This year I'll be cutting back on a few things I grew but ended up feeding to the poultry. I managed to get pumpkins finally and enjoyed that so will do so again. Tried my hand at lettuce last year which went well, so will do that again early and late in the season. An indoor/outdoor project I want to try is getting a good rosemary plant growing and then surviving when brought indoors for Winter. I've done some reading about it and I think we're guilty of over watering it in years past. I love using fresh herbs when cooking so I may just build a small planter for an herb garden I can keep growing in the kitchen, we'll see.
I just installed a chicken coop low wattage heater in my seedling setup. It’s perfect! Not the hot spots of heating lamps, and way better than the heating mats you can get for seedlings. Stands up in the back and gently radiates heat. I’m quite happy with it, and after 3 days I’ve got lettuce sprouting already.
Do you think 4-6" is enough? I was waffling between 8 or 12". Am I killing myself by going overboard? I have hardware cloth that is 2' wide. The exposed part will be used to ground polywire that I will place a little high to deter coons and such from climbing. However there's a privacy fence on 2 sides of the coop so I will have to do a double wire up higher near the roofline of the building. I'd like to place a wire around the run and garden but am still mulling over wire placement. Herbs have always been the most rewarding things I've grown. Do it! I've had basil since January and have used a huge amount of it (would have cost $10 each time I chopped it, at the store) in thai basil turkey and a couple other basil-y dishes. I also have oregano, marjoram, thyme, lemongrass, st john's wort, and rosemary started. Just planted catnip, dill, lemon balm, and parsley yesterday. Herbs always flourish and you usually eat the whole plant. It's totally worth the effort. I've put together some trays of veggie seeds. I planted jalapenos, colored and green bells, pasilla bajo, anaheim, thai dragon peppers; san marzano, beefsteak, and yellow pear tomatoes; eggplant; various flowers.
My personal experience has been that 4" works fine. If I can go deeper, evenly across I will but otherwise just a few inches is fine. Any time I've found digging at the fence it was almost as if the animal got into the ground, found more fence, and said "screw it". I think predators are looking for an was way to slip under and finding none, move on. I've had coons reach through chicken wire and get a hold of young birds, even ripping their heads off. Since using hardware cloth, I haven't had any losses to predators. At least not while enclosed. (Losing one to a hawk now and then is just the cost of allowing free range time.) I spent a little time this evening looking at grow light options for in the kitchen. But that's putting the cart before the horse. I'll come up with a planter that fits on the counter and keeps the basics growing. Basil, thyme, oregano and rosemary are the ones I use the most.
Same experiences. Coons are assholes to be sure, but they're lazy assholes. I've seen where they dug at the ground a little and, not finding a, easy way through, gave up after moving a little dirt. I'd say 4-6 inches is plenty.
Had to redo the light rack, the cucumbers are mirroring the Brain and his plan to take.over.the world! It was a nice chance to arrange by height, keep the light close without touching on the peppers and tomatoes. The pesky cucumbers got demoted to their own middle rack. That will teach them!
Nice. I'm way late getting stuff started this year... just finished the initial seedlings this afternoon. Mind you, seeing as we're expecting snow tonight, maybe I won't be too early after all.
Do you start the seedlings because of where you are or just to get a quicker return? I'm Zone 5 here in the U.S. and just plant seeds outdoors no sooner than Memorial Day.
I start from seed because local garden centers never have the specific varieties I want and buying 2 dozen foot high plants online would cost an arm and a leg. Starting indoors is insanely cheap all around. Im a few weeks late this year but no where near as bad as last year. Im scaling back the varieties too. 1 paste, 1 yellow brandywine strain, and my uncles Brandywine Ill be doing two rows of. I might do a planter or two of Green Zebras but over all Brandywine is just too easy to grow, large picturesque fruit, amazingly tasty, etc etc. Im hoping for ~24 quarts of brandywine tomato sauce. Mix some Brandywine with the paste for really sweet and tangy sauce and paste.
Yep, this x2. Buying all those starts from the garden centers is expensive if you want more than just a couple plants. If you intend on doing it year after year, starting your own is more cost effective. Plus you get the specific varieties you want.
In the 5 days I was gone for work training, the duckies got yuge. They do nothing but eat and grow. A week for them is like a year in human development. The coop was finished last weekend. I need to finish the run area and string my polywire, but they are safe. They won't be allowed unsupervised in the run til they are 7 weeks or older. Lots of things to pot up today. i wasn't confident that the seeds I sowed were coming up so I put a bunch on a papertowel last week. They didn't all sprout but I have the beginnings of a garden starting, for sure. Lots of flowers are coming up, too.... dwarf dahlias, portulaca, blue sapphire sage. I have high hopes for the coming season.
I got my automated watering system installed and working last night. It’s controlling the lights and fans and a few different valves for misters. It’s set up to run automatically twice a day and it has a manual push-to-water button as well. Just in time for me to hop on a flight to Vancouver for the week. What could possibly go wrong?
I'm pretty sure I found morels in my garden. Anyone want to speak up before I poison my household? I'm stoked to try these babies out....
If there's one thing I'm really, REALLY afraid of, it's eating wild mushrooms. My grandmother used to be into them in a big way, and it was through her that I learned just how many poisonous wild mushrooms there are... and how close they look to their non-poisonous relatives. So... Go nuts?
See if this helps. Looks like morels are one of the easier mushrooms to identify. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOIQgZbuC_c
Those are indeed morels and they are so good. The SO used to go pick them with a group of guys. I really think it was more of a drink beer/hold my beer thing but, he did come home with them so who knows. I have a KILLER recipe from Ina Garten for a chicken dish using them. Let me know if you want it 'wildered.
Yeah, I am super hesitant to do it just because there are so many bad ones out there. But to me, these look unmistakble. I was reading online and there was information about the common ones people get that are NOT morels, and had pics of those too. Mine looked nothing like the bad ones, but identical to the real thing. There are also some identification tips about the interior that I can't check out yet as I have not chopped them yet, but will proceed with caution to get a look. I'm hopeful. Holy piss that's a big morel. The biggest of the 3 I found is about 4" tall and I thought that was big...Excellent video, thanks. Awesome! Good to hear that from someone who has seen them in person. I definitely want that recipe. C'mon, was that even a question??