What did you do in the garden today?

[Sally PB]

I finished planting potatoes. 48 hills. A few red ones, and then the rest are German Butterball (new for me), Magic Molly (purple) and Elba.

I'm doing something new this year. I used to mark the hills with sticks. The sticks would fall over and I'd worry I was going to step on the baby plants trying to sprout.

I usually am up to my eyeballs with other things (canning) when the potato plants start dying off, and again, marking with sticks didn't work 100%. I leave the taters in the ground until September or so. They wait there just fine, as long as nothing down there starts eating them.

So, this year I am marking the hills with my janky, funky, old, bent tomato cages. The plant can grow up through it just fine. I will know where to dig. And, if I want to leave the cages over the winter, I'll know where I'm going to find volunteers. Because you never get all the potatoes when you dig them.

Right now, even though there are no potato sprouts up, I know exactly where the rows are.

 

[Smokerbill]

I finished planting potatoes. 48 hills. A few red ones, and then the rest are German Butterball (new for me), Magic Molly (purple) and Elba.

I'm doing something new this year. I used to mark the hills with sticks. The sticks would fall over and I'd worry I was going to step on the baby plants trying to sprout.

I usually am up to my eyeballs with other things (canning) when the potato plants start dying off, and again, marking with sticks didn't work 100%. I leave the taters in the ground until September or so. They wait there just fine, as long as nothing down there starts eating them.

So, this year I am marking the hills with my janky, funky, old, bent tomato cages. The plant can grow up through it just fine. I will know where to dig. And, if I want to leave the cages over the winter, I'll know where I'm going to find volunteers. Because you never get all the potatoes when you dig them.

Right now, even though there are no potato sprouts up, I know exactly where the rows are.

@Sally PB , I think you wanted to know how my fall planted potatoes worked out. They didn't, so far anyway. Out of 18 whole potatoes I planted last October, only two or three have sprouted above ground, and only one looks healthy.

I'm pretty sure the voles ate the dang things. One that I dug up a couple months ago was chewed on pretty bad. No biggie. It was a fun experiment and I can do without taters..

 

[SkyAJK]

I will stay away from the garden today and for the next few days as my lawn is soaked and saturated in rain water.

When I put my feet down on the lawn, my feet sunk deep and mud covered my feet. I so so dislike this weather to the end of the world.

 

[akroberts1085]

I went out and looked over the garden but haven't done anything. I got almost all the animals fed and watered. I'm ready for a nap which is not me. I have a question about the chicks. Is it true that roosters have longer tail feathers than hens? I'm curious because 4 of the chicks have fairly long tail feathers. Any advice helps. Thank you in advance.

 

[Sally PB]

Oh, thank you, @Smokerbill.

While I was planting my potatoes, I did find some volunteers from last year that were sprouting. They were in the shovels of dirt; they has some sprouts growing out of the potato that was missed.

I know I have voles out in the fields. Sometimes they go down my row of pea or bean seed and snarfle them all up, the little pigs. They could eat every other seed and I wouldn't mind. I haven't seen much evidence of them in the potatoes, thank goodness.

 

[cj2024]

Good luck! What kind of chickens will they be???

ISA Brown egg layers.

 

[TJAnonymous]

I went out and looked over the garden but haven't done anything. I got almost all the animals fed and watered. I'm ready for a nap which is not me. I have a question about the chicks. Is it true that roosters have longer tail feathers than hens? I'm curious because 4 of the chicks have fairly long tail feathers. Any advice helps. Thank you in advance.

How old are your chicks again? In young chicks, I've found that looking at their combs is more indicative of figuring out roosters vs hens. Rooster combs usually turn pink sooner and are generally bigger than hen combs. Just my experience....

 

[akroberts1085]

How old are your chicks again? In young chicks, I've found that looking at their combs is more indicative of figuring out roosters vs hens. Rooster combs usually turn pink sooner and are generally bigger than hen combs. Just my experience....

They were hatched between the 5 and 7th of this month. I think most of them have some pretty big combs for their age but I cannot tell. I know they're making a lot of noise and chasing each other in the brooder.

 

[TJAnonymous]

They were hatched between the 5 and 7th of this month. I think most of them have some pretty big combs for their age but I cannot tell. I know they're making a lot of noise and chasing each other in the brooder.

My chicks were born on April 1st. Here's some examples below. Of course, I'll be able to confirm once saddle feathers start coming in.

 

[akroberts1085]

My chicks were born on April 1st. Here's some examples below. Of course, I'll be able to confirm once saddle feathers start coming in.

View attachment 4107548View attachment 4107549

Thank you. I might get some pictures posted later on