WEEKLY GARDEN THREAD AUGUST 24, 2018

freerepublic | AUGUST 24, 2018 | greeneyes

[left that other site]

Thanks for the weed killer recipe.

It is SO MUCH nicer than Dioxin! LOL!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

*BUMP for later...I’m canning again, today! :)

Note to self: Not so many tomatoes next year!!

[tubebender]

Fridays Harvest from the Bender’s garden. The strawberries and cukes are going to Church Sunday to share at Fellowship.…

[Melian]

Spent the whole summer in SoCal trying to keep my garden alive in desert conditions. Two of my Queen palms even died. The only plants unaffected were my succulents. 🏜🛀🏽🌞🌵🐫

[GBA]

Thanks for the weed killer recipe! I’m tired of pulling weeds.

I want to kill all the weeds near the house and kill the insanely invasive Bermuda grass that’s rapidly taking over my formerly all fescue yard.

However, I’d rather not resort to Roundup or any other similar form of chemical warfare.

So far, straight vinegar is okay, vinegar and oil slightly better, with vinegar, oil and table salt the best of the three, but only for an area where I don’t want anything to grow, ever.

Hmmm...but epsom salt instead of table salt? I like it. That sounds like the best recipe of all.

And we now have a few days of dry weather to give it a test.

Thanks again!

[daniel1212]

Pinging the List. Hard to believe that August is almost gone, and summer nearly done for too. Time has passed quickly this year.

Yes, though last year in MA we were able to harvest tomatoes and squash until the end of November.

[daniel1212]

We had such heat here. My beans were late but now they are here. My squash is unreal, I am throwing it away!! I can’t even give it away.! My tomatoes are small but coming on!! I love my garden.

We have kept Butternut squash for 8 months in MA, in the outside hall (about 60 degrees F)

More coming. And toms. Thanks be to God for gardens and for this one.

[raiderboy]

Wow, what a garden. I just love that. I used to have a high pressure job. In the morning, I would go out and water the garden. All the pressure went away. In the evening , I would get a beer after coaching kids sports and water again. All the pressure went away. What a miracle and ratification of God’s eternal glory is simple garden. Nice job.

[Ladysforest]

How pretty that corn is!

[tubebender]

Thanks! Only one of them made it to the pot of boiling water. I will harvest much more tomorrow (Sunday)

[CoconutBob]

I agree with the Vinegar (acid) and the dish detergent (a wetting agent to help the acid dry out the leaves) but not sure about the Epsom Salts.

I use Epsom Salts on all my plants. It's not a "salt" but Sulphur and Magnesium which the plants need to germinate, grow and otherwise, have fun as plants.

https://www.epsomsaltcouncil.org/uses-benefits/gardening/

Just add a tablespoon to a gallon of water and pour over the plants. Works great and turns the pale green plants to a dark green, healthy color.

So, I'm not sure how the Epsom Salts would help kill weeds. Might make them happy for a while as they shrivel up and die, but otherwise, I'd use it on the healthy plants instead.

PS: We have a lot of silica in the dirt down here in mid-Gulf Western Florida so irrigation water doesn't soak very far down. By holding a cheap dish detergent bottle over a spray of hose water, the detergent breaks down the surface tension of the dirt so that the water from the hose will go deeper into the dirt. Works great...

[daniel1212]

What a miracle and ratification of God’s eternal glory is simple garden. Nice job.

Amen. The brother (in Christ) downstairs who does the picking works in a pressurized corporate environment and looks forwards to going into this garden (jungle) and extracting dozens of tomatoes, to share (he has only eaten one out of hundreds picked). I link to work the soil, plant and grow them. Bless the Lord.

[Augie]

We got a nice soaking inch of rain here in Central Missouri a few nights ago. Not a drop of it ran off. Yesterday the heat came back. It was sick outside.

I'm probably going to start harvesting pumpkins next weekend. They're supposed to take 100 days from emergence to harvest and at 83 days from planting most of them have already turned orange. Not good, but it is what is.

I got after the sweet corn yesterday. Harvested the whole patch - ~400 row/ft. Filled five bushel tubs. Got that all shucked and cleaned and into the refrigerator. My task for this week will be cutting, packing and freezing all of it. I still need to dig up the potatoes, just haven't been able to muster the will to do it.

I'm continuing to gain on closing up the pond. I've packed about four feet of dirt into the cut so far, and have about that much left to go. I'm taking clay out of the basin for that. Nasty, tight, hard, clay that hasn't seen the light of day since forever. It's tough to dig, but it packs good and turns to concrete when it dries out. Should make for a good re-core job.

I got a little too deep into the seep hole with Nanner a few days ago and needed a tow to get out. It was a minor aggravation, and there was no damage done aside from snapping the tow strap in two.

[tubebender]

Nice little sand box and toy ya got there Augie...

[Ellendra]

Harvest season is starting! I just picked the first pods from one of the beans I’m being paid to grow. Corn is fattening up, and sunflowers are getting less green and more brown by the day. My other bean patches are absolutely covered in green pods. I’m converting my greenhouse to a drying shed just so I have room for everything!

[Augie]

I’m going to be really happy to have my pond back, but at the same time I’m going to be sad because I won’t have a place to play in the dirt.

[BikerTrash]

Thanks for that, it's worth a try.

My dilemma seems to have no solution, so I'm gonna suck it up and take the shot.