Weekly Gardening Thread – 2009 Vol.11 – July 24

Free Republic | 7-24-2009 | Red_Devil 232

[Red_Devil 232]

Good morning to all of you gardeners. There is only one more week left in July and hopefully everyone is enjoying their summer gardens and enjoying the harvest. If you are planning a Fall garden now is the time plan what you will be planting and when to plant. The key to successful winter gardening is knowing the average date of the first killing frost in your region. You then plant your winter crops early enough to let them reach their full maturity before that killing frost. Local garden authorities can give you information about the timing of first frosts and the hardiness of various crops for your area.

[rightly_dividing]

My wife just got home from work, so now she has a question. If you dig the bulbs up, how do you store them through the winter? Enclosed in ziplok bags? Open air in a box? Indoors or outdoors? Glads are my first experiance with bulbs, so I'm a noob.

Thanks

[Gabz]

Hey Everyone --- It's Diana in Wisconsin's Birthday and she's throwing a party over here!!!!

Don't forget to wish GOP_LADY a Happy B'Day as well!!!

[LibertyThug]

Tomato question for anyone--I've heard this is a common problem, but don't know how to fix it.

We're in HOT Texas, a lot of days have been 100+....my tomato plants keep growing and growing (nearly as tall as me now), but NO fruit!

When I first planted them, they did great. For the past month in a half, nothing.

BTW, they are cherry and grape.

[gardengirl]

Don’t remember daddy storing them, altho I think putting them in the freezer would work. It seems to me he just dug them up and replanted them right away. I’ll ask. :)

I do know if you plant them about 2 weeks apart, you’ll have blooms for much longer.

[Just mythoughts]

I have had that problem for years and just trapped and “relocated” one yesterday. I keep a large cheap hot sauce in the garden shed and I put a few drops on the tip of most ears in the early silk stage and that seems to work and it hasn’t affected the taste of the corn. I even put a electric fence around the corn patch one year

Thank you for the advise. I got the 'electric' fence installed. I am at the point where I want them 'fried' but this will only zap them.

I also am at the point where this corn is costing me more than it is literally worth no matter how good it tastes.

[girlangler]

I tell you Diana,the older I get, the more I am becoming younger. I have about decided to not give a damn!!!

That’s one of the benefits of being a senior (LOL) everybody overlooks your behavior and says/thinks “Awe, ain’t that old lady funny!!”

Just kidding of course. But not about me. There really are benefits to being older, and people really do think it’s funny for people my age to act like I do.

Happy Birthday, my friend. If I had some peach moonshine I’d drink a toast to you. You are one of my favorite freepers. When you move to Tennessee I’ll have a batch waiting for you (peach moonshine). It’s good stuff.

Any feds out there reading this — I am KIDDING. I am forced to drink cheap beer, and soon may be forced to die for my health choices, especially since I will soon be in a category some beaurecrat will define.

In the meantime, I am burning up the phone lines (and emails) of those in D.C. representing me. It has been an enlightening experience.

Okay, Diana I am now going to listen to some Neil Young and drink some cheap beer and think of you. Happy B-Day, you are really a special person. Thank you for being a friend all these years.

[tubebender]

I also am at the point where this corn is costing me more than it is literally worth no matter how good it tastes.

Welcome to home gardening 101... >:o

[Grammy]

I love your photos Mama Shawna. Your husband must be related to mine. I had to convince him we were making boxes for dirt, not furniture.

I have a tomato starting to turn red!!! Cause for celebration in the Grammy household. I have lots and lots and lots of green tomatoes, just none that have ripened yet!

As for the rest of the stuff, the bush beans seem to have played out, but I hate to rip them out. They still eke out a bean or three now and then. I have had several zuchinni, I have minute cucumbers and a 2 inch butternut squash. The potatoes are just dying. No idea why. Herbs suck, melon vines are anemic, and I have 3 (count them, 3) carrots growing.

My friend brought me kohlrobi plants today to grow for fall.

Oh, and Nashville had 3 record low temps this week, beating records set in the 1800s.

[Carolinamom]

When your potato plants begin to yellow and die out, it's time to dig up those potatoes!!!

I have more tomatoes than I can eat or use....more gifts to the neighbors.

I am eagerly awaiting the first blooms on my vigorous okra plants....This Southerner just LOVES that vegetable!

[Tarheel]

I am zone 7 in NC Piedmont near Charlotte. I do not dig my glads. I use pine straw mulch all year around. My glads have been planted 13 years and are still blooming. I do not have as many as 13 years ago (I have taken some out and some have rotted, they do not like wet feet) but what comes up blooms well with large flowers and good color. I will say that the glads down here do not do as well as they seemed to do up north.

[Tarheel]

I see you are in ND. I would advise just a little bit more time and patience. Then all the tomatoes will ripen and you will start having tomatoes two meals a day and for snacks too.

[Red_Devil 232]

It is not your fault. Tomato plants don't like excessive heat one bit. Very hot weather above 95F like you have experienced will cause the tomato not to produce. Once the weather cools down they will start producing again.

See Arrowhead1952's posts #15 and #36 on this thread.

[rightly_dividing]

Thanks for the insight. My bloom well, and are very beautiful. I am losing some for unknown reasons, and would like to put a stop to that. The ones that I planted were purchased from an online source in Oregon and are not the WalMart cheapies. A number of years ago, I bought about 50 WalMart bulbs and only had 3 sprout, and they didn't bloom. I wish that I could post photos here, most would agree that they are the most beautiful Glads!

Thanks for the post

[Diana in Wisconsin]

"Thank you for being a friend all these years."

It's been GREAT knowing you,a s well. I'm working on Husband...I'll be 'TN Bound' with or without him some year. I think it'll feel like HOME without all the stupid liberals swirling around my head every day, LOL!

[gardengirl]

Hey! I’m jealous!

Let me know if you make it to Tenn—NC isn’t that far away!
Course, it’s a 12 hour drive for me—opposite ends of the earth and all. LOL

Hope you don’t have too much of a hangover from all the “drinks/drinking” last night!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“Hope you don’t have too much of a hangover from all the ‘drinks/drinking’ last night!”

Nah. I can drink cyber-wine all night long and feel fine the next day. I highly recommend it, LOL!

[bert]

Well, today is the day. The tomato harvest is beyond, far beyond our ability to consume in one day, even eating tomatoes three meals a day..

Wife will have to make a decision...... what to do.

[gardengirl]

LOL

Cyber is about the only way I can drink! I can literally sniff a bottle cap and it’s beddy bye time.

[momto6]

Than you, I’m waiting not so patiently. I only have one little cherry tomato plant so i wont be having them for lunch and dinner. This is my first year so I didn’t want to over do it.

[Mama Shawna]

Thanks Grammy! There’s a reason I call my hubby ‘Gnats-Ass Construction’ haha!

Too bad about your cold weather. We’re supposed to have a couple RARE 100+ days next week. All the weenies (libs) in the Seattle area will be MELTING... Guess I better go turn the sprinkler on!