Update for past week

OK, no good excuse for the radio silence this past week, other than I've felt more like doing things than blogging about them.  I intended to catch up yesterday, but got hit like a ton of bricks with a lower digestive tract bug of some sort.  It knocks me flat around lunch time - hit fast and hard, so I was not inclined to go too far from the bathroom.  Funny thing was, yesterday I woke up feeling normal, with a bit of energy and planting plans ... go figure.

Today I am still staying close to the house, but so far so good.  I moved the newly hatched chicks out to the brooder tub, as right now we have no broody hens and Pollux has his wings full with last month's horde of Wyandotte chicks.  This month, Azar's group had a horribly low fertility rate, and then only two of the four who developed made it out of the shell.  Spikey's group fared much better, with nine of the no-so-little cheepers out and popping around.  Only one didn't hatch.

Spikey's chicks definitely have his wide and flat back ... a couple I observed ended up on their backs when they flopped out of the shell for the first time.  It took them a bit of effort to flip over on their feet.

On the plant side of things, I did manage to get the cheater-starts of Swiss chard in the ground, and have plenty more that I started from seed ready to move.  I also have a few spinach starts, some broccoli starts, and of course peppers and tomatoes to transplant into larger pots.

The one really impressive volunteer mustard green continues to impress - I am going to do my best to get every seed from it once it bolts.  The original parent plant was a Florida broadleaf variety, if memory serves, but I will be calling this strain Putnam broadleaf if I can keep it going.  It is strong and healthy, and keeps putting up new leaves (to the bunnies' great delight).  While we have no idea how it tastes, the rabbits certainly approve of it.

Oh, of the old seeds from 2013 that I planted a couple weeks ago, I have some white radishes sprouting.  I was a bit surprised to see that the other morning.

Pics later - I am still trying to get caught up after yesterday's gastric fireworks.

Sprout rates and damping off

While still waiting for the rain to finally get here, I decided to get a few pics of sprouts and make notes on germination sprout rates.  First up, the happy wild success: the turnip seeds I planted earlier this week have sprouted overnight.  Hooray for me - the bunnies and birds will be quite pleased, as turnip greens are their favorite treat.

new turnip sprouts

Next up, the peppers tray (planted almost a month ago) which has good and bad.  The good news is hubby will have a good amount of jalapeno pepper plants, and I should have a decent amount of pasilla bajo peppers.  The bad news is the sweet peppers didn't do as well.  So far, one Cubanelle pepper plant and four "Tangerine Dream" sweet pepper plants.  No bell peppers sprouted, and no Marconi Red Italian sweet peppers, which I had high hopes for as a substitute for the Carmen sweet peppers I enjoyed so much in 2013.

Pepper plant sprouts

The Swiss chard tray planted two weeks ago is also a bit mixed, but I am seeing some late sprouting seedlings, so it may turn out better than it looked yesterday.  It now looks like all but the Lucullus variety sprouted decently, with the canary yellow being the most vigorous.

Swiss chard sprouts

Broccoli and spinach ... it's a half-and-half situation.  The broccoli popped up immediately, especially the Calabrese variety ... and is suffering the same fate as the tomato seedlings listed below.  The Waltham and de Cicco varieties are slower to sprout, but they may end up being the better plants.Spinach was very hit-or-miss, with no sprouts from the Satin, Bloomsdale Long-Standing, or Round Leaf varieties.  The Giant Noble variety sprouted, so I do have some baby spinach sprouts, and the Tendergreen mustard spinach (looks a lot more like a mustard than a spinach!) is also up.

broccoli, spinach, and mustard spinch sprouts

Now, about those tomato seeds I planted the middle of last month .... They came up alright, although when I first took the clear plastic cover off there were only two Old Germans sprouted.  That is the reason why I will likely have more Old German variety than Mortgage Lifter.  I didn't know what was going on until someone posted about a similar problem with his rhubarb sprouts, and the answers were all, "That is damping off."  No solution given, because apparently most people just replant when they get damping off instead of attempting to save the seedlings.  Uhhh ... y'all will notice the empty seed packets in the tray.  I don't have more, and have not yet located more of either variety.  It seems this year's heirloom variety will be Brandywine/Pink Brandywine.  No sign of Mortgage Lifter or Old German in any of the stores yet, and I've even checked the East Palatka Ace Hardware.  (*Bleep!*)  So, I am letting the tray dry out a bit (hopefully only enough to kill the fungus responsible but not the seedlings) and will just see if any of the Mortgage Lifter plants survive.

tomato sprouts with damping off

The other two trays are pretty much are busts, although the Seven Top turnip (greens mainly) seeds did sprout, they are also  too "leggy" and look damped off as well.   Nothing has sprouted so far in the salad tray.  I'll try it again in a week or so, with different varieties.  On all the seeds that did not have even a single sprout, I will scatter those into the compost heaps, and any volunteers will just be a pleasant surprise.

Battening down

Alright, it's cold again.  Y'all up there need to quit letting those cold front wander down this far south, because we are really not equipped to handle it.  Hibiscus and lemon grass are back in the greenhouse, after being out yesterday for some warm rain.  Beds are covered again, although even with being covered the basil died anyway.  I still have a nice bell pepper on each of the two plants, so that bed gets the old comforter.  We gathered up all the eggs we could find outside, since it is forecast to get down to 28-30F and possible hard freeze (more than 4 hours below freezing).  Just not enough old blankets to cover the citrus trees, so here's hoping they do alright.  The Persian lime is dead down to its root stock, Lynn told me, so at some point will dig up the root stock unless I find someone who can graft.

I have sprouts now!  Both varieties of tomato - with a much better sprout rate in the Mortgage Lifter than the Old German.  Some of the Top Seven turnips are up, and last time I peeked into the pepper tray I saw jalapeno and pasilla sprouts.  That tray has a good bit of condensation in it.  Yesterday I planted two more trays: broccoli and spinach in one, and the other dedicated to Swiss chard.

chard tray, six varieties

broccoli and spinach tray

Now, about those hibiscus: one bloomed yesterday, and the other budded enough we could see the color, so I have one red and one yellow red-leafed hibiscus.

hibiscus and lemongrass out for some rain

red hibiscus flower

yellow hibiscus bud

Rainy day notes

No pics today - while the rain has let up from the earlier line of storms, it is still dreary and grey and blah.  The chicks made it through their first downpour, with most looking dry and warm, unlike the "dragons" aka the broody pullets.  Anyone who does not think that an appropriate nickname for broody bantams has never tried to pick up a chick in front of one.  I have no idea what Dude did this morning, but he was getting his fluffy butt kicked all around the tractor by one of the black pullets.

I had the unpleasant chore of culling one of the splash Silkie chicks.  It was not using its lower leg or foot, but was walking on the end of the drumstick, with the rest of the leg and foot off to the side at an awkward angle.  It may have been stepped on, or that may have been a hatching injury we just did not see, but after a few days it became more noticeable instead of getting better.

I  have a new egg customer: the fellow that runs the smoke shop where I buy my tobacco and filters.  I need to get his name today, because it really is bad form to not know.  I took a dozen eggs up to the family at the Latin Italian Grill ... only to find out they have chickens even with a restaurant to run.  When I commented that I honestly didn't think they had time for livestock, Lee said the one who does the chickens "goes 90 miles per hour every minute he's awake."

I got some more planting accomplished: starting tomato seeds indoors.  I planted some Home Farmer "Old German" and some Burpee "Mortgage Lifter" in a 72-cell starter tray, with cool little 6-cell packs that I filled with the seed starter Lynn sold me, plus the egg shell fragments from the hatch.  Every single time I have moved a tomato volunteer from the compost heap, it has had its roots wrapped around at least one piece of egg shell, and usually several.

Tomorrow I will be selling some layers, plus Silkie Boy.  I am now certain I have at least one black cockerel, and suspect a second.  The Pretties have us very well stocked in eggs, so some of our less favorite layers will go to the livestock auction to be someone else's layers.  Not all culls end up in our refrigerator!

Hormworm season begins

I just pulled the first two small hornworms  off my pink Brandywine tomato plant ... the chickens were pleased.  And so it begins.

Transplants 26 March

I picked up some starts yesterday at the little Ace Hardware in town before hitting the grocery store, and that errand pretty much wiped me out and made my back scream.  At least we have half and half for our coffee.  This morning, after looking at weather radar I went outside to put all the starts into the ground.

• Tomatoes: one each of Pink Brandywine (the larger of the two) and Heinz's Super Roma (heirloom type, not the hybrid one ... the flat were specifically marked each way).
• Peppers, of the sweet variety: one orange bell, planted next to the purple bell, and one giant Marconi, an Italian sweet pepper that I am hoping will be similar to the Carmen peppers from the year before last, as the peppers didn't sprout for us.
• Red onion, and a big bunch of them!  I took a little less than half next door to Maria, and she thought that was a lot until I mentioned "Estan menos de media de los cebollos."  Hubby will have a few fresh ones, and the rest will end up in the dehydrator then ground for onion powder and dried minced onion for the spice cabinet.
• A six pack of assorted coleus!  Must have my pretties, and coleus are my favorite of all time, going back to the first grade when I received a small one with my seed order through school.  I even won a blue ribbon in the school's plant fair.  Last year, I had oodles of volunteer coleus ... but then the neighbor's pet deer ate all the flowers off them last summer, and they didn't recover enough to make another round of seeds.

So now I am sweating in the high humidity before the rain starts, but have more plants in the dirt.

Planting notes for equinox week

OK, a big update on what has gone into the ground this past week.

• Last Sunday and Monday we planted potatoes, German Butterfinger and Yukon Gold, one in each box on the north side of the shed so they will be well shaded.  We also reviewed the planting notes on the bag for the Yukon Gold potatoes.
• Beets (Jupiter variety) undersowed in the newest bean bed after consulting the companion planting color-coded simple chart.
• Carrots also undersowed in the other two bean beds.  Another packet of Ferry-Morse rainbow assortment in the old pea patch (which also has now four volunteer sugar pea plants up) and Danvers 126 in the original garden box that has the purple bell pepper start and a couple silverdusts on one end along with the assorted garden beans.
• Beets (Ruby Queen variety) put into the other half of the cabbage/chard box.  The cabbage looks like it is starting to head, and the swiss chard looks impressive, so it's time to test just how good a substitute it really is for spinach (which is struggling in the old tomato box, although volunteer dill plants look decent but not spectacular)
• The sweet corn in the old compost heap is rocking it ... pole beans will go in sometime this week, along with zucchini and summer squash, with a perimeter of pumpkins as well as the volunteer acorn squashes.
• Speaking of compost, we have run out of our homemade compost and I bought a Bobcat bucket load from Lynn up the highway ... and I will likely need another bucket load or two before this season's planting is done.
• New fruit trees for the orchard: a bit of a surprise!  My neighbor came over with two orange tree saplings in one hand and his shovel in the other, and planted them for me on Wednesday "Nosotros somos amigos!")  He also showed me how big of a "crater" to put around citrus trees, so we'll be digging up more rope grass in the near future on the rest of our struggling citrus trees.
• Garden fresh salads should begin this week, as the green leafy lettuce from the seeds I collected last year are looking great out there.  I may not know exactly what variety or strain these lettuce plants are, but I do know they are thriving.  I also have a volunteer green romaine lettuce coming up from under the layer of compost, so I will save seeds from that one as well.  Finally, the blush-tinted lettuce (Ashley variety) and the collards I planted in that box are also rocking it, alongside even more volunteer acorn squash.
• Tomato starts are up and need transplanting.  All three varieties planted have sprouted: San Marzanzo, Brandywine, and the Mortgage Lifter seeds from 2013, so I will be taking an assorted dozen next door as a "Muchas gracias por los arboles naranjes." ("Many thanks for the orange trees.")  The other 70-some-odd will go into the walk-in greenhouse we bought at Big Lots and hubby put together over a week ago.  Dad called me Friday and one of his questions was if that was up and running yet.
• Raking up the fallen dead leaves is now a high priority here, after seeing tangible and very positive results!  Must make more compost, for possibly the autumn, and definitely for next spring.

So that is a summary of the past week's playing in the dirt, with some notes for this week's round of playing in the dirt in between chickening and building for chickens.  LOL I wore my cute little cheapie Tractor Supply T-shirt to the county fair yesterday, and the folks at the UF Ag extension booth noticed and commented on it: "Living Life One Acre at a Time."  I mentioned it was so appropriate because while we only have about two and a half acres, we're doing most of this by hand, so it really is "One acre at a time."  Ya know, we may have the front acre almost covered by now.

Just to keep this from being a solid "wall of text" here is one pic of my silver dusts, shortly after I transplanted them.  I have two more pics, but the pic card is not playing well with GIMP right now.

three silver dusts with a couple aloe veras

We have sprouts

We decided to use the two small greenhouses we've received over the past year or so to start things like tomatoes, peppers, and any other delicates that might need a headstart rather than constantly buying transplants (though obviously we still do, me in particular).  Hubby mentioned checking the little greenhouses out and we have sprouts!

hubby shimming the smaller greenhouse

catnip and something else in top tray
tomatoes in middle tray

middle and bottom tray both tomatoes

I'll need to look back to see what I planted in with the catnip in the top tray, but those two tomato trays have a mix of Brandywine, San Marzanzo, and Mortgage Lifter.  Which have sprouted?  Errr ... give me a couple months to figure that out.

That cabbage and chard transplants are looking happy and healthy in the compost.  Neither freeze nor chilly wind phased either of them.

45-day cabbage and Swiss chard

Now, for the final garden pic, my best-looking Florida broadleaf mustard green plant has decided to bolt, and in a very pretty fashion.  This is the one I particularly want to save seeds from.

FL broadleaf mustard plant bolting

Pictures of dirt

Now this is a thing of true beauty: our two years in the making compost heap.  Hubby decided to start breaking in to it today, and called my attention to the lovely shade of deep rich brown, almost black, and the wonderful smell of fertile soil instead of the various stages of decomposition.

digging in to the compost heap

spreading rich compost on the garden boxes

You can really see the contrast in the half-filled garden box!  That box was filled from the compost heap last year, but what we have today is superior.

Today's outside adventures started when I decided I would prune back the raspberry cane, the grapevines, and the still-small fruit trees.  Then, hubby offered to help me plant seeds for the little greenhouses: tomatoes and peppers. That sent me on a hunt for the jalapeno seeds from last year and from the store while hubby filled the little Jiffy-pot cells with potting soil (before we broke into the compost heap, or we might have used that instead).

What we've accomplished so far today:

• pruned the orchard, berry patch, and vineyard (hey, it sounds good ... I'll get more planted soon!)
• planted Anaheim and jalapeno peppers, along with two unknown pepper varieties.  I forgot to write down what they were, just know they are some kind of pepper
• planted Brandywine and San Marzanzo (sp?) tomatoes, along with some Mortgage Lifter seeds I had saved in 2013
• started topping off the garden boxes with the compost

And that's only outside stuff.

16 Mar planting notes

A bit of planting before the rain hits sometime tonight.
Transplanted: mustard greens, one Golden Jubilee tomato, "twin" red bell and yellow bell peppers.

Seed planting: more Burpee "Snowbird" snow peas in the snow pea bed where some previous did not sprout, plus some of last year's Burpee "Kitchen King" garden beans in between the rows of snow peas, and also in blank spots between the fernleaf dill, marigolds, and various yet-unidentified peppers and tomatoes.  American Seed "Alaska" green pea planted in the box where the Green Arrow variety did not sprout.

Must do posts on the compost ...!  Or maybe hubby will post up on it, as he spent the week getting up close and personal with the main compost pile.

Also posts on the fruit trees, and the chickens.

So I planted green beans

The past couple weeks, I've been planting the last of the green bean seeds for a fall harvest.In three beds, green beans were all I planted, and in all three of those beds what I have growing is ... tomatoes.  In one of the beds, it can be explained by the tomato plant in the corner of that box, but the other beds either didn't exist or didn't have anything planted over the spring and summer, so these little tomatoes-who-could must be from the compost pile that I've started using now.

Talking to my mom this morning, she actually asked if I knew the difference between green bean seeds and tomato seeds!  LOL Yes, and yes I know the difference between the seedlings that sprouted as well.  This mainly means my compost isn't "cooking" on the inside, even though it both looks and smells like nice compost.  It should be interesting to see which varieties these volunteers are, as the volunteers tend to be the most vigorous tomato plants.

Now, for an actual recent picture of me for friends and family:

planting green beans for fall

That's my new straw work hat, as opposed to the "Florida tourist" straw hat I bought in St. Augustine's Old Town a good five years ago or so.  St. Aug is a lovely little tourist trap, and we plan to go in November when they have the pirate festival.  Yes, those are my old garrison BDU bottoms as well, and they are more comfortable to work in than they were back in the spring.

When the weather clears up again, I'll need to do up a post with pictures for my experiment along the fence line.

Hornworms

I can't call them just tomato hornworms after the ghastly devastation overnight.  After supper last evening, I was admiring my ripening and soon-to-ripen peppers: cubanelles, gypsies, anaheims, and carmens.  I had lost one cubanelle pepper to an unknown varmint that took a big bite out of the middle of it before it had completely turned orange.

This morning, I woke to carnage.  I am now down to one gypsy sweet pepper, no cubanelles, no anaheims, and lost a good half-dozen carmens in addition to a handful of my beloved datils ... and the culprits were hornworms.  Big, fat, juicy hornworms ... yes, the chickens have had a great morning as I found hornworm after hornworm and put them through the chicken wire.

For the record, hornworms are even more difficult to spot on pepper plants than they are on tomato plants.  It took me four or five times hunting to find the one on the datil pepper plants.

Right now, I feel discouraged, as if I am simply growing hornworm bait in my garden boxes.

Don't even get me started on the battle to keep the lawn tamed.

Another round of green beans

The green (bush) beans I planted in the 4th garden box are now ready for eating or preserving, along with more varieties of tomatoes.  Here's a quick picture in between search-and-destroy patrols for hornworms.

garden fresh green beans and tomatoes

Actually, that pic is from a day or two ago; I'm too busy hunting hornworms this morning.  I have noticed them early, and they are small ... but the white pullets seem to think they are 5-star gourmet.

New tomato varieties now that have ripened are the Mortgage Lifter and Black Prince.  I now have Marglobe and Mr. Stripey starting to turn color, and the German Johnson has definitely set at least one tomato, if the (*BLEEP!*)in' hornworms leave it alone.  I have at least three Cherokee Purples munched/ruined by hornworms already, and a couple of Black Prince tomatoes as well.  In fact ... between cracking from too much rain and now the hornworms, I still have yet to harvest a Cherokee Purple 'mater.

As for the green beans, I put four different bush varieties in the 4th garden box, and am pretty pleased with the results.  In fact, overall I am doing quite well with bush green beans.  Here are some notes on what I've planted.

• Harvester (American Seed Co) - decent enough yield in the 2nd garden box, but I have run out of seeds and am waiting for the remaining plants and bean pods to give me more to try in another box.
• Top Crop (American Seed Co) -so-so yield, also in the 2nd garden box, and also waiting for some pods to dry out on the plants as again I ran out of seeds from the pack.
• Tendergreen Improved (Ferry-Morse) - absolutely impressive yield in the 2nd garden box ... yet very much less-than-impressive in the 3rd box.  The main difference between the two boxes is amount of sunlight, especially midday sun.  Looks like these need to be planted for morning and late evening sun, with midday shade.
• Contender (Ferry-Morse) - excellent yield in the 4th garden box!  These make up most of the beans in the sieve pictured above.  Like the Tendergreen Improved, these bloom purple instead of white.
• Kitchen King (Burpee) - also a great yield in the 4th box, although these are shorter and skinnier than the Contenders, they are also a shade or two darker/deeper green.
• Heavyweight II (Burpee) - less than stellar sprout rate, so I had to resow and have not harvested much from them (in the 4th box).
• Tenderpick (Burpee) - worst sprout rate in the 4th box of the four varieties.  I have harvested some beans off the two initial plants, but there are no qualities that were memorable.

I bought some more lumber to make a couple more boxes over the weekend, although the current build project is an add-on to the Rampart, making it into a duplex.  I am hoping to make green beans a year-round idea here.

Tomato varieties ripening

A few quick pics of some of the tomato varieties ripening right now:

Black Prince heirloom tomato

Homestead heirloom tomato

Mortgage Lifter heirloom tomato

Rutgers heirloom tomato

Not yet ripening are Mr. Stripey, Cherokee Purple, and Marglobe (all heirloom varieties) while I am hoping the German Johnson has finally set a tomato.  One of my neighbors asked me, "Why so many varieties?"  I said I need to find out what works best for both my yard and my style of gardening ... and besides, we have not been able to try most of these until now.

I'll be saving seeds from all of these, of course.

Early cherry tomatoes

First up, the mea culpas: We have been bad bad bloggers.  Not just mediocre or even single-bad, but double bad since there is two of us doing this blog and it's gone over three weeks without an update.

Last week in sewing chat, Val asked if I had tomatoes yet.  She actually meant tomato plants, and I replied that the yellow pear (heirloom variety) cherry tomato was about to ripen.  Since then I had harvested four little yellow pear tomatoes off the vine.

yellow pear heirloom cherry tomato plant, about four foot tall

There are certainly many more, as this plant just keeps on setting new fruit.  I bought it as a started plant, in the Bonnie peat pots, from either Lowe's or Wal-Mart.  Along with having 100% success rate in rooting cuttings off it, I also plan to save seeds as this is obvious a strong specimen!

Now, for the only tomato plant I won't be saving seeds from, the husky red ("hybrid") cherry tomato.  "Hybrid" is in quotation marks because it is not a true hybrid like a rutabaga is, but more of a tomato-mutt/crossbreed.

Husky red "hybrid" cherry tomato plant that survived three hard frosts

This was the first tomato plant I put in the ground back in February, and it got frost-bitten pretty badly once (out of three hard frosts!) which seemed to serve as a pruning.  It may not be tall, but boy is it husky.  While an insect or worm got the first ripe tomato before I did, I did pick three lovely ripe ones off it this morning.

Well, we've both had our bowl of cereal, and the outdoors beckon.  Hubby is burning the fourth downed tree, which like the third one shattered before it even hit the ground due to insect and woodpecker damage.