Replanting and Renourishing

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.

From this - - -

To This

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. 

The Grass is always greener.....

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! 

Dundee enjoying a hand out

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.

Yogurt - Yummy

Water Hoses are Fun

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!!