Posted on 07/17/2015 12:52:33 PM PDT by greeneyes
The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. This thread is non-political, although you will find that most here are conservative folks.
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Just a reminder - prayers up for Johnny and Arrowhead.
Harvest time is here and I'm overwhelmed. The spare refrigerator is chock full of produce waiting for processing. Huge quantity of corn and green beans. A few cukes and black berries(finally) and my volunteer tomatoes have several orange ones in among the green.
I harvested several of the orange ones and brought them indoors to make sure the squirrels don't get them and let them ripen on the cabinet. Everyone around town is telling me (when I see them in the stores) that their tomatoes are doing terrible this year. So are mine - except for the volunteers.
It's crazy, I planted potatoes in a bed that hasn't had any potatoes or tomatoes or melons planted there for at least 3 years. So what do I have, tomatoes, melons, and weeds have taken over the plot. I was going to pull weeds, but everything is so intertwined, I decided why mess with success? Taters may be there too, but I haven't dug in to find out.
Have to can some meat to make room for freezing the corn - I'll cut the corn off the cob so that it takes up less space.
We got really nice ears - about 120, and they taste very good, even without salt or butter. My only issue is, I wish hubby would spread the plantings out a bit, so the whole dang harvest doesn't happen all at once.
I have been out and about early AM and late PM to do a little harvest, watering, or clean up - Mid day is for indoors in this heat.
Hubby already has the corn stalks composted, and is getting the fall plants into the ground sometime this next week. We are planning a trip to Springfield to attend a Baker's Creek Seed Festival the first Sunday in August. That's going to be our 50th Wedding Anniversary celebration too - taking an extended weekend to visit with family in the area.
I can't stay on the computer too long - have to get back to processing, but I'll be taking breaks and reading/replying every so often.
Have a great weekend. God Bless.
Pinging the List.
Hi Everybody!
((((HUGS))))
It was in the low 50s last night in some spots here in Massachusetts. We had a low here of 59 degrees. No problems.
Hot here in western Washington, lots of watering. Tomatoes, beans and corn doing well. We have 14 hanging flower baskets on our pergola an while wetting them down this morning I look up to see a blacktail doe and her spotted fawn sneaking by 40 feet from me. I have to soak in sights like that to distract me from the destruction being done to our nation. Otherwise I might do something regrettable.
Wasn’t paying attention and I thought one of my 15 year old (?) Junipers had some winter damage. Bagworms. Dammit. Too much damage, so it comes down.
Didn’t realize it was harvest. Been picking cukes consistently for the past three weeks. Woke up the other morning and all my cuke plants are dead, still with cukes on them.
Both purple and white eggplant plants each produced 1 count them 1 fist size eggplant. Tomatoes got 5 and then the plants stopped producing. Pulled up my pepper plants yesterday. They didn’t produce anything.
On a good note, it is more than I have harvested in the three years I been doing this. Also on a good note, all the rain could have played a role in the bad harvest. Finally on a good note, vegetables grew so my soil seems ok. On a bad node, it’s frustrating as heck, especially since my garden is my relaxation.
Prayers up.
It’s dry and hot where I am. I have to water every other day so have abandoned most of the garden not under shade cloth. Next year more shade cloth up!
"50th Wedding Anniversary"
Happy Anniversary!! And thank you for staying together - it sets a good example - we all know it takes a lot of work, but like gardening, you get out what you put in (more or less).
Tomatoes - disappointing so far, (as are the eggplant).Squash and cukes are doing great, though.
Everything else is average yield.
But, thank you Jesus.
Hugs to you too.
I’m not sure what the temp was, but it was still plenty hot at midnight.
I know what you mean. I just avoid the news channels except for occasional local new and/or weather. Try to spend the time doing garden stuff or house stuff or reading and a few TV programs, like Blue Bloods.
The heat and breeze in Central Tx is drying out things so fast. I am watering some things twice a day.
I mostly have tomatoes, a few cukes, and cucuzza. SVB got my squash. I planted a second crop. I still have a few blueberries.
Time to start getting into fall garden mode, I think.
Oh No! Sorry to hear about that. Reminds, me though, I’ve got to get over to my daughters and get the peaches to process too.
She called to tell me that they were ready to pick - she just lets them fall on the ground. So I told her I’d make some up for the canner or freezer, and give her some too.
We are overloaded with tomatoes. Peppers are producing now that it has quit raining every day.
Squash as big a a football are coming out of a lower garden.
Am anxiously awaiting next Wed evening and Thrus a.m. when I can enter my flowers in the fair. I had NO veg this year except for some sort of a cherry tomato that was a weed in some container which I did not have the heart to pull. It has blooms.
All of the Non-stop tuberous begonias that were so pretty last year look dreadful. I need to go tell the poor lady (new) that she should not plant them in jiffy peat pellets. The roots never penetrate that mesh. I have stripped them but still not good.
Way too much rain here. Another 1.4 inches last night. 3 a.m. a bolt of lighting very close. Now we have the heat advisory.
Does anyone have a good source for making county fair entries displays. The categories are numerous. I was going to use Halloween for the Holiday entry. I have a lovely Bat-faced Cuphea and tons of fall colored marigolds. There is a red, white and blue category and I am really short on blue. I will need three stalks of the same color glad, and I just don't have that this year. That won best cut flower last year, but the rain got them this time.
The lilies peaked last week and this and will be shot by Wed. Oh well, everyone here is in the same boat. Only the clay ground is really flooded with water standing. The corn is tasseling and I saw my second Monarch butterfly.
Have another ear of corn for me. I'd like plenty of butter and salt on mine.
P.S. Just now more thunder.
Hi Everyone! I have some more BUG goodies! I hope it’s helpfulBUGS
Installment 5
*We were shown a picture of a stink bug and an army worm fighting. The caption was, “where is the pest?” In the course of the discussion, I have a note that states that there actually is one stink bug that is a good guy. It is the spine soldier bug. It is brown with spines.
Beneficial Insects:
http://pods.dasnr.okstate.edu/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-8688/EPP-7307web13.pdf
Other links that might be helpful. Note that the ones beginning with “pods” are OSU extension publications. You can do a search for “Oklahoma State University extension” to get the page that allows you to search that data base.
http://www.wisegeek.org/what-are-stink-bugs.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_stink_bug
Home Vegetable Garden Pest Control
http://pods.dasnr.okstate.edu/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-1317/EPP-7313web2013.pdf
*The next picture was captioned, “Are These Pests?” They looked pretty fierce, but it turned out that they were beneficials. They showed the Lady Beetle larva and the Lacewing larva.
Most here on our thread have become familiar with the Lady Beetle larvae. I have self-reported the evolution of my own knowledge of them a few years ago. I saw really scary looking bugs on my cucumbers, and started squashing them in bloodthirsty abandon. However, something in me said, “um, perhaps you should be sure.” So I took some pictures and a few days later showed them to one of our ag people. Turns out, it was Lady Beetles I was murdering. ** sigh**
The Lace Wing larvae look like the sci fi creatures that crawl in some hapless victim’s ear or mouth to take them over and make them into an automaton for the invading entity.
There are several growth forms displayed by the Lady Beetle. There is a circular he recommended to us which is online only and not available in hard copy. It is E-1023 with the link as follows. You can see pix of both the Lace Wing and the Lady Beetle there.
Conserving Beneficial Arthropods in Residential Landscapes
http://pods.dasnr.okstate.edu/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-7426/E-1023.pdf
*In another picture, he showed the eggs of the eggs of the Green Lacewing. The mother lays them on stalks so they are protected from their brothers and sisters.
* Another picture showed a cucumber beetle (look at the link above of the Home Vegetable Garden Pest Control document) and it definitely is a pest, despite its similarity of appearance to the lady beetle. Notice that the head does not contain the W or M.
*He showed us pix of the Pirate Bugs. It is a predator of soft body insects, equipped with piercing/sucking mouth parts. You can see a picture and write-up on the Pirate Bug in the first link above on Beneficials
*He showed us a comic of a man and lady out gazing over their garden with all kinds of pest control equipment, and the caption says, “IF YOU PLANT IT, THEY WILL COME!”
*He showed a picture of the Yellow Jacket and asked, Is This a Pest? The answer is actually both “YES” and “NO.” In their early developmental stages, they are eaters of proteins, usually other bugs. It is later that they become pests to us because their dietary desires change to sugars instead of proteins, like your soda pop.
*He showed us the Crab Spider. They eat a LOT of bad insects.
*He showed us a picture of the cocoons of the predator wasp. These were laid on a caterpillar. If you see this, leave it alone! The same is true for the parasitoid wasp laying eggs on a gypsy moth.
Our Prof gave us a peek into the history of the Gypsy Moth in the US. Turns out that the Gypsy was being looked into as a domestic silk worm. This was happening in the 1800’s – and it got loose.
End Installment 5 BUGS
See installment 5 on BUGS in my post 17
See installment 5 on BUGS in my post 17
More heat and no rain here in Cen. Tx. In fact no rain this entire month and I see a triple digit in our forecast. Ouch.
But still getting some excellent tomatoes, about a dozen a day.
Along with a few squash and eggplant.
But otherwise it's just watering to try and keep the newly planted fruit trees alive.
On a very positive note a Bay Leaf tree I put in the ground two years ago is finally doing very well. Guess it just took a while to adjust.
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