Just Another Day on the Farm

soggy soil blocks

Ooops! My beets popped right up in a few days in their soil blocks, so I moved them outside to a part sun location before transplanting to their bed. Then it rained. Ugh, the trays are full of water and the blocks are dissolving. I drained as much water out as I could, then I put them back indoors for a few days, as more rain was expected.

yay most of the seedlings made it

mini bell peppers

green and red okra plants

I had some red okra seeds that were pretty old but a couple of plants came up. Planted some green okra from seeds my friend Glenda gave me.

red root pig weed

lambs quarters in the beet bed

The rains have put new life into things, especially the 'weeds'. Of course I leave a lot of lambs quarters and pig weed growing around the gardens. I cut them back and cut them into pieces for the chickens.

compost chickens!

compost chicken eggs!

The compost chickens are actually laying more eggs now than they were living in the barn eating expensive feed!

hay string hinges

I guess six years is a pretty good life span for a hay string hinge before it gives out.

But I haven't had time to fix it yet.

Add caption

I have planted seeds along this strip 3 times now and each time the pigs have gotten in and torn everything up trying to get to the squash inside the hoop house.

Whats here, a pathetic little dill plant, something I don't recognize and what I am hoping is Tithonia, or Mexican Sunflower.

What is this?

Of course I can't quit, so I added more compost and more seeds, this time dill, hollyhock and calendula. Hopefully they will grow!

homegrown seeds

Trombonccinno

The Trombonccino squash are getting huge! I'm leaving these to be winter squash, those big ones are about 3 feet long.  I can't hardly walk through here now. The birdhouse gourds are finally running and blooming but I don't see any gourds yet.

Random Stuff

The tomatoes are finally trickling in. I have been really impressed with the Rio Grande variety. The tomatoes are huge and the plant was still setting fruit in 100+ temps.

Rio Grande tomatoes almost ready

baby fig tree

I took advantage of a special from Baker Creek Heirlooms and got 5 little fig trees for $25. I'll have to do a post on them later. 1 was damaged in shipping and doesn't look like it's going to make it, but the others look really good.

Trombonccinno

The Trombonccino squash are doing well and beginning to make babies. The bumble bees love the squash blossoms. I love how the vines are huge and make a lot of shade. The squash are tender and used like little zucchini as long as the skin is thin. Later the skin gets thicker, eventually turning tan and hard. Left until fall they are great winter squash, a couple of vines can easily make over 100 pounds of winter squash.

squash vines on the greenhouse / trellis

Arizona Dragon

This little guy sat in my drive way for quite some time. He was not at all bothered by me getting close for photos. Actually called a Horned Lizard (or Horney Toad) many people complain they don't see them any more. I think that is because people spray poison all over their house and yards and poison all the ant dens. Ants are part of the Horned Lizard's diet, so of course, no ants, no lizards. I don't spray any poison around my place and rarely do I poison an ant den unless it's like in my house or something.

Harvest Monday

Yellow Zuchinni

Welcome to Harvest Monday! This is a great blog hop hosted by Daphne's Dandelions. Go visiting with gardeners from around the world and see what they are harvesting from their backyards, balconies and community gardens!

My apologies to so many; life has been so very crazy and I haven't been able to visit with all of you like I want to. Hoping this week things slow down a little bit more.



October is a month of decisions. Should I leave the zuchinni another week so it can make a few more squash before frost or pull it out so I can plant the garlic on time. (In the end the garlic won)

My Buff Orpington pullets are beginning to lay, right on schedule. Which is a darn good thing because the banties have quit completely; no eggs all week until I got this first tiny pullet egg. The banty girls have a bit longer to finish their molt and if they don't pick back up, then it's chicken soup and pot pies!

chicks, one week old

And speaking of chickens, the chicks are one week old. I know it's hard to see here, but they are already growing tail and wing feathers. The ones in front are the Buff Orpington X banty that are sold. The four Welsummer chicks that I am keeping are in the back, brown stripes on their heads like chipmunks.

German Butterball potatoes

I dug the rest of the potatoes. The March planted ones were pathetic; won't be doing that again. Either plant in Jan or June. Think I'll order some soon, then divide the order and plant some of the same varieties at each time and see how they do. Wouldn't mind just planting early, but I don't have a cool enough place to keep them over the summer.

Bell Peppers

Got a nice bunch of bell peppers, tho a couple had sunscald where they flopped over and the peppers weren't covered. Note to self; stake/cage all the pepper plants!

Spaghetti and Tromboncino Squash

Picked some more spaghetti and tromboncino squash. Can't seem to sell any of the big ones at market, but the spaghettis go pretty quick.

I did eat one of the tromboncino the other day; just cut a piece off and cooked it in the microwave. Very much like a butternut, about the same color, a little stringier, more like a pumpkin. But if I can't sell them, I suppose the chickens and I will be eating them all winter, which is fine with me.

It's a Jungle Out There!

back yard garden jungle

The heat plus a little rain has caused a lot of things to put out tremendous amounts of growth the last couple of weeks. I can't take a picture of the back yard garden from my usual vantage point because it is overgrown with weed trees which I haven't had time to deal with.

In this first picture on the right (by the orange bucket), is the bed where the peas and lettuce were last winter. I've taken the trellis down and forked over the bed, adding some blood meal, iron and potash, along with a  some compost. I'm getting ready to plant carrots in here. The bed behind it are the Amish Paste tomatoes, which have given exactly 3 tomatoes so far. On the left under the row cover are a few bean plants (I've had terrible germination with beans this year, not exactly sure why, possibly too wet, because I watered a lot because it was so hot and dry.) The next bed has the remains of the corn and a gigantic Rond de Nice squash. It's beginning to look a little yellow, possibly needing iron/nitrogen. Squash has not been selling much at the farmer's market and I don't eat much summer squash, so will probably pull it out when I pull out the corn stalks. I might leave that bed fallow with a coating of manure until fall, then plant onions and garlic in there. Behind that bed is more summer squash, the yellow scallop and zucchini. The splash of red is the next bed back, and is the Red Burgundy Amaranth. Some of them have fallen over in a windy rain storm and need to be propped back up.

Here's the squash covered greenhouse. Click on the pic for a larger view. The leaves with silver veins are the Tromboncinno. And yes, last week I had to climb on the house roof to pick squash.

Tromboncinno

Here's a shot from the other side. I missed picking this Tromboncinno when the skin was tender so now it's growing to be a winter squash.

King of the Garden Limas

The King of the Garden Lima beans are going for broke; that horizontal pipe on the trellis is about 8 feet in the air.

ginger plant

I had some extra ginger last spring because I never got around to making ginger beer like I planned. So I stuck it in this big tub in the greenhouse and it actually sprouted. Looking a bit peaked, I should probably feed it.

There are tons of other things going on around here, but it's late and I'm tired. Catch you later.