My Gardens Failed This Year

Here we go again. I wrote in a post, years ago, that nothing grows in my garden. Someone replied with the comment that said they had an uncle who had the same problem. The uncle passed and was buried, and even things on top of his grave didn't grow.

  Yes, I can grow weeds. They are prolific. But, I cannot seem to grow tomatoes, or anything in the squash family. Either the weather is too hot and kills the plants (97+ degrees outside) or the weather is freezing. If only the plants could understand that there is a window of time where the weather is accommodating to letting them produce!

  So, I grow these tomato plants and they are prolific. They are nice and big. They look promising. But I put a Tulsi (Holy Basil) plant in with them thinking that was a good idea, until someone in a gardening forum informed me that the Tulsi would keep my tomatoes from producing tomatoes. So, I took the Tulsi plant out and put it in a big pot.

   Well, the Tulsi plant is doing great. We really need Tulsi to make tea with. It is supposed to help with sleeping well. The plant is doing well, even though it keeps flowering.

Tulsi (Holy Basil) Plant

You can even see some of the tomato plants in the background of the picture. Sadly, they turned black and most of the leaved died. There is some life on the tops of 2 of the plants that are left. 

    Then I grew something called 'Kiwano', which is in the squash family. The fruit tastes like cucumbers and watermelon. So, finally got some to grow nicely. I didn't realize that they were orange when they were ripe, so I picked a couple of green ones. They also have spikes on them, so I was surprised when big chunks were taken out of them by some animal. I do have one left and am waiting for it to ripen, hoping no other animal finds it first. When I do get a ripe one, I will put it in yogurt. 

I lost many papayas due to the weather and wind blowing. Some of them broke off in the upper parts of the trunk, but the roots were intact, so, I have bent over papaya plants. They definitely are not very strong. 

I have one healthy pepper plant that produces paprika peppers. But the new ones I planted seem to have disappeared or died. 

All these things I am writing about will hopefully help someone in the future. At present, I am experimenting with different ideas. One of those ideas is to use Epsom Salts with the tomatoes and peppers. Also, I got a safe fungicide to use when needed. Also, I read where someone had problems growing tomatoes, and finally got help when they took crushed (in the blender) eggs shells and used them with the tomatoes. I will try that too. 

  The TowerGarden has only peppermint growing in it now. It is too hot to grow anything else that grows in it. The peppermint plant took over the whole TowerGarden and the roots got in the way of everything, so we had to take the thing apart at the top and clean some of it out. 

  I'm using chicken manure from my chickens and adding it to the compost pile in the big garden in the back. I just have to make sure that the dog doesn't get into it, for that is one of his favorite places to go when we let him out in the back! 

   When the results come in, I will have to update this. I will let you all know what works and what didn't work, if anything. This is all a learning process for us all.

           

 

Gardening Updates and Lessons Learned

Here are some of the things that have been going on for the past year or so:

I actually planted Stevia seeds and got a couple of plants to grow. They did well until the weather turned cold. As soon as the temps got into the 30s and 40s, one of the plants would die. Finally, after one of the last cold spells, both plants died.

I planted some Holy Basil seeds (Tulsi) and they came up. I planted one in a 20 gallon pot, and it is doing great. Now I need to find how to use it!

Just planted one of asparagus plants I grew from seed. We'll see how it does in its new space outside. If it does well, I'll plant the others.

Another interesting seed I planted was one in the squash family called, Kiwano. It is also known as the African Horned Cucumber. The pulp inside the fruit resembles lime Jello, according to the description. Some of the reviewers were not impressed with the taste though. The plant is growing well, but no fruit on it yet. The other seeds I planted never germinated, but the plant that did is taking over a big part of the corner of our back yard!

I planted both lima beans and green beans in the spring. The temperatures here were so hot that I believe it killed both the plants. The lima bean plants lasted longer than the green bean plants, but I noticed today that they were no longer alive.

One of the Eucalyptus seeds germinated and is growing into a nice plant now. If you touch the leaves, the scent comes off on your fingers and it is strong.

I am pleased with the Lemon Balm seeds that I planted months ago. I got a couple of Lemon Balm plants that I replanted into the garden. As long as I keep it watered, it should be ok. I read where Lemon Balm, as good as it is, is invasive. I put it in a box garden and hope it stays there. I have a couple of pepper plants in there too, and one has little peppers on it! I can't remember what kind of pepper plant it is though! I guess we'll see when it is fully grown and turns the color it should be.

I planted Moringa seeds last week. They seem impossible to germinate, so, I will wait and see what happens with them.

The pomegranates are growing nicely. I have 3 of them growing and they will be planted in a 20 gallon fabric pot when ready.

The tomatoes are having problems though. The top leaves are fine, but all the underneath leaves turned brown and dried up. It seems to be something relative to the plants in that box, for I have different tomato varieties, yet, they are all affected by this.

Turmeric is growing well, and in one garden, a pineapple is growing nicely.

The avocado plant that I started about 4 years ago has grown into a large tree. But the Mango plant I planted is no longer there so I guess it died and I never noticed it until I looked one day for it.

Out of all the strawberries I have tried to grow, only one or two survived and have grown and spread out to other parts of the garden.

Corn has always been a disaster, but we will keep trying until we get it right.

I planted Calendula and it came up and did well. Had lots of blossoms for a while. Not much happening with them right now though as it's too hot probably.

The paprika pepper plant has given a lot of peppers and I have made paprika from the peppers on the plant.

Homemade Paprika Powder

My Poor Chicken

I am writing this, hopefully, to encourage those of you who have chickens. As we know, chickens are a big asset to our gardening, and they produce their own kind of fruit; eggs.

I pray for my chickens to be productive, and to safely lay their eggs. Hens can become egg-bound, and that could be life threatening. Chickens go through a lot of strange things that I never knew about before I had them.

Over the summer, my chickens stopped laying eggs. All of them, except two. One barred rock and the other an Americauna. The Americauna did eventually stop laying, but only for a short time. But the barred rock kept faithfully laying an egg, almost every day, in spite of the fact that all the other girls stopped laying.

 The barred rock continued to lay eggs until about a month ago. Then something strange happened. This particular chicken was outgoing and always with the group, but now she goes off into the bushes everyday, and just stays under the bushes. When I come out with food, all the others come running. But Clocky doesn't care anymore.

 Clocky appeared to be sick. At first, I thought maybe she was egg-bound, so, I went to the Internet to see what to do to take care of an egg-bound chicken. I soaked her in warm epsom salts water, 2 days in a row. I never felt any egg in her, but I did get to learn more about the chicken's anatomy by doing this!

  I prayed for Clocky to get well. And she appeared to be well again. But this week, she is hiding under the bushes again, or just sitting in the coop. Maybe she wants to be away from the rooster?

  It's been almost a month now, and Clocky is still not laying eggs (although I had more eggs the other day than I do hens. Not sure what happened, and don't know if perhaps Clocky did lay an egg).

  Clocky's personality is one of being an extrovert. When I got my first 3 chickens, they all came from the same place, and those 3 ended up being very well bonded. Unfortunately, one of them was a rooster, and he really does think he is the one who rules the roost! But the trio is now only a duo, with Clocky missing from the group.

  But for now, Clocky has a different personality. She isn't gregarious at the moment. One time, she even attacked one of the other girls who also hides a lot in the bushes.

  There are 2 reasons I know she is molting. First, she isn't laying eggs right now. She needs to take a break for she has laid eggs for 18 months straight, which isn't what hens usually do. Also, I am finding her feathers here and there. I read somewhere that when chickens molt, it is painful, and feels like a toothache (I would be interested in learning where the author of that article figured out how a chicken feels when they are molting!). Also, it is very stressful for them.

  So, unless there is something else wrong with her, other than molting, she is going through a hard, rough molting period. None of the other girls went through it with this much difficulty. Hopefully, she will come out of it soon and feel better.

  So, if anyone is wondering why their hen is acting strange all of the sudden, perhaps she is molting.

  Here are a couple of articles on molting:
An In depth Look At Molting
What Happens When Chickens Molt

Can't find Clocky. But everyone else is
in this picture.

Update: The day after I wrote this article, we lost Clocky. She was found no longer alive in her nest box the next morning. We loved our little pajama girl and will greatly miss her.

Saffron in my Back Yard

Saffron Crocus - 2018

I planted the saffron crocus bulbs in the spring, and it got so hot in the summer, that I assumed the plants had died. This had been the third time I planted saffron. The first 2 times were not very successful, so I assumed this time could have been the same, especially since the summer was so hot.

But lo and behold, I looked out there one day and there were purple flowers. I knew the plants were still alive at this point. They were pretty and you could see the saffron filaments inside the flower! This was a good sign because that is how we get saffron.

In case you didn't know, saffron is quite expensive. I think it sells for something like $58 for a gram, or something like that. At a price that high, I think I can grow my own.

As the flowers blossomed, I managed to remove the filaments and put them on a lid to dry. I will use them to make rice look more colorful.

Saffron, a highly expensive spice

Maybe over time, I will order more saffron bulbs. Or better yet, maybe the saffron bulbs that are in the garden will multiply and I will end up with more than 1 gram of saffron next year.