Barbara Kochan

As for nut thieves: the Jays "harvest" my 2 trees before fully ripe (ripe brown and easy to roll out of the green cover). I have lots of new hazel trees throughout my orchard and in the loaving shed due to Jays planting them. I have been re-planting them mostly in my developing hedge rows.

As to ripeness, i gather the ones the jays drop to the ground as soon as I can otherwise mice and voles are WAY too well fed. These ones that have started to brown seem to not shrink into nothingness, but I know of what you speak: I've had that happen with ones i've picked earlier than the Jays (thinking I would beat them to the harvest; HA!)  I dry them on my soil sifting racks (hardware cloth on a wooden frame), covered by another sifter so the mice and jays don't steal them from the loafing shed. I rub off the husk when they are dry and then store them in a moderately heat/cool tempered room (I don't have a commonly temp-controlled room as I live rather primatively).  I've had some of them for a couple years before shelling and the majority are still tasty, solid nuts.

I long to learn how others keep the jays off: I don't mind sharing my various harvests, but I do want a sizeable portion of my goodies.

   These images on Google photos don't seem to show up correctly; sorry

Good to know. I will make sure to plant them in the orchard (elk and deer proof fenced). Thank you

r ransom wrote:
They geow well here.  Carol deppe talks about it in one of her books and she's  not far south of me on the coast.  

I'm told they can overwinter for a bigger crop in a Mediterranean climate like ours, but I plant about the same time as garden peas.

I really need to dedicate more space to them in the garden.

Thank you!

r ransom wrote:So loving chickpeas right now.

Soaked overnight, soon to be in the pressure cooker for 15 or 20 min.  Yum..

Are you growing these yourself in our coastal PNW??  I would love to grow some but see, at lease commercially, they are grown east of the cascades.

Thank you

I've planted fava beans for a winter cover crop; even tho I started them quite late in the fall they germinated and grew through the winter. The valley I am in is colder than the rest of southwest Washington and they still over-wintered which also then gave me very early flowers for the pollinaters.  I'd forgotten mostly about this so  I will try to remember to do this again this fall. I have a fairly large raised bed (4x12 feet wide and long by 30" high) in which I do most of my non-perennial greens (that are not vining  or root crops) so I like to have it ready quite early in the spring.

For the last 2 years the pear trees lost most their blossoms so had reduced fruit and the walnut trees produced no nuts. I am guessing it was due to very late, hours long freezing periods. Have other PNW experienced this? I was thinking to use the rock/heat sink idea tho it looks like it might be a warmer winter (tho that would not mean we won't have the mid to late April freezing, I guess).  The walnut trees are about 20' tall and the pears about 12 so not too sure if thermal mass on the ground can help. Thoughts??  Thank you

This repeats Kate and Catie's posts, but for me it was the changer: I needed to WATER every day, and sometimes 2x, to keep the seeds and seedlings moist enough. And this is not my typical gardening style by any stretch. Once I did that, and made sure the seedlings were protected from slugs and pill bugs, I had success, after years and years of trying.

I did try covering with a board; that did not work for me; maybe because it made it easier for the slugs to eat the fresh starts?

Because I am collecting of very large, metal roofs (barns) I can get several gallons of water even when there has been no rain: the dew runs off. So for me I get a fair amount of water for use even during our long, dry summers.

I lost my entire crop (from 2 trees) of hazelnuts this year. 3 pair of Stellar Jays started taking them even before most nuts were mature!  I have blueberry bushes that are not bothered by the jays until, it seems, the Kestrels, in a nest box I put on the corner of the orchard, have fledged.  I wish I could convince the kestrels to spend more time over the orchard even after the babies have fledged.

The other issue I have are voles, seemingly lots and lots of voles.  I have lots of coyotes that spend a great deal of time here, and a barn owl pair that nest in one of the barns. They use it as their dining room year round, so I am certain they also help a lot with vole (and other rodent) mitigation. Still, I think I have grown the vole population by growing them lots of high quality food, and fencing the deer and elk out of 2 growing areas, which inhibits the coyotes and owls (on one small garden) from ready access to the voles.  about a month ago I decided I would rather the deer eat my bean plants than the voles, and I took down one panel of my veggie garden. This may have worked as the bean plants have regrown and are looking good  (knock wood).

I have lots of wasps here. Mostly I have lots of paper-wasp nests, but I also curated a nest that fell from the eaves so they could still live in it. That lasted about 2 months and/but they moved on or some other insects drove them out of that nest. I appreciate the wasps not only for all the pollination, but for controlling various harmful larvae, etc.  

Depending on how hot (I am a heat wimp) I wear a very wide brimmed straw hat and long sleeve, loose fitting shirt; I wet a kerchief for my neck, or my clothes, and/or I go sit in the small river that is in the shade of trees for 30 minutes or so.  I often sit in the river after my working day when the night will still be hot (no ac for me) and that lowers my body temp enough that I end up sleeping quite well, too.