Chicks Week 8- and more

With every thing that going on I thought I’d just put together a random around the farm update.  Enjoy.

My chicks Chickens are continuing to grow.  The weekend goal is to put a net over their run so they can go outside anytime.  Right now I limit that time to when I am home because I’m afraid a hawk will swoop down and grab one! 

Jon’s sister Micah and I:

This is my veggie bounty from one day last week.  I’m picking this much every 2-3 days.  The amount of tomatoes has tripled in the past couple of days yet the green beans have decreased because the rabbits are eating the plants faster than they can grow.  Any tips??

This is the first garden Jon and I put in 3 summers ago.  Most of the plants were given to us by his mother when I graduated with my undergraduate degree.  This is a sentimental garden because the plants a split offs from her garden.  The plants have grown out of control this year.  Next year it will be time to divide!

May 2010

July 2010

 

My new basil plants are still trying to fight the basil blight brought in by the old plants.  These plants seem to be stronger and I have been going out of my way to cut and destroy infected leaves.  I wish I could take a good picture of basil blight as it is very distinct on the undersides of the yellow leaves, but I can’t seem to capture it well.

Blight Symptoms:

Curling, yellowing leaves with purplish specks on the undersides of the leaves.

Sorry for the randomness of this post! There are so many thing I would like to share on here.  Just not enough time in a day

Basil Blight

Anyone heard of it?  I never had. 

I had been having some trouble with my basil this year which I think I could have attributed to the slugs, originally.  I was devastated because I am trying to grow a large basil crop to make pesto with and to dry for the winter.  Basil is easily my favorite spice and I want a lot of it.  What good is a garden if you don’t grow the foods you love the most?

While at Lowes the other day I saw basil plants on clearance for 50 cents.  Because my plants weren’t doing so well I thought it would be a good time to buy a few more.  They didn’t look great, they were pretty yellow, but I thought it was nothing my garden and some cow manure fertilizer couldn’t fix.  I took them home planted them and waited.  They didn’t get better.  There was no new growth and the plants were looking worse.  I didn’t know what the issue was.

While chit-chatting at work one day, one of my coworkers mentioned that she had heard of a  Basil Blight affecting plants this year.  I had never heard of it but went to work researching said blight.  My results led me to this article.  My stomach dropped when I read this story.  It was a match.  I went home checked the underside of my leaves and sure enough all the signs were there.  I ripped those plants out of the ground immediately and into the fire pit they went.  I removed them so fast I didn’t even think to take a picture of the signs.

I have since purchased 5 more basil plants that I will be planting on the other side of the yard 2-3 acres from my herb garden.  Hopefully I will have better results!

By the way, I have now sworn off buying  food plants from box stores .  As we now know they were a main contributor in last year’s tomato epidemic.  It only makes sense that we will have problems if everyone chooses to plant the same 5 varieties across the country.  When a disease hits every plant is at risk.    My food related plants are just to precious to me to risk losing!

Has anyone else had any garden problems this year?

Herb Garden- Update as of 6/14/10

 I think my favorite garden that we have put in is the herb garden.  I love to use fresh herbs in everything I make.  As you can see we have mulched the garden and hopefully everything will flourish with minimum weeding.

 At the end of the year I plan to dehydrate all of my remaining herbs to use throughout the winter.

 As you can see, the right side of our garden looks empty.  We only have a white rock growing on that side .  But, actually we have 8 strawberry plants planted there.  I purchased them on clearance as it is obviously a bit late to plant them.   I just hope that they will come up next year.  If not, you can expect to see even more herbs in that spot next year!