Posted on 10/04/2013 5:36:16 PM PDT by ApplegateRanch
Where's the weekly thread? Anyone have more members of the list?
That’s good news. We did have a good springkling the other day and turned the golf course into a beautiful shade of green. We golfed day before yesterday and it had received enough rain to turn the concrete fairways into nice soft areas to really get under the ball.
I’ve never seen wild garlic. Where did you get it? I can plant it along the back fence, next to the 4th tee.
/johnny
Thank you; that sounds deliciousss. Would have known nothing about them, had I not joined up on this ping list. Terrific stuff. :)
Wild garlic is up, too.Hmm. Is that something you originally purchased, or did it just happen upon your land? What about the taste, etc.? How does it differ from standard garlic? I'm already interested... :)
/johnny
Almost forgot about the wild garlic, glad it took. Mine has spread way too much but the honey bees are so attracted I hate to weedwhack it. Plus when I do weedwhack it the smell is almost overwhelming.
Got it covered Johnny.
Yes, there is some of that “new person” jealousy lurking around. Problem is she was selected by the District Marketing Manager, a big wig right under the District Manager, her work ethic and work product is also known to the bigger wigs in Bentonville, Ar. On her last day at her old store, before we moved here, she went through an inspection of her area by the big wigs from the corporate office. She received 100% Kudos they even took pictures of her area and posted them on the corporate web site as an example of what a soft-lines (clothing) area should look like.
Two weeks after arriving at this new store her store was scheduled for this same inspection. And the District Manager was very worried. She told him not to worry that she would take care of any problems, even went in on her day off to make sure everything was perfect for the next days inspection. She told the Marketing Manager to just get out of my way and let me do my job. She did her magic and they passed 100%. The Marketing Manager was all grins with thank you, thank you! Apparently bad store inspections can cost people in his position their jobs. He told Mrs. RD after, he had plans for her.
Last night, the deer feasted on a couple more okras. One still has one little pod on it.
Brought in some new zealand spinach this morning, along with some tomatoes, mustard and peppers (jalapeno, red bell, banana and hot dark green wrinkled ones). Thanks to whomever recommended the spinach because it’s grown all summer, clear of disease and doesn’t wilt or bolt in hot weather. It’s a keeper!
Update on the maters - the Amish Plum and Porter are coming on! The Black Cherry maters are twice the size of the ones earlier now with temps dropping into the lower 90s.
The late garlic and ginger are doing well. Hope the ginger can survive in it’s pot until it’s brought in and gets a bigger pot next month for the first freeze because it’s going great guns (knock on wood).
All the best for Mrs. Red in her new position.
Hey, as long as they grow and produce for your climate and are tasty then no problem. Squash won’t grow here at all.
We used to have wild onions all over the yard. They survived for years and years until the drought a couple years ago. There were a few that survived next to the flower bed but they disappeared this year. They had turned into weeds but it was nice to go out and clip some for dinner. Missing them now.
Thanks for the pings, FRiends!
I don’t have the exhaustive ping list, Applegate Ranch. I’m glad Johnny does!
I guess the big event for me this week was I learned from a local gardening friend that the front scheduled to move in this week was prompting her to harvest her sweet potatoes. Since I didn’t have a clue about local conditions for when to harvest them, I was grateful for the heads up. So yesterday Darlin and I harvested the pot with the SWEET POTATOES in them. Most of the tubers are fairly small, but two of them are about the length of my hand and big enough around the middle that my fingers cant reach! I weighed the sack with them all in it a few moments ago, and it came out to right at 2 pounds.
Darlin was very impressed that our one little slip produced all of that! So now I have another thing on the list that I feel confident we can grow, by God’s grace. It truly is a miracle to see food come out of the ground like that.
I’ve learned that the SNOW PEAS are willing to grow here and produce despite having predators (right now, mites - despite frequent neem treatments) to deal with. The GREAT NORTHERN BEAN plant has also been producing. Mites are on it as well, but not quite as unhappy as the snow peas.
I’m thinking that I’m just a loser for SQUASH - right now, I’ve got acorn and white scallop. I have some plants that are hanging in there but clearly are not happy. I’ve been neeming them as well.
The TOMATO plants have a lot of white moths flying out of them every time I water despite neeming. The tomatoes are reddening. So my self - assessment of being a tomato farmer is that I’m very marginal! LOL!
The remaining sunflowers continue to ripen.
The cold front just came in last night with a lot of rain, and so it is quite cool and cloudy today.
Wishing everyone here on the thread the best!
Not much left but a few tomatoes, some herbs & collard greens.
Started some cilantro(seems to do well near grapes), lettuce, brussells sprouts, broccoli, cabbage, celery, cumin & onions.
Thanks for the encouraging words re: asparagus seedlings. They are now over a foot high and even made a few tiny spears. Wonder if we’ll be able to eat off them next spring?
Thanks; I never thought of looking there; just went by memory & who I could spell right.
That is a shame. Can’t understand living like that.
Reminds me of southern Oregon. People would buy 5-10 acre lots that had been well tended cow pastures; build a nice custom house, then decide it was too much trouble/expense to water even the yard.
A lot of them were just a house, a driveway, and a worn path to the front door through a yard choked with the *&&^&%#@@# Yellow Star Thistle they allowed (illegally; listed as noxious weed) to totally infest the property. Ironically, the major control method for Star Thistle is to water it! It needs drought conditions to grow & produce seed.
Not a tree, or a shrub, or a bush, or a flower in sight, let alone a garden or even (shudder!) a lawn.
Squash, as long as they aren’t an excessively long season variety—like Jumbo Pink Banana!—do well for us. I tried the banana two years running, and got only 1 or 2 smallish (for them) ones each year. Unsuccessfully tried several different tricks to extend their season long enough & still keep them happy, as we love it, but they don’t even sell them here.
We still have around 50 pumpkins out buried in the snow; like a lot of the squash, corn, and the sunflowers, I grew them to mainly feed to the chickens this winter. The dried corn & sunflower stalks will go to the rabbits.
Don’t understand your problems with rain, unless maybe you don’t have adequate drainage? Tomatoes are a major crop down here.
Any potted tomatoes which are elevated will eventually hang down once they get heavy enough.
I prefer Amelia and Brandywine when grown from seed. I’ve also had pretty good results from Better Boy plants which you can get from HD/Lowes.
If you want bigger tomatoes, you’re going to have to prune heavily, especially with indeterminate varieties. Make sure the sunlight can get to the fruits. This is hard for me to do, cutting off thriving growth.
Spraying with neem oil regularly is essential to keeping down (not eliminating, unfortunately) the white flies that spread disease. When you see leaves that just don’t look right, get rid of them right away.
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