Claud The Backyard Farmer (self proclaimed)

AHBD

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Wow, that's an absolute bounty ! Will you be giving some away or making pickled something or other ? My mom used to male a simple but delicious cucumber salad with oil + vinegar or Italian dressing , a tiny bit of sugar and chopped garlic.
 

Claudiusx

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No Kidding, it had to have been at least 15 lbs of cucumbers just from that one harvest. Not to mention we've pulled off maybe a dozen prior to that over the past few weeks. And, we have another dozen or so maturing now. All from one plant haha. Although it has taken up probably 60% of my 3x8' bed.

Me and my wife both took a ton to our works to give away. We kept maybe 4 or 5 for ourselves. With more on the way, we've got more to give ha. I absolutely hate pickles by the way... there will be no pickling in this house! Both varieties we planted are supposed to just be sweet tasty cucumbers. One is an heirloom variety so we might save the seeds from it.

That's a nice salad idea! We've just been eating it sliced up. Sometimes my wife puts this pepper seasoning on it and she likes it. My daughter has been loving them too.

-Brandon
 

kingofnobbys

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You'll be popular ( giving away produce ).

Considered pickling / preserving some of your surplus ?
Letting some go to seed ( so you don't need to buy seed or seedlings next time ) ?


I regularly gave away surplus fish ( smaller snapper , tailer , luderick , garfish , mullet , bream , flathead , whiting , even smaller jewfish ) when I was fishing every weekend and found a "hot bite" .
My next door neighbours, grandparents, oldies in my street, and even workmates were always appreciative ( not everyone can fish , and fish is always expensive to buy whole and fresh ).

Most my seeds have gone crazy , will likely be transferring to the big beds this week or next week. Been too wet , windy and cold this week ( with the gales and constant rain we've had here since last Monday ).
 

Claudiusx

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Found this little monster hiding underneath the foliage. I think it went a little too long before harvest hah

31715-4187270477.jpg
That is a standard size 16oz water bottle for size comparison lol.

-Brandon
 

Claudiusx

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Finally ripped out the massive cucumber plant. It was starting to produce some bitter fruit, so we decided it was probaby time. Just as well too because almost over the course of a week it seems the whole plant just got covered in these tiny little bugs. No idea what they are but they only were on the cucumber plant.

I also pulled out everything else except for 1 of the squash plants, and the bell peppers. We are hoping to get one more squash grown so that we can let it go to produce seeds for next year, since the variety we planted was an heirloom. If not, oh well.

We learned a lot from this round of plants. Stay on top of pruning a tomato plant, onions don't do well for the time we planted them, plan ahead better, and 1 cucumber plant is definitely enough!

So I did a lot more research and a lot more planning, and we have some seeds that are going to be coming in this week to start our next round of plants!

We are going to be doing a lettuce mix, kale, broccoli, corn, carrots, and 2 pea varieties. I'm going to build a new bed for the corn specifically. It will be a low bed since the corn grows so tall. All the seed varieties coming in are specifically chosen to do well in our zone, and to do well for the time of year we are planting.

We are very excited about the broccoli. I've heard broccoli is quite difficult to grow, so it might be a challenge, but we love broccoli in this household, so it will be cool if we are successful.

While pulling plants, I did find that one of my beds is just absolutely loaded with worms! I was quite happy to see that. It seems only 1 of them was though, so i'll probably transplant some worms into the other beds. But not to shabby for not adding any worms at all. they all found their way into this bed naturally, and must have bred like crazy. Couldn't turn over a handful of soil almost without finding one big fat worm.

-Brandon
 

AHBD

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Sounds good, so nice to have a garden + produce your own veggies ! Just wondering if the tiny bugs on the cuke plant were aphids ?
 

Claudiusx

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That was my first thought too, but they were mainly black and I started to see some of them had wings... I had assumed aphids were green. I just googled it and it looks like they were aphids haha. :mrgreen: :banghead:

Just googled aphids on cucumber leave and this looks like exactly what I had..
DSCN8508.jpg

Photo from google.

So, I guess I should do some research on them. They only affected by cucumber plant and not the peppers right next to them. Any tips or tricks for next time?

-Brandon
 

Claudiusx

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I actually did have 2 little baby lizards living in the cucumber bed :)

It's funny, just a few minutes down the road my grandparents have little frogs in all their beds that eat the pests. I guess I get lizards :)

-Brandon
 

kingofnobbys

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Claudiusx":xaffhyei said:
I actually did have 2 little baby lizards living in the cucumber bed :)

It's funny, just a few minutes down the road my grandparents have little frogs in all their beds that eat the pests. I guess I get lizards :)

-Brandon

I suggest you provide the little lizards ( skinks or anoles I presume ) with some habitat areas ( places they can hide from people and predators ( some sheets of bark or a little pile of twigs works well in my experience or maybe if they are small enough to get into the holes ,some building bricks , or a little group of small pavers works well , will be a good place to put a drinking dish for them to encourage them to stay .

They'll do a great job controlling insects.

Talking about lizards in the garden, the water skinks have become active, my wife saw a couple sunning on the driveway and on the hockey shaped bed's top sleeper , warmest day for over 6 weeks ( hit 18 degC ) , usually running 24 - 28 degC in LATE AUGUST here .

If you have any mealworms or freshly dead crickets or roaches , the wild lizards in your garden will appreciate them too.

If you want to attracts frog , you need a fernery or a little pond in the garden, or a creek or water course or lake nearby .
 

Claudiusx

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They are western fence lizards, but we call them blue belly lizards around here! Used to be good at catching them when I was younger hah.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_fence_lizard
A bunch just hatched apparently because I have seen about a half dozen babies this week.

My grandparents get frogs because they live on a golf course and are right across the way from a man made lake for the course. I wish I had their view lol. Backyard is too small for a water feature like that I think but some "lizards homes" would be a good idea actually. I'll probably look into doing something like that.

-Brandon
 

Claudiusx

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Planted the kale, broccoli, and lettuce seeds two days ago in the seedling trays. Already have sprouts! I also set up a spot in the closet of the beardie room to put the seed trays. The closet stays warmer because of the dubia bin in there, and I mounted a sunblaster to an adjustable bar so now the seedlings have a bright and warm area to grow up in!

Last night planted the 1 bed with the peas, and planted a test bed on the side of the house with the corn. Not feeling very confident at all about the corn, mainly for it's location and the fact that I only was able to plant them 3 wide instead of in a nice big square like recommended. We will see. If I have to shake them around to fertilize all the cobs I will.

-Brandon
 

Claudiusx

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Realized I never ordered the carrot seeds I had planned on. Lucky for me, it was only 4 dollars to get them shipped to me, so I did it. Was worried I was going to have to pay a large shipping price even though I was only spending 2 dollars on seeds. 2 dollars for the carrots, 2 dollars to ship them. Good deal IMO.

Urbanfarmer is who I bought this round of seeds from. Their sit is a little bit slow, but packed full of info and tons of different seeds. Cheap prices and they came quick.

This will probably stay as my go-to seed shop.

-Brandon
 

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