Mid-May Garden Update

 It's getting closer to the time that I plant out my tomatoes. I'll admit that I wasn't sure how they would survive when I took them out of the nursery trays and put them into the plastic cups. They've really exceeded my expectations and I have to thank Bob for taking such good care of them.
If you didn't know, I was put on oxygen this past week. It's a tough pill to swallow but, considering how I've been since that mattress came into the house, it's not all that surprising. I can now walk without running out of breath. I can also run, too, while carrying a 10 pound portable oxygen tank, as evident when I saw a big snake in front of my peas this morning. I'm not sure I can ever go out there again, now.

Anyhow, I'll take you all on a walk through, thanks to Bob and his photography skills. Thank you for manning the camera, Bob.

Our grapes are coming right along. It's hard to think back to about 14 months ago when I received these twigs in the mail. Bob dipped them into rooting hormone and now we have 5 Concord grape vines and an unnamed green table grape. We just need to figure out where we want our grape arbor to be.

Right out there, in the gravel, is where that snake was. Just YECH!

My lettuce is growing just fine. I have 2 varieties in there.

These are our mother plants. They are Guava Z.

My new plants for this year are Tennessee Red Peanuts. They have sprouted!

I have various cucurbits and herbs sprouting in one of the greenhouses.

You can definitely tell the pumpkins. They are the big plants and I only put three in a cup. I'll separate them out when they go out into the beds in the yard.

I am also starting cucurbits for a friend. She's getting several of these.

The smaller ones are hybrid cucumbers. I grow these because I can keep them in the greenhouse and they are self pollinating.

I'm growing several different types of squash this year.

These are cucumbers.

These tomatoes are looking great!

These are the peppers and eggplants. These are in the other greenhouse with the peanuts and the mother plants.

Thanks for taking the tour!

Tomatoes, Peppers & Eggplants...Oh My!

 Whenever I decide to do something, Bob says that I tend to go all in with it. Case in point would be starting tomatoes, peppers and eggplants from seed. I figure that I have the room, why not go for it? What's the worst case scenario? I'll be advertising my extra seedlings for sale on Facebook Marketplace. I'll be giving them away to friends. I already tried to talk my sister into taking some and she said no way. Final count on seedlings that have made it is 274 seedlings of 69 different varieties. I purposely planted some varieties heavy because I knew that they would be in high demand, like Prairie Fire.

I also have 39 varieties of peppers that made it and 10 varieties of eggplant. This is the very first year that I will have eggplant that survive from seed. Last year, I planted out around 50 varieties of peppers and the deer wiped them out overnight. Not this year. We got smart. We will be growing them in one of the greenhouses.

I have no method with the different colors of cups. They were just the cheapest ones I could find and they came in different colors.

They are lucky we're not fond of venison. If the truth be told, we think they're awesome and we don't mind them in the yard. We just devise ways around their nibbling nature to get a vegetable harvest. One of the things we do is toss carrots out in areas of our property that we don't mind them being in. A 25-pound bag of juicing carrots is like $10 at a restaurant supply store. It saves a lot of headaches.

Inokra Panigang is a Filipino pepper variety that I'm very excited to try.

Yes. We grow THAT, too.

This is a sweet pepper, bell style, variety that I got from Ukraine.

This is the only Black Hole Sun that I got to germinate. It's pretty healthy looking.

Heaven Oregon is the variety that I planted in honor of my friend, Conda Walsh, and her late husband, Steve. I hope to be able to send some seeds her way for next year so she can grow this variety.

Amy's Sugar Gem is the variety that I am growing to take the place of Isis Candy Cherry that I grew last year.

 
Wolverine is a sample pack that I received from an Etsy seller in Canada. It's a pretty striking looking tomato and I can't wait to see them on the vine.

So, my final pepper list for 2023 is 39 varieties:

Sugar Rush Peach
Blot
Peter Yellow
Elephant Ear
Erotica Orange
Corbaci
Sweet Ratunda
Ampuis
Black Square
Red Habanero
Ancho Poblano
Rainforest
King of the North
Korean Dark Green
Inokra Panigang
Gong Bao
Lesia Yellow
Greygo
Greek Pepperoncini
Peperone di Senise
Witch Stick
Jalora Jalapeno
Lemon Spice Jalapeno
Tabasco
Bridge To Paris
Coyote Teeth
Calabrian
Murasaki
Habanada
Lesya
Zapotec Jalapeno
Bohemian Baron
Pumpkin Spice Jalapeno
Hong Gochu
Tekni Dolmasi
Rezha Macedonia
Farmer Jalapeno
Chicago Sport
Peter Red

My eggplant list contains 10 varieties that made it through the transplant process:

Rosita
Violetta Luaga
Golub Sizokriliy
Louisiana Long Green
Antigua
Indoor Golden Eggs
Green Thai Frog Fingers
Laura
Pandora di Mazzarino
Casper

My tomatoes number 69 varieties. Those with an (*) by their name indicates a determinate or semi-determinate variety.

Phil's One
Phil's Two
Reisetomate
Prairie Fire
Taiga
Opalka
Stoney's Neighbor's
Pink Jazz
Maple Syrup
Cour di Bue Albenga
Queen of the Night
Mushroom Basket
Wolverine
Thorburn's Terra-Cotta
Orange Icicle
Korean Long
Indigo Blue Chocolate
Amy's Sugar Gem
Fleur de Reagar
Blue Zebra
Moonlight Mile
San Francisco Fog
Heaven Oregon
Julia Child
Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red
DB Cooper
Dolly Parton
Hippie Zebra
Black Hole Sun
Midnight Roma
Butter Apple
Red Dumplin Winner Pink
Polish Nights
Cote d'Zebra
Glacial Zebra
Work Release
British Breakfast
Granny's Throwing
Zlatava
Surrendar's Indian Curry*
Sart Roloise
Everett's Rusty Oxheart
Butterscotch Paste
Arabesque*
Elita*
Cream Sausage*
Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge
Colonnade*
Midnight Sun
Fuzzy Blue Balls
Eros
Bakir*
Lava Flow
Marianna's Peace
Nature's Riddle
Bug Tussle Buttermilk Wonder
Rose
Inciardi Paste
Stripes of Yore
Yamali Blue
Yamali Green
Yamali Yellow
Campbell's 33*
KC 146*
Heinz 2653*
Heinz 1350*
Heinz 1706*
Heinz 1370*
Heinz 2274*

Hopefully, these will be enough to net me all the tomatoes that I need to go through the year.

It's Chick Time At Kelpie Kapers Farm

 We did it!
We took the plunge.
We bit the bullet and bought our chicks this morning. After wandering through Wilco Farm Store several times and getting an idea of what breeds of chicks they get in weekly, I had it narrowed down as to what types I wanted to get.
I was even willing to get a Leghorn or Rhode Island Red, if necessary, even though they were not on my top 5 list. Bob got our coop all set up as a temporary brooder. We have a radiant heat brooder. We have a heat lamp. It's warm during the day for the next few days. It was time.

We have this set up to where the chicks can get under the lamp if they are cold and they can get off from underneath the lamp if they get too hot. We have a digital thermometer in the coop and I can monitor inside our fifth wheel. It also works to monitor both of the greenhouses.

My greenhouses are running pretty warm right now, as well.

This is just a temp brooder. This will be their coop after we're done. We'll remove the box. I have 18 nesting boxes in here, so I can house a huge flock, if it's something we decide to do in the future.

They made us a heck of a deal at Wilco. I was only going to get 10 chicks. The salesperson had Novogens on sale for $3 each. They had some left from last week and then got a new shipment in today, so she told us she would sell us 5 for $9. I was, initially, only going to get 2 of them. Now, we have 7. I'm okay with that. They were on my list of must-have breeds.

I was super excited to see that they had Silver Lace Wyandottes and Gold Lace Wyandottes. I wasn't expecting those, at all. I got one of each. That's 9 chicks. I got my 2 Americaunas. Those topped my list because they are the ones that lay blue eggs. They also had Olive Eggers in. I wasn't expecting that, either. I have 2 of them. I rounded out my flock with 2 Copper Dominant Marans. Getting a Copper Marans was at the very top of my list. I am beyond happy that I was able to check off every breed that was on my top 5 list. Later, down the road, we may brood some Rhode Island Reds and, perhaps, a Leghorn. But, right now, I'm beyond satisfied with what we have.

So, we're getting everyone settled in. They can get out from under the heat lamp if they are too cold. They have food. They have water with chick electrolytes in it. They've already christened the pads that we put down for them by pooping on it. They've discovered where the food is. They know where the water is.

They sure are cute little buggers!

This one is playing hide and seek with me.

I think the above is one of the Copper Dominant Marans.

The buff colored ones are the Novogens.

Discovering the food.

They are pretty active and vocal.

Cute little nugget!

We've even named them! We are going to call them all Henrietta. That way, there's no mistaking any of them!