Weekly Gardening Thread – 2011 (Vol. 30) August 5

Free Republic | 08*05*2011 | Red_Devil 232

[Red_Devil 232]

Good morning gardeners. I transplanted 10 young paste tomato plants into my garden last Friday and wouldn’t you it, the heat gets turned up again. The area of my garden where I planted them gets shade from about 3pm on but I am having to supplying them shade from late morning until then. So far they are doing ok. I hope they survive.

My pepper plants are doing well and producing nicely and I may get another round of zuke production.

I got a very nice hard rain yesterday evening. Probably about 1/2 inch.

If you are a gardener or you are just starting out and are in need of advice or just encouragement please feel free to join in and enjoy the friendly discussion. Our Freeper community is full of gardeners, each with varying interests and skill levels from Master Gardener to novice.

I hope all your gardens are flourishing.

[greeneyes]

Good morning everyone. Thanks for the thread Red. Yesterday we got a welcome relief from the heat wave here in Missouri. July came in at the hottest since 1936, and also less rain than usual(only 1 day).

We got about 1/16 of and inch of rain yesterday afternoon and knocked off about 10-15 degrees of heat.

We have a cool 73 degrees on the way to a high of 87, and tonight’s lows of 72. Possible rain today. Bed # 1 and #2 gets sun from about 10am to sundown, so I finally had to put up makeshift shade using old sheets this past week.

Squirrel stole the only tomato that was almost ripe. Decent crop of corn from bed #1 was harvested this week, and several pints of green beans.

Grapes are almost ripe, so Hubby covered them with netting. We ordered seedless, but so far they all have seeds.

I spent a little time in the garden this morning, but am having a LAZY attack, so I didn't do much. Just doing some research on various topics.

Have a great weekend. God Bless.

[greeneyes]

Those are beautiful. We are not having any luck with peppers this year.

[Gabz]

Hot pepper stories are always a hoot..........AFTER the fact!!

[Tatze]

Morning gardeners!

2 posts removed... on the gardening thread??? Huh?

[afraidfortherepublic]

Well, I double posted, turned myself in, and the Mods deleted BOTH of my posts. So, here goes again.

I harvested 3 cucumbers, 1 zucchini, and a handful of peas this AM. The peas are producing, despite their late planting and the high heat we’ve been enduring. I identified 8-10 watermelons coming along. The largest is Dodge Ball sized and the smallest is jawbreaker sized. They look very happy tied up on their trellis. Thank You, Justadumbblonde. Last night I brought in a double handful of cherry tomatoes.

I have many, many large, green tomatoes, but none are ripe yet. I further spotted at least one new Flying Saucer Squash forming but I didn’t have time to explore the garden any further. It’s quite a tangle out there. I did see lots of squash blossoms with bees buzzing in them. I didn’t check too closely. I didn’t want to embarrass my squash “in the act”. **blush**

When do I harvest potatoes? Do I wait until the leaves turn brown? They are all flopping over, but they are not brown yet.

Despite the fact that I keep cutting chunks off my fennel plant to give away, it is enormous. Not as big as the one I grew (as a volunteer) in California which approached 6 feet tall, but it’s sure big for Wisconsin. It’s pushing 3 feet and is very bushy. Since I use it only in omelets — a pinch at a time — I have way more fennil than I can possibly use. Suggestions?

I’ve gotta run. I need to set the sprinkler on that garden. No rain in the past week. I was having my 50 year old chimneys tuck pointed the past week, and the workmen disconnected all my hoses for the morter.

[momtothree]

“AFTER the fact...”

Yep, he certainly wasn’t laughing at the time!! Later that week, the gal that had given us the peppers told us, “We grew some of the HOTTEST peppers in the world”. (for fear of being “removed by the moderator”.. I can’t tell you his response!). I remember one being called a chocolate pepper. They were all pretty small... proving the point that BIG things can come in small packages.

[Red_Devil 232]

"...I finally had to put up makeshift shade using old sheets this past week."

That is exactly what I have been doing.

[greeneyes]

Yeh, I was kinda wondering about that myself. Wonder who did it and what was said. LOL.

[gramho12]

I feel for you guys in Texas - I have relatives there and it is very bad. Even in MD it has been dry and I was complaining about watering until I talked to my sister. Now I’m thankful for every drop of water we have.

[Gabz]

I remember one time when hubby forgot about “sitting like a girl.” It’s funny now - but at the time laughter was the furthest thing from anyone’s mind.

[gramho12]

Now that is funny, but I can imagine it wasn’t for your hubby at the time. I do remember that I grew a hot pepper years ago that I don’t remember the name. But I made tomato sauce and put these peppers in, and when you went in the kitchen your eyes would burn. So I had to add lots of extra stuff to that sauce to cool it down!

[left that other site]

Could you add me to the gardening list?
I have a tiny garden in FL. In the fall I plant Chinese Cabbage, Green Beans, Jalapeno and Ancho Peppers, Arugula and Lettuce.

During the torrid summer months I concentrate on tropical flowers, Plumeria, Athurium, Ixoria, Ruellia, Lantan, and Bougainvillia.

In the Spring I harvest Mangoes, Bananas and Avocados.

Every time I eat a mango or an avocado, I replant the seed, so I am getting a tropical JUNGLE in my itsy bitsy back yard.

Oh...I also have a baby lime tree and tiny Oranges.

[afraidfortherepublic]

That was my fault (2 posts removed). I accidentally double posted, so I asked the Mods to remove one of them. Then I made a typo in my request so I sent it in again. Consequently, they removed BOTH posts. I can assure you there was nothing scandalous there. LOL.

[Tatze]

Here is my harvest over the past few days, and probably a few leftovers from last weekend. A good chuck of this will probably be going to the soup kitchen tomorrow morning.

I harvested the watermelons this morning. They aren't very big, but were cracking or getting some bad spots, so I figured I'd get them while I could. My first attempt at watermelon, so not too bad. Thats pretty close to the last of the cucumbers. Only a few left growing on the vines. Still plenty of green tomatoes waiting to ripen. And still plenty of peppers. Speaking of cucumbers, here is the pickle batch for the year.

I do have to admit, as I was grabbing the home pickled jars, I managed to pick up one store bought jar. It's one of the green lids without tape (the other is the barrel pickles I'm storing in the fridge now). I used the same jars for several batches of homemade after eating all the store bought pickles out of the jars, and just didn't notice until I was putting them back away. I don't want to claim a jar of homemade that was actually store bought. I also didn't want to take all the jars back out to get a picture without it.

[afraidfortherepublic]

I confess. See #33.

[Red_Devil 232]

see post 25

[Redleg Duke]

The deck was a "temporary project to eliminate a set of "suicide steps" off of the back porch so that we could install a screen door. The screen door is installed and helps with cross-ventilation, but the deck just grew to a 20' by 141 size.

The duck run is part of the expansion to allow the ducks a protected location in the evening. Right now, they are in a dog cage.

I have plenty of time to do these tasks, as long as they are done already.

Fruit trees' life expectancy? I am not certain, but 20 - 30 years sticks in my mind.

One problem with fruit is spraying them for bugs. I failed again this year and the apples are all misshapened and wormy.

[momtothree]

You know... I am a terrible, mean, insensitive wife! For Christmas that year, I purchased all sorts of little “reminder” gifts for him. A red, hot pepper tree ornament, a t-shirt with hot peppers and the words “HOT STUFF! on it, and an apron with hot peppers all over it. Finally... as a stocking stuffer, I FILLED it with plastic gloves. Good thing he has a sense of humor... most men would have divorced me!!

[Red_Devil 232]

YOU HAVE BEAN

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YOU HAVE BEAN

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[Tatze]

I made salsa from 3 different type of tomatoes (red, yellow and green zebra) with my cayenne and anaheim peppers. It was really good.

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I will say I made the hottest salsa imagined... the type that put a sweat on your brow.

Would wither of you mind sharing your salsa recipes? I still haven't found one I like.