Eighty two today and in the 60s at night is quite welcome, but unusual. We have plenty of water to last the rest of the growing season, I think.
Cukes, squash, beets, and maters are growing like gangbusters, and adorning every available cabinet space, and boxes on chairs. Got to get with it and do some processing.
I am feeling so much better. Thanks to all for your best wishes and prayers. Feeling lots better, just not as much get up and go. I think I need to eat some yogurt, to get back good bacteria balance.LOL
Have a great weekend. God Bless.
Pinging the List.
Woodchucks feasting on the leaves of many veggies.
I probably took the tomato pruning too far this year...live and learn......the few we’ll have will be big and juicy.
Unseasonably cool here in Southern NH.
North Central Texas here. Having a relatively cool summer so far - thank God!! - although the drought continues. Still many inches behind on rain for the year, and still haven’t made up for deficits in the past several years.
I have a question for fruit tree experts. I have a very old pear tree that came with the property, but I can’t identify the variety. For whatever reason, it has gone gangbusters this year with little or no care (I remain completely organic and never use chemical pesticides or fertilizers - more out of laziness than principle) and the tree is loaded with very large, quality fruit for the first time in years. I’ve done a little research and have narrowed it to either an Anjou variety or Bartlett, though I lean toward Anjou. Any more fine-tuning tips for identifying?
Oh, and I DID prune pretty radically for the first time this year, so maybe that played into the performance. Just rogue lower branches and suckers, but it took off about 15% of the tree’s limbs.
Also, I have been trying to become an expert on when to pick, how to ripen and how to store. The only respectable resource I’ve found is from the U. of Oregon, but wanted something more specific to Texas. Any reference or help would be appreciated.
I have been harvesting San Marzano tomatoes and others over the last few weeks. Canning most, roasting a few and making some good pasta sauces with some. My garden is still producing but not as prolific as in years past, but I am grateful to just have a small garden.
I'm glad to hear that you're on the mend!
So glad to hear you are on the mend. Rain was predicted here yesterday, but not one drop fell, and now the chances are gone until the end of next week.
I’ve be pruning things, started fall tomato plants. Have some volunteer swiss chard up, and have been looking through seeds to plant for fall. Luckily, the moon dates for above ground cropas are next Sunday & Monday, August 3rd & 4th, so I can procrastinate a few more days.
For Texas Gardeners:
http://www.fanicknursery.com/Downloads/2014/Calendar_2014.pdf
Lovely, soft, steady rain today ..... just at a 1/2” in the rain gauge since this morning. There’s more in the forecast over the weekend - we need it. The garden is obviously happy today. :-)
Glad you’re feeling better; hope it stays that way!
Still in the ‘in betweens’. The cool stuff is finished, and the warm stuff has yet to start producing.
The tomatoes (mostly) survived their ordeal by hail, but weather has been much cooler than normal, so they, and most else, are rather slow this year. The beans mostly didn’t survive the beating.
The Arikara corn is about 2’ tall, stocky, and starting to push up tassels. Each one has several tillers. If it pans out, I may plant a large plot of it next year for chicken feed. The painted hill & Golden Bantam are about the same size, but are on different maturation schedules, so the three won’t cross pollinate each other.
Starting to get garlic, and we’re pleased with it this year. The Spring planted did much better than the Fall planted, in both survival and bulb size.
I came across this since last week, and put one together, sans bucket—I use a trash can instead, so don’t need a lid. Really works well for threshing the rye
.
http://winwinfarm.com/2013/06/diy-bucket-thresher-for-backyard-wheat-growers/
“DIY Bucket Thresher for Backyard Wheat Growers”, with photos, instructions, videos and discussion at link. Most practical thing I’ve found for small plot threshing; working well on the rye. For the trash can, I used a 3’ piece of threaded shaft.
The only drawback is that you do have to remove the heads from the stems, or the straw just wraps around the shaft and stall the drill. OTOH, up to about 1’ of stem is no problem, so I don’t have to be too careful with the deheading: pair of shears on a handful at a time, on a tarp does it.
Ended up with 2 gallons of our ‘sweet’ bush cherries. They make a great jelly or syrup; and are fairly good eating out of hand, though tarter than a commercial sweet cherry. Downside is their size: just too small for a cherry pitter, so pies etc are out of the question.
I have root knot nematodes that are killing my tomatoes. Next year, I'll probably do tomatoes in pots. I'll be covering the affected area with plastic this year, and solarizing the area to above 140F to try to kill them off without having to use chemicals.
Peanuts are doing great.
/johnny
Hi greeneyes… we are having phenomenal weather here in Benderville and the garden is on auto pilot for the most part. I picked the first 8 ears of Revelation sweet corn this morning for my daughter and her husband to take camping. It was 2 or 3 days early but we will have lots and lots of it. I asked Lady Bender if she was ready to make corn meal and she said she would make a chowder and freeze it if it came to that. We will pick another gallon or more of strawberries tomorrow. and wish I had kept score this year. The yukon gold potatoes are not very productive but the spuds are huge and make great bakers and boilers. More news at 11...
My sub-arctic tomatoes are heavy with little green tomatoes. I think I finally found a variety that likes it up here. The peppers, even with the odd nasty 90°F weather are still small. The cabbage bolted. The chickens cheered. The strawberries are starting their second round. I have already started canning green beans and peas. The pumpkins, spaghetti squash and various varieties of dry beans are doing well. Carrots are OK. Onions still small.
I forgot to put the fishing-line barrier up. A deer got the tops of 1/3 of the cranberry beans and a few lentils. After the line went up, it got in again because we forgot a barrier into the garden. laughing... Bad- it ate the blooms off all of the potatoes. They had been there for a while, but do not know what that will do to the crop. It also ate half of a tobacco plant. Never had that happen. It has not come back since. Either the tobacco killed it or made it sick enough to avoid the area.
The second batch of four chickens we got, turned out to all be cockerels. They have been harassing the pullets to the point they will not leave the coop. Three are now in the chicken tractor until we get the new fencing up and set aside a small yard for them to fatten up for Freezer Camp. One who my husband named Elvis, (has a curl-like bit on the front of his comb and struts like the human he is named after), has shown good qualities for him to stay and make more tasty chicken bits. I hope the pullets relax when they realize that they will not have to fight off three randy cockerels any more. Elvis backs off when they give their version of “No!”
I sent a shot of our Subaru Outback fully loaded to my daughter today when we were about to head home after shopping. It was filled with: fencing, t-posts, canning jars, bale of pine shavings, chicken feed, groceries (that we cannot grow/raise ourselves) and sundries. She laughed and said we are truly hillbilly now. laughing....
Hi greeneyes and everyone!
SQUASH:
Well, I’m among the “squashed” now! Barely...but there! LOL!
The other day, I was watering and moving some of the leaves aside on my white bush squash, and couldnt believe my eyes: there in front of me was a fully formed, ready to harvest, PERFECT little scallop squash! No others. No other buds. Still lots of blooms, but the the magic happened now at least once. Not holding my breath, but there’s hope, right?
The same thing happened a few days before with my zucchini plant. I have one tiny zuck forming - not yet ready for harvest, and no others. And so far, no TSquash are happening. Lots of blooms all around, however, which is an improvement over what was happening last year. So at least I can say there is progress.
Cucumber plant has one which is maturing. Several small baby starts dried up. So my gourd family plants seem to be consistent this year in producing sparingly. So far.
My friend to whom I gave the T-Squash seedlings has given me another T-Squash. And she’s giving them away hand over fist. Darlin and I are still working on the first one she gave us! LOL! Maybe it’s a blessing that the squashes in my garden are shy this year.
OKRA:
Okras are doing well. I have only one plant of the Eagle Pass variety, and let the first pod go to seed. I just harvested the seeds yesterday. I am so in awe of the abundance of almighty God. That one pod produced 72 (I counted!) seeds! The flavor of this little okra variety is very good. The Orange jing has been producing and I love the flavor of it too. I have two Clemson Spineless, and they are producing as well.
TOMATOES:
Last count was 37 on the vines. I was able to harvest a couple of the Cherokee Purple. Today, I could see a couple of small Atkins ripening. All 5 of my mater pots have green tomatoes. (!!!)
LEGUMES:
Asian Trellis beans are awesome! I’ve been letting them go to seed. I know that mostly they are eaten green, but I have elected to raise these for my seed supply.
I still have some green beans forming. I also noticed today that my pinto bean plant has some seed pods ready for dried bean harvest. Cranberry beans are finished and withered, so they are compost now. But they did well for me.
POTATOES:
Sweet potatoes are happy ...if I could beat back the grasshoppers who are dining on them. But the ‘hoppers aren’t getting much and the vines keep spreading and taking over the area near the old AC unit. They have long since escaped the pot and are wilding! Don’t know if we’ll get any tubers from the ones in unprepared ground, but this too, is an experiment!
The white potatoes are hanging in there and I just keep watering them. Some of their foliage has dried up and I’ve had to prune it back a bit, but as I said, they are hanging in.
PEPPERS:
My one little (supposedly - don’t actually know since I haven’t tried it) medium hot pepper plant has bloomed and now producing more babies. I am electing in this case to also let everything go for seeds. The two pods that came with the plant last spring are bright red and it will be interesting to see what I actually do end up with!
SUNFLOWERS:
:-D
that’s just how they make me feel: Unreasonably happy. They are at the bowing stage and we have lots of little bees around them.
AMARANTH:
What a lovely plant! I planted the red variety this year. It has these seed stalks which sort of weep from the surrounding leaves. Wow! Total fun experiment.
ECHINACEA:
Hmmmmm. Well, I havent been successful in my bid this year to increase my patch. I don’t know what it is that has taken hold where I thought they were new cone flowers, but whatever it is doesnt seem at all to be developing into them. I’m leaving the mystery plants there because they actually are a pretty green ground cover. Gotta see what I can do next year! LOL!
DAIKON RADISHES:
I don’t think I reported on them fully. I was going to let them go to seed, but something, and I never figured out what, was consuming them. I went ahead and pulled them up. The roots were kinda small and skinny. Compost. I don’t think I provided a very good home for them. But I still consider it to be successful because at least I know more about them and the process they go through to live and grow.
I’m not seeking to do a fall garden this year. I’m just going to see what the ‘maters and other stuff already there end up doing and we’ll call it good!
Hope all is well with all of you!
Blessings
texokie
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Kind of feeling worn out. Last week the raccoons ate my flour corn. This week something ate every pod off my peas and chickpeas. I had been picking the sweet peas as they started drying down, so it wasn’t a total loss on that side. But my poor chickpeas . . . I only have 3 seeds left from that variety! The plants are still green enough they might flower again, but I need to get something up to protect the rest of the garden.
I have never had this kind of a pest problem before. They’re all in an eating frenzy! If it was October this would be normal, they’d be fattening for winter. But this early? I’m afraid of what that might mean.
Most of the trees around this complex have been taken down and there is much more direct sunlight. I’m thinking of planting only herbs and veggies in one of the garden pots and see what happens. The roses are doing much better with this extra sunlight.
I have a question about an something I discovered while getting the front of my apartment ready for pressure washing. While putting away some silk floral arrangements, I discovered on the back of one floral stalk two small light in weight and light sandy color round objects. (Think of how blueberries look but the way described above.) Because bees and wasps like building their homes on the front door and the ceiling above, I decided to crush the objects. Now I’m uncertain about what I did because after steppping heavily on the objects, there was revealed a soft, yellowish object. Would anyone know of birds or insects which build such structures and what they hold?