April snow as got to go. We got a good blanketing overnight.
I cut up some seed potatoes for planting and now am not sure when I can get them in the ground.
How long will they keep? Or am I going to have to buy new ones later?
Or is there some way of salvaging them?
Greetings, we had snow twice this week. I hung my hummingbird feeder out anyway because they just got to Michigan.
Finally got a bit of rain. Need to get my daughter out there dropping seeds for brassicas and lettuce.
Growing my tomatoes this year in a water sourced radiant heated soil root zone system.
My piping is 12” deep on 12” centers in a 30 x 96 single layer high tunnel
They’re about a foot tall so far and starting to flower. Trying to keep the soil temp around 70* but min / max thermometer shows my ambient air temp dropping to low 40’s some nights.
Most of the research I did was from cold weather states and the goal is to grow year round with supplemental light. Not using fake light now
I’m in the California foothills about 2000 ft elevation.
Everything seems to be working well but is my first season doing this.
Any ideas, knowledge appreciated
Those who might recall my chicken travails...
Yesterday morning the broody hen left the surviving hatching eggs I’d bought. I’ve rigged up a crude incubator, but have no illusions about success. The eggs got too cold for a few to several hours, about 13 days in. (”Unlucky number”.) Am trying to continue on with the “mutt” eggs in this silly little 7 egg cheapo incubator I’d picked up on eBay (in reality it barely holds 5!), but have serious doubts there too. There are clearly formed chick embryos, but I see no movement when I candle them. And it’s been 22 days for the oldest. :-(
BAH!
I tried to reintegrate the broody hen with the rest of her group & they attacked her. Tried again overnight, checked this morning - no major fights yet. Going back out to let them out, shortly.
The hatching eggs seller is local (30 min. diversion from trip to my Mom’s) and has agreed to hatch out and sell me 12 chicks in 3 weeks. At least that leaves more time to expand the larger henhouse, so the small one can be devoted to the chicks once they are a few weeks old. And, the weather will be warmer.
I also got a contact for a guy who supposedly has Buckeye chickens, but he hasn’t returned my calls. Phooey!
Fox seen on property in daytime - yikes! May stake dog out in different part of yard.
Mighty cold (but normal) weather here in Saginaw Bay region (Zone: 5b/6a).
Moving some big bushes today and daily tending my grass seed patches I put in last weekend.
Rhubarb is springing up well with several uncurled leaves. Need to hit them with MiracleGro today and loosen soil around them.
I’ll end the day with stirring the soil in my tomato and pepper “corner” garden.
Question: Can I use a very weak broadleaf herbicide in that garden if I don’t plan on planting seedlings for another month? [I do plan on stirring it once a week from here on.]
Tomorrow I’ll buy all my equipment to create a salsa garden for the deck.
Question: What do you plant in your container-based salsa gardens?
...and Mayflowers bring Pilgrims! (Had to complete the thought!)
Well, we are hoping that the end of frosty weather is here. Planning to plant potatoes in the next few days. Have loads of cover crop to turn and work in before planting begins in earnest.
Rye, garlic, and chives are doing great. Our bunching onions are numerous and we are pulling loads of those and dehydrating them to grind for onion powder.
I got a new dehydrator which has temperature control and timer along with mesh and trays for fruit leather. Have made 3 batches of fruit leather and some hamburger jerky.
Tomato starts are beyond ready for transplanting. Still working on cleaning out the freezers-2 are done, refilled, and 1 left to go-looks like I have several packs of tomatoes left so may just make some stewed tomatoes to can.
Yesterday (Saturday) was a gorgeous day – bright sunshine and a high of 64. The only issue was the wind – I had some empty plastic pots blowing around & had to chase some (unopened) seed packets around the field more than once. When I laid the packets on the rows where I wanted to plant seeds, the wind would pick them up & off they went – I finally got smart & put something on them to hold them down.
So, all the veggie seeds are planted (major happy dance going on here – been trying to get out into the garden for quite a while). Earlier this month, the nursery where I get my veggie plants wasn’t open other than online/phone orders & they picked your plants & brought them out. I like picking my own plants. Fortunately, I got 4 tomato plants , the variety I wanted, at Lowe’s & bought seeds for a few other ‘must haves’. I also have some old seeds for radishes, spinach, lettuce, scallions & some herbs - if they come up – great …. if not, then that’s just the way it is. I am real curious to see what happens with those older seeds - I planted old kale last fall & about 1/3 of them did come up.
I was able to get the fencing up around the seed beds – don’t want the dogs gallivanting through them and digging holes (which they did about 2 weeks ago). The tomatoes are ok for now – I have 5-gallon buckets to set over them at night or if the weather is too rough for them the next week or so while they adjust to being outside. Last night, we had a light frost, so they did fine under the buckets & were looking pretty happy this morning. I bought them several weeks ago & they were getting unhappy in their little pots – definitely needed to go in the ground.
Today the wind is less, just a slight breeze. I’m planting the flower beds: tithonia, sunflowers (Teddy Bear, which I’ve never grown, plus a mix of varieties) & zinnias. I found some old, unopened packets of poppies & cornflowers, so they’ll go in the ground too. I’m really looking forward to seeing flowers bloom.
For a Christmas gift, I received a thistle sock. That went out two days ago because I saw Goldfinches working the black oil sunflower seeds. They like the thistles – I ordered a thistle feeder today, something more durable than a sock. Also, I ordered a 2nd hummingbird feeder – they are showing up now in our area. This feeder has perches - my original one does not, although I’ll probably make some perches with wire (saw how to do it on a video). The bluebird mama is still on the nest with eggs or keeping fledglings warm – not sure which & I don’t want to peep in the box at this point.
Birds, flowers, butterflies & a veggie garden … it doesn’t get much better than that! :-)
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3836941/posts
Financing Poverty, Malnutrition and Death – Part 2
It has been raining all day here and expected to continue all day. Bring on the flowers!
One 1+ acre field tilled!!! This time it only took 4 hours to do the whole thing!
Previous years, every time the tiller picked up a rock it meant at least an hour crawling in the dirt with a hammer and chisel to dislodge it. Once it was jammed in enough I had to get a masonry bit for my drill and drill the rock into smaller pieces! I think it took 2 months between the rain and the rocks to till my field last year, and there were parts I never got to.
But over the winter my dad added a reverse lever to the tiller, that I could reach from the tractor seat. Whenever it picked up a rock, I could pull that lever and the rock was spit back out. What a difference that made!!! I got more done in one day than I did last year in 2 months! The potato patch is now ready to be mulched and planted. The rest of the field has another tilling to be done in a week or so, after the seeds I uncovered get a chance to sprout.
My new seeder attachment arrived in the mail, too. I only bought the bean plate, because each plate is $40. But still, that means I can plant a much bigger bean patch this year, with a lot less work.
I scored free wood chips!
Better than woodchips. Rough ground pine and maple tree stumps. So there are some larger pieces I have to sort out, and even some rocks as big as my fist, but because they are stumps there is healthy soil mixed n with the stump chips.
2 pickup truck loads today.....will get two more mods each day Saturday and Sunday.
The guy who cleared some land has probably 150 yards of these stump chips and a small tractor which he loads the chips for me!
Sorting out the offloading....put a long pallet in the back of the truck with. Tow strap attached. I am hoping when I get home and attach the strap to a fence post....the pallet pulls mpst of the chips out as I drive away from the fence post.
