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Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden
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I know we have quite a few green thumbs and rural denizens here on this forum. I'm heading into my first full year on the farm and have some projects lining up, so I figured why not tap into the collective wisdom and share some tips, tricks, and projects.

In no particular order, items on the prep agenda:
- build a critter proof chicken coop for 12 or so hens
- prune a 32 tree orchard (29 apple, 3 pear), neglected for years
- prep for cider pressing and fermenting (entirely new to me)
- plant grape vines
- learn canning and pickling
- overwinter garden prep

I bought the Backyard Homestead series of books which is helpful to a point. Where do you all go online or in print for good information on small farm operations and other relevant topics?

The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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Depending on what your property allows, I've seen some really nifty designs on YouTube for critter-proof chicken coops including mobile coops. I'll post back with what I have bookmarked.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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Can’t help much with chickens but what are you looking for on the pruning, pickling amd canning I can help in those areas.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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A lot of major universities have a farm extension service. They give really good advice not centered on selling you stuff.

So when you search on something like fruit tree pruning (or any other topic you can imagine) and see an address like https://extension.umaine.edu/...es-in-maine/pruning/ - use those - they will essentially teach you how to farm.

It sounds like a lot of what you are looking at is around fruit trees. Spray - on time every time. Especially the early season times before the fruit even sets on. My dad has always told me that they used to say when the last drop of rain hits the first drop of spray should hit. Yeah, I'm not doing that. But if you don't spray properly your yield will be low and your fruit will look like shit.

Pruning is as much art as science. If it looks good to you aesthetically it is probably pretty close to correct. Apple trees are really resilient around pruning so if you make mistakes they will recover.. It will probably take a couple years of pruning and thinning to get neglected trees back to being good. Be willing to remove large branches if it is called for. Be careful to not just whack it back to only big branches because then next year it will just be a brushy mess. It is hard to wrap your head around how much you should thin them out. I continually leave too much, and it reduces yield. Another dad'ism, you should be able to throw your hat up and have it fall through the tree without getting stuck. Again, an overstatement but take more rather than less.

Grapes can depend on the variety if they form on new or 2nd year growth. But you can and should prune them way back every year.

Blueberries I have never trimmed. I keep the weeds and brush out of them, spray them when I spray everything else (but I'm not actually sure they care) and pick the bejesus out of them every year - by far the easiest to care for

I'm assuming you have your own cider press - hard to find anyone around here to do it for you any more. Clean it. Really well. If you don't, the next batch will start working really quickly from the leftover yeasties eating the leftover apple parts. Use good clean apples, pick out the rotten ones and don't let mud in or else, remarkably, your cider tastes like rotten apples and mud. 3 gallons to the bushel +/- is what we usually see.

That is a LOT of trees. I think the most we had growing up was 15 - 20. The pruning will take a good bit of work and needs done while they are dormant, I would not think any worse of you if you picked out the trees and varieties you liked and pruned the rest about 3" tall with a chainsaw :) And 29 trees can produce insane amounts depending on whether they are dwarf, semi-dwarf, or full size. You could be looking at 4 - 500 bushels of apples out of 29 full size trees (and that many dwarf can easily be 100+). Not sure how many apples you have picked in your life, you do not want to pick several hundred bushels of apples yourself every year. I usually prune in very early March in OH. Sucks to be climbing in the top of trees in cold rainy wind and I have to do my dad's too since we don't let his 94 year old butt climb trees any more.I've got 4 apple, 2 pear, 2 cherry, 2 peach, 2 plum, along with blueberries, currants, grapes, and strawberries and the gardens.

The only winter prep I do is make sure all the weeds are trimmed down, cover the strawberries and roses, and do any projects on equipment.

I'm way into my gardens and fruits. I grew up on a farm and I think I probably made a mistake in not making it my career. I'd much rather talk roses, blueberries, strawberries, and apples than politics.

I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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I didn't know you had a farm. Neat!

maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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Quote:
- plant grape vines





Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [Dr. Tigerchik] [ In reply to ]
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I didn't until recently. My fiance bought a beautiful little farmette a few years ago, and we plan on keeping the place as our forever home. Seven acres, a large pasture, 27 apple trees, 2 pear trees, 2 mulberry trees, 1 tart cherry tree, 4 garden boxes, a few horses and a cow. We lost our chickens to predators but we'll replace after shoring up or replacing the coop.It's a little slice of heaven on earth in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley.

I'll still be working ICU but on a 7 day on, 7 day off schedule, so I'll have ample time to dedicate to the homestead. It's been a lifelong dream to live and work a piece of land like this, but man, I have a lot to learn.

The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W
Last edited by: sphere: Nov 26, 20 7:24
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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I spent my summers as a kid on a farm in that area. Upperville/Rectortown area. Beautiful part of the country. A life goal of mine is to buy my grandfather's farm back someday.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [GreenPlease] [ In reply to ]
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I drove through Upperville two nights ago on my way over to Bluemont. It's a beautiful little hamlet in horse country. I did my graduate studies out in Winchester and spent a great deal of time exploring the local area. Truly God's country.

The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [Duffy] [ In reply to ]
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Duffy wrote:
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- plant grape vines




Are those yours? I've never done anything with mine beyond eating, juice and jelly. But they are so far beyond any commercial table grape. Like eating candy.

I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [j p o] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks for the tips, I've been reading through the link tonight, great information.Yes, I am tempted to cut several of the trees way back, if not out entirely. I believe the orchard is some 20 years old and the trees are 20-25' and well grown into each other, with very little light penetrating the canopy during growing season. I've tasted fruit from just about every tree and have marked the ones I'd like to invest time and effort into.

I don't yet have a cider press but that's on the list of supplies to order. Any suggestions?

We're currently taxed as a residential property but with that kind of production potential it seems like it'd be worth it to sell off just enough to qualify as farmland for tax purposes. I don't know what that entails here in VA though.

I'm considering planting grapes for the table, and wine making. Chardonnay and Cab Sav grow very well here, from what I've seen and read. I'd like to make juice and jam from the table grapes, so...concord?

I've been reading through the Old Farmer's Almanac website as well, which has a nice simple format for information gathering. Any other sites or resources are appreciated. Thanks again.

The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [j p o] [ In reply to ]
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j p o wrote:
Duffy wrote:

Quote:
- plant grape vines






Are those yours? I've never done anything with mine beyond eating, juice and jelly. But they are so far beyond any commercial table grape. Like eating candy.

Yes. We make jelly to give to people.

Unfortunately this is our last major hall because we removed the grapes and pergola to make way for the sauna. We re-planted 1 of the 4 grape vines so we’ll see what happens with that....

Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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My brother bought an old press at auction, they tend to go in the $500'ish range around here.

Our concord grapes are just silly tasty for juice. We have Niagara and Canadice too. No idea if they make good wine.

If you like this sort of thing you will love it. It is very satisfying to me. Pretty soon you'll be asking Hawley about butchering pigs. I ain't helping with that one. :)

I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [j p o] [ In reply to ]
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j p o wrote:
My brother bought an old press at auction, they tend to go in the $500'ish range around here.

Our concord grapes are just silly tasty for juice. We have Niagara and Canadice too. No idea if they make good wine.

If you like this sort of thing you will love it. It is very satisfying to me. Pretty soon you'll be asking Hawley about butchering pigs. I ain't helping with that one. :)

We used a juicer for the grapes. Then added some spices and/or peppers to the mix. No sugar added in our jelly.

We looked into buying a 4h pig but covid...

...I’d love to learn to butcher an animal. Downtown Santa Barbara isn’t exactly the ideal location for such things but we’re probably bailing this state sooner rather an later.

We’ve got a little garden going and are looking into getting chickens. Mrs Duffy comes from a family of farmers (and doctors and oil speculators) so some of that rubbed off on her.

Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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I'm jealous of your undertaking.

For the last three weeks I've been working on this remote property on the west coast of our island. Beautiful, rugged, and hilly land, unobstructed ocean views and olympic mountains, with a valley between the property and ocean that occasionally brings in fog or lights up when the sun is at the right angle. They have a huge apple orchard and garden the size of my entire lot in town. It's so... quiet and peaceful there. I'd love to have something like that.

Of course, here that property fetches around 3 million dollars, so, I'll just keep dreaming for now!

Long Chile was a silly place.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [Duffy] [ In reply to ]
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I’ve been obsessed with pepper jelly for years. What combination have you found hits the sweet spot for flavor and heat?

Those are concord?

The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [j p o] [ In reply to ]
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I’ve been looking at the hundred dollar variety on Amazon. I suspect I’m looking in the wrong place?

The lady has a family cattle ranch across the road and they handle all of the meat production, so I won’t be looking to slaughter a pig anytime soon. Quite happy with the Black Angus for now.

The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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sphere wrote:
I’ve been obsessed with pepper jelly for years. What combination have you found hits the sweet spot for flavor and heat?

Those are concord?

Concord and Rogers Red.

We add rosemary, jalapeño and/or habanero some of them had a little lime too.

As for amounts, well...

...nothing was ever written down and we just sort of wing it. The ratios would vary so much that we’d have two or three jars out of fifty that were actually the same.

As for which were â€best’, we have no idea since the vast majority of it is given away to various people. Nobody has ever told us it was shitty jelly. Even it is shitty jelly I doubt anyone would say anything (well a couple people I know would).

Sometimes you just have to jump off the diving board blind folded and trust that there’s water in pool.

Start with a little jalapeño in a batch, give it a taste and adjust from there.

Good luck and Godspeed.

Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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Just talked to Mrs duffy.

She says she chopped up jalapeño at about 1/4 - 1/2 of a pepper per 8oz jar of jelly. So you make your jelly, put in the peppers. Don’t boil the peppers for very long (add them to already boiled jelly juice) or they will just dissolve (unless you want that).

We’re actually going to make a batch this weekend. I’ll keep you posted.

Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [Duffy] [ In reply to ]
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Excellent, thanks.

The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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sphere wrote:
Excellent, thanks.

12 quarts of previously juiced grapes just pulled from the deep freeze. Going to get jars. Looks like we’re making jelly today. Damn it!

I knew I shouldn’t have brought it up...



Notes from 2017. Mrs says “quadruple” the amount of peppers shown in these notes...



Also, looks like we did add sugar just not the recommended amount.

Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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My mom has made jam and jelly for ages.

One cost saving trick is to find an Amish Country store and buy your pectin there. Typically you can buy it in bulk for pennies on the dollar for what you would spend at a supermarket.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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It begins...



Got some cinnamon, fennel, peppers that my sister grew and probably some cat dander.

Civilize the mind, but make savage the body.

- Chinese proverb
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [j p o] [ In reply to ]
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I’m looking at cider presses online and $500 at auction seems about right, since the quality models I’m seeing run $800-$1k. Can’t say I know where to find an auction where I might pick one up around here, though.

This caught my eye this morning.

https://www.simplyciderpresses.com/...teader-with-grinder/

The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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Heritage presses can be quite spendy. i am quietly hoping to someday inherit my Grandpa's apple press. He made a lot of apple jack with that press. Good stuff

Steve
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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sphere wrote:
I’m looking at cider presses online and $500 at auction seems about right, since the quality models I’m seeing run $800-$1k. Can’t say I know where to find an auction where I might pick one up around here, though.

This caught my eye this morning.

https://www.simplyciderpresses.com/...teader-with-grinder/

Auctionzip.com will be your friend

I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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If you need supplies now is the time. If this year ends up anything like last year, you won't find canners, jars, supplies in general. I sold my pressure canner before I moved as I focus on water bath method for tomatoes and freeze or dry most other things. When I went to buy a canner, everyone was out. I had some luck with Fleet Farm out of the midwest and their prices were less.

That alone told me if I needed more jars or lids to get right on it. So I was stocking up spring and early summer. By the time mid summer came around there was nothing.

Interesting lesson learned. I used to can all of the time, especially tomatoes. Had a ten year gap where I wasn't in a house with a sunny enough yard or have the space. Today's tomatoes are not acidic enough. I've always done water bath for tomatoes. Go on line and filter through all of the university gardening extensions as they said. I put up 30+ jars of tomatoes last year to find out I may have to throw them out. Coworker said new varieties are not as acidic. I ordered a pH meter from hannah instruments to check as I did plant an older variety from seed. PH good. I do check each jar when I open as I had three varieties and depending upon how ripe they are, the ph can vary. The spaghetti sauce yesterday was worth it. PH meter will come in handy for grapes and wine making too.

You can still water bath tomatoes but may need to add citric acid.

Plant lights for starting seeds are also in low supply.

Have fun! It is much needed therapy after a rough winter dealing with covid. We have had zero covid patients in house for at least a week.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [abies] [ In reply to ]
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abies wrote:
Can’t help much with chickens but what are you looking for on the pruning, pickling amd canning I can help in those areas.

Any suggestions as to why an entire orchard won't produce fruit? I have an orchard with ~10 Apple, 4 pear a couple cherry, couple plum and to date have gotten 2 apples....yes, 2.

The orchard is surrounded by anywhere from 6 to 12 beehives depending on year. The trees where almost all planted over 10 years ago. I have checked and double checked to see if I have the right variety of trees to get pollination. I have sent pictures to U of I extension asking of they could see anything horribly wrong. They responded with that the pruning looks "OK" and to continue on.

Every year I get thousands of blooms and thousands of "Ornamental" fruit size niblets...no full fruit.

I have

1) Pruned, Pruned and pruned again. Over pruned, under pruned, no pruning, scalped...same result
2) Had the soil tested
3) Thinned the fruit, not thinned the fruit
4) Fertilized, not fertilized

My neighbor has a single apple tree in his front year that is probably 1/8th of mile from these...he gets tons of apples every year. I have two Arkansas Black apple trees in the bunch. They are the only ones that have given me any fruit at all. Last year I got one apple off one and two years ago I got one apple off the other.

I may give them a couple more years but if I don't figure something out they may just be coming down because it's easier to mow a flat space with no trees :-)

~Matt
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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sphere wrote:
- prep for cider pressing and fermenting (entirely new to me)

I typically do Cider Pressing with a friend of mine...when we aren't Covid-19'd. He made a bench with a stainless steel sink and a Garbage disposal. He has two disposals. You chop the apples into a few chunks and then press the chunks into the disposal and the shredded chunkies come out the bottom into a bucket.

The two disposals are because constant use like that over heats them and pops the breaker on the unit. Switch them out and let the first one cool down while you keep on smooshing.

He also made his press, everthing except the wooden bucket. Pretty much a tripod out of 2 X 10 with a large wheel, ACME nut and ACME rod. Drop the smooshed apples into brewing backs and place them in layers between UHMW round plates alternated in the buck....press.

We had 4-5 people cutting, one person running the grinder and one person pressing and did 650-750lbs of apples in 4-5 hours.

Fermenting, only thing I can say is DON'T use a Trappist beer yeast. I fermented a bunch with various yeasts I used for mead but for some reason thought a Trappist yeast would make a good cider....no it does not.

~Matt
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [MJuric] [ In reply to ]
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No, that is odd to consistently have fruit start but not fully develop, even when I don’t thin my apple trees I still get some fruit to fully develop. My thought would be fertilizer but if the soil is good then you should be fine. I will say 10 years is about when my apples started to take off.
Good luck on finding something that works.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [MJuric] [ In reply to ]
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Just thought I'd throw this out there, you may already be aware of this. Now oops, you have already checked the variety. My bad. Most often you need a couple of different varieties for cross pollination. I had a granny smith and a McIntosh years ago. By seven years those trees were absolutely loaded. You can also use crabapple trees, even the ones that only flower, as a cross pollinator. As cross pollinators they need to flower about the same time. Right now I have a granny smith, honey crisp in back and two ornamental crabapple trees in front. Is it possible there was a cross pollinator that didn't survive?

What varieties of apple do you have?

This year I hope to add a cherry tree and peach. Had a peach on the west coast, with the rain and climate it required too many chemicals. Hoping here as it is dryer that I won't need to poison the dang thing. I get by with dormant oil and bt when I can for apples and others.
Last edited by: madonebug: Feb 28, 21 12:20
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [MJuric] [ In reply to ]
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https://extension.psu.edu/...-no-fruit-on-my-tree

I did not know fertilizing grass near the trees would cause no fruit. You mentioned you mow around the trees?
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [madonebug] [ In reply to ]
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madonebug wrote:

What varieties of apple do you have?

I'm going from memory here but I think I have Macintosh, Fuji, Arkansas Black and possibly Granny for apples. I have two varieties of apples as well.

I just can't imagine that pollination is the issue especially with a million or more bees flying around within 100-150 yards or so.

Furthermore I know there is a crabapple tree and some other unknown variety of tree in an 1/8 to 1/4 mile radius from my orchard.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [madonebug] [ In reply to ]
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madonebug wrote:
https://extension.psu.edu/home-orchards-why-is-there-no-fruit-on-my-tree

I did not know fertilizing grass near the trees would cause no fruit. You mentioned you mow around the trees?

No lawn fertilizing. The orchard is in a field with my apiary. I occasionally mow to knock down the grass so I can get around easier. I have, in a couple years, used fruit tree fertilizer but did not seem to have and effect.

I've always wondered if it was possible that something was left in the soil from when it was actual farm land. It has not been productive farm land since the early to mid 80's so that's 40+ years. But you never know I guess. I will probably get the soil tested again this year and maybe have a more thorough test for micro nutrients, minerals etc..
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [MJuric] [ In reply to ]
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What are you spraying with? Some insecticides will make the trees drop their fruit. You can actually use a weak solution to thin, but that has always made me nervous.

Does the fruit drop right away or hang on and just never grow?

Another suggestion is to walk through the orchard with the chainsaw running. Let the trees know to either produce fruit or they can help smoke meat.

I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [j p o] [ In reply to ]
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j p o wrote:
What are you spraying with? Some insecticides will make the trees drop their fruit. You can actually use a weak solution to thin, but that has always made me nervous.

Does the fruit drop right away or hang on and just never grow?

Another suggestion is to walk through the orchard with the chainsaw running. Let the trees know to either produce fruit or they can help smoke meat.

Fruit stays on all year long and even thru the winter. The appearance is very "Ornamental" looking rather than actual fruit tree. I'll get a cluster of 2-3 "apples" in the same group that look more like a blob of cherries than applies.

I'm not spraying with anything as I've never had any fruit develop that would need to be sprayed or saw any sign of insects causing issues. I will often times get Japanese beeetle infestation on the plum trees, in fact they are kind of my warning signal they are coming because they always get nailed first. For them I've found a quick spray down with oil and a bit of dawn mixed with water is all it takes to make them go away and die.

For thinning I have gone thru a couple years and thinned by hand which was a time consuming PIA that did nothing for me either.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [MJuric] [ In reply to ]
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MJuric wrote:
j p o wrote:
What are you spraying with? Some insecticides will make the trees drop their fruit. You can actually use a weak solution to thin, but that has always made me nervous.

Does the fruit drop right away or hang on and just never grow?

Another suggestion is to walk through the orchard with the chainsaw running. Let the trees know to either produce fruit or they can help smoke meat.


Fruit stays on all year long and even thru the winter. The appearance is very "Ornamental" looking rather than actual fruit tree. I'll get a cluster of 2-3 "apples" in the same group that look more like a blob of cherries than applies.

I'm not spraying with anything as I've never had any fruit develop that would need to be sprayed or saw any sign of insects causing issues. I will often times get Japanese beeetle infestation on the plum trees, in fact they are kind of my warning signal they are coming because they always get nailed first. For them I've found a quick spray down with oil and a bit of dawn mixed with water is all it takes to make them go away and die.

For thinning I have gone thru a couple years and thinned by hand which was a time consuming PIA that did nothing for me either.

Very hard to raise apples without spraying. I will spray 4 times before the blooms even open. And those are the most important. Couple different critters lay eggs in the blooms and that is when the fungi first get a foothold.

Dormant - 1/2" green - tight cluster - full pink - here's a pretty good guide out of Purdue's extension service - https://ag.purdue.edu/...ts/pdf/2012ID168.pdf

No idea if that is what is causing your issues but if I miss those, like last year when it rained every day for like 3 weeks, I get small lumpy fruit for the most art.

I'd also do some soil tests to see if you are missing some nutrients.

I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [j p o] [ In reply to ]
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I jumped into the pruning project two days ago, made it just over halfway through. As you can see, the trees are wildly overgrown to the point where very little light breaches the canopy in summer. It’ll take a few years to prune them down to an attractive shape and manageable size, but it’s a start.

I took off all the suckers, the downward facing sprigs, all the dead I could find, crossover branches, and the tallest lead coming straight up out of the crown, which should open it up to more sunlight. I mostly stayed within the 1/3 removal rule, though I’m not sure what to expect given that I’m pruning just as the buds are emerging.

Two pears and 14 apple trees down, a dozen or so more to go.





The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W
Last edited by: sphere: Mar 25, 21 13:12
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [j p o] [ In reply to ]
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Sorry if I missed it: what do you use to spray, and is it something I can do from the ground with these trees? They’re probably 30 years old, mostly left unchecked, as best I can tell, so if I need to spray the leaves in the canopy we’re talking crop duster duty.

I’ve been coming across Neem Oil as a good all-around product, but I have zero experience with any of this.

The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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sphere wrote:
Sorry if I missed it: what do you use to spray, and is it something I can do from the ground with these trees? They’re probably 30 years old, mostly left unchecked, as best I can tell, so if I need to spray the leaves in the canopy we’re talking crop duster duty.

I’ve been coming across Neem Oil as a good all-around product, but I have zero experience with any of this.


I will use a dormant oil spray this weekend. I am using a combination of captan (fungicide) and malathion (insecticide) during the year. I will also use something like Mancozeb (different kind of fungicide) once or twice to control a couple other diseases.

Here is a pretty good spray guide - https://ag.purdue.edu/...ts/pdf/2012ID168.pdf - ETA - that I see I posted just above, thought it was a different thread

Bonus PITA this year is that due to the plague it appears captan will be in short supply. I was going to order from these guys, https://www.keystonepestsolutions.com/ until I found 2 x 5 lbs bag at my dad's house last weekend when I was pruning his trees. Now he has 1 x 5 lbs bag :)

I like those two because they have been around for ages and are pretty dang safe. Malathion has a short half like, 4.5 days, so you may need to spray more often than other insecticides but that also means it has pretty much broken down when you go to eat them as long as you aren't spraying while you are picking.

Here's another thing to look for. Bonide makes some combo mixes that are convenient. Look at the labels before you use them. They don't mention it and it seems like garden centers aren't smart enough - Bonide "Fruit Tree Spray" has as an insecticide "carbaryl". This is the active ingredient in Sevin. Sevin is a great insecticide. I use it a lot. But when you spray it on young apple fruit (and grapes, pears, and I am sure others) it acts as a chemical thinner. Meaning it will make your trees drop a good amount of the fruit if you spray it at full strength. People use Sevin intentionally to thin the fruit but they use a lower concentrate and know what they are doing. I made this mistake for several years.

They make another that is "Fruit Tree and Plant Guard" that uses a different insecticide.

That spray guide can be overwhelming. It really isn't that hard. Most of them are the same basic mix, I mix my own spray now, just follow the directions for the product you use and you can combine them with no issues. Malathion is available everywhere in great big jugs that will last multiple years most likely. Fungicides are available anywhere you find fine agricultural products for sale :).

You'll notice there are 4 sprays before they fully bloom. Don't spray while they are blooming or you kill all the bees. The early spraying is the most important IMO. If you want pretty fruit spray diligently during the growing season.

Walking though the orchard and grabbing random fruit is kind of cool.

I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.
Last edited by: j p o: Mar 25, 21 19:24
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [j p o] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks again, useful information. I bought Neem oil but haven't sprayed yet. I've got enough going on here with now 32 fruit trees in different locations and in various states of health that I think bringing an orchardist to the property and getting a proper assessment of the situation would be worth the effort.

We added blackberries (Osage), raspberries (Heritage), LSU Fig, Rabbiteye blueberries, and a trio of grapevines (Concord, Reliance, and Somerset, all seedless) to the homestead this week.

The fruit are emerging now, the pruned apples are somewhat stunted as a result, but all of them flowered to varying degrees.

The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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The USDA has an excellent home canning guide...
https://nchfp.uga.edu/...blications_usda.html
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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I've got 12 apple trees that I need to prep / spray.

We're getting into bee keeping this year. Beehive is prepped / setup and I'm getting the nucleus colony in two weeks.
We've planted a few hundred sq. ft. of wildflowers for the bees, but since we're in the country I don't think they will have any problems finding flowers.

Vegetable garden is planted, though probably too early as the recent snowfall killed some of the more delicate plants. Will need to replant the tomatoes and such. We usually get about 100lbs of potatoes, 30lbs of onions and such out of the garden.

Remember - It's important to be comfortable in your own skin... because it turns out society frowns on wearing other people's
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [Guff] [ In reply to ]
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Guff wrote:
the recent snowfall killed some of the more delicate plants.

I was pretty worried during that. But my peaches had gotten just far enough along to make it. I now have scads of little tiny fuzzy peaches growing.

I covered my strawberries with tarps but was not hopeful looking out and seeing a couple inches of snow on top of them because they don't like even a mildfrost. . Uncovered them and lost a few but not many.

The rest didn't care.

Everything is looking good for the fruit.

I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [j p o] [ In reply to ]
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Garden is starting to produce now, mostly peppers and tomatoes. I planted three blackberry and two raspberry bushes, with the blackberries fruiting nicely (one surviving a ferocious bovine attack). The orchard is fruiting, with all but a small handful of trees stunted from the pruning operation. Looking good so far but I definitely have a mite problem which isn’t new this year.

Sour cherries are in the final days of viability. I pulled off a few baskets, enough to make three pies, one of which with Splenda which was the best of the bunch.

Interestingly, the end of season mulberries are far sweeter when ripe than the early season berries. Made a nice batch of lemon-mulberry muffins and put them to good use.

I’m fighting with critters non-stop and will need to build a chicken run. We’ve lost half of the flock to foxes already, and the deer stripped a few of my grape vines and peach trees, though both have rebounded and are now protected with black plastic mesh. I need a better solution than wrapping every damn plant on the property, though, and I can’t keep the birds in the coop forever.

I haven’t found a cider press but I did find the materials to make one, which may be a more enjoyable experience than buying an old one. Or not.

This week’s project will be pepper jelly. I’ve got a variety of hots on the vine and should be ready to pick within a few days.

The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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Tomatoes are getting ripe here. This is a new variety for us this year - pic taken a month ago. Very tasty.



My yellow plum tomato plant may be a victim of fungus - very wilty after recent rains. Don't think it will survive or produce much more fruit.



ETA: to upload, see pics and directions for imgur.

Login to your imgur account, mouse over your account name, and select images.

Click on one image and you should see a set of links for sharing.


Click on the blue "Direct Link" Copy button.
Then go to your ST post compose window (must be in Advanced Editor mode).
Click on the picture frame icon (Insert Image).




This will bring up a dialog box. Make sure the radio button for URL is clicked. Then paste into the "Image source" field.




When you click OK, your image should show up in the compose window wherever your cursor was last. It helps to have a few carriage returns above and below your cursor to allow you to type up some text descriptions of each photo. The photo will look huge in the compose window, but it will resize automatically when you post.
Last edited by: TMI: Mar 11, 24 18:03
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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sphere wrote:
I bought the Backyard Homestead series of books which is helpful to a point. Where do you all go online or in print for good information on small farm operations and other relevant topics?

In addition to the excellent recommendations for seeking out extensions, also seek out your local Master Gardener program. Google "[your town or region] master gardener" and give them a call. Those people are full of knowledge and they want to share it with you.

War is god
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [Crank] [ In reply to ]
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I thought I was going to have the best cherry crop in a couple of years however two weeks ago It rained a lot and split most of them, and the last two days with the temperature up to 109 degrees I don't think I have any left.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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Enjoying this thread. Picked a gallon of blueberries yesterday. Figs are coming out. Pears getting big. Lost all regular peaches to brown blight. Red skin peaches coming along. Blackberries and raspberries are good to go. Had three plums. Tomatoes ripening. Mint is good in mojitos. Love this time of year. Apples continue to suck, like another person mentioned.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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>> I planted three blackberry >>


you'll be sorry


.. note to beginners
... that stuff can get away from you quickly

RayGovett
Hughson CA
Be Prepared-- Strike Swiftly -- Who Dares Wins- Without warning-"it will be hard. I can do it"
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [j p o] [ In reply to ]
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Happy to say springtime is officially here in the Shenandoah Valley. Cherry and pear blossoms are out, daffodils are up, and the air just feels different.



Came home the other day to find the critters out for a stroll, enjoying the 68 degree weather.




Goose, our retired polo pony, was feeling herself and went for a jog.




New chicks to add to the flock, I believe 17 in total. Five Isa Brown (to add to our four laying Isas), four Dark Brahmas, four Plymouths, and four Australorps. All pullets this time, the last rooster didn't exactly work out. I appreciated his spunk but attacking the little man was a red line and he crossed it with relish.




RIP Roy the Rooster.




This weekend's project is reclaiming the compost bins, and figuring out the vegetable garden layout. We've got six raised boxes and trying to decide whether to use them or just till a rectangular patch at the end of the orchard and plant in rows. I've been reading about the square foot gardening method and it seems fairly idiot proof, which is a valuable commodity in these parts.

The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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sphere wrote:

Came home the other day to find the critters out for a stroll, enjoying the 68 degree weather.


That is a big fucking dog.

I'll be trimming my dad's apple trees in mid-30's temps with rain and wind on Saturday. Anyone who is bored is welcome to come help.

I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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so you live on a proper plot of land; that's awesome. some of my favorite youtube channels to stumble across are "homesteaders" in some way. i like to imagine doing all of those things (gardening, making coops, etc) but for now it'll just be in my imagination, ha.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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Sunday low is forecasted to be in the 30's. Appreciate that you are jumping the spring has sprung gun though. Tidal basin blossoms peaked 2 days ago and that was 10 days early to norm. Make sure all the critters stay warm.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [j p o] [ In reply to ]
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j p o wrote:
sphere wrote:

Came home the other day to find the critters out for a stroll, enjoying the 68 degree weather.


That is a big fucking dog.

I'll be trimming my dad's apple trees in mid-30's temps with rain and wind on Saturday. Anyone who is bored is welcome to come help.

Black labs get pretty hefty if you don’t restrict their intake.

I think I missed the window for round 2 of orchard trimming. I can’t say I was looking forward to it this year. Probably just going to do some selective removal and call it done for the season.

The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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Steve
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [spockman] [ In reply to ]
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No joke, if I list the 5 top days in my life, the day we loaded all the cows on the trailer so they could go on their merry way is #4 on the list. I was 17 and it was the beginning of April. What a glorious day!
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [gofigure] [ In reply to ]
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gofigure wrote:
Sunday low is forecasted to be in the 30's. Appreciate that you are jumping the spring has sprung gun though. Tidal basin blossoms peaked 2 days ago and that was 10 days early to norm. Make sure all the critters stay warm.

We broke the Mother's Day planting rule and put everything in the ground over the weekend. I found a massive pile of compost, probably 3-4 cubic yards worth, beyond the tree line (former owners were serious homesteaders) and tilled it into the topsoil before planting. Bonus!

A half dozen varieties of tomato
As many peppers, probably more
Potato, garlic, sweet/red/yellow onion, scallion
Cucumbers, squash, carrot
Peas and beans
Spinach, bib and other lettuce
Sweet corn
An herb garden area
Six more blackberry bushes
Marigold for the deer

Currently we've 6 laying hens, with twice as many more juveniles near full size. Isa Browns, Australorps, Plymouth Rocks, Rhode Island Reds, Dark Brahmas, IIRC. Predators are out and we're no longer free ranging given the number of hens we're dealing with now, and their propensity to pick apart the freshly seeded garden.

New chicken run on the way courtesy of Jeff Bezos. Ugly as sin but does the job.



The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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We broke the Mother's Day planting rule and put everything in the ground over the weekend. I found a massive pile of compost, probably 3-4 cubic yards worth, beyond the tree line (former owners were serious homesteaders) and tilled it into the topsoil before planting. Bonus![/quote]

Do did I. I had the time and the forecast looks good. Everything in but the herbs.

I moved the vegetable garden to somewhere less wet, So I spent a weekend cutting sod and moving it. Picked the first ditch asparagus last week and got the first from my patch today.

The neighbors have the chickens covered.

Added 5 new trees to the arboretum. Cucumber magnolia, butternut, horse chestnut, catalpa, and another redbud variety. I can't lay my hands on our inventory right at the moment, but I have at least 69 species of woody plants on the property. When I go to the nursery and they ask what are you looking for? The answer is everything.

I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.
Last edited by: j p o: May 2, 22 11:27
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [j p o] [ In reply to ]
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j p o wrote:
Added 5 new trees to the arboretum. Cucumber magnolia, butternut, horse chestnut, catalpa, and another redbud variety. I can't lay my hands on our inventory right at the moment, but I have over 80 species of woody plants on the property. When I go to the nursery and they ask what are you looking for? The answer is everything.

My wife has gone crazy, getting all native plantings that support local fauna (bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, etc.). Ironwood tree, innumerable redbuds, service berry trees, milkweed, butterfly bushes, bee balm, etc. I've been "made" busy cutting down invasive or non-useful trees and shrubs. We have lots of golden rain-trees that I'm in the process of cutting down. On an acre property, we have seven garden areas plus an herb garden, plus another vinca-covered patch that I'm clearing for yet another garden area.

----------------------------------
"Go yell at an M&M"
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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I wish my neighbors would get one of these for their 9 hens plus one rooster. They are so destructive it can be maddening. We have decent fencing around the garden but they still find a way in and tear up plants.

I keep waiting for a fox or coyote to get one of them, but odds are that someone drives over one on the access road before an animal gets one. They actually go across our yard to a neighbors yard that has Burnese Mntn dogs. They do run fast sometimes.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [Dan Os Fan] [ In reply to ]
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It is nice that Spring is finally completely here



I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [j p o] [ In reply to ]
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j p o wrote:
It is nice that Spring is finally completely here

We're still a little behind that. Daffodils are up, but most trees haven't leafed out yet.

I've got asparagus, peas and fava beans coming up in the garden, garlic is about 8 inches high. Planted some raspberry canes and strawberry plants last week. Transplanted a bunch of spinach seedlings. Still been getting down in the 30's most nights.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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I got a raised bed ready to plant today.

maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [Dr. Tigerchik] [ In reply to ]
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Whatcha planting in there?

I just removed six 12'x4' raised beds a few weeks ago when I tilled the new plot. No real use for them now, gave them to the neighbor in exchange for a bunch of transplant berry bushes and picking rights to a few of their apple and cherry trees that border our property.

We've got onions and garlic sprouting prominently now, and most of everything else shooting up tiny little sprouts. It's been unusually rainy and cold and my tomato plants are not happy about it.

The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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Quote:
Whatcha planting in there?

I just removed six 12'x4' raised beds a few weeks ago when I tilled the new plot. No real use for them now, gave them to the neighbor in exchange for a bunch of transplant berry bushes and picking rights to a few of their apple and cherry trees that border our property.

We've got onions and garlic sprouting prominently now, and most of everything else shooting up tiny little sprouts. It's been unusually rainy and cold and my tomato plants are not happy about it.

Oooh, cherry trees!

I'll put in peas, carrots, radishes, beets, tomatoes, and marigolds. I think that's all I'll have space for. Zucchini if I have more space so I can have the blossoms to make squash blossom tacos.

maybe she's born with it, maybe it's chlorine
If you're injured and need some sympathy, PM me and I'm very happy to write back.
disclaimer: PhD not MD
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [j p o] [ In reply to ]
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New chicken run assembled and tied into the old coop. Took about an hour for the frame and door and another two to get the chicken wire rigged and connected to the coop. Not the prettiest arrangement but it does the job. The girls seem happy with it.






The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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My SIL (wife's sister) has 30 acres next to us. We just got 62 round bales off her hay field. With the cost of fertilizer and diesel this hay is gonna cost $$.



Penny loves to run!





/r

Steve
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [Steve Hawley] [ In reply to ]
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That's gorgeous land, Steve - and a damn fine dog!

I always find it quite odd where you're getting your first-cut in, and we had some plants we left out the other night and had a killing frost (ran outta time getting them in, didn't check the overnight weather). Georgia vs. NH... quite a weather difference!
- Jeff
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [jkstevens] [ In reply to ]
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jkstevens wrote:
That's gorgeous land, Steve - and a damn fine dog!

I always find it quite odd where you're getting your first-cut in, and we had some plants we left out the other night and had a killing frost (ran outta time getting them in, didn't check the overnight weather). Georgia vs. NH... quite a weather difference!
- Jeff

Brother

I cannot imagine a winter in NH. I don't want to. I do follow a homeade cheese makeing lady up your way. Other than that I got noting

I've been so cold. I don't want to ever be cold again. NH is just well out of my zone of comfort

*now if the zombies attack and it have to retreat to your compound---well then, i am your man!

/r

Steve
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [Steve Hawley] [ In reply to ]
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Steve Hawley wrote:
jkstevens wrote:
That's gorgeous land, Steve - and a damn fine dog!

I always find it quite odd where you're getting your first-cut in, and we had some plants we left out the other night and had a killing frost (ran outta time getting them in, didn't check the overnight weather). Georgia vs. NH... quite a weather difference!
- Jeff

Brother

I cannot imagine a winter in NH. I don't want to. I do follow a homeade cheese makeing lady up your way. Other than that I got noting

I've been so cold. I don't want to ever be cold again. NH is just well out of my zone of comfort

*now if the zombies attack and it have to retreat to your compound---well then, i am your man!

/r
It was 92 here yesterday. I was miserable. Gimme the cold over the heat any day of the week!
- Jeff
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [jkstevens] [ In reply to ]
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jkstevens wrote:
Steve Hawley wrote:
jkstevens wrote:
That's gorgeous land, Steve - and a damn fine dog!

I always find it quite odd where you're getting your first-cut in, and we had some plants we left out the other night and had a killing frost (ran outta time getting them in, didn't check the overnight weather). Georgia vs. NH... quite a weather difference!
- Jeff


Brother

I cannot imagine a winter in NH. I don't want to. I do follow a homeade cheese makeing lady up your way. Other than that I got noting

I've been so cold. I don't want to ever be cold again. NH is just well out of my zone of comfort

*now if the zombies attack and it have to retreat to your compound---well then, i am your man!

/r

It was 92 here yesterday. I was miserable. Gimme the cold over the heat any day of the week!
- Jeff

yeah?! well you can't fool me. i did three years at Ft Drum so am well aware of New England weather. I did USTS VT one year and in the middle of summer Lake Champlain was so cold it made your head hurt. I think there are something like four or five nice days up there and that's when you take all the tourist pictures!




/r

Steve
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [Steve Hawley] [ In reply to ]
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The first strawberries of the season. They are a giant PITA to raise, but man there is nothing like them.

I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [j p o] [ In reply to ]
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Just back from camping and fly fishing in N. GA mountains. It's been raining pretty steady on the farm and today is a clear day so great time to burn some of those brush piles that have been accumulating. Little danger of a brush pile fire getting out of hand and having to call the local volunteer FD! :-)

i use a ancient technique for starting up my brush piles. Passed down from father to son for many generations and it works every time getting a brush pile to go!



/r

Steve
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [Steve Hawley] [ In reply to ]
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Beautiful dog, Steve. I miss my Weims.

While I admire your commitment to the ancestral methods, there’s nothing quite like the fooooOOOOOOOSSSHHHHH that a red can delivers.

The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [j p o] [ In reply to ]
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j p o wrote:


The first strawberries of the season. They are a giant PITA to raise, but man there is nothing like them.

damn, you're about a month ahead of me. Just now getting first blossoms on strawberries and barely a hint on the black and rasp berries and red currants. Transplanted the last of the tomatoes this morning. The only thing we've picked so far is lettuce and arugula which I start early in a plexiglass covered raised bed.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [schroeder] [ In reply to ]
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The herb garden has matured very nicely






I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [j p o] [ In reply to ]
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In case anyone thinks I jut do flowers. Though I do flowers in the vegetable garden. Second planting of corn in the ground today. Getting peppers, lettuce, celery, and radishes already. The tomatoes are taking over the world and squash have set on. I have the healthiest cabbage I have ever seen.

I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [j p o] [ In reply to ]
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Impressive!

How are you keeping the weeds down between rows? I've been hoeing like a mofo and can't keep up. I won't let my wife near it with the Roundup but it's getting a bit onerous.

The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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sphere wrote:
Impressive!

How are you keeping the weeds down between rows? I've been hoeing like a mofo and can't keep up. I won't let my wife near it with the Roundup but it's getting a bit onerous.

I moved the garden this year to a spot that has a little slope to help with problems I have had with getting flooded out. SO I think I have a lot less active weed seed in it.

And I am wicked fast with a hoe and wield it like a scalpel. A side effect of my misspent youth on the farm.

The only pesticide we use is Sevyn on the eggplant and sometimes cabbage because once the bugs hit them they really eat them up and Roundup on a wand in some spots but not usually in the vegetable garden unless it gets out of hand.

I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [j p o] [ In reply to ]
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I am jealous, up here in MN we are about to pick some radishes and transplanted lettuce has been eaten. Beans are up, potatoes are looking good. I usually pull the first dozen blossoms on the tomatoes and peppers to get some better rooting in first.

We have been busy adding to our flower garden, which is mostly tulips. Any tips on growing cold weather magnolia trees is appreciated, ours doesn't look great after its first winter...

We planted a couple weeks early (usually do the week after memorial day), got lucky the hail that brought Rick_pcfl up here missed the metro.

Container tomatoes are looking really good, we also do our cuces that way. Have some planter boxes to build around our new patio this summer.

When our lupin opens fully I will have something more than green plants to post.

For weeds between rows, I put grass clippings down around everything, our soil is so sandy it is nice to add some organics.

Pactimo brand ambassador, ask me about promo codes
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [j p o] [ In reply to ]
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j p o wrote:

The only pesticide we use is Sevyn on the eggplant and sometimes cabbage because once the bugs hit them they really eat them up and Roundup on a wand in some spots but not usually in the vegetable garden unless it gets out of hand.

Try neem oil to keep the cabbage moths/caterpillars away. We used it on our brussels sprouts last year with good success, although unfortunately we got on it too late and the damage had already been done. Plants ended up healthy, but didn't produce. Also used it on a corn plant indoors to control some kind of mites. I mix it with warm water and a skosh of dish soap to help emulsify the oil, then spray it on liberally. If the stank doesn't discourage the bugs, then the natural pesticide will.

_________________________________________________
"The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare" - Juma Ikangaa

http://www.litespeed.com
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [Sulliesbrew] [ In reply to ]
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Sulliesbrew wrote:
I am jealous, up here in MN we are about to pick some radishes and transplanted lettuce has been eaten. Beans are up, potatoes are looking good. I usually pull the first dozen blossoms on the tomatoes and peppers to get some better rooting in first.

We have been busy adding to our flower garden, which is mostly tulips. Any tips on growing cold weather magnolia trees is appreciated, ours doesn't look great after its first winter...

We planted a couple weeks early (usually do the week after memorial day), got lucky the hail that brought Rick_pcfl up here missed the metro.

Container tomatoes are looking really good, we also do our cuces that way. Have some planter boxes to build around our new patio this summer.

When our lupin opens fully I will have something more than green plants to post.

For weeds between rows, I put grass clippings down around everything, our soil is so sandy it is nice to add some organics.

Check your soil pH. Magnolias generally prefer acidic soil. If the pH is high amend around the tree(s) with sulfur.

Our soil is alkaline so we use sulfur around all the magnolias, azaleas, blueberries, etc. Too alkaline and they can't take up nitrogen as well and you won't get much growth or they just kind of hang on slowly withering away.

County extension offices will run the test or you can get tests from the great god Amazon that work well too.

I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [j p o] [ In reply to ]
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Random question- how far apart do sunflowers need to be? I have a ton of volunteers sprouting up in the back corner of my yard and wondering if I need to thin them.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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WHITE FLIES!! HOW DO I GET RID OF WHITE FLIES FROM MY HIBISCUS PLANTS?!?! AAAARRRRGGGHHHH!!!!

The damn things are back in force. I placed two separate packages of lady bugs on the two Hibiscus plants, and it seems to have not done a damn thing. I hosed the plants down, let the lady bugs out at night. Nothing. This week will be 2 weeks. Not sure how long to let it go before I unleash neem oil onto them.

Unsightly. Tips on getting rid of white flies?

Gnothi Seauton.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [Ready4Launch] [ In reply to ]
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Sevin

I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [j p o] [ In reply to ]
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Neem oil spray works for us. My grandfather used to swear by DDT and he had one of the finest apple orchards in Fresno County. never did see any bald eagles tho??

ETA: We also use Bt dust (Bacillus Thuringensis). Put it in a old sock and shake it out over your tomato and pepper plants. Good natural killer of worms of all sorts and easy on the planet :-)





/r

Steve
Last edited by: Steve Hawley: Jun 19, 22 7:12
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [Steve Hawley] [ In reply to ]
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Barn Cat #1 Elanore Brought her latest batch of kittens up to the house this week. She does this each time. We guess it's to get them away from predators that come into the barns at night and to habituate them to us?


yesterday she'd caught a mouse and brought it up to her kittens and it was pretty wild watching them as they figured out what they were supposed to do?

/r

Steve
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [j p o] [ In reply to ]
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Well today sucked. I dug a grave for our 110lb yellow lab, Dewey, and buried him under the pear tree in the orchard. The ground in that area is mostly virginia red clay so it was mostly pick axe duty digging a hole big enough for a small human. He loved laying in the shade of the pear trees by the garden while we worked so it seemed fitting.

Then I shot one of our two remaining roosters. He’s a juvenile reaching maturity and wreaking havoc in the coop. We’ve had roosters attack the little guy here before so we’re done with rowdy roosters.

Except Raul. He’s a bantam dark brahma, been mostly friendly and keeps to himself. Except for mating, which he does exceptionally well, to the point where the two bantam hens (below) are brooding constantly. We don’t want any more chicks to take care of but Raul can’t keep to himself.

Is it possible to keep a rooster separate from the flock without it going batshit crazy? I don’t want to put him down but we can’t have him fertilizing eggs constantly, and no one wants to adopt roosters around here.

(Sharon, Karen, Raul)



The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [j p o] [ In reply to ]
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j p o wrote:


In case anyone thinks I jut do flowers. Though I do flowers in the vegetable garden. Second planting of corn in the ground today. Getting peppers, lettuce, celery, and radishes already. The tomatoes are taking over the world and squash have set on. I have the healthiest cabbage I have ever seen.

Suppose I should update this picture.



I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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Been reading through this thread.

Just bought 5 acres with an old farmhouse and a Couple of outbuildings. Prob need to put up a different house.

Great ideas here.

Any thoughts on utv? I have a zero turn mower, almost all is grass. Will need something with a plow, as well as to work around the place, move trailers, etc.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [J-No] [ In reply to ]
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Regarding UTVs

Incredibly useful on a farm of any size. We started with a small Polaris Ranger and it served us well. I bought it [used] back in '08 when we first moved to our hobby farm. I paid $5k for it then Ran that thing like a rented mule. Sold it to my neighbor in '18 for $3k

Our current UTV is a Kawasaki Mule SxS. It's the 'expandable' model that can have one row of seats and a bigger bed or two row of seats and a smaller bed. Great for when grand kids come to the farm. Kawasaki Mules are also great UTVs in my opinion. We ran ours hard back when i was a Army guy at Ft Polk.


almost time for some pear harvesting here


/r

Steve
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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Just made this with all of the zucchini and tomatoes coming out of my garden- so good!

https://www.saltysidedish.com/...ni-tomato-casserole/
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [Moonrocket] [ In reply to ]
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Cut SIL's hay field. 30 acres. This is the third cutting this year. Last time around we got 90 round bales (5') off this field



Penny likes to go out into the fresh cut hay fields to snuffle out chopped up field mouse parts. At night the coyote are all over fresh cut hay fields doing the same.




/r

Steve
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [Moonrocket] [ In reply to ]
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Moonrocket wrote:
Just made this with all of the zucchini and tomatoes coming out of my garden- so good!

https://www.saltysidedish.com/...ni-tomato-casserole/

Ooooohhh man that looks amazing! I can see me scooping that out of the casserole dish with my fingers and eating it cold by the white refrigerator light at o-dark thirty.

My tomato crop sucked this year but the squash and zucchini did well, and we ate as much as we gave away, which was a feat.

The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [Steve Hawley] [ In reply to ]
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Penny had a great morning

On the porch while we drink coffee



Over at neighbors barn playing with her doggie boyfried--Buddy



I was trying to help neighbor fix his broke dick hay bailer till it came time for him to leave for Auburn--PSU game and i went home to watch Army Villanova!


/r

Steve
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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The mystery's of a carbureted weed eater?




Amazon says this Chinezium carb will work just fine!



grrrrrr.


/r

Steve
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [Steve Hawley] [ In reply to ]
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I went battery powered with the weedeater several years ago. Keeping those tiny 2 cycle engines healthy just pissed me off.

Now I need to go change the fuel line on my auger. Broke it out a month ago as I am getting ready to replace a bunch of fence posts and it started right up. Ran for about 20 seconds and died. I was poking around and the 15 year old line just crumbled.

I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [j p o] [ In reply to ]
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I'm not sure what pissed me off more. Army Football or this Fing WeedEater.

gaaa


/r

Steve
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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Spent the week at my dad's doing farm stuff
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [lkkowski] [ In reply to ]
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First ride on the new horses. A little skittish at first but they settled in.



The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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sphere wrote:

Replying to myself but asking the collective:

I’m considering either relocating this coop (I do love that old weather worn wood) or building one similar, but larger, to back up against the orchard, about twenty yards to the east. Purpose would be for more room—I’d like to keep fifty or so laying hens—and so the birds can free range under the fruit trees, eat the biomass that hits the ground, and keep the weeds down where we can’t mow, and keep them relatively safe from predators. The orchard is presently fenced in with regular cattle fencing, but would need reinforcement with chicken wire to keep them from climbing through the fencing.

Question is, would that be enough to keep them in, or if they eventually start making their way up the trees and hopping over the fence? Last thing I want to do is days worth of construction and retrofitting only to see them escape with relative ease and no good way to pen them in, given the large size of the trees and that several trees have branches extending over the fence into the horse field.

The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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here is an article about keeping your chickens from your trees.

. https://www.newlifeonahomestead.com/...kens-in-the-trees/#:~:text=Chickens%20generally%20fly%20into%20trees,too%20high%20off%20the%20ground.

an article on space.

. https://khpet.com/...e-do-chickens-need#:~:text=Try%20to%20plan%20for%20at,happier%20your%20chickens%20will%20be.

Is it cold enough where you live that you need electricity to keep water from freezing or provide heat? I see the current coup has a light. Could you run electricity out to the orchard?
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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Took Penny for a run and put some corn out for coming deer season








/r

Steve
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [Steve Hawley] [ In reply to ]
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That’s a good girl there. Looks like a sweetheart.

Working on my Lavender Farm &Tonic recipe. Botanist gin, Fever Tree tonic, sprigs of lavender and rosemary. Cheers brother, here’s to Kenny’s first start and victory tomorrow!

The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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What started as fixing the fence progressed to a total tear down and replace. Got the most visible part almost done, still need to cut the posts to length. Fence builders earn their money. Built a couple jigs so I could put the boards up by myself. Building 3 new gates took the most time. First 96' done, only around 600' to go. At least there is only one more gate to build.



I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [ In reply to ]
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to anyone:

if you're planting veggies in the fall, for a harvest anytime between spring and summer, and it's a place that does freeze (moderate freeze, zone 8), what would you plant? the only thing i know for sure i'm planting is garlic. i'm also doing carrots. i don't know that my onions would taste better than store onions, but i might do a few. what else?

Dan Empfield
aka Slowman
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [Slowman] [ In reply to ]
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Slowman wrote:
to anyone:

if you're planting veggies in the fall, for a harvest anytime between spring and summer, and it's a place that does freeze (moderate freeze, zone 8), what would you plant? the only thing i know for sure i'm planting is garlic. i'm also doing carrots. i don't know that my onions would taste better than store onions, but i might do a few. what else?

. https://veggieharvest.com/...g-calendar-schedule/

according to this you may be to late for many of these fall cold crops. Perhaps if you wanted to do a cold frame you could extend the season and have some success.


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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [Slowman] [ In reply to ]
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If you like leeks you can do those too.

I have done garlic and leeks as well as had self seeded radishes all winter. These guys talk about some more.
https://www.seedsnow.com/...all-and-winter-crops

I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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After hearing excessive "cawing" outside i went out to sit on the patio and drink my morning coffee.

Now there's not a crow to be seen in our pecan trees?? huh





I don't mind sharing my blue berries, or pears, or apples, or pecans with: deer, crows, birds in general. But we need to harvest some too.



/r

Steve
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [j p o] [ In reply to ]
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Well, I don't know if this will work for you. But I find interesting information in the EOS blog. For example, it has an article about how solarization of soil works. In my case, this is an important thing. Thanks to this I got a good harvest this year. There were no pests I need to fight with and I had less couch grass as well. Maybe someone finds information relevant for the gardent or the field.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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Bringing this back around.

I moved from suburbs to 5 acres with a few outbuildings. Living in old farmhouse—since August. In process of building new house. Farmhouse not livable long term—minimal power, no cold air returns, nothing level, no garage, small

Animals: Got 16 chickens in Jan. 5 dogs. Thinking about a couple of pet goats.

Starting on garden plan. A little late. Seedings planted today— inside. I’m in MN, it’s snowing now. I think we have some sugar maples lining the property.

Any good apps for garden layout? May have kids try to sell some produce/eggs at the farmers market.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [j p o] [ In reply to ]
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Heading to the nursery tomorrow to pick out some new fruit trees for planting and tomato starters. Scaling down to a more manageable size vegetable garden this year but expanding the fruit and berry components

Morning with the flock. It’s so damn peaceful here on spring mornings.

https://www.instagram.com/...?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=.

The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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Any seed propagators in the house? I love planting things from seeds and growing them in my little room in the basement with artificial lights and what not. I seem to get a lot of watching them appear.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [M~] [ In reply to ]
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M~ wrote:
Any seed propagators in the house? I love planting things from seeds and growing them in my little room in the basement with artificial lights and what not. I seem to get a lot of watching them appear.

I usually start all my own seeds. Not having a good sunny spot in the house makes it hard. Grow lights don't seem to cut it. I probably just need to rig up a more robust setting. I have onions and leeks going. Got to get the tomatoes, peppers and such going soon.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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sphere wrote:
Heading to the nursery tomorrow to pick out some new fruit trees for planting and tomato starters. Scaling down to a more manageable size vegetable garden this year but expanding the fruit and berry components

Morning with the flock. It’s so damn peaceful here on spring mornings.

https://www.instagram.com/...?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=.

i'm doubling down on tomatoes an strawberries. planted garlic last fall and that's doing nicely. and then herbs. parsley, basil, dill, etc.

that's the garden. the orchard is 15 apple trees and that's always been the focus. i just planted 4 more: peach, nectarine, pear, plum. and, surrounding the orchard are about 18 or so berry and grape bushes (and vines). i planted those last year, and i figure it'll take 2 or 3 years for them to get their feet under them.

i decided against melons again because they just take over. as do zucchinis, but i must say the zukes really cranked last year. i made a lot of zucchini bread.

Dan Empfield
aka Slowman
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [Slowman] [ In reply to ]
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [M~] [ In reply to ]
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M~ wrote:
Any seed propagators in the house? I love planting things from seeds and growing them in my little room in the basement with artificial lights and what not. I seem to get a lot of watching them appear.
You bet.
I scaled back my seed starting this year, as it was getting a bit out of hand. I have three trays of about 2 sq feet each, three grow lights. Last year was 8 trays and 150-200 plants....too much.
Tomatoes, cukes and flowers. Several marigold varieties, zinnias, petunias (double, ruffled edges - NOT boring Wave ones) and 6 or so each of a 5 different interesting plants. Dahlias sprouting on the dining room table.

Still about a month before anything should be planted, though the forecast looks good so I might push that with some potatoes, kale, etc.

"I keep hoping for you to use your superior intellect to be less insufferable. Sadly, you continue to disappoint." - gofigure
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [M~] [ In reply to ]
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M~ wrote:
Any seed propagators in the house? I love planting things from seeds and growing them in my little room in the basement with artificial lights and what not. I seem to get a lot of watching them appear.

I have done this a few years with peppers and tomatoes. Both germinate well. I had 60 tomato plants and about 40 peppers. I germinated mine near a window so they did not get enough light and the tomatoes were leggy. I transferred to solo cups and then put them outside in a small 4x6 ft green house. Being leggy for tomatoes is not a problem, you just make a furrow and plant them on their side with just a cluster of leaves at the top above ground. the stem creates roots and then the tomatoes shoot up. They were 5 foot tall in my tomato cages and crawling across the top.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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The blueberries have gone nuts. Picked 8.5 pounds Monday, for a total of 30.5 pounds for the year. There will probably be just as many tomorrow with another week or more left. Looking to break my record of 47 pounds total from 2 years ago.

This is nice after a complete failure of the strawberry crop due to no rain at all from May 15th to June 15th.



I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [j p o] [ In reply to ]
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Applefest 2023 has started. This is looking to be my best crop ever. Started eating the Honeycrisp. First time I have gotten a lot of pretty Honeycrisp. They are more susceptible to various fungi so they tend to come out blotchy.

I will probably be selling a lot more this year than I usually do. Just checked the pricing from a local fruit farm, they are charging around $80/bushel for pick your own. Which sounds nuts to me. I originally was thinking $20 :)




I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [j p o] [ In reply to ]
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Nice haul. We've got three fruiting blueberry bushes and the deer got to one of them so, pretty much ornamental shrubs for all practical purposes.

Our apples are exploding as well but sadly the orchard is so far overgrown it's going to require culling at least 1/3 to make space for the select trees to grow and protect. So this year we let the horses in to graze on whatever falls and is within reach on the branches.

That price is insane for Honeycrisp, but having read about the love/hate relationship apple farmers have with the variety, I guess I'm not surprised?

Strike that. I'm still surprised. That's a king's ransom for a bushel of apples. I might need to plant a row of those money trees.

The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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Also worth noting in this thread, we *finally* found a reliable deer repellent after a half dozen or so attempts.

Irish Spring soap bars hung in a mesh bag from the branches of the plant reliably keeps our deer at bay. Smells nice, too.

The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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sphere wrote:
Nice haul. We've got three fruiting blueberry bushes and the deer got to one of them so, pretty much ornamental shrubs for all practical purposes.

Our apples are exploding as well but sadly the orchard is so far overgrown it's going to require culling at least 1/3 to make space for the select trees to grow and protect. So this year we let the horses in to graze on whatever falls and is within reach on the branches.

That price is insane for Honeycrisp, but having read about the love/hate relationship apple farmers have with the variety, I guess I'm not surprised?

Strike that. I'm still surprised. That's a king's ransom for a bushel of apples. I might need to plant a row of those money trees.

Honeycrisp are a PITA. They almost always have a blemish and seem to be very susceptible to things like sooty blotch, as is my golden delicious. While the McIntosh and Red Delicious sitting right next to them look great. That doesn't change the taste at all but makes them look not pretty. And not really sellable. For whatever reason I get almost no cider out of Honeycrisp when I squeeze it so if you can't sell them you are kind of stuck.

But we had no rain from May 15 - June 15. The dry streak seems to have really kept the fungus away. The vast majority of them look great this year.

There is a new variety that commercial growers have, Cosmic Crisp, that is supposed to have the same properties but more resistant to disease. That one hasn't been released to regular nurseries yet.

After I looked more they aren't charging extra for the Honeycrisp. That is just their standard pricing. Kroger charges $2 - $2.50/lbs depending on the variety, which equals $96 - $120/ bushel. Lynd Fruit Farm charges $25/10lbs bag or $35/20lbs bag for pick your own which is $120/bushel for a small bag or $84/bushel for a large bag.

I was originally thinking I would charge $20/bushel. I still might since I am more interested in people enjoying the apples instead of just tossing them out than me making a lot of profit.

I'm beginning to think that we are much more fucked than I thought.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [j p o] [ In reply to ]
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Fruits and veggies are lackluster this year but the flower garden always produces.







The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [sphere] [ In reply to ]
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These are really good photos. And the arrangement is top notch, well done.
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Re: Lavender Farm: a thread for all things farm & garden [BongChamp] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks. 100% credit to my wife for everything but pointing the camera in their direction.

The devil made me do it the first time, second time I done it on my own - W
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