Awi Usdi Farm

07/23/2021

One of my favorite quotes is- if everything is not eating your garden it's not part of the ecosystem. Well I have had a time with all kinds of pests. Today I found wheeled assassin bugs eating my pests! I carry around a water bottle to let japanese beetles roll into. Not anymore. The okra, where the beatles are, had at least four assassin bugs in it. One actually in the process of eating a beetle! Not gonna lie those assassin's are pretty darn creepy when you don't see them and they are suddenly up in your business. They are big, and yes they eat "good" bugs too. I saw another waiting on a sunflower. I'll take them eating my pests anytime!

07/19/2021

If your garden is not being eaten by everything, then it's not part of the ecosystem. Case in point, army worms. I found some on tomatoes and peppers. When looking for caterpillars it's easiest to look for the p**p first. Go to the freshest pile and look up. Army worms poo is kinda runny and gross, almost looks like bird p**p sometimes. Horn worm p**p looks like a present tied with string or a lumpy gr***de. Sometimes I know the birds are doing their job, I'll just find poo. Others I bring home a dozen worms for my chickens, like today.

07/15/2021

If you end up with extra zucchini and have tiny onions, then I have the best idea for you. Premade stir fry mix. I only had zucchini and pearl onions today so that's what I used. Vacuum sealed to keep it fresh and chunked in the freezer. Makes busy days a little easier dinner prep wise.

07/14/2021

07/14/2021

Just in case you feel bad about the state of your garden, know that I weedeated mine so I could pick the onions hidden in the grass. It's ok to let your garden get away from you, especially this time of year when it can turn into a jungle seemingly overnight. It's also ok to pull out plants that aren't living up to your expectations. I planted pole beans beginning of June. They came up quick, got first true leaves and that's it. Never grew more. So today I weedeated those too, lol. I'll plant things on the trellises for fall.

07/09/2021

Horn worms are out and about! If you see p**p on your leaves or leaves missing on your nightshades, it will be in your best interest to take a closer look. I managed to spot these two today, it's much easier to see them at night with a black light. They may look harmless when this small but a growing horn worm can strip your plants almost over night. Of course the only time I would leave the worm is if it had parasitic wasp eggs/larvae on it. It will have white things on its back. I hope everyone has a great weekend!!

06/10/2021

Hot morning on the farm. Garden is growing great!

05/26/2021

Starting to get tomatoes staked and supported. I use Florida weave method to keep them up, it works great for the big storms that roll thru and for easy access to prune and pick fruit. I only prune my tomatoes enough so the leaves don't touch the ground and I'll slowly pick up the stems to about 10-12". This helps with air flow, and keeping dirt off leaves which can cause fungal problems. I also will prune higher when July and August hits with hot humid weather that also causes diseases. Also a picture of tomatillos, I started a lot of plants and only ended up with about a dozen to germinate and grow. Hopefully these will produce abundantly.

05/13/2021

Pretty excited to plant pro cut sunflowers, that means they will be pollen free. So you won't have big blobs of pollen all over the place. Hopefully these grow great and will be for sale this summer. Also adding hibiscus this year, they are completely new to me.

05/12/2021

My day, planting flowers! Zinnias, amaranth, marigolds, all the fun stuff.

04/15/2021

All of these tomatoes were started at the same time. See all of the different heights? How could that be if they were started at the same time? Well, it's all about when you pot them up. If you use a seed starting mix to start seeds, it's just for starting seeds. It has very little nutrients for the plants and is designed to be an optimal mix to hold water for germinating seeds. This is why it's important to pot up into a potting soil or garden soil shortly after the true leaves come in, not the first leaves that sprout. These plants were all potted up within about a week of each other, maybe two. It's very clear at which order I did it and it made a great educational post by chance. If I had had the soil and pots I could have got all mine potted up closer together, but no worries soon you won't be able to tell the difference between them.

03/03/2021

It's a great day to till. I over wintered some lacinato kale and carrots. The kale is for seeds, carrots to eat. The kale took a big hit during the storms last month. About half died, that's ok though. Kale produces a ton of seed. The carrots held up well, I know it may not look like it in the photo. The fresh green leaves are a great sign. Tomorrow I will be planting onions, radishes, and peas before the rain on Friday. Not too long and ill be planting potatoes!