Weekly Gardening Thread – 2011 (Vol. 36) September 16

Free Republic | 09-16-2011 | Red_Devil 232

[Red_Devil 232]

Good morning gardeners. It has been another beautiful week here in East Central Mississippi we have had moderate daytime temperatures with cool nights. Perfect weather to get out and do some garden and yard clean up. My Fig trees have finished producing and it is time to winterize them with a thick layer of straw. All my of the pears have been picked and either canned or eaten. My vegetable garden is basically through producing except for a few Jalapenos that are still hanging on and still producing large peppers. My Beer brewing experiment is still progressing nicely with 6 gallons of a Canadian Blonde still aging in bottles and I have a six-gallon batch of Irish Stout fermenting and almost ready for bottling.

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.

[tubebender]

FReeper south texas is expecting monsoon rains as he has 70’ of trench open in his back yard near CC...

[greeneyes]

Good afternoon and thanks for the thread. We got about 2 inches of rain this week here in Missouri. Wonderful fall weather, not too cold, and not too hot.

Hubby's corn patch is about 9 foot tall, and lot of silk. He got it planted later than intended, and we are hoping that we don't have an early frost. I have lots of green cherry tomatoes that I hope will get to ripen on the vine.

I just finished 6 pints of green beans for the freezer. Kept out a quart for supper tonight, and hamburger casserole for tomorrow. I am going to harvest my rosemary soon, and try to get some root cuttings from the tips.

I have harvested about half the tarragon, still have some left, and will try to get some root cuttings of that too. I have one Iroquois Melon trying to ripen before frost, and some cukes. Still have green beans trying to produce.

We did not get a chance to do garden work last weekend, so we need to get with it this weekend.

Have a great weekend and God Bless.

[greeneyes]

I would think strongly about using pots or 5 gal buckets. Back when I just had one raised bed, that is what I did. Then I dumped the soil into the compost heap, for eventual recycling. Our only garden for years was in the drip line of a walnut tree. It was the only way to get tomatoes.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Thank you very much.

[Melian]

When my dad found a gopher hole in our yard, he’d stuff the hose down it and flood the burrow. It worked. Maybe it would work for you, although those would be large holes. Be careful not to undermine your structures.

[greeneyes]

Happy birthday AFTR.

[JustaDumbBlonde]

Birthday blessings to you!!! You are very dear and I hope that your day was wonderful.

[JustaDumbBlonde]

Very nice (and tasty!) photos.

[greeneyes]

Wow. Great pictures. We didn’t get anything worth photos this year except for corn and perennials. I think I’ll try that Jenny Lind next year.

I love melons, but I like the ones that are small the best.

[fanfan]

Happy Birthday AFTR!
My Mom says “Growing old is not for the faint of heart, but it’s better than the alternative!”
I agree!

Hi Gardening FRiends. :-)
I hope you are all having a wonderful harvest season!

They are calling for frost here tonight. That is early for us.

[greeneyes]

“My Mom says “Growing old is not for the faint of heart, but it’s better than the alternative!”
I agree!”

Whoo hoo. Your Mama got that right!

[stefanbatory]

my name is easy to spell...Polish is always spelled exactly the way it sounds...you just need to know the rules...:P

[JustaDumbBlonde]

Bees can and do travel up to 3 miles or so from their hive to forage. If a colony swarms from somewhere to your property, there will be thousands of bees — between 20 and 50 thousand is not an unusual number. If it has been very dry, they could be looking for water.

[tubebender]

Is your rogue plant a member of the Nightshade family?

[tubebender]

Where are you going while they refinish your floors?

We are boarding the dog and will try living in the bedrooms for some of the time but we are prepared to flee if we must. Daughter offered their travel trailer but wifie poo nixed that idea so I'll let her suffer have her way

[rightly_dividing]

Thanks

[who knows what evil?]

Whew...got down to 35 this morning. Covered my peppers, but left most tomatoes exposed. All is fine, and overnight lows will be staying in the 50’s over the next ten days. Plenty of peppers; just want them to color. Salsa and sauce processing rolls on all weekend...

[rightly_dividing]

Thanks. I have read about compost a lot, but do not have enough of the right ingrediants to make any, unless lots of oak leaves would do. I will look into a soil test and see where that leads me.

This year being my first sucessful effort in gardening has opened up new questions; like how to prepare for next year? As in what to do and when to do it.

[who knows what evil?]

I would think strongly about using pots or 5 gal buckets.

Agreed...as an experiment; I planted tomatoes in 'global buckets'; a self-watering system made from those 5-gallon pastry buckets from the grocery store (bakery department will usually just give them to you if you ask). Production was insane...got thirty Brandywines off of ONE plant in a 5-gallon 'global bucket'. Nearly 30 Amana Orange off of another...ALL tomatoes did very well...Japanese Black Trifele, Nepal, Stupice, Kellogg's Breakfast...you name it.

Highly recommended for people with limited space or crappy soil...

[rightly_dividing]

Thanks for the input. One of my earliest efforts to grow tomatos was in containers. That did not work out very well, but this year I did have an abundant crop so I am not going to mess with it as long as it works.