My Edible Garden

I've been gardening for most of my life and have been a devoted fan of organic gardening the whole time. It just makes so much more sense to work in harmony with Mother Nature than to fight her. Besides which it is better for the planet and better for our bodies. Here you can see what I'm planting and harvesting, with gardening hints and resources thrown in for good measure.

Thursday, September 30, 2021

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

A seedling peach tree growing in the garden
First some good things. I potted up this seedling peach tree that grew in one of the garden beds.
a sweet potato
It looked like the sweet potatoes were getting good size so I started digging them up.




While some were on the small side some are pretty big and I"m not done yet.



root knot nematode damage on okra
Now for the bad. Most of the okra in the sweet potato bed had root knot nematodes. I sure thought we were done with those buggers but I guess not. I have been carefully pulling the plants up and bagging them for the trash with as much root and soil around them as possible. With the cooler weather the nematodes won't be a problem but they will be a big issue next spring when it warms up. I was actually amazed the sweet potatoes weren't affected but I didn't see any nodules on their roots at all.


And some more bad. Due to the heavy July rains the mosquitoes are crazy and they carry fowl pox (yes chicken pox, related to but not the same as humans get). So eggs are down to 2-3 a day. 
Bambi, a 5 yr old Nubian in milk

Bambi has the high ground but she is no match for Posie

Giotto was concerned about the goats fussing

L-R, Posie, Bambi, Caramel
And a bit of ugly. (But it wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be) So Bambi came to me with her twins Storm and Showers, and a dry doe named Vicki. Another doeling came a bit later but from the same farm, Esmarelda. Well Bambi is very mean and bossy with Vicki and Esmarelda so I decided to start putting her in with Posie and Caramel during the day, to give Vicki a break and a chance to eat in peace. Looks like Bambi has met her match. Posie isn't quite as big but she's stubborn and bossy too.
Today I worked on taking down the broken cattle panel hoop house. Quite a feat with 3 goats trying to boss everything
I even managed to get some of the kinks out of it
Then I wired it up to the T posts. Posie was really no help at all. 

Then I worked a bit on moving dirt. If you are new around here I’m trying to get a flat spot to build a big goat shed so I can get them out of the small pens they are in right now. 

#appreciation
I really appreciate that the goats weren’t too bad today. Bambi backed down immediately from Posie which is a good thing. I was afraid they’d both be stubborn and somebody would get hurt. 







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