How To: Dust Your Chickens for Mites

"How do you dust your chickens for mites?" 

Being a new chicken herder myself, I was asking that very question not that long ago. Chickens don't exactly sit still while you pour powder on them.  I had visions of making Shake n' Bake.  (Ahem..we'll talk more about that in a minute.)

So off I went to ask the wonderful and mysterious Great Google and found some real gems that I thought I would share with you would-be chicken owners. 

Let's start first with what a mite infestation looks like:








Isn't that just awful?

It's a good idea to inspect your chickens for lice or mites carefully every couple of weeks so it doesn't get out of hand if they do pick up these pests. You'll have to look closely near their vent area (that's their poop chute for you newbies) and under their wings. Mites or teeny tiny and will be hard to see. Lice are much easier - look near the base of the feathers for clusters of eggs.

Mites like to hide in the cracks and crevices of the coop and then come out to feed at night. If your girls are stomping on the roost, you may have mites. I recommend checking them at night because they're less likely to raise a fuss and the mites will be more active and easy to see.

If you find mites, the best treatment is to clean out the coop completely and then dust it, the roost and the chickens.  You'll have to repeat this in 10 days or so and possibly beyond that if you have a serious infestation.

I use diatomaceous earth, which is very fine granite powder that cuts into the mite's or lice's exoskeleton and kills it.  It's completely harmless to the bird.  Some folks recommend dusting with Sevin dust, but Sevin is known to harm honey bees and it clearly states on the container that it is harmful to domestic animals.  The chemicals could leech through the bird's skin and find its way into the eggs, so please be aware of that.  For those reasons, I personally choose not to use it on my chooks but I know there are lots who do.  Another option is common cat or dog flea powder containing permethrine, but that's also a toxin that could get into the eggs.  I've been very successful with DE, so I'm going to stick to that for now.

Before I saw this video, I had just been dusting the chickens and then fluffing it through their feathers as best I could. It wasn't easy to get the powder up under their feathers this way and I usually ended up with more of it on me than on the chicken. So I was fascinated by how he flipped the chicken upside down and it was completely docile.  I just had to try it out this weekend and it worked!







Oh, and that "shake n bake" method I was thinking about? I wasn't the only one that had that idea. Here it is on video:








One other thing I would add that these videos don't show:  you really should wear a bandana or some other kind of protection over your mouth and nose when you do this, particularly in the confined space of the coop.  Breathing those fine dusts in can cause some respiratory issues, so best to just avoid it.

I hope you found these videos as useful (and laughable) as I did!

I'm linked up to the Rural Thursday and Homestead Help hops. Go check out what everybody else is up to over there!

Chicken Jail

I am so incredibly sore today that I can barely move, so I guess I overdid it in the garden yesterday.  That's also my excuse for not posting yesterday.  By the time we got finished last night, I was too pooped to write.

Speaking of poop...yesterday was coop cleaning time and I also cleaned out the run as well so the girls would be able to take some nice dust baths.  Everybody got inspected for lice and mites since they've been losing feathers, but I can confidently say that I found no evidence of any nasty bugs.  Just in case, I dusted their coop. roost and run with diatomaceous earth and sprayed Poultry Protector on the girls.

While I cleaned, J. kept an eye on the girls as they free-ranged and this gave him the opportunity to spot the feather pickers.  The main offender, Cruella (a Barred Rock who has always been somewhat of a bully), got put into chicken jail in another part of the yard.  And, boy, she was NOT happy with the idea!  I wouldn't be either - it's probably like going from a 4-star hotel to a tent since chicken jail is a doghouse with a temporary chicken wire run.  She'll have to stay there for a week and we'll see if busting her down lower in the pecking order stops the behavior.  I certainly hope so or the alternatives for her aren't good.

On a happy note, Henrietta enjoyed a nice dirt bath and hanging out with the Austrolorps yesterday afternoon.  They are much nicer hens and seemed to accept her back into the flock with just a few small altercations.  J. and I got a kick out of all the growling, squawking, purring and other noises that she was making during her spa bath.  If you're never heard a chicken growl, you haven't lived.

Hope you had an interesting weekend, or at least one that didn't involve jail.  :-)

Potatoes Are Peeking

Voila!  A little less than two weeks after we planted our Yellow Finn potatoes, we have little potato plants peeking through the soil.  I am so excited about our first try at growing these.  I knew some of the stuff growing in there were weeds but I was afraid to pull anything until I was sure they weren't potatoes.  But now I know that a potato seedling looks like this:

I guess I might as well give you an update of some other happenin's around the Farm.   I need to do another post about the quilt for those of you who are following along.  I've got all the strips sewn together and the next steps are to square up the quilt top and then attach the two borders and the binding.  And then we're done!

I want to thank all of you again for your concern about our poor hen-pecked Henrietta.  She is recouping nicely in her hen condo in the basement.  We still have not determined how to re-integrate her, so I need to work on that.  Her neck is healing up nicely but I want to make sure that she is fully healed before we give the other girls access to her.  On that same note, I now convinced that we have a feather picker in our midst.  Giving them additional protein and a Flock Block to keep them from getting bored isn't fixing the problem.  This weekend, I'm going to clean out the coop and inspect everyone for mites and lice.  I suspect we may have a problem there and that's what is causing the feather loss.  And I need to spend a longer time watching them to see if I can determine who the feather picker culprit is. 

Our Early Girl tomato plants have doubled in size since we planted them on the 27th.  We've got Beefsteak and Roma teenagers growing in the basement, so I'm hoping to have tomatoes all summer long.

This old girl is a work horse.  She deserves a new
 coat of paint and a grill.

J. and I are thinking about getting a newer, bigger tractor for our 40 acres.  We've got an old Ford Industrial 4400 with a backhoe and loader but the thing is huge!  We really need something a little more compact that we could use for projects here as well.  When we bought our John Deere, we really should have bought one with a loader and mine doesn't even have the connector box or joystick to add one.  It is a GREAT mowing tractor, though.

There are 3 auctions today that all have some really nice tractors that would work perfectly:  a John Deere 790 (27 hp), a Kubota L4330 (45 hp) and a Kubota MX5100 (50 hp).  All have loaders on them.   If you have one of these tractors and can make a recommendation for or against any of them, I'd really appreciate it.  Now we're trying to figure out how the two of us can be at all 3 auctions at once.

It's a rainy day here, so no outside work for us.  What are your plans for this weekend?

This post is linked to this week's Country Garden Showcase, Tuesday Garden Party and Garden Life hops.

Ugh...Slugs!

My slugs refuse to pose for pictures, so this is a non-life-size representation. 
Standard legal disclosures apply.

I've just gotta get something off my chest before we talk about Mr. Slimy.  It's early April and we really shouldn't be fighting mosquitoes yet, right?  I must have been breathing too much or something as I was transplanting my tomatoes because today I am COVERED head to two in itchy mosquito bites.   They even got me on my stomach through my t-shirt.  Apparently, I need to make some more of those homemade mosquito traps that I posted about earlier this week.

And somehow J. never got bitten.  I told him it's either because he's too old and tough or because I'm tender and sweet.  I swear, life is definitelly not fair.

On top of that, I see a slug has been feasting on my tender little cabbage plants.  I can only assume that they'll be delighted when the lettuce seedlings pop up also.  It's been raining, so I haven't had a chance to put in the new in-ground swimming pool for the slugs.  What's that you say?  Unless you're going to stand out there with a skewer to stab them or a salt shaker to shrivel them up 24 hours a day (and, by the way, slugs like to come out at night), then the easiest way to get rid of them is to bury a shallow dish full of beer so that the rim is even with the soil level.  Slugs are alcoholics, you see, so they can't resist climbing in and drowning.  Okay, maybe I made up the alcoholic part, but it does work. 

I was just doing a little research also and one suggestion is to cover your seedlings with a cut-off 2-liter bottle - kind of like a terarium.  Just cut the bottom off the bottle and discard it, sink the cutoff part into the soil and then remove the twisty cap.  Great way to recycle those 2-liter bottles, and you can reuse them over and over.  Heck, you could even put a label on them with the name of the plant that it's protecting.  My brain is brimming with ideas on this one.....

In all seriousness, though, slugs can really do some damage to your garden and they need to be dealt with.  Some other ways to help avoid the slug problem are to keep clippings, weeds and other garden debris away from your plants (slugs like to hide in it), and I may try sprinkling diatomaceous earth or crushed egg shells around the plants as well.  DE and the shells will cut the slugs tender undersides as they crawl across it and kill them.  I've also heard coffee grounds, talcum powder, or even mulching with pieces of shingles.  Just remember that anything you're sprinkling around your plants has to be done over again if it rains.

Oh, and here's a tip:  if you get slug slime (gak!) on your hands, just pour a little white vinegar in your hands in then wash it off with water.  Yet another household use for vinegar in addition to cleaning.

Got a tried and true method for dealing with this common garden pest?  Share it in the comments!

This post is linked to today's Rural Thursday Blog Hop and Country Homemaker Hop. 

Hop on over and find out what everybody else is up to!

Transplanting Tomatoes

Remember that long, hot summer from last year and how just about everybody was talking about how hard it was on their tomato plants?  Lots of people didn't get any tomatoes or, if they did, the fruit was really small.  So I was bordering on ecstatic when we had so many tomatoes that we had to give them away and they were producing all the way up through November!

Get a little closer to your monitor.......no, closer.......perfect.  I'm about to tell you a secret about how we grow monster tomato plants. 

The secret is that tomatoes are magical.  Have you ever looked closely at a tomato plant?  Ever noticed those little hairs on the stem?  Those become roots if you plant the tomato plant deeper when you transplant it.  And more roots = stronger, healthier, more weather-resistant plants.  That's my kind of math!

So yesterday it was time to transplant the tomatoes out of their seedling containers and into much bigger pots.  They had gotten incredibly leggy in just a couple of days because they were competing for the fake sunshine from the fluorescent lights, but they weren't leaning yet.  All I had was 4" peat pots, but those are plenty big enough.  Those will be their home until we move them outside and transplant them in the permanent home in the garden beds. 

If you've got multiple seedlings in one container, you need to thin them first.  Rather than pull the unwanted plant, take a pair of scissors and snip them at the dirt level.  Pulling them out could damage the plant you want to keep.  Then I just removed the dirt, root ball and all and placed them in the bottom of the empty peat pot.  The final step is to hold the seedling upright while you fill in dirt around the stem.  You can bury these all the way up to the first set of leaves and the plant will grow roots everywhere it's buried.  And don't forget to give them a nice long drink after transplant - the best way to do this is encourage root growth by putting water in the tray and letting it wick up versus directly watering the plants.

Newly transplanted Roma and Beefsteak tomatoes and 2 Big Red Pepper plants (middle row).  They look identical, don't they?

When we get closer to transplanting these into the garden, we'll talk about the best way to do this, how, when and what to fertilize, and lots of other tips.

In the meantime, I'm pretty happy with how my little tomato and pepper plants are coming along.  And my jalapenos are looking pretty good also!

What's new in your garden this week?

Curing Infection Naturally

DISCLAIMER:  I am not a doctor or an herbalist, so please consult a professional.  Infections, particularly staph infections, can be very serious and can KILL YOU.  In my case, modern medicine was failing me and I tried this just to see what would happen, knowing that I could head to the doctor if its didn't work. 

Last July, I was out in the garden and something bit me on the back of my left ankle.  Could have been a mosquito (I apparently was the best buffet in town last night for these nasty little things) or I could have just gotten scratched somehow. 


Not me, but a good representation
of a cellulitis infection.  The
source of this pic is no longer available.

 The result was that it got infected and the red hot inflammation spread all the way around my ankle and started up my calf before I was able to get to a doctor.  Since it was on the weekend, I had to go urgent care and not my regular doctor.  Big mistake,  as she gave me what we later found out was a child's dose of antibiotic and never even cultured it to see what we were dealing with.  Long story short, the infection went deeper into my leg and it swelled up, turned dark red and started weeping fluids all over the place.  Disgusting, I know.  The name for this infection of the skin is cellulitis - not to be confused with cellulite, but I'd also like to get rid of that also.  LOL.

Since that fateful day last summer, I've had 7 recurrences and my ankle has never looked completely normal.  (Seven!  Can you believe it!?)  With the last one, came a 100 degree fever which scared me - cellulitis can quickly become a serious infection that can kill if not treated.  With increasingly stronger antibiotics each time, the swelling would slowly come down over several weeks but my ankle would still remain pink.  To me, it still seemed that the antibiotics weren't killing the infection and were just knocking it back.  I'm at my wits end now having dealt with this for a year!!!!

So....when I woke up with it last Friday morning with the telltale sore ankle and redness, I knew I was in for it again.  I was at my wit's end.  So I decided to try something different after doing some research on homeopathic remedies. And it worked!  By Sunday night, the redness had subsided and today, the soreness is gone also.  Time will tell if it is truly gone, but the results are amazing!

How did I do it?

Tea Tree Oil (melaleuca spp, or ylang ylang)
Tea Tree Oil is available at your local drug store in small bottles that cost a large fortune.  I think I paid $11 for it.  According to my research, it has very powerful antiseptic, antibacterials, antiviral and antifungal properties.  It can help fight yeast infections, can be used as a topical acne treatment, can treat nail fungus, and even cure dandruff and lice!  Application is topical only and you have to be careful about skin sensitivity, so I mixed it with a little bit of olive oil as a carrier and then applied it to my ankle right before going to bed Friday night.  It's messy because it truly is an oil, so I covered the entire lower part of my leg with plastic wrap.  There was a HUGE different in the inflammation and swelling when I got up the following morning!

Echinacea (Echianea spp.)
Echinacea is famous for its ability to strengthen the immune system.  I thought it couldn't hurt, right?  My body really needs to figure out how to fight this off on its own.  The only problem is that the over the counter echinacea is a horse pill and you have to take it 3 times per day.  Recommended dosage is between 500 and 1000mg 3 times per day.

Other Natural Remedies for Infection

While we're talking about natural remedies, I thought I would also mention several others that I might try IF I have a recurrence.  And let's hope that I don't!

• Yarrow (Achillea millefolium) is actually approved in Great Britain for treating skin infections and inflammations.  Apply it topically or use 100g per 5 gallons of warm water for a sitz bath and soak the affected area.  I really wanted to try yarrow, but couldn't find it any stores here in the KC area.
• Gotu kola (Centella asiatica, 60 mg two times daily) seems to help wounds heal and reduce risk of infection.  Just be careful as it interacts with a number of medications.  This is another herb that I wasn't able to find locally.
• Calendula flower (Calendula officinalis) is officially approved in Germany as a topical treatment for leg ulcers or open wounds that could become infected easily. Steep 1 to 2 teaspoons of the dried flowers in one cup of boiling water for 5 to 10 minutes.  Let the mixture cool, then soak a sterile cloth in it and apply directly to the affected area.
• Garlic (Allium sativum) is believed to have antibacterial properties. Herbalists recommend orally consuming three garlic cloves or three garlic oil capsules a day, starting when symptoms of infection first appear.
• Cleavers (Galium aparine) is an anti-inflammatory and is believed to support the the lymphatic system. It may be taken orally to help heal staph infections and reduce swelling of the lymph nodes.  You can also apply a cleavers compress directly to a skin infection.
• Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis). Another herb believed to fight infection and reduce inflammation, goldenseal may be taken orally at first signs of infection. You cna also treat skin infections by making a paste of water and powdered goldenseal root and applying it directly.  Then cover it with a clean bandage and leave it in place overnight.
• Thyme (Thymus vulgaris, 1 to 2 g per day), lavender (Lavandula officinalis), or bergamot (Citrus bergamot) oils also have antibacterial properties and may help to prevent the scarring that may result from skin infections. Just add a few drops of these oils to water and apply a compress soaked in the water to the affected area.  Never swallow oil of thyme, as it can be toxic.  However, taking powdered thyme or just picking thyme from your garden and eating it as OK obviously.

All of this got me thinking about learning more about homeopathy (natural healing) and possibly starting a beneficial herb garden.  I'm adding it to my list of to-do's this summer after all this get-the-garden-started madness has settled down.

Have you found a natural remedy that works?  Do you grow beneficial herbs?  Know of a good place for a beginner to start learning about beneficial herbs and oils?  I'd love to hear from you - leave a comment!

This post is linked to this week's Barn Hop. Clicky to find out what other folks are up to!

A Quick Update on Henrietta

First, I want to thank all of you for your concern for our littlest hen and for all the great advice that you gave.  Henrietta is still recuperating in her new basement condo from her bullying incident.  She is no longer just sitting on the roost and actually greeted me at the door to her cage yesterday.  As usual, she was talking to me softly as she enjoyed some salad greens and banana.  She is such a sweet little hen.

The terrible wound on her neck is healing and, for that, I am very grateful.  It's on my plate today to get her re-homed back outside and with the flock (but still separate) so that she can be with the other hens.  I'm sure she is lonely.

Today, J. and I will be cogitating on how to do that, as well as doing more planting in the raised beds, transplanting tomato seedlings into larger pots, and fixing plaster walls.  A rabbit has been spotted in the yard, so we'll be rabbit-proofing also. 

Don't you wish you were here for this fun time on the farm?  I hope you enjoy your day!

Homemade Mosquito Traps

Why mosquitoes can try to suck me dry and leave J. completely alone has always baffled me.  Perhaps it's my sweet disposition or the fact that I can't put the chocolate down.  It probably exudes from my pores.

So I was ecstatic when we talked about how to build homemade mosquito traps.  This is a great way to trap those nasty little boogers and recycle also.  And it's really easy! 

Step 1.  Start with your everyday 2-liter bottle.  Drink the contents if you haven't already.  :-)

Step 2.  Cut the top off the bottle right along the top of the label.

Step 3.  Remove the lid and recycle it.  You won't need it.

Step 4.  Add  1 tablespoon sourdough starter and 2/3 cup water or, if you don't have any starter, use this recipe:

• 1 cup confectioners sugar
• 1 cup boiling water
• 2 cups of cool water
• 1 tablespoon of dry active yeast
• Dissolve the sugar in the boiling water and remove from heat.  Immediately pour in the cold water and stir well.  Then pour in the yeast and stir again.

Step 5.   Invert the upper half of the bottle and insert it into the lower half.  The top of the bottle will now be pointing down.  Either staple the plastic together so that it stays in place or use duct tape.

Step 6.  Cover the bottle in dark colored paper (or paint the outside).  Mosquitoes love dark places. 

Step 7.  Poke 2 or 3 holes evenly spaced around the rim and use string or wire to create a hanger.

That's it!

The best place for these is in the corner of your porch or patio.  The CO2 from the yeast mixture will attract the mosquitoes and they'll be unable to figure out how to get out of the bottle.  The mixture in the bottle will stay good for a couple of weeks.  Trust me...the bottle will be full soon.  And, with 80 degrees in late March when it outta be in the 60's, mosquitoes are already out in full force.

Find out what other cool things folks are up to over at the FarmGirl Friday Blog Hop!

Quilt Step 4: Strips and Triangles

With a hiatus in there for Spring break, it's been awhile since I posted about progress on the quilt.  When we last looked at this project, I was piecing together the 32 squares that make up the quilt.  I've spent the past couple of weeks figuring out what fabrics go where in the quilt and then sewing the squares together.  I found it really helpful to lay everything out on the bed so that I can see what it would look like when it was finished.

For those of you that are following along, we're close to starting to put this quilt together.  There's just a few remaining pieces that we need to cut out- the triangles.  If you remember, the quilt is en pointe, so there are triangles around the outside to make it square as shown in green

Start by cutting out four 18.5" x 18.5" squares. Then cut them into quarters diagonally.  You'll end up with 16 triangles that will be used for the triangles that are NOT on the 4 corners.

Then cut out two 9.5" x 9.5" squares and cut each one in half diagonally just once.  You'll then have 4 triangles that will be used for the 4 corners.

Use the guidelines on your cutting board to keep the fabric straight.  On the larger 18.5" square, it may be easier to double the fabric over when you cut it to 18.5" and then double it over the other direction to cut the other 18.5" length.

We're now ready to start piecing the quilt top together.  This quilt is made up of 8 rows of squares and triangles:

The yellow lines designate the rows in our pattern.

Start the first row by sewing one of the smaller corner triangles to the top of the first block.  Then a larger triangle is sewn to either side of this block.  Center the triangles so that you have at least 1/4" seam allowance on both sides.  Repeat until all the rows are completed.

Then, when the rows are completed, sew the rows together to form the quilt top.

Next week, we'll talk about cutting and attaching the inner and outer borders to our quilt.

Happy quilting!

Poor Hen-Pecked Henrietta

My heart is heavy today - so much so that I couldn't bring myself to post about this yesterday.  But I promised to talk about the goods as well as the bads here on Cranky Puppy Farm and, well, this is one of the bads.

The flock of 9 that grew up together have always been happy hens.  So I'm not sure why they decided to start bullying poor Henrietta - the sweetest hen, the smallest in the bunch and the lowest on the pecking order.  She was the first to start molting, so perhaps that was the trigger.  This weekend, I noticed she was staying in the coop by herself on the roost and she wouldn't come out even for a treat.  I took her some treats and checked her over and she seemed fine.  When I got home Tuesday night, she was sitting in one of the nesting boxes backward with her tail facing out.  She was battered, bruised and bloody with almost all the feathers removed from the back of her neck and head and a hole in her neck.  Fortunately, it was just through the skin and not further.  I thought about posting a picture so you can see what damage feather picking and bullying can do if you allow it to progress, but it really was much too graphic.

I lovingly scooped her up and she let me carry her out of the coop and into the yard where I put her down to get a closer look.  She wouldn't leave my side - particularly after I let the rest of the girls out.  Not wanting to cause her any more stress, I put together a dog cage that we used when our dog Chase was a puppy and put her in a warm place in the basement where it's quiet.

Yesterday, I spent some time with her and she ate some pellets, carrots and cabbage and talked to me ever so softly.  Her wound was no longer fresh.  But there was no poop in the cage either, which worries me.  I would like to carry her back outside, but it's raining every day this week.  For now, she is resting comfortably in her new home without stressors and she has the free range of the basement when I'm there.  This weekend, I'd like to figure out (a) a way to get Henrietta integrated back into the flock but in a way in which she is still separated, and (b) which hens are responsible and separate them.  Knocking them down in the pecking order might be the best way to nip this behavior in the bud.  And, in the meantime, I'm adding more protein to their diets and giving them more distractions in the run.  I've read that both a protein deficiency and\or boredom can lead to feather picking behavior.

I am so sad and feel terrible that this happened to Henrietta.  If you're a flock mistress and have dealt with aggressive bullying, I'd appreciate your advice.  Thank you,

This post is linked to the Rural Thursday Blog Hop #9.

Unplanned Gardening

Nearly all the best things that came to me in life have been unexpected, unplanned by me.

 - Carl Sandburg

I'm the planner in the family and, well....J.?  Not so much.  So it wasn't surprising that he sprung on me at Home Depot this weekend that "wouldn't it be nice to plant some cabbage so that we could make slaw?"  Oh...and "those Early Girl tomatoes did so well last year, so maybe we should plant some of those also."

I hadn't planned for either of those and I could see my beautiful garden plan slipping away with every word.  (Hey...a little moment of melodrama never hurt anyone.)  But how could I say no to my one true love?

So two little Stonehead cabbage plants went in the cart along with two healthy-looking Early Girl tomato plants.  Little did I know (and I should have paid more attention) that those two cabbage plants were actually 8 cabbage plants!

J. accused me of being unhinged when I described this little cabbage plant as "cute"? It IS cute!

We planted everything tonight, with a couple of the cabbages going in the bed with the cucumbers, squash and beans.  I'm hoping that this won't be an issue since we'll be trellising everything and they'll have room.  I'm also going to move the lettuce over there, so that freed up just enough space to put the Early Girls on the south end of the westmost bed near the Romas.  The rest of the cabbages?  Planted in a raised bed in our backyard by the hot tub.  Which is where our blackberries are.  Speaking of....we planted another Apache thornlesss blackberry bush there as well tonight.

Storms are coming tomorrow and all next week it looks like, so I'll be keeping an eye on these tender little plants.  I hope it's not a washout like it was last week.  We're about 2.5" over average for this month and still running abot 20 degrees warmer than usual!

What were you up to this weekend?

This post is linked to the Country Homemaker Hop.  Check out what other folks are up to!

Would You Sit Down for a Minute?!

hear that question alot from J.  I can't help it...I'm constantly doing something and I can't stand to just sit and watch TV.  And with weather like we've been having (70's and 80's!), there's a garden to get started!  And I was rarin' to get to work on the to-do list come Saturday morning.

First, we planted the potatoes in our new potato bins.  Clicky to find out how to make your own!  These are the Yellow Finn seed potatoes that I ordered.  Anything 2" and under are planted whole and everything else is cut a day ahead of time into chunks 2" or larger.  Just make sure they have at least 2 eyes on each chunk.  If you're new to potatoes, the reason for cutting them a day ahead is so that the cut will scab over and it prevents them from rotting in the ground.  Plant them about 4 to 5 inches deep and about 8 inches apart.

While we were at it, I also planted 6 more garlic cloves with the others in the existing bed and 25 more Ozark Supreme strawberry plants in the strawberry\onion raised bed.  I've got more to plant, including some tomato and cabbage plants that J. wanted at Home Depot, but it'll all have to wait until Monday night.  The dirt\compost we put in that bed must have had tons of weed seeds in it, because I had to spend some time weeding it as I was planting. 

Then it was on to stripping the last of the wallpaper at the rental house.  Let me tell you - there's no more fun than stripping wallpaper.  Not!

While we were making a list of stuff that needs to be done on the house before we sell it, I noticed that there was an old stone door sill under the deck from when the house was built in the late 1800's.  It's solid limestone and about 8 inches thick, 40 inches wide and 14 inches deep.  A door sill?  Nah...it's the perfect step into the chicken coop!



My "new" repurposed limestone step into the coop.  Looks like it was meant to be there, doesn't it?


It may not look that big, but J. and I estimate it weighed somewhere between 250 and 300 pounds.  We had to use some smarts, some lever action and some serious elbow grease to get that thing into our garden cart so that we could use the lawn tractor to move it over to our backyard across the street.  And we're both sore today from all the effort.  That thing was heavy with a capital H!

And if that didn't wear us out, then mowing the yard-full-of-10-inch-high-weeds, cleaning the chicken coop, grocery shopping, and cleaning out the garage did. 

So I think I'll end today's post with a look at some relaxing flowers around our house right now.  Or should I say summer?  At 80 degrees, I'm pretty sure we skipped Spring altogether.



Purple Beauty Creeping Phlox isn't creepy at all!  It's a great option for a slope or to cascade over a rock wall.

This Emperor Tulip looks out from behind the prison bars of our fence. 

Funny thing about the to-do list, by the way.... it never seems to get completed.  I scratch something off and two more things get added.  Does any one else have this problem?

Wondering what other folks are up to this week? Check out this week's Barn Hop!

Crop Circles

With a title like that, I bet you thought some UFO came down last night and left indentations in the garlic.  Nope...we're talking about circles of the rotation variety today:  crop rotation!  As if planning a garden isn't hard enough with trying to think about what plants grow well together (companion planting) and what plants don't like each other at all.  Sheesh...

And it's really hard when you're a home gardener with not alot of space.  That doesn't mean you can ignore it, though.  I had always heard that it's not a good idea to re-plant tomatoes in the same place that you did last year, but I never knew why.  Well, Scientific evidence shows (and farmers know this thought experience) that trying to grow the same crop in the same place year after year can result in stunted growth and rampant plant diseases.  In fact, a study by Penn State shows that the probability of tomatoes contracting early blight rose from 3% to 74% after they were planted in the same location for 3 years in a row.

So how do you figure out a workable crop rotation plan as a home gardener?

You start with the basics:  understanding what the 9 main families are in the vegetable world.  Then step 2 is just avoiding planting a plant in the same location as one of its family members occupied last year, and you should be golden.  Here are the 9:

Nightshade Family
Nightshade includes tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and potatoes.  All of these will heavily deplete your soil of nutrients so you'll need to fertilize before planting another crop.  Perils of replanting in the same space:  Increased problems with blight and pests like tomato hornworm.

Legume Family
Peas and beans are legumes.  Legumes are really beneficial plants in that their roots inject nitrogen into the soil.  These would be a great choice to follow a Nightshade planting in your crop rotation schedule.

Squash and Melon Family
It's pretty easy to guess what goes here:  summer and winter squash, cucumbers, pumpkins, and melons. These are also heavy feeders and will deplete your soil nutrients over time.  The big pest here that will cause problems if you don't rotate is the squash vine borer and the squash bug, which will overwinter in the soil. I had these attack my pumpkin vines last year and, let me tell you, they are a PAIN!

Brassicas and Salad Greens Family
Leafy greens such as arugula, broccoli, cauliflower, rutabagas, kohlrabi, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and kale (NOT lettuce!) are in this family.  Because they put on such a large amount of green growth, they are highly dependent on lots of nitrogen during the growing season.

Sunflower Family
Sunflowers are in this family, of course, but it also includes Jerusalem artichokes, lettuce and endive.  All of these tread very lightly on soil and are light feeds, so they are good choices to either precede or follow a member of the Brassicas family.

Carrot Family
Along with carrots, this family includes celery, parsley, and parsnips.  They like lots of organic matter but not lots of nitrogen as it can cause you to get some really funky looking roots.  So you don't want to plant these anywhere you planted a legume the following season.

Goosefoot Family
Members include beets, spinach and swiss chard.  This family is great because it will grown even in soil with low fertility, so they are a great follow-up crop for members of the Nightshade family.

Grass Family
Corn is the number one member here, but this family also includes oats, wheat and rye.  It's a great follow-up for the spot where you prevously grew beans or peas, as it needs really good, fertile soil.

Onion Family
And last but not least is the Onion family which includes onions, garlic, leeks and scallions.  Great at repelling pests but they require high fertility.

With this information, you should be able to identify a crop rotation schedule that will fit into your home garden.  The idea is to come up with something that is logical:  either left to right, front to rear, circular or otherwise.  Here are a couple of examples:

Garlic ---> lettuce
Broccoli ---> bush beans
Onions ---> leafy greens
Peas ---> carrots
Garlic ---> shell beans

This year the big one for me is following up my large tomato plantings from last year with squash, cucumbers and bush beans.  We'll see how that works out.

It's that time of year where we're all planning our gardens and getting hands in the dirt. I hope you found this information useful as you put together your plan and start thinking about next year (it's not too early for that is it?)

This post is linked to this week's Country Garden Showcase.

Would You Like Pesticide With That?

I recently ran across this list from the Environmental Workinhg Group that is affectionately called "the Dirty Dozen", or the top 12 fruits and veggies that have the most pesticide in them.

My beloved apples are at the top of the list!  Which is why we planted 2 apple trees last year and a third last weekend.  (TIP: If you can't get fresh, then make sure you wash the outside of the apple really well to get rid of any pesticide residue.)

Let's see...strawberries, peppers, lettuce, potatoes, blueberries, grapes.....all things that J. and I love to eat and they're on the dirty list!  And they are all plants that are super easy to grow.  It makes sense, I think, to grow these foods that hard to find locally or that are expensive in the stores.  That's how I pick what to grow each year.  And I feel better knowing that we'll be eating organic food out of our own garden rather than these chemical-laden foods. 

I'm glad to see that some of our other favorite foods are on the "clean list" and are very low in pesticides.  I love sweet corn and watermelon in the summertime, and J. is a big fan of pineapples and grapefruit.  Of course, we can't grow either of those here in Missouri.

Like many people, I used to use weedkiller on my lawn and grab the wasp spray whenever I saw a bee or a wasp.  I will never EVER do that again.  Especially now that I know that wasps are a major pollinator and a good insect to have around your house\garden, since they take care of other pests.  The pesticides that we use not only kill the bad bugs, but they kill the good ones as well - the ones we need to help us grow our food.

What do you think about this list from the EWG?  Does it surprise you at all?

I'm linking up to this week's Farmgirl Friday hop where there's lots of gardenin', cookin' and other interesting adventures going on.  Click the link to find out!

Wiggle It Just a Little Bit

Here's an interesting tip from my Food Not Lawns class:  if your peppers (green, red, jalapeno, etc) or tomatoes have lots of blossoms but aren't setting fruit, try shaking them lightly 3 times a day.  Why?  No, it's not plan aerobicise.  It actually causes some of the pollen to shake loose and, hopefully, it lands in the right place.

With visions of the guy from LMFAO in my head, I laughed out loud in class when the instructor said this.  *snicker*

Fortunately, I've not run into this garden problem yet but will file it away as one of those "useful facts" somewhere in some dark corner of my mind where all those useless 80's song lyrics and movie quotes live.

High-tech Gardening with Online Garden Planners

If you've been reading along, you know that I mentioned that I started using an online website called Smart Gardener to keep track of my garden chores and progress.  I thought I would give you the skinny on why I decided to use this tool instead some of the others that are available, as well as what I *don't* like about it.

First, of all it's FREE.  Well, sort of....and we'll get to that in a minute.  I can't remember how I ran across this website - I'm assuming it was mentioned in one of the myriad of gardening emails or blogs that I read every day.  I was hooked when I saw their motto though:  "We track all of your gardens' to-do's so that you don't have to."   I'm the world's most laziest gardener so that is right up my alley!

I'm not going to walk you through every feature of the website, as you can watch an online tour or read about how it works.  But here are the features that made me decide to use SG:

1.  Customizable growing seasons, frost dates and garden orientation.  You start by inputting your zip code and it will automatically fill in your zone information.  But you can customize all of it.  Smart Gardener will use it to determine your planting and harvest dates, and the best places to plant your different varieties in the garden.  It also lets you input how many people you are trying to feed and will then calculate how many of each plant you should grow.

You can click on the colored bars and get recommendations about which plants do well in the cold, warm and hot season in your area.

2.  Customizable shapes and sizes for in-ground, raised beds, and containers.  You design it however you want your garden to look.  For $2.99, you can purchase an add-on that allows you to add shaded areas, paths, structures, or trees.  Or you can go further and, for $5.99, you gets all the shapes AND help with to-do's for succession planting if you want to have multiple harvests in a growing season.  If you just want succession planting and not the shapes, it's $1.99.  I've already done a garden layout in a different program (you can see it here), so I really don't need the shapes.  That saved me $5.99 already.  :-)

3.  Good selection of common garden veggies.  You can get recommendations based on square footage needs, hot vs. warm vs. cool season, days to maturity, etc.  Or you can pick your varieties off the list.  All the information you need to know about a plant is already there for you.  Just click to add it your garden or, if you need to order it, you can do that from within the program as well.

Then you can rearrange them in your garden design and you end up wtih something like this:

4.   Information about companion planting and tips on planting, fertilizing etc.  You can see the good\bad companion information in the pic above.

5.  Weekly To-Do reminders including a reminder email.  This is the primary reason why I picked Smart Gardener.  Tell me what to do and I'll do it!

6.  Ability to add notes and photos in a journal format.  No more paper for me!

All in all, Smart Gardener is a pretty cool website and it's allowed me to get rid of my ratty old notebook and grid paper.  It's even better that it's free, as most online planners cost money. 

Now a few words on what I DON'T like about Smart Gardener

Just a couple of small things.....

1.  Not all plant varieties are available.  They have a pretty good list but not everything is there.  For example, I couldn't find comfrey.   But there is a way to add a variety if you can't find it.  I'm sure the variety list will get much bigger as more people use SG.

2.  Berry plants are an add-on.  I was really disappointed to see that they didn't have berries listed, and then I was even more disappointed to find out that berries are a $1.99 add-on.  Did I mention that I really like FREE?

3.  Bugs in the system?  I can see my weekly tasks, but the monthly glance view isn't working for me.  I've contacted them and we'll see how responsive they are.

Other Online Gardening Tools

I realize that you may look at Smart Gardener and decide that it's not just for you.  There are lots of other online tools out there.  I haven't used any of these so I can't speak to their usefulness, but here are some of the more popular online garden planners.

GrowVeg (free for 30 days, $25 annual subscription)
Plangarden (free for 45 days, $20 annual subscription)
Territorial Seed Garden Planner (free for 30 days, $25 annual subscription)
Mother Earth News Garden Planner (free for 30 days, $25 annual subscription)
My Garden Pal (free until October 31st)
SmallBluePrinter (simple free visual garden designer - this is what I used to create my design)


Are you using any online tools to help out with your gardening this year?  I'd love to hear what you're doing!

Just for Fun: Barn Time!

While making our way home from the auction on Saturday, we took the long route through the countryside surrounding Gardner and Olathe, Kansas and came across some really cool barns.  While not really a barn, this little corner feed store is one of my favorites.   There didn't seem to be anyone around and the place seemed out of business.  

I'd love to have a sign like that on the side of our shed, but they go for big bucks!

See this old feed mill and more old barns over at this week's Barn Charm Hop!

This Week's Garden Progress

I'm looking at the clock and Spring is just an hour

and 3 minutes away!    Woohoo! 

J. and I got busy this weekend in the garden with some chores and a pretty good sized honey-do list.  It all started with my garden chores for this week:

Click to biggify this if you can't read it

Pretty cool, huh?  That's a screenshot out of a new online tool called Smart Gardener that I'm using to manage my garden this year.  The cool thing about it (besides it being free) is that you can design your garden beds to size, then pick the plants you want to grow and it will send you these weekly "to do" lists based on what zone you're in.  It has a ton of other features as well, so I think  I'll do a post tomorrow just about Smart Gardener and some other online tools that are out there.

I was naughty and didn't do my homework - I actually decided NOT to plant the carrots as the schedule dictates because the weatherman is calling for rain for the next 4 or 5 days.  I was a little afraid that the seeds would either get washed away or not germinate because they were too soggy.  My plan is to wait until next weekend and see if we get better weather.

But....we did get alot of the honey-do list done:

• Built the worm condo and added the new inhabitants
• Planted another dwarf Honeycrisp apple tree (we now have 2 + one Jonathan's Winesap dwarf)
• Purchased additional garlic and planted it
• Side-dressed the sprouted garlic with fish emulsion
• Fixed two broken patio chairs
• Thinned out tomato plants
• Cleaned out and mulched the landscaping beds
• Finished filling the potato beds with compost and soil
• Oiled and tested all the mowers and weedeaters

Not too shabby of a weekend.   On top of that, my jalapeno seedlings are up and my blackberry bushes that I planted last year have tons of new leaves on them.  The strawberries are waking up and the onions are up a good 6 inches.

Sparkle Supreme strawberries waking up from a long winter's nap.

Outside, I hear the pitter patter of a soft, steady rain on the patio flagstone.  Spring is here indeed.  What were you up to this weekend? 

This post is linked up to this week's Country Garden Showcase.