Hunkered Down
On Sunday morning, we had a few hawk attempts on our chicken flocks. Unfortunately we lost one of our barred hens, but the rest managed to hunker down enough. We had one hawk go after our small flock of layers from our meat chicken flock. They were living under the apple tree in the front yard waiting to be integrated into the main flock. We lost this poor little chicken to what I think was a Cooper’s Hawk.
That same morning I scared another hawk off of the top of the chicken coop thanks to the guineas letting me know that something wasn’t right. The chickens were in the coop, but the guineas were still out and about. That same hawk was back on 5 minutes later trying to nab a guinea in the woods. Luckily, guineas are fast on their feet and they were in a fairly brushy are of the woods. After that, everyone went inside the chicken run and coop and spent the day hunkered down behind chicken wire and hardware cloth.
The rest of that day they stayed inside. Yesterday we also had a hawk flying over, thankfully, the guineas once again let us know. The chickens are all on high alert, spending most of their day in the thick underbrush by their coop. We frequently have eagles flying over, but this is our first time spotting hawks.
What birds of prey do you have flying over your garden? Do you have issues with them eyeing any of your pets or livestock?
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Friday Favorite: Strawberries in October
This spring I planted 25 ‘Seascape’ strawberry plants in my garden. They took their time getting settled in and finally started producing a few berries last month. They’re really in the swing of things right now. I’m not the only one growing these beauties, there’s a stand at the farmers market that has had them for the last month as well.
It’s kind of crazy to be harvesting fresh strawberries from my own garden at the end of October. I’m not complaining, a handful of fresh strawberries is just as good in October as it is in June. It’s kind of like the last hurrah of summer before the snow flies!
Do you have any ever bearing strawberries in your garden?
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Hello Squash
I’ve never had much space in the garden for growing winter squash. Their vines sprawl far and wide, much farther than I ever had the space to give them in my tiny space. Now that I have a large garden, squash finally made the cut.
Frost was predicted for the night before last, so I decided it was time to harvest all the winter squash. This year I grew ‘Sweet Meat’ and ‘Waltham Butternut” from Baker Creek, along with ‘Burgess Buttercup Squash’ and ‘Delicata’ from High Mowing Seeds.
There were loads of beautiful delicata squash in the garden as well, but the voles and porcupines have been going crazy eating them. I managed to harvest four for us to eat. You can see here they were starting in on the pumpkins as well. At least they almost always came back to this pumpkin instead of gnawing on every single one.
Now all the squash are sitting in an upstairs window where they’ll stay warm. Squash don’t like cool storage like other vegetables, it’s best to keep them in the same conditions you like to live in. I’ll probably pile them in a corner of the living room after a few weeks.
In mid summer I planted a second crop of zucchini, mostly for feeding the chickens, ducks and pigs. They’re still going very strong. In fact I harvested about twice this many zucchini. They’ll be slowly eaten by the animals and us over the nest few weeks. The smaller ones are dried into zucchini noodles for us to eat on this winter.
Next year I’m planting about half of my big main garden in squash. I plan on growing a good amount for animal feed in a well mulched area of the garden since I won’t have time to grow crops that need more attention. I’m thinking however that an electric fence around the garden is going to be a good idea.
Do you grow winter squash in your garden?
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Garlic Planting Guide
Along with spring flowering bulbs, fall is the time to plant garlic for next summer’s harvest. If you didn’t check the blog last week, today is the last day to enter the Garlic Giveaway from Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply (aka GrowOrganic.com) there’s still time to enter if you haven’t already, head on over to this post.
What kind of garlic should I plant?
As a general rule, northern gardeners in cold climates should grow hardneck varieties, southern gardeners in warmer climates should grow softneck varieties. That being said, experiment, try both types and different varieties of each to see what grows best in your particular area. It is reported that soft neck garlic stores longer than hardneck varieties, that might be enough of a benefit to try growing them in more northern climates. (softneck varieties to not have scapes and are also known as braiding garlic, hardneck varieties will produce scapes and have tough inner stalks that do not allow braiding, they produce scapes in early summer which can be harvested and eaten)
Where should I get my seed garlic?
I would recommend not using garlic purchased at the grocery store, as some or all of it may be treated to inhibit sprouting. Most likely, it will not the right variety for your climate/region. It’s also grown for it’s storage/shipping traits rather than for flavor. When possible, source your seed garlic from your area/region. The local farmers market is often the best place to find varieties that do well in your area. If you cannot find local seed garlic, locate a seller that is in your same longitude. That being said, don’t be afraid to try new and interesting cultivars to find one that works best with your climate and one that suites your personal taste.
Once you grow garlic in your garden, you can save seed garlic from your harvest as long as you haven’t had issues with disease. These will generally be best suited to your climate/garden as they acclimate to your specific conditions over a few years. Choose the best bulbs from your harvest for replanting.
When do I plant garlic?
As a general rule, you want to plant garlic three to five weeks before the ground freezes. In general, October is a good month in most US zones to plant garlic, unless you live in an area that expects a lot of heat during this month. Don’t plant your garlic too soon or it will sprout too much and the leaves may be damaged during the winter. If you plant too late, it won’t have enough time to develop sufficient roots to get it through the winter.
How far apart should I space my garlic?
There really is no hard and fast rule, numerous studies have shown that garlic planted closer together actually increases yield but it decreases clove size. I generally follow the guidelines from The Complete Book of Garlic and plant bulbs 4-5 inches apart in the rows with 10 inches between rows. My harvests have always been very good using this spacing method. However, if your soil is very lean and dry, you might want to space a little farther apart.
How do I plant garlic?
After trials in my garden, I recommend using the kelp bath before for planting garlic. Break apart the heads carefully keeping the paper sheath around each close intact. Plant only plump healthy looking bulbs (eat the ones that don’t look great). Soak cloves overnight in a mix of: 1 gallon of water + 1 heaping Tablespoon of baking soda + 1 Tablespoon of fish emulsion or liquid kelp. Results have shown this increases yield and decreases risk of disease & pests.
Prepare soil fairly deeply, garlic will sends roots down 18-24 inches. Lay out a grid and make dibble holes at the spacing you plan on using. Planting depth is determined by winter temperatures. Severe winter areas should be planted roughly 4 inches deep and mulched well. In warmer regions planting is generally 2 inches deep with mulch on top of that. Don’t worry too much about getting this exact, garlic is very forgiving. Try varying the depth a little and keep track of which depth produces best in your garden.
Should I fertilize?
The fertilization needs of garlic will depends on your soil and climate. In general, you should add compost and aged manure to your garlic bed in the fall when you prepare the soil for planting. In the spring, when the ground is still cold (generally late March/April) watering with fish or kelp emulsion every 2 weeks for a month or so will give bulbs a boost. Fertilizing too much might result in lots of leaves and smaller bulbs or bulbs that don’t store as long or large bulbs that don’t keep well. Do not fertilize close to harvest.
Should I mulch my garlic?
Yes, I would definitely recommend adding a good layer of mulch to your garlic bed in the early winter. You probably will want to leave the mulch off of the bed until the ground is cold, adding mulch too early may prevent the freezing of the soil which will make your bulbs grow leaves prematurely. Also, do not remove the mulch too early in spring as a late spring freeze may then be detrimental to the bulbs. I find chopped fall leaves to be the perfect mulch for garlic.
Do you have any questions about planting garlic? Any great tips and tricks you’ve developed in your garden?
Want to know all more? Both of these books are phenomenal reads if you want to know all there is to know about garlic.
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Too Cute
These ducklings are simply too cute. I’ve said before that ducklings are my favorite little animals, ducks are one of my favorite adult animals as well. It’s hard to get anything done around here with so much cuteness walking around.
I try to keep an eye on these guys to make sure none of the cats are going after them. Mama duck is one tough cookie, she’s even threatened to attack Tara if she comes too close, but I still like to make sure she’s not getting them too far away. We had an eagle flying very low yesterday and found her with the ducklings way down the driveway. The ducks are the only animals we have that aren’t behind an electric fence for protection. They aren’t behind a fence because they simply fly over it.
I love how the immediately take to water, if I had a deep enough pool they’d be swimming already. On a sad note, none of our guinea keets have survived. The cold weather was simply too much for them to handle, which is what I figured would happen.
Could you get work done with these cuties around?
