Garden Diaries, 2020

[WLLady]

usually for pumpkins the stalk of the plant it is growing off of dries down to brown. or, like at my place once the mice have eaten a hole in it you will know its done lol. should sound hollow when knocked on. and the stem should separate from the stalk more easily

[ThePluckyHen]

Asking because you guys seem knowledgable, this is my first time raising poultry and I want a fall/winter garden to provide the greens my darlings so love (mustard greens and red lettuce are favourites). I have seen a few "greenhouse" type row covers and was wondering about peoples success with these. How long was your growing season extended and would it make a suitable cover to keep some grass fresh during winter for my birds? I want to keep them healthy and happy all winter so I'm looking at growing options including indoor planters but it's nice for fresh air to have them outside in the yard as much as possible.

Cheers.

[Killerbunny]

A couple of pics of Believe it or Not toms from @windwalkingwolf seeds. These were earlier and a bit smaller than the ones coming along now. Despite their huge size they have a fantastic flavour.

[labradors]

Plucky Hen, I wish I could answer your question about growing winter greens for chickens, but I have no experience. However, I do recommend growing kale for them. I had one plant over-winter, and I grew some this season for us all (the dogs love the stems too). They taste best after a frost. I like the "Blue Curled" variety, but I tried "Scarlet" too this year as the young leaves are good (and pretty) in salads. Our chickens also LOVE dandelion leaves and we have tons of those growing everywhere. I even bought some seeds for Italian Dandelion (which is a chicory) with large leaves.....

[Jaye]

@ThePluckyHen , I'm not sure anything will survive -20 and beyond temperatures unless you have a heated greenhouse , but I have not tried row covers, so don't really know whether that's a viable option. I provide greens to our chickens in the form of sprouted grains and I also grow wheat and oat grass for them indoors during the winter months. They also often get a cabbage to play tetherball, baby greens hung in suet holders.

[WLLady]

I am going to be blunt, the only thing row cover ever did for me was give me a headache trying to keep it anchored. If it rained hard the plants get crushed. If it was windy i would be chasing it all over hells half acres. If i anchored it with bricks it would finally not blow, but then as the plants grew i had to constantly readjust it because it would prevent the plants from growing. For frost it was completely and totally ineffective, because here we only really get a frost when there's humidity in the air, which would soak into the floating row cover and then freeze and then freeze the top of the plant with it. so i'm afraid i can only say that in the middle of summer floating row cover is great to keep bugs out. IF it's anchored well. and you tend to it daily. For growing greens for your birds in the winter, look into sprouting whole oats or sunflower seeds in seed starting trays-just the bottom water tray (not the cell packs). Just put in some oats in, and sprinkle with water to keep moist and put on top of your fridge or near your woodstove to stay somewhat warm (but not too warm to kill them) and let them sprout, then feed as sprouts about 1-2 inches long. It's also insanely easy to grow lettuce in a south facing windowsill, just in cell packs or 4 inch pots and pick leaves for them.....as for keeping greens going outside, yeah-not likely-BUT if you grow kale, and let it get super bushy and big, you can break leaves off it all winter and crumble for them-but you'll be feeding them frozen likely since they get a little mushy when thawed....

KB those tomatoes look awesome! I'm done with tomatoes. Too many tomatoes. They're everywhere. Even my "people" that come and pick my garden off and on (with permission) haven't come by to pick any. My fields were not blight resistant apparently (even though the seed said they were)....so at least they're gone! LOL. my cherry tomatoes are the size of small fields. perfect for sandwiches. nowhere near cherry size afraid that the downpouring of almost 1.25 inches of rain last night coupled with 100km/hr gusty wind has trashed the giant sunflowers...and a lot of branches down in my horse paddock (just cleaned those up and threw them off in the woods). not impressed with losing 3 hours of sleep last night, but what a lightning show! I think we're going to have another 2 walnuts to remove this fall when the guys who hunt come to visit (they're arborists! very helpful when we have bad trees to come down!).

[windwalkingwolf]

Sweet corn was a bust this year--planted late, and the cashcropper neighbour planted field corn so mine is crossbred and chewy.
I got hit hard with squash borers while I was busy with work and paying zero attention to my tarped garden, and the nasty bugs got the zucchini and pumpkins before I could get anything resembling a 'crop'. I'm going to try growing zucchini indoors in a greenhouse this winter. I tried pumpkins before, but never got any fruit despite hand pollination, but zucchini hopefully are a different story.
Cucumbers produced spectacularly, all at once, and then blighted all at once as did the watermelon. And peas. I apparently ignored the peas so much they were actually sprouting seedlings from the pods while still on the plants. Even though I only ignored them for about 2 weeks. Beans not to be outdone, many matured and dried before I managed to harvest them. That's fine, as now I have my seed for next year, AND plucking all the pods has made them produce more so now I have enough for the freezer too. Tomatoes are getting blighted, but I've put away 12 litres of paste and counting. Jalapenos have outpaced me this year...15 plants still going strong. 10 litres of relish (cowboy candy) and a huge grocery bag full I picked today, and a buttload still maturing on the plants. Sweet peppers haven't done quite as well: lots of Blossom End Rot and generally poor performance.
Carrots are doing great, especially a variety called Muscade. Definitely will grow again, though going forward I will likely save my own seeds or buy from someone other than Baker Creek.
If I wasn't moving soon I would amend the soil for next year. As it is, I am happy with what I got this year, considering I haven't done anything to my garden plot in 4 years except plant it! I've already got a patch of virgin ground planned out for next year, and a better management plan in place.
Oh! @Killerbunny , those Believe it or Not tomatoes...still fabulous, still large, still sweet and tasty...but in the years I've grown them, I haven't given them the attention they deserve and they have strayed genetically from my original. It was brought home to me because I managed to grow a couple really old seeds (15 years) so could compare the plants and fruits. Next year I will be growing new stock, old and young seed together and only saving the best of the best, and not just the largest and prettiest. Kind of like chickens...pretty doesn't mean squat if it gives you a bad taste in your mouth or won't reproduce lol
I'm not personally happy with B.I.O.N. performance anymore and am going to backcross to original
Believe it or not (no pun intended) the original tomato is HUUUUGGE and Sooo sweet and tasty.

[Ontario Chick]

Tomatoes and beans still coming in strongly, but if it stays this cold over night for too long it will finish the tomatoes promptly, meanwhile we are living on "no cook" tomato sauce, nothing makes me happier then a lovely meal that requires no cooking
Cabbage still getting bigger, there will be one for you @Killerbunny , no way can we use 4 cabbages and they look quite spectacular, if I say so myself.

[Killerbunny]

We are now at the point when the chickens see us coming with tomatoes and are "seriously? Not more tomatoes?" Turkeys are less discriminating and are "whee oh goodie, tomatoes!"

[labradors]

I have to know what "no cook" tomato sauce is ????

Too funny about KB's chickens! Mine don't seem to mind, but I cannot give them that many because the dogs always hound me for them.

Linda