Homestead News, Volume 20

We just got back from Frank's checkup, his second cataract surgery was yesterday and everything is going well. He has some physical limitations for a few more days, so we'll be taking it easy. It's supposed to rain over the weekend too, so another reason for a slow couple of days.

We have added the last of the fertilizer from the chicken house to the garden and tilled it again. Planting will begin sometime next week, weather and mud will help determine the timing. This year will be one of the latest starts on planting the garden. We didn't put in any cold weather crops this spring, they just haven't produced well for us, so we didn't expend the time and effort. We decided to try some time lapse photos of the garden through the season, so here is step one. Dirt.

The seedlings are doing well in the greenhouse, all except the carrots who are suffering from a case of aphids. They moved outside and have been through a few frosty mornings. Maybe that killed off a few of the little buggers.

Beets

Tomatoes

Peppers with basil in the middle smaller pots

Tubs of lettuce, almost ready for lunch

Carrots outside

Nasturtiums

Part of the bed out back, sometimes known as the herb bed, will be used for the perpetual turnip bed. I started to do an article on the nutrition of turnips and turnip greens since we had a lot of interest in them recently, but then realized I had already written one. 

The Nutrition of Turnips & Turnip Greens

We have simplified the goat herd, quite a bit actually. We had 14 baby goats this year. It's always easy to keep a few young does, they're young, cute and have potential to be good does. At first we were going to keep one, then two, then three. What did we end up with? None. And that was a good decision. We also sold three adult does. What do we have left? One Stripe, our 11 year old, 'old lady goat' that is no longer a producer. 

Her four year old daughter Patch that had a serious illness with a retained placenta this year that led to mastitis on one side of her udder. Her six year old sister Copper, who we sold, help raise her triplets along with her own. Patch is still losing hair in some places and I'm still working on her udder, but her health appears to be much better. I'm actually hoping she goes into heat and breeds, then maybe her udder will function on both sides and she can provide us with milk this coming winter.

Two of our young does had their first kids this year and are doing well on the milk stand. I'll write a Goat Tail sometime soon and give you more details on their progress.

Our chicks have hatched and more arrived in the mail, but that tale will wait for one of Frank's chicken stories.






It's spring, almost time to mow the yard, rains are here and the temperatures are rising. What's not to like about spring? Unfortunately, the temperatures appear to be rising in more ways than one across our country. There are those in power that will never cease fomenting hatred and unrest in our country. They care not one wit for your welfare, well being or contentment with life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They will never be satisfied. Ever. Until everything is either under their boot or destroyed down to the last man, woman and child.

I relish the sunshine, the awakening of spring and the quiet solitude of our rural, country life. But I am not unrealistic about how quickly the peace can be shattered in an explosion of violence and hatred. Even here. Do not be led to believe that all is well in the land of the free and the home of the brave. It is not. Do what you can in whatever environment you find yourself in, there are always opportunities available.

Until next time - Fern
 

Fire Ants & Aphids

Last summer I mentioned the discovery of the relationship between fire ants and aphids. Fire ants will protect and raise aphids to produce nectar for the ants to eat. The ants will carry the aphids to a plant that will provide nourishment, thus feeding both insects at the same time. I found this to be fascinating even though it can be devastating to my garden crops.  

I hadn't noticed any aphids at all this year until after I had planted my Cushaw winter squash. I noticed the ants were moving into one of the squash hills, so I sprinkled wood ashes and coffee grounds on each of the five hills. I started checking the plants morning and evening in hopes of keeping the squash bugs at bay that had killed off our yellow squash at the other end of the garden. That's when I noticed a few ants on the underside of the leaves. Then I realized that the beginning of an aphid infestation was occurring. I also discovered tiny, tiny little winged insects as well. From everything I've been able to read, I think these winged insects are the adult aphids, but I'm not sure. If you know what they are, please let us know.

Here is a close-up of the ants pouring out of the ground.

So I put coffee grounds on them.

Here is an ant tending to the aphids. There is one above him by one of the leaf veins.

Here is that aphid, enlarged.

Tiny winged insects. Does anyone know what they are?

Here is one of them enlarged. I think it is an adult aphid, but I'm not sure.

We really enjoy the Cushaw squash and hope to have a decent harvest. It looks like we will have plenty of competition from the squash bugs (I have squished a few each day), ants and aphids. I just hope we win the battle.

Until next time - Fern
 

Fire Ants & Coffee Grounds

I have been doing an experiment for a while now. We have an over abundance of fire ants. In the past few years they have gotten worse and worse, although this year, there don't seem to be quite as many. We used to have many ticks and chiggers, they were the big problem, but now there are few. Most people think the fire ants have eaten them to the point that there are few left.

The ants are a problem to man and beast alike. They will chew on anything that disturbs them and have made huge ant hills out in some of the pastures that are about two feet wide and a foot or more tall. We have come to realize that if someone were injured and unable to get off of the ground in the vacinity of these ants, it would be a very bad problem, maybe even lethal.

Goggle images

Another problem we have discovered is that the ants will 'nurse' and care for aphids. There were parts of the garden last summer that had bad infestations of aphids, while the rest was fine. It didn't seem to fit the usual pattern of an aphid infestation. What I discovered is that ants use aphids as a food source. They don't eat the aphids, they eat the 'nectar' or residue the aphids produce as they feed on the plants. The ants will over winter a colony of aphids down in their tunnels, caring for their eggs and keeping them alive until spring. Then the ants will find suitable plant life to sustain the aphid population and will transport them to the chosen location. As the aphid population thrives, the ants are fed. Rather ingenious, isn't it? But at the same time, it increases the ant population in my garden. A couple of years ago, it got to the point that each time I went to pick the garden, I came in with a number of ant bites. It was unavoidable.

Now, back to coffee grounds. I ran across this article about ways to erradicate ants. Most of the information deals with 'regular' ants, not fire ants. Fire ants are extremely aggressive when protecting their homes. If you disturb a mound, they will swarm out by the hundreds, or thousands, and repeatedly sting the intruder. Each sting hurts and leaves a small red whelp. By the next day there is a raised area with pus in it that itches. 

Even though the article has several recommendations we could try, some of them are dangerous to pets or animals. The borax solution would probably work well, but would endanger our cats, so it is not an option. What caught my attention was the coffee grounds. Since we drink coffee, we have a ready supply of grounds. The article says, "Ants are extremely susceptible to caffeine. Leave coffee grounds (used works) where the ants are and they will carry it home and eat it. This method takes a few weeks to see."

One of the first places I put the coffee grounds. The ants appear to be gone.

For the past few weeks, I have been putting our coffee grounds around a number of anthills. Some of them seems to be gone, others seem to have just moved their hills over a ways. But I am hopeful. Maybe, just maybe, this will help kill out a few colonies and make it a little safer, especially in the garden. And if it does work, maybe I won't have as much competition from the aphids for my vegetables.
 

A new small ant hill on the left with coffee grounds, old inactive hill on the right.

This is one of those solutions that doesn't require a lot of work or preparation. Just a container for keeping coffee grounds and a few minutes of time. Hope it works. We'll keep you updated.

Until next time - Fern

Perennial Vegetables and the Last of the Sweet Potatoes

I have discovered two vegetables that have the potential of being indoor/outdoor perennials - sweet potatoes and tomatoes. And I bet there could be more, I just haven't discovered them yet.

 









I wrote about perennial tomatoes when I took cuttings from my favorite plants of the summer. 

 
They were rooting quite well in a sunny, south window when I discovered I hadn't gotten rid of all of the aphids that were on them when I took the cuttings. 

So, I took them outside and rinsed them off with the water from their jars, washing some of the aphids off. I have had a bottle of insecticidal soap for a couple of years that I have never used, until today. I hope it gets rid of the aphids so I can keep these plants going all winter. 

We harvested the last of the sweet potatoes a few days ago.

There were five more hills and we were pleased with the results.

There were a few odd red ones that came from a store bought potato that had sprouted. I stuck the whole potato in the ground in June. It didn't produce as much as the other type. We'll see how it tastes.

We figure we have about 25 pounds of sweet potatoes.

That is a pretty good deal for our first real crop. 

After we dug the potatoes, I got my gardening books out to read about how to cure and store the potatoes, again. I like comparing the information in several books. This is one of my new books that I haven't read much in yet. But the first page about sweet potatoes had a very interesting fact that I had not read anywhere else (that's why I like to have a variety of books about a given subject, whether it's goats or gardening).

It gave the usual recommendations for starting sweet potato plants in a jar or soil, but the third idea is what caught my attention. Take 6-inch cuttings from existing vines in the fall and put them in jars to root.

But I just dug up all of my potatoes! Well, not all. I still had the small hill back in the herb bed that grew from a small potato that was grown last year. Yea!

So, for my second perennial vegetable, I have sweet potatoes rooting in a jar next to the tomatoes. I am very intrigued and excited about the possibilities this brings to continue a variety of plant that produces well and tastes good. It will also provide nice sized healthy plants to put out in the spring.


Learning. What a great thing to do! Every day. Every single day.


Until next time - Fern
 

August Gardening Update

First, a bug update. I learned something very interesting about ants and aphids. We have an over abundance of fire ants here. A few years ago there were a few, then more and more. This year they seem to be everywhere and in everything.

I was talking to a neighbor about gardens a few days ago and told her I had some aphids on my purple hull peas. She told me that anywhere there are ants and available plants there will be aphids. There is a mutually beneficial relationship between the two insects. The aphids secret a 'honeydew' that the ants eat and the ants protect the aphids from their predators. The ants will actually carry the aphids around and place them on choice plants so they will produce more honeydew. The ants have even been observed to 'milk' the aphids so they will produce more honeydew. Even though I find the ants and aphids to be a serious nuisance, I find this fascinating.

I had a batch of aphids on some of my purple hull peas and I wondered if the assassin bugs would eat them. So I gathered up about 10 assassin bugs from one of my pepper plants in a jar and put them where the aphids are. It didn't seem to make any difference. Now I think it is because of the ants. We have not come up with a natural way to combat the ants. There may not be one. They have really boomed this year and become a real problem.

This morning while out picking the garden I was able to welcome a new bug - a praying mantis. It was in the Romano bean trellis and I was happy to see it.

Another update is the fall garden. We have had seven inches of rain in the last three days along with several more inches in the week prior. The fall seedlings I have planted are ready to go in the ground but it will be several more days before that is possible. The winter squashes and pumpkins are growing well even though they were rather beat up by the heavy rain.

I think the grasshoppers mowed down one of the melons, but there are still four left.

 

The potatoes haven't come up yet, and I hope they don't rot with all of this rain.








I wrote about the flood in the herb bed earlier in the summer. Time has not allowed me to work on the herb bed this year the way I hoped. Sometimes I would walk by and look at it and think it is a real failure this year. But a few weeks ago, I started really looking at what I had growing there. Even though I hoped to have much more established by now, I realized that I have quite a few things growing. The mulch is not in place and I am fighting the weeds more than I would like, but I have some strong perennial plants that will continue coming back. So here they are in no particular order.

Basil

Blackberry Lily

Chives

Comfrey

Elderberry

Green tea

Horseradish

Kale

Leeks

Lemon Balm

Marjoram

Multiplier Onions

Oregano

Parsley (which has bloomed and gone to seed)

Peppermint

Rhubarb

Rosemary

Sage (two types)

Sweet Potato (I replanted one we grew last year)

Wild Lettuce (going to seed)

Muddy footprints just trying to get around in the herb bed.

The kittens are starting to get out and around and 'help' pick the garden. They still get lost a lot, but it's fun to watch them explore.

We are blessed with abundance and beauty all around us. Even if we have too much rain, the weeds are growing like crazy and the grass needs mowing, life is good - very, very good.

Until next time - Fern