It is amazing how many of my Facebook friends have all of a sudden developed an interest in gardening
This week, I hand-sawed 17 Norway Maples down. In the forest out back. In a 1/2 acre area, state property. Will definitely improve the outlook for native saplings.
Azaleas & Rhododendroms bloomed.
I’m trying container gardening this year.
fingerlakes ny here (upstate)
poppies and strawberries are blooming, asparagus has been hit hard by asparagus beetles, harvested a couple crops of rhubarb. Peonies are getting ready to bloom. My lone lilac I planted last year has already bloomed.
Re-black plastic mulched my smaller veg garden out back. critters already dug out an ancho pepper plant!
Growing herbs, morning glories, brandywine tomatoes, charleston grey watermelon, cukes, okra.
(i was once married to a Southerner)
We got another couple or three inches of rain here in Central Missouri this past week. The ground in most places is completely saturated. The Missouri River came up 12’ over the last five days at Jefferson City.
My garden drains nicely, however, so I should be able to get the rest of my tomato plants in the dirt this weekend. Also have pepper plants that need to go in.
Been eating fresh green salad for the last couple weeks. The collards and other stuff I sowed a few weeks ago are mostly up and starting to look like something. Cukes may have to be reseeded. I’ll give them a couple more days before I decide on that.
The rain finally stopped here in Missouri Ozarks. Mid 70s heading to high 80s this coming week. Time to plant some warm weather crops.
Veggies finally planted. Spinach, lettuce and asparagus are good eating. For the rest, $&#%@ SQUIRRELS.
The recent heat (100+) in the Norcal valleys slowed everything down here.
While there are blossoms on the tomatoes and peppers, fruit didn’t set and many blooms wasted.
Plums only need about 2-3 more weeks for a bountiful harvest.
[[This thread is non-political respite.]]
How DARE You?!!!!
j/k- nice to see something non political for a change-
My asparagus and onions are coming up nicely.
The potatoes are getting a slow start but some are showing.
My tomatoes are ready to be put in except for the weather and cold temps.
Sweet corn is up! Once we got our little patch planted I echoed Grandpa and said “And now it can rain.” Tomatoes and peppers growing too although they got some wind damage from strong, cold east wind several days week before last.
Working on flowers for DD’s wedding August. She didn’t want me to try and grow anything in case it didn’t turn out, but I figure some extra’s can’t hurt.
Something I never almost never talk about on this forum.
I am a poloce officer in a leftist city.
Dodged many bricks, glass bottles, frozen bottles of water, rocks (have one on my dashboard from last night that missed my head and hit team mates calf) traffic cones, pieces of shattered glass.....ate several facefuls of C.S. gas before I could get my gas mask on and my voice is still hoarse this a.m. from coughing it up.
I saw grown men bring their toddler children to a riot right next to burning cop cars and looting Nordstoms and complain that their kid caught a face full of pepper spray and blame the cops.
White guys telling me to die, white young ladies calling me a killer, young black male telling me I am just afraid that my daughter is going to fuck a black guy and that is why I am racist against black people then in the next breath telling me white people are horrible and we should all just die. Then a young white girl came up to me and said she wanted me to give her some bottle water to wash out her pepper sprayed eyes right after calling names.....not even a comma between the name calling and the request for assistance (I ended up giving her a bottle of water.
I also at the same time had an investigator for the defense attorney group tell me how cool it was that she was getting to love through a situation where there is a curfew.
Have conservative friend who texted me asking why we just let people destroy the city.....i avoided telling him to go F himself because ai know he just doesn’t understand what is going on “on the ground”
The antifa/anarchists and college radicals tried to burn down headquarters but the “desk jockey” detectices made a stand and saved it with the help of SWAT and their C.S. gas.
Whwre I work is the largest agency in our state....it took 5 assisting agencies, every blast ball, most of the O.C spray in stocks just to halfway hold back the rioters and even that won’t enough.
They had to get permission to use C.S gas to save headquarters and SWAT went through the entire inventory and had to get more from other agencies.
If it is bad today I hope they flew in some supplies from somewhere else so we have enough
Gotta go...gotta grab my uniform from the dryer and go back to work.
Mother Nature still not sure what kind of weather we will have and I still have the heat on! Pansies blooming profusely, lettuce and arugula doing well. Tomato seeds sprouting. Strangely, the caladium bulbs have not sprouted. They were well cared for during their dormant period so I’m scratching my head over that one. Planted a stem of silk pansies. They are my furry son’s favorite flower. They have been planted in his memory. Sammy passed away recently.
Help! Rabbit repellent ideas? Cannot include fencing. I have moth cakes, insect repellent, cayenne pepper, green mouse poison cubes, common garage items. Never had a problem in 35 years!
Planting season continues!
Sunday I went out to my land and planted roughly 100 tomatoes and peppers. I also laid out the rebar for one trellis, although I did not have the stamina to finish it.
I had originally planned to grow around 30 tomatoes. Namely Bill Bean, Black Crimson, Black Vernissage, Cherokee Purple, Farthest North, Morovsky Div, Polish Linguisa, and Punta Banda.
When I read about garden centers selling out of starter plants, I planted a whole flat of things to share with my neighbors, but it turned out that flat wasn’t needed, so I planted it myself. The tomatoes in that flat were Jellybean, Sweet Million, Early Bird Red, Climbing Triple-Crop, Italian Paste, Striped Roman, Peron, Moneymaker, and more Punta Banda.
Some of those are varieties I wanted to try, but not as much as other varieties, so they’d gotten bumped down the priority list until the lockdowns and shortages started. Others are varieties that came free or were given to me over the years. The Triple-Crop and Punta Banda are the only two from that tray that I grow routinely. Punta Banda is one of my favorites, because it combines the compact bushiness of a determinate, with the ongoing harvest of an indeterminate.
The peppers I grew are Purple Beauty, Sweet Cherry Yellow, Sweet Cherry Red, and Ghost. That last one I originally bought for pest control, as squirrels take one bite and leave the whole garden alone! The Purple Beauty I bought for making pickle relish for my Mom. The rest were free gifts that came with other orders. I’m mildly allergic to peppers, so I tend not to bother with them.
All together, there were about 130 cells planted, but some were from older seed and didn’t germinate, so I dumped the empty cells in the same hole as a live one from the same variety. I don’t have an accurate count, but I’m estimating it was around 100 total. I put them near my squash on one end of the field, with a trellis full of lima beans separating the two.
Speaking of squash, they are doing great! The ones that were transplanted look like they could have used more hardening off, but they’re getting there. The ones that were direct seeded are green and strong! I’m looking forward to harvest season already :)
Then, yesterday I planted maybe 30 melons. Mostly Kaho watermelons, but also a few each of Kirkman muskmelons, a non-bitter bitter melon, some cucumbers, and a “snake bean”. I also replanted some of my luffa gourds, as they didn’t handle the transplant very well.
Definitely need a recovery day today!!!!
My garden is doing fantastic by the way.
And I had let myself get out of shape due to injuries over the years.
Started losing weight a year ago and down 45 lbs....speed gardening while keeping my heart rate at 130 for 5-6 hours a day has got me back in aerobic shape believe it or not.
Would not be able to work these protests at old weight and fitness level.
God and gardening work in mysterious ways.
I do have 5 yards of fresh garden soil I have to move with home depot buckets....wife and daughter are going to move 1/8 of a yard for me today so I can get some more veggies transplanted.