~*August 2011 Food Growing Mamas*~ - Page 2

[Holloeness]

Originally Posted by Ruthiegirl 

Ruth Stout?  She is a hero in my house.  Love her writing.  

Yes Ruth Stout, I found it very useful but I was still confused on starting a garden so I just followed directions on the seed packets and went to organicgarding.com.  

[Ruthiegirl]

Still going strong here.  Most of the beds are cleared and planted.  I have one more back area and am waiting for my lettuce seedlings to get a little bigger before I transplant them.  I think I have most of the heavy work done just in time.  My baby belly is getting big so fast and I am getting tired with all of the bending and digging.  Whew!  How did women keep up with farm work and kids 100 years ago?  Thank goodness our garden is simply supplemental food. 

Seeded the spinach bed this morning.  I have been so disappointed with the volume of seeds I have ordered this Fall.  My seed packets are normal size, but they seem to have half the seeds that they normally do.  Is this just another indicator of our declining economy?  I have been extremely careful with my seeds this year and some of beds are very thinly seeded.  I suppose I will have little to no thinning to do later.  

[Ruthiegirl]

Originally Posted by Holloeness 

Yes Ruth Stout, I found it very useful but I was still confused on starting a garden so I just followed directions on the seed packets and went to organicgarding.com.  

Yes, I find gardening books wonderful and confusing, too.  I love to read them, but find that I just have to get out there and figure things out for myself.  I make a LOT of mistakes and learn and keep going.  I have at least one spectacular failure every year.  Just part of the learning process, I guess.  

Local gardeners can be really helpful.  I like organic gardening as well as Mother Earth news for more info.  And plain, old experience is a great teacher.  
 

[Juise]

Hey, for those of you with chickens, how do they do in your garden?

[FarmerCathy]

Originally Posted by Juise 

Hey, for those of you with chickens, how do they do in your garden?

They like to eat stuff, esp. tomatoes.  If you have an area in the garden you can fence them in where they can scratch around that stuff is kind of dying, then it would probably be fine, but the best fowl for the garden is muscovy ducks.  They eat the bugs and don't really bother the plants.

[SweetSilver]

Originally Posted by Holloeness 

At least they are garter snakes, they're cute and small (small right?) 

We in the PNW are lucky as far as snakes are concerned--nothing poisonous (though we do have newts with toxic skin!)  I've caught our garters a few times, but they release this foul cadaver smell that is hard to wash off your hands.

[Holloeness]

Originally Posted by SweetSilver 

We in the PNW are lucky as far as snakes are concerned--nothing poisonous (though we do have newts with toxic skin!)  I've caught our garters a few times, but they release this foul cadaver smell that is hard to wash off your hands.

That's interesting, my dh used to handle the garter snakes that were in AZ and maybe TX just because he likes snakes.  Maybe when its when they need to defend themselves.
 

[Juise]

Gee, somehow I forgot to mention my biggest, worst garden pest. We have lost every single one of every kind of our tomatoes and peppers due to it! All taken, while still small and green. The 1 y/o!!

[FarmerCathy]

Originally Posted by Juise 

Gee, somehow I forgot to mention my biggest, worst garden pest. We have lost every single one of every kind of our tomatoes and peppers due to it! All taken, while still small and green. The 1 y/o!!

Heh.  That's the cutest kind to have.
 

[Lovesong]

Originally Posted by FarmerCathy 

Heh.  That's the cutest kind to have.
 

Except for when they are not your own, escaping from the neighbours into your garden that isn't really toddler proofed yet and are suddenly munching on something that you have no idea if it is super toxic or not since you've never really thought about it since the plant has grown in your garden since long before you came into the world...really, we have such a huge garden, with so many surprise plants appearing each year (many bird planted, so to speak) that I just can't be responsible for knowing if they are toxic to consume or not! Especially not in the sadly neglected back-part of our garden where we almost never go ourselves, letting it grow mostly wild. Which is much appreciated by the hedgehogs etc.

[SweetSilver]

Just had the best potato harvest ever, off a volunteer potato (how DO you completely remove potatoes from a bed?)  I can't take credit for that.  But the green beans are making me feel like a gardener again!

[Juise]

Yay SweetSilver! Our potatoes have not started dying back yet, but we did pull up the onions today. Mmm!

Hey zone 5ish people, have you got all your Fall harvest crops in? Is there anything I can still sneak in aside from lettuce and cabbages?

My back is finally starting to feel well enough to start catching up, I am so happy! Especially since I am hosting a perennial exchange for my Freecycle group coming up her in September Oh I wish I could sneak out of it at this point! I proposed it back in Spring, when everything was dandy. Oh well, I will do what I can. I got one bed all weed free, which was an accomplishment! My 3 y/o was helping me out up until she discovered a toad to carry off and play with, and she found the height of some of those weeds just hilarious. "They're just like the corn!" she says. Yep. Pretty tall.