feeding the soil first - PART 2

Linda, check out the companion planting forum. I posted some links to some really good companion planting sites over there.

Wow Twiggy, my DH and I are still wondering what to build for the chickies, this is peep house is beautiful but I think might be a little over our budget.

I would imagine we have about what another month before we have to build something?

You almost guessed right, they are the golden sex links. For what the lady told me at the store they are one of the best egg layers. I hope like you mention they are friendly, since I have little kids.

Sex links can be very, very friendly. To insure they are the sweetest things, spend a lot of time with them. Let them lay on your lap and gently stroke their back feathers. They are a cross between Rhode Island Red and Rhode Island White.

dlbailey, the little chicks are maybe a week old, the lady told us we could touch them a little bit but not too much so my question is when is it safe for my kids to handle them or even for myself, I just would hate for them to get sick from handling them too much.

Right now they are very scare when I am to pick one up, but of course I understand they are just babies and are not used to beigh handled too much.

Can't answer about when a child can handle them. Orignally had chickens when I was 12 and not again until my 20s. You can start handling them know. Just be gentle. They will be a bit skidish for maybe a week. After a short time, they will think you are their mother and will cry if you leave them alone too long. I would let them lay in the palm of my hand, on my lap (with a towel to catch droppings) or on my shoulder. You will be suprised how fast they will grow up and feather out. In a little over a month they will hit their ugly, dinosaur looking stage LOL. They should be fully feathered and looking like mini-hens in 8-10 weeks.

Thank you Dlbailey, I am trying to pick the up for a few minutes but since my kids are small 4 yrs, and 2 years, I have to be careful that they don't grab them too tight etc... I like you had chickens when I was a lot older probably 10 years old, but my dad got them when they were already adults and laying eggs.

O.K I have some pictures to share of the veggies, everything seems to be comming along good, I am already getting little tomatoes and also squash but still too small to pick. I am also glad that I've added another extra bed and also an herb garden as well. Not a lot of bad bugs so far just a few aphids here and there. Here's bed where I planted peppers,squash, beans, and two tomato plants.

This message was edited Apr 24, 2010 12:03 PM

Here's my onion bed.

As you can see they are bulbing up nicely.

Here's my tomato bed, I also have some cucumbers on the back that are going to be climbing the fence soon.

Here's the little tomatoes forming.

And last but not least the little squash forming.

Everything is looking very good Carmen. You sure have those beds packed. Good job. Your squash are ahead of mine. I've got little yellow fruits but no blooms opening yet. The onions look about like mine. I've had to pull a couple to use. My cukes are coming on but no flowers yet. My tomatoes are ahead of yours a bit. The 5 early varieties that I planted out on March 4 have a FEW almost tennis ball sized fruits.

I seemed like tornado weather this afternoon and my biggest tomato plant, Bloody Butcher blew over. 2 little maters got knocked off but the biggest ones held on. I'm not complaining if that's the worst of it.

Twiggy, yes I heard that you guys got tornadoes in your part of the woods, hope everything fared O.K. It seems like you'll be eating maters very soon. The picture of the maters is from the galina tomato plant I got, so they wont get very big, just snack size I guess. By the way all the tomatoes you gave me are also producing lots of little ones as well, can't wait to try them..

The squash in the back, I thought that it was a climbing one, I got the seeds on a trade a while back, I got a sneaking suspition that it is a bushy type so unfortunately I have them all jammed packed, lets hope they produce well for me though.

Carminator1 - your garden is coming along beautifully. Thanks for sharing your photos. My corner of the world should be looking like yours in about a month. One of my Athena melons has produced it's first flower.

I set 59 Vardeman sweet pepper slips this morning, plus the rest of my tomato and sweet pepper transplants. I just hope we don't get a late frost!

Oh boy, I am way behind all of you and live in a warmer region. I'm in trouble!!!

dlbailey - when I lived in South Florida, I gardened in the winter. I think I lived in zone 10 - Palm Beach County.

Carminator1,
How do you have your tomatoes trellised? I see rope, but nothing more. Lemme see!

Linda, all the maters have a long stick that I placed on the ground, I unfortunately did not have enough $ or space to invest it on a reinforce concrete wire to make a cage for the tomatoes. So far it seems to be working O.K but only time will tell.

The only problem is that the cucumbers are still small and they are getting shaded by the tomato plants so I am not sure if they will keep growing or just stop.

Carminator - last summer I had some volunteer cucumbers that grew up the tomato cages, and the tomatoes - both did fine. I think they liked shading each other.

This summer, I plan to grow some cucs with the toms on purpose. I'll wait a little to let the toms get a head start.

Thanks Honey Bee, that makes me feel better, I hope I get some cucumbers, I forgot to post a picture of my wonderful dill, I was hoping to get enough cucumbers this year to make some nice relish and or pickles. What happened is that the first set of cucumbers that I planted died on me because of the cold temps, I guess I transplanted them too early and since the tomatoes can take a little cold they kept growing but I had to replant my cucumbers from seed again so that slowed them down a little bit.

carminator - I haven't started my cucumber seeds yet, but now that the toms, melons and sweet peppers are out of the indoor garden room, I'll be able to get them started under lights.

One of my fixtures died over the weekend - so I see a trip to the hardware center in my immediate future :)

I'm growing some indeterminates that are new to me. From the growth they're putting on, I'm gonna need a KING-KONG size cage.

Honestly, comparing the other varieties paired together in the row of Earthboxes, some look like they're gonna be total brutes! I did my best to match them up size-wise, but sheesh, I'm hoping the little guys make it home from the schoolyard!

This message was edited Apr 26, 2010 4:17 PM

The size of various tomato varieties is always a problem for me. The vendors go on and on about the fruit but rarely describe the plant which is increasingly important since so many gardeners are space challenged. I bet most people don't know that there are 3' indeterminates and 6' determinates. There are determinates that keep adding branches all season. It's really quite confusing. I keep 4 and 6 foot bamboo sticks and it often takes 2 or 3 for each plant. If they get too out of control...snip,snip.

Twiggybuds,
From my experience, I'm probably growing 6-8 footers, easy. And I'm still trellis-challenged...Although, I did plant up a lone Momotoro yesterday in a 24" planter that I ripped Wando peas out of. It sat beneath a 3-legged bambo teepee, so I just put the planter right back under the teepee. We shall see....

I do have access to all the bamboo I want, so may be harvesting bamboo this weekend!

twiggybuds - I've never given much thought to the height of tomatoes. You're correct, it would be nice to know. I've had plants suddenly stop growing, and others, as you pointed out, grow taller than I am!

I could put some transplants in a little later if I knew ahead of time when they would quit producing, which would extend the season nicely.

Exactly. Most of the available info seems to assume we all grow in rows in fields. Occasionally I will see a remark about something working for containers. I'm not able or interested in making heavy wire cages so I sought out lots of short plants to grow in my containers. At the same time, I simply had to try some of the big ones that everyone raves about. I found out that they're individuals and now I just grow anything that interest me. Sometimes I have to be merciless with the pruning but at least I get to satisfy my curiosity as to taste, shape, level of production and plant habit.

I just trellised up yesterday using 6 ft. reinforced rods. Considering harvesting some more bamboo to make some teepees around the plants for stability. Either way, my tomato plants will grow TALL....

http://ct.gov/caes/lib/caes/documents/publications/fact_sheets/plant_pathology_and_ecology/pruning_training_and_supporitng_tomatoes_ferrandino.pdf

This was posted on the tomato forum today. It's the best instruction/explanation on pruning I've ever seen. It was just in time since I was past due pinching and tying. That job is a lot like housework...I no sooner get through and it's time to do it again.

Thank you so much Twiggy for the instructions, I don't prune my maters but I did take some suckers out to try to plant them in my new raise bed.

O.K a litle update on my garden, my onions are almost ready, some of the main stalk is getting yellow and so what Idid is to bend the stalk, I was told this way the plant will use more of its energy in producing the bulb and not so much into the leaves of the onion, is this accurate?. I do have quite a few nice size onions but others are not so big, still hopefully I will get a nice amount. I did pick 2 big ones and I am going to attempt to make some nice low fat onion rings, you bake them instead of frying them.

I planted some edible soybeans in my new raise bed, I bought them from Heirloom seeds, but boy they are having horrible germination, out of 20 seeds or more only 2 have come out so far, I have tried panting them in their individual pots as well and only 1 came out out of 10 seeds, and then tried to place about 10 seeds in water with peroxide and the seeds started splitting and breaking appart within 1 day, I am wondering whether I should contact the company to let them know, the seeds are also fairly new from 2009.

The strawberries I ordered the sequoia unfortunately out of 10 plants only one survived, I am pretty upset but hopefully I'll get some runners.
I also planted today the malabar spinach, thank you twiggy so much for the wonderful seeds, I have 5 little nice plants and they are planted along my fence, right next to my climbing flowers, I am hoping they will make a nice background.

For all of you that don't know I also got 4 chickens, I am hoping to use them for their eggs and also for the nice compost. One of them was pecked by the others and is bleeding a little bit so I decided to take her away from the others just until she heals, hopefuly they wont be mean to her anymore.

Oh also one last thing, I just ordered a nice persimmon tree form starkbrothers, I love persimmons and I am hoping to plant it in the front yard along with my Lemon tree and also my plum tree, i am very excited.

O.K that is it for now how about you tell us about your garden what is growing etc....

I have several nice suckers that I rooted. I'm hoping they'll be loaded with fruit by the time it gets so hot that the tomatoes want to slow down or stop setting. It's been so dry here this spring that I'm not seeing any foliage disease like I had last year. I found 1 caterpillar on 1 plant already and I hope he was just a lost soul without any kin folks.

I'm still trying to coax a little more growth out of my onions. The Short Day Sampler is about to quit on me but about half the leaves are still green. The few that I managed to start from my defective seeds are still green and robust. I think I'll go back to starting onions from seed around mid August.

I have strawberries. Today I picked #6 and 7. The first one was 2 weeks ago. I'll not be having any strawberry shortcake at this rate. I didn't get them planted until December and they never got a proper start before the big freeze so I guess what few I'm getting are just luck. They are starting to make runners. Carmen I got 14 plants from runners off 1 mother plant before. Then they'll make more so you will probably have more than you want by fall.

Today I harvested one small cabbage and 4 small yellow squash.

Well,
I'm so far behind ya'll in ain't even funny. But, I do have bell peppers and broccoli. And I found one china ball tomato yesterday among all the tomato blooms.

And, this weekend I converted a 24" Sam's Club/Costco planter into a eBucket (absolutely sweet!) and planted zukes. Also planted more zukes and two more tomato plants in eBuckets.

The Red Burgundy okra are planted.

Since I've neglected to harvest the remaining cabbages, in protest, they have decided to begin growing all over again on top of themselves, thereby creating a "Double-Decker" cabbage.

I think yah gotta see it to believe it.

Linda

Linda you're our cabbage specialist for a reason. You're right, I had to see it to believe it. If that thing makes another head, please let me know. Mine have been very disappointing in that I have monster leaves and puny heads. I figure as hot as it's getting that they are going to bolt any day now. I'm torn between taking them out to make space for something else or waiting awhile longer to see if something is going to happen.

I also have just one cabage in my onion bed as well, the head right now is too small, but hopefuly it will get a little bigger before the scorching heat sets in.

Yesterday I picked 2 of my bigger onions and made some crispy onion rings, the good thing about them is that they are baked instead of fried, they tasted pretty good and I did not have a horrible stomachacke afterwards, oily crispy onions tend to do that to me.

Twiggy you have to let me know how your candy onions are doing, I am hoping to plant some of those maybe next year, I really want sweeter type onions and I am wondering if they would grow big in our area or not.

I ended up having to pull some of my yellow squash plants out yesterday as well, I thought at first they were the climbing table queen squash so I decided to place them a little closer together and let the squash climb but they are just the regular big bushy yellow squash and they were just too close, all the plants are loaded with little squahes but they really had no room to grow, I am hoping this clearing out of 2 of the 4 squash plants will help a little.

All my mater plants are loaded with flowers and I am gettin little maters as well, they are still all green though but soon I'll be able to try my first galina tomato which is loaded with little maters by the way.

Twiggybuds,
Regarding the cabbages. Aunt Beatrix told me to leave a couple inches on the stem when I cut it and it would start growing again. Guess what?

I think we need that recipe for the baked onion rings. Sounds good!

Are your kids just loving this? Do they love being in the garden - and the chickens, I'm sure that enjoy them! My 3-year-old nephew helped me plant some flower seeds (he actually did a good job) and put some straw down. He was just so dang proud of himself and excited to help. I told him that he's in charge of watching the garden for me when I'm gone, and if anyone tries to step on anything, he should tell them not to. He likes to tell people not to pick up rocks in the driveway and other stuff that he's learned from mommy and daddy, so I figure this might work to stop him from trampling. Kids are funny and interesting.

Wow Linda what a great cabbage you got there, I will try the same trick as you when I collect my cabage see if I get any more.

Dividenski, here's where I got the recipe for the baked onion rings, http://www.foodnetwork.com/videos/onion-rings/17620.html. They were very good, even my 2 year old girl liked them.

The kids have a lot of fun specially my DD she is only 2 and already knows more about where food comes from that a teenager that has never grown anything. I love to teach her about good bugs and bad ones too. One of her favorite snacks is kale chips she loves them.
They also love the chickens but I have to be very careful because she is brutal sometimes with them and thinks they are toys to play with, I am actually surprised they have lasted this long. My goal is to get my 4 year old to eat good food, veggies, he loves salad but is very picky when it comes to anything else.

what about sharing your favorite onion recipe,so any ideas?

Cool! Thanks for the recipe. That looks really good.

Well, it's good to have the kids around healthy food, even if they're picky at first. At least they know what real food is!

Sorry to say that I don't have any favorite onion recipes. I just add them to stir fry and whatever else I'm cooking.