August: Gardens Mulched and Chickens Happy

Milkweed; I started growing milkweed a few years ago when I noticed I wasn't seeing monarch butterflies. This year they are back and I'm delighted! But I did notice that planting milkweed in the garden is not a good idea. Very invasive. So I've left them out along the edges of the lawn and trees. Well, besides milkweed blooming it's a hot and sunny day here in Maine. High 80's and rather hot in the sun. But the coop and run are built and the garden pathways are (mostly) weeded and mulched with old hay that I got from a very generous friend. Same friend who shared her lovely Dominique chicks with me. What a good friend and all I had to do was give her maple syrup. Great barter I think. As far as weeding and mulching I say mostly because the top garden pathways have not been weeded or mulched because last summer I had the "bright" idea to use a heavy duty landscape fabric to mulch the pathways of the then new upper garden. Sure did work beautifully last year. Not so much this year. The weeds are coming up through the fabric and making pulling impossible. I will never use landscape fabric in the veggie gardens again. I will stick to my old method of weeding, then covering with newspapers and hay, and then watering. I do plan to get some cardboard from an appliance store nearby to do the upper garden. I usually newspaper and top off with old hay on the pathways and use straw mulch on the beds. But since I waited so long this year it seems many of the beds don't need a layer of straw mulch as the plants are big enough and close enough that shade is being naturally provided. That leaves me with a day of outside chores at a more relaxing tempo. I can take that. Nothing like gardening in a swim suit and jumping in the pool whenever the heat gets to be too much. Oh about every 30 minutes or so. I've also decided to finally make that naughty mint syrup and enjoy a mint julep by the pool later in the day.

But before I put my suit on and start my relaxed day of swimming and gardening I'd like to share something else I've noticed from all this being late with garden chores this year. Like everything else the squashes (pumpkins, cukes, summer and winter squashes) were all planted late. The good news is that they are basically unaffected by cucumber beetles, squash bugs, and stink bugs because there aren't many here. This is very interesting because last year the garden experienced an infestation that I dealt with by manually picking those yucky bugs every single morning and evening. Also of interest is that according to Johnny's Selected Seeds,local farmers are infested with cucumber beetles this year to the point of using conventional (yucky poisons) to deal with them. I still wonder why using poisonous chemicals in gardening is considered "conventional". Shouldn't organic be considered conventional and spraying poisons be unconventional? Cucumber beetles are bad because they inject a bacterial illness into the squash plants causing major harm. My guess is that when they emerged from the soil earlier this year and didn't find any squash plants they flew off in search of some. Ha! Another major bug issue I have had in the past was with potato beetles. I mean major gross. Then last year I happened to be late with my garden planting of potatoes and noticed, no beetles! So potatoes were planted late again this year, on purpose, and again no beetles. Hummmmmm....I think I will plant potatoes and squashes late again next year. By late I mean mid June for potatoes and late late June for squashes. Even with late planting I harvested my first batch of pickling cukes yesterday for countertop pickles and am sure I'll be canning pickles and dilly beans this week. Perfect timing for me...early August.

With all the gardening updates how can I not share an update on the chickens? We are settling into a routine and have noticed they love their run. Solo is a great rooster and he takes care of his girls. They stay close together all day long. They leave the coop in the morning when their little pop door is opened and they return to the coop on their own at dusk and take their places on their perch. One thing that I am debating on is when/if they will free range. I just wish I stayed home all day to let them do that. We'll see maybe a few hours in the late afternoon early evenings when people are home. We unfortunately have a dang fox that lives near here and wiped out a neighbor's hens. I, for good reason, worry about that. For now Solo and the girls spend their days in the pen and seem pretty content. I have noticed that they love peas, the whole pea plant pulled out of the garden roots, shoots, leaves, peapods, peas, and all. When I throw some pea plants in the run they go wild over them, almost as wild as they do when I give them very cold watermelon and grapes. Besides peas, watermelon, and grapes, up there on their list of things they enjoy are chard and beet greens. While researching what chickens like to eat I found "Chicken Scratch" at Nicholas Seeds and ordered a seed packet. It is a packet with a variety of greens seeds that is very good for chicken health. I will dig up one of the peas' beds as soon as one is empty and plant a bed for the chickens. We'll see how that goes.

That's it for today. Glad to be back doing updates. Hope it's not too hot where you are and if it is (and if it isn't) I hope you are able to have access to plenty of clean water for you, your garden, and your animals. Happy Gardening! Mary