Larsen Poultry Ranch - homesteading journey

SageHill

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Went back and checked the spot where the snake was and found it had made an indentation. Took a picture with a sponge for scale.

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Did all the yard chores and rabbit stuff during the daylight today. Got a few more plants moved this morning and rearranged things so I'm less likely to walk through areas with spots where snakes can hide. I tried to count the plants that still need to be moved but kept losing count, there's at least 40. Need to bring a notepad next time. There's at least 7 figs that need to be moved and repotted.
That’s a good sized snake! Especially so that it left an indent!!
 

Larsen Poultry Ranch

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@SageHill It didn't seem very big, only looked about 2 feet long when it uncurled, and wasn't very big around. Hopefully at least it's getting the dang field mice that refuse to go into the traps. I think it left the indentation because it was right near the mister and the ground was damp.
 

Larsen Poultry Ranch

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Mom came over today after we got back from church to help watch munchkin 1 and work in the garden. Once we got him down for a nap we started moving plants from the old garden to the new garden. Finally got hubby to help too as many pots were too heavy for us to handle. We moved all plants except the elderberry, one fig, the butterfly bush, a walnut, and the goji berry bushes. All of those have grown down through their pots and will be difficult to move, plus I'd rather wait until fall/winter when they are more dormant. The deer haven't bothered these ones before, so I'm hoping they'll be safe. The goji bushes are starting to flower.

The plants in the new garden got put in a big clump, so I had to move a bunch and rearrange them so I could water everyone and not miss any. I repotted some of them but there's still a ton more needing repotting. Two figs were looking droopy and got repotted into 30 gallon fabric pots then watered several times. An hour or so later they weren't droopy anymore. Hopefully they heal up ok, I had to cut some of their roots to move the pots, then I had to cut the pots away as they had grown so much on both sides of the pot I couldn't get it off.

The thornless boysenberry is now 3 plants, and I had a raspberry clone itself into a new pot. One of the thornless blackberries spread into the apple tree pot and also escaped into the ground. Not bothered by that though, if it survives the deer I'll try to put it into a pot.

There's still at least 7 figs needing to be repotted. We might have to buy more potting soil. I'm hoping I can get a few plants repotted each day and finally get them all done. I still need to get the drip system set up too. I'll try to take pictures.
 

Larsen Poultry Ranch

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What a productive day!
My Dad grew thornless boysenberry, those are so yummy! One of these days all your work is going to pay off and you will have a food forest!
I really hope so! Hubby was grumbling about the volume of plants but I pointed out that most of them are supposed to provide fruit or be edible/medicinal. Now I just need to keep the animals from eating them so that we can enjoy them.

I will try to take pictures when I go outside since I ran out of light yesterday. It's currently raining! That should definitely help the plants survive the shock of being uprooted and moved. Not sure what it's going to do to my dirt pile though, and will make repotting very difficult. I might have to wait a few days for things to dry out again. I think this rain is probably related to the hurricane? I don't remember getting rain in August before. Of course I have a load of laundry on the line. Extra rinse cycle I guess.
 

SageHill

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I really hope so! Hubby was grumbling about the volume of plants but I pointed out that most of them are supposed to provide fruit or be edible/medicinal. Now I just need to keep the animals from eating them so that we can enjoy them.

I will try to take pictures when I go outside since I ran out of light yesterday. It's currently raining! That should definitely help the plants survive the shock of being uprooted and moved. Not sure what it's going to do to my dirt pile though, and will make repotting very difficult. I might have to wait a few days for things to dry out again. I think this rain is probably related to the hurricane? I don't remember getting rain in August before. Of course I have a load of laundry on the line. Extra rinse cycle I guess.
Yup it’s hurricane rain!
 

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Pictures of the old and new gardens. At least the weird weather made the lighting fairly nice. And it's cool enough I don't have to mess with the misters for the rabbits today.

Old garden: butterfly bush, goji berry bushes, and walnut. The goji escaped their pots and there's probably 5-6 babies I could pot up. One is starting to flower, they usually fruit in September. The flowers are purple.
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Old garden: the elderberry on the right, clamping the fig into place. I have no clue how I'm going to get the elderberry out without killing it. The pot is definitely going to end up shredded. The rabbit structure is visible to the left.
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The front/main man gate into the new garden. Do you like my new anti-deer upgrade above the gate? The green panel also has a hook to attach it to the fence so it will stop falling down on the right side.
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The man gate by the house, also with anti-deer upgrade. I need more sticks.
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This is the tomato/pepper/squash side of the in ground plants. Most of the plants have been chomped, but I'm hoping the new upgrades to the gates and the rain will let the plants go nuts. Notice the two pots under the structure? The green one is the grape that lost all its leaves, thankfully I spotted baby leaves growing so I think it will come back. The tall one was hidden in the old garden and trying to climb other plants, so I gave it something else to climb instead. I'm hoping it will grow a thicker stem within a year or two and we can move it when we figure out a permanent structure for it to climb on.
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This is the beans/okra/pumpkin side of the in ground plants. The deer haven't seemed to bother the beans as much, at least once they got a little bigger. Possibly they were just eating other stuff first. Some beans appear to be starting to flower?
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Still haven't got the bean trellises up, are these supposed to grab onto the trellis? Or are they for flowers?
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Rows of citrus, gooseberries, avocado, and blueberries, plus other plants. The goal is to set up a drip line system so I won't have to hand water everything.
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New row of avocado plants set up, with the asparagus off to the left. Rhubarb and horseradish at the front center left and a rose with two agave.
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This clump to the right is what's left of the plants which were moved but not repotted or rearranged with the others yet. I ran out of oomph and then daylight yesterday. Now it's raining. Not sure when they will get repotted. Mom says I should invite some people over for a plant party and have them help get the plants potted and moved.
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Larsen Poultry Ranch

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New garden continued:

The fabric pot raised bed zone. This has tomatoes, peppers, figs, leeks, and marigolds. There are irises and rosemary, plus a few other flowers around the edges. The pots to the right are from the move and need repotting and moved to a better location.
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The shade/in progress zone. I was keeping recently repotted plants here a few days after repotting to give them a chance to recover before going back out into the full sun. Need to move a bunch of these out so I have space for the partial shade plants and any seeds I start.
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The lower man gate by the house, the back porch is through the pomegranate above the white lattice. I was able to add a bamboo stake above this gate but not much else. The ground is sloped weird here, so hopefully more difficult for the deer.
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The lower tractor gate.
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The lower man gate. Something busted through the string I had here. Had to retie it this morning, will probably need to upgrade to more sticks. Hubby is supposed to be welding an extension onto the gate but I'm not holding my breath. The green fence panels need to be taken off this whole lower zone and reattached over the gate. I bought 2 more panels so I should have enough to finish the whole garden, I just need to create folded edges and add grommets to the parts I end up cutting.
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