Awi Usdi Farm

One of my favorite quotes is- if everything is not eating your garden it's not part of the ecosystem. Well I have had a time with all kinds of pests. Today I found wheeled assassin bugs eating my pests! I carry around a water bottle to let japanese beetles roll into. Not anymore. The okra, where the beatles are, had at least four assassin bugs in it. One actually in the process of eating a beetle! Not gonna lie those assassin's are pretty darn creepy when you don't see them and they are suddenly up in your business. They are big, and yes they eat "good" bugs too. I saw another waiting on a sunflower. I'll take them eating my pests anytime!

If your garden is not being eaten by everything, then it's not part of the ecosystem. Case in point, army worms. I found some on tomatoes and peppers. When looking for caterpillars it's easiest to look for the p**p first. Go to the freshest pile and look up. Army worms poo is kinda runny and gross, almost looks like bird p**p sometimes. Horn worm p**p looks like a present tied with string or a lumpy gr***de. Sometimes I know the birds are doing their job, I'll just find poo. Others I bring home a dozen worms for my chickens, like today.

If you end up with extra zucchini and have tiny onions, then I have the best idea for you. Premade stir fry mix. I only had zucchini and pearl onions today so that's what I used. Vacuum sealed to keep it fresh and chunked in the freezer. Makes busy days a little easier dinner prep wise.

Just in case you feel bad about the state of your garden, know that I w**deated mine so I could pick the onions hidden in the grass. It's ok to let your garden get away from you, especially this time of year when it can turn into a jungle seemingly overnight. It's also ok to pull out plants that aren't living up to your expectations. I planted pole beans beginning of June. They came up quick, got first true leaves and that's it. Never grew more. So today I w**deated those too, lol. I'll plant things on the trellises for fall.

Horn worms are out and about! If you see p**p on your leaves or leaves missing on your nightshades, it will be in your best interest to take a closer look. I managed to spot these two today, it's much easier to see them at night with a black light. They may look harmless when this small but a growing horn worm can strip your plants almost over night. Of course the only time I would leave the worm is if it had parasitic wasp eggs/larvae on it. It will have white things on its back. I hope everyone has a great weekend!!

Hot morning on the farm. Garden is growing great!

Starting to get tomatoes staked and supported. I use Florida weave method to keep them up, it works great for the big storms that roll thru and for easy access to prune and pick fruit. I only prune my tomatoes enough so the leaves don't touch the ground and I'll slowly pick up the stems to about 10-12". This helps with air flow, and keeping dirt off leaves which can cause fungal problems. I also will prune higher when July and August hits with hot humid weather that also causes diseases. Also a picture of tomatillos, I started a lot of plants and only ended up with about a dozen to germinate and grow. Hopefully these will produce abundantly.

Pretty excited to plant pro cut sunflowers, that means they will be pollen free. So you won't have big blobs of pollen all over the place. Hopefully these grow great and will be for sale this summer. Also adding hibiscus this year, they are completely new to me.

My day, planting flowers! Zinnias, amaranth, marigolds, all the fun stuff.

All of these tomatoes were started at the same time. See all of the different heights? How could that be if they were started at the same time? Well, it's all about when you pot them up. If you use a seed starting mix to start seeds, it's just for starting seeds. It has very little nutrients for the plants and is designed to be an optimal mix to hold water for germinating seeds. This is why it's important to pot up into a potting soil or garden soil shortly after the true leaves come in, not the first leaves that sprout. These plants were all potted up within about a week of each other, maybe two. It's very clear at which order I did it and it made a great educational post by chance. If I had had the soil and pots I could have got all mine potted up closer together, but no worries soon you won't be able to tell the difference between them.

It's a great day to till. I over wintered some lacinato kale and carrots. The kale is for seeds, carrots to eat. The kale took a big hit during the storms last month. About half died, that's ok though. Kale produces a ton of seed. The carrots held up well, I know it may not look like it in the photo. The fresh green leaves are a great sign. Tomorrow I will be planting onions, radishes, and peas before the rain on Friday. Not too long and ill be planting potatoes!

Hey y'all, it's been a while. Now is the time to start peppers. I normally already have them started, but with the weather and the house staying cooler it was best to wait. Peppers take two weeks to sometimes a month to germinate and any little bit of cool temps will stunt the growth. With a little luck I'll have pepper starts to sell at the end of april beginning of may.

Heavy dew this time of year may make you dream of fall, but you should be looking at troubles this causes plants. Powdery mildew on squash is common from it. Tomatoes that haven't been trimmed have poor air flow and the dew just makes a mess of it all. It can rot the plants, and let blight take over. Tomatoes don't have to be done for the season though. You can tie them up, clean the grass from around them, and prune your plants. They can keep producing until frost. As you can see on the first picture it's unruly. Next is after trimming. I explain most on the picture also. If you do trim your tomatoes make sure and take a bucket with you for the trimmings. Remove them from the garden, it can spread disease to leave them. Also be sure and clean your garden tools, I have hand held trimmers I use. They are easy to wash, it helps stop the spread of diseases also, along with rotating your crops yearly.

Fall green beans have finally got planted. Along with lacinato kale, now we need some rain. Turnips are up surprisingly, since it hasn't rained since planted, but the mornings have had heavy dew.

I finished back tilling just in time, it started raining as I was cleaning my tiller. It sure is pretty dirt, I can't wait to see more stuff growing in it. I'll just have to imagine how it will look until then. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to start planting.

Tilled where the corn was today, just the first pass. I love my tiller, I wish I had a tractor but I'm thankful I'm not having to do it by hand. Hopefully this fall I'll have greens, beans, and lettuce. Spring and summer have not turned out how I hoped, but that's life.

A lot of things can be planted for fall. Some need started soon. In my opinion we can plant most summer crops again. If you don't know your first frost date Google your zip code plus first frost. I got a screenshot of farmers almanacs dates for my area. If you love greens then fall is the best time to grow them. There is less bug pressure.

I thought grasshoppers had been eating the cherry tomatoes until I found these guys.

Did you know that letting herbs bolt, flower, helps bring in pollinators? It also gives you seeds to save. This is cilantro, also know as coriander. I will use this seed for fall and spring and for cooking. When saving the seed make sure it's dried well before storing. I will keep these is a paper bag for a few weeks to make sure. I will also have to winnow it a little more.

Some beauty at the farm today. Lots of pollinators out! I had to watch out and wait for some to move before I could work.

Some pics I took this morning. We have the dreaded horn worms, one plant is mostly gone. I'm going to get a blacklight and try and catch those suckers

Things are growing great!

Looking pretty on the farm

Squash bugs and vine borers can be more than a nuisance to squash plants, they can be deadly to them. You can try to use BT for vine borers before they hatch and burrow in the plant, after that happens your too late. You can use a needle at increments up the side to kill it or you can split it vertically get the worm and hope the plant lives. For squash bugs being thorough is important. Making sure the area around the plant is clean of hiding places, including mulch. Pulling dead leaves and flowers off the plant itself and looking for the bug and eggs. I keep a container, with a lid, with soapy water in it in the garden. I knock big ones in and close the lid. For eggs duct tape works great. Today I didn't have duct tape or a container. So big ones got squished and eggs got tore off with part or the leaves. Here is the eggs in the picture. It's also important to look up the pests in all life cycles. Squash bugs look different in most stages. It's also good to note that squash bugs are a stink bug, true to their name when squished or attacked they smell. The smell will attach itself to your fingers in a bad way, I've learned this multiple times. Lol

Remember those tomato suckers I put in water 6 days ago? Here is some today. These will make nice fall tomatoes well after most people have already ripped out their plants.

Digging up potatoes comes with damage to the potatoes sometimes, especially so when children help dig. One of the teenagers dug the potatoes, the other dug onions. There is damage to both, but it's not a big deal. It just means I get to make our favorite side for dinner tonight. We call it Mama's special. You just take anything you have from the garden or you got in your fridge. Dice it up to the same size, put equal amounts of flour and cornmeal on it. Toss it good and fry it like you would fried potatoes. Tonight I've got new potatoes, funky boxy onions, and green beans from our garden. Along with zucchini I didn't grow. If you see a vegetable and you aren't sure how to cook it do you buy it or pass it by? I like to try new things, so I tend to buy then scramble to find a recipe.

Onion and potatoes dug today. I have some for sale at Outback Farm and I have some more also. If you are interested let me know. I can meet in town. Packages are one pound each, 1 for $3 or 2 for $5. No pesticides, no anything used on them not even soap.

As an update to the tomato suckers being rooted. This is probably close to two weeks worth of root growth. It is ready to be potted up. When you do pot up a rooted sucker make sure you keep it watered well for several days before you start backing off and letting it dry up a bit. Letting the roots get established helps the plant grow better.

It's tomato and coffee time again, only this time I'm at home. Earlier today I trimmed lower limbs and suckers off the tomato plants. For me this helps improve air flow and keeps dirt off of leaves. Dirt can contain viruses, fungus spores, and all kinds of other junk I'm sure, that will harm your plants. Now as long as the suckers are clean and healthy I save them. Why? Because I can grow a whole new plant from it, a clone actually. I only seperated them by cherry or slicer, so these will be surprises. You never know when or if a plant will die, hornworms will attack or any number of things that could happen. It's always good to have replacements ready to transplant in. Don't baby these suckers though, keep them outside and in the sun. Yes you will have to keep the water filled daily until roots show. Then plant in dirt, either in your garden or pots. Water regular for a few days so the roots can get settled, then be sure and let the dirt dry out a bit before watering again. Plants need to be adjusted to life outside so it doesn't shock them too bad, especially this time of year.

Coffee and tomatoes, it's my dream job come true! Starting on tying up plants and pulling bottom branches that touch the dirt. Didn't have enough posts to finish weaving them though, will have to get more

A dehydrator full of lemon balm and a bowl ready to go in next. Lemon balm can be used as a hot tea, sun tea, water flavor, jelly, cooking and many more things I'm sure. So can spearmint, both of which I have plenty of. If you are interested in some let me know, it's $2 a bunch.

It was beautiful this morning. We got a lot of work done and had time to look at flowers. These flowers are in the ones I'm growing for cut flowers. Of course not enough are ready for much but what it blooming are pretty. Also got a pic of the kids all working.

Tomorrow I will do a check for new potatoes and let y'all know if there is enough to sell. I do have small amounts of kale, swiss chard, sage, oregano, cilantro, rosemary, catmint, lemon balm, and spearmint available right now. Please let me know if you are interested, I'm working on the price. Also pleass keep in mind that I don't use pesticides. That means there will be imperfections, like bug holes. It doesn't lessen the value of the nutrition you get from pesticide free food, just the eye value. Especially if you are used to perfect food from stores. If you don't know what you could possibly use some of these things for let me know and I can post recipes.

Things are really growing right now, w**ds included. The land was a cattle pasture just last season. So grass in the garden will be a given for years. Hopefully with a little work we can get it to manageable levels. Good news is squash is blooming, we have baby tomatoes, and decent sized onions. Herbs are growing good too.

Worked in the garden this morning. I can't wait for things to get bigger. It's hard to see it all in this pic.

It's an awesome day, got the rest of the corn planted! Also a nice pic of the garden.

Having back up plants to fill in gaps can help maximize you garden space. It also helps stop w**d growth since you will always have a spot filled. Today more green beans and marigolds got planted.