Jen Fulkerson

Judith it kinda looks like you have two different plants. It will be fun to watch them grow and see what happens.

This has been a very interesting experiment. Not scientific, especially since one of the little beds has been surrounded by a monster pumpkin vine. That being said in the beginning all the little beds were treated the same, and got pretty much the same sun and water. It's difficult to know who's winning at this point because the bed with the chicken wire basket was planted a week maybe 2 later than the other two. There's definitely a looser, at least so far. The bed I filled with native soil is way behind the other bed I planted at the same time. The funny thing is the radish grew the best in the native soil. The watermelon is clearly struggling. Only one bean germinated.
I think I will try to carefully remove some soil from the all native soil bed and add some bagged soil. I did add some of my organic fertilizer mix in all the beds. I'm not sure if the slow growth is lack of air in my clay soil, or the fertilizer that is in the bought soil. I only buy organic, so it's my understanding those nutrients are not available, until the soil life can break it down.
I have always heard not to use native soil in raised beds, but the best watermelon I have ever grown was in the ground in native soil, no fertilizer, just plant and water. The soil I used has been covered with wood chips for several years, so it seems like very nice soil. I really thought It would do well.
Also on a side note I took a chance a put some butternut squash seeds in the ground along the soaker hose and they germinated and look very healthy. Maybe something about disturbing the soil?  It's a little late, but maybe I will put a few watermelon seeds in the soil next to the soaker hose, and see what happens.

If you are starting tomatoes from seed it should say on the package. If you are buying starts it should say on the tag, if it doesn't you can look it up on the Internet by name. In my experience it used to always say indeterminate or determinant on the tag, but for some reason I noticed this year that information was lacking on a lot of the tags.
If you plan on canning, or freezing tomatoes and, or any of the things you can make with them determinate might be your best bet. They have a determined size, and for the most part produce most of the tomatoes all at the same time. This is why they say not to prune a determinate tomato, because you don't want to risk reducing your tomato production. Leave everything alone to get maximum amount of tomatoes.
For longevity an indeterminate tomato might be your best bet. Basically they are a vine and grow until the weather stops them. They produce a smaller amount of tomatoes at one time, but continue to produce them until the weather stops them. If you have enough of this kind of tomato you can do everything you can do with determinate tomatoes, you may just have to do smaller batches. The sky is the limit on pruning options for indeterminate tomatoes. Basically it comes down to personal preference and climate. If you live in a place like I do the options are wide open, because I have a very long growing season. I personally don't prune my tomatoes, except when it starts to bully it's neighbors, and then it's not strategic, but just removing the crowding branches. I get away with this because I live in a hot dry climate. Someone growing in a very humid climate would probably suffer fungal issues if they didn't prune. If you have a very short growing season, you may want to go with one of the more severe pruning techniques. This concentrates production, so you get tomatoes to grow size up and at least start to ripen before your growing window closes.
The great thing about growing your own garden is you get to do what you want. This is a blessing and a curse. Most of us like to do things our way, but if you're new to gardening, the options can be overwhelming. Single leader, double leader, let the plant grow but cut all the "suckers" off, don't prune.... it can be quite overwhelming. In this case talking to people who grow tomatoes in your area, find out what works for them (take what you learn with a grain of salt. Some people tend to believe if they have success growing a certain way everyone should too, and that's not always the case)  If you have space maybe experiment with a few different techniques.
I used to only grow indeterminate. Now I grow both, because I have learned I can make the most amazing spaghetti sauce quick and easy with fresh tomatoes. I thought it took all day, and was difficult. Last year I threw a bunch of tomatoes ( all different kinds) into a pan with onions, garlic, and Basil. No blanching, or peeling, I just cooked it until the tomatoes were broken down, which is actually pretty quick, put it over pasta, and WOW it was better than anything jar sauce I even had. Quick easy probably a lot healthier, and taste so good. Unfortunately it was at the end of the season, but we did manage to freeze a couple of batches of sauce. In the future I would like to can some sauce, but for now I want to make and freeze sauce. Even the frozen sauce was way better than the jar.
Sorry this was so long. I hope it helps. Good luck

I have a major infestation of Harlequin bugs. My current strategy is to kill them by hand, and or put them into a bucket of soapy water. I know I'm killing lots of bugs, but continue to find new infested plants. I don't spray anything organic or other. I strongly believe in letting nature keep the balance. That being said from my understanding Harlequin bugs as adults have no natural predators. I have thought about mixing a strong soapy water with the Dr. Bronner's Castile soap in a spray bottle to kill adults when I see them. I would only spray it directly on the bug, but you know some of the soapy water is going to end up in the soil. I have thought about placing something under where I spray to catch the extra, but even then some is bound to end up in the soil.
My ultimate strategy is to encourage nature to build the best soil full of life I can, so I don't want to do anything to kill, or damage the soil.
I know a lot of people cover the crops that attract these kinds of bugs, but I plant polyculture style, and have a little of everything in all beds, so this is kind of difficult.
The question is what is the lesser of the two evils so to speak?
What do you think? What have you done to combat stink bugs?
Thanks

Probably 80% of what I enjoy watching on YouTube is garden related. I'm always looking to learn something new. I have a handful of my favorites I watch pretty regularly. A few because they live close, or in a climate similar to mine. Some it's because Of the credentials or scientific background. Some because they amuse me.
This year I'm growing a lot more flowers, in a lot of different containers. (and a bunch of unfortunate flowers waiting for a pot, or some container.
One of the YouTubers suggested a product called Rev. It's organic, and she swears by it. For some reason I jumped in with both feet, even though it was more expensive than I normally would have spent. I was so excited to give my potted plants a much needed boost.
The day it came I opened it up and read ingredients, and it's mostly humic acid. It's OMRI certified.
Then of course I had to look into it. Another YouTuber who is a soil specialist was saying it can't be found in nature, and basically processed the same way chemical fertilizer is made. This person is quite flexible and uses both organic, and chemical fertilizer. She said no way would she use it!
I decided to return it. It's going to cost me 15.00 to return it. I contacted the company I told them I Didn't open the bottle, and have the box and packing materials. Also I bought it from Amazon and it said returnable. It didn't say anything about a change. They literally told me nothing in life is free.
This is definitely a stupid mistake. Before I throw $15+ and my time to return this product I wanted to know what the smart Permies people think.
What do you know about liquid humic acid? Would you use it, or return it.
Thanks

I gave the roosting bars a coat of red paint.  I don't know if this was necessary, but I was hoping if the new roosting bars looked like the old ones it would ease the anxiety over something new.
I didn't watch this evening, so I don't know if the chickens adjusted, or resisted like yesterday. When I went out to close the door they were all on the top two bars. Maybe I didn't need to repaint, but it's done now, I hope the ladies like it.

This will be the second total coop remodel. The coop was made mostly by my father-in-law. I built the nesting boxes totally out of scraps, and it was my first build. It stayed the same for about 15 years. It was still totally functional, but I wanted to be able to clean it easier, and do a better job. I rebuilt the nesting boxes and built a two bar roosting bars mostly used to get onto the high roosting bars that ran along the back of the coop.
The coop is 4' 5" wide and 21' long . Several years ago my son and I built a chick wing 7'X7' attached to the side making the coop L shaped. There's an opening between the coop and chick wing that can be open or closed.

The reason for the remodel is a combination of need because racoons kept breaking into the coop and eating my chickens, and hating my nesting box design not to mention it was already falling apart. (which is frustrating and strange because I bought new wood and painted it and added linoleum to the bottom to make it easy to clean.)
phase one is done. I removed everything from the coop, tried to remove the soil that had built up over the years, and level it as good as I could. We attached hardware cloth to the bottom of the coop. We also added a couple of corrugated steel panels behind the nesting bars because the raccoons were still harassing the hens by sticking their old hands through the chicken wire.
Phase two new roosting bars. The old ones were 2x4s wired to the top frame with the two tier bars to make it easier to get on the high bars.  The major problem with this setup is with the coop only 4'5" wide it took up lots space and it left no room for the chickens to fly down. They weren't getting injured, but I always worried about it.
I built  ladder type roosting bars That went into the end of the coop. Giving them a lot more room, and room to fly down. I made it out of the two 2x4s that was the old roosting bars, and some pallet 2x4s. I painted it with some exterior paint I had bought on clearance. I was pretty happy with it. The chickens on the other hand are very unhappy with me. I don't know if it's because it's in a different place, or maybe the color blends in to much and it's hard to see. I should have realized it would be hard for them, but wow they were not happy. They kept looking for the old bar, keep trying to fly up to what wasn't there. We ended up turning the light on and also removed the tin behind the bars. To let more light in. I hope the racoons can't harass them. I tried putting a few that will let me handle them on the bars, putting mealworms on the bars. They did finally get on the bars. They weren't happy about it. Some of them kept trying to rooste on the slanted sides.
I hope they will adjust in time. I do plan to paint the bars red like the old bars.
The next two changes will be to make new nesting boxes. I plan to make roll away nesting boxes with a collection drawer in the back. The front rollaway was a huge mistake.  I want to fix my chicken door. I have to remove wood chips out of the way to close the door every night. I have a solar automatic chicken door. I don't know if I will install it. I want to, but I don't know if it's racoon proof, so we will see.

Thanks for the great info. I have failed sooooooo many times. A couple of wonderful folks on Permies sent me a lot of comfrey roots. I planted them all and did my best to care for them, and never got a single comfrey plant. I also tried comfrey crowns. That one grew, but I really had to baby it to keep it alive, and it died I think in year two. That could have been from a gopher, I'm not sure. I finally started some by seed. One has done very well and is 3 years old??? I've started several others from seed, and some how managed to kill them before they were established. I hope propagating comfrey will help. Ideally I would love to have comfrey grow next to all of my fruit trees

In my hot dry climate comfrey is a challenge.  I have found if I start comfrey from seeds it will survive. I planted seeds this year, but I didn't get a single one. Maybe because I didn't cold stratify, it was old seed, My watering was off, who knows .  I really want more comfrey, so I decided to try to grow it from a cutting. I cut 3 put some root tone on it put it in a pot, and kept it watered in the greenhouse.  One died, one was green with no growth, and one grew new parts. I knew the one that grew had worked. I planted that one, strangely there was a baby next to that plant with it's own root system, and the one that hadn't grown anything new yet did have roots. That's 3 comfrey plants. This is definitely a great way to increase my comfrey. I plan to keep trying to increase my comfrey.

Spring time should be about the garden, but thanks to a very determined raccoon it's all about the chickens.
20+ years ago we got chicks hatched in my daughter's kindergarten class, and we have had them since. My father-in-law built us a coop he welded out of old pipe. It's 53" wide by 21 feet long and 7 feet high.  we wired chicken wire to the frame, used an old door and there you go. Up until about 5 years ago Nothing changed. About 5 years ago my son and I added a 7X7X7 chick wing onto the back side. Now it's the shape of an L. Along the way I added some corrugated steel panels to the South side to give shade and shelter from the rain when they were on. they're in roosting bars.
For 20+ Years Besides rats and mice I have never had anything dig under the coop. Once dogs broke through the chicken wire. Racoons have taken advantage of I forgot to close the door. We have had our share of problems like most.
In very early spring Just before I put my new chicks in the chick wing. I decided I was tired of dealing with the rodents digging into that area. I removed everything, removed  the cement chunks I had been using the fill the holes, leveled it back to ground level (thanks to my son who did most of the digging). I cut 2 pieces of hardware cloth sewed it together with stainless steel wire. We secured it to the corrugated steel walls we had in the ground, and solved the rodent's digging in.
Then one morning a chicken was dead in the coop with the door shut. We found a spot the wire had broken away from the frame.   The chicken wire has held up very well, especially for that many years. The bottom where it's in contact with the ground is starting to rust making it easy to brake. We have solved this problem in other areas by putting hardware cloth under the frame and sandwiching the chicken wire above the compromised chicken wire. This area doesn't have the access for that kind of fix. My son and I screwed corrugated steel panels to the frame. We did about half the coop before it got to late. This worked for a couple of days. Then you guessed it , another chicken died. A hole father down. We put panels on the rest of the back, and thought that should do the trick.  It did for a few days. Now the rooster is dead and there's a hole dug under the coop. Now not only am I extremely frustrated, but I'm confused because the racoons are pretty big, and the hole isn't very big.  I put up a trial cam, and it's a raccoon for sure. Now I have to remove everything from the coop, again tons of concrete and brick that I've shoved in the rodent holes, and level the floor (it's amazing how much soil we've built over the years) Sew together 5 5' a 1 18" piece of hardware cloth ( my hardware cloth is 4', and I didn't know if I had enough to do a 21' and another to cut to 1' plus I didn't want to hang onto the off cut.) During this process I jammed the wire between my toe and toenail, I now understand why this made a good way to torture someone. Rolled it into place screwed it with washers to the pipe because With the corrugated steel back. there's no access to run wire. I can tell you screwing self tappers into pipe is a total pain! Thank goodness my son's helped with this part because it would have taken me for ever to do it by myself.
I bet you think my long winded story is over, but sadly no. The next day I decided the chicks should come out of the chick wing while I'm working in the coop and can keep an eye on them. Then I start to see a lot of little spots on the old barn side of the chicken yard they can probably get out.  I get it all patched up. The chickens aren't bullying the chicks, and the chicks go into the main coop instead of the chick wing.  So in the morning they are let out into the chicken yard with the hens.  For 3 days in a row I have a chick getting out of the yard. I find a spot in a corner that might be the spot.  I squeeze in and use chicken wire to secure it.
Now no escaping chicks, but I get home from work, and my son tells me we have to add another corrugated steel panel next to the roosting bars because he saw a raccoon reaching in trying to get the chicken through the wire. the chicken wasn't harmed but I'm sure it's stressful so another panel went up. I do know it's working because the other day there was a spot dug out about  a foot under.  I filled the empty space with soil, and covered it back up with wood chips.
At this point I can finally concentrate on my very late garden. As soon as the garden is cleared and planted I will have to get back to the chicken yard. It's a disaster. I hate the nesting boxes I made, so since it's out I may as well make a new one. I also want to make new roosting bars. No to mention all the chunks of concrete and brick that need a home. Plus I have started moringa and sweet potato malware spinach to. plant in the yard so it's not so bare, but all that has to be protected from the chickens at least for a while.
I'm sure it will be worth the time and effort, but wow it's all about the chickens.
The garden is now planted and seems to be growing faster than ever, so maybe everything will work out.
On an unfortunate side note now the racoons are eating all the apricots before they are ripe. I live in the middle of an almond orchard and a walnut orchard, I'm never going to get rid of the critters. Anyone have any tips on how to discourage them from my yard?