Ducks4you for 2022

[ducks4you]

Storm knocked over some sweet corn, but not all, like last year. Fencing really helps.
About a dozen more Brussels Sprouts up! They are north of the southmost fence, which is getting a lot of shade now, maybe the difference?
If I don't see enough up on the northmost fence, I will replant next week.
LOTS of beans up, And okra, And cucumbers, some of which are growing that funny jagged leaf.
I think my Fall gardening is gonna do ok!
Pictures tomorrow.

 

[ducks4you]

Harvested 21 M0RE beans this morning, after picking 9 late yesterday afternoon.
Beans are my Surprise crop success this year. I finally planted them in the right place, where they get plenty of sun AND I have plenty of room to harvest them.
I pulled out 6 sweet corn stalks that were spent, and the sugar snap pea plant was spent, so I harvested 4 pods to let dry out and get seeds from. Ponies will get a treat today.

 

[ducks4you]

Good article on managing rainwater. There is a September workshop, but it's 2 hrs away and I really can't make it.

Stormwater woes, and how rain gardens can help

A local problem with widespread implications What is a watershed? No matter where you live, you are in a watershed. All of Illinois, minus that sliver of land bordering Lake Michigan, is in the Mississippi River Watershed. But we can break down this massive watershed into more local streams and...

extension.illinois.edu

I CAN however keep up with the gym membership that I started yesterday!
The small gym, labeled as gym/rehabilitation center attached to a clinic outlet, is 20 minutes from my house, 5 minutes from DD's house, very clean, and, according to youngest DD, it has all the equipment you might need. She is the only one of us who ever used a weight room in HS, and that was bc she played Volleyball.
First time for me was yesterday evening. 2 DD's and I stretched before and after, I used a leg bench press and I walked on a treadmill. DD's are starting a regimen that they did in 2020, eldest DD lost 50 pounds, and needs to lose most of that, again (she will tell you this), but they had a walk/run session. I had my daughter's wifi earbud, so I got to hear the program AND her music while I walked.
We are going to take my old Android phone and fill it with some music this weekend.
POINT: My legs DO feel better and I am walking better with the workout.
I told them, either I will feel better tomorrow, OR, my knees will ask me, "What have your DONE?!?!?"
Fortunately, I am walking Better, and I look forward to Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Gym.

 

[ducks4you]

Reading about water retention---can you tell the weather got hot again?!?
This article is just wild hot well this works.

 

[flowerbug]

Reading about water retention---can you tell the weather got hot again?!?
This article is just wild hot well this works.

first stuff you learn in permaculture is reading the lay of the land, studying water and air flows, also geology (you don't want to absorb so much water that your hillsides start moving), pond siting (making sure any dams won't be hazards to people downhlll, etc.

for water soaking i have layered things here so that heavy rains are kept back and soaked in instead of running off. even with the entire lot being only a few feet difference in elevations i have six layers in some spots and places to stop and soak as much water as possible because it keeps erosion gullys from forming. i do have one last erosion gully to contend with but that's been a longer term project for eons.

the point of water flow management to me is that when water is flowing it is taking away valueable nutrients and organic materials. for our mostly clay soil having any water moving means that organic material is lost and the area will be turnedi into a barren that is baked in the sun until the weeds/grasses can reclaim it and then the worms will be ok again, but with even a small slope i don't want all those nutrients that the worms bring up to be washed away either so i try to capture as much water in as many layers as i can.

i try to shape things to hold the first inch or two of any downpour up as high as i can and then keep layering downwards.

in super arid places like out west if you have the room to do this you can make a huge difference in how much water your property retains after any rainfalls. it adds to how much you can grow and how much mulches or other cover crops you can grow and of course food too or food for animals. the main thing out west is that with more hills and lighter soils you do want to make sure you're not soaking your hillsides so they slip away...

for extra reading you can look into keyline methods of stopping and spreading water flows. it's amazing stuff. the Aussies are a long ways ahead of this type of thing than we are here in the states. many of these techniques are folding into regenerative agriculture.

i've got a list of books and references on these sort of topics here, the most interesting books were those on dirt, erosion and soil communities:

Notes | Anthive

Notes on several books and various other topics...

www.anthive.com

it hasn't been updated in a while, but still some good reading for winter months there.

 

[ducks4you]

Harvested about 20 More beans this morning. Coming in Fast! We ate my first harvest last night, cooked in bacon. Yummm!!!
I Love these purple beans--so pretty, so Tasty. I have read that after the first killing frost I should leave the existing pods on the plants to dry out, then dry them out futher inside for 2023 storage.
Even though I am looking forward to my climbing beans, there Will be a place for These beans in next year's garden. I also started to harvest my pears. They are sitting in a paper lunch bag to help them ripen.

 

[ducks4you]

My okra is up, even where some came up late. (pictures later.) They are growing with pole beans.
I planted pole beans AND cucumbers, but mostly bc I wanted to know if I COULD start cucumbers this late.
Remember Ducks plan, 2022 to Learn how to grow, 2023 to KNOW how to grow.
Fall, 2022 to get ALL of my 2023 seeds in house.
If the beans AND the cucumbers all climb, I may need to be creative with supports for them.
Just some FYI, its has been Really hot. I have been using my phone for pictures. My phone (and yours) have Lithium batteries, the same batteries that exploded an electric bus in Connecticut last week.
THEREFORE, I try not to get my phone overheated.

 

[ducks4you]

This is where I just wanted to be Rid of this sweet corn that I bought for 2022. I threw the seeds in a clump and got This. I have 7 corns in the fridge that we will be eating with dinner tomorrow night. More coming, but I am buying other corn to plant in 2023.

 

[flowerbug]

i work at the other end of the seed saving scale of things for some beans. if they can finish up early i like to continue to encourage that trait because then i can space my production out based upon different varieties finishing at different times, but i also want to avoid frost damaged seeds. i don't think the seeds are great quality if they're still somewhat green when the frosts arrive.

since i also like to keep my current purple beans that i use for bulk dry beans too i want to leave about 1/3 of the crop on my first planting (which is finishing up right about now) and select seeds from those for future early replanting. that works out to where i can pick two or three times and that is plenty enough because now i have other fresh beans coming along from later plantings.

 

[Dahlia]

I'm actually in 8b. But higher elevation, so this place gets some snow once in while. Ask me my fav veggie and my answer has always been brussels sprouts. Steamed, roasted, BBQ'd, cold, hot.

I love Brussels sprouts! We cut them in half and pan fry them in olive oil and salt or steam them until tender. They are good with a little bit of plain yogurt, Dijon mustard, and S&P to taste!