The Summer Gardens: Good News/Bad News

The Pollinator garden has brought me (and presumably a bunch of  pollinators) so much joy this year!  Bumblebees, honeybees, butterflies and hummingbirds have  been here in abundance. I have been especially happy top have monarch butterflies - as many as 5 at a time a time - on the milkweed plants, but tonight I finally found the first monarch caterpillar, still pretty small. I hope there are more but I have just not discovered them yet.

I have milkweed growing all over the farm and what we do find on the plants are lots of these, milkweed tussock moths.  So far I have let them be, but I am wondering if they are detering the monarchs.

Daddy-Long-Legs--I am fond of these spiders.

But here is the really bad news: Japanese beetles! They  pretty much devoured my rose bushes in a couple days! This is the only place I  have seen them and I wonder if it is because the chickens and guineas are fenced out of this garden.

Good News: No sign of them yet in the veggie garden...

but bad news, something is  eating all our almost -ripe large tomatoes! And I think it must be the chickens,  who  may be keeping the Japanese Beetles at bay. What to do?

Rog fenced the tomatoes tonight; we can't afford to lose them all to the chickens. I wish I would have taken a before photo but here is an after  shot of the cherry tomato row just after i harvested a huge bowl of ripe ones for tomato tarts for the Farmers market. So many more coming.
A few more garden photos and then I must go make those tomato tarts.

Who the Heck Has been Eating all the Cucumbers??

These are the cucumber vines growing in the  high tunnel greenhouse, taller than you can reach. They are loaded with blossoms, with lots of happy bees visiting and pollinating, and  dozens of  tiny cukes starting. We have been anticipating an overabundance of cucumbers. When a neighbor generously offered us cucumbers from his overflowing garden, we  turned him down, showing him our promise of cucumbers.  He was duly impressed.

But when I went to harvest cukes for  the CSA boxes yesterday, searching  carefully through the leaves for the hidden treasures,  these were the only cucumbers I found!!  Hollowed out  shells of cucumbers, not even any baby cukes.

Judging from the texture of the tiny bites, I  am guessing mice have to be the culprits. Who would think they could climb so high on the vines and wreak such total devastation?!  I am setting traps tomorrow morning - hope they like peanut butter better than cucumbers.
Any advice out there?

Undeniable Signs of Spring!!!

My office has been looking like spring for several weeks now, but outside winter has been hanging on way too long. These seedlings want to get out in the garden - and so do I!
Finally this morning there were a bunch of indications spring is truly coming at last.

First of all, there was a dry path across the patio from the steps to the driveway today.  The patio edges still have a  2-foot deep  mound of snow, but the 4-inch deep puddle we have been wading through the past few days (or skating across when it freezes at night) is dried up.  On the down side, I did sort of appreciate that the puddle served to wash off the dogs' muddy feet before they entered the house. It is definitely starting to be mud season (a less favorite aspect of spring on the farm.)

The driveway has my favorite kind of puddles, with a crispy  layer of ice on top that make a satisfying crackle when you step on them, I may be a old lady now  but I still get a childlike thrill from breaking the ice on all the puddles.

The snow has thawed and frozen and condensed so much that it is now hard, crunchy, glazed and strong enough to support your weight without sinking in. You can see  by the footprints how just yesterday I sank in a few inches. So much nicer to haul bales of hay across the pasture when you are walking on top of the snow, not wading through it!

Yesterday we got the first dribble of sap from the silver maple trees. This afternoon we should get a strong trickle!

The snow in the pasture and garden has a lacey, delicate flaky texture.  Very dramatic.

Along the south side of the little garden shed, the snow is totally gone and the ground is cracking where tulip bulbs will be bursting through any minute. A rabbit  has eaten part of a tulip bulb already. Those darn rabbits!

Inside the greenhouse is ready for planting this weekend.  We uncovered the beds and watered last  Sunday. Our winter growing was a total failure  this year.  We got a late start planting last fall because we couldn't bear to pull the late-bearing tomatoes and peppers out. Then, it was a very cold winter and  everything was devoured by rabbits.  Absolutely everything, right down to the ground.

This is our first year with rabbit problems. I have a few theories why. Two years ago we had problems with a family of great-horned owls eating our poultry - but they were probably also keeping the rabbit population in check. When we did a better job cooping all of our birds at night the owls moved on. The next winter was so balmy, the rabbit population must have exploded with no predators.  Plus, last fall Rog built a temporary "deck" out of concrete blocks and lumber on the south side of our barn, inadvertently creating the perfect rabbit habitat just a few feet from our cozy, abundant high tunnel. Not only are we facing rabbit  pests this spring,  we have had a herd of 7 whitetail deer passing through every evening the past couple weeks and I dread to think of the damage they could do to our gardens.

Here is a photo I didn't think I would be able to take this spring-  hundreds of  fish in our  silo pond!  Sometime during the winter, our our pond heaters (which keep an opening in the ice for air exchange) got unplugged and the pond was totally covered with thick ice. I was afraid it was frozen all the way to the bottom.  Rog has been heating inside the  fish gazebo with  a propane heater the past week and the ice is finally melted - and amazingly, the fish  have survived!

Two of the three goldfish we a started with last  summer - they were only a couple inches long then, and are at least 7 inches now.

I was delighted to see one of the leopard frogs that took up residence last summer on the bottom of the pond this morning.  Maybe we will have frog eggs!

I am woefully behind in updates about our aquaponics system (I never even posted photos of  enclosing the  pond gazebo last  winter) and we have very exciting developments happening with our aquaponics venture this spring, so  I promise to write a detailed aquaponics catch-up post very soon!

Heading in after chores and  photos  to do my work, I noticed Nutmeg has caught  another rabbit.   This is the  5th big rabbit the dogs have caught in about a week (that I know about at least), which gives you a hint about the rabbit population.  Nutmeg  may be an old geezer dog, but she is obsessively persistent when she is on the trail of a rabbit.  With Cocoa and Zinnie helping to flush them out and chase them her direction, she is a pretty fierce, successful rabbit hunter. It makes me a little sad, but just a little, now that I have experienced such rabbit devastation in the garden. The rabbits do not go to waste - the dogs  enjoy feasting on their fresh kills. Maybe what we are spending on having to purchase greens because the rabbit ate our greenhouse crop, we are saving on dogfood bills.

Becoming a Wolf

I just let Zinnie out to pee and when I looked out the window a minute later she was devouring a rabbit.  I am sure either Nutmeg or Cocoa was the hunter, but Zinnie was devouring it fiercely. Now she thinks she is a wolf.

I am not too sad about the demise of the rabbit, however. A rabbit (or maybe a flock of rabbits)  has consumed all of the greens in our high tunnel greenhouse, despite them being covered by row covers, right down to the ground. No more Mr. Nice Guy to rabbits!

Potato Bug Ponderings

A few days ago I discovered  the potato patch has been invaded by potato bugs, more accurately called Colorado Potato Beetles. This is the pretty striped adult,  but what I first noticed were the larvae,

fleshy, humpbacked orange critters, devouring the leaves of the potato plants until they turn into lacy, poop-covered shreds. No time to waste in dealing with these pests.

I think most organic gardeners hand-pick and squish these bugs, but that seemed too disgusting to me.  Instead I got a bowl of  water with dish soap and a spoon to knock them off the leaves into the water. We used this technique a couple times last year and it worked well.

In addition to knocking the larvae and parent beetles off the plants,  I checked under all the leaves for clusters of eggs and squished them with the  back of the spoon.  I only found a few adults and not too many eggs, so maybe we are on top of the problem.

This was a tedious, time-consuming task, but not unpleasant since it wasn't too hot this morning. I noticed curious things about the  potato beetles and began to wonder about some things. (I bet gardening has been the impetus for much scientific experimenting throughout the ages.)

For instance, I am growing several different heritage potato varieties, some of which have darker leaves and stems.  Most of the potato bug larvae on the dark green plants were  brown rather than red.  I wonder if there are two subspecies of potato bugs, with dark ones preferring dark plants for camouflage, or, if eating the darker plants causes their color variation?

The potato bug infestation was concentrated in the plants in the middle of the plot.  Most of the edge potatoes had no  potato bug larvae or eggs at all. Is that a demonstration that diversity is  more resistant than monocultures?  Does the initial potato bug land in the center of the patch to lay eggs and  the population works its way out to the edges?

It was  difficult to  knock the baby potato bug larvae in the crevices of the plants with the spoon, so I  sometimes resorted to squishing them, turning my thumb and fingers a vivid rust color. Hmmm, could you use potato bug larvae as a dye colorant?

At first I  found the larvae to be  repugnant, but as I worked the patch I tried to view the babies as their mom,  might -- cute, lovable little larvae.  It worked, and I actually felt a bit sad drowning them in soapy water, but I also felt very protective of my precious potato plants. If I don't significantly reduce their numbers, they will destroy my crop.

It took several hours to work my small potato patch, and I am sure I will have to do it at least once more to catch the bugs that eluded me.   If I were being paid minimum wage to grow these potatoes, I wonder how much per potato the pest control would cost?

Chicken and Coon Tales

On Monday afternoon I was surprised to see a hen with some newly-hatched chicks in the yard.  What a sneaky mom!  Where in the heck had she hidden that nest? By the time I got my camera the family had disappeared and I could not find them.

Yesterday I figured out that the nest was somewhere within the big circle of pampas grass in the front yard and that the hen has four chicks. She must have  been scared away from the barn by the raccoon episode and chosen a safer place for her nest, even if it was outdoors.

Last night as Rog and I were working  into the evening, he noticed a raccoon cross the road into the woods along our pasture. Oh great - we just got rid of one raccoon and now we will have another!
Then, when we were eating our supper (at 9:30 p.m.)  out on the patio, the dogs started going bonkers barking at the barn. I had a hunch the raccoon had gotten into the barn. Rog walked over and opened the door and sure enough,  the coon stared down at him from the hayloft.

It was too late to phone anyone, but I went to Facebook and saw that our friend and neighbor Betsy happened to be online so I sent her a message telling her the raccoon was in the barn and asking if we could borrow a shotgun. She  responded " Don is on his way - you  just made his whole day."  Long story short, at 11 p.m. Don and Rog tracked the raccoon through the barn and shot him (and an innocent bystanding wool rug.)  I feel sad about killing the raccoon, but it was either him or our chickens, We had just lost 4 hens and 15 chicks to a raccoon, possibly  THIS raccoon.

Rog had laid the raccoon by the woodpile but I didn't have time to deal with it right away this morning.  Curiously, Nutmeg stretched out next to the body and lay there all morning. Hard to fathom - was she guarding it? Maybe she was sad that her raccoon hunting adventures were over.

After examining it, I am sure it is the same raccoon we trapped a couple weeks ago. I called Mark and he confirmed that the trapped raccoon had gotten away, so it was likely him.

It is a relief to have that coon gone. Our vulnerable baby chicks, the young duckings and gosling, and the turkey poults and broiler chicks that will arrive in a couple weeks will all have a chance to grow up now.

Thanks, Don, for coming to our rescue so late at night!  What kind of farmers don't own a shotgun? Perhaps Rog will get one for Father's Day.

Gotcha!

Our  dairy farmer/huntsman neighbor Mark lent us a live trap to catch the raccoon that has been devouring our chickens. He recommended baiting it with marshmallows and I had some of those giant fruity marshmallows on hand  so I put in a raspberry, a banana and an orange flavored one, hoping he would  find one of them irresistible.
I set it just inside the door of the barn, where the cow cookies and chicken feed are stored, because he has feasted there before.

Yesterday, I made Rog come out and check with me before he left for work, because I wasn't sure what kind of welcome to expect if we caught him. But no raccoon. This morning, I wasn't even thinking of it and opened the door, dogs along with me, and they surged in growling and snarling. The raccoon was in the trap, also growling and snarling!  There was an adrenalin moment while I got the dogs out of there and closed the barn back up. Then I called Mark, who said he would like the coon if we caught it.

The raccoon  obligingly showed us that he was a young male, so at least I don't have to feel guilty about orphaned babies somewhere.  He  looked a bit  scruffy because it is shedding season, but otherwise  seemed pretty healthy.  When I took the dogs and cats in for rabies boosters last week, the vet said that several cases of rabies have been found in the region already this year; it  looks like a peak year  for rabies (it tends to cycle.)   Raccoons can also carry distemper. Two more reasons I don't really want this raccoon  living in the barn.

Being careful not to get bit by the raccoon, Mark carried the cage to his truck.   He will put it in a cool, shady spot today, then tonight take it a few miles away and release it. He has a new young coonhound that he is training to track it and tree it.  He will only shoot it if the dog performs perfectly.  Mark said that since it is the dog's first time, odds are that the raccoon will get away.

I have mixed feelings about the fate of this raccoon. I  know his alternative fate is to be killed - there really is no good place to release him where he will not become somebody else's problem. At least this way he has a chance, and I am secretly kind of rooting for him, as long as he doesn't return to eat my poultry.

Last year,  Mark and his fellow hunters shot almost 100 raccoons in a ten mile radius of his farm.  He said you would think there wouldn't be many left in our neighborhood, but they are all over.

Mark's family has been avid coon hunters for at least three generations (not to mention, deer hunters, turkey hunters, duck hunters, pheasant hunters, bow hunters...)  Coon hunting season is in the fall, when the raccoons have finished raising their families and have grown luxurious winter coats. The hunters take a flashlight, a backpack with a bottle of water and a little sustenance, and track on foot, following the sound of the dogs.  It can be a long hunt - once they ended up near Oxbow Park, about eight miles away, and it's unlikely the hunt was traveling as the crow flies.  Mark said often he and his brother, sister, dad or uncle will have worked all day, go coon hunting all night, return in time to do the morning milking, and just skip sleeping that day.

Mark invited me to join them on a hunt next fall and I just might take him up on the offer.  I would go along for the adventure of traipsing through the woods and fields in the dark by flashlight, not to shoot a raccoon myself.   It seems like a cultural aspect of being a farmer that I should experience. 

The Return of the Raccoon

If you have been reading this blog recently, then you probably know about our new chicks: one hen hatched out two chicks in a 5-gallon bucket and another hen hatched 17(!) of which 14 survived. Well, sad to say, both hens and all but one orphan chick have disappeared over the past few nights. I found one body, a hen with her head eaten off. I would have suspected owls, except that the chickens were closed in the barn.

So, I suspected a raccoon. There is enough space beneath a couple of the barn doors for a raccoon to squeeze under and the hens were vulnerable, still nesting on the ground with their chicks. Last night we let Nutmeg stay outside all night, and this morning, she was patiently waiting beneath the tree next to the chicken coop, having treed a raccoon. Circumstantial evidence suggested he was the culprit.

Nutmeg must have been getting a crick in her neck from keeping guard all night.

I bet it is the very same raccoon that I took such an endearing photo of with Nutmeg a month ago.

First, I called a couple neighbors to see if they had a live trap we could borrow; then I called the DNR to find out where they recommended to let the raccoon go when we caught it. They said it is a nuisance animal and recommended that I shoot it.  I realize that is what any self-respecting farmer would do - it is your responsibility as a farmer to protect your  livestock. (Plus, you can't really afford to let them be devoured!)  But the only kind of gun I have ever shot is a BB gun when I was a kid.

Our neighbor's daughter, Hannah, arrived with a shotgun to dispatch the raccoon,  which Nutmeg still had conveniently treed. Hannah offered me ear protection (because of course I had my camera to  photograph her in action) and in the one minute it took us to get the ear protection out of the car, Nutmeg got distracted and came over, and when we turned around, the clever raccoon had disappeared without a trace!

Drats!  But I am certain he will be back. We will have to let Nutmeg keep watch outside at night until we get him.

The Weasel Takes a Mouse, Hi Ho the Derry-o

If you live on a farm, in the fall you are probably destined to get a mouse coming in, looking for a warm place for winter. Last night, about 3 a.m., we were awakened to the unmistakable squeaking sound of a mouse being caught by a cat. Caught and let go and pouncing sounds and caught again and let go -- it had to be Weasel playing with it.  Both of the other cats take their mouse-catching much more seriously.  This morning, no sign of a dead mouse; it must have gotten away.

Just now as I was on my computer I heard it again. I grabbed my camera and followed Weasel as she raced down the steps into the basement, mouse in mouth.  Of course she let it go.

I swear she has a pact with that mouse. I know one of the other cats will get it soon, though.

I have read that to mouse-proof your house you must block every opening as big as the eraser on a pencil or they can get in.  Even though we have weather-stripping on the bottom of our front door, there is still a tiny opening about the size of a pencil eraser where the doors meet, not to mention how frequently the doors are opened, letting cats and dogs (and possibly mice) in and out every day. However, I can rest easier knowing that any mouse that chooses to live in this house will not last long, thanks to Shamu and Orange, the real farm cats.

Garden Goodies- and Baddies

When we named our place Squash Blossom Farm, we had no idea that squash blossoms would actually become one of the crops we sell.  We use them on pizza, salads, fritattas, and as appetizers, usually stuffed with cream cheese and pesto, dipped in a beer batter and fried (Yum!)  That is, we eat them when we have them--we also sell them at the Farmers market and to a restaurant, and we can't keep up.

As you are plucking the squash blossoms, there is always a honeybee working inside every flower.  After Rog harvested this morning,  there were only a few blossoms left  and each one was crowded with 6 or 7 bees.   The squash blossom harvest is slowing down--this may be the last week.  Next year,  I am planting more squash for the flowers.

We are sort of between harvests right now.  The early crops are done; the onions and garlic are curing in the barn.

We planted beans late and they are coming on now - these are dragon tongue beans.

Scarlet runner beans --we planted these more for the flowers but we also eat them.

The tomatoes are finally starting to  ripen!  Last night we picked these wonderful yellow pear, sungold and Early Girl tomatoes.

Unfortunately, our large tomatoes have become the victim of something that  raids in the night.  Raccoon? Opossum? Wood chuck?

Whatever it is, it eats about half of each beautiful  tomato just as it gets ripe. It has only taken the ones close to the ground. Is that because it is as high as it can reach, or is it just because those are the ones to ripen first?
This critter has devoured most of our large tomatoes so far,  so we have to take action. I tried picking them while they are still a bit green and letting them finish ripening in the house, but now it is eating the less ripe tomatoes.  I might try leaving Cocoa, our panic attack dog, out in the garden tonight. (She really wants to stay outside and be on guard at night, but I always make her come in.)  If I figure out what it is, I might try a live trap.

Right in the middle of our tomato patch is a gigantic garden spider.  Based on her coloring, size and the zigzag reinforcement down the middle of her web, I identified her as a Black and Yellow Argiope Spider. She is beautiful and HUGE and her impressive web stretches across two rows of tomatoes. The zigzag in the web is effective in preventing birds from flying through the web and destroying her handiwork.  I don't regard her as a pest - I love spiders and know they are great insect controllers - but none of us want to accidentally back into her web while working out there and end up with her down our shirts!

She is pretty amazing.  Perhaps she will capture whatever is destroying our tomatoes in her web (Check out this video!)