How's your garden doing?

[valkyrie]

Chickens are incredibly easy & fresh eggs are worth it. If you get in the mood for some meat, WHOMP! there it is.

I just wish we could have them here. Ft Wayne city forbids any & all forms of livestock.

There are movements in pretty much every city to allow chickens to be kept in back yards.
http://www.newssentinel.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081226/LIVING/812260301
I guarantee there's a group pushing to allow chickens in Fort Wayne. If you are truly interested, check them out and join. Add your voice to theirs and you will be heard.

We live close to Austin and Austin allows chickens but the law also allows the HOA's to have more restrictive rules on ownership of chickens, even banning them.

 

[valkyrie]

I've tried birds, and animals.
Not my cup of tea.
I'll stick with plants, and trade with friends.

I have friends and family that do....
eggs, chickens pigs, goat, and cows,
so I'm not as inclined to farms those myself.

There are a lot of wild birds here though...quall, mallard ducks, wood ducks,
Canadian geese...
Large Gray cranes, and smaller white cranes...
and then just regular birds, like finches, cardinals, humming birds,
blue birds, blue jays, brown thrashers,
crows, owls, hawks, and several types of woodpecker including redheaded.
oh and condors (vultures)

Gonz is right about how easy it is to keep chickens. If you get the right breed they will forage for themselves almost all of their own nutrients with limited supplement from you. There is nothing cooler than walking out to the hen house to pick up eggs, still warm, and taking them into the house to cook with. And they taste so good!

 

[Gonz]

As long as you wash them first

 

[valkyrie]

Well, it does come out of a chicken's butt.

 

[valkyrie]

I have ripe green beans... well, yellow wax beans and royal burgundy beans.

Also turnips.

 

[catocom]

I need to be out spot re-planting some corn, but I'm down with sinus problems.

 

[Gonz]

I have ripe green beans... well, yellow wax beans and royal burgundy beans.

Also turnips.

Bite me.

This spring has been so wet that if I were to plant, I'd be S.O.L. As of today, the plot hasn't dried enough to till. It's been close a couple of time but by the weekend, it's raining. AllI want to do is tear it up so I can begin applying sand, peat & compost (I'm two blocks from a river so the soil is VERY clay)

 

[valkyrie]

Bite me.

HAHAHAHA! I'm going to eat them tomorrow with my dinner. Be jealous! HAHAHAHA!

This spring has been so wet that if I were to plant, I'd be S.O.L. As of today, the plot hasn't dried enough to till. It's been close a couple of time but by the weekend, it's raining. AllI want to do is tear it up so I can begin applying sand, peat & compost (I'm two blocks from a river so the soil is VERY clay)

There's supposedly a movement toward not tilling, but if you're trying to mix sand into soil that is full of clay I'm pretty sure that "no till" method is out. I don't know how else you'd break up the clay without tilling.

 

[valkyrie]

They were delicious and tender. I sauteed them with red onions in olive oil.

Not only are the turnips plumping up well, the yellow summer squash is fruiting. Woot!

 

[catocom]

I've got one thumb sized tomato, and another on the way so far.

I haven't gotten much done latley...I still feel like crap from my sinus condition.

 

[valkyrie]

I've got one thumb sized tomato, and another on the way so far.

I haven't gotten much done latley...I still feel like crap from my sinus condition.

Sorry you feel bad, cat.

My tomatoes all have flowers. A couple have small green toms on them. I took a break building our new chicken house, walked to the peach orchard and ate a couple of peaches right off the tree. Some of the peaches ripen early. Many are still hard.

Sweet peach juice running down my chin on a warm Spring day. Can't beat that.

 

[valkyrie]

Ate my first zucchini and yellow summer squash tonight. Tasty!

The tomato plants have either flowers or small, green tomatoes plumping up on the bush.

I pulled some big turnips but I haven't eaten any.

More Royal Burgundy and Yellow Wax beans harvested today as well.

Jalapenos all have pretty flowers on them. No fruits yet that I can see.

Cucumber vines are still very short. I think I need to fertilize them more.

 

[catocom]

same with my tomatoes, but some of my plants have just exploded with growth.
5 feet - in one month

I've been getting sevin dust around my white corn....the ground beetles are
trying to eat all the roots off.
I fear I've lost half of them to them.
The golden queen corn is doing real good though.

Onions are getting closer.
My cucumbers are growing, and liking the spot I put them in, as well as the
watermelon, but the cantaloupe seem to be struggling, and they are right between them.

Crowder peas are going good.
Okra not so good. I'll replant on those, and the ford hook beans.

 

[valkyrie]

same with my tomatoes, but some of my plants have just exploded with growth.
5 feet - in one month

I've been getting sevin dust around my white corn....the ground beetles are
trying to eat all the roots off.
I fear I've lost half of them to them.
The golden queen corn is doing real good though.

Onions are getting closer.
My cucumbers are growing, and liking the spot I put them in, as well as the
watermelon, but the cantaloupe seem to be struggling, and they are right between them.

Crowder peas are going good.
Okra not so good. I'll replant on those, and the ford hook beans.

I talked to my aunt this morning. Her okra is short also. Maybe it's just a matter of how they grow. Dunno.

What are you feeding your plants to have them grow so quick?

My cantaloupe has lots of flowers but no fruit. I haven't planted any watermelon yet. I think I'll plant it in the front off of my 2nd story balcony. I might buy a watermelon and spit the seeds off the balcony. or maybe I'll be serious about it.

 

[catocom]

I talked to my aunt this morning. Her okra is short also. Maybe it's just a matter of how they grow. Dunno.

What are you feeding your plants to have them grow so quick?

My cantaloupe has lots of flowers but no fruit. I haven't planted any watermelon yet. I think I'll plant it in the front off of my 2nd story balcony. I might buy a watermelon and spit the seeds off the balcony. or maybe I'll be serious about it.

just the standard 10-10-10
10 of um at the house here in the flower beds are the biguns.
Then there's 10 in one garden that are just starting to go good, about a foot tall.
Then in another garden 10 that I think I got a little hot on the fertilizer.
Those all have 2-3 tomatoes on um about quarter size, but the plants are only
about a foot there too, but real spindly.

 

[valkyrie]

just the standard 10-10-10
10 of um at the house here in the flower beds are the biguns.
Then there's 10 in one garden that are just starting to go good, about a foot tall.
Then in another garden 10 that I think I got a little hot on the fertilizer.
Those all have 2-3 tomatoes on um about quarter size, but the plants are only
about a foot there too, but real spindly.

I know if a plant doesn't get enough light throughout the day it will end up spindly. Are you sure it's from too much fertilizer?

 

[catocom]

yeah, I've seen it before like that.
those are in near 80% sunlight hours

They are really putting out on maders though, if they just hold up.

 

[Mirlyn]

I just wish we could have them here. Ft Wayne city forbids any & all forms of livestock.

I was surprised to learn they're considered fowl here. Same rules as keeping house pets like parakeets, etc--you only get to keep so many fowl within city limits (like 5 or something).

 

[valkyrie]

yeah, I've seen it before like that.
those are in near 80% sunlight hours

They are really putting out on maders though, if they just hold up.

My neighbor swears by liquid seaweed as a fertilizer for his garden. I have some and have been using it occasionally. I don't fertilize every week, though. Maybe I should.

Which tomato plants are these? Early Girl?

 

[valkyrie]

I was surprised to learn they're considered fowl here. Same rules as keeping house pets like parakeets, etc--you only get to keep so many fowl within city limits (like 5 or something).

Parakeets lay small eggs and not very frequently. It's not worth gathering them up for breakfast.
*/wonders if parakeets taste like chicken