Garden roundup for May

During May, our chickens laid 108ish eggs, of which 68 made it to the house.  I say 108ish because, last month I said I suspected there was a nest in the barn.  Well, I finally found it and it had a dozen or so eggs in it, but they were all broke.  The nest was between two bales of hay, which I moved apart.  I don’t know if they’ll find a new spot now, or what.

At the beginning of the month, one of our hens wasn’t do so good.  And after a couple of days, she died.  In previous months, I’d said that one of our hens was at the bottom of the pecking order and I think wasn’t getting enough stuff for strong eggs.  She was the one that died.  Like I said, they’re getting kind of old, so it wasn’t that surprising.  I had hoped that that would be the end of me finding broken eggs, but it turns out we do have one hen that eats them.  Well, I think she just eats her own.  I don’t know if she was the one laying in the barn, but when I disrupted her she came back to laying in the coop.  Whatever the case, I’m still pretty annoyed with it.

The last note about eggs, is it was the last week of May 2023 that I started keeping track of eggs.  Well, I kept track of how many eggs made it to the house.  And even though we’ve lost a couple of hens since then, the numbers aren’t that much lower. 

Other updates, the onions that had started to grow over winter and that I planted in pots to try to transplant out, all died.  Most died before I had a chance to transplant them, and the two I did transplant didn’t survive.  I guess I’ll just have to make sure I dry any onions I get this year so they last through the winter.

Last month, I hinted at two upcoming stories, one about lettuce and one about something else.  The lettuce one I’ll have to write up a post in a week or so.  The other one … will take a lot more work.  It’s something I’ve tried several times over the years, but without any luck.  And circumstances demand I try again, hopefully with better luck.  If I do have any luck, I’ll write about it.

Something I forgot to mention last month, was that I had started some seeds indoors.  I started a zucchini, a cucumber, and a pumpkin.  I also tried to start a watermelon, cantaloupe, and a squash that germinated but almost immediately died.  Well, this month I transplanted the zucchini, cucumber and pumpkin.  I also direct planted another zucchini and squash, but they haven’t germinated yet.  I didn’t direct sow any watermelon or cantaloupe because my sister finally gave up trying to garden in her … bog, so we needed garden space for her plants.  But she had a watermelon and cantaloupe, so hopefully they do well enough that we can get a couple.

May was a very busy time in the garden.  I also direct sowed some parsnips, peas, green beans, kidney beans, corn, and beets, as well as some onion sets.  All of them are up, unfortunately, something – probably a rabbit – went to town on the peas.  I plant a double row of peas, and then put stakes on the outside and run line for them to climb up.  I hadn’t done that when I found the damage, so I put in the stakes and ran the line pretty close together at the bottom, so hopefully the rabbit will look elsewhere for a meal.  I’ll probably sow in some new seeds to fill in the gaps.

I’ve also planted some marigolds, sunflowers, and some other flowers.  Some of the sunflowers were up, but then something – rabbit? – ate them.  I was thinking of replanting some sunflowers, but putting some type of cover over them so they would get some size before something could chew on them, but I’ve been so busy I haven’t had a chance to do that yet.

Other plants we got at a greenhouse.  We got tomatoes, green peppers, broccoli, and cabbage.  All have been transplanted in, with the last thing – the tomatoes – going in on the 31st.  So far, the only problem I’ve had is that something dug up around one of the cabbages to get at the compost I buried next to it.  To stop whatever digging up the other plants, I didn’t put any compost with them when I transplanted.  Instead, I’ll spread it out in the path above them and work it in.  But that will have to wait until I have time to do it.

Other notes, we picked some rhubarb this month, but I can’t remember how much we stored.  I’ll have to get those numbers later.  Our currants are starting to ripen, so that will be one thing I’m doing in June.  Also, the only things left to plant are our potatoes and carrots.  Both we just started working up their spots, now if the rain will hold off for a couple of days, we’ll get them in.