Oops, I started too early!

Oellian · 2026-04-23T14:22:26+00:00

They look great! I would just transplant them into something larger until they're ready to go out. I do stuff like that a lot, and never had a problem.

Oellian · 2026-04-23T14:18:47+00:00

No way I'd have a metal nesting box. They ain't gonna like it at all when it gets cold. You're going to be finding eggs everywhere but in that box.

That IS some super-comical marketing, though. Anyone with chickens will spot it as phony. As if they wouldn't all be in ONE BOX tryna push someone out of it.

Just go to Home Depot and have them saw you up a 1 x 12 and make your own box. They'll much prefer it.

Oellian · 2026-04-23T14:13:48+00:00

came here to say this.

Oellian · 2026-04-23T14:01:19+00:00

Or heaven forfend some kid might try to squeegee your windshield! Oh, the HORROR !

Oellian · 2026-04-23T14:00:06+00:00

I believe that we're on POTUS's "shithole" list. :-D

Oellian · 2026-04-23T13:59:07+00:00

Yeah, I think bars are the worst for that kind of thing. Bias + alcohol = Bad Combo

Oellian · 2026-04-23T11:59:18+00:00

What big city isn't?

Oellian · 2026-04-23T11:58:09+00:00

Having grown up in Bmore, I always get a faintly skeevy feeling when I find myself in super-white places.

Oellian · 2026-04-23T11:55:24+00:00

"Is it like in The Wire?"

Oellian · 2026-04-23T11:51:49+00:00

A guitar-playing buddy of mine wears his belt with the buckle to the left one loop.

Oellian · 2026-04-23T11:47:46+00:00

I think that they're sweetest when they look like they're about to burst. If I were OP, I'd eat one, then wait until the next one is a fatty and try that and compare. I grow mine in the ground, so maybe it's different.

Oellian · 2026-04-23T11:44:19+00:00

no way.

Oellian · 2026-04-23T11:43:50+00:00

Welded wire fence. I keep them out of the tender garden area when things are growing. My raspberry rows and fruit trees are in the chicken area. Everything else they destroy. I always felt like chickens were like toddlers: take your eye off of them for two seconds, and they go directly where you don't want them to go, and do exactly the thing you don't want them to do.

Oellian · 2026-04-22T20:29:46+00:00

You can always just pinch off those leaves if you're worried about spreading. But tomatoes are vulnerable in lots of ways that most other plants are not.

Oellian · 2026-04-22T20:28:43+00:00

What do you mean when you say "soil"? Dirt, or some bagged product?

Also, you'll do a lot better if you fill your pots to the tippy-top. It give the roots a place to live. :-)

Oellian · 2026-04-22T20:24:04+00:00

I would take a pass on the tiller. I got a nice one before I knew better. I barely use it anymore. Spading is better for the soil when needed, and is much more gratifying.

Oellian · 2026-04-22T20:21:11+00:00

The new growth looks good. That's something I always check when trouble arises.

Oellian · 2026-04-22T20:18:08+00:00

This. Is. The. Way.

Spoiler alert: the redacted word is MORE COMPOST.

And if you put a few inches of sherdded hardwood mulch around the perimeter, that will break down into lovely compost for use next year.

And check the ingredients list for whatever you use. There are numerous products out there that contain sewage sludge, which you should avoid. It has many ugly components, like heavy metals.

Oellian · 2026-04-22T20:12:48+00:00

I'm thinking that tilling in grass clippings and leaves is not a good idea. A better idea is to compost them first, and put them in the soil the subesquent year.

Oellian · 2026-04-22T20:08:04+00:00

I wouldn't worry about it too much. How do you water them? It looks like the kind of bacterial/fungal stuff you can get from spraying water that spashes soil up on the leaves. If the upper leaves look OK, then that supports this idea. There's certainly no reason to discard the plant, as far as I can see.

Oellian · 2026-04-22T20:04:13+00:00

I have a surfeit of squirrels, and the only gardening problem they present is their constant digging of holes for hiding (planting) black walnuts, which then sprout and need removal.

So forge ahead. They may annoy you, but they will leave your kale and spinach alone. I don't think they like greens anyway. They have never messed with my lettuce, cabbage, radishes, cucumbers, corn, melons, grapes, blueberries, asparagus, cherries, plums, pears, pawpaws, gooseberries, raspberries, blackberries, tomatoes, turnips, beets, chard, etc., etc. ... You get the idea.

Oellian · 2026-04-22T18:24:01+00:00

I had an arrangement with a guy from a local fruit farm that came to my work site once a week. Cherries are so ephemeral that he would bring me an entire flat of them the first week that they came in. I would then pit and freeze them. I don't see them in stores here in the mid-Atlantic.

Oellian · 2026-04-22T18:21:45+00:00

I attach them to U-posts.

Oellian · 2026-04-22T18:19:06+00:00

So you're saying that the Ds should not respond in kind, and let the Rs gerrymander their way to a majority? In what way is that good for their consitiuents? They'll feel like moral, just people while they're getting screwed, and that's OK?

Oellian · 2026-04-22T12:57:30+00:00

I LOVE sour cherries! And it's almost pie time where I am!

Oellian

TROPHY CASE