Bon's Garden Compound

[Vanalpaca]

2022 resulted in a very odd tomato plant. The cats smell something fishy about it, not sure about that umbillical flower on it either...... The mater is heirloom, 'Hege's German Pink' and it had enough acid to encourage another bite, not as bland as some of the big pink beefsteaks. It does have darker pink stripes as well. I felt it tasted better than Todd County Amish which I'd grown the same year. Maybe if I picked it when it had less watering and rain the flavor would have been stronger. I did save lots of seeds from it.

 

[Vanalpaca]

Went out at 6:30 am. A few forager bees were already out. Lots of foragers were still in the nuc box in the greenhouse so I sorted out the hive parts and took the one with the most bees in it and set them up AGAIN on top of their old hive in the new location. I piled brush in front of the door this time. Sigh. The greenhouse is BUZZING inside, so foragers are back there which is the old bee hive site. You are supposed to block their door with grass/weeds at night, then relocate them to a new area and pile brush up in front of their door so they can reorient themselves. I'll be suiting up and messing with the new location hive today. Hopefully that hive will sort itself out. Bees are notorious for getting lost when you move them. Kinda hoping it would have rained overnight and washed away all their bee scent trails!!

 

[Vanalpaca]

5/27 Turkey hen is still in the garden and she has 6 chicks still (poults is the proper term for baby turkeys.) My girl looks bronze but she is from Narraganset stock and bread Narraganset. Still about 1/2 the poults usually turn up Bronze instead of black and white striped.

 

[Vanalpaca]

I checked over the straggle stressed tomato and pepper seedlings. I'd put them out and then it dropped to 41 degrees. Tomatoes turned purple due to cold stress. I have raspberries and blackberries to pot up and I want to repot my blueberries... I'm going to start some beans as well. I have a greenstalk plant (able to restrict my lust to just ONE) and will do some bush beans in the lower tiers as well...

 

[Vanalpaca]

Nice little supply of new to me dry beans in the mail today! Very pleased...

 

[Anniekay]

Nice little supply of new to me dry beans in the mail today! Very pleased...

I got beans in the mail today too !! Fava beans that I ordered off Etsy.

 

[baymule]

I love your turkeys! And they are raising poults for you! Thanksgiving dinner? Your garden is so neat and free of weeds.
I moved 3 years ago and haven’t planted a garden here. But I do have……..(drumroll)
TWO, yes! Count them! TWO tomato plants! And a few cucumber plants! Hahaha!

 

[Vanalpaca]

I love your turkeys! And they are raising poults for you! Thanksgiving dinner? Your garden is so neat and free of weeds.
I moved 3 years ago and haven’t planted a garden here. But I do have……..(drumroll)
TWO, yes! Count them! TWO tomato plants! And a few cucumber plants! Hahaha!

I figured out how to free range my turkeys and in the spring hunt down their nests, bring them home and relocate them to a turkey pen, set their nest back up and stick them on it. Hens weigh 15-20 lbs and I put the eggs in a 5 gallon bucket lined with straw. It takes laying 1 egg a day until they have 20 then they set the nest for 28 days. My oldest jenny is used to this. They younger ones not so much. But 23 turkeys is too many and 2 hens were lost to 'something' that left a mess of feathers and carried the body away which is the major hazard to letting them leave the property. More poults live if caged and fed medicated chick feed than if we allow to hatch them outside a cage system and walk all over the property with them. Maybe 2 out of 15 chicks make it if out walking. So far grateful that "Jenny' still has them in the garden. If we can keep them there a couple weeks even, it will increase their survival chances...

 

[Vanalpaca]

The garden is only weedfree until mid July. When the rains/heat hit, the weeds can grow 3 feet in 4 days and overtake it completely. I work hard in it until July. If I hide inside from the heat and humidity then, it's weed fest... Sometimes hubs will take the weed whip in the pathways. I'm doing corn this year so it will be time for the hoe... currently weeds are getting ahead of me. They are up about 10 inches. But the comfrey is 3 feet high and blooming... Every year is different until August. Then it could be 7 -9 feet high in pigweed amaranth and lambs quarters.