How Does Your - Egg-cellent!

Garden Grow?

Our hens are officially laying eggs!

We spent the long weekend rearranging our yard (and our lives) to suit the needs of our outside animals and the ladies rewarded us with some fresh cluck-nuggets. The eggs are small, and I’m pretty sure that only one of the leghorn hens is laying so far, but we’ll take it! While our other two leghorn gals might be late bloomers, our guinea hens are working overtime because we collected nine of their eggs over the weekend as well. The leghorn’s eggs are white while the guineas lay small brown eggs.

For whatever reason I did not anticipate collecting eggs from the guinea hens; maybe because I thought the birds would be so much more wild than they actually are, or maybe because I’d labeled them as bug-eaters in my head and never got much further in my thought process. Either way, they’re here, and we’re going to eat them.

I checked online and every publication I read states that guinea eggs are good to eat and might even taste a bit richer than chicken eggs, which is why some people prefer them for baking. I don’t bake much, but I have been making egg cups for a quick breakfast on the run and I’m excited to include eggs from our own birds in my meal prep.

Things aren’t quite as exciting back at the office. I thought I was going to get lucky when it came to insects; I haven’t been bothered by any of the bugs that other gardeners seem to routinely deal with so I assumed that I was going to get through the season without them. But I was wrong.

I found what I have discovered to be a Japanese beetle dining on my green bean leaves late last week, and the little jerk and his friends had already done some damage by the time I noticed. Several leaves were afflicted and two plants were starting to look a bit droopy. I’m still not sure if it was the right thing to do, but I plucked the worst leaves to help the plant prioritize its growth.

I then found insect repellent spray in our supply closet and sought revenge. I read the bottle first to be sure it was safe for vegetable plants. The beetle met its fate and I spritzed the plants with a light coating of the repellent, which contains peppermint oil, rosemary oil, and geraniol.

I left for the long weekend and did not give them a second thought until Tuesday rolled around. Upon inspection I didn’t observe any additional damage, but the same two plants just looked sad. I gave them some water, another spritz, and a pep talk, which may or may not have been vaguely threatening, and left them to their fate.

I have seen these little insects around prior to this but never on my plants and I read that they are especially fond of green beans, which I can relate to. But that still doesn’t mean that they’re going to be allowed in my garden so I figured I’d get a jump on next year by adding a note to my binder. Next season, I’m going to plant trap crops. Trap crops are flowers that beetles love, like zinnias and marigolds. You’re supposed to plant them in the vicinity of your beans but not too close. The beetles attack your trap crops and you shake them into soapy water. Your green beans are safe without using chemicals. This year, I’ll rely on the spray and my newfound lust for beetle blood.

The spray I used on the powdery mildew last week (one tablespoon of baking soda, one tablespoon of dish soap, one gallon of water) made a huge difference in treating the mildew but not preventing its spread; the sick plants made a stunning recovery but I did notice that one of the pea plants I pushed close as part of my experiment caught the crud. Still, I’m excited to know I have a gentle treatment method in my toolkit. The next time I have a plant struck with powdery mildew, I’m going to treat that plant and the surrounding crops at the same time, just in case.

I yanked the bachelor button blue boys and zinnias out of our front beds late last week because they were definitely starting to approach the end of their life span. It was difficult; they were the first flowers I’ve ever grown from seeds and I was very proud to see the bursts of color every morning when I drove into the office. But it was their time, so I removed them.

After scouring the beds for leftover roots and stirring up the soil I planted some snapdragons. I read that they do well in the fall because they don’t mind crisp, cool weather. They’ll give us a beautiful flash of color until the first hard frost, at which point I’ll probably be sick of flowers and vegetables anyway. Just kidding, I’m already planning my containers for next year.

I’m really rooted in this project.

Mandee Ellis is a reporter at The Star News. Contact her at Mandee@centralwinews.com.