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We put in a bunch of trees and bushes this spring on our new property, so we had zero expectation of actually harvesting anything at all this year.
One of our raspberries has surprised by cranking out a couple of canes this fall. I'm grabbing a handful every other day or so, just collecting them in the freezer until I have enough to do something interesting.
I've missed eating things I grew. Our ducks should start producing eggs soon, I'm very excited about that also.
That's awesome to hear, and I'm very glad the raspberry has begun to reward you for it!
What kind of ducks are you raising? We raise muscovies, ourselves. Please feel welcome to share about them over in !Animals and Pets
We've got a melange of ducks, khaki Campbell, blue runner, swedish blue, Cayuga, and Ancona. My favorite might be the Anconas. Although, our khakis used to be very skittish, our drake just lets me pick him up now though lol
We actually got our first egg this morning!
I've heard muscovies are great producers, great foragers, and great reproducers. Has that been your experience?
Oh wow! And congrats, that first egg is always super exciting even when you know there's more to come.
The muscovies have been great for all of those things, yes. There are several weeks each year where I've got to follow them around for an hour after letting them out just to keep them from hiding clutches from me though
Picked two beautiful yellow raspberries today and I was so excited I ate them immediately and forgot to take a pic hehe
Maybe I'll clear out my raised bed to plant some winter vegs soon. I just let it grow wild because the extra green looked nice and the bugs love the shade during summer :). I wouldn't mind taking it back to grow some carrots tho.
All is forgiven, my wife rarely gets any of our yellow raspberries for pretty much the same reason. They are too delicious
Some of my sunflowers are getting to the point where I can harvest their seeds. That's super exciting because it's my first time collecting seeds. This'll sound very dumb, but until earlier this year, I thought sunflower seeds were a bit like apples and grew out of the little things that bees collect pollen from, but then I saw that the seeds grew underneath the pollen. I always thought I had seedless sunflowers. I'll leave plenty of seeds for the birds, but growing sunflowers from seeds that I harvested myself sounds so cool, and I'm really looking forward to spring now.
First time here as well! Currently away on a trip and hoping that when I get back the sunflowers will be ready and the birds will have left some for me.
I was just visiting New Mexico, and I enjoyed seeing all the wild sunflowers growing everywhere in the desert.
What did you think of NM? And where were you? (I am South of Albuquerque)
I am going to be harvesting wild sunflower seeds as soon as I can to hopefully plant as a privacy barrier in my yard next year.
I was in NM for work and didn't get to explore too much, but I definitely got some great night skies! Desert ecologies are always interesting to visit as someone from the northeast, I especially liked seeing a bit of the riparian ecosystem around the Rio Grande.
I'm definitely doubling the number of sunflowers I plant next year! Might try some of the varieties that have multiple blooms as well, as fun as the mammoth ones are.
That's fantastic, great job! Growing plants from seeds you've collected yourself is one of the coolest things I know of, and it's one of the healthiest addictions around.
I am still struggling with my lotus. Out of roughly 20 seeds, only 1 remains. I have a grow light on it, but that is bringing algae. I am trying to devise a filtration system in a 14” pot. I have a small fountain pump in the pot currently, but need a box or something to put it into so I can add filtration media to it.
Could you put the filter medium into another pot, perhaps? This is such a cool project, I wish I was more helpful to you
I have pond baskets I am thinking of using. They are a pot with lots of holes in them. Maybe a smaller pot would work better.
The big issue I am running into, I live in rural NM and no access to parts. I have to look up everything online and finding a small version of anything pond related I difficult. I am going to start looking at aquarium parts since that stuff is inherently smaller.