The weather has been hot and muggy. The wild black raspberries are coming in. I picked a quart of them today. We finally got a decent rainfall. A half inch. I think the peas will be ready to start picking in the morning.
TY. However, she was an egg eater and an over all food hog. I’ve got a half dozen eggs from my remaining old hens since she passed. To be truthful, I don’t miss her but despite her challenging issues, she did have a nice retirement.
I’m way behind on this thread. Heatwave over. We were treated to much cooler temperatures for a couple of days. I wasn’t able to get the corn patch prepped. Too hot for that. Just keeping the chickens cool was tough enough. My 7+ y.o. RIR hen finally succumbed to the heat. She was quite a hefty...
The wee beasties asked me to get up early so I did. The temperature was 76F at 5:30 am. It almost felt cool. My big garden including the lettuce looks good. So relieved. Everything else is looking good. I made more ice for the chickens and started one load of laundry. Other than watering the...
I get leaf curl early in the season @Sueby but I’ve never sprayed for it. It hasn’t seemed to affect the harvest and usually corrects itself in a couple of weeks. This heat is awful. My 7 yo hen is struggling. I tried forcing water in her but she was too worn out. I left the coop door open...
Real time temperature got up to 96F. Real feel / heat index 107F. OMG! This is New England. I used the sheet I had planned to use as a shade cloth for the lettuce to give some shade to the old hen’s chicken run. I had to run to TSC before lunch to pick up the chicken feed I ordered. I ordered...
No real garden work today. Too hot. We were treated to a little drink of sky water this morning. About 1/8 inch. I did manage to get the last of the backyard mowing finished up yesterday. Today may be the first day of our heat wave. I did check on the garden up the hill. Everything is doing well...
It’s always better cooked with bacon and onion. If you pick the young, tender leaves they are not bitter and are quite tasty raw. Also the tender leaves are really good mixed with apple slices.
Not in northern Massachusetts. They like really warm temperatures and do well in consistently warm temperatures. Two years ago I planted them and they did really well. This year, no sign of them.
I did a lot more weed whacking on the hill then ran a hose up there with a sprinkler for the tomatoes and onions. Then I worked on clearing the newly overgrown path to the corn patch. Good grief what a mess. However, I still think I can get in there to prep the area to get the corn in the ground...
I’ve found that when there’s too much rain it washes the nutrients out of the soil. Adding some fertilizer along with a magnesium boost to help the plants, especially tomato plants absorb the nutrients. I just use Epsom salts because it’s cheap and always on hand.
Hot today. I harvested the lettuce and some kale today. Tomorrow’s temperatures are supposed to be in mid to high 70’s. So I didn’t put up shade cloth yet. The peas in the 16 foot bed are starting to blossom so hopefully they survive the heat. I’m under a severe thunderstorm watch now. Heavy...
Plugging away at garden work. I’ve been getting some clearing / weed whacking done between rain showers. I’ve got most of the peas trained up the trellis strings and started putting up hoops to hold shade cloth for our impending heat wave. Tomorrow is forecasted to be up near or above 90F. I’ll...
Happy Father’s Day to all you Dad’s on the thread. I got a bit accomplished on the garden work today. The temperatures were low and dry with a nice breeze occasionally I sprayed the grapevines with neem oil. They are looking really looking good. The San Marzano tomato plants appear to be getting...
We got another half inch of rain yesterday. All sunny this morning, partly sunny now but very pleasant. I feel like I’m making progress on the garden and yard work. I installed the strings for the peas this morning, got most of the frame up for the pole beans and made a trip up to the hill...
I managed to get the rest of my backyard mowed yesterday afternoon. About a half hour later it started raining again. We got a bit of a break this morning and I was able to get some weed whacking done in the old hen’s yard and then the pathways in the big garden. I’m hoping to get a break to do...