It has been a quiet week, mostly, this past week. Not a whole lot of anything spectacular
happening. The end of July/beginning of
August is one of the hottest parts of summer in North
Florida. The vast majority
of spring/summer vegetables are harvested.
Some fall seeds are being planted and the weeds are having a field day
in the empty beds. Keeping the animals
and ourselves cool becomes the focus.
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| From this - - - |
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| To This |
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The gardens are looking very bare. Since the spring plantings are finished,
there are but a few plants remaining. Tomatoes,
okra and cow peas are the only plants I have left that are producing. The hotter it gets, it seems, the
more the okra is putting out. That is
incredible to me. I think I now know why
the dish, “tomatoes and okra”, was invented.
I do have 4 watermelons on the vine which are about ready to pick, so
we’ll be enjoying them shortly.
While I am out weeding, I get the opportunity to really study nature. It is amazing how nature works. I do not use chemicals in the garden - either as pesticides or fertilizer. Yes, I do sustain damage on occasion, but it is minimal when I pay attention. There are so many natural ways to combat pests and disease. Starting with healthy plants definitely helps. Encouraging nature to do its thing also helps. I have found predatory wasps many times, as well as lady bugs. Finds like this make me happy.
A garden of any type is new to this property.
When we moved here, it was hip high weeds and
blackberry bushes, no exaggeration.
Hubby harrowed a garden for me in the fall since he knew I was dying to
plant.
He is a wonderful love!
Since we were so new here, it was planted
as-is.
Since then, I have had the
benefit of “home-grown manure”.
It
really has made a difference.
Goat manure and bedding can go straight from the goat pens
into the garden, either as top dressing, or turned into the soil.
It is not hot and will not burn the
plants.
With that said, I do need to
tell you, I do not top dress any beds that will have lettuce or spinach or any
other “leafy” vegetables.
Since it will
take longer for the manure to break down when you top dress, it will sit there
and water (either from rain or watering) will splash on it then onto the
leaves.
ALL manure carries bacteria in
some form or another.
When treated
properly, it is benign, when not, it can be deadly.
The beds with leafy greens will have the
manure turned into the soil and then mulched with plain old hay.
The plain hay and the goat bedding also add a
nice layer of mulch, helping the soil retain moisture and keeping it a bit
cooler in our hot summer sun.
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| The Grass is always greener..... |
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| If she escapes, this is where I always find Peanut. |
The chicken manure, however, MUST be composted to some
degree. This means it takes longer for
me to accumulate enough to put on the beds.
I am not known for being patient.
I have a method of composting the chicken manure that has worked for me
for many years. I try to be as efficient
when working as is possible. I don’t
mind hard work in the least, but the thought of doing more than is necessary
seems a waste.
I have recently started putting the weeds from the garden
inside the chicken coop as well as in their pen. They LOVE digging and scratching through
those weeds for bugs and seeds. They
also eat several of the weed leaves. (I
got the idea earlier this summer when I realized the weeds they loved were
being left in the pen, wilting, while they hid from the sun inside the coop.) Typically, I put hay on the floor in their
coop. I figured I could put the weeds in
there as easily, saving me the cost of the hay AND giving them their treat in a
shaded, cooler area. They dig through, eating
the bugs, shredding the leaves and stems and pooping all over them. About every other month, I rake all the
bedding out of the coop, into their pen.
They think this is another special treat, so they take to scratching and
digging in them again, further shredding and dislodging any remaining seeds and
bugs. The next time I rake out their
coop, the weeds that were raked out the time before go into the wagon and are
taken to the compost pile. The next time
I rake out their coop, I do the same thing, but the weeds that had gone into
the compost pile are now ready for the garden.
Does that make sense? It seems to
have cut my chicken-manure composting down from 6 months to about 4
months. Still sounds like a lot – but 2
months time savings is a lot!
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| Dundee enjoying a hand out |
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| Some mornings they just cannot wait |
My “new” chickens are coming along. They are getting friendlier each day. The Australorps are the friendliest. I have made a concerted effort to make them
social. Ultimately, we are going to
raise only Australorps. Maybe. I cannot seem to help myself with chickens –
I love the different breeds. However, our focus will be the Aussies. They are an excellent layer and meat
bird. So, since I’ll have a lot of them,
I need to be able to handle them. The
rooster, Dundee, is learning to crow. He sounds SO bad! We sit on the porch and laugh at his
efforts. He is now 1 week shy of being 5
months old. I have not seen him do his "rooster thing" yet with any of the hens, though. I wonder if he is being careful of the other
rooster? Next week, we are likely going
to send said other rooster to freezer camp.
I am hoping with no competition, he’ll take over. We shall see.
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| Yogurt - Yummy |
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| Water Hoses are Fun |
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| Dundee |
There are new things happening at our Farmer’s Market.
I am the “Market Liaison”.
Sounds fancy, huh?
J That just means I am the loudest at pushing
to help make it bigger and I have been given the “ok” to do so.
I constantly contact people to see if they
would like to set up a booth.
It is hard
right now as the season is at a lull.
But, I am relentless.
On the 17
th,
we are moving the market to a spot that will have huge main road frontage.
I am VERY excited about this.
Right now, our location is beautiful, but it
is in a hidden spot.
Our signage is not
very good.
There are so many people who
do not know we even have a farmer’s market, much less where it is.
We are trying to fix that.
Our move comes because of some construction
that will be going on in our park.
The
city is building a pavilion.
Once it is
built, we are supposed to be moving back.
However, if we are doing well in the temporary location, we will
petition to stay there.
If that does not
work, at least we will have had several months of exposure and will be able to
“take” our new customers to the new location with us.
Wish us luck!!
