Calling all birds...

We have quite a variety of birds on our 3 acre plot, and deciphering their unique calls is quite a challenge. We have the cardinal and woodpecker down, but the rest are giving us a run for our money, as many of the birds are out of sight, or don't stay still long enough for us to find the source of the call.

My daughter's recent inquiry as to if a call we heard was an owl (it was a dove), prompted me to search for sources that have birds sounds to show her what an owl in our area would sound like. During my search on the local library's website, I came across The Backyard Birdsong Guide. There are 2 editions: and Eastern and Central guide, and a Western guide.

I picked up the Eastern guide and I have to say that this is one of the neatest books I have seen. There are 132 recorded bird songs included, from birds all over the eastern and central US. Each bird has a 2 page listing featuring an illustration and some details about its habitat, location and song.

If your local library has a copy, ti is worth it to pick it up, especially if you are into birding. For more information, you can visit the companion site at www.chroniclebooks.com/backyardbirdsongs.

A gardener's learning process...

It is amazing how quickly frustration goes away with knowledge. As I work this year's garden, I am learning all I can (thru books, web searches, forums, etc) and experimenting to see what works and what doesn't. It is quite interesting how satisfying failures can be when you allow yourself to get past the aggravation and see the knowledge that can be gained to be used on future plantings. Just in the past month and a half since I planted, I have learned many lessons that will be valuable come next spring.

While I admittedly would have liked to have known all this before I started, I take it as part of my initiation of sorts. As a new gardener, I now know that it is crazy to believe that your first efforts will be 100 percent successful. You have to invest the time to experiment and see what works for you, in your area of the world. There are so many factors that affect the outcome of a garden—soil condition, weather, available time, pests, diseases, money—and they change every year, and are different for everyone, even if the distance between is just around the corner. And it only gets harder if you are trying to go organic! (Right now, I am working on sustainable; organic may have to wait a few years.)

So, if you are a new gardener like me, allow yourself to fail and let it be OK. Figure out what went wrong and how to correct it and use that information to create a success next season!

New beginnings

I am a bit frustrated with the way the garden is behaving. I have (had) squash plants that were about 6" tall and already beginning to flower. I posted the problem on GardenWeb, and most said it was due to stress on the plant. Still being a novice gardener, I have no idea what could be stress my plants. I water regularly (though I may have been over watering in the beginning), and put out a some bone meal and blood meal to fertilize. However, they may need some immediate fertilizer as the bone meal and blood meal I have is slow release (learned that after I bought it).

So, in an effort to see what is wrong, I pulled up all the squash plants. I dug deep into the row and turned over the soil the entire length. I then added some Black Cow, home made compost, potting soil, some leaf mold, and bone meal, and turned all of that into the soil. I did my best to not compact the soil as I worked ( I did not till this part of the garden this year, which may be an issue as well).

When that was done, I planted some new squash, watermelon, corn, and peas in this row as an experiment. The watered thoroughly.

I did not amend the whole garden this way in the beginning due to time and budgetary reasons (the garden is a lot bigger this time), but if this proves fruitful (pun intended), then I will make an effort in the fall to get my soil like it is supposed to be, amending and perhaps planting a cover crop, to be ready for spring 2012.

Will keep you posted!

UPDATE: I have now pulled up the first set of southern peas I planted. They were so over run with aphids and their "shepherds" (ants), and they appeared stunted, and also may have been affecting the corn I co-planted them with. I have since put out some ant killer to hopefully get rid of them (and the aphids) and will try again with some peas soon. The corn looks better since I pulled the peas out too. May have had too much together. I'm still learning! : )

How is your garden growing...

Here is an update on how things are progressing in the garden:

Almost the whole garden, looking northwest. Click the image to see the labels.

Bought these at Lowes. They are Ferry-Morse Black Krim organic seeds.

My 3 types of peppers (spice, hot, and bell) with marigolds in the middle.

These are red potatoes from store bought "seeds". Planted them to see what would happen. So far I found 2 small potato buds!

Trying to go as organic as possible this year, so I put some MG organic blood meal and bone meal out today as all my plants were looking a bit yellow (haven't fertilized anything since I planted them about 4 weeks ago). With the rain we are getting now, I hope to see great improvement in all the plants.

The Black Krim tomatoes are Miracle Gro soil, and far outgrew the tomato seeds I planted in some inexpensive garden soil I bought. I have since transplanted the other tomatoes into larger pots with some MG soil, and they seem to be growing better. I hope to do the same with the peppers. They have not grown much in the past week or so, and I think it is due to the soil they are in (nothing has been lacking for water).

Anyway, that's what has been going on since the last post. Fingers crossed and prayers lifted high for a bountiful year! Hope you are having good luck as well.

Happy Gardening!

Weekend update!

Cow Horn Okra seedlings

Sweet Valentine Romaine Lettuce seedlings

It's been a week since I planted, and most of my seeds have germinated. The tomatoes and peppers are taking longer (peppers are supposed to take a long time, but not sure about the tomatoes). Finally had one basil poke thru! I have some Texas Hill Red okra that is giving me a fit, so I am experimenting with other ways to get it to germinated like the Cow Horn okra from my father-in-law.

I finished clearing the rest of the garden plot for this year (making it bigger than last year). Going to try to plant all the seeds that are to be direct sowed this week. Made a small 2' x 4' potting table out of some scrap wood.

One piece of advice: don't put hay in your dogs pen and then put said used hay in the compost. Apparently hay makes a good home for fleas. We got all that cleaned out of the dogs area, and not thinking, I said "Hey, this would be good for the compost!" So... now we have fleas in the compost area (insert sarcastic "YEA!").  I put some flea killer in that area, but then realized that that might kill the good critters in the compost, so I don't plan to retreat it. Anyone have any ideas on how to organically get rid of fleas!??

On a final note, my son built a birdhouse as a Cub Scout project last year, and we finally got it on a post around Thanksgiving. I am happy to report that we have a momma and papa blue bird who have taken residence in his house. It is really neat as she has the nest all finished. We just hope that her and the protective papa can ward off any would-be predators. Below are some pics of the momma!

I want to build a few more houses around the property, as well as a house for Mason or Solitary bees, if there are any in this area, near the garden. When I planted watermelon last fall, I could believe the amount of bees that came around. Don't know where they came from, and I hope they come back this year!

Anyway, hope all is going well in your garden!

A good book...

Wanted to share a great gift my wife surprised me with this past Christmas. Know my aspirations to be a farmer, she found this book in the Lakeside Collection catalog we get. At 480 pages, this book is chock full information for the would-be "farmer", or individual who wants to live as much off the land as they want. It contains info about gardening (flowers, fruits, and vegetables), animals, crafts, building a root cellar, and so much more.

You can also get this on Amazon, and perhaps thru your local bookstore. At only $10 - $12, the amount of info contained within is worth far more than the price.

The seeds are planted... partly.

Sunday evening I was able to get outside and plant some of my seeds in my starter trays. Per some articles I read, I pre-soaked my okra and pepper seeds in warm water for a few hours Saturday, leaving the hot pepper seed in the water over night. I placed the other pepper and okra seeds in wet paper towels.

When I opened the towels with the okra seed to plant them, both varieties had already sprouted!

I am pumped about this season, and am praying for a great harvest!