Weekly Gardening Thread
Posted on 08/27/2010 5:21:34 AM PDT by Red_Devil 232
Good morning gardeners. The end of August is approaching and the temperatures have moderated here in East Central Mississippi. Lows are in the mid 60’s with daytime highs in the high 80’s to 90 degrees. My garden is thriving in this weather. The sweet and hot peppers are abundant and the tomato plants are back in production mode. I think I will be removing my okra plants this week. They are huge and sprawling and over seven foot tall. They have to go so the sun can get to other plants.
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Weekly Gardening Thread
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Morning.
Same weather here and our fall greens and such are coming in. I can’t find lettuce seed yet though so I think I iwll have to transplant. Peppers are holding on, but I am taking the last tomato out tomorrow to make room.
Garden season is winding down pretty quickly here. Maybe one more good pick of the pole beans and I’m going to let the beans mature for next year’s seed. Not looking forward to collecting next year’s tomato seeds. That’s a nasty job.
I started some pinich in pots the other day for fresh spinich during the winter.
just cheking in...still no rain. Have been fighting a systemic yeast infection, no fun. So I’m out of the sun, it makes me itch.
Good Morning Red Devil!
Still canning okra and tomatoes. I think everything is pretty much done! What a production those okra and tomato plants put on! I thought of giving a quart of okra and tomatoes with gumbo recipes for Christmas presents this year.
I will pull everything over the weekend, till the ground and tarp it over until the next planting moon. Mid September I think. Looking forward to planting some bush beans, sweet onions and bib lettuce. Still pretty hot here in Florida though. Maybe just a few plum tomato plants for fresh salad.
Take care, Florida FReeper.
On another note, my old Troy Built tiller, circa 1974, finally gave up. The transmission is slipping and I'm going to have it rebuilt this winter. I decided to try one of those Mantis tillers. Although it won't do what the Troy Built will do in terms of initial bed preparation, it is very handy for tilling around plants and keeping weeds at bay. Been using it a lot around the okra and corn. I bought the 4 stroke Honda powered version. Money well spent.
Good morning!
We’ve finally had a hot week in CA after a summer in the 70s!
Does anyone know about Australian Tree Ferns? Mine is dropping a lot of brown dust and I was wondering what it is— and if I can stop it!
I have been putting banana peels all over the yard. My dog is giving me funny looks!
I was able to can the pears from my aunt's pear tree. Today I will can salsa made with our plum tomatoes and a variety of our peppers.
Last night it was chilly....49 degrees.
Okra and tomatos is an excellant southern dish in itself, served over a bed of steamed rice. Yum!
I’m going to let the beans mature for next year’s seed.
I raise an heirloom bean (greasy Cornfield), I also leave a great deal of them hanging in the end of the season. But, I leave them for a dried bean, (white seed). I hull them out and, they make a wonderful soup. I also as you, leave them for next years’ seed.
I will have to say in my forty year’s of gardening, this year has been the greatest yield I have ever experienced here in Upper East Tn.. Very dry and hot in the beginning but, showers later saved the day.
Good morning. Our low temp last night was 53 degrees. We have a lot of green tomatoes, so they’re just hanging in there. Our peppers are doing fine, and we’ve eaten a fair number of them. We grew mild to hot peppers this year (no Bells) for the first time, and we will definitely be doing it again next year. It was a great success.
I have moved to a new home and have identitified a possible garden spot for next year. We have a mostly shaded property, but have a small area that seems to get direct sun for a good while. My question is; how many hours of direct sun is neccessary for a productive garden of the usual popular veggies; tomatos, cukes, squash, okra, peppers, others?
You got that right.
Correction on the plants being done. After picking 3 pounds on Wednesday, there’s another batch ready to cut and new blooms popping out. Whew!
I think the min. for tomatoes is around 6 hours of sunlight for healthy production.
Well, it is finally cooling off enough to work outside for extended periods. I will try to till my garden this weekend and start the fall garden.
What do you plan on growing this fall?
Due to the hot weather and lack of rain here in the Northeast, the leaves started falling off the trees the beginning of August - they have not turned colors, they are falling off still green - leaf turning/falling season here doesn’t start for another two months give or take - we had torrential rains here for four days in a row this week -(welcome to Martha’s Vineyard HUSSEIN heeheeee) - too late to save the leaves - the lawns are straw like due to the heat and lack of water - a lot of flowers and other vegetation have died because there is a water ban - outside use of water was banned here about six weeks ago - there’s a fine if caught watering and we have neighbors who actually sit at their windows under the cover of nite just waiting for someone to turn on the water so they can call the cops -
I’ll take them beans, lightly steamed with a touch of butter and salt! Yellow wax beans are amongst my favorites!
Beautiful! Sounds like some good eats you are cooking up. Will there be enough for all of us when we drop by?
Thats about what I was thinking. We first looked at this place in May, but have the photos from the real estate webpage that were taken earlier than that. As best that I can tell, I think about 6 or 7 hrs will be about it for direct sun, starting in late morning.
Are you going to have any fall veggies?
Nice cool dry week here. Tilling alot of lawn clippings in to build up the soil after all that rain leached everything out.
Hope to work with biochar this fall to see if there might be some better retention of nutrients.
I don’t know why you can’t find lettuce seeds. I usually buy about 1/4 for $.25 cents at a nursery in Elgin TX, and keep it in the refrigerator during the summer for my fall gardens. It keeps well that way and I’d bet that 95% of the seed germinates two years later.
What an absolutely beautiful plant!! And your door covering aint bad either! :)
Thanks!
Hey Red! No, no hand watering - no watering outside at all - some people here in town have wells so they can water whenever they want so those are the people with the nice green lawns - others have waaaay too much time on their hands making sure others follow the rules - first offense is $100 - not sure what it is after that and I wonder what they do with persistent waterers! - Maybe confiscate the hose or perhaps have the water shut off? I live in a nanny state - big government is everywhere watching everyone and when big gov can’t do it they have sheeple more than willing to spy for them! Keep in mind I live in the state where these fools kept voting dead ted into office as well as continuing to vote for the gigilo and bawney fwank!
I believe we are in the same zone, but I am going down fighting...I have a second crop of lettuce, spinach, beets, and chinese cabbage coming along...I have potted up more short-season tomatoes in my small greenhouse; stupice (what a wonderful little tomato); black cherry, Paul Robeson and isis candy...they are keeping my jalapenos and other hot peppers company. Long-range forecast calls for warmer than normal fall; so what the hell...wife is wailing because she doesn't know what to do with all the tomatoes. Black Krim have been outstanding...chinese noodle beans are everywhere...lots of carrots, squash, potatoes, pumpkins, watermelons...we will be well-fed this winter. Grocery bill is plunging...
Looking at 47 or so tonight, but back to the low 90's for the next several days...
49 when I got up this morning. The warm weather coming should cause some serious ripening of my maters.
that's our weather too.....eastern Washington....no rain to speak of since first days of July...hot days and cool nights....not unusual to have a 40 point temp drop from midday to night...it makes it very livable to not have the humility....
Garden is doing OK I guess.
Summer Squash- I was only able to get 3 squash off the plants before they started to die off. Bummer.
Cucumbers- Picking about 8 to 10 pounds per week. They are making fantastic Bread & Butter Pickles. I used THIS RECIPE except I add 4 cloves of crushed garlic to each batch.
Beets- A few are big enough to pick & freeze this weekend.
Peppers- I have been getting lots of them this year. So far I have diced & frozen 8 quart bags and hardly made a dent on the plants. Funny thing, my Brother lives about a half hour from me, he planted 2 dozen Pepper plants and has not had a single pepper even start to develop. Nothing. Odd. I told him to pick some of mine.
I’m thinking of pulling up all my plants in the donated gardening space. The cucumbers haven’t produced anything edible and it looks like the squash borer has gotten the plants. The tomatoes are producing beautifully. Problems with my arthritis are making it harder and harder to maintain that garden. I’ll still have my planters by the front door. It will simply have to be sufficient.
I am growing many of the same tomato varieties here in the Colorado Rockies. Many green tomatos, but none ripe yet except for the Cherokee Purple I grew in a container indoors over the winter. Pole beans are finally producing. I will have a bumper crop of potatoes. I will also be trying to let some pole beans mature until dry for next years seed.
Here is their home page...thefind
I picked up some cucumbers and red onions from a roadside stand and made DIANA’S PICKLES. I have got to say that they are absolutely wonderful and very easy to make. Diana from Wisconsin is a queen!
We also use plenty of garlic in them and throw in some small cauliflower bits, too. I pickled some jars of cauliflower as well.
Another beautiful Missouri day. We are at 75 degrees on the way to a high of 82 and the low is 57 degrees. Every thing in the main garden has slowed. We are still getting some cukes, green beans, tomatoes, vine peaches, and cantaloupes, but not as prolific.
Everything in raised bed #1 has been pulled except for the watermelon which is still trying to produce. I have planted beans where the corn grew for fall harvest. I will plant a square of lettuce, spinach, onion, garlic, and carrots later.
The midsummer garden will not be ready to harvest until late September or early October. That is corn, tomatoes, cantaloupes, watermelon, beans. This fall, all of bed #2 and part of bed #1 will be getting a planting of annual rye grass, or rye and hairy vetch.
I used Hubby's soil test gadget to test the soil in raised bed #2. It is barely fertile on the scale, which means that at least one of the nutrients is too low.
Since the corn is showing some reddish/purple color, I think it's phosphorus. For now, I have used a Miracle gro type of nutrient solution of 15/30/15. Everything else in bed #2 is growing well, but I think I'll be testing and supplementing them too this weekend.
I have picked a spot for bed #3, but a walnut tree is pretty close by, so it may get too much shade for some things, plus tomatoes and peppers don't grow well next to walnut tree. Still it is along a fence row, which gives a pre-existing trellis, and the raised bed should help with the soil toxicity enough that it is worth a try.
Have a great gardening weekend. God Bless.
Sure! I can always throw another potato in the soup. :)
I’ve seen shallot seeds at Johnny’s. I planted some from seeds last year. Seeds looked just like onion seeds. The shallots were *wonderful*.
Tomatoes need 8-10 hrs per day.
Beware critters eating your beans for seed. I was letting a patch of my yellow wax bush beans go to seed and deer decided I was wasting my time. No bean seeds this year.
Beautiful flowers. Thanks for sharing the picture.
We collect 5-10 gallons per day of water from our air conditioning unit to use to water plants. We also collect rainwater off the roof to use in the garden. We never water the lawn, and rarely water the decorative plants - only the edibles, and edible perrenials get priority.
I would like to put in a cistern, and set up a drip irrigation system from that, but it is not high on the priority list now.LOL.
Finally getting a decent amount of tomatoes ripening.
Burgandy beans are finished, as much due to grasshoppers as anything else. BlueLake & Kentucky Wonders are starting to put out, as are the yellow wax beans, which look more like a yeallo half-runner than a bush bean. The white greasy cut shorts are finally maturing, and the first pound or so are shelled and finishing drying.
The corn is harvested, and ready to be tilled under.
The Walla-Walla onions did great.
The Poblano and Serrano peppers are producing well; the bells, cubanelles, Anaheims, yellow wax, and japalenos not so well.
Some beautiful eggplants almost ready, the best we’ve ever grown.
Lettuce & spinach are long gone to bolting.
We saved a ‘special’ pumpkin from last year thar was a pale yellow, and this spring used those seeds. Several are coming along that look similar; others are producing things that look like anything from a hubbard to a butternut, to a kabocha, to ‘normal’ pumpkins. I’ll probably select a good looking one similar to the parent, and try a second generation next year.
Yukons were hit hard by the hoppers, but managed to put out an average crop. Russets are ready to dig...smallish, but lots of thm The Red Pontiacs seem to be putting out good sized spuds, and will soon be ready.
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