To compensate for our cool weather I start the corn in the greenhouse and transplant to the garden and cover it with row covers to help it along ~
Picked about 2 gallons of Seascape Strawberries last Friday and a little less today ~
Did not get much gardening done except to go out and look at the prolific growth. Ground is just too wet and soggy to get ready for anything. So I have been organizing and cleaning and researching recipes.
Only harvest has been the winter greens, but at least the stores have some decent produce. A great time to go to lower carb eating - lots of fresh veggies available. Have to leave shortly to do some errands, but will be back later.
Have a great weekend. God Bless.
GE, please add me to your ping list. Thank you in advance! ;-)
Pinging the list.
I’m planting more than ever this year. Going to have tons of potatoes, and tomatoes, and peppers, and sweetcorn, and melons, and various kinds of squash, and cucumbers, and beans, and onions, and other stuff.
Just finished a fencing project around the front yard, and left some gardening space on the outside of the fence. One spot is perfect for a big strawberry bed. So today, while I was helping on the local mass garden project, I asked the lady who runs it if she knew anybody with strawberry plants. Sure enough, she did. I went over and talked to the gal who has them, and she’s giving me the whole bed. Her health is such that she just can’t bend over to harvest them any more. Went and looked at them, and they’re June bearers, and they’re just starting to produce, so I told her I’d pick them for her, and then transplant them later in the season. That should give them time to get established yet this year, and maybe we’ll get to enjoy a good harvest next year.
I have 9 tomato plants - 3 I planted the middle of April & nursed through a couple of cold spells. They have grown to the top of the tomato cages & then some. About 2 weeks ago, I planted 6 more and they are doing well. It’s rained almost all day, every day starting Tuesday, so I haven’t been out to the garden. When I checked today, two of the three original tomatoes have been severely chomped on and my red bell pepper plant has had almost all the leaves eaten off. Deer, I’m sure. Grrrrrrr.
I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do about it - will throw some netting over it all tonight, but that isn’t a long-term solution unless I do a little construction work. I’ve researched home made deer repellent & might try some of that - here’s a link of what I’ve been looking at: http://www.deer-departed.com/deer-repellent-recipes.html Evidently, the smell of eggs (sulphur) has tested as the most effective in detering deer. We have company coming Sunday through Tuesday morning ... house cleaning & mowing will take up my time tonight/tomorrow and I won’t be able to really do much until they leave, so I hope I can keep the deer off of everything until I can really do something about protecting the plants. Grrrrrrrr (again!).
All the potatoes are dug and tomatoes are coming in. It does seem like I'm not getting the production I got last year. Might be my memory. Regardless they're sure good.
Corn is developing nicely and I expect I'll be picking it within a week or two weeks at the most.
I mentioned last week about the 2nd crop of lemon blossoms and you said it wasn't unusual for your indoor plant; mine is still blooming away and even if only half set there will be as much fruit as the first batch. I couldn't be more pleased, it's a tree that produces outstanding fruit and my wife, who thinks a lemon with salt is dessert, is delighted.
No gardening for me this week. Left home with Mrs. Augie and #1 Marine Daughter Leah last Sunday, bound for Camp Pendleton.
Did a bit of touristing on the way. Spent a day wandering Petrified Forest National Park, then another day hiking the rim trail at the Grand Canyon.
Most of today was spent wandering Mrs. Augie’s old stomping grounds in Redondo Beach. Love the sea breeze out here.
We’re having a great time but I’m not looking forward to the weed patch that’s going to be waiting for me when I get home. lol
Hi Everybody!
((((HUGS))))
The maintenance man who used to take the bananas has moved on, and there are two new bunches ripening now.
Fried Plantains!
mmm mmm mmmm
So look forward to this every week.
There is a FReeRepublic tread earlier that may be of interest to tomato growers:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3297232/posts
To compensate for our cool weather I start the corn in the greenhouse and transplant to the garden and cover it with row covers to help it along ~
Picked about 2 gallons of Seascape Strawberries last Friday and a little less today ~
The tomatoes in the grow house look good but time will tell if I get a crop. Most of them are Celebrity as it does well in our pacific NW climate. There are a few peppers in here also ~
This is a rhododendron called Golden Gait ~
Glub!
Last time I looked out the kitchen window, the garden is still there; I just don’t feel like schlupping through the mud to get there from here. We’ve been getting anywhere from a half inch to nearly 2 inches of rain a day most days this past week or so, including 1.75 yesterday, and more earlier today; and again now. One of the new gooseberries drowned. A few days go, I was able to check, and the potatoes were about ready for their first hilling, but that’s not going to happen for awhile.
A close lightning strike took out my modem & phones (but not the phone line) today. Joys of a co-op, I called it in around 4 PM, and techs on their way home from the office stopped & replaced the modem less than an hour later.
70 miles to our SW, a WY town and surrounding area got 6-11” the night before last; they’re getting more tonight. It’s washed out a 8 or 10 miles of tracks and a couple of bridges of the BNSF/UP mainline double tracks for the Powder River coal trains; as well as taken out all the highways in the area. U.S. 18, 20, & 85 are all closed in east-central WY; the upside is I don’t have truck traffic to fight when I go to work
The same night, a 40 mile long swathe 15 miles south of us got up to tennis ball sized hail. We were lucky, as it had been bearing NE, straight at us for over 70 miles, but the hills & Cheyenne River hooked it due east.
Hi everyone. This is mom3boys, the one that likes to grow Asian veggies :-)
Been AWOL from the garden list for a while as far as posting, but I’ve been reading faithfully every week, enjoying everyone’s posts and pictures, and praying for Johnny.
It’s June in Phoenix, so barely any planting outside to be done - just enjoying the harvests from my veggies put in the ground in February.
I have some indoor gardening ideas I want to try, especially microgreens and more hydroponics.
I am planting potatoes for the first time. I got them from Seed Savers. I planted them one foot apart, per the directions. Now I have some multiple plants coming up where I planted one potato. It's just two or three plants in a one-potato hole. Is this normal? And how will I know when the potatoes are ripe for plucking?
Please hold johnny in prayer.
Hello greeneyes, and everyone!
We finished the class series a few days ago. Darlin and I pulled an all-nighter to prep for the test, which turned out well, but knocked us on our keesters for the next few days!
Here is the second installment on BUGS! Enjoy.... or not! LOL!
START Part Two
BUGS
TYPES OF FEEDING DAMAGE
A. SUCKING DAMAGE – Lace bugs will damage foliage by sucking
Spider mites: these are very tiny. The feeding pattern of their sucking activity shows a characteristic “STIPPLED” look. For those familiar with art history, the Pointilist school, using tiny dots of paint to get their effects, is the kind of effect seen by spider mites. Also look for webbing with spider mites. To prove their presence, take a white sheet of paper, knock the foliage above it, and you will see their dark bodies on the paper. Again, very tiny.
Aphids’ damage is also caused by sucking.
Other suckers are:
Scales, Thrips, Mealybugs, Plant bugs, and Mealybugs
You will see mealybugs most often in green houses and on house plants
It should be noted that a Wheel bug (Assassin Bug) is also a sucking type of insect. HOWEVER, even though it looks like it SHOULD be squashed, refrain from doing so. IT IS A GOOD GUY, and the sucking damage it does is not to plants, but to your plant damaging insects!
https://www.dogpile.com/info.dogpl/search/images?fcoid=417&fcop=topnav&fpid=27&q=wheelbug&ql=
A parenthetic discussion took place here about nomenclature conventions:
If an insect is a TRUE -—— you will use two words to describe/name them.
If an insect is not a TRUE-—— you will use one word to describe/name them.
EXAMPLES:
“BUMBLE BEE” - a bumble bee is a true bee, so you will use two words to describe/name it.
A “FIREFLY” is NOT a true fly. It is a beetle. Therefore, you will name it in one word, “FIREFLY.”
The same is true for “DRAGONFLY.”
However, a “STABLE FLY” IS a true fly, so it is TWO WORDS.
Lecture from handout he gave us resumes:
B. CHEWING DAMAGE
He showed us a picture of a leaf with the outer margins of the leaf (the edges) cut out with circular/ semi-circular holes. Leaf cutter bees will do this circular type of damage.
Another picture was of what is called “skeletonizing” - Japanese beetles and Elm leaf beetles will do this
https://www.dogpile.com/info.dogpl/search/images?fcoid=417&fcop=topnav&fpid=2&q=skeletonized+leaf+feeding&ql=
“Window paning” is the feeding on one side of a leaf surface
WHO CHEWS?
Caterpillars, Beetles – both larvae and adults, Grasshoppers and Crickets – nymphs and adults, Sawflies
You will often see gypsy moths hanging out in a forest situation with tent caterpillars feeding together
BIG NOTE ABOUT SAWFLIES:
A SAWFLY is NOT a true caterpillar, therefore, if you wish to control it with BT (bacillus thurengiensis) a bacterial means of controlling caterpillars, IT WILL NOT WORK!!! Be sure to identify the critter you are wanting to kill!
What is the difference between a true caterpillar and a sawfly?
A true caterpillar has less than or equal to 5 pairs of prolegs. The feet are round with a hook-like structure. This is what makes it difficult to remove them from their substrate – usually their food source.
The sawfly has more than or equal to 6 pairs of prolegs. The crochets are absent, and the foot pads are oval. There are three pairs of true legs.
http://insects.about.com/od/identifyaninsect/qt/sawfly-larva-or-caterpillar.htm
He showed us a cool video of a monarch caterpillar (fondly known to our presenter as “Fred the Monarch”) making short work in real time of a milkweed leaf. They work fast! He noted that people are now seeking out growing milkweed to conserve them.
The video illustrates why we need to act quickly if we see caterpillars and/or their chewing damage on important plants, because they eat quickly! They damage them right away.
Unfortunately, he did not give us the link for this video. However, I found one that isn’t Fred, but might be his cousin, George!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tkoy—m633o
END INSTALLEMENT TWO - BUGS