Weekly Gardening Thread
Weekly Gardening Thread
I hope all of you will stop by.
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How do you keep your zucchini from getting kind of mushy from being frozen? We have more zucchini than we can eat or give away. Thanks!
Good morning! It looks like I’m finally going to get a bell pepper this weekend. Spraying them with soap solution seems to be helping. No tomato worms this morning (there were two yesterday), and the cat brought me a dead rabbit.
Lots of green tomatoes, but no red ones for the last several days. I’m picking a few green beans, a victory over the catz, who dug up my seeds as if it was a contest. AND my wisteria is having a bloom.
My tomato and pepper plants look great and are blooming, but not setting fruit. I have been telling myself it is the hot weather 100+ daily for several weeks. One of my neighbors has told me he had the same problem and in the past used “blossum set” to help. Do you have any experience with that?
I have been considering putting a mister in my garden to try and lower the temperature. I am sure there is some risk with this for the plants, I never water in the heat of the day with anything that sprinkles, the mister when working properly should be extremely fine, but I have not done this before. (I put a mister together for my back yard yesterday, but have not tested it yet)
Been hot and dry this week, temps around 100. We’ve had so much rain though things are just drying back to normal.
Getting ready to start the fall garden, already have cabbage and broccoli started to go in next month.
Wow sounds like a lovely day, been nothing but hot here in Indiana.
Still hot and very dry in Texas and no relief in sight. 38th day of 100+ temps this year.
Interesting article for those of us who maintain larger properties.
Hubby has been bringing in a hand full of green beans and blackberries each day. We finally have enough for a mess of beans, and some blackberry jelly.
Corn from the first planting is supposed to be ready by the end of July. The silks are still a little pink, so I know the soil is probably deficient in something, plus none of the stalks have more than 1 ear.
We have only harvested 4 cucumbers to date. I have two 3-inch midget cantaloupes and numerous tiny ones with lots of flowers. Tomatoes planted this spring finally have flowers. The indoor tomatoes that I stuck in a pot have some green tomatoes.
Everyone have a great weekend. Hope everyone gets the rain they need. God Bless.
It is hot hot hot here in Indiana. I do enjoy it though.
Blueberries are ripe now and so good this year. I picked 14lbs. yesterday morning before the heat wave. At 60 cents a lb. it is a great bargain.
I am getting 4-5 cucumbers every day and the beans need to be picked! Why did I plant so many again??
The weeks are passing way too fast for my old bones Red. The Raspberries are all but done so Ma Bender has time to pick the Strawberries and made 6 pints of jam yesterday after giving away most of the earlier ones to FRiends. We do have sliced berries with whipped cream several night a week plus the ones we eat fresh in the garden. I pulled a few more Shallots and laid them on some wire to dry and also put some more Garlic into storage after letting it dry in the green house.
I did have a diversion this week when several very small mice invaded our pantry/laundry room and started doing lots of damage to packaged foods. I had very limited success with the wooden Victor traps with the standard metal trigger and the newer ones with yellow plastic trigger. These little boogers would lick the peanut butter or cheese off without setting the trap off and I only caught 4 in 3 days but I knew there were more so off to the Ace yesterday to see what was new. I purchased 4 of those sticky pads, 4 more victors with the metal trigger and 2 of the new Ortho Press n Set units. These have a little well for the bait and then you just press one end and the trap is set. I caught nothing in the sticky traps, nothing in the 6 Victor traps but killed 4 mice in 10 hours with the Ortho without replacing the peanut butter bait and all the other traps had the bait taken without triggering one of them...
Do you use a pressure canner for any of your canning?
Good morning all!
I have a question for all you experienced gardners...
Just got an old well hooked up and flowing on our country place. It’s “sulfur” water — clear as a bell, but smells like rotten eggs. (We have county water for the house.)
My question is this: is there any harm to ornamentals, pecan trees, bed plants, lawn, etc. from watering with sulferous water? “Some say” that it’s actually better for the plants, and I’d like to believe that, but I don’t know if this hearsay is reliable and I don’t want to ruin my plants.
Thanks, and FRegards!
It’s been a hot, humid week here in Central Missouri. My sweet corn is now 7’ tall and in full tassle. If I can keep the earworms out it ought to be a bumper crop. The tomatoes are finally starting to ripen, cucumber vines are suffering but still blooming and making cukes. Summer squash have all folded. Eggplants are hanging in there. The weeds and crabgrass are running rampant and it’s so doggone hot I haven’t had the energy to fight em.
I walked out to the garden to see how it was doing after last weeks windstorm. Most tomato plants had settled downward on the stakes making them short and dense. I examined closely for ripe tomatos and checked for any green ones, too. I harvested 1 Roma, 2 Atkinsons, and about a pint of grape tomatos. There is some new growth and flowers, so I guess they will survive the storm last week. Peppers are history. I have some new grape tomatos seeds started, so maybe I will fill in some of the open spots. I have several packets of collard seeds just waiting for their turn at the garden.
Zukes, cukes, and Julienne tomato's are still coming in. I've given a ton to the neighbors. No luck with okra this year though.
I have BEANS!!!! Ok, so only a few every day, but my green beans plants are covered in little baby beans, and I’ve been picking for the last 3 days. My raspberries are producing, too. Again, just a few every day, but they’re a nice treat. I have blossoms on my tomatoes, watermelons, and zucchinnis, and my cucumber plants are big enough they’re starting realize that they’re vines :)
I took pictures of my “chia hill” erosion-control experiment, but I can’t seem to find them. I’ll post them when I do.
Help!!
I’ve got some type of insect eating my eggplants and looking like it might want to move to my cukes and maters.
I’ve tried online sites to ID it, but no luck. It looks like a cross between a small beetle and a grub. A bit over 1/4” long, light tan with black spots. Looks like a beetle with no shell as the body is soft and mushy. Also have tons of little tiny black caterpillars , about 1/8” long, on the plant, so I feel they may be related.
Darn things ate most of the leaves and fruit off my eggplants. And I’ve tried insecticidal soap and some some other organic, safe for veggies spray that the guy at Agway sold me, but the insects seem to feel that I’m just adding a dressing to their salads.
I’m trying to get a picture to post. Very frustrating because they don’t don’t look like any common insect pest.
Squash bugs are in town...checked the net for advice, and all I am getting is the namby-pamby ‘organic’ methods of search and destroy by hand. Yawn. I want the little b*stards DEAD, and I want to know what may do the job.
We had slight groundhog incursions before and nothing worked but the damage was tolerable, this time it was a major war.
I tried all the old tricks, mothballs, scarecrows, ammonia, cat hair and turds, noisemakers, etc. Can't shoot them in city limits and they are too smart for Havaheart traps and too many neighbor kids around for kill traps. I guess fencing is next but I read they can climb fences too. The wife won't allow a dog.