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Congrats on your permanent potato garden!
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Jun 22, 2020 16:33
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| # ¿ May 13, 2024 23:03 |
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I raise meat rabbits, chickens, and I have some lawn-mower goats. The slaughter part has become easier now that I have tried and tested methods. It was really hard at first because I felt so guilty and it didn’t go as planned a few times. I learned basically all of the animal stuff from YouTube and library books. My rabbits are in a colony so the most in-depth info is on that is on YouTube. I keep my chickens the usual way, day range and lockup at night, so the information in books is more useful but I have watched a ton of videos too. Going forward I don’t plan to breed rabbits anymore, Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease is in my area  , but they have been great for an inexpensive meat source. I butcher at 12 weeks or older, depending on circumstances, and my does have 6-12 kits at a time. I plan to turn some of the colony yard into a garden next spring since it’s already fertilized.The chickens are easier to catch and dispatch, but I raise dual purpose and don’t do many at a time. It’s usually a case of culling an unwanted rooster or an injured/old hen. If possible I wait until they are roosting at night so they aren’t freaked out and then I use the broomstick method. As far as garden helpers, both are nice to have. The rabbits eat some of the garden waste and their manure is cold so you can apply it directly to the plants. The chickens have made it into the garden a few times and they dug big holes but they also keep the grasshopper population down outside of the garden so that’s been a mixed bag. I haven’t used the chicken compost yet but it will be part of my soil amendments this fall.
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Aug 19, 2020 18:16
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poeticoddity posted:No gardening specific tips, but two things to keep in mind are that cicadas are going to be mostly fat and protein (which means they're not going to compost well with traditional methods) and as a consequence they attract other animals (like raccoons). Chickens love to eat cicadas. If you have a neighbor with chickens you could trade them for eggs!
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Mar 6, 2021 03:23
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Paradoxish posted:the leaves are so big and glorious that I always feel a little bit bad about it tho If you happen to know anyone with goats, they love the leaves. Last year my goats spent every morning lined up at the garden fence for the zucchini leaves. They didn’t care for the squash itself though.
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Jun 5, 2021 06:45
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My go to for radishes, woody or not, is fermenting. They are delicious even in a plain salt brine, and you can experiment with herbs as you like.just another posted:We bought a house with a largish garden plot (~4000 sqft). It's completely overgrown with weeds that are 3-4 feet high at this point. Also some saplings here and there. A brush cutter of some sort will be good for maintenance but you might see if there are any goat weeding services in your area. They usually bring an electric fence and contain the goats in an area for a time and voila, no more weeds and brush.
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Jul 29, 2021 15:24
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Hexigrammus posted:
If the goats are fat enough they won’t even try. 
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Jul 30, 2021 02:04
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Hail has killed or maimed all of my plants. Gardening in Wyoming is not worth the trouble.
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Aug 15, 2021 15:57
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mischief posted:Okra is another bogeyman plant for me. We've planted it several years and had nothing but frustration. I've got a pile of Clemson Spineless seeds that we have used multiple times, it's proven to be extremely tough and resilient. I can get the plant about hip height and to set fruit but then they invariably stall, plus the drat things are worse than beans to go from "almost ready to pick" to "stringy foam seed carriers" overnight. I always end up with a big bowl of them in the garage drying out to harvest the seeds... and the cycle repeats the next year. I’d try a whole new variety of those haven’t worked for you for multiple years. Also, if you keep seeds from poorly performing plants, you’re selecting FOR traits that you didn’t like. Seeds are cheap, be kind to yourself.
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Dec 20, 2021 00:11
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SubG posted:I don't think I've seen this before. Volunteer bok choy. The one along the fence makes me think a bird dropped it. I had some little birds in my bok choy today and I’d guess they were there for the seeds.
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Feb 5, 2022 01:01
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Jhet posted:If you don't like the weave or cages, I've seen people have good results taking some cattle fencing and sticking it on a heavy duty and deeply driven stake (2x2). You can loosely tie it to the fence at the beginning of the season and weave it through to grow on both sides of it. I’ve used that and the main drawback to the cattle panel method is that they are only 4’ tall. If you plan to have tall tomatoes you may have to bend the panel into an arch. This year I am trying the Low and Lean method, it goes by other names, I think. https://youtu.be/tDL3McRkPbg
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Apr 25, 2022 00:10
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mischief posted:I'll run rows of 10' T-post early in the season with the Hortonova panels and I'll be damned if you can't grow just about anything vertically.  10’ T posts?!?I have never seen those available. My local farm store finally got 8’ posts in stock but I had already settled for 7’.
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Apr 25, 2022 17:53
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mischief posted:If you're not willing to get a a twenty pound sledgehammer on a LOL, I’m so short I have to use a step ladder for 6’ posts. PSA: Never drive a post with a sledgehammer! My brother crushed a finger doing that  Post drivers are the best uni-tasker around.
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Apr 26, 2022 01:02
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mischief posted:I just make my wife hold them. My bro was holding the hammer up close to the head and the hammer slipped off the post and his finger was crushed between the handle and the post. Just horrifying. Multiple surgeries were needed, etc. If you really want to be safe you should hold the post while your wife holds the hammer. 
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Apr 26, 2022 19:57
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Fozzy The Bear posted:What's everyone's secret on getting a t-post OUT? T Post puller, it’s awesome. https://youtu.be/odkGVqP4fws Joburg fucked around with this message at 19:27 on Apr 27, 2022 |
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Apr 27, 2022 19:25
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Such a timely topic. I got a fire ant bite while watering the garden on Tuesday, by Wednesday my whole hand was swollen. Being new to the South, it was only my third fire ant bite and I wasn’t sure if the swelling was out of the norm, each has been worse than the last. My allergy nurse was like “oh, that’s not normal!” So that was fun. Antibiotics and a steroid has cleared it right up though. I bought some of that spinosad stuff and I’m going to give that a try. And get tested for a fire ant allergy next time I see the allergist 
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Apr 30, 2022 00:32
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I ordered 6 citrus trees from https://www.georgiagrowncitrus.com this spring and they look really good. Except the one that the mole burrowed under.  My dog’s ACL surgery & recovery is really taking a toll on my pest removal program.All of you non-Georgia residents can’t order the UGA Southern varieties but the UGA Frost Navel is doing the best of all of them so far.
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Apr 30, 2022 11:52
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You’ve discovered one reason people have kept cats and dogs throughout history. A rat terrier would solve your problem. Or a Great Dane - Poodle. After a lot of digging she caught and killed the mole. 
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May 11, 2022 14:31
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I think squirrels will eat just about anything. I saw this guy carrying a huge mushroom last month. Doggo in her natural habitat. 
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May 13, 2022 18:32
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FogHelmut posted:Welp, I left these guys in there. Crows just dug up my whole garden trying to get them. Lost half of my baby plants. Crows have been eyeing my ducklings and chicks, so I talked to my neighbor and he recommends shooting a crow and hanging the body as a warning. He did it years ago and after the crow funeral, the crows left and didn’t come back to his yard for years. In lieu of shooting a crow, I ordered a fake dead crow. It should arrive next week so I’ll see if it works or if the crows are too smart for that.
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May 20, 2022 19:47
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That site didn’t mention the squish method, which is my favorite.
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May 27, 2022 18:37
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My fake dead crow is working, so you could try that. I doubt they believe it’s a real crow but they’ve stayed away so that’s a win!
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May 30, 2022 02:39
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Chad Sexington posted:I'm remembering why my tomatoes were a mess last year. I get way too sentimental about pruning well-developed branches and suckers that have already put out flowers. Trying to be ruthless, but I am terrible at that. I have that problem too. This summer I’ve been pruning off the large suckers and rooting them in water. I figure if I can’t find a spot for them I can give them away to neighbors. Maybe I will keep them in pots and play around with optimal shade locations for the heat of the summer. It’s totally normal to have a huge tomato plant on a cart, right?
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Jun 3, 2022 20:07
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I’m going to need a bigger cart.
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Jun 3, 2022 20:30
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For 3 sisters with okra or sunflowers, how long after you plant the tall crop do you plant the beans? I read that for corn you should wait until it’s at least 6” tall but my okra are mostly slow growers so they would be overtaken. None of my sunflowers germinated at all (birds ) but I might try again with a net over the top and then decide about adding cowpeas. My neighbors gave me 7 gallons of green beans so I am pretty good on those.Volunteer sorghum is growing well! Thanks chickens! 
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Jun 9, 2022 00:32
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poverty goat posted:Also the pink oysters are still going outside That particular pink hue sets off “do not eat” alarm bells in my head. I think it’s the same color as the mold that grows in beef tallow if I didn’t get all the meat particles out. The person who first ate those mushrooms was braver than I am!
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Jun 12, 2022 17:23
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Deer fly solution starting at 5:40 https://youtu.be/BZ62JZF6VZA I haven’t tried it myself but it looks really effective.
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Jun 22, 2022 01:02
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unlimited shrimp posted:Can I use a water transfer pump to boost pressure in a 200ft run of garden hose that's attached to a standard wall hydrant? Yes. I did that at my last house and it helped a lot. Some stores call them an Irrigation Pump.
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Jun 25, 2022 23:33
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unlimited shrimp posted:Cool, thank you. Did you have to take any special care with the size of pump you used? Like if I am getting maybe 5 gallons a minute at the hose head should I be looking for a pump that moves less than that? I think I used a 1 HP model, I was concerned about messing something up so I went with the smaller model. We were getting 4 gpm without it but I didn’t measure after I installed the pump. At the end of the 1000’ run it wasn’t blasting out or anything. We were on a well, so I don’t know what effect a pump would have if you are on city water.
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Jun 26, 2022 20:42
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I keep out deer with a 4’ electric net fence, 30’ of dog yard, then a 3 wire fence to keep the dogs out of my garden. Squirrels will come into the dog yard but haven’t been brave enough yet to go all the way to the garden. One chicken has started to frequent the garden in the morning and she’s been breaking some of my seedlings but hopefully she will eat the flea beetles that have ravaged my callaloo.  My real trouble is the fire ants. I am trying to stick with spinosad bait in the garden and direct spinosad application on the mounds, but drat those things are prolific! If anyone has some great advice please share. Also, I’ve been harvesting hornworms for the ducks. 
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Jul 18, 2022 13:22
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rojay posted:I try to find them on my tomatoes before they get that size, but ... I know! I check my tomatoes most days but apparently missed those monsters. They were so big that the ducks had trouble eating them.
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Jul 19, 2022 14:38
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Putting in my winter garden today and I got 2 fire ant bites. This happens EVERY SINGLE TIME that I garden. I am now pre-allergic to the drat things and I’m back to carrying an epipen. These better be the most delicious brassicas that I’ve ever tasted.
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Oct 23, 2022 02:41
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This past summer I planted about 8. I pretended they were little trees and spaced them around the border of the yard. Hopefully I’ll have a naturalized tomatillo border for years to come 
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Jan 1, 2023 01:13
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Last year I kept a sacrifice tomato plant away from my main garden and put some hornworms there. The rest got fed to my chickens and ducks.
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Feb 18, 2023 15:53
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If you haven’t yet, check out the San Diego Seed Company. They put out a lot of YouTube videos about what to plant in zone 9&10 all through the year. I moved to zone 8b Georgia in fall of 2021 so I’m still learning a lot. Last year all the neighbors pretty much quit gardening at all through July and August. They just let their plants rot and then start their fall crops at the end of August. We have many more humidity-related diseases here but that might still be a good strategy for you. If you plant a couple early varieties you can get a harvest before the worst of the heat and then plant more for early fall. I would imagine that you can do all the cool weather crops that I can all through the fall and winter. It’s really fantastic to have your own fresh veg in the middle of winter, all those brassicas and mustards… yum!
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Feb 21, 2023 00:10
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Goats love sweet gum trees.
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Apr 7, 2023 00:34
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CommonShore posted:gently caress flea beetles This year I had some mustard greens that I was letting go to seed and it turns out they are a fantastic trap crop for flea beetles. Almost no damage on anything else and the mustard leaves were eaten to tatters but the plants kept on truckin’. And they produced a ton of seeds. I had a couple volunteer mustard pop up this spring so I left them in. Amaranth is also a good flea beetle trap crop. I tried to grow it last year and it really struggled because of the flea beetles until I started spraying spinosad. This year I didn’t even bother planting any. All the volunteers have been decimated. I’m trying to save the spinosad for the fire ants now. I don’t want to overuse it and have them become resistant to it. Fire ants are the worst.
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Jun 5, 2023 02:23
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I have a squirrel dog so my black berries are safe but he also digs holes obsessively so my yard is a dirt patch. Yesterday he pulled up a freshly transplanted zinnia… he’s lucky I love him. I pulled up most of my cucumbers today (zone 8b Georgia so they were already about done), they were starting to look sickly and I found they had Root Knot Nematode. I ordered some beneficial nematodes to apply this summer so maybe I can get a handle in the problem. Anyone have advice?
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Jun 9, 2023 17:03
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mischief, do you have to be careful around cats with the permethrin treated clothing? I had a couple ticks already and it would be nice to not have to reapply bug spray all the time but I do cuddle my cat outside sometimes. Looking at the pet section gives me ideas about fashioning some sort of collar cover for my goats. (They would eat a full bandana for sure.) Poor Tiny had a tick right next to her eye on hoof trimming day last week.  We we’re able to remove it but it was not a fun few minutes!https://imgur.com/gallery/TzjPjnb
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Jun 11, 2023 03:18
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I added pumpkin to some goat curry last winter and it was really good. Some pumpkin would probably do ok in a chili too. Mostly it gets used in pumpkin bread or fed to my chickens and goats.
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Jun 13, 2023 02:47
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| # ¿ May 13, 2024 23:03 |
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Dr. Eldarion posted:"I'll plant a little catnip for the cat" has quickly turned into "holy poo poo what do I do with all this catnip WTF". I'm pretty sure I couldn't kill this thing if I wanted to. Thankfully I had the foresight to put it in a planter. Try catnip tea. It’s pretty good and your cat might like it too.
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Jun 13, 2023 23:59
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