Posted on 06/08/2012 7:26:30 AM PDT by JustaDumbBlonde
Good morning! Hope that all of my FRiends and fellow gardeners have had a good and productive week.
Began the Spring harvest in my apiary yesterday, which yielded 7 gallons of beautiful honey from 3 hives. Still have 3 hives from which to pull the honey boxes, and the remaining hives will not harvest until Fall because they are relatively new. Bit of trivia here ... a gallon of honey weighs 12 pounds.
The wheat harvest is over and the farm is buzzing with tractors getting cotton and soybeans planted on the wheat ground. The field corn has tassled and pollinated, and the wells are running almost continuously to keep it watered. It is very hot and dry here.
My local garden center has all of their plants 75% off, and I went crazy in the hibiscus department. I'm adding them all over the property ... even at the gates to the donkey pasture. I also purchased several mandevilla vines to plant with some hibiscus around the back porch. We are really going to enjoy a tropical view!
My earliest sweet corn has tassled and is pollinating. I am hoping to get several acres of cowpeas planted today. Wish me luck!
Please check in and let us all know how your gardening ventures are going. I get such inspiration from reading what you're doing, and I'm sure that others do as well.
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.
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I couldn’t get squash or peppers to grow last year. They both were doing great this year until squash bugs got the squash. I had a soil test done this year and amended the soil, so I attribute that to their improvement this year. I am not going to plant any squash next year. We have a very small garden and only had 6 squash plants. We need to keep all of the space producing something, and our favorite crop is tomatos.
* The Cucumbers are about a foot tall and learning how to hang on the the chain link fencing.
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My husband built me a 6 foot tall A-frame for my cucumbers this year. It is made of wood and hog wire. It really is an architectural beauty and the cucumbers are loving it...as am I. It is hinged at the top...so I can simply fold it up and store it in the winter. It looks really pretty in the garden and saves a good bit of space. ;-)
My kohlrabi is also producing a lot. So far, we have only used it in coleslaw. Do you have any other suggestions?
We have a TON of zucchini and the spaghetti squash is forming.
Is there any chance that you could post pictures of your A frame? That sounds really nice and could be adapted to other running crops.
I work pretty fast, I spent most of my internship as a prep cook in a fine dining restaurant. I have LOTS of practice. ;)
/johnny
I do have a picture of it...but have NO idea of how to post it. ;-/
Hubby also drive stakes in at each corner to make sure it stays.
I have noticed that the spaghetti squash also puts out TENDRILS like the cucumbers (it’s been a few years since I’ve grown any of this). I wonder if it would do well growing vertically too?
Ping.
Thanks for the photos!
Do you have a photo web hosting account? (Like Flickr or photobucket?) If not they are free and easy to get started in. Then post the URL here for a clickable link. No HTML needed.
No, I don’t....but can check into that later today or tomorrow. Thank you.
It was really strange. Usually I would find green tomatoes on the ground with just one bite missing. These 2 were just totally gone, like they picked them and ate or buried the whole thing.
The rest of the tomatoes are way behind with one ore two marble size, and the rest just flowers. We set some traps to catch them so we can haul them off, but we have lots of nut trees, so every spring we have a bunch of new ones.
We also have lots of wild rabbits along the back fence which is adjacent to about 3 acres of undeveloped land filled with trees and brambles.
In a way it’s good. If food prices get too high to buy chicken etc. we can always fry up a squirrel or rabbit. LOL.
My cukes are planted along the chain link fence next to the driveway. There is an 18” wide flower bed between the fence and the driveway. It can support 2 dozen cuke vines and is right outside the kitchen. It makes an ugly fenceline useful.
My favorite way to cook kohlrabi is to dice into 1/2 inch cubes, steam them until tender, and serve in a white cream sauce.
The best way to prevent flies in the house is to get rid of any children you have around who tend to stand in open doors and invite the flies in for a treat.
Our two kids are pretty good about closing the doors quickly when they enter or leave the house, they are 12 and 13 years old but we have two of our great grand kids visiting us for the next two weeks that are 4 and 5 years old and haven’t learned to close the door yet. They are expert at opening them however.
Squirrel is good eats. I ate a lot of them after Oct 2008.
/johnny
Another way I use them is in ham-hock and bean soup, I dice the kohlrabi into 3/8" dice and throw them into the pot in the last hour or so. Ham and kohlrobi go well together.
/johnny
A couple of years back, I caught birds pecking at my tomatoes. I had no idea that they would do that until then.
A lady at church told me to set out a couple of pans of water near the area, that the birds were probably thirsty. I did it and it seemed to help.
We had some problems with squirrels and rabbits until a stray cat took up residence under a shed and we have seen fewer of the nuisance animals since. I have ambivalent feelings about cats but so far I've not caught any bothering the garden, they are also helpful with any snake problem as mentioned earlier.
I, for one, like a lot of lattice in my salad!
Then again you can learn several ways of doing it manually on this threat.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2892547/posts
I pickled a lot of mine last year. I personally don’t like pickles, but the members of my family who do said they were delicious. Just follow a recipe for cucumber pickles, substituting zucchinnis instead.
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