[greeneyes]

Greetings from our little acre located in Missouri. Beautiful day. Not too hot, but the humidity makes it feel really hot.

Busy week. Haven't been on line much, barely had time to water the garden. Have to get out later and pull some weeds. I had a couple of sections that weren't planted, so the weeds started.

Have made some sort of sour dough bread every other day. Trying different recipes and techniques to see which we like best.

Have some nice medium size green tomatoes going, some peppers starting on the pepper plants, and some peas are still alive in the containers.

Have pulled most of the garlic. I did finally get some good size bulbs and I dried them in front of the fan, since it started raining shortly after they were pulled. I usually just let them lay on the wooden timbers at the edge of the garden for a while.

The washing machine sprang a leak, the dryer quit working, and the apartment washer quit right in the middle of a load. So I have done laundry the old fashioned way. Really got the muscles in my hands and fore arms a workout. Was able to dry them in the dryer, so I didn't have to hang a clothes line.

Repair man came and fixed the main washer and dryer. The apartment unit needs a new motor, but they have quit making the part, so that's it. The dryer still works, and the unit is attached together, so we probably won't replace it for a while.

I have some mystery plants coming up in the midst of the lettuce containers. Looks like a melon or squash vine. I'll be backtracking last week's thread to catch up on what I missed this week.

Hope everyone is doing well, and wishing you all a great weekend. God Bless

[greeneyes]

Pinging the List.

[killermosquito]

What is the preferred home recipe for something to spray on plants to keep the bugs off? Ants seem to be a problem on my peach trees. Not sure what is eating the topmost leaves of my pear trees. The nutria in the pond behind my house has discovered my small sunflower plants.

I’ve been thinking Tabasco and dish-soap but freepers give the best advice. What do you suggest?

[goodwithagun]

It’s an all out war here: Me vs. bunnies. I’m using tactics unapproved by the Geneva Convention. I lure them into the Hav-A-Heart trap, and then take them away from neighbors’ prying eyes and dispatch them with my air rifle.

[matthew fuller]

Thanks for the ping, worked great.

[Augie]

Another awesome day in Central Missouri. Garden is rocking!

My romaine lettuce has all bolted in the past couple days, along with most of my radishes, so I’ve been feeding that stuff to the chickens. One more picking on the snow peas and I think they’ll be chicken food as well.

Kentucky Wonder beans have vined to the top of the fence, cucumbers are halfway there.

Garlic is turning brown and falling over so I’ll be digging that in the next few days.

I can start digging spuds any time now. I uncovered one plant and it that one is any indication I’m going to have a nice crop.

Broccoli and cauliflower are ready to harvest.

I’m not sure how much of that I’ll accomplish this weekend. Mrs. Augie is out of town so I’m going fishing tomorrow morning and to the dirt track races tomorrow night.

[rightly_dividing]

Life is awful when the W/D goes out. I’ve had to do just what you did, way too often.

Good to hear about those tomaters and peppers.

When you get the sourdough recipes sorted through, let me know! lol

[4everontheRight]

Weather here in the upstate of SC is HOT!!! Mid 90's are causing my poor crops to go thru heat exhaustion!! I water in the AM and water in the PM to keep my potted crops from wilting. Potted plants are all tomatoes and hot peppers.

The raised garden bed really took off this week! A few corn plants are coming up and my green beans and squash are climbing all over the place! Beans are producing and look plentiful.

We are still battling chippies!! I bought some deterrent from Wally World and it works except the chippies are coming up from the bottom of the garden, not going down from the top! I need help on that one!! I can't get these things out of my yard! I am thinking about buying one of those sonic doohickeys that sends sound waves and keeps the critters away...anyone had any experience with those?

We have been getting afternoon storms about 6 at night but not much rain out of them really. The weather station in the yard says .13 most days we get rain out of the storms.

I guess the carrots will fall victim to chippies but the hot peppers are doing very well...we have a raised deck on the 2nd floor and the potted plants are up there and seem to keep the varmints away. But the raised bed (carrots, green beans, squash, cucumbers, cantaloupe, and corn) seem to be doing good growth wise. At least the chipmunks eat good here in SC!

I always enjoy the weekly gardening thread...folks are kind and informative. Thanks to all who post and advice the ones of us who lack much experience!

[rightly_dividing]

It’s 93 and 16% humidity here. But I was out in the shop with a air circulater running, painting a wall. I got pretty hot and clothes soaked. Low humidity; It’s overrated.

Tomaters were a bust for us, 0 tomatos this year from 10 plants. But I don’t yet hate the birds and squirrels, If we had been at home to feed them 2 weeks ago, they would never have tried tomatos and developed a taste for tomato juice. I hope we can keep them alive till fall and maybe get a crop then.

Peppers are doing well, with the banana peppers and jalapenos getting real big. Ther peppers doing good to.

My wife’s flowers all over the yard in beds and containers are having a banner year, especially the sunset lantanas. They are about 4ft tall and about 10-12ft long in a large bed with only 4 plants. They are really putting on a show, along with the butterflies visiting them.

[Red_Devil 232]

I think I may have found the problem that was causing a few of my tomato plant to die off. To much water. The soil has been to wet due to rains and me needing to test my new drip system. I know better than to over water but just did not take the rains into the equation when testing the drip system.

My other plants and 25 or so surviving tomatoes are doing fine. I have also ordered some shade cloth to cover the garden during the heat this summer. It should be here next Wed. I am going to see if my old drip system’s PVC pipe will be all I need in constructing a structure to hold the shade fabric, I hope so.

I started this garden very late this year and the summer heat here in Mississippi can do a garden in, especially a young one. I hope the shade fabric will help.

My fig trees have revived after the cold winter killed off all the old established branches. I will have figs! My two pear trees are full of fruit. So far everything is going well.

Good Gardening To All!

[mlizzy]

For those who think their space for a garden is too small, have hope. Ours is very tiny, but most everything is doing well. Just harvested our garlic; the heads are small as that part of the garden got the least amount of light, but it's still thrilling to see that they grew at all. The Cherokee Purple tomatoes and Brandywine Pinks are doing very well, with scores of maters on them, however, still very small.

The Freckles lettuce is fabulous. We've had salads for weeks now (we're doing the cut and come again) and it's still going strong. We've got about six or seven sunflowers, peppers, pole beans [for the first time], and sweet potatoes in containers [can't imagine they'll be too big, but we're giving it a shot]. So happy it's not -15, however, in the Chicagoland area, we've had tons of rain the last couple of days and part of our yard is still under water.

[mom3boys]

Roma tomato harvest from 4 plants. I weighed them - 15 lbs total! I want to try making making my own tomato sauce to use for recipes. Canning in a hot water bath should be okay since tomatoes are acidic.

Any hints/tips and recipes would be much appreciated. This will be my first time trying this. If it's successful, maybe next year I'll plant 10 Roma tomato plants.

Johnny - I thought I read previously that you grow a lot of Roma tomatoes?

[tob2]

Let me start by saying it is great to be back on the internet. Two weeks ago my computer died. Now I’m using a netbook and playing catch up. The weather has been heating up, getting ready for summer. Pansies are still blooming but will soon die out. Lilies ready to bloom in the next day or two. I can hardly wait for that sweet, heavenly fragrance. The mini-roses have bloomed several times already. There is more direct sunlight because several trees have been taken down. Everything growing as they normally do and it is good to be back on line.

[ApplegateRanch]

Been a fairly busy week in the garden, despite thunderstorms dropping over an inch of rain. At least we haven’t had to do any watering.Temperatures still haven’t stabilized for the season.

Friends gave me a set of Native American heirlooms, so I planted 4 hills of Mandan sweet corn, along with Hidatsa red beans, Hidatsa shield beans, and Arikara yellow beans. They had no idea the age of the seeds, but they were each well sealed, then all sealed in a ziplock bag, with a pamphlet about each of them. I didn’t think to do a germination test before planting; but did set one up 3 days ago: 1 of each bean, and 2 of the corn seeds, (That seed came still on the cob.) and all of them have germinated, so I guess they’ll grow. They bought them while working at a flea market.

Another plot got compost & fertilizer tilled in, then planted with rows of Painted Hill corn; Espada bush beans; and bush white crowder peas. The crowder peas were given to me by Justadumbblonde, and this is the first year I’ve been able to try them; hope they’re still viable.

Some mesclun mix & some Napa cabbage seed also got tucked into some small blank spots.

I managed to transplant our pole tomato seedlings: Siberian red, Speckled Roman paste, and San Marzano paste. The bush Romas are already in, so I just have left the Bush Glaciers, and both yellow & red pear tomato seedlings to go in.

The sweet bush cherries got bird netting draped & pegged down; the ‘bush’ is now over 5’ high, and loaded.

The winter rye is 5-5 1/2’ tall, and has about another month to mature. Heads look good, but are still shedding some pollen. The winter wheat is much less tall, but the heads are farther along, despite the rye being planted first.

Lots of time-outs this past week also didn’t help: Saturday was Flag Day ceremony at the State Veterans Home; Sunday was first, service the garden tractor; then get curried and combed for Fathers Day dinner, a movie, and, finally, a late dessert at DQ. Tuesday was the annual cats to the vet day, plus shopping & a visit to my sick VW in the shop.

Today, I tilled between the potato rows so they can be hilled again; did some adjustments on the tiller, then spread fertilizer & tilled a corn plot. Laid out, but didn’t plant yet, for 10 20’ rows spaced 30 inches of Golden Cross Bantam; the seed was saved from last year. Left a 24” path on each side of the plot, with 4’ of beds on each side for the sweet potatoes & the cukes & tomatoes. Golden Cross Bantam corn seed saved from last year’s harvest; should get over 250 plants.

We got our first 3 ripe strawberries, and a bunch of cilantro that is currently drying. Also been getting salads from our 3 volunteer leaf lettuce plants.

With the season running nearly a month late, I sure hope it makes up for it on the other end, or we won’t get much of anything.

Meanwhile, Mrs. A.R. has been busy on weed control, and drying herbs & catnip, as well as the cilantro. The catnip goes into small jars, and is donated to the local cat shelter; they give them to new owners when they adopt. We also fill a large container for our guys, and a couple of others for the shelter cats themselves.

[who knows what evil?]

Ye gads...43 degrees in soviet Red Hampshire this morning...and people told me I was planting my peas too late. Cool summer...very cool.

[KGeorge]

Well, we had some casualties (grr sea grape & allamanda are gone) but even the marigolds (in flower pots) in the garden made it. Tomatoes, green beans, & okra are doing great! I don’t know what happened with the turnips & beets. Turnips were great last year & none of them made it. Beets failed last year & looking good this year. I pulled one up (they should be ready), but the bulbs are just shriveled up. Not enough water?
I’m going to pull the carrots before we go back. The tops look ready, so we’ll see.

The grass is about a foot high.

God Bless everyone & have a great week!

[Ellendra]

Was planning to spend the day out on my land, but it keeps looking like we'll have another storm any second. The storm has been holding off all day, I think it's waiting for me to be out in the mud so it can dump on me.

The good news is, my gardens are loving this weather! My sweet peas have jumped 2 feet in the last week, they are now taller than I am! And, after replanting 5 times, my cucumbers and melons are finally growing. I got some egyptian walking onions from my grandfather and got them planted in a barrel. The potatoes are tall enough I was able to mulch them, and my black raspberry patch is just covered in little green berries.

Although, after what happened with my strawberry patch, I'm tempted to post an armed guard at the raspberries. Dad waited until the first couple of strawberries had ripened, then ripped out half the patch and sprayed poisons on the other half. This is the 5th year in a row that he has destroyed large parts of the patch just as they started to ripen, but the poisons are a new trick. Well, actually, maybe not such a new trick, he did that once right after I served a wild salad from the back yard. I swear he does this deliberately! I have GOT to get out of this house!!!

Oh, look, the rain just started!

Yesterday I was taking a walk on my lunch break and found some mulberry trees just laden with fruit. I managed to pick about a cup of them before the mosquitoes chased me away. Monday I'm packing bug spray. I love mulberries. Mulberries are good. I'm trying to get a whole grove of them established on my land.

Things at work are going both very well and very badly. I like my job, I'm a QA person at a call center. All I have to do is listen to calls and grade people on how well they followed the rules. For that, I'm getting paid pretty well. In some ways it's the easiest job on the floor, but it does require being immune to bribes, pouting, begging, and other forms of coercion. Lots of people trying to get me to change their scores lately. Fortunately, when someone tries to take it up with upper management, they back me up. It's nice having a boss who trusts my judgement.

However, I know how to read a financial statement and I've studied how and why businesses fail. My employer will be bankrupt within 3 to 5 years because the CFO is doing a pump-and-dump, but there's no one I can tell who would be able to change it. So, I'm starting to look for another job. Getting my voice back gives me more options than I had before, so that alone is a relief.

Speaking of my employer, we got hit by the storm Wednesday morning. Part of the wall of the women's bathroom on my floor was scattered across the roof of the cafeteria. I'd post pictures but I can't seem to get them off my phone and onto the PC. It was surreal working that day!

[Comment Not Approved]

Moose got one of my apple trees; those things can do some damage. I will need stronger fencing. Eating arugula and bokchoy right now. Kale and spinach are next.

Peas and pole beans are growing well. Tomatoes still have walls of water around them, nights still in the low 40’s.

Tough to garden in Montana but we do what we can in large raised beds, fenced 6ft high.

[Neoliberalnot]

Sorry about the washer. A storm that came through about 3 weeks ago hit the transformer by the house. The surge took out our washer, dryer, microwave, and two bathroom fans, and wind took off a few pieces of the house. $2500 in losses and wouldn’t you know insurance deductible was $5000. Ouch.

My tomatoes are getting the fungus on lower branches. I think it is a Fusarium fungus and the only way I know to stop it from killing the plants is fungicide.

[who knows what evil?]

We were never comfortable talking about this, but people need to know...

A heads-up to gardeners in Red Hampshire: my wife and I were told by an elected official in our RH town that "when you grow that many tomatoes (roughly 100), you have to expect that (a no-knock drug raid) to happen."

We did, and it did. Not sure about other areas of the country, but 'gardeners beware'.

[heylady]

I hate to say it but I think I am calling it quits with the veg garden this year. A couple of days ago something took a buzz saw to my pepper plants that I had grown from seeds. The stems were completely striped of their leaves. I couldn’t find a culprit, whoever it was ate 2 and left 4 untouched. Next my zucchini plant died probably from that insect that bores into the stems that someone mentioned earlier. My lettuce, which I had way too much planted, became infested with little green worms. The final straw was an invasion of at least a hundred brown beetles with cream colored dots on their miserable little backs. I had thought that since we had a pretty cold winter in north Texas that the bugs wouldn’t be so bad but I thought wrong