& So it begins, again.
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Topic: & So it begins, again.
Posted By: Shamu
Subject: & So it begins, again.
Date Posted: May 02 2018 at 8:48am
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Pretty soon these will be 3 kinds of tomatoes, 2 cherry & one Heirloom, peas, green-beans, 2 kinds of peppers, one mild, one screaming hot, & some decorative flowers that also keep the critters off. Marigolds off to the side. The twin towers 'o tomatoes, will be added once we get the soil (mostly reclaimed from last year & mixed with home-made compost) topped up with new potting soil.   nom nom.  ------------- Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force) |
Replies:
Posted By: Honkytonk
Date Posted: May 02 2018 at 10:36am
| Here in Manitoba I planted peas, radishes, Swiss chard and green onions yesterday. Winter was so long it's just nice to be at the range and in the garden! |
Posted By: hoadie
Date Posted: May 02 2018 at 12:44pm
Welcome to Ontario!! Where we go from furnace to Air conditioner inside of 30 minutes!  ------------- Loose wimmen tightened here |
Posted By: A square 10
Date Posted: May 02 2018 at 8:46pm
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im thinking the same - range and ...oh yes i dont garden , i kill everything i try to grow , but i admire those of you that do , congrats on the start of the farming season , furnace is off but the air is not coming on till the humidity gets intolerable , i need a little relief on the utility bill these days ,
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Posted By: Shamu
Date Posted: May 03 2018 at 9:19am
Oh, don't feel bad, I had "Brown Fingers" too for the longest time. I honestly don't know what changed but the Mrs. had this dish garden plant, a kind of bonsai palm. It was probably 18" tall maximum. I took it over & the poor thing loved the attention & we now call it "Audrey 3" after Little Shop Of Horrors its so big!  ------------- Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force) |
Posted By: hoadie
Date Posted: May 03 2018 at 9:42am
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A Sq: Not everyone has a green thumb. Heres a tip: plant chickens. They give ya eggs & meat  ------------- Loose wimmen tightened here |
Posted By: buckeye55
Date Posted: May 03 2018 at 11:11am
| We had 2" of snow at my house on the 24th of April. Tuesday night (5/1) I planted potatoes wearing shorts and about sweat myself dry. We ran the furnace one night and the next day had the A/C on. But I got the spuds planted, along with one row of green beans and a square of sweet corn.I'd rather work in the garden than shovel snow any day of the week. |
Posted By: A square 10
Date Posted: May 03 2018 at 6:53pm
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thanks hoadie - i need something to keep the lawn mowed and fertilize - i think a couple tiny cows might do the trick , do they come in a small size ? buckeye55 - yup just mentioned this morning it was hard to believe we got a foot of snow three weekends back , my lawn will need mowing in another week
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Posted By: Canuck
Date Posted: May 03 2018 at 7:55pm
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A square get some goats! ------------- Castles made of sand slip into the sea.....eventually |
Posted By: hoadie
Date Posted: May 04 2018 at 2:56am
Turkeys!! Turkeys do "double duty". They eat every weed you have, eat a lot of bugs, and make the best security system you could imagine.(They raise he!! every time someone comes on your property) Plant turkeys!! Thanksgiving & Christmas will be looked after, as well!  ------------- Loose wimmen tightened here |
Posted By: Shamu
Date Posted: May 04 2018 at 6:07am
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Sure, no problem. Mini Texas Land Mines included. ------------- Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force) |
Posted By: A square 10
Date Posted: May 04 2018 at 7:32pm
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i thought of the goats but they pull things out by the roots , i like that mini cow , i got wild turkeys from time to time - be great to rid the lawn of weeds and bugs but the neighbors feed the wild ones so ill probably loose out to them , i am in the middle of town BTW even tho looking out my back windows denys it , smack dab in the center of 20,000+ fellow dwellers , excuse the mess - these were taken when the tree fell on the house in the storm , i cut and burned for a good week , the river is not all that big - it drains into the mississippi about eight blocks from here , obviously mowing was not the priority at that time
 
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Posted By: Shamu
Date Posted: May 05 2018 at 7:25am
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"Its alive! ALIVE I TELL YOU"! (with apologies to Mel Brooks) I know it doesn't look like much, but its sort of a milestone. These little shoots are our first actual from scratch seed plantings to sprout. The toothpicks just indicate where we planted individual peas or beans so we can tell what germinated & what didn't, 4 to a container, when they get bigger they'll go into troughs we have waiting. The seeds were saved & dried from last year's crop so we're recycling about everything. We kept the soil, made compost, blended it & are re-using last years soil (enriched with all the biomass from last year's crop) & some other stuff (like grass clippings). The peppers we're not so sure about, none have sprouted yet & frequently store-bought plants are treated so they wont germinate next year, forcing you to buy more seedlings.  ------------- Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force) |
Posted By: Bear43
Date Posted: May 05 2018 at 9:52am
| Shamu, how do you do your composting? I am going to start a compost pile as I have to do what I can to reduce any trash going in the bin. Burnables and organic materials are a surprising amount of it. Anyway, any tips on composting would be appreciated. |
Posted By: Shamu
Date Posted: May 05 2018 at 11:38am
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It can be ridiculously simple. Or massively complex. I went with simple. A 55-gallon plastic trash can & some rope. (use more drums if needed as the volume grows)! I drilled a bunch of 3/4" holes all over it (including the bottom). This stops it getting too wet & allows air (oxygen) to get mixed in with the compost. The rope is used to secure the top by use of the handles. (more on this in a few). All composting requires three basic ingredients:
Your compost pile (bin in my case) should have an equal amount of browns to greens. You should also alternate layers of organic materials of different-sized particles. (potting soil, the cheap kind) The brown materials provide carbon for your compost, the green materials provide nitrogen, and the water provides moisture to help break down the organic matter. You just add as you create it, mow the yard in goes the clippings & an equal volume of old dead brown leaves , chopped up hay (whatever "dead, brown stuff" you use) I add water at first til it runs out the holes. In my 55 gal can its about 3~4 gallons. Let the excess run out & wait 4~7 days, open the lid "feel" the moisture content, "Damp, but not soggy" is about right. Re close the lid & tie it shut. Every day for a week rotate the drum one full turn end over end & back. (This is why you want the lid tied on well) Periodically check moisture & add as needed. If you're storing a while (a good idea, longer is better) rotate once a week after this until used. You can keep going till the bin is about 3/4 full. You should be able to stop adding water at this point. Then stop, or start a second bin. Your volume will shrink as it breaks down, so keep adding & checking till its 3/4 full after shrinkage. You can't over store it, but you do want to stop adding more about 3 weeks before you intend to use any. To use it just put on top of, or mix in with (better) the soil you're going to grow in. It doesn't have to be a fine mix just vaguely even. After adding to soil water again to distribute the goodies. Steam rising from the holes is normal. It should never smell "bad" just like damp earthy soil. ------------- Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force) |
Posted By: Canuck
Date Posted: May 05 2018 at 12:35pm
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I would do the same except for the rodent problem here. I had a small composter and had rats invade it. ------------- Castles made of sand slip into the sea.....eventually |
Posted By: Shamu
Date Posted: May 05 2018 at 2:03pm
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Wow! Never had that problem. Then again I'm not composting "normally". Usually you add a bit at a time, but I recycled an entire years worth of soil, plant material & dead brown stuff in one, giant shot! Then I let it decompose slowly over the entire winter. Was you pile somehow rotting instead of decomposing? Its a fairly common problem. Some things (like meats) should never go in the composter because they break down differently.  ------------- Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force) |
Posted By: Honkytonk
Date Posted: May 05 2018 at 3:23pm
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Manitoba, Canada. Just checked my garden. Radishes (seed tape) up! Onions (from a set) up! I'm hoping my early cold weather crop of Swiss Chard and Peas should be popping up within the week. Will plant beets and lettuce on May 15th, beans and cukes on May Long Wkd, tomatoes the next weekend after that. Weather permitting... |
Posted By: A square 10
Date Posted: May 05 2018 at 8:22pm
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im not composting "normal" im not at all normal most of the time i have a slight gully behind a lot of greenery -junipers= they camouflage what is happening , i dump all my leaves and grass clippings - builds up each season[fall -summer] then sinks back every spring , been doing it for near 30 years now , ive not tried digging in the bottom yet - never needed to - but bet its really rich , it gets the rain that nature gives it , not a lot of coffee grounds and vegetable waste but some - occasional dead bird or squirrel , a couple dead fish over those years , i add the ash from my fire ring occasionally - every couple years or so , im certain my situation is not for those that really compost , they would pay attention to it and use it , im more filling in a ravine , but i know i have it if needed and its out of the way/convenient/out of sight , i dont need to use the local landfill and im not burning any of it - not that i subscribe to the human contribution to climate change in any way ---hawaii is currently naturally contributing to that with no human control
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Posted By: hoadie
Date Posted: May 06 2018 at 2:57am
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I'm told that fire-pit / fireplace ash is very acidic. Not good for much ------------- Loose wimmen tightened here |
Posted By: Shamu
Date Posted: May 06 2018 at 6:53am
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Just the opposite its very basic, but too much of that is a bad thing too. It does have a lot of potassium in it though so its good for certain plants only. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_ash" rel="nofollow - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_ash ------------- Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force) |
Posted By: Pukka Bundook
Date Posted: May 06 2018 at 7:04am
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Ash will do your garden good Hoadie. just spread it about . Here we still have the remains of snow in sheltered spots. Nowt planted in garden, but some fields cultivated and hayland harrowed -mole-floated. Had problems with ravens on sister's land! As soon as I set moletraps, the sods pull them out to see if there's a mole to eat! Never had this problem before. They could pull them out as fast as I put them in. Shot 2 or 3 but they still kept doing it. The stick with a flag on didn't deter them. Had to cover the traps (already buried in the ground) with paper and they pulled that off as well, but old rags over the traps seem to keep them off. Sods. |
Posted By: Honkytonk
Date Posted: May 06 2018 at 8:28am
| We used to get .10 for a left Ravens foot, .05 for s crows. We'd stack up the dead gophers we'd just trapped (.10 a tail) and set traps around the pile. Worked every time for the "friends of Poe". |
Posted By: hoadie
Date Posted: May 06 2018 at 11:35am
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Pukka: For an afternoon of fun..get a good owl replica. Stick it on a pole. Sit in a lawn chair nearby, with your shotgun(s) & blast away. I don't think ravens like owls very much, so they'll turn their attention to the decoy. ------------- Loose wimmen tightened here |
Posted By: Shamu
Date Posted: May 06 2018 at 4:42pm
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We'd get 5 pennies (not Pence) for every rooks head. "If you see 10 crows together they're rooks. If you see on rook on his own he's a crow". "Water Rats" (not Water Voles) were our ammo money spinner. We'd get a "bob a pop" (an old shilling) for every one we killed from the local fishing club. Then we'd sell the pelts for 3 times that! I was an Olympic level Water Rat Skinner for several years as a teen.  Never tell the Mrs what "Winter Mink" is, hint! ------------- Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force) |
Posted By: hoadie
Date Posted: May 06 2018 at 5:42pm
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Humph..whaddya know? I always thought that a buncha crows was a "murder". ------------- Loose wimmen tightened here |
Posted By: White Rhino
Date Posted: May 06 2018 at 6:22pm
Shamu , Down her there used to be a lot of trapping for them, we call them Nutria down here, now days there is a $5 bounty on them , you bring in the tails to get paid .... seen a couple some time ago, one in my back pasture and one down the road, we shot the one down the road , but I was not able to get the one in the pasture... he hit the water to fast before I got my pistol out of holster !!! ------------- "White Rhino" "Everybody's got to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer." --W. C. Fields |
Shamu wrote:Posted By: Shamu
Date Posted: May 06 2018 at 6:22pm
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I think European & American Rooks, Crows & maybe even Ravens are different birds? Perhaps the colonists originally saw something familiar in a strange (to them) land & gave them the same name. Take the robin, for example: European robin:  Short chubby little sparrow-sized winter bird. American Robin:  Totally different animal. ------------- Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force) |
Posted By: Pukka Bundook
Date Posted: May 06 2018 at 9:03pm
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Sham, The rooks had bald skin around the base of the beak as well. I loved the sounds of a rookery in spring! We don't get them over here. Yes, I miss the real robin as well, and song-thrush and blackbird. Nothing sings like a blackbird after a thunder shower. Songthrush was beautiful as he sang at dusk. Now I'm off to cry in the beer I don't have! Started on moles at sister's place Thursday, and hav e49 up to now, even with fighting the ruddy ravens. Hoadie, Good idea on the owl! Get me own back on them! I set some traps baited with moles, (pocket gophers ) and they didn't like the look of them, and got wary of my regular mole traps as well! Not touched any traps today. Mind, I have pieces of rag laid over them. Never had to do that before!
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Posted By: Shamu
Date Posted: May 07 2018 at 6:29am
Yes. This is an English rook. ------------- Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force) |
Posted By: Shamu
Date Posted: May 07 2018 at 6:33am
& this a Carrion Crow ------------- Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force) |
Posted By: Shamu
Date Posted: May 07 2018 at 6:37am
Yup that's them, pairs of holes with an underwater entrance as well. You had to be very stealthy or all you'd see is muddy swirls. Tough buggers as well, we used .22RF & they'd take a couple of shots even with good placement! ------------- Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force) |
Posted By: Pukka Bundook
Date Posted: May 07 2018 at 4:39pm
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We didn't give the carrion crows any quarter Sham. Rooks we sort of liked, as they were good at getting grubs out the fields. Wireworm and such. Needed thinning if they were getting into newly sprouted corn. (Wheat, oats or barley). Coypu we didn't have up north, but wbefore the bad winter killed them off in droves, they made lovely flight ponds in the fens,.....ate out great patches of the common reed. Was water where there hadn't been any for decades at least.
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Posted By: Shamu
Date Posted: May 08 2018 at 6:39am
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Yup. The coypu we had were all escaped from fur farms. ------------- Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force) |
Posted By: A square 10
Date Posted: May 09 2018 at 8:26pm
| the fire pit ash works wonders on the ice that sometimes gets you stuck around here , but need to watch where you track it as the wife is not happy when it comes inside , |
Posted By: hoadie
Date Posted: May 10 2018 at 11:12am
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women have no sense of humour or generosity ------------- Loose wimmen tightened here |
Posted By: Shamu
Date Posted: May 10 2018 at 2:29pm
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Well we sprouted the peas & beans & got them in the dirt.
Amazing how a 1/4" plant can build a golf ball sized root ball with a 3"
tap root in a week! Now we're trying again for the pepper seeds to sprout. No luck so far.   ------------- Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force) |
Posted By: Shamu
Date Posted: May 10 2018 at 2:30pm
If you flick back to P1 you can see the growth. ------------- Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force) |
Posted By: hoadie
Date Posted: May 10 2018 at 6:51pm
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Evidentally - you don't have any problem with squirrels ------------- Loose wimmen tightened here |
Posted By: Shamu
Date Posted: May 11 2018 at 5:40am
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Mint, they hate the stuff. ------------- Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force) |
Posted By: Honkytonk
Date Posted: May 11 2018 at 5:50am
| Squirrels also don't like lead. Shot two last week with a .22. I made a stew (first time). It was very good! Hint. Cook low and slow for tender meat! Also, two doesn't make a lot! |