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LadyLocust said:
Good to know. Actually after the voles eating them the past 2 years, I chopped up some store bought spuds and planted them. I figure if we get any, it's a perk. We have fields all around us so I am totally outnumbered by the voles. We are in SE WA and are also 7A so that explains a lot. I was thinking about the purple ones, might give them a whirl next year.
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Luckily I've not had any real problems with any critters so far this year. But corn and melons will bring out the deer. Probably coons too.
 
I am getting a slow but steady harvest of salad tomato's, just 2 or 3 a day, but it's June and I'm getting tomato's so I'm happy. We are getting beets now but I am trying to have steady harvests, not a single large harvests for canning but just to get a half dozen a week for the table and then replanting after each harvest. The wife likes to steam them wrapped in foil in the oven and then slices them for inclusion in salads.

The pole beans now cover about 25% of the supports and many are over 5' high, no flowers yet. The second planting of sugar peas are now starting to bloom. My first attempt at 2 sisters (corn and pole beans) is progressing to an overgrown mess, the corn is over a foot high, but the beans are totally covering them.... I have several squash now about 6" long, but they are still too skinny to harvest. Today I started some okra and the sweet potatoes need to be transplanted. I have 3 potato plants outside growing well and I have 10 more plants inside that should be ready to move some more potato plants outside over the weekend.
 
Pulled a few radishes today and found two...

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Purple radishes. Never seen purple before. Thay may have grown from seeds I had collected a few years ago. If I find anymore I will let one go to seed for fun and adventures!

Ben
 
Hey @Neb, Those radishes look a lot like beets, you don't suppose your plants have been playing patty-fingers?

I just put some of the sweet potato growth into small starter pots, hope they all take root, that would give me a dozen plants to find homes for.

Yesterday, I used some garden twine to fence in my corn, today we had a thunderstorm with high winds and I'm glad that I was ready, last time I tried corn I got high wends and it blew the corn out of the bed, tops on the ground and roots sticking up in the air....
 
UrbanHunter said:
Hey @Neb, Those radishes look a lot like beets, you don't suppose your plants have been playing patty-fingers?

I just put some of the sweet potato growth into small starter pots, hope they all take root, that would give me a dozen plants to find homes for.

Yesterday, I used some garden twine to fence in my corn, today we had a thunderstorm with high winds and I'm glad that I was ready, last time I tried corn I got high wends and it blew the corn out of the bed, tops on the ground and roots sticking up in the air....
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Never tried beets so...

I had tried cherry belle, sparkler, and icicle at the same time a few years back. Only God knows what I may have done. :rolleyes:

Ben
 
That does look like a beet, Ben. Rabbits have eaten all my beet tops twice now, so we'll see if I get any. I spent the afternoon weeding, and planting about 5 replacement tomatoes and 4 replacement squash. The rain played havok on the garden. Also dumped another wheelbarrow on aged cow manure around. We've got a massive pile of it. Maybe I should just grow stuff in it.
 
Amish Heart said:
That does look like a beet, Ben. Rabbits have eaten all my beet tops twice now, so we'll see if I get any. I spent the afternoon weeding, and planting about 5 replacement tomatoes and 4 replacement squash. The rain played havok on the garden. Also dumped another wheelbarrow on aged cow manure around. We've got a massive pile of it. Maybe I should just grow stuff in it.
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You could advertise on craigslist or offerup for free or sell it. Farm fresh aged fertilizer
 
Amish Heart said:
That does look like a beet, Ben. Rabbits have eaten all my beet tops twice now, so we'll see if I get any. I spent the afternoon weeding, and planting about 5 replacement tomatoes and 4 replacement squash. The rain played havok on the garden. Also dumped another wheelbarrow on aged cow manure around. We've got a massive pile of it. Maybe I should just grow stuff in it.
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Hey @Amish Heart , I didn't know you raised rabbits. You know they taste like chicken.... How to Trap Rabbits | Rabbit Trapping | Havahart®
 
Yep have rabbits. Need some rabbit nest boxes and away we go. I think our neighbor's little brother might put one together for us. They're for meat and poop. JustMe....everyone, and I mean everyone in our community has manure. I wouldn't advertise it. I don't mind where it is, in a big pile bothering nothing. we have 23 acres. I do put the rabbit poop straight on the garden each week when the kids clean the cages. It's mixed with straw, so that's not a problem. So two of the old neighbor guys (they are English) are raising rabbits to sell. Didn't think that would be very profitable, they want to sell the offspring at our monthly fowl sale here. They think that they'll go for $8 to $10 bucks a piece. Neither of these guys have gardens. I think the rabbits are worth raising for the poop alone. Our son was selling bags of rabbit poop and gallons of rabbit "tea" for a good price in Albuquerque for gardens. But that was for city people.
 
We have five rabbits and get a good amount of poop each week.
My cousin was running a commercial dairy for a number of years with Jersey A2 rated cows. He is certified organic on his fields, and grew his own cow feed (still does). Got to the point when covid was in full swing that the milk truck would not pick up all his milk because of whatever reason of the day. He said the cows were worth more to him at the time for their poop. He has since stopped commercial dairy. Still has some milk cows, I get our milk from him. Raises calves for meat now. Dual purpose animals are good. Better yet when you can grow what they eat.
 
Amish Heart said:
Dual purpose animals are good. Better yet when you can grow what they eat.
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Agreed. We have chickens, and we have plans to work towards turkeys, pigs, and cattle (and some others in our peripheral vision). The objective to be able to grow what they eat, or as much as possible - which is a pretty lofty goal for us at this stage in our skillset.

But I never had rabbits on the list because it just didn't seem like they offered enough meat for the energy. But really, what do I know? And if they can offer something besides meat...
 
Meat and poop. And I guess fur, if you want to go to the trouble. Ha. Lucky rabbit's foot.
That being said, I have not butchered a rabbit. Our son in New Mexico did the rabbits, I did the fowl. But our neighbor's mom does rabbit butchering with the wild rabbits they trap, so I'll see her. Another neighbor asked if she can watch fowl butchering next time we butcher. So we'll just spread the skills.
Hey, Grimm was raising rabbits for meat. Where is she?
 
Amish Heart said:
Meat and poop. And I guess fur, if you want to go to the trouble. Ha. Lucky rabbit's foot.
That being said, I have not butchered a rabbit. Our son in New Mexico did the rabbits, I did the fowl. But our neighbor's mom does rabbit butchering with the wild rabbits they trap, so I'll see her. Another neighbor asked if she can watch fowl butchering next time we butcher. So we'll just spread the skills.
Hey, Grimm was raising rabbits for meat. Where is she?
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I posted in concern about missing members that Grimm disappeared over a month ago! ☹️
 
Amish Heart said:
That does look like a beet, Ben. Rabbits have eaten all my beet tops twice now, so we'll see if I get any. I spent the afternoon weeding, and planting about 5 replacement tomatoes and 4 replacement squash. The rain played havok on the garden. Also dumped another wheelbarrow on aged cow manure around. We've got a massive pile of it. Maybe I should just grow stuff in it.
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The Princess sliced one of the purple radishes up and it tasted like radish. I have never tasted beet. Do beets taste like radishes?

Ben
 
I took a look at the wild black raspberry I was trying to clone via layering. Looked like roots are forming. Always willing to push my luck so I put a rock on another cane to see if I can turn one plant into 3.

Ben
 
finally got dry enough to get in garden and get after weeds since we had all the rain.it was still sticking to my shoes though first morning..second morning was better. 131 foot rows of taters.my grandaddys ford rear tine is down. i had to dig back in back and pull out my dads old mid 70's front tine tiller. he and i rebuilt carb last summer after sitting over 20 years. glad i did...runs pretty good to be close to 50 years old..the ford is a 1980 model..it had me cussing all week. finally ordered a carburetor...hope to get it going.

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My wife loves them steamed, easy to prepare, just cut off the greens put between 3 and 6 of them in a foil "boat" with about 1/4" of water in with them, close up/seal the top and then put them in a 350F oven until fork tender (about a hour). After they have cooled a bit, put on some rubber gloves and just slide the skins off, rinse and put in a closed container and store in the fridge, the wife slices them and adds them to salads.
 
Today, I went out and weeded 3 beds, 30 minutes each. The spinach is about done except for the 1 bed with the insect netting. I need to go back out and amend the soil before planting some heat tolerant lettuce. I now have beets growing in 3 beds in various states of maturity, half of one bed is on it's second planting. It's a bit hot to be doing much work out there, I may not get finished today, if I can be ready for planting the lettuce I will be happy.

I was getting ready to net the grape vines, but a pair of robins have made a nest right in the middle of the whole thing....
 
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