Posted on 06/22/2012 7:06:41 AM PDT by JustaDumbBlonde
Anybody enjoying the heat???? Good morning, FRiends and fellow gardeners! My thanks to Red Devil_232 and his beautiful tomato plants for hosting last week's gardening thread.
Here in NELA, we welcomed the first day of summer with temps in 3 digits ... at one time yesterday afternoon, our digital weather station had the temperature outside at 102.4! The remote unit that is transmitting the temp is on the north end of the house, tucked up under the eve and out of the sun. Whew!
Lots going on here. We've been enjoying sweet corn (var. Serendipity) all week, and the harvest begins in earnest tomorrow. Three acres ready now and another 3 acres that is 2 weeks behind the first planting.
Last week, I think it was although everything is in a blur here lately, we happened across a few wild plum trees and picked until the heat and humidity wouldn't let us pick any more. After cooking them down and filtering the juice, I got 3 beautiful gallons with which to make jelly. Didn't really have time to do this, but when you try to live from the land as I do, you have to take what you can get when you can get it. We were thrilled.
My husband was kind enough to plant a few acres of scarlet cowpeas for me, which started coming up on the 2nd day after planting. Heat and adequate moisture are magic with seeds this time of year! Enjoyed the first tomatoes of the season from my volunteer plants. I have no idea what they were, but they were delish.
The apiary is also buzzing and keeping me very busy. I harvested another 7 gallons of honey Tuesday, off of 2 hives. Got a call yesterday to go look at 2 hives in one house that need to be removed ... both large and active! That will bring my beeyard up to 12 hives, more than enough to keep me busy and deep in honey year-round.
So ... what have you been up to???
The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you.
This thread is non-political, although you will find that most here are conservative folks. No matter what, you won’t be flamed and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked.
It is impossible to hijack the Weekly Gardening Thread ... there is no telling where it will go and that is part of the fun and interest. Jump in and join us!
I hope you have a bumper crop of okra. How many plants do you have?
Holy cow Gabz! THAT is a heatwave. I join your prayer.
The sad, sad news ..... we have a considerable number of very large, old, and beautiful pines around our place. They are the dominant feature that lends 'personality' to what the property looks like. In the front pasture (when mowed), it looks like a beautiful park with the green grass amid the stately pines.
This past week, we had a forester out to look at the pines. They have started dying .... some have been close to structures and taking down a huge pine is very expensive as we have found out from experience. The forester pointed out that the pines in the pasture (and surrounding forest) are infested with the Southern Pine Beetle. The pines are mature (60-80 years old) and it doesn't take much to compromise their health, thus they are more likely to be affected by the beetles. His suggestion was to take them all down and realize some money from them now rather than continue to incur the danger of dead trees and the expense of removing the trees one or two at a time as they die. The money realized would be used to replant the property with other trees.
What a blow, but not unexpected. We're still looking at the situation, but the expense of treating the trees due to size/number is prohibitive & probably would not be effective - realistically, I think we know what we have to do. We've been watching these pines grow for the last 45 years and the death of the pines is a harsh reminder that unfortunately, nothing ever stays the same. The Southern Pine Beetles are 'native' and there are several other 'hot spots' of beetle activity in our area. The last couple of days, I've been taking pictures of the various big pine trees & groups of pines so I'll have something to remember them by.
The best part of happiness is the pines. ~Terri Guillemets
Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world. ~John Muir
You can live for years next door to a big pine tree, honored to have so venerable a neighbor, even when it sheds needles all over your flowers or wakes you, dropping big cones onto your deck at still of night. ~Denise Levertov
Pretty juice! Hope you saved the leftover pulp for plum butter. Plum butter is my favorite, well right after tomato preserves.
Whew, it’s HOT here. So hot the green beans are about kaput. The corn didn’t fill before they started burning up. I brought in a handful of nasty little ears for dinner but they’re really sad looking. Speaking of HOT! The jalapenos are nearly too hot for hubby, lol. He takes a bite, hollers, takes a bite, hollers but keeps eating them. He finally got around to starting to take down the hill that was left after some construction a decade ago. If/when it’s down maybe I can try some berry bushes there since two plantings didn’t take in the side bed. I’d also like to start some herbs and flowers there too. But of course that’s the only area where the good grass is. Well, maybe this fall.
That cartoon at the beginning of this thread says it all about the hot weather. lol Had to pull up the pansies because it was too darn hot.
Without hiking out to the okry patch to count, I would guess about 20.
Oh, that is so heartbreaking. A friend recently had a number of older large pines taken out, so I am familiar with the cost. Unfortunately there was little to save on those, thus she didn’t receive much in return.
I’ve cried a couple of times, already. We have enough that are still alive or newly infested that we should be able to realize enough to replant the property with some nice trees. The forester is a friend of a friend (also a forester) .... both are great guys, helpful and willing to make recommendations & put us in touch with reputable folks to deal with. That is some comfort, at least.
You are the hardest working lady I have ever encountered in my long life... and you seem to thrive on it. We are getting a rare late June rain but it is not amounting to much just enough to keep us out of the garden so I’m headed to Costco for a few things and a stop to buy 2 tickets to Sunday’s garden tour. Lady Bender picked 3 gallons of Strawberries Tuesday and a gallon of Raspberries Wednesday while I continued installing drip irrigation and a thousand other minor chores including eating a few Kohlrabi out of hand. The corn is racing toward Knee High by the 4th of July (yes I read you are eating corn. Our temps run 58 to 68 degrees during the summers and 35 to 58 during the winters...
We have decided to just let clover grow in several of our raised beds till fall planting, because we just don't have the water this year to support them.
First corn planting is about knee high. We are collecting wild Blackberries daily. I will process them today. Since our freezer is on the Fritz, I am just going to do a light syrup and water bath canning. This will be great for cobbler or just berries and cream in the winter.
We had to have a new phone line put in, and even though the guys were pretty careful, they damaged one of the grapevines, and it appears to have died. All the rest have great looking tiny green grapes.
Several of the fruit trees we planted 2 years ago are struggling this year. Probably the lack of rain. We are only getting about 5 gallons of water per day from the air conditioner, and can't use much of the well water.
I really do think a cistern is the way we need to go.
Have a great weekend. God Bless.
Squashes -- pink banana, green pattypan, cocozelle, and buttercup -- are taking off, as are both the pole & bush beans. Picking peas, and thinned the carrots; they'll be on the table tonight.
The tomatoes in the Topsy-Turvys are doing great: the Purple Cherokee has set at least 3 fruit; and the 2 Delicious & 1 Bonnie Best are also flowering. OTOH, the garden tomatoes haven't started to really grow yet, let alone flower, even though they were all started at the same time.
I took some brush to the free dump last week, and come home with about 25 iris, and 40-50 Egyptian walking onion plants, with lots of bulbils attached, that somebody had dug out and tossed. Couldn't let them just lay there, and die a miserable death. ;-) (Last fall, I also filled a feed sack with over 40 ears of still in the husk sweet corn somebody had tossed; the chickens & wild turkeys appreciated it. No excuse to waste perfectly good food.)
Potatoes have gotten their second hilling, and are looking great.
A thunderstorm came through Tuesday evening, and gave us an inch of rain, most of it slow & steady from the trailing edge of it. A close by strike also fried my modem, which the tech came out & replaced Wednesday morning. Second time this year; glad I don't have to buy them.
Thursday night/Friday morning last week, Big Mamma gave us a litter of 6 bunnies; one didn't survive, the rest are thriving. Hassenpfeffer!
I make jalapeno and other pepper jellies every year and they are notorious for a slow set. Takes at least a couple of weeks, sometimes longer. But they do eventually firm up. Maybe cherries are the same way.
I've never made cherry jam, but I have done chokecherry jelly, jam and syrup. My syrup always gelled while stored, but you could pop it in the microwave for a few seconds and it was good to go.
You should get quite a bounty from 8 tomato plants! LOL at your ability to graze from the driveway. I go out everyday and pick dandelion greens and flowers for my desert tortoises to eat. People drive by while I’m pulling them from the ditch out front. :)
Wife had zoysia grass sod put in our front yard, and we had enough left over to put a large strip down the backyard fence. I put that in myself. It really is greening up and looks great. The area we covered is shaded by large pecan trees and we are hoping it gets enough light to be healthy. Looks like it will, seems to like the shade.
Everyone have a great weekend. And may your garden be productive.
Sold as a Plant - Allium cepa perutile - Ht:30cm.
A non-flowering Evergreen Perennial onion that produces profuse clumps of bulblets which are pulled off the sides as needed for cooking, Very Hardy & stands well through the winter & for many years after. (Rare) This is NOT the Welsh Onion
A couple of years ago, I had trouble with the squirrels in my okra. I learned to plant way more than we actually need.
Absolutely I added pectin. But, the fruit was store-bought and comletely ripe. Perhaps that was the problem.
I’ve actually made bread and butter pickles before; this was my first time making dill pickles.
The ingredients in that Microwave Pickles recipe are a lot like (a scaled-down version of) my canned bread & butter pickles. The only difference I see is that mine include turmeric. (I might try adding a dash of turmeric at the end...not too much because it can be bitter.) That recipe could be really convenient for making small batches to tide me over if I have the misfortune to run out of b&b pickles before next year’s cukes are producing enough to can more.
Thanks for posting it!
Well... I’ve been watching this 96 storm for two days now. As you probably are infuriated about (like me) the Austin 10day forecast ‘saw’ the hurricane a week ago and forecast the rain, then dropped it. It picked back up on it somewhat today, with a 40% pop NEXT Sunday. Chances will pick up sharply once the models bringing it to TX verify in the next day or two.
My tomatoes were stripped last night by a large green caterpillar I can’t find yet. Maybe some bird found him. Or them.
Monarch butterflies are hatching and flapping all over the place.
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