So, I'm going to go ahead and apologize in advance since this post is going to be short on descriptions and advice this week. Nate and I have both been fighting a nasty cold this week on top of the bizarre training schedule we've been on for work. Thankfully though, things are back to normal with our work shifts now that training is done and so far, being Tech Support is pretty awesome. We've got a lot of plants coming up to first harvest as well as some wonderful things getting ready for harvest in the garden.
In the back garden, our lettuce, peas, and strawberries are ready for harvest! We haven't picked any lettuce for salads yet, but I did pull some bolted arugula for the rabbits and they seemed to love it! Our first bowl of ripe strawberries is in the fridge and will likely be dessert this evening before bedtime. I just love fresh strawberries. The sweetness and juiciness just can't compare with anything that the supermarket has to offer.
The tomatoes and peppers are doing wonderfully! We've had a lot of rain lately and the tomatoes that were looking a bit leggy and sparse have filled out nicely. We have small fruits on many of the plants and look forward to the first cherry tomatoes for our salads soon. The pepperoncinis are coming along nicely and have even outdone the early jalapenos for setting fruits first. If the number of peppers we have on them is any indication, Nate will have a good many to pickle and store once we hit the high point of the season. Since we had so few bell pepper plants sprout, we ordered some starts from Seed Savers Exchange of Bull's Nose and King of the North peppers. I'm excited to have Bull's Nose in my garden since they are a variety that Thomas Jefferson grew in his gardens at Monticello.
Nate's herb beds are looking fabulous! The chickens and ducks have been enjoying nibbling on cut leaves and flowers from the Comfrey that is nearly as tall as I am. Both the Angelica and the Valerian are close to flowering and the Valerian is easily taller than me at this point. It amazes me that when we got them as starts, they were no taller than my hand and now they are taller than me.
Nibble continues to mother her 10 eggs in the gentlest, sweetest way possible. We haven't had any more quitter eggs, and are excited to report that on every candling, we see vigorous, active little ducklings swimming around inside the eggs. Neither of us remembers her first clutch being this active in the shell, so we're hoping that this time around, we'll have a much better survivor rate. We are weighing our options once they reach point of hatch though. The two ducklings that did hatch seemed as if they were either accidentally trampled or that maybe one of the boys got nasty with them after they hatched. Our options are to remove the boys from the run temporarily until the little ones hatch and fluff up and mama has a chance to bond with them, or to move them inside under a heat lamp once they pip the eggs and let them hatch and fluff up inside and then give them back to mama once they are steady on their feet. My concern with the second option is that they may miss out on the crucial bonding moments after hatching and might not accept Nibs as their mama (or vice-versa) and then we'd be hand raising 10 ducklings on our own. (2 was enough!) I miscalculated how many days duck eggs take to hatch in my last post... their incubation can take between 25-28 days, so that leaves us with between 6 and 9 days before we reach hatch time. Wow has the time flown by!
Jamie and Kenny have a lot going on at their homestead too! We are definitely jealous that they are harvesting so much already!
This week has been super-exciting around our place. We've gotten our first few bowls of lettuce, 3 yellow squash, 1 zucchini, 11 snap peas and a handful of mint (which we used to make ice cream) from the garden. As I've never successfully grown anything edible before now, this is a HUGE deal for me.
After almost a week of rain, everything in the garden went a little wild, but NOTHING compares to the squash and zucchini. You can barely see it, but there actually are beets growing in this picture. I'm thinking I'll probably have to give them their own bed next year.
Our pumpkin patch started blooming just a few days ago, and vines have started climbing up and reaching through the fence in all directions.
My tomatoes, which were all looking so sad and wimpy, finally seem to be really taking root. I've also been relieved to see that the bug-bait eggplants, while still looking pretty eaten up, are getting new leaves. My peas have also made some pretty big strides and are actually hanging onto their trellis (and not just each other).
Then there are our beautiful girls! I am so in love with these chickens it's a little silly. They've finally learned that light=outside time, and they will wait at their little door clucking until the door is open and they can rush out. They've also discovered that they get weeds when I'm in the garden, so they tend to hover on that side of the run whenever they see me head that way.
I almost forgot! My watermelon seedlings have started looking more vine-like and lively after all the rain, I spotted 2 new flowers on my cucumbers this morning, AND my sunflowers are now approximately up to my hips (though not blooming yet, sadly).
And finally Elaine provides us with a bit of a mystery along with an update. Somthing determined that her dill would be tasty and decide to eat it all, it is totally gone!
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| Basil - I want to make homemade pesto! |
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| Stevia plant needed support so I added a small trellis! |
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| Mint overload! Guess who is drinking mint tea! |
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| Anxiously waiting for fresh blueberries! I planted more petunias this week and more marigolds. |
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| We have plenty of salad lettuces, and I staked the tomatoes this week! |
Until next week, Happy Gardening!
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