Bernhardt’ (pastel pink) are right behind her. I started these from el-cheapo rhizomes from Walmart a number of years ago - they are doing really well! Beau had to ‘re-locate’ some of my ‘Cat’s Eye’ Iris when he repaired the 14-year-old bed, but I have room for her children in other parts of the garden. That was a ‘Freebie’ I got from Jung’s with an order a number of years back. She needed dividing, anyway.
“We have many more orioles coming too for grape jelly. Happy gardening!”
I have more Orioles (Orchard and Baltimore) than I’ve ever had before. My checker at the Piggly Wiggly told me that others were buying more grape jelly than normal because they have more than usual, too! Glad to hear that! I spotted an Oriole nest in our big Maple tree and saw both the male and female going in and out. I usually can’t spot the nests until the leaves are off the tree in the Fall, but I was lucky this time around. :)
We integrated the Buff Orpington chicks with the Barred Rock chicks today and so far no fighting. Yay! No goats have been trucked home as of today, but there are 16 GORGEOUS Heifers in the pasture, living their best lives before they have babies and become milking machines.
The six puppies and Taylor are doing very, VERY well. Beau examined the puppies today and said they were all, ‘fat as ticks’ so Taylor is feeding them well. Good Girl! :)
Nice report. Our local grocery usually runs out of grape jelly in the squeeze bottle this time of year. I’ve bought 7 or eight bottles already. In the store with hubby day before yesterday. Went to get a couple more bottles. He said, they’re out the shelf space was empty. Then he laughed when I pulled out two bottles I had hid last time I was in the store, way back behind the strawberry jelly. Was that wrong??? I did leave one hidden bottle behind. We’ve got two pairs of orchards and maybe 4 pairs of Baltimores. When the feeder gets low they chatter at us.
I see absolutely nothing wrong with that! :)
Just tried out the new EGO trimmer. It is very powerful, batteries charge in less than an hour, but it is HEAVY (huge battery). I knocked out the ditch, culverts & end of the banks near the driveway in just over an hour. Sun was out & so are those blasted gnats! My arms are shaking so they got a workout! Front of property looks great (my reward) & I think 90% of the vehicles that went by waved :-)
It has rained all week - got in 3 hours mowing yesterday & today, before afternoon storms, is my only other window - rain coming in tomorrow & a rainy weekend.
LB’s ‘slow back tire leak’ is getting faster. I think I am trailering it home unless I can find someone to help me tomorrow (guy who services mowers - if he can do tubes while I wait). The big problem is I need an impact wrench to get the tire off, otherwise I’d take it off & just have the tire/tube to take somewhere (farm bureau will put in tubes, I think).
Peonies are in full bloom here - most gorgeous peonies I’ve ever seen.
You need to open your own Lawn Service with all the experience you’re gaining. ;)
(I know - I’m not going back to ‘work’ either!)
Mowing is on my To-Do List for tomorrow, though we’ve had a steady stream of family and friends through here because...PUPPIES! ;)
You must have some of my orioles! I’ve only had a couple at my jelly feeder this year. Usually I have them all day long at my feeder, there are so many.
Our peonies were beautiful this year UNTIL we had rain that lasted a day and a half without letting up. The first to bloom, a pink one, has dropped the blossoms now. The yellow was second to bloom and is still hanging on, but I know the blossoms will only last another day or two. The white with pink, and the magenta will carry on for another several days to a week.
I used to love yard work back when we rented and had a small yard. A few acres, not so fun. I kept it lawn looking for several years until I got the goats. Now I clip it down to 6-8 inches a couple of times a year and just mow around the buildings and my paths between them.
Got all my peppers in the ground. Only thing left is 5 tomato plants which will have to wait until tomorrow afternoon because we had 3/4” of rain dumped on us in one hour yesterday afternoon. Will set up the second line of drip today and fertilize tomorrow. I’ve got the micro-sprinklers but I don’t want to spray the leaves with fish emulsion. Some of the Bok Choy is big enough to pick and who wants fishy smelling bok choy?
Picked up the rest of the chain link top rail to finish the main tunnel frame(minus sides and ends). Four lengths for two purlins. Gonna get those put on plus put the truss braces up today/tomorrow.
Got the bills all paid for the month. That and buying top rail broke me badly, as in break out the saved change, but it gives me the next two paychecks to spend on wiggle wire, track and plastic right in time for a three day weekend for Memorial Day.
The big dead hickory out past the tunnel area fell down the other day. Come to find out, it was hollow. Glad it fell down because I wasn’t looking forward to cutting it down and since it was hollow, that might have been dangerous. Could have suddenly split and knocked me up side the head.
I’ll still get plenty of smoking wood out of it that’s ready to use so I guess I’ll bring the smoker back there and cook while working on the tunnel starting next weekend. I’ll run a good hot fire in it this weekend to prep for use. Need to set up racks in the vertical smoke chamber too but that won’t take but an hour. That’s where a pot o beans, veggies and salmon will go. It runs about 180-200 degrees when the horizontal chamber is running 220-230.
They’ve had all grilling/smoking meats on sale and probably still will for Memorial Day. Ribs, pork butt, salmon.
Might be able to afford shade cloth too. How nice would it be to run the smoker under the shade of the tunnel on Memorial Day and not worry about a little rain? I was planning/thinking plastic in July so I’m ahead of the game.
I’ll be able to harvest baby greens and Salanova lettuce for a salad. Little wasabi radish and arugula for kick. Plenty of Bok Choy I could wrap in a foil boat with a little beer, touch of cayenne and some butter. Need to hit the Amish store for some raw butter. This will be the year to develop that smoked/bbq beans recipe that I’ve been putting off. Haven’t done a whole smoked chicken in years. Gonna have to. Little grocery store has Springer Mountain for $1.79/lb and baby back for $2.99/lb this week.
Now that I’m thinking about it, I need a three sided shed down by the tunnel to put my smoker under. The smoker is made from pretty thin metal so a breeze cools it down easily. A three sided shed aimed North will help.
I’ll be able to spend my weekends working on the tunnel and later, tending the garden in the tunnel, while tending the smoker. And with internet down there, I’ll still be able to write my long rambling posts here, bwa haa haa. Need some good PC speakers so I can have tunes and listen to podcasts. With $100 of goat fence, I could start growing in a few weeks. Might do that and put off the shade cloth and start planting on Memorial Day weekend.
The frame drudgery part is almost over. I’m starting to see light at the end of the tunnel.[/s]
I’m getting excited. After a year(years really), it’s looking like I’ll be planting a little something in/under the tunnel in a couple of weeks. I’ve got 16 Salanova seeds. Plenty of greens to go with smoked meats. Southern seasoned greens, another recipe to develop. I’m loaded up with direct sow warm weather, grow on a trellis/pole, type seeds. Beans, cucumbers, yellow summer squash, even baby watermelons.
"The edge" is exactly what goats love. Huge variety that only grows on the edge. They will eventually kill hardwood saplings that are small enough for them to bend over by jumping up on their hind legs and leaning them. They then straddle and walk to the end while munching the leaves off. Cool thing is to see the buck lean them over for the does and kids to eat. They will also take care of any stump regrowth in a few years. Multi-flora rose, brambles, poison ivy, sumac, wild berry bushes and wild fruit trees will be gone quick.
As far as everything in sight, they don't eat much typical pasture grass like fescue. That's actually desirable in many cases and many people run goats with cattle.
As far as breed, they can be dairy or meat. Meat goats eat more because they're bigger. I would stay away from any breed that originated from somewhere arid like South Africa. They have issues and so are high maintenance in temperate climates. For meat goats, Kiko is the low maintenance breed. Also, dairy breeds have been bred by crazy goat ladies to be half pet so they're going to tend to be high maintenance too due to being pampered.
Homemade Natural Fertilizer—15 Simple and Inexpensive Options
https://thegrownetwork.com/homemade-natural-fertilizer/
Wow! Just when you think you’ve seen, heard and read everything! I never knew of some of these uses for:
Aquarium water
Bananas
Blackstrap Molasses
Coffee Grounds
Cooking Water
Corn Gluten Meal
Egg Shells
Epsom Salts
Wood Ash
Gelatin
Green Tea
Hair (?!)
Horse Feed
Matches
Powdered Milk
Recipes at the link above. :)
Good Morning! :-)
I need some help with my Broccoli. I have 6 plants in a raised bed that are producing VERY Small heads.Any Ideas for bigger heads?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.