Thought I'd better get the thread posted and come back later - when the maters are at a stopping point. Also need to use a chicken carcess to make some bone broth to use in chowder recipe next week.
I also have beets waiting for me to process - there's always too much to do at once, and I don't move as fast as I used too. LOL
Have ordered some corn seeds from Bountiful Gardens that is supposed to mature in 55 days. So I'm going to try to hurry and get it going, if the seeds come in time.
I am going to plant some Cherry tomatoes pretty soon in pots for indoors this winter - I want them to get a good start.
Lemon tree has recovered from the winter doldrums. It has lots of new leaves and golf ball size fruits. The pepper plants that we dug up and stuck in a pot are recovering too. Those will be brought into the house for wintertime fresh food too.
Hope everyone is doing well. Prayers up for all. Have a great weekend - God Bless.
Pinging the list.
My garden is doing the best ever here in the difficult Colorado Rockies. Our average time between frosts is only 90 days. I had lots of starts indoors in containers for over a month to get a better growth period. I also used 1/4 inch fence to keep the chipmunks away from plants they seem to like. I also over planted to allow for some chipmunk thieving. So far so good. I have gotten one tomato so far. Some years I have gotten frozen before the first tomato.
What do you do with your beets?
I just canned 8 quarts of pickled beets. Yeah one too many to fit in the canner, so I just stuck it in the frig. I love pickled beets! I’m going to plant a fall crop too. The wee little red seedlings are coming up in pots as we type.
Thanks to greeneyes for faithfully hosting this excellent WGT.
Last year in N Tx I had zero tomatoes. This year with just two plants getting decent production although its tapered off. Hasn’t been as hot as usual here and some more rain in this the driest month of the year on average. Favors from above. Using my swiss chard for blending up green smoothies mixed with protein powder. Does the 60 year old body some good.
Worst season ever for this kinda lackadaisical gardener. Even the dozen Romaine lettuce went straight to bolt.
Cool nights kept the tomatoes from flowering until the draught came to rot the bottoms off. Only have one cantaloupe out of three plants. Woe is me.
Gonna put in a little more effort next year. I realize now it’s worth it.
Sprayed the Jap beetles this year and the Hazelnuts are loaded though.
Hi greeneyes and everyone!
I went out and watered. Two of my four sunflowers have had their heads destroyed. The first of the heads to open has been terribly eaten on. The other is a bit smaller than that one. I was bending the taller of the two over, and it was so weakened by the ants and whoever that it broke, so now left with one.
Was amazed to see the anemic okra plants produce another two pods, one of which was ready to pick.
Another surprise - which I noticed several days ago - is that the turmeric root has sprouted and sent up a couple of shoots! I had tried to sprout it in water with rooting powder. Read up on it, and it seems it likes dry, so went ahead and put it in the dirt. I thought it was dead, but here it is!
The strawberry plant is happy and put out a runner.
The herbs, including the oregano, thyme, stevia and parsley are thriving. The mint and bee balm have been munched a bit by someone but are growing and otherwise healthy.
I bought some echinacea plants several days ago to use as props in a club program. I plan to start another echinacea patch somewhere.
Garden is growing well. My first tomato was awesome and there are a couple more that are just about ripe. Had the most interesting time watching caterpillars munch through the parsley. There were more than I’ve ever seen at one time. They will become the giant yellow swallowtail butterfly. Starting to see a few butterflies darting about. I wonder how many caterpillars have made it to the butterfly stage?Hope all is well with everybody.
Garden has had its ups and downs this year. Had more tomatoes this year than any previous year. I have enough tomato sauce in the freezer to feed a small army. Corn was harvested in June and also frozen. Seems I prefer cooking and freezing in place of canning. I make meals and freeze in single serving food saver bags. Peppers are going like gangbusters. Only 4 eggplants so far but they usually keep producing all summer unlike the tomatoes that I have already pulled up. Carrots are also great this year and taste so much better than the musty carrots in the grocery stores. Picked 4 heads of cabbage and 4 more are growing. Made homemade Polish cabbage soup. I’m kind of glad the garden is winding down because I am exhausted but my freezer is full and I’m probably going to need to buy a small upright freezer to accommodate the rest of the summer harvest. Good but busy season.
The last few days, we picked some avocados and mangos. The avocado tree growing semi wild is loaded this year, my mango tree is loaded, too.
I just discovered that a beautiful shade tree in my neighborhood has PEARS! Woo Hoo!
The garden here in the Blue Ridge has been a disaster this year.
Cool weather and rain, rain, rain caused my early May seed to not sprout.
Rain drowned the squash and zucchini.
The only thing that has prospered are the Cherokee Purple Tomatoes.
And the store bought garlic that was planted last november turned out very nice and was harvested in mid July.
DISASTER. Last night, a 60’ branch broke and wiped out one garden. Cucumbers, pickles, tomatoes, squash, eggplant and maybe bell peppers. Hopefully, I can salvage my 2 year old asparagus plants.
Have to read up on bugs and tomatoes; they ate a couple of big doubles.
We’ve had another week of unseasonably cool weather here in Central Missouri, and an additional 6/10ths inch of rainfall as well. More would have been better, but we get what we got, which is much better than nothing at all. Also better than the 6” monsoon that hit the west-central part of the state over the weekend.
Busy weekend as usual at my house. The weeds in my kitchen garden got away from me last month, so I attacked it with the string trimmer on Saturday and got the worst of it knocked down. After doing that I found a fantastic crop of peppers that had been obscured by the foxtail. The blue lake green beans are finally starting to produce. Couple more weeks and we’ll be over-run. The tomatoes are making faster than we can use them so I’ve had plenty to share with the neighbors.
I’m still amazed at the peach crop this time. I’ve been giving them away by the bucket and still have probably six bushels that need to be picked. The pear trees are loaded to the breaking point. In spite of being brutally pruned over the winter one of them lost a branch to the weight of its fruit a couple days ago. The apple trees are also hanging low from the weight of the fruit.
I’ve been battling the japanese beetles for the last month. I’m don’t think I’m winning, but I’m keeping them somewhat at bay. Between the traps that I have out and selective spraying with sevin I’ve killed better than 50 gallons worth of the vermin so far. The hatch slowed dramatically last week so maybe the worst of it is over for this summer.
All of the recent rainfall and the cooler temps have the grass growing an inch a day again. I had to mow the yard twice last week. Pops came over yesterday and ran the bush hog through the pastures and around the sunflower field. Looks much nicer with the weeds knocked down. It was getting pretty shaggy out there.
With the coondo project completed and the deck staining on hold due to the damp conditions I was able to get back into the pond with Nanner on Saturday. I need about four more hours in there to have the basin down to the depth that want. Once that part is finished I’ll start working around the edges to get a bit more depth in a couple places, then it will be time to shoot the final elevations and get the piers set for the fishing dock.
Tinypic is still being stupid so no pics again this week. I’m thinking it may be time to start looking for an image hosting site that is a bit more reliable.