Weekly Gardening Thread, Vol. 30 July 27, 2012

Friday, July 27, 2012 | JustaDumbBlonde

[JustaDumbBlonde]

Apologies for the late posting of the thread ... I have been on the go since I woke up this morning, and didn't even think about it being Friday until we were 20 miles from the house.

I harvested another 15 gallons of honey last Sunday ... boy am I rethinking how many bees I really want to have. Honey robbing in 105 degree heat is no fun, even with a camelback of cold drink under my suit. Got 3 new queens in the mail and installed one in a hive that I had split into 2 hives, and the other two are in nucs (nuclear hives - half the size of a typical 10-frame brood box.

My cowpeas are beautiful and have started vining. Blooms won't be far behind.

Muscadines are getting ripe, both the wild ones in the woods and the cultivated vines in the yard. It is a great year for them ... the taste is exceptional and the fruit are huge.

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. No matter what, you won’t be flamed and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked.

It is impossible to hijack the Weekly Gardening Thread ... there is no telling where it will go and that is part of the fun and interest. Jump in and join us!

[JustaDumbBlonde]

Previous weeks' threads:

Weekly Gardening Thread (Catalog Fever) Vol. 1 Jan 6, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Seeds) Vol. 2, January 13, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread Vol. 3, January 20, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (U.S. Hardiness Zones) Supplemental Vol. 1
Weekly Gardening Thread (Soil Types) Vol. 4, January 27, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Vacation) Vol. 5, February 03, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Vacation) Vol. 6, February 10, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Vacation?) Vol. 7, February 17, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Home Sweet Home) Vol. 8, February 24, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Soil Structure Part 1) Vol. 9, March 2, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Transplanting Tomatoes) Vol. 10, March 9, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Useful Links) Vol. 11, March 16, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread -- Vol. 12, March 23, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread -- Vol. 13, March 31, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Happy Easter!) Vol. 14, April 6, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread Vol. 15, April 13, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread Vol. 16, April 20, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread Vol. 17, April 27, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread Vol. 18, May 4, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread Vol. 19 (Getting Projects Done) May 11, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread (Harvesting Wheat) Vol. 20, May 18, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread Vol. 21 (Keywords) May 25, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread Vol. 22 (Keywords 2) June 1, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread Vol. 23, June 8, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread Vol. 24, June 15, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread Vol. 25, June 22, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread Vol. 26, June 29, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread Vol. 27, July 06, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread Vol. 28, July 13, 2012
Weekly Gardening Thread Vol. 29, July 20, 2012

[JustaDumbBlonde]

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[ATOMIC_PUNK]

I've got half an acre of wild Hibiscus I'm gonna do some separating this fall and caver a couple acres

Some of these plants are very tall some over 6 feet tall

[South40]

I'm not very good in the garden but I try.

I noticed things would grow in my hay bales so I used it as a raised bed planter.

[mlizzy]

Wow, you folks are on extraordinary land. We have a maybe 120 sq.ft. plot our landlord said we could plant vegetables on. I absolutely love it, but it's sure teensy in comparison. We do have a pretty nice area for flowers. Here's a picture of the garden in late May. The vegetable garden is in front of the pool tucked in on the right.

[mlizzy]

That is so cool. You placed lettuce plants (or seeds) into the hay bales? Any dirt/compost/peat in the pocket for the plants/seeds? And what else do you have growing out of hay? I love it!

[mickie]

Could someone please answer this question.

Should I cut back on my tomato plant to produce more tomotoes? It has grown all over the small garden.

[Red_Devil 232]

Those Muscadines look beautiful! They make a potent wine.

[JustaDumbBlonde]

Very pretty! We have lots of wild hibiscus on and around the farm, but they are all white blooms with a burgandy throat. Yours almost look like an Althea bloom. (my grandmother's name)

Thank you for posting. This is going to be a beautiful thread.

[JustaDumbBlonde]

"I'm not very good in the garden but I try."

Yeah, riiiiiight. You can go tell that story to somebody that doesn't recognize big and gorgeous vegetables! Love the cabbage. Looks like you are a fairly talented gardener. Hay bales are a wonderful medium. I have so much ground that I've never done those, but just for looks alone I might try.

[South40]

The Chinese Elm tree in my yard dropped seeds that grew quite well in the hay. Given that, I thought other thihngs would grow in hay also so I tried it and it worked! I dug small holes in the hay and filled them with a compost/soil mixture. I then planted the seeds in the mixture.

I grow lettuce, cilantro, basil, red bell peppers and kale. It's easy to keep watered as it's very absorbant and it provides nutrients as well.

The soil around here is terrible so raised beds is a must.

[rightly_dividing]

Better late than never.

Really nice photo heavy post so far.

We are thinking of putting collards in a row where the mutant okrys did nothing, and some cushaw squash in the big bed where we have a few openings. Also some ghost peppers in containers. And take cuttings from our tomatos for a fall crop.

We are still getting a few small tomatos and plenty of banana peppers, along with some okry everyday. Wife has a quart ziploc bag full on Cajun Delight, and about half that much Jade.

Tomorrow I start refurbishing the back porch. It has been enclosed by some jackleg know-nothing and is in terrible shape. I am going to rip out a long wall and make a screened porch. Hopefully, that is. I will have to learn to make screens. My one experiance rescreening a door once resulted in my trashing the screen door! But I have backup plans B & C!

[JustaDumbBlonde]

They are lovely, and we have some really small sweet ones in abundance too. You should come over and get a load.

I have a meadmaking book on its way to me, and I will be trying to do a muscadine infused honey wine. Gotta do something with all this darn honey. I have 40 gallons in buckets. You could pick up a gallon of honey too (free)!

[thecodont]

Great job!

What variety of carrots are those? They look like Chantenay.

[bigheadfred]

Yes. Cut off the growing tips.

[South40]

If you knew how much effort I put into it and how little I get in return you would agree I lack something. The cabbage was one of my best efforts.

[ApplegateRanch]

Blaupeas produced just enough to return the seed planted. Voles began attacking the carrots, so had to harvest all of them; winds lodged the purple onions, so they didn’t fully mature, but the Walla-Wallas are doing good. Also, 28 of the rescued Egyptian onions are up. Oddly, the Brussels sprouts are growing well, as is the broccoli; cool season cole crops standing up to 3-4 weeks of 100+ heat without bolting?!?

2 small Purple Cherokee tomatoes have ripened on one hanging vine, though the rest of the hangers have a lot of green ones; the garden vines are pretty much a bust, a are the peppers & eggplants.

Squashes, summer & winter; and the green beans are still iffy, from too many days of triple digits, though the pole beans are doing fine.

The Painted Hill & the white super-sweet corn: both barely knee high or less & tasseling. The Serendipity is now waist high, or slightly over, and only a very few just starting to form tassels.

Potatoes are starting to die from maturity, rather than deficiencies, pests or disease; and the few plants I’ve harvested still had plenty of soil moisture, and produced decent tubers, though not abundantly. Even generously over estimating expenses, and lowballing the harvest, that comes in at less than 15 cents/pound for all Yukon Golds we can eat & preserve, and still leave plenty for friends & the food bank.

OTOH, despite not only the large fire that was near us, we had 3 others, up to 12 acres in size, within a half mile of us, and didn’t suffer any damages or losses, so counting our blessings.

[thecodont]

Those grapes look like plums! They’re huge!

[JustaDumbBlonde]

Whether or not to prune your tomatoes depends on a few things ... the type of soil, available nutrients, and the length of your growing season.

I did a little sort of experiment a few years ago -- pruned and pinched tomatoes on one row and left the others go except for really weak suckers, which I removed. I got far more tomatoes from the plants that were allowed to go wild, and the fruit was not appreciably smaller than the pruned tomatoes and there were many, many more of them.

My tomatoes get tied to a rebar stake in an effort to keep them somewhat in check, but other than that they receive minimal pruning. I get tomatoes by the wheelbarrow full. That is the story for my area because I have a growing season of 8 months or so. In a shorter season, you may want to concentrate on a few less slightly larger fruit.

[ApplegateRanch]

Oh, yes; about a quart of chokecherry syrup get bottled tonight.

Also helped our friends in town, with whom we stayed the 4 days we were out of here from the fires, ‘steal’ several pounds of apricots from a city park tree along the river-walk in town. Huge tree, about 20’ with a 12+” trunk that fruited for the first time in at least 10 years that they’ve known it was there.