Fellow Bird Watchers: It's Time For Project FeederWatch

Welcome back.  Once again, it's the time of the year to switch my focus from gardening to bird watching. One of the most enjoyable and important bird watching activities is about to begin: Project FeederWatch.

I introduced my readers to this worthwhile research project this Spring;  however it was at the tail end of the project.  This time you will have plenty of time to join and participate.

To help you get started, I have provided the following video.




Below are some more detailed instructions:

1. Sign up – If you have not yet signed up, join today! During the season, it takes a few weeks from when you sign up for your kit to arrive with your ID number and for your ID number to be activated in Your Data.
2. Select your count site – Choose a portion of your yard that is easy to monitor, typically an area with feeders that is visible from one vantage point.
3. Choose your count days – Select two consecutive days as often as once a week (less often is fine). Leave at least five days when you do not count between each of your two-day counts.
4. How to count – Watch your feeders as much or a little as you want over your selected count days. Record the maximum number of each species visible at any one time during your two-day count. Do not add your counts together!
5. What to count – Please count
• all of the individuals of each species in view at any one time
• birds attracted to food or water you provided
• birds attracted to fruits or ornamental plantings
• hawks and other predatory birds that are attracted by the birds at your feeders

The benefits of this project are summed up as follows at http://feederwatch.org:

WHY ARE FEEDERWATCH DATA IMPORTANT?

"With each season, FeederWatch increases in importance as a unique monitoring tool for more than 100 bird species that winter in North America.

What sets FeederWatch apart from other monitoring programs is the detailed picture that FeederWatch data provide about weekly changes in bird distribution and abundance across the United States and Canada. Importantly, FeederWatch data tell us where birds are as well as where they are not. This crucial information enables scientists to piece together the most accurate population maps.

Because FeederWatchers count the number of individuals of each species they see several times throughout the winter, FeederWatch data are extremely powerful for detecting and explaining gradual changes in the wintering ranges of many species. In short, FeederWatch data are important because they provide information about bird population biology that cannot be detected by any other available method."

So fill up your feeders and dust off the binoculars.  It's a great opportunity for your family to spend quality time together during the winter months.

 Until next time.

The Hardy Vegetables/Amending the Garden Soil

Welcome back my fellow gardeners and bird watchers.

In my last post, I talked about a few hardy vegetables that still remain in my garden.  Even though we've had at least 4 or 5 light frosts, these vegetables can still survive:

Leeks

Lettuce Blend, Carrots, Swiss Chard, Brussels Sprouts

Leeks Galore

Some Nice Carrots

Ready For Use

Once the temperatures dip down into the mid twenties, most of these won't survive with several exceptions: leeks and carrots.  These can be left in the garden until the ground freezes.  The cold even improves the flavor of leeks.

Last week I briefly touched on amending garden soil.  Fall is a great time of the year to do this. There are several ways this can be done, one of which is by adding compost.

Composting has become very popular.  There are many commercially available devices by which kitchen and garden waste can be composted.  Composting results in a beautiful, rich black soil.  Adding a layer to the garden in the fall will stimulate microbes and other beneficial organisms.

Another option is to add raw organic matter such as leaves.  Are you a gardener and also faced with cleaning up leaves in the fall?  A great use for the fall leaves is using them to improve your garden.  I have been doing this for several years, and can see a noticeable improvement in the soil.

It is best, however, to shed or mulch the leaves first.  Otherwise, they probably won't decay over the winter.  Mulching greatly increases the rate of decay.  Also, the additional of a little fertilizer will speed the decay and also ensure all of the nitrogen in the soil isn't depleted by the decaying process.

Improving the soil will increase the ability of your garden to retain water, support healthy plant growth, and decrease plant diseases.

Mulched Leaves on the Garden

Until next time.

Potato Harvest in Review/Final Garden Cleanup/Time for Birdwatching

Welcome back and thanks again to all of my readers.

The Potato Harvest, Thomas James Lloyd, 1882

This season's potato harvest turned out to be one of the best if not the best ever.  You may recall that I planted 3 varieties this year:  Kennebec, Yukon Gold, and German Butterball.  For more information on the varieties I planted, see my most recent post regarding potatoes which was on September 18, 2014 (http://dansgardening.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-harvest-continues-onions-potatoes.html).

The final results are in and are as follows:

Kennebec - 110 lbs
Yukon Gold - 60 lbs
German Butterball - 50 lbs

So it was a great year for potatoes.  In comparison, last year's total was about 100 lbs.

German Butterball Potatoes

I recently finished cleaning up the garden for the season.  However, a few items still remain which are hardy and can withstand frost.  As a gardener, I try to preserve what I can for as long as I can. After all, it will be many months until we will have garden fresh vegetables again.

I still have the following in the garden:  leeks, Swiss chard, Brussels sprouts, lettuce, and carrots. These will survive until the temperature dips into the middle twenties.  For some vegetables, such as leeks, the frost actually improves the flavor,

Can I Salvage a Few?

The remnants

The gardens are now rototilled and ready to rest for the winter.  However, there is more that can be done to improve the soil and get the garden ready for next season.   Stayed tuned for future posts.

As gardening winds down for the season, I will turn my attention to bird watching.  Coming soon, I will have more information on Project feeder Watch, sponsored by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. This winter long survey of birds runs from November through April.

Until next time.

Simply Photos - Fall Colors/Heirloom Tomatoes/Garden Cleanup

Welcome back.  This week I will keep it simple by just posting some photos.  The beautiful fall colors continue, as does the garden cleanup.  There are still a few remaining vegetables in the garden including leeks, Swiss Chard, Brussels sprouts,and a few surviving tomato and pepper plants.

Enjoy the photos:

Indian Corn Stalks

The Last of the Heirlooms

The Remaining Heirlooms

Hungarian Wax Peppers

Habanero Peppers

Until next time

It's Pumpkin Time/The First Frost

Welcome back.

The weather has been very summer like over the last week or so.  The temperatures have been right around 80 degrees the last two or three days.  However, the weather can vary tremendously this time of the year, and it has.  We had our first frost just 10 days ago on September 19th.  The temperature dipped to 30 degrees and the result was just a light frost.

Luckily, I covered a few remaining plants that I wanted to save.   I still have some tomatoes and peppers on the vine.  I try to protect the tomatoes as long as possible, since I will have to wait many months for next year's crop once a hard frost puts an end to the growing season.  That's a long time to wait for tomato lovers.

The old expression of frost on the pumpkin rang true:

Frosty Morning - Tomatoes and Peppers Covered

Speaking of pumpkins, I recently harvested those and my "manure pile" gourds.  You may recall that last fall I discarded some gourds on a pile of composted manure.  Quite a few sprouted this spring, so I allowed them to grow and the results were pretty good.  See my post of  May 23, 2014 for more details (http://dansgardening.blogspot.com.br/2014/05/garden-updatenice-red-winged-blackbird.html).

Overall, the pumpkins and gourds did well.  The pumpkin varieties I planted this year were Big Max, Connecticut Field, Jack O' Lantern, and Jack Be Little miniature pumpkins.

Since the above photos don't show the gourds and mini pumpkins very well, below is a photo of some of them on our dining room table:

Now that the growing season is winding down, I am starting to start the process of cleaning up the garden in preparation for next year.  So far, the only clean up I've done is where the potatoes were planted.  I removed the vines and the worst of the weeds before rototilling, which I did about a week ago:

The Potato Patch Ready For Rototilling

The Last of the Wildflowers

Finally, a few photos from my home of the fall foliage.  It is shaping up to be a very colorful year. On our hill, which is at an elevation of 1500 ft, the colors are close to peak:

Until next time.

The Harvest Continues: Onions, Potatoes, and Brussels Sprouts

Welcome back.  As always I hope you enjoy reading my blog.

Recently I pulled the two rows of yellow sweet Spanish onions that I started from seed and transplanted in May.  You may recall that in my post on August 21, 2014 (http://dansgardening.blogspot.com/2014/08/onions-and-potatoes.html), I wrote about harvesting the Stuttgart and red onions. The Spanish onions are a long season onion and therefore require more time to mature.

In that post I also described how I dry and prepare the onions for winter storage.  After drying in the sun for a few days, I store them in our cellar in plastic bins for the winter.  In the past I have also hung them to store which works well also,  I remember my Mom braiding the tops before hanging them.  That is also a great method which definitely takes some practice.

Yellow Sweet Spanish Onions

I have been continuing to harvest the potatoes.  I have the Kennebec and Yukon Gold varieties dug, only one row of the German Butterball variety remains.  They were planted a little later and are still growing.  However, frost is expected tonight which will probably put a damper on the growing season.

In review,  Kennebec is a great all purpose mid season potato that stores well.  It matures in about 80 days.

Yukon Gold is also a good storage potato known for it's yellow flesh.  This variety matures in about 70 to 90 days, and is great for baking, although it is very good also for boiling or potato salads.

Once the potatoes are dug, it is important to allow them to dry before storing them for the winter.  It is also important that the potatoes not be washed or exposed to light during this process.  If potatoes are exposed to light they will turn green and become inedible.

I have found that drying the potatoes on newspaper works well as the newspaper will wick away moisture.  This is also a technique my Mom used.  I lay out sheets of newspaper on my garage floor and spread out the potatoes.  After allowing them to dry overnight, I then cover them with an old blanket the following morning and keep the garage door closed to keep out as much light as possible.

I allow the potatoes to dry for 3 or 4 more days.  Then I transfer them to plastic milk crates for storage.  I normally sort them by variety and size, puting the larger ones in one crate, the smaller in another for example.  I then store them in the cellar which stays at a pretty constant temperature during  the winter, normally between 40 and 50 degrees.

The final step is to cover the crates with an old blanket or quilt to block out any light.

The Brussels sprouts I planted as an experiment have grown well and were recently ready for harvest. It is interesting how these plants grow, I didn't realize how large the plants get.  The sprouts appear along the stem and mature from the bottom up,

And finally:

Another Beautiful Sunrise at My Home

Until next time.