My dopey little in-between-until-I-have-a-REAL-garden-again-Garden is producing like a madwoman!
Lots of Zukes and Cukes. Lots of lettuces (still!) and in another week I’ll be swimming in green beans. Deciding what to plant for fall crops, but it will probably be beets and carrots and lettuces and spinach. The usual suspects. ;)
The weather has been WEIRD to say the least...we’ll go from days and days of hot and humid and WAY above normal temps...and then today, it’s mid-60’s and I’m in a sweatshirt! *Rolleyes*
Rain amounts have been OK so far, though and it is WONDERFUL to be able to open all the windows and BREATHE every 5 days or so, LOL!
Our Sweet Corn is AWESOME this year - loves the hot & humid. We have melons on (Cantelope and Water) as well as Butternut Squash and some Spaghetti Squash.
Tomorrow I am pruning back my tomato plants and yanking out (and using!) the kale that is smothering them. Lots of tomatoes on, but with hot and humid we get early blight. Boo! So, lower leaves OFF and organic copper spray ON.
No complaints. All in all, it’s been a good growing season in SE Wisconsin...I’m now about 30 miles from the Mississippi River, in the part of our state that the Glaciers didn’t smash to flat and boring, but good for crops.
Hilly, green, lush, tree-filled and GORGEOUS, Dahling!
Glad it’s all working out so well for you. Sounds wonderful.
Sweet Corn! Man do I love sweet corn. My garden is really too little for corn. It’s fun to grow because it gets BIG and grows so fast - though it does take time to properly ripen. Like pumpkins.
Your garden sounds lovely.
“Lots of tomatoes on, but with hot and humid we get early blight. Boo! So, lower leaves OFF and organic copper spray ON”
What kind of blight gets your tomatoes? I had the unfortunate task of pulling right at about 25% of my tomato plants yesterday due to a virus that first makes the leaves curl and then the whole plant yellows and dies. I know of no remedies to stop it, but really wish I did! I foliar feed them to try and boost their immunity and also add pyrethrum to kill any little pests that may spread the disease from one plant to the others. I absolutely loathe pulling the plants, especially when they’re at the 2-3’ heights they are.
It’s been a particularly difficult growing season here since we’ve only had less than 3” of rain so far this year. The summer ‘monsoons’, which normally start on the 4th of July still haven’t come and there’s still no rain in the forecast. I’ve had a few gophers that managed to dig under the buried hardware cloth around the perimeter, and every on of them made straight lines for the tomato rows. The past few nights one has repeatedly chewed into the same drip line to get a drink. I can only imagine it’s reaction to having the resulting blast of water hitting him in the face! One thing I learned this morning was just how fast acting the strychnine laced gopher bait works. Last night, around midnight (yep, I’m out there at midnight working so as to avoid the 104 degree daytime temps and the intense sun) I placed a spoonful of the bait in a new tunnel. So, this morning, after the foliar feeding, I went to inspect that gopher run. I saw a newly dug opening, so I went and retrieved my .22 with a bird/snake shot load, and sat there with the barrel aimed at the new opening waiting for him to come and back fill his tunnel. After waiting for a while, and it was clear he wasn’t going to surface, I resorted to plan B which was to dig up the new tunnel and put more bait in there. Well low and behold, as I was digging I came across the SOB’s dead carcass! That poison he ate last night had killed him in just a matter of hours! I pass this info on for all to read because what I learned was that if I put out gopher bait and then there is new gopher activity, it means there are either more gophers or they didn’t eat the bait. I had no idea the poisoned bait worked so fast! I just wish there was as good solution to combat the tomato virus too.