Got my first Datil peppers starting to come out. Good size but they haven’t turned color yet. Can’t wait to try one. I have so many Ghost peppers now I tried selling some to a local sub shop but they refused citing liability issues.
Hopefully some of the folks I sent seed to are starting to get results. They are a bugger to get going but one they are established they grow like weeds with a massive thirst.
Alas...I have lost my home, and thus my garden as well.
But I will start some potted herbs on my apartment balcony.
Gotta get my hands DIRTY again.
My tomatoes are now ripe and ripening. I have enough to begin making salsa. The forecasters say we are to be above 100 again and I have already made my early morning rounds to see what took place overnight... more ripe tomatoes.
Finally getting a few tomatoes, though still only one from ‘in ground’ planting.
Voles unexpectedly have drastically attacked the potato crop; seems they have hit their 4-6 year population peak, just as the grasshopper population has crashed after two years of devastatingly high numbers. Sigh; always something.
The weather ruined the last set banana squash, though it was large enough to be picked and used like a large summer squash. New blossoms coming, but it is way too late to even dream of any maturing. Also, so far, only one pattypan and 2 zukes, though they now should start producing in the next week or so.
We hit the county 4-H fair yesterday, and the veggie exhibits were pretty anemic, so it isn’t just us. Not a “misery loves company” thing; rather just a validation that it isn’t anything we’re doing wrong.
I replanted all the blaupeas we harvested, in hopes of getting a fall crop from them. Instead of a space & water-saving short, wide-row bed, I put them in as a single long row this time, and will trellis them.
Today, it will be harvesting wild plums, both yellows & reds. Huge crops of them this year, after 2 or 3 years of poor to mediocre fruit set.
I also have 20 apricot seeds in a zipper bag of potting soil in the fridge; they came from a city parks tree in town, and apricots are the fruit that comes truest to parent from seed. I also tried to save a couple of peach seeds, but when I cracked the pits, the kernels were just dried out papery wafers.
The Egyptian onions rescued from the town’s yard-waste dump keep sprouting; have 35 of them up & growing now, out of the 50 I planted. Monday, the count was 28, and last Friday 21.
My area was without rain for nearly 2 months, then we had rain almost every day for 2 weeks. Now we’re getting a sprinkle every few days, so it’s evening out. The stuff that survived the drought is going gangbusters. My zucchini is taking over the back yard, one cucumber is tangled in with it, and my watermelons are starting to follow suit. They’re all laughing at me when I try to get them back on the trellis. I think I’ll just let them ramble.
My potatoes are growing faster than I can hill them up. I hope that means lots of potatoes this fall. I’m trying to replant some tomatoes on the off chance that we get a late fall and they can actually produce, the drought killed all the ones I planted this spring.
I’ve been harvesting radish pods from 2 different varieties. One is a Rat-tail radish, which is bred specifically for it’s pods, the other is a normal radish that Jungs was giving away as their free sample this year. The rat-tail has much bigger pods, but not as many of them. The regular radish has small pods, but there’s so many of them that there’s no way to keep them all picked. I’ve even taken to just cutting the branches off instead of plucking them individually, and they still outpace me! I hope someone in my family likes pickled radish pods, because I hate seeing stuff go to waste. Personally, I never liked radishes, I planted them for my dad.
On a completely different note, there’s been such a lull in the costume-making business that I’ve had to start looking for a new market. And I found one that’s being badly under-served: concealed-carry clothes for women. There are a few options out there right now, but not many, and quite frankly, the majority are ugly. I’m designing some things for the lady who wants to feel safe AND pretty. I’ve got a satin blouse design that’s almost ready for the market, and several other designs that are percolating. We’ll see how that does.
As an occupational hazard, I can’t look at someone now without trying to figure out how to alter their outfit for concealed-carry.