Good Morning!

[JimW]

Good evening. Starting to get busy here, but trying to NOT get TOO busy. My hovabator is full of eggs and my friend is hatching for me in the Sportsman. Picked up 10 guinea keets and 15 of my chicks my friend hatched for me, so brooders up and running. I planted a few sour cherry saplings, sea buckthorn saplings still to plant and 50 bareroot seedlings (maples, shagbark hickory, chokecherry and balsam fir) to pick up next week.

I started some seeds awhile back and my seed order from Terra Edibles, only 2 hours away from me, and shipped April 8th, finally arrived in the mail today. Planting strawberries and hopefully digging up a couple overground raised beds tomorrow, though the old body is not a fan of digging to much. I might have to enlist some help to dig the garden beds and plant next weeks tree seedlings.

Well off the bed.

JimW

[KimChick]

Good sunny, Saturday morning to everyone!
That sounds really ambitious, JimW! I hope all your planting goes smoothly.
Going to have to move some scattered chamomile seedlings back to where they belong when they are big enough... never mind... I'll just move the chunk of dirt in which they had seeded themselves.
Set eggs on Thursday afternoon and haven't had to adjust humidity at all. Maybe because it is a cooler Spring.
Looks like another nice day to let the chickens out; they had such a good day out 'n about yesterday.

[WLLady]

g'day everyone!

greenhouse is full.....hopefully everything is sprouting....it's been so cold! finally some nice weather today, although it's windy as all get out. Moved the chicks from the basement to the coop outside. Now i have 1 pen down there with 5 turkey poults, and the other with 2 muscovies. For some reason some of my muscovies are slow...the eggs are still clicking...but not hatched yet, but i read they could take up to 40 days to hatch, so yesterday was 35, so i'll leave them a few more days just in case. I have a pile more in the incubator, and turkeys too. and guineas. those need candling tonight to see if they're fertilized yet.

Going to try to get into the garden tomorrow and remove the plastic, and till what needs tilling. I seem to have "lost" my wintergreen mint plant somewhere.....lots of spearmint, and peppermint....so i'll need to see if i can find that again. And see if the poppies are coming back. The asparagus is about 3 inches tall now! I can't wait!

Puppy is slowly doing better. we've been out the door and into the grass without the leash now at least 5 times. although the door is still a little sketchy....lol. she did manage to scratch her eyelid....this dog is a her own worst enemy right now! argh! but the leg seems to be doing better. thankfully.

all our transplanted fruit trees from last year seem to have made it. And the maples too! i'm going to put in some more large flower gardens sometime....all for perennials for the honey bees. Our bees should arrive in a couple of weeks! Guess we'd better figure out where to put them-2 hives.
hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

[Jaye]

I got a package that I had ordered on Amazon a few months ago yesterday, and everything on the package is in Chinese. Can someone translate this? Or failing that, does anyone know how deep I should plant luffa/loofah seeds, and how far apart? How many days to germination? How far apart to space seedlings?

[WLLady]

Soak seeds overnight before planting. Plant directly into soil blocks or pots to try and reduce transplant shock. Start 8 weeks before planting out. They need full sun. They apparently climb and need sturdy trellising. and water. lots of water.
I've never grown them myself, but know someone that did and they say germination sucks, and needs a good even temperature and not too cool or they rot before they sprout. They also said that loofahs are jerk plants and will up and die just because they can. LOL.
Good luck!

[Jaye]

Thanks, @WLLady lol. I've been finding some of the same reviews on them being "fussy". I just thought they would be a fun plant to grow, to use instead of those green scrub pads because they can be composted once they are done. I have a bunch soaking ATM, so will plant them into seedling pots tomorrow and hope for the best. I know I'm late to the game with these, since they were supposed to arrive over a month ago, but I'm going to give them a try anyway. Apparently a seedling heating pad is recommended to get them going. Apparently they appreciate being started in coir, so that's good because I have some that I use for most of my starts. I do have a sunny spot in the yard that can be trellised fairly easily. Should be fun to see how this plays out. I hope.

[Epona]

Getting back at finishing the garden fence and plantings. Tough times when you have to order plants on line and you can’t browse the plants in real time LOL. I can blow endless hours at nurseries....not to mention travel time between. Plus now I have an overseerer and critic...

[WLLady]

good think you made the fence tall enough to show off the tail! beautiful bird epona!!!
I just spent 3 hours sitting under a tree getting totally uncomfortable, seeing NOTHING, to come back to the house, have tea and watch the turkey walk down the field.....lol. what a beautiful morning out there though! we also saw a group of 10 deer! and i was serenaded by a thasher that could make all the noises that R2D2 could make. She was fun to listen to. Sitting 3 feet away (incredible how loud they are!). the sun is shining and looks to be nice and warm today! SO. pulled out my seed box (yes, i have a BOX of seeds...) to see what i missed starting for the garden. Found some sage....the rest is already started. no wonder the greenhouse looks busy LOL. so today i want to get the garden tilled, but DH loaned the tiller to a friend of his so it should be back later today. I have some clean up to do in the garden yet, and some herbs to transplant to my new herb garden. Need to install the pea trellis somewhere in the garden-and maybe make a map of where to plant everything. Then i want to patch all the holes in the lawn with some manure, and grass seed them. And then spread the rest of the manure to the horse paddock and seed it.....and then close off the south paddock and seed it over (the horses were rough on the grass this year without any snow cover the grass took a beating and there's holes everywhere). The fence needs tensioning after the winter, but the wind is picking up and it's almost impossible to tension in a stiff wind because it's 4 inch tape.
Only 2 ducks hatched. sigh. the rest all seem to have died at day 25 or so-which ironically is when the automatic water feeder stopped automatically watering and the humidity dropped in the incubator. argh. The ducks that are sitting on a huge pile of eggs won't let me anywhere near them, so no clue how those are doing. Maybe I'll sneak in tonight with the flashlight and see. There's another 14 turkeys into lockdown today for wednesday i think...and then next week another batch of 20 muscovy eggs. busy! but i have to admit i love spring!!! almost as much as fall. LOL

[Killerbunny]

Well I will share some good news. A friend of ours lives in a Retirement Residence and a few weeks ago had a minor cough but nothing else. Was tested fter about a week and was positive for COVID-19. He has now been cleared and had 2 negative tests. He is not in greatest health but continued to exercise in his apartment and never had any major issues. With all the doom and gloom around I felt it important to share (as he did) that most people don't suffer too badly and recover well. We were very glad to hear this from him.

[Epona]

Is this a bumper year for wild turkeys....they sure are busy around here. Lots of toms strutting their stuff in the fields and out on the lawn.