AMKuska's 2022 Garden

[AMKuska]

A squirrel visited my raised garden bed and dug all through it. I'm so mad! Half the little seedlings were buried from the holes it dug. I don't think it ate any, but one of the areas it dug was right over a seedling and clearly sacrificed it.

Hopefully they survive. Tomorrow I'm going to let the dogs out nice and early. Hope they get a good mouthful of squirrel.

 

[AMKuska]

The dogs have been patrolling in force today. I think the squirrels are bored--one of them had the nerve to come up to the glass door! No squirrels have yet to be captured, but I believe my dogs are a bit fitter, and there are no suspicious holes in my garden bed today.

I potted up 1/3 of the tomatoes. The new bell pepper speeds are sprouting faster and with more success than the other seeds--I think I'll pre-soak in chamomile tea from now on. Tomorrow I'll move my onion and carrot starts outside, and start a second batch.

I feel a lot better looking at all the seedlings and back-up seedlings. I'm quite sure there are going to be severe food shortages around the world. At least I know my little victory garden is in good shape this year and ready to help reduce our grocery bill.

 

[AMKuska]

A rat got into our garage somehow. He broke into the emergency food stash, has knocked over garden stuff, and generally made a nuisance of himself. I sent the dogs into the garage to try and root it out, but as fast as my dogs are, the rat is faster.

I put out sticky traps a couple nights ago and he got caught in one, and evidently chewed a circle around his foot and took that entire section of trap with him to get free. One would think you'd hear him walking around now that he's got an impromptu plastic peg-leg, but he's evidently laying low.

If he doesn't get caught soon, I'm opening up both doors and taking the entire contents of the garage outside so he has nowhere else to hide. This is too much!

Also, it has hailed really hard the last couple of days. I'm reminded of last year when my entire tomato crop was ruined from hail. I wonder if we'll have hailstorms every year now.

 

[meadow]

We had hail here too. Over two hours straight! I've never seen it hail for so long before.

Good luck with that rat!

 

[flowerbug]

that dirty rat! (sorry hard to resist such a straight line set up like that ).

one thing about emergency food storage, even in 5 gallon plastic buckets with the top on. rodents can still smell things if they are not perfectly sealed. we had mice (not rats) chew through the bucket and lid for the sunflower seeds we had stored. now that i finally got the garage sealed up so that mice cannot get in i've not had any newer attempts at those same seeds but i expect if some do get in again i'll have it happen again. until we get rid of the sunflower seeds or i put them in a gallon glass jar with a metal lid they'll be vulnerable. the next saurkraut jar is going to be used for them...

 

[AMKuska]

that dirty rat! (sorry hard to resist such a straight line set up like that ).

one thing about emergency food storage, even in 5 gallon plastic buckets with the top on. rodents can still smell things if they are not perfectly sealed. we had mice (not rats) chew through the bucket and lid for the sunflower seeds we had stored. now that i finally got the garage sealed up so that mice cannot get in i've not had any newer attempts at those same seeds but i expect if some do get in again i'll have it happen again. until we get rid of the sunflower seeds or i put them in a gallon glass jar with a metal lid they'll be vulnerable. the next saurkraut jar is going to be used for them...

My garage is sealed--part of why the rat can't get out again. My husband left the garage door open overnight when he forgot to close it after changing fish tank water. I should definitely rethink my food and seed storage though.

 

[AMKuska]

Someone with more experience with peppers took a look at my set up and made some recommendations to try and fix them. I've emplimented the changes and will see if they grow faster than a snail's pace now. The light has been lowered, heat mat removed, and I'll continue to water them less. (Someone here mentioned wet feet being an issue, so I have been, but indeed wet soil seems to be a factor in my pepper problems.)

 

[AMKuska]

The garden is coming along slowly but surely. My squash, pumpkins and cucumbers are doing really well. They have been moved outside and will be planted soon. Half my tomatoes are huge, the others are stunted, but I expected that and planted double the tomatoes I needed. The stunted ones can hang out in the greenhouse while the peppers grow and grow themselves--or not.

My peppers appear to be surviving. I think their lack of growth may have been less their own ability, and more the rat nibbling off the tops. Now that the rat has met its demise, they seem to be growing just fine.

Kids planted my entire big garden with popcorn today. I don't mind as I have so much space this year. If I need extra space I can grow in grow pots which I have an abundance of.

 

[AMKuska]

First nice day we've had all year. We spent the day yesterday in the garden, and my daughter soaked up every moment of that sunshine. We focused on sprucing up the front yard with new flowers she picked, including two big flower pots for the front yard.

My son has his native butterfly caterpillars to raise now, and they are getting big and fat under his care. Mostly, they just need their host plants watered and the paper changed under them, but he also takes detailed notes on their behavior and has named them. They are Recruit, Stupid-ella (she can never seem to find the plant) and Terminator. There's also Tiny, a small one, and Shy who has disappeared into the plant and is either dead or just...well...shy.

My daughter's corn is about 3" tall now and growing vigorously. It got a bit of compost tea and a thorough watering today.

Cold season crops were a complete bust this year. I blame all the hale. Squash and tomatoes have been moved outside and are surviving, but don't look well. I'll go do soil testing out there in a few days and see if there's a reason for their poor doing.

 

[AMKuska]

A couple photos from the day. Look at this ridiculous chicken. She thinks she's a model. ;-)

Here's one of the flowers I potted:

And one of my daughter's flowers: