Posted on 06/27/2014 12:49:59 PM PDT by greeneyes
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The freezer bowl of my ice cream maker still has fluid in it but stopped freezing. Research yielded no significant information. Will try again this year.
Your strawberries are unbelievable. Can you give us some tips on growing them?
I brought my car back. For 40 miles there was rain so heavy I couldn’t see the stripes on the road. I stayed close to his car in front hoping he could see the stripes enough to stay on the road. He was calling me on the phone during this pounding rain and telling me it was too dangerous to park on the side of the road so we needed to keep moving. I don’t want a trip like that any time soon.
I brought my orange tree that has oranges growing and a container with sweet banana peppers growing and one tomato plant, Cherry Punch, since it is super sturdy and has numerous flowers on it. I bought and planted those seeds late (this is the tomato with more Vit. C that other tomatoes). We brought back a large number of ripe tomatoes from my garden. We brought the blackberry plants and two corn plants that have ears of corn growing. Also brought the Fooled You Pepper plant as there are several good sized peppers on it.
The Sweet Million cherry tomatoes and Fourth of July tomatoes were the best producers but I didn’t plant Tycoon when I did the rest so I will still grow that one. Cherry Punch was planted late and I will definitely grow that one again and will try to grow one in this house this winter as it was developed to be in containers. I brought one Tromboncino squash plant and set it next to one leg of a metal archway so it can grow up it. It is already attaching itself to the metal.
We will go back to my house in the fall and bring more plant containers. There is a heater hard wired into the garage here, a three car garage (with a workshop that takes up one space), so plants may be moved in there during the winter so they won’t freeze. The huge containers already here, of course, can’t be moved, but those are winter hardy.
This backyard is a container heaven. When one steps out the backdoor, there is a huge concrete area with containers of plants and an outside dining table and chairs. A concrete path goes to the back part of the yard, walking under a decorative metal archway into that area. There are 14 bird houses he made that are on high poles.
There are many thin metal garden stakes with birds, animals, religious figures, on them that are stuck in the various containers and there are figures of animals and frogs on the ground. While in Conroe at Cracker Barrel restaurant/store, I got a ceramic Peacock to add to the other ceramic animals on the ground. There are many wind chimes starting at the back door and throughout the back area and when the wind blows slightly strong, the place sounds like an orchestra is out there. There is also a sitting area on a brick floor shaded by a couple of trees and there are beds outlined with brick where ivy/other plants are and containers sitting around with various plants growing.
There are so many containers already here with plants (no food plants), I will get the names from him so I will know what is here. When I get around to it, I’ll use my camera and take pictures. There is also a large open area covered with grass for as many containers as I want. All this is surrounded by a solid fence, so no one outside sees any of it.
This container garden will eventually, in the not distant future, be much larger than the one I did at my house. I brought my grow lamp and two large bags of my seed starter so no problem starting seeds when I’m ready to do that.
Wow, Whirlwind Courtship..I truly wish you all an abundance of joy and happiness.
I am sure the squirrels are celebrating your pulling up stakes, too. I envision them sitting in the living room drinking amaretto, watching Animal Planet
Glad things are going your way, you deserve some good times.
Beautiful.
Congratulations on your canning. I am so lazy, I just try to think of more people I can foist my tomatoes on.
Wind down?
My Roma’s haven’t even started to ripen and there are a ton of them on my plants!
Hehe, we get started early here in Central Texas as the overnight low is already too high for fruit set. Inf it’s a typical year in 3 or 4 weeks it’ll be so hot any tomatoes still on the vine will be stewed. But it does usually stay warm enough in the fall that I’ll have a 2nd planting.
Great pictures! I’m very impressed that you did some canning. It’s a lovely treat to look forward to when winter comes. :)
I hadn’t been to my land in weeks, and the weather forcast said rain and thunderstorms all afternoon, so today I went out in the morning and worked in the hot sun getting things planted. I managed to get everything in the annuals section except for the flint corn, before heat exhaustion drove me to stop. I was drinking water constantly, but it didn’t seem to help.
And then, even though it was time to stop, I went and picked a quart bag full of wild yarrow. I had read on another forum where someone made their own bug spray by distilling fresh yarrow, and it worked so well that people were literally begging for it! My usual bug spray is only half-effective on this year’s mosquito crop, so I’m up for making my own. Especially since the ingredients are free! If it works I might write something up for the prepper thread.
It’s still sunny out. Darned forcasts!
Now, why did I work myself to heat exhaustion when I darn well know better than that? Because moving out of my parents’ house has taken on a new urgency. I’ve been living with my parents due to a long string of mysterious health issues, which sometimes leave me completely incapacitated. Anybody remember on last week’s thread I mentioned my dad spraying weed killer on my strawberries just as I was going to pick and eat them? This week he said something, just an offhand comment that would normally seem harmless, but in that context it gave me the creeps. So I did some investigating, and in previous years he has spread weedkiller on other things he knew I was going to eat, without telling me about it. The times mom could remember when he did that, match pretty closely to the times my health suddenly went downhill.
I think it might actually be deliberate.
Dad always loves it when people feel sorry for him. If he doesn’t have anything going wrong, he’ll make stuff up. He tells horrible lies about people. But I didn’t think he would try anything this sick. I have no idea how to react to this, other than look for ways to get out of this house. My health propblems make that complicated enough, but I’m also paying off tens of thousands of dollars in medical debts. I don’t make much, I’m not sure I could afford an apartment but I’m looking. I might just see if my office would let me park a camper in the back of the lot. I know I’ve seen campers tucked in the back corner before.
I think I’m rambling now, so I’ll stop. I could use some prayers.
Anyone else having trouble finding the standard galvanized-wire tomato cages?
They disappeared from my area a few weeks ago, no re-stocking.
Actually, the way most tomato blossoms are shaped, just giving the branches a little shake will do the pollinating. Found that out while reading my plant-breeding book.
Juneberries might be easier than blueberries, and they look and taste almost the same. But Juneberries will grow in practically any soil.
Great to hear from you! Lotsa tomatoes! Everything sounds wonderful! Yay, you!
Ah, good to know, thanks. A new one to me, will see if I can find some.
If your ice cream freezer can’t be saved, there are always some on shopgoodwill.com.
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