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Post by mzgarden on May 10, 2022 9:50:53 GMT
We replaced/upgraded a gate into the girl's goat pen, I brush hogged a walking path around the perimeter of the largest pasture and then set the brush hog way up and topped the long weeds in the same pasture. Planted out some squash starts and set out some potatoes in the greenhouse to chit for planting. Gathered the daily stalks of asparagus and checked on the sugar peas.
Our quince tree is 5 years old - never a fruit because, as you describe above, flowers- frost- nothing but leaves. This year the flowers were not frosted to death - maybe, maybe some quince?
You all doing potatoes the Ruth Stout way, let me know how it goes. We did it for 2 years and it worked great and then last year the plants were big and healthy, flowered, died back and we looked for potatoes. Seems the vermin found our potatoes before we did and gnawed on them all-total loss. This year we built 3 sided pallet containers, put down hardware cloth and then compost. We will put our potatoes in there and cover with straw as they grow - adding boards to make the 4th side. Hopefully this will keep the critters from eating them for us.
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Post by woolybear on May 10, 2022 11:54:22 GMT
We replaced/upgraded a gate into the girl's goat pen, I brush hogged a walking path around the perimeter of the largest pasture and then set the brush hog way up and topped the long weeds in the same pasture. Planted out some squash starts and set out some potatoes in the greenhouse to chit for planting. Gathered the daily stalks of asparagus and checked on the sugar peas. Our quince tree is 5 years old - never a fruit because, as you describe above, flowers- frost- nothing but leaves. This year the flowers were not frosted to death - maybe, maybe some quince? You all doing potatoes the Ruth Stout way, let me know how it goes. We did it for 2 years and it worked great and then last year the plants were big and healthy, flowered, died back and we looked for potatoes. Seems the vermin found our potatoes before we did and gnawed on them all-total loss. This year we built 3 sided pallet containers, put down hardware cloth and then compost. We will put our potatoes in there and cover with straw as they grow - adding boards to make the 4th side. Hopefully this will keep the critters from eating them for us. mzgarden, this is why I am trying out the water tanks. Anything that grows under the ground will be grown in tanks. The last time I planted sweet potatoes the only thing I had to show for it was beautiful potato tops and hollowed out potatoes. I think I read somewhere that slugs are to blame for that type of damage. I'm not sure myself if its slugs or voles - my place is polluted with voles. Also bought some sluggo plus to spread around to try and control the slugs.
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Post by joebill on May 11, 2022 21:17:55 GMT
Sorry.....I didn't think anybody was looking, and those water pills the doc gave me do not provide much warning! ....Joe
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Post by woolybear on May 11, 2022 22:15:50 GMT
Sorry.....I didn't think anybody was looking, and those water pills the doc gave me do not provide much warning! ....Joe joebill, hey its fertilizer and maybe will keep the critters away. Cause goodness knows the critters just laugh at the dog
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Post by ceresone on May 12, 2022 17:16:45 GMT
JB, had to laugh at your remark, first thing i thought when i saw the topic Why? What did you hear?
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Post by DEKE on May 12, 2022 22:30:48 GMT
Like JoeBill, I like to mark my territory. So far it's working, my wife hasn't had any other husbands come on to the farm.
I tell DW that I'm saving electricity and ground water by not having the well run. Take that, all you Global Warmers. I'm saving the world!
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Post by Jolly on May 12, 2022 22:36:53 GMT
It's 93 here today with about 75% humidity. What did I do in the yard today?
Mostly, I sweated.
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Post by Ozarks Tom on May 12, 2022 22:54:44 GMT
Jolly, Piker! It hit 97 here today, in the middle of May?? Today I spent a couple hours mowing the pasture, which was absolutely no fun as parts were a foot tall. The sheep are picky eaters, once grass gets too tall they lose interest. I've got another hour's mowing left, but today's was all the fun I wanted.
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Post by Txsteader on May 13, 2022 13:09:48 GMT
It was surprisingly comfortable here yesterday. Quite cool morning, low humidity, only got warm late in the afternoon. So I took advantage of the cool air and transplanted some perennials & herbs, deadheaded the roses, did a bit of weeding, picked snap beans and watered everything. Looks like we're going into a drought, not enough rain to matter in recent weeks and none forecast for the next couple of weeks. But honestly, I'll take drought over flooding any day.
We spent a couple days mowing earlier in the week and the lack of rain should slow regrowth, at least in the meadow.
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Post by paisley2 on May 13, 2022 17:12:35 GMT
IT IS SNOWING!!!!
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Post by wildhorseluvr on May 13, 2022 17:23:22 GMT
We had snow on Sunday. Enjoy. 😉
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Post by mzgarden on May 13, 2022 21:35:34 GMT
It's in the 80's - looks like we went from spring frost to summer heat and forgot about taking gradual steps to warmth. Hardening off my veg starts was a challenge - no cloudy days, so I kept moving them around to be in the shade to avoid getting sun burned. Regardless - I got my bell peppers in the ground today, my 3 Roselle were transplanted into larger pots as was my fig. The potatoes are in. I'm trying to start more Okra seeds - this time direct seed under a board in the garden. Butternut and tromboncino starts are in the hay bales next to climbing structures. broccoli and brussel sprout starts didn't make it - 40F to 85F was too much for them I guess. Still have tomato, musk melon and picklebush starts to get in the ground and still need to plant my bush beans.
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Post by blackfeather on May 14, 2022 2:17:43 GMT
We've been busy, haven't had much chance to get on here much. We have a democrat across the street, apparently he hasn't paid rent in two years, he somehow managed to slip by with the covid "you can delay your rent" program. Anyway, he came over a couple of weeks ago angry because my chickens had been eating his bird seed that he scatters on the ground for the birds. I was going to point out chickens were birds but he seemed to be a bit nutty and I decided not to say a thing. Any way we cleaned up the lilac bushes along the street and trimmed them up and put up chicken fence there. The old fence was a larger woven wire they could fit through and it had been broken down in spots when the power company cut limbs off trees and it fell on the fence. So now we have better fence so the chickens can't find their way out. We keep the gate closed across the driveway most of the time to keep them in.
We tried a chicken run but a fox got inside and killed a dozen of them, it is better to let them run loose then the fox can only get one here or there rather than a dozen all at once. We haven't lost any recently since we have the windows open and can hear them, as soon as they see a fox the start calling out the danger and I can run out and check on them. We saw a fox in the field this morning and they had him spotted and I ran out and scared him away.
Today I mowed the lawn for the first time, only half needed it. I have a pile of wood that a tree remover dumped for me last winter that I'm going to have to start working on.
Wednesday the 25th I see the town board on the taxes. going from 97,000 assessed value to 206,000 assessed value seems a bit much in one year.
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Post by Ozarks Tom on May 14, 2022 2:21:34 GMT
When we went out to transplant the peppers and tomatoes the other day we notice some odd looking plants in the pots we'd had bush beans in last year. We thought maybe they were an odd bean plant as the bush beans had been hybrids. The we realized we'd hauled in a bunch of compost from our pile at the edge of the bluff, and only God knows what weeds were likely seeded in the compost. Rather than take a chance, I pulled the plants and threw them over the fence to the sheep's delight.
Many years ago we fertilized the garden with alpaca poop from a neighbor. That was before we had sheep and rabbits. For the next several years we were pulling the darndest looking weeds we'd ever seen. I don't know what alpacas eat that the seeds don't digest, but it was sure some strange looking stuff.
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Post by Txsteader on May 14, 2022 12:53:46 GMT
I'm having the worst luck with seed germination this year. I've had to replant my tomatoes twice, same with bush beans. Out of 12 eggplant seeds I had >1< seed to germinate. All fresh seeds ordered last year. In 40 years of gardening, I have never had such lousy results. If we had to depend on this stuff to survive, we'd starve to death.
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