Saturday Journal

 

It's been a busy few weeks. First we were drenched with rain which halted everything in the garden and then the ducks and chicks needed to be moved so that took up all our time. Hopefully now that the rain has stopped and the weather man has said we will have a few days in a row of sunshine, things will get done in the garden.

The one very exciting thing, we ate a handful of pea pods! They were a bit bitter, but tasted sweet to us! 

Went to our green thumbed friend to ask a few questions about pesticide and bugs and he suggested Garden Dust from Bonide he claimed it was more natural than most pesticides, we'll give it a go and see how it goes. As it was by the time I got out there the bugs had chewed through every leaf (in a day). 

I'm not sure how the cabbages/Brussels Sprouts are going to do, they don't look well. I think it was too late in the season to plant them, or maybe it's the pine shavings? 

The potatoes aren't up. Dad dug up some of the potatoes and a few are rotten, some are growing, we are going to give it another week to see what happens.

Mom and Dad planted another garden to use some of the seeds before they went bad: carrots, squash, turnips and onions so now we have to gardens to watch. 

List from two weeks ago:

• Weed tomatoes
• Hoe between the rows
• Mulch Brussels Sprouts
• Thin the beans

What actually happened:

• Watched Brussels Sprouts, cabbages, and potatoes drown.
• Thinned beans
• Roto-tilled or hoed a couple of rows
• Trimmed tomato
• Strung peas
• Ate peas
• Planted more: carrots, blue hubbard squash, butternut squash, turnip, onions
• Weeded strawberries

This weeks list:

• Keep an eye on the bugs
• Re-plant potato, cucumber
• Fertilize onions, tomatoes, peppers

How is your garden growing?

Stomper (age 1.5) munching on pea pods

Saturday Journal

I cannot believe how the garden has changed in a week. Last week I had nothing to photograph, this week not true. The beans, some of the zucchini and summer squash, and the sunflowers are all up. The peas are growing fast and the other plants are looking great.


The chickens are changing almost daily. The broilers definitely weigh more than the layers. I think I have narrowed down the mystery chick to a bantam (Fluffernutter), it is still quite tiny and if I am right she* will only be about 2lbs fully grown. The deformed chick, Twig is doing great, it will be interesting to see if she will be able to get up to nesting boxes and roost, time will tell. Piglet is our smallest, not sure why she is so little, but it doesn't appear that she's being pushed out of the way to eat so I think she is just bitty. The men are hoping to get the ducks moved into the basement of the barn, boy are they messy!


We are mulching with the pine shavings used in the chicken brood box and in the ducks. I'm not sure if it's a good idea or not. Anybody know for sure? From what I understand the shavings are high in acid which means that we will need to add more lime next spring. Everything is trial and error, like with the ducks who are on house number 3 or is it 4?


Last weeks list

• Weed the peas
• Mulch the strawberries
• Plant pumpkins, squashes, cucumbers, potatoes, watermelon, turnip

This weeks list

• Weed tomatoes
• Hoe between the rows
• Mulch Brussels Sprouts
• Thin the beans

*I am of course, assuming that most of our chicks are female. We were told they are 90% female so hopefully we'll only have a couple of roosters

Saturday Farm Journal

yes, its fuzzy

Not much happened in the garden for the last two weeks. It's been raining and then there was a threat of frost, so we put off planting until yesterday. We planted four dozen different tomato plants: roma, beefsteak, and super sweet; two dozen green peppers; six green cabbage; six red cabbage; and six Brussels sprouts. We weren't planning on planting cabbage, but the new part of the garden is wetter than expected and cabbage supposedly likes it wet, we'll see what happens. This week the plan is to plant the seeds: pumpkin, zucchini, summer squash, other squashes, cucumbers, beans, sunflowers, carrots, and beets.

 The blueberries are looking great and so are the pear trees. The blossoms have all fallen off the pear trees and now it's just a waiting game. I tell the daycare kiddos each year that the pears will be ready by the time they go to school in the fall, but I wonder where everything has been a bit early if they will be too.

In other farm news, the chickens and ducks have arrived. I will dedicate a full post to them next week.

Today