Weekly Gardening Thread (Catalog Fever) Vol. 1 Jan 6, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Seeds) Vol. 2, January 13, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread Vol. 3, January 20, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (U.S. Hardiness Zones) Supplemental Vol. 1
Weekly Gardening Thread (Soil Types) Vol. 4, January 27, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Vacation) Vol. 5, February 03, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Vacation) Vol. 6, February 10, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Vacation?) Vol. 7, February 17, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Home Sweet Home) Vol. 8, February 24, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Soil Structure Part 1) Vol. 9, March 2, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Transplanting Tomatoes) Vol. 10, March 9, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Useful Links) Vol. 11, March 16, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread -- Vol. 12, March 23, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread -- Vol. 13, March 31, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Happy Easter!) Vol. 14, April 6, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread Vol. 15, April 13, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread Vol. 16, April 20, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread Vol. 17, April 27, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread Vol. 18, May 4, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread Vol. 19 (Getting Projects Done) May 11, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Harvesting Wheat) Vol. 20, May 18, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread Vol. 21 (Keywords) May 25, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread Vol. 22 (Keywords 2) June 1, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread Vol. 23, June 8, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread Vol. 24, June 15, 2012
I’m picking cukes, ‘maters and squash.-) Nectarines are rotting on the tree -(. My first year for nectarines. The tree was loaded. They started turning blotchy and are getting brown then rotting. Green beans going great.
The wild plum juice has the most beautiful color!! I am betting the jelly will be beautiful as well. Good job, JADB!
Your plum nectar looks great. Do you all remember 2 years ago when I was trying my hand at making jam after nearly 25 years of NOT making jam? I was trying to make cherry preserves and it never jelled, despite following the recipe slavishly, so I re-labled my jars “cherry sauce” and gave it away to friends and family. I found a left-over jar the other day, and it has finally jelled. It has turned into an excellent jam, which I am enjoying. Why so long?
Beautiful jelly! I love these threads for the wonderful photos, great advice, and friendly conversation. :)
That is beautiful plum juice. I bet it will make wonderful jelly (plum jelly is my favorite).
I made dill pickles (for the first time ever) this week. It’s so hard to wait for pickles’ flavor to develop. I keep wanting to open a jar and taste them. Next, I really need to make some pesto with all of that basil out there.
In addition to cucumbers, I am picking okra, long beans, pineapple tomatillos, bell peppers, herbs as needed, and I am getting watermelons and cantaloupes occasionally. Ancho peppers are almost ready (I planted them late) and the tomatillo plants have just started setting fruit. I am about to pull the last of the carrots. They have been in the ground way past the supposed maturity date; I guess they are never going to size up in this heat. (I’ll plant more in the fall; they should do better then.) I just pulled the last of the pole beans and planted more long beans in their spot.
The spring tomatoes have just about had it, but I am starting seeds for fall tomatoes. I just planted seeds for my first try at winter squash (moschata types). Hopefully they will grow well.
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.
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...
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
Reading posts here about the weather reminds me why I live in FL. While I do miss cool summer nights, it just never gets THAT hot during the day.
Some kind of worm or caterpillar just ravaged my zucchini. A couple hundred square feet of leaves GONE in a couple days. It’s a 1/2” long green thing that folds over a portion of the leaf and makes a little cocoon by holding the leaf together with a silky looking stuff. Also present are a bunch of things that look like relatively fine grain pepper. On the bright side, I can walk between the raised beds again.
Tomatoes are about done for the spring, just a few more waiting to start to ripen. Long beans are starting to produce heavy. Looks like I’ll get a second batch from the blackberries. Should check the figs, a few looked like they were about ready to ripen the other day. Starting some seeds for the fall this week.
Got the aquarium started this week. My first crack at aquaponics will be to simply run the tank about half full with some lettuce and spinach floating on styrofoam with the roots growing into the water. We’ll see.
We’ve had over 10” or rain over the last 10 days or so. Clay fields are muck. Watched two colonies swarm a couple weeks ago. The upside are corn and tomatoes - going beautifully. Way too early to can yet but I’m thinking of setting up a summer kitchen with an old stove stored in the barn.
We’ve had over 10” or rain over the last 10 days or so. Clay fields are muck. Watched two colonies swarm a couple weeks ago. The upside are corn and tomatoes - going beautifully. Way too early to can yet but I’m thinking of setting up a summer kitchen with an old stove stored in the barn.
Beautiful.
I chucked some peanuts in the ground this week. Never tried them before.
You are inspirational! 3 acres of corn??? How do you process that all before it becomes overripe?
I ended up shooting at a deer yesterday. It's a doe with two small ones, and it's real aggressive. It has learned how to push cages around the fruit trees to browse on the leaves and the thing even comes on our back steps and eats the Morning Glory vines. Don't worry, I shot a spoiler. I didn't have the time to slaughter the animal yesterday, and today it's just too hot.