The Jones Garden Blog

Battles are not the war

Posted on May 30, 2020 by JonesGardenBlog

Chickens were quiet this morning. That’s never a good sign. Temps peaked over 110 yesterday. When I got this batch of chickens I was concerned about the Australorps, but the person selling them said that they do really well. I originally bought five. One ended up being a rooster so I was down to four. After this morning I’m down to three. I won’t get this breed again. Leghorns seem fine. It’s not abnormal to lose a bird or two during the summer but this seems early.

That wasn’t the only loss yesterday, another sweet potato is gone.

Humans 1, Pests 1.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Round one to the humans

Posted on May 28, 2020 by JonesGardenBlog

I’ll spare you the picture but day one of going to war with the rodents, humans 1, rodents 0.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The pest strikes again

Posted on May 27, 2020 by JonesGardenBlog

Looks like I need to pick up some additional sweet potatoes.

And the game against the pests continues. I’m not sure it ever ends. Get one, or several, and more pop up to replace them.

I’m up for it! I will get you all! I will go full Caddyshack if I have to! This is WAR!!!

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Sweet potatoes are in

Posted on May 25, 2020 by JonesGardenBlog

We prepped the beds a while ago. Technically they are my son’s beds as a school project this year. We didn’t really go through the whole process of creating slips and everything. We bought some organic sweet potatoes and cut them in half. Then buried them cut side down with just the tips sticking above the surface. I’ve done it before and it works okay. Not super efficient but… oh well. We put six halves per bed.

Sorry, no pic. In case you haven’t noticed I’m using this blog more like a journal so that later I can know when I did things. I’m thinking 150 days for the sweet potatoes. That would be… October 22. Sounds like a plan.

Posted in desert garden, sweet potatoes | Leave a comment

Grapes

Posted on May 24, 2020 by JonesGardenBlog

Ive had a love/hate relationship with grapes so far. I have yet to grow any GOOD tasting grapes to maturity. They usually get eaten by birds and such before that point, actually before THIS point.

The plants are great to look at but I’ve had major issues in the past with the black grapevine moth. I’ve gone over the plants a few times this year and pulled off leaves that have caterpillars but I just haven’t seen as many this year. I basically killed off two of my vines and completely neglected this one which has been thriving this spring. I have no expectations of these working out but… we’ll see. There are several good sized bunches. Here are a couple.