Photo by Audrey Pavia

Mr. Molly after digging through the bark for bugs.

Chickens that live in coops are pretty much limited to whatever their owners give them to eat. But free-roaming chickens get to chow down on whatever suits their fancy. Our chickens have the run of the yard during the day and have taught me a whole lot about what chickens — or at least, my chickens — will eat. For example, they will eat:

• small worms, but not earthworms (too big and squiggly)
• grass on the back lawn
• eggs that break by accident
• the fly predator cocoons I put down in the horse stalls for biological fly control (Can’t do that anymore!)
• undigested flax seed pooped out by the horses
• bugs that hide under the decorative tree bark in the planters (This drives Randy crazy because they throw the bark all over the place, and he has to sweep it up.)

And then there is the stuff that we feed the chickens on purpose. They have become consummate beggars, especially Mr. Mabel, the dominant roo. Whenever one of us goes outside, he barges over, demanding one of his regular treats:

• chicken scratch
• blueberries cut in half
• apples, pears and nectarines
• watermelon
• cat food
• mealworms
• tomatoes

As much as we love to share whatever we have in the house, there are a few things we won’t give them because I’ve heard these are bad for chickens:

• citrus fruits — too acidic
• avocado — because of something called persin, which can be toxic.
• onions — not good for dogs, so probably not good for chickens
• garlic — unless we want our eggs to smell like an Italian restaurant
• mustard greens, kale and cabbage — can cause diarrhea
• uncooked meat — can carry parasites
• bread — can cause crop issues

Although our birds love treats, they seem to get their greatest enjoyment from digging around and finding their own stuff to eat. It gives them something to do and probably makes them feel very special when they locate a particularly juicy bug. Plus, these antics keep pests in the garden to a minimum. Can’t beat that!

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Staking your tomato plant could keep the fruit from sunburning during hot July weather.

It’s early July, and tomatoes are already beginning to show off their soft, red flesh. But with heat indexes rising, urban farmers need to put extra care into their tomato plants to see the benefits of a hearty harvest.

Pruning and staking tomato plants keep the fruit off the ground and protects fruit from sunburn, says Maurice Ogutu, a horticulture educator at the University of Illinois Cooperative Extension. It also exposes leaves to full sun and reduces competition between suckers—shoots growing from the base of the plant that consume its water supply—and the developing fruit.

“Tomatoes can be supported by stakes, cages or trellises. The type of support depends on the tomato growth habit,” he says.

Tomato Varieties

Tomatoes can have one of two growth habits: determinate or indeterminate.

The determinate tomato varieties have short- to medium-length vines. Plants are heavily branched, and growth stops when they start flowering. Every branch tends to end with a flower cluster. The determinate tomato varieties can be staked or caged, but not trellised. They are not heavily pruned, as most of the fruit is produced on the branches. Some of the determinate varieties are Celebrity, Bush Steak, Mountain Pride, Rutgers and Super Tasty.

The indeterminate tomato varieties, on the other hand, continue to grow and produce leaves and flowers until the first frost. They are heavily pruned when trellised, moderately pruned when staked and lightly pruned when caged. Some of the indeterminate varieties are Better Boy, Big Beef, Big Pink, Brandy Boy, Brandywine and Floradel.

“Pruning is the removal of small shoots that join the stem,” Ogutu says. “This reduces competition between the suckers and the fruit. Pruned plants produce larger and earlier fruit as most of the plant energy is channeled into the fruit.”

Remove the tomato shoots when they are 4 inches long, as removal of larger suckers may injure the plant. This can be done by grasping the tomato sucker between your thumb and second finger and bending it to the side until it breaks. Do this early in the day when the tomato plant is still crisp. Do not cut suckers with a knife, as this can lead to the spread of tomato diseases.

Limit the branches of indeterminate tomato varieties to two or three fruit-producing branches by selecting the main stem sucker that develops immediately below the first flower cluster, and another sucker below that. Remove all other suckers, and periodically remove additional suckers that develop on the selected branches.

Staking Tomatoes

“For staking, it’s important to decide on the type of support before setting plants in the garden,” Ogutu notes. “Plants that are supported using trellises are set closer than plants to be staked or caged. Plants to be caged are set farther apart than plants to be staked. Alternatively, you can choose the type of support based on how the plants were set in your garden.”

Staking tomato plants requires metal or wooden stakes. The wooden stakes need to be at least 1 square inch. Sections of concrete reinforcing rods can also be used as stakes, but do not use stakes made from chemically treated wood. Determinate tomato varieties require stakes that are 3 to 4 feet long, and indeterminate tomato varieties require stakes that are 5 to 6 feet long.

Space the tomato plants about 2 feet apart within the garden row. Place the stake next to each tomato plant or 3 to 4 inches away from the base of the plant. Avoid the side where the first flower clusters appear.

Tie individual branches to the stake with a polyethylene cord or sisal twine by looping it loosely around the plant. Continue to prune and tie the plant as it grows. Do not tie the plant below the flower clusters. When staking determinate varieties, remove the first suckers only.

Caging Tomatoes

To cage tomato plants, use wire cages made from concrete reinforcing wire. Make cages about 18 inches in diameter with openings (about 6 inches wide) that allow your hands through for picking. Indeterminate tomato varieties require taller cages of about 5 feet tall, and determinate tomato types need shorter cages, about 2 to 3 feet tall.

Anchor the tomato cages around the plants. Set tomato plants 3 feet apart, and put a cage over each plant. Push the legs into the ground to anchor the cages. Plants are pruned to four to five fruiting branches. Turn the ends of the branches back into the cage.

Trellising Tomatoes

For trellising tomatoes, posts should be anchored in the ground about 20 feet apart and about 6 feet above the soil surface.

“Stretch a piece of barbed wire between the tops of the posts,” Ogutu says. “Attach a length of twine to the wire above each plant. Tie the twine to the base of each plant and wrap plants around the twine as they grow, or tie them with plastic clips. Use a separate cord for each stem when trellising two stems per plant.”

Cucumbers

Photo by Rick Gush

We’ve had a huge production of cucumbers this year, meaning lots for salads and cold soups.

The cucumbers in the garden are now producing their usual early summer bounty. My cucumbers seem to always produce in a big rush and then the production of new fruits slows when it gets really hot. We are growing both standard, Straight Eight, green-type cukes and the smaller but tastier lemon cucumbers. The lemon cucumbers are a bit slower to produce the majority of their fruits and seem to last better into the heat.

I really like the way the lemon cucumbers taste, and I eat the rind and all when I pick a few for my gardening snacks. Lemon cucumbers also are a strong emotional plant for me, because I remember growing them in my very first vegetable garden when I was about 6 years old. I grew icicle radishes, marigolds and lemon cucumbers, and I am still quite happy to have all three in my current garden. (By the way, I’m blaming the wacky weather that annoyed the local bees for the large number of bent green cucumbers. I think the flowers didn’t get pollinated completely and so the fruits develop crookedly.) 

With all this production, we have way too many cucumbers to eat in salads, so we are also eating a lot of cold cucumber soup these days. My wife puts them in the blender and adds some yogurt and spices and we eat it right away as well as save some in the refrigerator. It’s a great dish for lunch on a hot day. We have a hard time finding the classic dill seasoning here, so we often just use a few bits of wild anise, which tastes fine. Cucumbers are called citrioli here, and my neighbors accept my cucumber gifts with big smiles. 

Wasps

Photo by Rick Gush

The European Hornets in my backyard in Italy look similar to the wasps we had in Las Vegas, Nev.

I’ve seen seeing a bunch of big wasps in the garden lately. They seem like the same wasps we had in Las Vegas, but they are actually the European Hornet, Vespa crabro, which has been introduced to the U.S., mostly on the eastern half of the country.

All wasps are called vespa here in Italy, and these big wasps are called calabrone. The genus for yellow jacket wasps is Vespula. These big hornets look terrifying, but they are actually quite peaceful and deserve more respect from gardeners because they eat mostly flies. I did accidentally bump against one of their nesting sites last year and got stung. I had a big lump on my arm for a week, but I won’t hold that against these guys. 

This fellow (pictured above) was buzzing near my garden workbench and I managed to get a glass jar over him. I went up to my office and found a U.S. quarter so I could have something that my American friends would understand to show the size of the beast. Photographing him was a dicey trick, because the camera didn’t fill the mouth of the glass jar, and he came close to getting out several times. Of course, after his photo session, I thanked him for his time and let him go.

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