Chickens/ gardens/ canning/ etc

Got mine all planted today. Not really a big feat with only 4 raised beds. One nice thing with having just 4 small beds is weed control is pretty easy.

I didn't worry about any sort of weed guard or anything last year and likely won't for my peppers and tomatoes but my strawberries are gonna get it for sure. Every video I watched talked about the importance of keeping weeds down and not allowing the fruit to lay on the dirt.

After planting today, Everything got a really good soaking from the sprinkler. Should work out well. Finally calling for dry, sunny, 80's, all week.

Yeah, same with the rain here. I still have a lot of compost to sift to add organics to the top of my raised beds before I plant. Looking like that might not happen till Tue due to weather.

I bought my garden plants and flowers. It has been raining here for about 3-4 days, and we got around 2 inches of rain. We have a week of dry weather coming up so maybe I will be able to start planting at the end of the week. I would like to have everything in by June 7th. I'm still spreading mulch and hope to get that completed in the next couple of weeks. The yard needs mowed as soon as it is dry enough.

Well finally got tomatoes, zuchinni, bell peppers, banana peppers, wildflowers for the pollinators and cilantro planted!!! Have flowers for the window boxes but need to get them in them. I also prior to planting tested my soil and was astounded at how low nutrient levels were, So amended the soil per the test results. We have FINALLY gotten meaningful rain and since we have been in extreme drought, grateful to have it and more!

Well that is a new one for me!!!

Didn’t you just have a big storm in TX?

First batch of spicy, mayple, bourbon pickles in the works. Hoping to gift them to a neighbor that has helped us and a new neighbor that we need to meet.

From personal experience, we've seen weeds outcompete the strawberry plants and those plants do not seem to come back next year. This year I'm trying plastic with holes for a limited number of plants to see if that helps. We also have a bed with not plastic to compare to.

The concrete shaker experiment for sifting compost was meh. It works somewhat, but not as well for the compost we have which tends to be fairly light/fluffy.

We actually wanted the strawberries to spread - cheaper to get more plants by encouraging the babies than buying plants (and everybody carries Bonnie plants - even the local nurseries). We just would have preferred them to spread in the other direction for ease of harvesting both strawberries and blueberries. If I had to guess we probably have four or five dozen plants now and we started with a dozen or less.

Phoebert had laid weed cloth around the blueberries but despite it being the most expensive grade at Lowe's it was still a lot less effective than what he's buying online now. So both weeds and strawberries grew through it and on top of it. It's taken three years but I have finally made some headway eliminating the crab-grass-like weed that was crowding everything in that corner and I've pulled out a LOT of deteriorated weed cloth.

Now we're dealing with blueberries dropping unripe fruit - probably because of an excess of rain after about two weeks of none. Mostly clay soil over slab rock doesn't always drain well. ;-)

Phoebert -

That's crazy! So much different out here. The varieties you can buy at your local Home Depot or even nursery here are prob the same or close to the same as what you get there, but they certainly don't spread like you describe in the Central Valley. No way they would out compete a blueberry bush. However, in small commercial farms (and what I've done at home is) use "black plastic mulch". Google it if you're unfamiliar. You might have driven by a field out in the country using it and didn't even know why they do that, or that you can do that at home. It's not what you might think of when you think of mulch. We use it to suppress weeds (that out compete the strawberries!), to keep the soil warm and moist during early months/initial planting and it keeps the fruit from contact with the ground so it doesn't get dirty and become more susceptible to surface pests and rotting.

Might it also work for keeping them from spreading where you live? I don't really know for sure, but it could be worth a shot.

On to some more general thoughts for everyone here...

In smaller spaces you can always go with a strawberry planter, or a cheap fabric hanging shoe rack on the fence. Both are much more forgiving than planting directly to the soil. Strawberries grown in native soils are particularly susceptible to soil nematodes and pathogens you don't usually get with potted mix methods, so always be aware of that as a potential issue with a failed crop. The past half century the strawberry industry has experienced a lot of controversy over how to handle that absent toxic soil fumigants. An Internet rabbit hole for you, if you're unfamiliar, and beyond the scope of this thread or post.

Another interesting fact is, the very sweetest strawberries in CA are not the commercial ones you see in the store that are grown along the coast. The small (mostly Hmong) strawberry stands in the Central Valley grow a particular variety suited for the warmer, drier conditions here. The problem is, they're pretty delicate and don't ship well so it's a local treat that you have to be here late March through early June to appreciate. It overlaps with out sweet corn season, and for many it's a time of year that everyone looks forward to. Always makes the news when those stands open up, and close for the season.

But my real point to that is, when I grow strawberries here I always grow using seeds from those berries. If you have locally grown berries (or anything else, really) you buy and like, save some seed and see if you get better results. Much of what you usually have available at your big box stores and even local nurseries at times, is grown at commercial production nurseries far away from the USDA Zone among other unique needs/stressors where you live. If it works for the guy or gal at your local farmer's market, for example, fair chance the seed from what you buy will work for you. Food for thought. And yes, that was a pun. ;)

Some years aren’t especially good for different plants. Plants have their own type of pandemics.

Knowing what I now know about strawberries I'd not plant them near the blueberries again. I'd probably put them in a dedicated raised bed and just let them take over as the babies spread. We started out with about eight plants in a row about three feet from the blueberries and they have spread under almost every blueberry bush and some are hard to get to. Now I encourage the babies away from a few bare spots so I can get near the middle of the blueberries & strawberries!

It took about three years for them to get really well established. The year we planted them we only harvested a few berries. The next year we could usually eat each days harvest for dessert - it took me almost a week to accumulate enough for a batch of jam. Last year we barely harvested a handful a day for about a week; no jam. This year I was able to make jam every two days during the second week of harvesting and still have some to eat fresh. I make small batches of jam so only need four cups of cup up berries.

So unless you killed all the plants you might just have to be patient. ;-)

<<------ failed at strawberries. If I end up with garlic and potatoes this year (looking good as of now), I'll give strawberries a try again one day lol

I didn't pinch any blossoms and our strawberries have grown to impressive size - as long as I keep after the weeding they do fine.

We harvested enough for fresh eating and three small batches of jam over two or three weeks. We started with less than a dozen plants and allowed the babies to take root for the past several years - our patch now covers about 6'x3'

They are taking a rest now but I'm starting to see blossoms again so I'm looking forward to a second harvest. We didn't pay attention to the varieties we purchased but only a few produce one crop per year - most are "everbearing" that produce at least twice during the summer.

Seeing a number of YouTubes that say to pinch off early flowers on strawberry plants to allow the plants to grow larger.

We were unable to do that on our plants as we left for Barbados before we got to it and it may be a bit late now

Late again but got my plants. Gonna plant Monday when we get home.

Bought a pretty nice strawberry in gallon size. It already has berries growing so hopefully it will produce nicely this year.

Did some soil improvement on all 4 beds so I have high hopes for this year's produce.

This I do not know. I know she made the stuff with smoked hamhocks. I can ask what she plans to do when she gets home later

"She did find the collards eventually and harvested them all to make some stuff to can."

How is she canning the collards?

I tried canning greens in the past but they need so much time in the pressure canner that they end up as mush. Phoebert hasn't planted greens for a few years but blanching and freezing is the only way I'll preserve them now. I'll probably request that he plant some kale later in the season so we have it going into the fall & winter.

Forgot my wife needed adult supervision. She thought she was harvesting collard greens and it was the cauliflower lol. So the compost got a healthy does of greens. Some cauliflower was good enough to use, some not so much. She did find the collards eventually and harvested them all to make some stuff to can.

Ended up buying some roma tomato's to put in the box where the cauliflower was. I know it's not optimal but I don't care. Whatever grows will get used. I mixed in a bunch of compost so the soil should be decent enough.

Just saw a vid on Instagram with basically the same setup. Looks like it would work well

I'll find out in a week or so if this works, but hoping to make the process of making my own compost much easier. I already have a screen on a 2x4 frame to screen it, but the manual process of doing that is a lot of work.

Saw a Youtube video where someone attached a concrete shaker to the screening frame. Then, all you need do is shovel the unscreened compost into the frame and the shaker does the rest.

Every year I fill two bins that hold about a cubic yard of material each. The compost winds up being free and I use it to add a couple inches to my beds. This compensates for settling and the loss of soil from pulling old dead plants out in the spring.

I loathe invasive plants. I can barely drive anywhere i discover stretches of Ailanthus. I get overcome with the desire to chainsaw it all like a horror movie monster.

Regarding English Ivy... It grows well here, but isn't quite the pest some of you might see it as in your climates and soils where it grows better. I have it growing on the fence on the west side of our house and it provides a nice look and I think helps cool things down on our house with that afternoon sun. Our version of English Ivy for you here is asparagus fern as a pest. It started as three hanging plants in our courtyard and now it's all over the property. Looks good in spots and I've left it, but then it keeps propagating in random spots. So I've decided to just take it out (eradicate it) everywhere. It's just too much of a hassle.

Wear a mask. They’re really dusty and if the sap touches your skin it can cause contact dermatitis.

Never use a garden torch. I learned that lesson the hard way : )

I had new garden tool fever and EVERY problem looked like it needed the torch.

Gracias amigo