10/17/19 a little work here and a little work there

I started the morning off by trimming back the squash vines to the last full fruit. They don’t have time before frost to make any more. 

Then onto a bed where I had planted cherry tomatoes. Only about 3 plants lived because they had root knot nematodes. However I have been spraying for the nematodes and this gives me hope. You can see how badly infested these roots are. I don’t know if you can see the fresh new root growth. These plants have been making a comeback and were full of flowers and small green fruit. This tells me that if I begin spraying early I might be able to get a decent crop next year. 

The two beds in this garden need a bit of weeding. 

I fed the small weeds and some mustard greens to the broody and her chicks. They made short work of it. 

Next an experiment. I planted rows of garlic between rows of spinach. Based on growth of volunteer garlic they should have been in the ground a month or six weeks ago. 

The black Chile tepin is finally blooming. 

I spent the afternoon hauling and spreading gypsum. You never spread lime in the desert. You use gypsum instead for calcium. It also helps loosen up our caliche. 

The cockerel with the sore on his neck is doing well and getting a little bit of color back. 

Cockerels to sort out. Two are olive eggers and the rest are Black Copper Marans. They need to grow a little longer before I make final decisions. 

I spent the evening working on getting some of this Bermuda grass out. Now time for food and bed.