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Coming Home to the Land:  My Garden  |
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Jen
Expedition Leader
1384 Posts
Jennifer
Calico Rock
AR
USA
1384 Posts |
 Posted - May 16 2007 : 5:54:45 PM
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This is our fledgling garden & orchard. We've got all sorts of goodies coming up, and our trees are happy. We've already had to spray a garlic/chili pepper spray on several leaves to ward off voracious yellow & black striped beetles. It worked!
Have a garden too? Share pictures!
The View From My Boots: www.bovesboots.blogspot.com
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marybeth
outstepping
146 Posts
Marybeth
Washington
USA
146 Posts |
Posted - May 16 2007 : 10:45:05 PM
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Great garden. this year we are not going to have a garden. Nobody home to enjoy it. Just tomatoes, pumpkins and bowls of lettuce for quick salads. Maybe carrots. Love 'em and the ponies love the leftovers. MB
Being outside is being |
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Elizaray
outspoken
680 Posts
Elizaray
680 Posts |
Posted - May 19 2007 : 10:50:05 AM
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Gardens are wonderful and yours sure looks like it is coming up great. How big is that plot?
Elizaray |
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Jen
Expedition Leader
1384 Posts
Jennifer
Calico Rock
AR
USA
1384 Posts |
Posted - May 21 2007 : 07:28:27 AM
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I'd say it's about an acre, if that. The actual veggie garden component takes up about 2/3, and we've got 8 apple trees, 3 pear, and 1 struggling mulberry (which is funny, because we decided to name our place The Flying Mulberry Farm!).
Next year, we're gonna move the garden because we're being bombarded by bugs & hypothesize that it's because that plot has been intensively worked for years. There's an unlikely little patch of tomato plants growing in my chicken yard (totally untended) that are bug-free.
The View From My Boots: www.bovesboots.blogspot.com
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Edited by - Jen on May 21 2007 07:31:49 AM |
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Elizaray
outspoken
680 Posts
Elizaray
680 Posts |
Posted - May 24 2007 : 10:53:44 AM
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It is possible that the chickens are eating the bugs too :) Perhaps you could let your chickens free roam on your veggie patch this year?
Alee
Elizaray |
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Jen
Expedition Leader
1384 Posts
Jennifer
Calico Rock
AR
USA
1384 Posts |
Posted - May 24 2007 : 1:22:03 PM
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Thanks, Elizaray - I just thought of that, too! Would the chickens damage the plants or just pluck bugs?
The View From My Boots: www.bovesboots.blogspot.com
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Elizaray
outspoken
680 Posts
Elizaray
680 Posts |
Posted - May 25 2007 : 8:40:36 PM
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It depends on the chickens. If they are finding lots of great bugs to eat, they probably won't hurt the garden much (maybe a nibble here and there) also you can always toss them you kitchen scraps. They really love that! If they start doing to much damage, you could always move them back to the chicken yard :)
Elizaray |
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Jen
Expedition Leader
1384 Posts
Jennifer
Calico Rock
AR
USA
1384 Posts |
Posted - May 26 2007 : 8:18:04 PM
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You offer this forum such a wealth of info, girl - thanks!!!
The View From My Boots: www.bovesboots.blogspot.com
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Elizaray
outspoken
680 Posts
Elizaray
680 Posts |
Posted - Jun 23 2007 : 4:23:28 PM
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Hey Jen-
How are you and the chickens working out? Are they keeping your garden pest free or are they in the chicken yard? How did that work out?
Elizaray |
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Jen
Expedition Leader
1384 Posts
Jennifer
Calico Rock
AR
USA
1384 Posts |
Posted - Jun 27 2007 : 12:00:18 PM
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I keep meaning to take some pictures of the little buggers, but I haven't done it! About 2 weeks ago, I got sick of them wading around in their own poopfood/poop in the dog kennel on the porch, so I transferred them down to the chicken coop with our hen -- oh, and we also got 2 pullets at the farmers market! So, we have (had) 20 chickens, all happy-as-can-be, and I just turned the chicks out to forage with the big girls last week. I guess they're about 4-5 weeks old, big & sassy. Anyway, lost our 1st chick 2 days ago to (I'm guessing) a medium-sized black rat snake who was hanging around the barn. Now I can't find it 'cause it's probably holed up someplace digesting our chick. If I can catch it sometime, I'm gonna take it over to the nat'l forest & bid it bye-bye. Don't want to kill it. Keeping fingers crossed for the remaining chicks, hoping they get bigger soon enough to beat the odds.
In the meantime, the garden is faring well against bugs on its own, but the deer have started having parties in there, so we started putting up a fence along the creekside where there was no fence before. The main trouble is that they browsed on our little fruit trees & left a couple in pretty sad shape.
And, the grass/weeds are going wild since we've had thunderstorms most every day for the past 2 weeks. It's turning into a jungle down here!
The View From My Boots: www.bovesboots.blogspot.com
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Elizaray
outspoken
680 Posts
Elizaray
680 Posts |
Posted - Jun 27 2007 : 5:10:39 PM
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I'm sorry to hear that you lost one of your chicks! Hopefully soon they will be too big for the snake to munch on. I guess you have decided to keep the garden where it is since you are building deer fencing? Your poor trees...are they going to make it?
I have started to harvest out of my garden. I thinned the carrots a little while ago. I am hoping the remaining carrots will get bigger :) I really like the taste better than the store bought carrots. These are much sweeter and more crisp. I am really looking forward to tomatoes coming in!
Elizaray |
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countrychick
outbound
21 Posts
21 Posts |
Posted - Jul 18 2007 : 1:29:08 PM
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Jen
Rabbits devour my trees in february. The snow was so deep they were able to eat off every branch to one tree overnight. I look outside right know and there is a stick of a tree with leaves on it. It's a sad sight. I just keep hoping they will recover.
Also.. I put a couple of old smelly shoes in the garden (a tip I read somewhere) and one day about 5:00 in the morning my husband (the bowhunter) woke me up and said listen "that's a buck snorting because he smelled something he doesn't recognize." So we peep out the window and there is a buck 20 feet from my garden snorting loudly and farther back are 3 does. He snorted for a long while in the direction of my garden and then took off and off went the other three. I don't know if it was the shoes or not but my garden lived to see another day LOL.
I also read from an old amish women that the amish use moth balls to keep deer away. I am a beginner gardener, so id on't know if it works but I am interested in trying it. |
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Jen
Expedition Leader
1384 Posts
Jennifer
Calico Rock
AR
USA
1384 Posts |
Posted - Jul 19 2007 : 12:09:46 PM
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Thanks for the tip, Nikki (and my hub's a bowhunter too!). I'm pretty much a novice gardener myself - always moved around too much to give it my all - but I had a couple of good gardens in Washington, and now I'm overwhelmed by the waves of bugs we get here in Arkansas! Wow - squash bugs are HORRIBLE! The locals happily use Sevin pesticide dust & think we're nuts for our organic ways, but, like I tell my kids, free thinkers aren't always popular at first 
Somehow I missed your last post, Elizaray! The deer haven't returned & our trees are coming back with vigor. I still think I'll move the garden - probably into the yard by the house so that I can keep up with it better. Then, we'll plant more fruit trees down inside the deer fence, which may be decorated with old shoes & mothballs this winter!
The View From My Boots: www.bovesboots.blogspot.com
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Elizaray
outspoken
680 Posts
Elizaray
680 Posts |
Posted - Aug 23 2007 : 8:48:47 PM
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I am glad the deer are leaving your trees alone! I hope your garden is coming along nicely!
Elizaray |
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Jen
Expedition Leader
1384 Posts
Jennifer
Calico Rock
AR
USA
1384 Posts |
Posted - Aug 25 2007 : 2:36:04 PM
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Well, after about 6 straight weeks of high heat, no rain, and little irrigation from our struggling spring, we surrendered to the bugs & raccoons! Got a few nice melons first, though. On toward fall & new & improved garden plans with time to prepare beds, etc.
What do you do with your garden in the fall, Elizaray - till it under, plant a cover crop???
The View From My Boots: www.bovesboots.blogspot.com
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Mountain Girl
outrigged
237 Posts
JoAnn
Colville
WA
USA
237 Posts |
Posted - Aug 25 2007 : 4:21:27 PM
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| It was hot and very dry here as well and the garden is having it's problems. A gopher got most of the garlic in the spring when Jim harvested the remaining few they were so small. His comment was I have to water the garlic more, duh. We are still getting use to how dry it is here in the summer, hot in the sun during the day and cool nights. There's always next year. JoAnn |
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Elizaray
outspoken
680 Posts
Elizaray
680 Posts |
Posted - Aug 27 2007 : 04:36:23 AM
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Jen-
I am going to lasagna garden over the winter. I am going to put down about 10 full newspapers and then cover with a heavy layer of mulch to keep the newspaper down. I am hoping the decomp heat will kill off some of my weeds. I know it is horrible- but I am thinking of soaking the first layer in bleach. I am having a horrible time with the weeds and if I could just get them killed off...my life would be SOOO much better!!
Elizaray |
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Coming Home to the Land: My Garden |
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My Garden
