FARM GIRL'S CORNER - Fall cabbage

Hi! Farm Girl here! I help out a lot in the garden and around the shed and what not. Today I almost helped Uncle Mac a bit more than necessary. There I was, plucking a few stray weeds from the corn patch when I here him bellowing:

"Farm Girl!" Have you seen my pole?"

Good grief, I thought, you mean since breakfast? The old boy's been into the fenugreek again. But when I looked around I saw that he was holding his tackle box and net and looking puzzled.

"In the ammo room, Mac," I told him, "Aggy put it there."

And off he went to drown a few worms.

But today I'd like to tell about the fall crop we're about to put in, green cabbage. A bit early, you may be thinking but no, not in zone 5 where our garden is located.

To grow fall cabbages successfully you of course, need a place to plant them. Cabbages make a great follow up crop in a bed where radishes have been, or peas but beware planting after cauliflower, broccoli or kale; or any other veggies of the brassica genus. Members of this group share the same nutritional requirements and the second crop will suffer as a result.

We selected the heavy duty "Megaton" cabbage, a giant cabbage which happens to be extraordinarily tasty, and which stores well.

Megaton is a widely available variety, our seed happens to come from the Jung Seed company.

As it happens we let a raised bed lie fallow (no spring crop) until it was Megaton time. All we did in spring was turn the bed, work in a lot of compost, some wood ashes and a goodly amount of bone meal. (Cabbages are heavy feeders and particularly fond of phosphorus, hence the bone meal boost.)

We gave the bed a shallow turn over and raking every few weeks to knock down the weeds but otherwise left it alone.

Now, at planting time, we worked in a bit more compost and directly sowed the seeds into the bed. Megaton is a big, rambunctious cabbage and we like to give each one a full square yard in which to grow. As these huge brassicas can top 20 lbs in weight, this is not a waste of growing space.

It is important to mulch the seedlings as soon as they are big enough to tolerate it, preferably with sifted compost but if not, with grass clippings. They will benefit enormously from the cooling and water retention that mulch provides during the hot spells that are bound to occur in August and September.

Megaton cabbages take 90 to 100 days to mature after germination, be sure to water regularly and deeply, they are thirsty veggies.

A side dressing of "Superphosphate" or the like would not be amiss halfway through the growth cycle, particularly if you are trying for an eye popping, blue ribbon giant.

And that's about it for...What the heck??

Leatherface! NO!! You may NOT make your "world famous" stuffed cabbages! You remember all the trouble that caused the last time! Take that child back to wherever you found him right this minute!

Now he'll mope for a week.

Anyway that's the story with fall cabbages here at Farm Girl's Corner! As always, thanks for stopping by!   

SOMETHING DEAD FROM THE SHED - Meganeueropsis permiana

Hello again everybody Its me, Jack, back from a trip to me old haunts in White Chapel. I've a smile on my face, a song in my heart, blood stains on my neck tie and surgical steel in my carryall.

A man has to touch base with his roots, from time to time.



NOT A DRAGONFLY BUT A REAL FLAME BELCHING FLYING DRAGON - ITS A LONG STORY...

Today on "Something Dead from the Shed" we'll be touching on the subject of giant dragonflies. No, not just a big bug from the back yard, but specimens larger than some surveillance drones. (Would have been hard times for Jackie if the coppers had drones in their bag o' tricks back in 1888, hey?)

We actually had a pair of these creatures here in the garden for about 3 - 4 minutes and as a group you can't find one that's any deader than the Meganeuropta so what better subject for my little essay?



MEG


As for the pair we had here momentarily, Mac had taken a day trip to the Carboniferous and came back with a great whacking box that was making suspicious rattling noises. He opened it up and out popped a pair of dragonflies, wings as wide as your arm is long! They flapped around awkwardly for about twenty seconds before auguring into the sweet corn like economy passenger jets into a Florida swamp.

"Mac! You silly bastid they can't breath!" I remember Farm Girl scolding the old coot, "The oxygen content was over 40% higher back when they were around! You take them back right now!"

"Arrgghh", Mac replied "They're bugs! Let 'em flop a bit we can add them to the compost."

"You..." said Farm Girl, "take them back now or you'll be polishin' your own dibble until the next ice age!"

The argument must have struck home because Mac had the feebly wriggling insects back in the box before you could say "unpolished dibble" which really is relatively easy to say. He disappeared with the "pop" that announces wormhole manipulation and was back five minutes later with an empty box, a bloody thumb and a surly manner.

"Bastid bit me. There's gratitude for ya!" 

A nasty infection ensued of course, nothing screws with the immune system like 300,000,000 year old bacteria. But eventually he healed right enough, all digits intact and only a nasty scar and one more thing to grumble about to show that damage had ever been done.

But enough Shed lore! Lets talk Meganeuropta!

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When enormous dragonflies ruled the sky:

Life was never easy for small amphibians or average sized flying insects during the late Carboniferous and early Permian periods of the Paleozoic Era. As though the day to day requirement to feed and reproduce were not enough to worry about, the diminutive amphibian had to avoid hungry fishes when in the water, and apex predators like the therapsids (Titanophoneus as just one example) and pelycosaurs (Dimetrodon and kin) when on land. Large, hungry amphibians like Sclerocephalus were a danger whichever environment the tiny creature happened to occupy.

You would think that would be enough to contend with, and since pterosaurs were millions of years in the future as were predatory birds like herons, hawks and pelicans the little creature would be safe from above.

Not so. For, hovering aloft like the Apache attack helicopters they resemble were the gigantic dragonflies Meganeuropsis permiana.

Leave the fly swatter in the closet:

Probably the largest flying insect that ever lived, fossils of Meganeuropsis permiana have been discovered that have a wing span of just under 30 inches and a total body length of 17 inches. These were the largest creatures flying in the Carboniferous and Permian skies and like their smaller close relatives the modern dragonflies were voracious predators. Or perhaps more accurately, even more so.

The food required to produce the energy to keep this huge body aloft must have kept Meganeuropsis perpetually on the hunt. Modern dragonflies will attack tiny tadpoles and newly hatched fry; we can easily envision Meganeuropsis swooping down on anything up to chipmunk size that came to its attention. And of course, anything flying that was smaller than Meganeuropsis was fair game.

Raising a lot of questions:

Today there are no flying insects even close to the size of this ancient predator, for which we should probably be thankful. There is a school of thought that says that this creature should not have been able to fly at all.

The answer to how it did so lies more in the geography, climate and atmosphere of the Carboniferous and Permian periods than in the morphology of the huge insect itself. To simplify enormously; during most of the Carboniferous and Permian periods there existed one super continent, Pangaea, containing almost all of the earths land mass. An explosion of flora, all utilizing the photosynthetic process produced immense amounts of oxygen while binding enormous quantities of carbon dioxide. Over time this actually shifted the proportions of the earth’s gases.

Today, our atmosphere contains about 21% oxygen. It is estimated that Carboniferous-Permian atmospheres contained at least 30% and possibly as much as 35% oxygen, with a corresponding dip in the amount of free carbon dioxide. This, so the theory goes, permitted Meganeuropsis and its kin to breath efficiently, even though they do so through trachea and not through lungs and a circulatory system as we do. This would have kept the creatures oxygenated enough to fly.

Why did they go extinct?

On one level, this question is easily answered. The end of the Permian period was marked by one of the greatest mass extinctions ever known on our planet. Nearly everything that lived, died. That Meganeuropsis was among the casualties is no surprise. The deeper question of what caused the P/T extinction is a subject for intense debate, although once again it seems that massive impact from an extraterrestrial body may be to blame.

Whatever triggered the event of one fact we can be certain. The oxygen level of earths atmosphere, either as a by product of the extinction event itself or by some other mechanism that we do not as yet understand dropped precipitously. This alone would have sealed the fate of the great dragonflies forever.


And that's about that for today's Shedly dose of big bugs. Your pal Jack signing off; thanks for visiting us at "Something Dead from the Shed!"

[Editors note: Not so fast! The University of Arizona did an interesting experiment in which they raised modern dragonflies in an atmosphere approximating that which prevailed in the Carboniferous - early Permian. The result in a single generation was an average increase in size and weight of fifteen percent per dragonfly. 

Next time you are targeting that medium sized buzzing thing circling over your garden, before you squeeze the trigger make certain its a government drone you are ranging in on, and not some innocent escapee from UA!]

WELL NO THEY DIDN'T GET THAT BIG AT UA, BUT JUST GIVE THEM TIME!







    

   

   

FARM GIRL'S CORNER - How to do the job right in the vegetable garden

Hi its me Farm Girl! I help Uncle Mac in the garden and around the shed and things like that. You know, a lot of folks don't know how important it is to maintain a clean environment when gardening. Seeding pots that are not cleansed season to season, or tools between usings can spread disease from plant to plant and bed to bed, from one season to the next!

A dirty hoe can spread Verticillium Wilt before you can say Jack Robinson!

Did you say "Jack Robinson"?

See how quickly that can happen?

Well today I was keeping everything nice and tidy. Mac did some weeding, and then I cleaned his tool. He transplanted some seedlings and I made sure that tool was spotless! Then he poked in some seeds and I polished his dibble like it's never been polished, if I do say so myself. Old fool probably won't wake up until late afternoon tomorrow at best!

But I'm here today to link you to a positive plethora of valuable articles on how to get things done in the garden. With no further ado:

Do you love fresh juicy watermelons? And not just watermelons but cantaloupes and honeydew melons, and all the sweet exotics that have become available in recent years? This little guide will help you grow melons that your neighbors will envy! Just click HERE:

Do you like Lima beans? Pole beans, peas, cucumbers or gourds? These are a few of the many veggies that would climb a trellis willingly and benefit from the climb. A trellis can be as simple or as ornate and complex as you like but if you are a gardener you are going to need one or more. Some thoughts on trellising, right HERE:

You too can grow your own edible bamboo; yes its true, and many do. Our Asian brethren and cistern know how tasty this exotic side dish can be. You do, however need to take a few precautions because when cyanide is involved, well, bad things can happen. Tips for growing this unusual, delightful and delectable addition to the western garden are spelled out for you, right HERE:

Do you believe in minding your P's and Q's? Here at the shed we pretty much tend to ignore Q's except during scrabble-thons or words with friends. P's, or more accurately, peas, have our undivided attention. And what do peas want to be productive garden denizens? A little sun, a bit of compost, some nitrogen fixin' bacteria and water. AND good neighbors! To find crop enhancing companion plants to bolster your pea patch, simply click HERE:

Somewhere on this ball of rock hurtling through the void there might be a serious gardener without a compost heap to his or her credit. I've never met one, and don't actually wish too. Compost is probably the single most important component in a successful garden plot. Moderating PH levels, improving tilth, attracting earthworms, providing nutrients, forming a superior mulch; compost does all of this for the gardener, and more.

There are of course right and wrong ways to go about composting. Let Glory Lennon, award winning author of "Glory's Garden" teach you the correct way to go about it. She does so right HERE: 

Onions, everyone seems to like them, and they can be used in so many ways. But have you ever wanted to grow a truly ginormous onion? One that stops browsers in their tracks at the county fair? Well here is a blueprint for success in gigantic onionry.

There are however a few updates since the original article was written:

Ailsae onions are no longer as rare as once they were, both plants and seeds are now widely available in the US.

The admonition about mulching with grass clippings remains true - however a mulch composed of well aged sifted compost made by the "hot" or "fast" process to kill all weed seeds is highly recommended.

Following these instructions will result in large onions indeed. The Brits, who apparently care about such things, stress that to grow a potential world record breaker strictly controlled green house methods alone will get the job done. For the rest of us the great outdoors is just fine:

With that out of the way, for humongous onions, click HERE: 

Not satisfied with taking home the blue ribbon for biggest onions? You want the tomato award as well? Let us see what we can do to help you out. Just click right HERE:  

Hmmmm. Someone seems missing from the usual cast of characters here at the shed today. Who could it be? I'm here...Leatherface is cutting firewood...Delacroix is cleaning that big ass rifle...Uncle Mac, passed out on the hay bales, snoring. Kinda sounds like a chain saw with a bad carburetor, doesn't he? Jack is researching a "Dead from the Shed" post. Aunt Agnes - why is Aggy still here, anyone? Hmmm? Well anyway Aggy is getting herself outside of a quart of Jack Black.

The critters? Dire and Nero are trying to imitate nice dawgies...Mrs. BobKat is sleeping in the rafters...Blinky scooted past with a dead chipmunk just a few seconds ago...Oh I know! No Clem! No garden worth its parsnip should be missing Clem! Clem who? Clematis of course. Here once again is Glory with the Queen Clematis story.



Pole beans or bush beans, that is the question. Here at the Shed we love 'em both and grow both types every year. But for the first time gardener there may well be good reason to go with bush beans. We are happy to give you our two cents worth about that, right HERE!

So you've built your raised beds, added rich garden soil and compost, is there anything else that could make this splendid situation even better? Of course there is! Simply invite about a thousand of your best gardening buddies and helpers, the earthworms. Let us tell you why, right HERE!








Well there you have it! A wealth of information at your finger tips, do with it what you will. Until next time, and as always, thank you for visiting Farm Girls Corner! 

THE CHILDRENS HOUR, WITH LEATHERFACE - An appeal for help!

Hallo everyone, its your favorite cut up and baby sitter Leatherface! Usually I run little educational snippets for the kiddies on how to control garden pests and other things but today, I've asked all the parents here because we are having trouble with an old nemesis that we really have had little success controlling in the past. We thought someone might have a helpful suggestion. Help yourself to the beans, weenies and fixin's on the sideboard before we get down to biz here.

Whats that, Mrs. Quackenbush? Nathan's weenie? Well one might have been a Nathan it's so difficult to keep track over the years.

Know your varmint: Here she is folks, the bane of our existence here at the shed. We don't who she is, because we can't catch her to ask so we just call her Pineapple Girl. I can tell you, this is about the only glimpse of her we ever get, scooting around a corner - she's abnormally quick for a short little woman - usually with our best pineapple in her mitts and a goofy grin - well represented here I think - on her face.

Once she scoots around a corner she disappears completely, not even footprints left behind, or a scent for the wolves to pick up. This leads us to think she has found at least one of the worm holes in the garden (not the ones made by our slimy little garden allies) which makes her more difficult to contend with than say, hungry raccoons which although undoubtedly clever little beasts are not noted for their ability to manipulate space-time.

Yes, question, Mallory? How do we manage to grow pineapples here in North Jersey? We like

pineapples, my friend. And we are gardening wizards after all, aren't we? Have another weenie?

Live traps don't work, electrified fencing doesn't work, predator pee - well I leave it to you. Dusts, sprays, CD's on string, pah! She sneezes at them.

Uncle Mac says she can't outrun a bullet but, despite the bizarre trophies he brings home now and then, I don't see him loading the ol' Springfield.

She doesn't confine herself merely to pineapples; eggplant, butternut squash and Kossack kohlrabi seem to be on her list as well. She snatched our biggest Burgermeister Grande termato last summer on a dead run, just as farm girl was about to pick it! A two legged scourge!

We that's it for today, folks, put your heads together and see if you can help us solve the Pineapple Girl Mystery, you might win a valuable prize! (If you consider 10 lbs of Uncle Mac's Special Compost valuable, that is.) As always, thank you for visiting here at The Children's Hour!