Magicicada, Brood XIX

The 13-year cicadas started hatching out at our place last night. Andrew, came home late after attending the farm dinner held at La Residence in Chapel Hill, featuring the good food of Hickory Mountain Farm, his place of employment. He said our retaining wall was covered with bugs emerging from their exoskeletons.

Here's what Al Cooke, our local agriculture extension agent, had to say about them ... illustrated with my photos:

"I am not the last word on identifying insects. But I have seen at least one cicada today and have had several more calls about cicadas this week. And it is well known among cicada watchers that Brood XIX of the 13 year cicada is primed to hatch. It was reported in Georgia last week and in Greensboro as recently as yesterday (4/27). (I had a local report via email on 4/25.)

While we don’t normally expect them to show up till about a month from now, I strongly suspect that the cicada reports are accurate and that Brood XIX, perhaps the largest brood of Magicicada spp., is arriving. What that means depends on whether and how you appreciate the real world even if it’s loud enough to drown out your TV – what pleasant thought!

Cicadas are relatively large insects with transparent wings held tent like over the body. Some cicadas show up every year, usually in late summer. Then we have the curious periodical cicadas that show up in certain areas every 13 or 17 years.

After the immature cicada spends all those years in the soil, it crawls out to latch onto some solid object and complete its maturation by splitting its skin and emerging as an adult.

The adults are “hungry” but have little interest in food. Rather the males will start to sing loudly for the females – sort of like the troubadours of the middle ages. Sort of. The lucky females will soon be splitting the bark on young twigs of deciduous trees on which to lay eggs. This damage to the twigs may cause some of them to die, but the injury is usually inconsequential.

When the eggs hatch in about 6-8 weeks, the young larvae burrow into the soil where they will spend most of their lives. The brood that is emerging now burrowed down in 1998. Remember them? Remember what you were doing to the tunes of The Cicadas in ’98? Enjoy them again, because they won’t be back until 2024.

Meanwhile, it is neither practical nor desirable to do anything about them. The damage done to healthy trees is minimal. For trees or shrubs that are young, recently planted, or of unusual value, they may be protected with fine netting such as mosquito netting or with repeated applications of an insecticide such as Sevin. But it’s probably better to just sit on the porch of an evening with your favorite beverage and enjoy the music. For some of us older geezers it may be the last chance to hear Brood XIX. But we hope you younger folk will help continue an old tradition. People do still have porches don’t you? It’s a good time to set a pattern for the summer. Spend time on the porch listening and watching something that doesn’t have an on/off switch."

April Showers Continue

Overcast, breezy day.  At 8:10am a very brief shower sprinkled down upon us.  I heard thunder at lunch time.

We ate the last cutting of asparagus last night, topped with almonds sauted in butter.  It's going to be hard to let those spears grow!

Early Morning Rain

At 7:30am it rained.  A scant two-tenths of an inch, but very refreshing!

Easter Egg Radish Bouquet

The easter egg radishes are slowly maturing.  They've been sheltered by the bushy carrot tops.  Now's their chance to bask in the sun and come to full fruition!

Too Much Carrot Top

The carrot tops look so green and healthy ... but underneath, the roots are puny!

It's hard to judge when carrots are ready to be harvested. I've pulled a few in recent weeks. They've been tasty, but sort of skinny.  I've been waiting to actually see the tops of the roots at the soil line before harvesting. That never happened.  Now the greens are bushy and showing sign of going to seed. I pulled a couple today and the roots were woody at the stem end! Oh no! The smaller ones were still tender and sweet. Time to pull them all up.

These are 'purple haze' carrots.  The skin is dark purple with bright orange interior. They make a very pretty fresh slice! Too bad the color fades when cooked. This variety is actually known for its large, healthy tops, but the roots should be 7 - 8 inches long.  Mine are half the expected size ... about 4" long and skinny.

I suspect the soil in some of my raised beds is a bit rich in nitrogen content for optimal vegetable production. (Remember the okra forest and the wall of tomatoes in the 2010 garden?) When there's too much nitrogen in the soil, plants may look lush and green, but their ability to fruit and flower is greatly reduced. So how to get rid of excess nitrogen?  It turns out that while nitrogen is relatively easy to add to the soil, it's a little more challenging to remove.

In order to remove excess nitrogen from the soil, the nitrogen must be bound to something else... such as plants. Any plant will use some nitrogen in the soil, but some plants (squash, cabbage, broccoli and corn) use up large amounts of nitrogen while growing. Grow these plants where there is too much nitrogen in the soil and they will act as nitrogen sponges.

Another way of removing excess nitrogen from the soil is through the use of mulch. Many people use mulch in their garden and have problems with it depleting the nitrogen in the soil as it breaks down. When you have too much nitrogen in the soil, you can use this normally frustrating problem to your benefit. A layer of mulch will help draw out some of the excess nitrogen in the soil.

I hope that by using mulch and rotating my crops the soil chemistry will eventually even out. Of course, the smart thing would be to take a soil sample in for testing to see if all my assumptions are correct.  And then ... take corrective action! That's on my to-do list.

Peppers, Beans, Herbs, Squash

We had another wet weekend ... third one in a row.  About 5/8-inch of rain fell before the sun broke through the clouds.  Before and in between the showers I managed to clean up quite a bit in the garden and get some new plants and seeds in the ground.

The feed and seed stores in Pittsboro both offer a good selection of locally grown transplants.  Between the two of them I was able to find everything on my list. I don't have a good place to start plants from seed in the winter.  Since I typically plant only a few tomatoes, a few peppers, etc, I'd rather let someone else do that work.  After loading up on the next round of plants, I headed for the garden.

I added three curly leafed parsley plants to the herb garden and three dill plants next to the cherry tomatoes.  On the other side of the dill, I planted three pepper plants, each, of the varieties sweet banana and anaheim, plus, two cubanella peppers. The rest of that bed contains cucumbers and sweet basil.  I pulled up the bolting Red Cardinal spinach.  The stems were such a pretty pink I brought a bouquet into the house!  The Spargo spinach is still producing its large, dark green leaves.

Moving on to another bed, I put in three plants each, hot banana, jalapena, and red cayenne peppers between the rows of tender young kale and arugula.  At the other end of that bed, I cut the Toscano kale.  I'll probably get one more good cutting from that.

I had one bed sitting empty.  I direct seeded it.  It's now half-full of Jade bush beans.  I tried this variety for the first time last year.  It gives good yield and is delicious!  If I can find room in the garden, I'll plant more.  The other half  of the bed is full of early prolific straightneck yellow squash.  I really packed them in ... 8 hills!

I planted a single row of long beans right down the center of the pea bed.  The peas will play out before the long beans hit their growth spurt. The beans will then take their turn climbing up the same string trellis the sugar snaps are currently using. When the weather turns from warm to hot, I'll plant two rows of edamame on the outside edges of this bed.

More to come ... zucchini, pole beans, okra, butternut squash, field peas... Will there be room for all this deliciousness?!

Sugar Snaps are Blooming

Three little chicks went out to play ...

Day of Tornadoes

Yesterday was a scary day in NC ... 62 confirmed tornadoes and 22 related fatalities.  The Lowes Home Improvement store in Sanford was flattened.  Shaw University in Raleigh has suspended classes through the rest of the semester. In north Raleigh, my friend Martha has debris on her roof and in her trees. She found pieces of mail addressed to folks in Sanford in her yard.

Chatham County was spared.  Throughout the day, we experienced windy, threatening conditions with a short period of heavy rain in the late afternoon, amounting to just less than 1/2 " rainfall in the garden.  Once the storms blew through, we were left with sunshine in a blue, cloudless sky... just in time for Sarah and Lee's wedding at 5:00pm, followed by a lovely outdoor reception at the Haman's home and farm out in the county.

Here's a link that shows the storm tracks.  Chatham County is the irregularly shaped rectangle tucked into the space between Sanford, Raleigh, and Durham.  Lucky, indeed!

http://www.wral.com/weather/page/9456085/

Biddies Move into New Habitat

Andrew and I worked most of the afternoon shoring up the chicken-wire fence enclosing the "safe" zone and building a wall / gate to separate one end of the area for the rapidly growing young hens.  They now have their own space ... safe from predators and safe from the potential bullying of the older chickens.  We moved them into their new home while the rest of the chickens were out free-ranging late this afternoon. Everybody's adjusting nicely!

The "safe" zone was no longer so safe!  The chicken-wire had rusted where the fencing was buried. One section had obviously been breached - the possum?! We lost a nestful of eggs the other day and are lucky to have had no more serious fatalities. The fencing had to be repaired before we introduced the young chicks to the space. The flock moved in right behind us as we worked, scratching in the fresh-dug dirt at the base of the fence.

Drew carried the biddies into their new home, two at a time.

Inside the shelter are roosts, a heat lamp, food, and water... a deluxe dormitory for our chicks!

Stinky Peepers Move to the Hen House

The time has come! The biddies are getting too big and too stinky to live with us in our house. They're going through one continual growth spurt! In fact, the Ameraucanas are now noticeably larger than the Dominiques.  It's amazing how quickly their wing feathers grow in. These chicks now have the ability to fly right out of their little black tub.  Of course, they don't know that.  Escape would be purely accidental.

Today I moved them into the chicken coop, temporarily housed under a wire mesh quonset hut while Rouse builds a weather-proof "nursery" at one end of the safe zone. In the past, I've had to move our young chicks morning and night between this indoor "cage" and a blocked off section of the great outdoors ... still within the safe zone, of course. I'm looking forward to having a secure space dedicated to the biddies during their coming-of-age stage.

Chicks must be protected from predators, inclement weather, and the cruelty of the pecking order of the mature chickens in the flock. These little girls will certainly have their chance to establish their place when they're older and not so vulnerable!

Transition Time in the Garden

It's not quite April 15, but in this case I do like to take a chance... push the season a bit... and get a few summer crops in the ground.  Some of my beds are now actively in transition.

Country Farm and Home Supply in Pittsboro has locally-started transplants.  My gut says that these plants will be healthier and better overall in the garden than those raised by farm corporations and sold through big box stores.  If nothing else, I enjoy supporting my local seed and feed store and the local farmers who are supplying the transplants.

I was excited to see that my favorite heirloom tomato, 'Cherokee Purple', was available! This variety is said to have been cultivated in Tennessee by the people of the Cherokee tribe.  These plants will produce loads of dusky rose to purple colored beefsteak tomatoes. They're not very pretty to look at, but - WOW - are they tasty! I planted four of them, then filled up the tomato bed with the following varieties:

'German Johnson' - (2 plants) A large prolific heirloom tomato from North Carolina, known for producing huge beautiful pinkish red beefsteak type tomatoes - often more than one pound in size - with delicious flavor.

'Champion' - (4 plants) Especially bred as a luscious sandwich tomato...solid, meaty slices with just the right sweetness.

'Green Zebra' - (2 plants) Produces unique, deliciously tangy fruits that ripen in color from light green to golden amber, overlaid with deep green stripes. Their flavor is special because they are both sweet and tart at the same time! These are smaller, salad-size tomatoes.

'Sun Sugar' Cherry Tomato - A medium-sized orange-ripening cherry tomato, valued for its intense sweet flavor.  I planted two of these at the far end of the current lettuce / spinach bed. I put in eight sweet basil transplants amid the spinach that is starting to bolt at the other end of the bed. In between, I planted cucumbers in the area adjacent to the basil... two hills each of pickling cukes and burpless, seedless cukes.  There's still space in this bed for six or eight hot pepper plants.  I don't mess with sweet peppers anymore.  I've never had good luck with them.  As the lettuce, spinach, and salad mix mature and phase out with hotter weather, these new plants will grow and fruit.

I bought four cabbage transplants from a farmer at the market on Thursday, plus four more red cabbage plants at the feed and seed store.  I put in eight broccoli plants.  I covered these brassica plants with lightweight row cover in an attempt to hold off the cabbage looper moths.

I'm cutting asparagus! The sugar snaps are tall enough to grab 'hold of the string trellis! The potato plants are coming up!

Carrot Tops



Rouse laughed when he saw my "perfect" row of carrots.  I have to admit, they are spaced very evenly apart. Hey, I thinned them with intention! The #2 row of radishes is growing in front. The #1 row of radishes is currently being harvested.

You know it's spring when ...

Crisp, zesty, red radishes grace the table...

... and asparagus is on the menu! We planted second year crowns in 2010. That means we should be able to harvest lightly (2-3 weeks) this year. Next year we can look forward to a full season (6-8 weeks) of this garden delicacy.

A New Batch of Biddies

'Tis the season for spring peepers!  We brought eight pullets home from the feed and seed store today - four Donimiques and four Ameraucanas.

Our current small flock is made up entirely of Dominiques ... 7 hens and 1 rooster.  The Dominique (aka Dominicker) is often considered America's first chicken breed, developed in New England in the early 1800's. They are often confused with Barred Rocks, but look carefully and you'll notice that Barred Rocks have a single comb while Dominiques have a rose comb. Dominiques are supposed to be good brooders and attentive mothers, but our Dominiques have never "gone broody". The breed is tolerant to cold weather and ideal for free-range farms. They are medium-sized chickens with black and white barred plumage.  They lay beautiful and delicious brown eggs.

We're integrating the flock with the addition of easy-to-keep Ameraucanas. The muffed and bearded Ameraucanas are a small breed of chicken, with a pea comb, red earlobes, and variable plumage.  They're known for their medium-sized blue / blue-green eggs (not to be confused with the blue egg-laying Araucana) and an impressively long laying period.  Colored eggs will add some variety to our life!  Blue eggs and ham, anyone?