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  1. schmije

    Can it Hurt Them?

    I've seen my chickens eat a lot worse stuff than 3 month old manure. Yours will be fine.
  2. schmije

    We've waged war on the Japanese beetles

    Our Japanese beetle traps were constantly overflowing, so we replaced the typical plastic container with a tall kitchen bag. This is one day's worth of beetles, and we have a second trap that looks almost identical. The swarms of beetles around the traps are unbelievable. What are you...
  3. schmije

    pool water for garden?

    Would there be anything wrong with using the water even if it had some algae in it?
  4. schmije

    Advice for my backyard garden

    I don't have much advice for you, but I wanted to say that I love how you've squeezed so much into such a limited space. Do your tomatoes do very well with the shade and cooler weather? My only concern, like Mama Chicken, is that your garage may not have the structural strength to handle the...
  5. schmije

    New members of our family

    How cute! I hope one of my hens goes broody in the spring. I'd love to have them raise some babies for me!
  6. schmije

    Pole Beans Not Flowering

    Our pole beans are always slow to produce too, but once they start, they go crazy. We have huge vines going up the trellis, but no blooms yet. Our bush beans were planted a few weeks later, and they're starting to have small beans now. DH is dying for the first green beans of the season...
  7. schmije

    Big Morning Surprise *warning: big pictures*

    You're going to have to change your signature. Now you have THREE horses! ;) Congrats on the new baby! Looking forward to some more pictures.
  8. schmije

    Ice cream frustrations

    Regular milk will get harder than cream. The more fat that you put in, the softer it'll be. I have a 'lite' recipe (half & half instead of heavy cream) that tastes great, but it gets harder in the freezer.
  9. schmije

    What have you canned or preserved today?

    Yesterday I made black raspberry jam. I was feeling lazy and running out of time, so I didn't process the jam, and it had to go into the freezer. I also made a small batch of cherry sauce that I stirred into some homemade vanilla ice cream today. I froze the rest of the cherries. We canned...
  10. schmije

    What's wrong with my blueberry?

    A week ago it was fine, and then two days ago I noticed the leaves were all brown. It's been really dry here, so I've been watering a LOT, but this looks more like a disease than a lack of water. What's going on? As a side note - I have 9 other blueberry plants, and one shows a few brown...
  11. schmije

    New to vegetable gardening

    What do you like? I believe that every garden should have tomatoes, bell peppers, and green beans. :) Since you're limited on space, think vertically and give things like pole beans a trellis to climb. I agree on buying established plants. Visit your local garden center, and see what's...
  12. schmije

    So what will happen now?

    I had a whole sack of potatoes that got forgotten and began to sprout eyes. I cut them up and planted them a couple of months ago, and now I have over a dozen potato plants growing. This isn't the first time I've done this, and I've had similar results in the past. I'm not an expert potato...
  13. schmije

    Ice cream frustrations

    Mine gets hard too. I just set it on the counter for about 10 min before I serve it, and that helps a lot. I've also been known to nuke it for 10-15 seconds to soften it. :P I have noticed that the custard (egg based) ice creams don't get as hard. Have you tried both custard and non-custard...
  14. schmije

    My bees have been poisioned

    What's the point if it doesn't kill the mosquitoes???
  15. schmije

    Canned Vegetable Soup!

    Very nice! You're way ahead of us with your garden, as we have not yet gotten any of those items this year. I'm feeling very jealous of you right now. :)
  16. schmije

    Heritage tomato suggestions, please.

    We've grown brandywine for a few years now. The flavor is good, and they're quite large, but the skin is very thin. This is good for eating, but very bad for shelf life. We had problems with cracking, both due to a sudden large rainstorm and due to stacking them several deep in a basket...
  17. schmije

    Does Rhubarb Grow Wild?

    We moved into our new house last year, and ever since we've been finding rhubarb EVERYWHERE! There are a couple of obvious garden plots around some remaining grape vines and such, but we find them all over the woods in places that don't seem typical for the previous owners to have had a garden...
  18. schmije

    Saving onions and peppers until tomatoes are ready

    I agree with desertlady. If you plan on cooking with them, freeze the onions and peppers. We do this often, and it's easy to pull out a handfull at a time for things like fajitas.
  19. schmije

    What is this weed

    Oh it definitely plays in Peoria! :cool:
  20. schmije

    Any other Central Illinoisans out there?

    I've been around this forum and BYC for several years, but I haven't been active lately. We moved to Peoria, IL last year and bought a 1910 Victorian farmhouse that had been vacant for about 4 years. Needless to say we've had our hands full making the house livable - our bedroom is still in...
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