Pinging the List.
Hi Everybody!
((((HUGS))))
My tomatoes are FINALLY growing! But we are presently in a drought, so I have to water them by hand.
HOT! DRY! Groundhogs ate everything the weather didn’t kill! The only thing I have left from my little patch of cucumber is one plant. I have 5 volunteer tomato plants - one has two or three tiny fruits. Three volunteer green beans - scraggly. Lots of various pepper plants which are just sitting there.
My peach tree did not set a single blossom. Not even one. Same with my apple trees - but they have not done squat since planted, so just no surprise there.
Volunteer potato plants - we shall see what they do.
Herbs are good.
We got the first roll of chicken wire today - I need much more but have to buy a bit at a time. I have worked out an easier way to do my below the surface chicken wire, so we will try to put it all in this fall. Till then - well, I won’t cry over spilled milk. I think I had a few wheat plants pop up - which would be neat, but I am not sure that is what they are.
I made a nice memorial garden for my two pets, my cat and my dog. Will post when completed. They died/were put down withing six months of each other. Both were in their late teens.
My dopey little in-between-until-I-have-a-REAL-garden-again-Garden is producing like a madwoman!
Lots of Zukes and Cukes. Lots of lettuces (still!) and in another week I’ll be swimming in green beans. Deciding what to plant for fall crops, but it will probably be beets and carrots and lettuces and spinach. The usual suspects. ;)
The weather has been WEIRD to say the least...we’ll go from days and days of hot and humid and WAY above normal temps...and then today, it’s mid-60’s and I’m in a sweatshirt! *Rolleyes*
Rain amounts have been OK so far, though and it is WONDERFUL to be able to open all the windows and BREATHE every 5 days or so, LOL!
Our Sweet Corn is AWESOME this year - loves the hot & humid. We have melons on (Cantelope and Water) as well as Butternut Squash and some Spaghetti Squash.
Tomorrow I am pruning back my tomato plants and yanking out (and using!) the kale that is smothering them. Lots of tomatoes on, but with hot and humid we get early blight. Boo! So, lower leaves OFF and organic copper spray ON.
No complaints. All in all, it’s been a good growing season in SE Wisconsin...I’m now about 30 miles from the Mississippi River, in the part of our state that the Glaciers didn’t smash to flat and boring, but good for crops.
Hilly, green, lush, tree-filled and GORGEOUS, Dahling!
We just had one heck of a storm blow through. High winds have knocked over a lot of planters. I’ll check them out in the morning.
For the most part, all the pansies and lettuce have died because of the high temps and high humidity. There are one or two hold-overs. Basil is getting larger and I can hardly wait for the tomatoes to ripen.
I’ve been splitting my time between job-hunting and the farm. My current job isn’t giving me enough hours to pay the bills, so I’m hoping to find something better.
In the mean time, garlic! I had 4 kinds of garlic planted in one bed. They were jumbled together enough that it’s hard to tell which is which. Some were ready to dig, most weren’t. But circumstances changed.
The spot where I was growing them is on a terraced part of my hill, near the road. This is a private road, not a public one. On a busy day you might see 10 cars pass by. Because it’s privately owned, most years that means I can plant stuff right alongside it, and only have dust to deal with. That makes this terrace a perfect spot for root crops most of the time.
Until now. This year, at the meeting with the other property owners who share this road, it was decided that it was time to spray the wild parsnips along the shoulders. So, ready or not, out the garlic comes! I have some that are so small it’s hard to tell they’re even there, and I have some that are full-sized and ready to pull. I dug every last one of them, no matter what stage they were at. Now I have two bags full, and not many places to store them. I’m thinking of braiding the smaller ones so I can hang them up. The biggest ones will be saved for planting.
Eventually, I have selected the perfect strain for my growing conditions. For now, everything’s still in testing phase.
On the plus side, my corn and beans are doing fantastic! They were late getting planted, but they caught up fast! I’ll have to start taking my squirt gun full of mineral oil next week so I can treat for ear worms.