Posted on 07/08/2016 1:32:57 PM PDT by greeneyes
I think it was you last year who got an old double tub sink thing on a rusting stand. Did you ever do anything with it?
I had flea beetles the past two years. Not sure if it was Sevin, or Spinosad , or just not planting what they like to eat..brassicas. They haven’t been a problem this year.
The frequency of chirping varies according to temperature. To get a rough estimate of the temperature in degrees fahrenheit, count the number of chirps in 15 seconds and then add 37. The number you get will be an approximation of the outside temperature.
So, how do crickets make that chirping sound?
Usually, the males are the "singers." The male cricket rubs a scraper (a sharp ridge on his wing) against a series of wrinkles, or "files", on the other wing. The tone of the chirping depends upon the distance between the wrinkles. There are several reasons why crickets chirp. They may be:
Crickets are part of the family Orthoptera (grasshoppers and katydids).
That was me! I have some herbs in it this year - globe basil, oregano, parsley, German thyme, margoram, & lemon thyme. I’m about to start harvesting thyme for a stroganoff recipe & also for some roasted carrots. The sinks are deep/big enough that they don’t dry out as quickly as pots so the herbs are actually growing & doing fairly well.
*** That was me! I have some herbs in it this year ***
I bet it looks neat. I wish I could find something cool like that. Oh, I did get an almost like new Radio Flyer Wagon from the FREE place at the Mom & Pop plant store awhile back, and all my herbs are from the Free Plants Stand there, so, I guess I’m pretty lucky. Also, got some beautiful pentas there for free.
They wore black; it was dark; I really coundn't see their faces; they were speaking a foreign language; a whole group of them came at me...
Really Judge; what would YOU have done in my place?
Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite ‘em,
And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum.
And the great fleas themselves, in turn, have greater fleas to go on;
While these again have greater still, and greater still, and so on.
AugustusDeMorgan, in “A Budget of Paradoxes”
A noisy noise annoys an oyster.
I didn't understand their language.., and "feared for my life" due to the large numbers of them speaking all at once.
and then discharged my 12 gauge shotgun .. and they were gone !
"Really Judge; what would YOU have done in my place?"
All the garlic has been dug, and I was satisfied with it. Enough to use, plus plenty to replant later on.
Actually have tomatoes coming on the vines for once. Potatoes got their hilling...better late than never, and are now blooming. Butterballs are large & flowering; Russets not so much, but growing. Most weedless garden yet.
Over 3” of rain the last couple of weeks, now clear & hot—106 yesterday—but cool down into low/mid 80s this coming week.
Walla-Walla onions were a bust this year, and the leeks may also be.
Carrots have given us a few meals of thinnings; and besides several meals of peas, we put about 15 packages into the freezer.
Believe it or not, I have to go out & water now; despite all the rain, several days of 90s & hundreds have dried it, at least for the shallow rooted stuff.
Would something like this keep crows away? http://www.amazon.com/Easy-Gardener-6050-DeerBlock-100-Foot/dp/B00004RA0N?ie=UTF8&keywords=fencing&qid=1463961522&ref_=sr_1_2&s=lawn-garden&sr=1-2
Yes, it would keep them off the plants. The issue I have with plastic mesh is that it’s hard to work with (wants to curl up) & being black, it’s hard to see. Last year, I put in metal fence posts around my raised beds & put up a plastic mesh fence. It was hard to mow around & a pain for me to get in the garden. This year, I draped some of the mesh from last year over the tomatoes, just to keep the crows off until I could come up with something more permanent. If you leave it on too long the tomatoes start growing through it & then it’s a real hassle to get it off the plants (been there, done that). I didn’t think they’d go after the zucchini & eggplants so I didn’t cover those & the rascals pecked a few of them up.
Yesterday, I started making a ‘fence’ using the plastic mesh from last year & another roll someone gave me. I’m making a frame of 3/4” PVC pipe (comes in 10’ lengths) & using zip ties to attach the mesh. The frames are really light & I can easily move them to mow or for access to the garden. I’m just tying them together with some cotton rope I’m re-purposing from an old hammock. The frames are 5’ wide and 3’ 4” tall. They sit about a foot off of the raised bed which keeps the crows from landing between the fence & the bed - same concept I used with last year’s fence. The crows would hop up to the fence and stare through it at the tomatoes they could no longer reach. :-) I’m a little worried the crows might try to land on the top of the fence/PVC - last year’s fence was just the plastic mesh stretched between fence posts so they couldn’t land on it. I’m leaving a row of mesh sticking up over the PVC with the edge cut off so it’s sort of “spikey” - that should discourage them.
Funny thing, after the morning visit by the crows (several times) yesterday, I haven’t seen them. They were not in the yard/field this morning & I was specifically watching for them. I suspect the new fence might be spooking them off for a while because it’s definitely making the garden area look different, but they’ll eventually come check it out. I worked on it about 4 hours this evening & probably have another day’s work to get it all done.
Thanks for the link!
I’m about to give up on my garden. We’ve only had a couple of rainy days since March and it’s been very hot. I got one tomato off of each of my better girl plants and then they died. I water them every day, but it’s not enough.
My jalapenos are doing quite well, though.
Got much work done in the garden the past few days. Nephew Sam came over on Saturday and helped me dig potatoes and garlic, and pull weeds. Potato crop was one of the best I've had. A bit over 20 gallons from 75 foot of row. The garlic also did very well this year.
I tilled up where the garlic and spuds came out, and seeded 60 foot of sweet corn. I'm going to mat the remaining space and plant a couple hills of summer squash.
The Russian cucumbers that I planted a couple weeks ago all drowned, so I tilled up and planted more of those.
I picked about half a bushel of cucumbers and half a dozen ripe tomatoes. That first tomato of the season always tastes so good!
First planting sweet corn, peppers, basil, okra, butternut squash and green beans are all doing well. The japanese beetles got into the green beans on Saturday. On Sunday I declared war on beetles and loaded the sprayer with liquid Sevin. No more beetles in the beans.
I put out four of the Spectracide beetle traps two weeks ago. So far I've trapped 25 gallons of the dang things. They slowed down a little while it was rainy, but picked right back up as soon as the sun came out.
The onions that I dug up in Dad's back yard are making bulbs of little baby onions on top of their stems.
One of the things that I really enjoy about living out in the country - when the varmints invade I get to fight back!
Crows are fast learners - if they see one of their compadres get a taste of hot lead they will keep their distance for a good long time.
Yup, except it’s illegal to shoot one right now - season is August 20 through March 18 on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. They weren’t coming around in the winter or spring/March, when it was still legal then - nothing they consider tasty was growing in the garden that early!
My dad tells me a story from when he was a boy - always says “crows can count to ‘one’”. If dad walked to the spring house by himself, the crows would not come - they knew he was in the spring house. If he and his brother would go to the spring house & then his brother would walk back to the house, the crows would come back to whatever they were eating & my dad would blast them. He was a ‘barefoot boy with cheeks of tan’ back in the Depression Years when shooting crows was something many farm boys would do.
Any varmint that’s eating my garden without permission is in season.
Looks like the Egyptian Walking Onions I used to grow in the late great state of North Western California (not to be confused with any thing South of Ukiah
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