Ra Kenworth

Tuesday afternoon, I was visited by an immature or male falcon, that was attracted to the sound of newborn pigeon chicks!

It got caught in the pigeon cote beside the house.

I quickly realized my pigeons were freaking out.

Most of those in the cote did what they do best: freeze and make no noise!

So I got in there and closed the door and started closing cages and stuffing any loose ones in cages and closing the doors!

Then I relocated my prize breeding stock: pure giant runt breeders, hiding in their cages / nests, with their weight on chicks, and moved their cages inside my door, that has rubber matting over recycled tire flooring, and I have effectively begun fall selection of who stays indoors for the winter. This allows me to provide meat for the local falcons and provides hours of entertainment, while not being frustrated about losing breeding stock.

The falcon had already munched down on a 10 day old darling before I had gotten in the cote, the remainder of it put directly in the municipal compost, at the same time I brought in water for the falcon.

I let the falcon loose about 25-26 hours later, which gave me time to relocate pigeons and shelter them for the night, give them a chance to eat lightly, then release the falcon after most of them were on afternoon siesta. It hung around for a few minutes, and it has probably learned not to go inside structures! A valuable lesson.

I was disposing of eggs this year, and only bred a male and female pair of chicks off my alpha pair, and one undetermined. A few accidental crossbreeds.

Domestic animals as predators I have little patience for. It is frustrating because they are someone's beloved pet, and also most people don't have compassion for pigeons or their owners, thinking only flying rats, not staff who have the job of soil building, and keeping their owner in shape.

I had a husky visit last fall, to kill chicks for sport, and it came yesterday and is skulking around today. My new puppy is doing a fabulous job of alerting me: hackles up and all! Ready to lay down his life to protect me! Fortunately I am prepared for land predators -- I had collected almost all my eggs this year -- few hatched  (pigeons will lay a maximum two every month for a breeding couple so not that many eggs), those eggs which I  put with the pet food, and so I don't really have chicks to speak of this year. I don't eat my pigeons. They're purely for fun and soil building. I have never had better gardens.

I expect the falcons will be back next January and February for up to 6 weeks, to come and cull and beef up to make more chicks. I really appreciate them culling my pigeons for me. It's not a fun job and I haven't had to do it.

I have been visited by weasels in the past. They are determined enough to eat through framing and get around 1/4" mesh , and so I can dress 14 killed birds in an hour and get them ready for pet food. But their only purpose as meat is pet food security.

Knowing how cruelly commercial live chickens are treated before slaughter, I suppose it's not surprising that someone have misplaced hatred of pigeons: they won't bother people or their buildings unless someone is feeding them

A half acre is sufficient so that they don't bother my neighbors -- but obviously culling must be done, and I appreciate the falcons.

Yes I am doing summer squash in square scratchy hay bales this year. I finally had a batch of seeds that germinated in 2 days and had enough for not just my arc shaped raised bed made of compost underneath and nettle cuttings on top, but had enough seedlings left over that I used my spent hay bales (pigeon bedding for last winter) for a second arc bed parallel to part of the nettle bed. It took a bit more watering during the drought than the nettle bed which I only watered the ends but not nearly as much as I expected.

The farmer uses most of his bales for his horses and when I mentioned his hay obviously has no pesticides because the thistles and burrs are persistent enough that I always wear rain repellent clothes when I come for it, and he seemed a little offended at the idea he could possibly use pesticides "it's for my horses!!"

Anyway, I haven't had the bales through a winter yet, but expect to have to fix them up next spring. In the meantime, I simply used some poor quality black soil with a bit of moss in it, and water logged, that I had bought last year or the year before for $1 a bag (75c USD) when I was on Crutches and one handed, limiting my options (but I did reuse all the soil bags). I used surprisingly little top dressing but then squash aren't heavy feeders. They do love being off the ground though. I have had absolutely no powdery mildew or mosaic virus for the past few years (and no longer buy any seedlings from nurseries and start everything outdoors using my own seed, mostly saved seeds from my own non hybrid harvest, kept in the freezer door rather than bothering to clean and dry them).

Perennials
Sprouts in winter
Salad in containers (all sorts of greens including bok choy)
Peas (also as sprouts of course)
Squash: summer and winter of all kinds: Cucurbita maxima (Hubbard) , summer squash (c pepo) or pumpkin or Delicata winter squash, butternut (c moshata), cucumber (c sativa's) -- up to one from each family to prevent cross pollimation assuming one is seed saving
Tomatos
Mustard and radishes (black radish too)
Beets
Always swiss chard
Herbs, spices, and tisanes

If small garden grown: steamed
For big winter keepers: boiled just enough, air dried a bit, and mashed with flour to make gnocchi

4 weeks and I am starting to get scallop summer squash
I don't expect the winter squash are going to make it to maturity, but I can try tarping and see what happens.

Finally the drought is over, and I did have just enough rainwater collected to survive it

The nettles have started to regrow, which I was relieved to see as they were providing a little shade for my veggies. Most of the other weeds ended up between my two new raised arc beds of nettles and hay, and some of the weeds did survive transplanting and the drought!

I had to water my asparagus seedlings throughout. Also some targeted watering of the squash, and a few watering cans on the rest of the veggies but everything survived. The spent hay bales from the winter pigeon tractor/motorhome used to insulate them from the floor, dressed with a very light coating of soil and the smallest summer squash all did amazingly well during the drought, needing watering but not as badly as I thought, and the squash on top of the nettle cuttings did exceptionally well, almost no watering during the drought, and as I infilled the space between the hay and the nettles with sun choke cuttings and other weeds, all the squash have been super happy!

This year is going to be a solid success for the freezers and the food bank!

Ra Kenworth wrote:When you don't just .... [reuse] ...
But ... also stopping by the roadside to rescue
someone else's broken parasol .... for shading [transplants]

I am counting repurposing roadside trash a solid upscale! parasols for the garden
Used for transplants, and also for droughts

A year since my last post for transplants, the fabric on the parasols disintegrated, now substituting reused plastic garbage bags - mulch sheets - not quite as good as fabric for shading -- on the skeleton frames of parasols

once upon a time the shading / mulch sheets held ashes - bags were washed and dried over the brush waiting on the campfire spot and the worst three were opened up lengthwise to make plastic mulch over compost and for an attempt at sweet potatoes (no go: just a bit too cold here)

Oh and a scrounged upside down playpen that had been slept in by puppies for shading!

Catie George wrote:I can't grow zucchini. ...

It's not my seeds/varieties. I started plants for my aunt with the same variety I planted. She has now presented me with 7 oversized zucchini. I have tried direct seeding. I have tried purchased plants. I have started my own. I have tried 3-4 varieties.

I grow acorn squash (same species) like crazy. Currently have one plant with 10+ full sized, others with 3-5.

But zucchini is the devil vegetable and it hates me.


What silly, 'easy' plant do you struggle with?

Dumb question but are they dying from powdery mildew but meanwhile your acorn squash are resistant or the soil where you have them is better?

Granted I just ate my first immature 2" diameter scallop zucchini (yellow spaceship) off the vine and it's mid August, but I am growing on compost and on non insecticide hay bales beside a compost infill and both are working for me, the squash on the nettle hill topped with nettle stems and a bit of soil are doing best and of course full sun. Those plants were seeded outdoors and transplanted into clumps into flats to protect them from wildlife then planted once secondary leaves were established

Another possibility to consider would be mosaic virus
I'm the past I did Lebanese cucumbers where I had contaminated soil in a community garden.

You may know all about these scourges of the squash and cucumber family but I figured since others are reading as well I would ask the obvious question since your aunt can grow them but you can't and she will have a different location so maybe it's the soil (so straw bales may help you, but will need lots of watering)

PS
I have had problems with imported soil from purchased seedlings and powdery mildew in that soil in the past, but with caution in advance and elimination I am powdery mildew free!! (Pot into really old brittle buckets and keep them downwind then watch them; break the buckets and plant on hills if by the time they are outgrowing their buckets they are free of problems)
Now I won't buy any seedlings and of course you're planting from seed so not bringing in contaminants.

And I have been struggling with potatoes

Mary Cook wrote:My main garden is composed of raised beds that cost little or nothing but that's because by "raised bed" I mean a permanent bed that's higher than the pathways between the beds, but doesn't have wooden sides, and is anywhere from 3" to 8" higher than the pathways. .

I am yet to convince my son that if he wants raised beds on his yard, he doesn't need to edge with wood (or anything else). At least he understands that you can't use toxic wood on vegetable beds.

I intend to simply try red clover on hay bales way at the back and see if they survive with the deer. The soil is poor and low lying close to the water table.

Coco Fernandez wrote:8/22/19

Big surprise: lovely path!

I have forest so I collect fallen dead branches, pine cones, etc., any brush that has been cleared, plus hydrangea branches come fall, Jerusalem artichoke stems which can reach over 15' high, and the stinging nettle stems around the beginning of July, about 5-7' high, and again in fall. Weeds go on top, without shaking out their soil, which I try to plant roots first, and give them water, so they will hold down the compost and keep in the moisture. Right now, I have summer squash growing on a hill of nettle stems that are on top of a nettle patch on relatively new cardboard-pigeon poop compost that is still relatively immature but absorbent enough for nettles, and I did dress the top with a bit of slightly mossy discounted black soil for $1 per bag -- all I could handle in 2023-2024 physically, so bulk was out.
I added a second row with spent non insecticide scratchy hay bales, which I leave with the pigeons for their winter digs, dressed the tops of those too, and between added the stuff I just mentioned. So essentially I have a ditch full of new compost that's mainly nitrogen between two raised beds, one being straw bale fashion that's doing okay with the remainder of my summer squash, and both raised beds are benefiting from the nitrogen ditch. By the end of fall, that ditch will have a lot more debris, and perhaps a pile of seeds -- perhaps more asparagus berries.

My hay bales were $5 CAD so about $4, but they were insulation for an entire winter for my livestock. So pretty cheap and really effective. The ditch in the middle can be left alone for a few years while the asparagus matures, and the nettle hill now has a bunch of seed heads buried so they will provide greens in early spring, green manure before a crop goes in, and on the walkway beside that is lemon balm: tough enough for being walked on as long as it is also watered.

Another thing I do is pick up free horse manure, but having forest with brush to add helps keep the compost alive. Key is to keep it living, and add non invasive weeds on the hill so you don't have to buy wooden edging -- an expensive and time consuming endeavor. Weeds, wild carrots, onions, peas, radishes and mustard will do a good job of holding down the soil on those hills.

Pictures coming after my phone charges