Hot weather in early fall

We've been having a bit of a heat wave here, with temperatures in the high 90s and even cresting 100. My chicken books say that hot temperatures can be deadly for  chickens, so I've hooked up a fine mist sprinkler to spray over one part of their outdoor pen to cool the air down. I've been refreshing their water several times a day to keep it cool, and they seem to be doing fine. The male will even stand under the mist, while the females tend to avoid it.

In early September we had cooler weather and so I started thinking about taking fall cuttings of some plants I want to propagate. I took some lavender cuttings back then and put them in a shaded spot, close to my office door so that I would be sure to pay them the care they need – frequent watering mostly. Now I am not sure if they are going to make it with all this heat, but it'll be a good experiment. And if any of them do make it, all the better.

The berm in the front yard is looking pretty good, considering I don't water it much and that most of the plants are from re-seeding. There is a lush growth of new calendula, daikon, and fava beans. The pineapple guavas look pretty good and one of them even has a few fruits. In place of the ginkgo tree that the gopher killed I've planted a lime tree. The poor thing had a crowded root system so I pruned the roots and the top very heavily before planting it, I mulched it very well, and now it is sending out new growth, while in amongst the flush of calendula, etc. A few strawberry plants I moved out there in the spring have taken hold and are sending out runners. Strawberries make such a nice groundcover, and the fruits are pretty good too. The sunflowers have finished their show and are now ghosts towering over the other plants, as are the hollyhocks, their long stalks covered in seed pods and the odd flower.

The bamboo served as a great support for the pole beans, and it has started to push up some new growth.

Alphonse Karr bamboo with pole beans.

Detail of beans on bamboo.

Chickens

After attending my first Permaculture workshop at a farm in New Mexico, I decided that I wanted to get chickens. The farm had many chickens and turkeys which they moved around the place to help with weed control and insect control. I was interested in the weed and insect control, as well as feeding garden excesses to the birds and getting something I could eat in return, mainly eggs.

And so I returned home all excited about getting chickens and my partner went to work building a 6x8 chicken house with nest boxes and a human-sized door and a chicken sized door. I painted it before the winter rains came and then I stalled on building the fence. I am not particularly handy with certain types of projects. Like building a fenced in yard for chickens. The winter rains came and we got some leakage in the house, but nothing too bad, it just needed a little modification.

White-crested black Polish bantam chickens. Two hens and a rooster.

In my master gardner training and such, I met a man who had raised chickens from his own chickens, and he said he'd give me some of the new flock. And he showed me picture of the tiny chicks with their little white heads on top of their little black bodies. 

Off to the hardware store I went and loaded up my little car with fence posts and poultry netting and other fencing. And I went to work creating a fenced yard for the chickens and my partner went to work modifying the chicken house to keep the rain out of the few leaky areas. 

The chickens arrived yesterday afternoon, a little hot and a little shaken up from the drive from the farm. 

Today they were up and preening and drinking water. The rooster was patrolling for bugs and they all seem to be adjusting to their new surroundings. In a few days they'll get to go outside in the daytime, where they'll be able to scratch and dust and so forth.

Next spring they'll probably be laying eggs and hopefully they'll be helping with weed control and insect control.

Catching up...

Luxury winter pie pumpkin

September fourth and I haven't made an blog entry for approximately one month. Things are happening out there in the garden. My luxury winter pie pumpkin vine (the sole survivor of the gopher/microtus infestation) has two lovely fruits maturing on the vine. These pumpkins are supposedly delicious for pie – I've been using butternut squash in my pumpkin pies for a few years now, and they've been delicious. If these luxury pie pumpkins are sooooo much better, I'll definitely plant a ton more next year and hope for a bushel yield (unless the rodent population has abated by then–I'm working on it).


What else? Well the popcorn is starting to mature. Various winter squashes are putting on weight with time to mature before the cold weather. I've planted a few decorative things in the immediate patio area. Native dicentra, and a few other things. I've moved some of the crispy heuchera from the front yard (solar oven microclimate) to the part shade in the back. I continue to move the alpine strawberries from the way-back to the near-back. Those seem to like the heavier shade and a bit more water than the dry, baked area I am too scared to water for fear of gophers destroying my figs trees. Some successful trapping has occurred. Four gophers in two days, actually. And then a mole (they share the tunnels and I feel bad when I get one). My gopher to mole ratio is pretty high though, so, it is what is called collateral damage. 


The tomatoes which survived the ruthless attack from the gophers are almost exclusively cherry tomatoes. Black Aztec from Suzanne Ashworth via seed savers exchange. These are a very delicious tomato. Sweet and tart and copious in quantity. Also from Suzanne I've had excellent yields on the tomatillo plants I grew from her seeds.


Members of the cucurbit family have not fared entirely well. More than a few cucumber, melon, and squash plants were eaten by rodents. The rodents ate many of my bean plants too. They ate all kinds of things this year and left me feeling rather hopeless at times. A few of the bean plants that did make it through are starting to make pods! Including one that grew with the bamboo I planted in the front yard. The bean has spiraled up the stalks and is hanging seed pods in the air. My corn variety this year was popcorn and has not fared well with the invasion of gophers. I'll have a few kernels to try popping, but my crop was so impacted that I'll not have enough genetic variety to save the seed.


The front yard has sprung to life in the berm/basin area, after a spell of certain unattractiveness. Orange Cinderella pumpkins are growing out front. Various other plants went to seed and are re-growing from new seed - daikon, hollyhock, calendula. It looks sort of lush just now. I've been watering out there some.


The Thompson seedless grape in the front yard produced a few berry clusters this year. They were very sweet and delicious. The lemon tree has quite a few fruits on it, and is also draped in orange Passiflora caerulea fruits. 


I've planted some things for the fall garden. Peas, lettuce, arugula, collards, chard. I'll plant some spinach seeds I was sent when I renewed my Seed Savers Exchange membership. I hope they perform better than the German Pink tomato seeds they sent. It is a potato leaf variety of tomato and it produced not one fruit while it grew beside the prolific cappuccino cherry tomatoes from Suzanne Ashworth, across the way from the Black Aztecs, and near some Amish pastes - all of which produced fruit. Perhaps it is just the potato leaf varieties that don't work for me. Last year I planted one in a spot that I felt got enough sun but the plant did not produce. This year I planted a non-potato leaf type of tomato plant in a spot very close by and it fruited.


Back to planning the fall garden......