Integrated a mixture of the following into the pre-identified target locations for the tomatoes and ground cherries (and the single winter squash and two sunflowers for this bed):
- alfalfa pellets pre-soaked
- kelp meal
- horse manure (left over from fall 2019 when I collected it from Penny Lane)
- vermiculite
Tonight will be the 4th-ish night in a row of bringing everything inside, and covering up the more tender outside things (ie the tray of zinnias, and the already-planted sunflowers and zinnias).
Tomorrow night should be a low of +11, so I hope to leave everything outside tomorrow night, except the basil, still too cool for the basil.
Then on Tuesday I'll start transplanting.
The song sparrow used to sing all day long outside on the young tree. In recent days, not so much. Much he and his mate (I assume) still visit many times/day to eat. Millet is definitely the favourite, which I leave on a plate (and bring in at night), but also they eat from the feeders too.
~1/3 of the time I see the two together, the rest of the time I see just one bird at a time.
First noticed the chipmunk in the yard about a week ago. Just on the ground, haven't seen him/her up on the bird feeder pole yet. Just hope s/he won't take chunks out of zucchinis, tomatoes, etc.
Last year (2020) was the first year I didn't use any store-bought manure.
Prior to 2020, I had been using "mushroom compost", at first because I had mistaken it to be composted mushrooms, but then once I learned it's left-over manure from mushroom growing, well I continued buying it with the faint hope that maybe it was actually composted mushrooms.
In later summer / early fall 2019, I went and got a bunch of well aged (2-3 years) horse manure from Penny Lane Sanctuary which provides a home for rescued horses and other farm animals. Not veganic, but I'll call it veganic-ish, and I feel fine about using this manure, given its source.
So in fall 2019 I applied a bunch of horse manure.
In 2020 I used up most of the rest of the horse manure. And the potting soil I was using it turns out (as I learned this past winter)nwas accidentally vegan (Promix Premium potting mix).
In 2021, i.e. this year, my soil amendments consist of:
- horse manure: I have one bag of the horse manure left, which I haven't used yet but will throughout the year.
- alfalfa pellets
- kelp meal
- lawn clippings as mulch (collected from CB school front and other spots)
- ground up leaves as mulch
I'm no longer using cedar mulch in the yard anymore other than a few pots for aesthetics, since it doesn't add much if anything to the soil.
Unfortunately I decided to stop using my compost bin because I just couldn't control the smell, which I don't mind, but my poor neighbours. Didn't harvest any compost this year, just going to let it all sit there and finish up.
Now that I bought more Promix Premium potting mix, up-potted the last of the tomatoes, ground cherries, cucumbers, most zukes/rondes, sunflowers.
The ground cherries were very root-bound, circles and circles of roots at the bottoms of the pots. Wouldn't have known, as they have looked good in their pots. Hopefully will be ok.
Once again brought everything inside except the zinnias which are under lots of cover.
Yup, glad to have not transplanted hardly any of the heat-loving plants yet. Only some of the sunflowers and one zucchini are in the ground. Everything else is still in containers and will be coming inside tonight, Thursday night, Friday night, and Saturday night. And tomorrow's high is only +14 so not even sure I'll put them back out tomorrow daytime.
Left the zinnias outside, under the green table, with heavy row cover and then a couple of blankets on top.
The transplanted sunflowers and zucchini, and the potatoes are under cover too.
Well the two worst off maybe not looking better yet, but maybe -- time will tell. But the others I'm feeling a lot better about today!
We've had a few showers and wow, the clay stays on much better than I thought it would. Haven't had to reapply yet, though haven't had sustained heavy rain yet.
I'm seeing the occasional flea beetle on new growth or areas that weren't covered well, and removing them. But wow, wayyyyyy less than in past years, so far.
(Haven't seen any cucumber beetles yet.)
Lots of holes in the kale under the row cover and found some slugs while watering. Didn't go chasing them though, whatevs.
Interestingly the kale out in the open looks unaffected by slugs. I guess the improved air circulation plus lack of crowding is less inviting to them.
Saw him briefly this morning, sitting on the central vertical structure. Flew off a few moments after seeing me through the window.
There are two rondes inside from round 3, each of which has only one true leaf. One of them, its leaf is looking every so slightly yellowed/crinkly on the outside. The other, its leaf looks good. They've lived inside only except for a couple of hours yesterday afternoon. They have had exposure to the outside squash when those ones came inside last night.
This suggests that whatever's going on with the outside squash is NOT due to the kaolin, because these two inside plants haven't had it applied to them yet. So, leaning towards nutrient deficiency or something like that (best case) or a disease of some kind (NOOOOOOooooooooooo!!!!!)
Planted next to the compost bin. Put lots of alfalfa pellets (pre-soaked) and kelp meal. Some cold nights are coming up so I'll be sure to cover.
Yeah, not sure what's going on here... but even after having cut off the bad-looking leaves I mentioned a few days ago, more of the leaves are looking bad now, including the very newest emerging leaves on several plants where they're looking pale green and in some cases mottled.
Is it related to applying the kaolin a few days ago (on Friday)? Is there something else going on -- could that horrible mystery disease of last year be starting again already? Or maybe just some kind of deficiency in the potting pix? Time will tell... I certainly hope for the latter of those scenarios...
The tomatoes, ground cherries, and zinnias -- and I think the winter squashes too -- look fine with their kaolin application, so whatever's going on seems to be species-specific.
Ok I have wayyyyyy too much lettuce. No way in heck can I eat it all especially as I'm favouring kale and chard for their more healthiness.
Perfect amount of kale I think, with ~16 or so plants.
Good amount of chard too, with ~10 or so plants.
Making lots of salads with the Transformed Salad kit from Pure Kitchen. For some reason though I was disappointed, the dressing lacks kick, it's kind of blah, I would have sworn it's not the same dressing as on the Transformed Salads I had, but oh well, still enjoyable.
Forecasted to go down to 7 degrees for one hour overnight so I decided to just bring everything that's still potted inside tonight. This coming Thursday night is to go down to 6 degrees, and Friday night 9 degrees so will hold off planting out until next weekend. Hopefully should be warm from then on.
, so includes:
zinnias
tomatoes
ground cherries
basil
zucchini/ronde
butternut/cushaw
Yay, 6 of the 11 broccolis I set out today were taken. And most of the short zinnias that I had set out.
More giveaways to come provided I don't end up needing them for backup.
Other than the one goldfinch and one robin sighting in recent weeks, the song sparrow couple are the only birds I'm seeing visit the yard. The song sparrows visit many times per day, mostly eating of the ground (I'm putting it on plates now) but occasionally out of the pole feeders, and they make great use of the bird baths, both the one attached to the feeder pole and the one on the ground.
Food test today on a plate: crushed pumpkin seeds, crushed sunflower seeds (no hulls), and millet. Millet was the clear winner -- it was all eaten whereas still lots of of the pumpkin and sunflower seeds left.
