Garden: October 2013

Fall sunset over my house.

I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted anything. Let's just say that the severe heat of summer sucked the gardening life right out of me. I did have huge success with flowers so at least the yard and garden looked good. I had success (very very little) success with veggies but overall it was pretty discouraging. I had minimal luck with canteloupe, watermelon, tomatoes, and even the zucchini didn't like this weird summer. Oh well. So I focused the last part of the summer on ammending the soil, composting and clearing out pests. I threw in bone and blood meal, fish emulsion, and even my homemade "chicken juice" hoping that the fall/winter season would be better. Well, it's now officially fall planting season and I my gardening spirit has been renewed once again. The drop in temperature and the soil nutrients has renewed my weary plants as well. Peppers of all kinds are setting fruit. So cool! Volunteer tomatoes are blooming and fruiting too. Armenian cucumbers are everywhere, zucchini, lettuce, herbs, radishes, tomatillos, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, peas, kohl rabi, beans, onions and garlic are all thriving and I should have a home grown salad in no time. Even the potato project survived the summer, barely. I ate 5 small potatoes this summer and should have more soon. Whew! I was beginning to think I was a complete failure but there seems to be hope. More to come....

Pumpkin

Jalepenos



Tomatillos Oct 23, 2013



Wyatt 1 year.

 


Armenian Cucumber



Woohoo. First canteloupe!

First Potatoes!

Chickens: First Egg!!!!!!! June 6, 2013



Nuggets laid her first egg today.

The chickens are 18-19 weeks old now and from what I've read, that's about the time they start laying. 2 days ago, my daughter and her friend were playing with the chickens and saw something that looked like a brown egg in Nugget's bum. They also noticed she was acting a bit strange and after researching we all came to the conclusion that she was indeed ready to lay an egg at any time. So the watch began. Hannah and her freind watched the birds for hours but nothing. The next day-nothing. It's getting super hot here (112 today) so I thought that may delay the egg production so I went about my business and didn't think much else about it. Last night I put a frozen block of ice in a plastic baking dish so they could peck at it and cool themselves down a bit. This morning when Wyatt and I went out to check on them, I was shocked to see a little tan egg in the water where the ice had been. There was bedding in it and poop and it was just gross, but the little egg was so cute. Soooo exciting!!!! I assume Nuggets was standing on the block of ice when she laid the egg then it melted all around it.  There was evidence that she or one of them had been in the nesting box as the golf ball I had put in there was on the ground but no egg in there.



Chicken watch party.



First egg!!!!!

This is how I found it.

So now that they have started laying, I got busy cleaning out the coop, nesting boxes and hooking up their waterer to the automatic drip system in the garden. I'll test it out this afternoon when the sprinklers go off. They go off 3 times a day so the chicks should have fresh, cool water all the time. 

View from chicken coop looking into the side garden.

I drilled a small hole in the top and poked the sprinkler head head in so it fits tight. I also drilled some drainage holes near the top in case of overflow.


Can't wait to see if we have more eggs tomorrow.

Garden: June 6, 2013

 Scorching, burning, blazing...just a few words our weatherman uses to describe our weather right now. However you say it, it's HOT!!! Consistently over 106 degrees and climbing..it's just plain hot. The garden is struggling a bit to survive, but hanging on. It's so sad to see wilting leaves but they seem to perk up when the brutal sun goes down in the evening.
What's doing well right now?  Squash/zucchini--nothing slows squash down. Tomatillos and tomatoes are also doing well (with the help of a little burlap shade cloth). Cucumbers and canteloupe are growing well with lots of female and male flowers, but yet to see a maturing fruit. Seems they aren't getting pollinated. I've tried to pollinate some by hand, but still nothing. Where are the bees when you need them? Oh well, will wait and see what happens.
I've been harvesting zucchini and an acorn squash and have made some bread and baby food.

 




He likes it!

Wyatt eating homegrown baby food makes me smile, The other thing that makes me smile every time I look out my window are the sunflowers. They don't mind this heat one bit. If I could keep the birds from eating them, it would be even better, but they certainly are beautiful. They range in size from 12 inches tall to 10 feet tall and I love love love them.

Squash, cucumbers, sunflowers, tomatoes

What's not doing so well are the green beans. They look good and after plucking 12 or so beans, I've seen nothing since. Not sure if those darn birds are eating them or if it's just too hot...not sure. Oh well.

At least the zinnias are standing tall and blooming throughout the garden and the flower pots. So pretty.

Remember my carrot projects? Mostly failures, but I was pleasantly surprised this week. I have mostly desert landscaping in the front yard, with one lonley pot full of pretty flowers. I must have dropped a carrot seed in at some point, because look what I pulled out of that flower pot.......Seriously???? I can't grow carrots to save my life and the biggest one I've ever seen was growing in the flowers. It was the tastiest carrot I've ever eaten too. Amazing. Oh well, wish I could say I meant to grow it, but that would be a lie.

Giant carrot of unknown origin hidden in my flower pot.

Chickens: 15 Weeks

    The chickens seem to be thriving in their custom coop. The weather has been very cool lately so I haven't had to worry about the extreme heat yet.  I've been using the deep litter method for coop bedding and so far it's working quite well. I don't notice any type of bad odor at all. We even have had a backyard party that was very close to the coop and most of the guests didn't realize they were there. Sweet!! I use pine shavings and DE (Diatomaceous Earth-which I've mentioned in a past post) and let it pile up. Once or twice a year I'll clean out the entire coop and use it in the compost.  Once a week I mix everything around and add a bit of pine shavings to the top along with a little alfalfa hay and chicken scratch. I take a scoop or two and throw it in the compost now and then for good measure. I get the alfalfa at the local feedstore. They keep a large barrel of it in the back and you can freely take what you can carry. The chickens love it and it's good nitrogen when it breaks down. And I love the smell. I throw in fresh herbs and garden scraps randomly and let them eat and scratch and break it down. This week I gave them a whole tomato and they ate that up along with canteloupe, strawberries, lettuce, and stale bread. A grub here and there is a cool treat too.
    Somedays I open the coop and let them scamper into the yard. I keep a watchful eye on Eleanor, our dog who loves to munch on doves. They seem to understand that she is not their friend and are happy to go into their playpen.  I move it around the yard and let them scratch, eat bugs and fertilize. When it's time to go back into their coop, I just lift it up and tell them to "go home" and they scoot right back into their coop. Good girls for sure. Fun to watch them jump for flying bugs.
    They each have their own personalities with Nuggets (black and white Barred Rock) as the leader, most inquisitive and social. She tries to peck my wedding ring every time I go near her. Red (Rhode Island Red) is next in the pecking order and is confident and laid back. Lucy (White leghorn) is a wimp. She is the smallest and seems to play dead when she gets scared. Weird.  It's like she's narcoleptic. Both Red and Nuggets start "talking" when I am near and rush to greet me and look for food.  Lucy hides. Funny birds.
    From what I read the chickens should start laying eggs soon. Some say as early as 16-18 weeks which is in a few weeks. The nesting boxes are in place and I'll let them have access to them soon. I'll switch from grower feed to layer feed soon and start giving them calcium.  At least that's what the lady at the feed store and http://www.backyardchickens.com/f/ said to do. I will certainly be super excited to see that first egg that's for sure. For now, I'll just keep doing what I'm doing and wait for 100+ weather.  I'll have to figure our how to keep the girls cool in the coop. Mister system tied to the garden's auto drip perhaps? I'll keep you posted.

We got spirit yes we do......



Backyard bug hunting.



Chicks with chicks

15 weeks old

 

Garden: Update May 8, 2013

  The garden is looking full and lush with flowers and veggies popping up everywhere. The green beans are climbing and I am seeing lots of beans forming. The snap peas are looking good, tomatoes (Solar Fire, Sun Sugar, Roma, Husky cherry, Black cherry, Ace 55 VF, Heatmaster and a couple of other surprise varieties) are green but will be ripe soon, and the cucumbers are flowering. The squash never cease to amaze me with their large beautiful leaves and yellow flowers. I look at them every day but always seem to miss something. Yesterday I found a 6 inch long fat grey zucchini underneath the big leaves. How did I miss that? Cool. This year I haven't had to pollinate the squash myself as there are lots of bees buzzing. I attribute that to the plethera of flowers that I planted throughout the garden.  There was even a bee stuck in a squash flower and couldn't get out. Other than fertilizing with Fish Emulsion, Liquid Seaweed and Epsom Salt every 2 weeks, I'm just letting the garden do it's own thing this year. I like the surprises. The sunflowers are opening and I've been cutting them and have fresh flowers in the house daily. I absolutely love that! There is cilantro and dill growing everywhere in the gardens and they smell fabulous. The cilantro I planted in Feb. has bolted with tall pretty white small flowers. I use those in my flower arrangements too. My house smells like a Mexican restaurant and I like it. 
  One thing that's not growing well right now are the peppers. They seem to be stuck in this small no-grow mode. Not sure if I planted the wrong things too close to them or what, but I'll wait and see what happens with them. That happened last year but they finally took off and produced pretty well.  I am hoping for the same results this year.
   I'm going to keep planting sunflowers every week or two.  They just seem to make things better and brighter.  


Flower arrangement: Sunflower, Cilantro and mystery flowers.





Grey Zucchini--Surprise!



Green Bean (Kentucky Pole)

 

Raised Bed: Green bean trellis, leeks, nasturtiums, sunflowers. There's also, peppers, dill, cilantro, red cabbage, chives, garlic and corn in that bed.




Solar Fire



Ace 55 VF



Roma

Carrots

Tomatillos