We are already something like 30” over our annual accumulation for this time of year. Swimming lessons might be a good idea at the moment.
Show me your gardening Progress
- Thread starter Ozarks Mountain Brewery
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Got the gutter and downspout put on the coop today. Next part of that is a water collection system. I can fab a first flush system, but the tank situation is a little overwhelming. I’m hoping to get some used, but washed, IBC totes, but have to be extremely careful with those. Doesn’t take much contaminant to turn into a big problem.
Most of what we’re doing now is stuff I wanted to do to the old coop. Does that mean I’m catching up?
Most of what we’re doing now is stuff I wanted to do to the old coop. Does that mean I’m catching up?
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Same type of tomatoes as @Craigerrr
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Star San to the rescue?
My God Man that is fit for a king!
wowie puts my back yard Shenanigans to shame
We put this together last weekend with some left over materials from my Brothers house.
living up to the Shenanigans name ...
washing eggs apparently washes off the naturally occurring "Bloom" that shields the egg from infection look into it. like an antimicrobial shield they rekon by washing potentially shortens the shelf life by washing the bloom off with the SH!t...
We call it Cluckingham Palace. The original one was reduced from Cluckingham Palace to Cluckingham Manor. The littles are LOVING their new home. I'm starting to think the gravel may have been a mistake, but I'm still giving it the benefit of the doubt. That was a lot of expensive gravel, and I REALLY don't have a project big enough to handle it (never mind washing it first). But, it's what the missus wanted, and happy wife, happy life. I'm allowed to disagree, as long as I know who's in charge.
I've got the ladders in for the nest boxes now, and every chicken (18 in that pen) came in to check them out. They're now chicken approved. Lighting is next and maybe some cool little things for some automation of lighting and doors. Automatic doors are stupid expensive for what they are. But, it keeps critters from eating my birds.
Yup. Sometimes the eggs are spotless and clean. Sometimes, not so much. We've got about 2 dozen on the counter now, some of which have been there well over a week. Kinda odd to see that many here at one time. Deb usually sells them faster than the (6 at the moment) girls can lay them. I'm still a little concerned what's gonna happen when all of them are at laying age. That's a lotta eggs.
can I recommend Omelet check out that in search they have automatic doors.
I use their 20 meter pen for free ranging the chooks as you woulda seen in videos...
I ordered chinook and cashmere hops rhizomes from a small local farm. Planted them a couple weeks ago and the chinook is already a foot high... lol.
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I got the rest of the plants in and everything is staked...now if we could just set some sunshine...hey @Craigerrr ....when are the wildfires going to be under control? Tomorrow's forecast is "Haze"...
Btw...anybody got a clue what sort of bug or worm or what makes these sort of tracks?
Btw...anybody got a clue what sort of bug or worm or what makes these sort of tracks?
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I don't know man, it is tinder dry in Western Canada, doesn't take much to start one right now.
It's so, so dry. But there is some rain forecasted for at least parts of Western Canada over the next few days. You can thank me for that everyone - we dared to plan a fishing trip lol
Current state of the gardens. Upper garden is tomatoes on the hugelbett, zucchini, eggplant, jalapenos, peas, stringbeans and swiss chard. Lower bed is more zucchini, cukes, more peas and stringbeans, with carrots, lettuce, parsley, basil and more chard under cover, plus the fig tree.
Trying corrugated cardboard for weed suppression instead if woven plastic in most areas.
Trying corrugated cardboard for weed suppression instead if woven plastic in most areas.
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Dump your grass clippings on the cardboard....your earthworms will love it!
Great idea!
If it didn't attract birds (which may or may not bother your garden), I'd suggest the spent grain, too. It will make a little ammonia (nitrogen) as it decays. We used to use cottonseed meal on our watermelon and pumpkin rows in the spring when we planted. After the vines were done, that was the signal to clean out the barn hall and open up the row for the next year's watermelon and pumpkin. I remember watermelons so big I had to roll them up ramps to get them in the trailer. Same with the pumpkins. We did the cardboard thing in a big natural flower bed we put out back and it worked quite well for weed control. I also had an enormous pile of wood chips that I produced with my tractor and chipper that we used to put on top of the card board. Everything in that be did very well despite our dry summer last year. The cardboard soaks up the rain and holds it quite well, however, can cause some of it to run off quicker. I don't think that's a problem this year, though.
No pics, but just planted some late cukes and blackeye peas last Friday. Some of the cukes and peas have already sprouted. It's rained every day except one since Friday. We're staying away from leafy greens this summer because the cabbage worms ate everything we planted last year. None of it got big enough to use, and we didn't have the birds last year to feed the damaged veggies (and the worms that damaged them). We're growing the leafies in winter now and will hopefully avoid the cabbage moths. The broccoli this winter was outstanding. Got a few tomatoes coming in now, mostly the little ones the missus likes, but a few baseball sized ones too. I prefer a sliced tomato over the cherries. I love 'em but have to watch how many I eat because the acid in them gives me problems. Also put some sweet potatoes in our raised beds just to see what happens. Not sure they'll do much in those things because the soil in them is only about 8 inches deep, but they have a reservoir under the soil (separated by a plastic barrier) that keeps them watered through dry spells. We seldom have to water them. We grew some MONSTER radishes in them through the winter too. Got some scallop (patty) squash and some crooknecks growing up high too. We normally can't get squash to do anything because of bloom-end rot (high pH soil). Huge beautiful plants, but every squash rots by the time it's as big as my thumb. But they're doing well in the raised beds this year. I picked 4 of the scallops a couple weeks ago that were about the size of a saucer because the missus thought they were getting too big. The crooknecks were from a couple plants that my neighbor gave us and were a bit stunted because they were in the seed cups too long. One grew a squash bigger than the plant before it decided to start growing the vine. I tried to explain that patty squash get HUGE here and they weren't really ready to pick , but she insisted. I got the last two words in, though. "Yes dear". She's seeing more grow now, and is amazed how quick they grow and how big they get. One of the few produce items that I think grow better here than in Australia. The string beans have produced 10 meals for us and show no sign of quitting yet. This is from ONE row less than 20 feet long. I put the blackeyes next to them and hope for the same results.
We had an absolute downpour yesterday. We must have gotten at least 2 inches of rain in less than 2 hours. We're something like 30 inches past our normal accumulated rainfall for the year. There's been one frog strangler after another. It's good and bad, because I have a large chunk of my yard recovering from the devastation of having 11 rotten water oaks removed last summer. Nothing grows under a water oak anyway, so there's not much there to stop the erosion. I left a lot of the stump mulch in place and put some compost from my cleanup activites out back on it, and for the most part and despite the rain, it has stayed put and the grass is very happy with me for that. I'll be a couple years getting the huge bald spot covered unless I spend a small fortune on sod. But the heavy rain this year has made the centipede grass very happy. Time for more of the compost from the waste piles out back.
Got some organizing to do in the new storeroom in Cluckingham Palace. The missus didn't want the shelf where I did, so I let her feed the chickens the first few times after we moved the feed out there. I tried to tell her that it was going to be next to impossible to use the boxes she got for the feed with it facing that way because of other things on the floor. Yesterday, she asked me to put the shelf where I wanted it to start with. I told her it was a great idea to put it there. I know who's in charge.
