I've been trying to find things to be thankful for this drought for. Yes, I'm weird, but my list is pretty short, maybe you guys could help me? So far I've got:
1) The underground springs on my land are easy to spot now, since they're the only green patches in a field of brown. God might as well have circled them with a highlighter!
2) There hasn't been a trace of fungus or mildew infecting any of my plants.
3) I now can be sure that my zucchini is tough enough for a survival garden. Last year it handled a cold summer and a mildew infection and still kept going. This year it's taking the heat and drought and still going strong. Zuchetta Rampicante if anyone's curious, it makes for a great duel-purpose squash, but summer and winter.
Thank you for posting this. I hope that everything is okay for Justa, just being a busy farmer.
We are still getting many tomatos, large Big Boys, grape, and yellow tomatos, and banana peppers. We are starting to get okry on our 6 week old, 18” plants.
Gardening ping, any help rebuilding the ping list would be much appreciated!
I wonder if you could pick them and use them as you would raisins, or dried cranberries? Maybe throw them into muffins, or cook them in your oatmeal?
Anyhow, here are some names I remember off the top of my head:
tubebender, Diana in Wisconsin, rightly_dividing, cotton, Jabz, fan fan, Black Agnes, greeneyes, knittnmom, mtn climber, daisyjane69, petruchio, Red_Devil 232, Justadumbblonde, jemian, DollyCali
Good luck and thanks for doing this.
Gald your zukes are doing fine. Last year, mine were big and pretty but didn’t produce a thing. This year, the squash bugs got everything so had to pull up all the zukes, crooknecks, sweet dumplings and delicatas.
The little cherry and yellow plum tomatoes are doing fine but I only got one roma and not a single mr. stripey.
Did put up two batches of pickles (one dill and one bread and butter) this week so that’s something.
drought is rough! Been eatting silverqueen corn from my garden since June 27th. Sprouted indoors then transplanted. Live in fairfax va and thankful for the trees that fell on my house not doing too much damage.
drought is rough! Been eatting silverqueen corn from my garden since June 27th. Sprouted indoors then transplanted. Live in fairfax va and thankful for the trees that fell on my house not doing too much damage.
I’m on the list.
Gardening ping! My apologies if some of you received this twice, we’re trying to rebuild the ping list.
Hi, Ellendra! I am thinking about being “thankful” in a drought. The only item I can come up with is you don’t have to mow dead grass. Plus, you “feed” the mosquitos in the early morning/evening water duties. I am so sorry about your berries. Do you have mulch around the plants (I’m thinking that may hold some moisture around the base?) Hugs, Mom
My garden is surviving (barely) because I am still ‘fit’ enough to afford to water. Which I have spent an inordinate amount of time doing as I am smack dab in the middle of the ‘ring of fire’ over the vast fly over ‘midwest’. I have notice a clear vacancy of US in the flyover midwest whining and moaning about our drought!!!!!!
My husband passed away two years ago this past week, he was our gardener and I hardly know what I'm doing but my snap peas, cucumbers and tomatoes all seem to be doing pretty well, but my green beans are sparse and still really small. Maybe I bought expired seeds?? Giving it some good effort and trying to do my hubby proud, it feels really good and I know he's smiling down on me!
No help on positives for the heat.
Thanks for the zucchini info, I will have to try it next year or can I plant it this year still I am in Indiana near Indy.
My pepper plants are in hot chile heaven! I’m growing Ghost peppers, Tabascos, Habaneros, Datils and Jalapenos. They are exploding with fruits. Even our tomatoes, which we grow in pots (we grow everything in pots since our space is limited) are giving us the best harvest we’ve ever had. I did manage to kill off a mortgage lifter but an autopsy showed that death was due to drowning. We put the pot in a tray that was too small so it blocked the drain holes and didn’t allow water to escape. We looked at the withering leaves and assumed it was from the 104 degree temps, adding more water to an already overwatered plant. When I pulled out the plant to reuse the pot I saw nothing but mud. Now we are using that pot for a transplanted Ghost Pepper plant. We will have a record harvest and the combination of blistering heat and good soakings will turn the fruits into little fireballs.
I read a post in last week’s gardening thread about starving Jalapenos to make them hotter. While I agree that overwatering them will make them milder they are still, after all, Jalapenos and their DNA will only make them so hot. Even if they wer 10x hotter than normal you still wouldn’t begin to come close to the power of even a Tabasco. For those of you who don’t eat a lot of hot stuff a strong Jalapeno may seem like a firestarter but the burst of heat is brief. Chew on a Ghost Pepper and you get an immediate burst of heat like a Jalapeno. The difference is that 15 minutes later it’s not only just as hot, it’s getting hotter, and it could be 45 minutes before the heat wears off.
Our one big failure so far is Missouri Wild Peas, which were sent to us by a generous FReeper. I’ve tried to germinate them in hot weather, in the shade, indoors, in soil and on moistened cotton balls. So far not one has germinated. Still have a few pods left to try.
I grow a small survival garden in Las Vegas. It is productive with tomatoes, zuchini, peppers, melons. Cucumbers grow like crazy. But a lot of things can’t handle te heat and getting the watering right is a bear (easy to over water with poor drainage).
I put together a prepper gardening book called Going Galt: Survival Gardening, that is my own reference. It covers everything I could think of, I used to work for the Cooperative Extension and have a lot of sources. http://www.futurnamics.com/garden.php
Thanks for the ping Ellendra.
The bunnies demolished most of our sugar snap peas and our green beans. After trying again, and losing those as well, we finally put up a rabbit fence. I think we’ve thwarted the bunnies - for now - since our most recent plantings are doing well. Our tomatoes are all doing really well this year, so far. We haven’t harvested any yet, but hope to soon. I have garlic drying on the porch and we’ve got new potatoes and will be harvesting zucchini. I decided to try brussels sprouts again. We had a good rain several days ago. Temps are upper 90’s right now though. We’ll be hauling water again.
Well, this area is in a drought, and this week we are in a record setting string of triple digit temps with NO rain. I have hand watered my raised beds with about 1" of water once a week and the veggies are doing great. No signs of wilting or brownouts. These darn things really do hold the water in the soil where the plants can access it.
BTW, I was on the missing Ping list too.
Hot and dry here in Central Missouri. Today will be the 10th straight with a daytime high over 100°. Still no rain. Not good.
Here in the Tampa area it’s getting pretty close to summer. The daily rains should have kicked in by now, but I’m still watching the dark clouds pass over me like a normal late spring. We got several inches one day from Debby, which was appreciated, but other than that it is dry.
I’m doing a better job this year picking my figs. I think I’m getting more than the birds are. Forgot, again, to treat for rust, so I suspect all the leaves will fall off and I’ll only get one crop.
Waiting for one last tomato to start to ripen and I can pull up the last plant. Got four varieties started for fall. Now if I can just find some plant labels that can make it through the season maybe I’ll be able to evaluate the different varieties.
Two years ago I planted a couple peach and a couple apple trees. Not long ago I removed the stakes. I was tired of dealing with them every time I mowed. Figured if a storm came through I could always stake them again, but overall it would be less work. Two days later the stakes were back in.
Only real issue I ended up with from Debby was that my bananas’ leaves got shredded.