AL - Recording baby steps: Newest Addition

[AL]

thanks... my friend that helped with the meats has some herbs she said she would share with me. I didn't even think of getting stuff from someone else, so thanks for that tip! I dont' even know what they are but I figure I can't beat the price

I have sketched out the plan for my garden. I was thinking of putting my cucumbers on vertical growth so I can plant more . So, for instance, let's say I use a tall step ladder - do I plant all around it? or just on each corner? I guess basically I am wondering how many plants I can put on each "trellis" ? (and I will be using Clampett trellises )
I plant way too many peas to put them on a trellis (had 8, 60' rows last year), but I figure even just moving my cukes will give me a little bit more room. I was also thinking of turning my meatie run into maybe a sunflower / wildflower patch, since the chickens free range now where I planted the flowers before.
My potato cages may go in my backyard where the chickens are... they should be ok since the cage will be chicken wire, right?

I am going to work up my nerve and try tomatoes again. I have been given 2 different tips for them: Tablespoon of lime and 1 of epsom salts in each hole... the 2nd was a handful of crushed oyster shell in the hole. Any opinions? (that's a loaded question, huh? haha)


My old neighbor has put little garden patches (maybe 5x12 or so) in my garden lot the last few years because I wasn't using it, so I will leave him some room to do that again this year. He does about 8-10 small patches like that all over his pasture and my garden lot...and harvests tons! I have asked him to help me know when to plant what, and to give me advice as often as possible!

The plan:
- tomatoes (sigh )
- potatoes
- at least 2 different kinds of peas
- mustard greens
- radishes
- hot peppers
- bell peppers
- sugar pumpkins or snack jacks
- yellow crooked neck squash
- zuchinni
- cucumbers

and herbs in the big flat mixing trays from TSC.



Today I carried a couple of sheets of tin over to the Old neighbor, tended the chickens, the horses, fresh straw in the chicken house.
I am itching to get some combo cattle panels to put out on the garden so I can turn the chickens out, but I don't get paid until next week so I suppose I should wait.

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

great work on the plan! whooot!

wow - can you start radishes now?? i am sooooo hungry for them but its way too cold.

i see a lot of CL ads from folks who are happy to give away plants or starts - or is there a garden club there?

yay you!

its so stinkin' cold today i just turned around and came back inside. grump grump grump.....

 

[AL]

nah, I can't really put anything in the ground until about mid-march, except maybe the potatoes. But this is only my 2nd garden so I am really chomping at the bit, and I had to sketch it out because I had just planned to plant everything just where it was last year, now I know that is a bad idea

 

[dragonlaurel]

I used bamboo poles and twine and made teepees tor the beans, squash and cukes to run around on last year. Worked great. Running the twine in a spiral and training the vines on it too gave lots more room to run on. The area underneath was shaded some and a little cooler and helped cool season veggies survive further into the summer. They still had lots of light till the vines got big.

 

[AL]

I will keep that in mind. Curious about the squash, and maybe this is a dumb question, but I see a lot of folks talking about trellising their squash but mine is just a bush, it doesn't grow up anything? Is it just a different kind?

Nothing exciting here. Funny stuff with Buddy though:
It rained all day yesterday so everything was soaking wet. Last night when I got home from work I walked the dogs as usual and Buddy followed us , as usual. But when I went inside I heard him walking up the wheelchair ramp "clomp clomp clomp". I opened the front door and there he stood on my porch. I laughed and shooed him away. He started walking down the wheelchair ramp and his feet would slide... step, slide, step, slide. I went to start getting ready for bed and heard him go up the ramp again - then step, slide, step slide. I guess it was fun to him because I counted SEVEN times that he went up the ramp and then slid down!!!!
Someone is going to have a heck of a horse in this little guy.
I posted in another thread about how, during the lunar eclipse, I went out to the pasture to take photos. Buddy kept chewing on my hair / sweatshirt so I decided to scare him away using the strobe flash on my camera - but he wasn't afraid, he thought it was VERY cool!

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

hey baby!

that horse is a riot. wow!

and yep, there are all kinds of squash, including bush kinds and also crawly, viney kinds. i think folks like the bush kind if they can get them - zucchini and such. but most pumpkins are the vining type.

 

[AL]

hey baby!

that horse is a riot. wow!

and yep, there are all kinds of squash, including bush kinds and also crawly, viney kinds. i think folks like the bush kind if they can get them - zucchini and such. but most pumpkins are the vining type.

oh geez.... I need a head slapping smiley! When we say squash around here it is solely for the yellow crooked neck squash (kind of like every carbonated drink is a Coke - even Pepsi )

 

[AL]

Wow the weather has been amazing yesterday and today!! about 60*, blue skies, bright sun, light breeze ... warm enough that with your back to the sun you can feel it baking in.
Yesterday I decided I could buy 100ft of green "welded" vinyl fencing for a lot cheaper than what the combination panels would have set me back. So I bought 2 rolls and set out some PVC piping for "poles". I fenced across the the front of the garden (the other 3 sides are already fenced). I pulled out 2 privacy fence boards and released the raptors...er um.. chickens. At first they stayed right against the privacy fence but once they started getting comfortable they were all over. They loved the oats growing on about 1/3 of the lot.
I need to till up the other 2/3 of the lot though, to entice them to scratch more in those areas. I put a card table out, and the wheelbarrow on cinderblocks as shelter in the middle of the field, and there are cedar trees and brush around the fence lines - I am really nervous about hawks. :/

Skye (my 28yr old mare) somehow got her fur caught on the feedstall gate and pulled a fistful out by the roots... now she has a big raw bald spot on her neck.

I am looking at starting some english (sweet?) peas. I haven't planted them before but I think they are cold tolerant, aren't they?


ETA: Just read on the weather where we are supposed to get freezing rain tomorrow afternoon and night. Boo.

 

[savingdogs]

Freezing rain is my least favorite weather forecast!

 

[AL]

Yeah...especially around here where we only see ice in sweet tea, not on the roads

Some pics for today:

(The green is oats)

My Rio.... "livestock guardian"? haha

Sweet Buford, my old darling is 14 1/2

not much of a photo, but I can't leave out Rags the 'possum killer