Posted on 09/12/2014 12:29:15 PM PDT by greeneyes
“it was 47 degrees when my husband came downstairs this morning.”
Was in low 50s here this morning in north Texas.
We have a few blueberry bushes out front. The birds usually get most of the berries.
Our whistle-pigs had been gone for about a month when, lo and behold, on Thursday I saw a little one in the yard twice. So cute. So destructive. :)
Well, I’m stuck with all these fancy bird houses. I’ll have to use net to keep them out.
Bookmarked, greeneyes, thank you! Hope (& all) are well. Wild times here.
God Bless.
You are welcome. When things slow down, give us an update. Thanks
I often just use an old sheet for shade. I put two posts on one end of the bed, and two shorter posts one the other end.
These are hollow pvc type posts. They are fitted over rebar that is about 18 inches tall. Then I attached the sheets to the poles using clothespins and twine. It’s a lean to style roof made of the sheet, basically.
Put up Wren houses around your plants. They like to eat bugs, not produce. They are also territorial and will help chase the other birds away from the area where their nests are. Worth a try as a supplement to the nets.
LOL. Every year hubby gets a little more closer to something like this to protect his berries. I’ll have to remember to show him this.
I believe that “Cherokee Purple” is also an heirloom variety.
I remember planticng "White Cloud Popcorn" in one of my first gardens
Unfortunately, it is a hard corn ,with sharp points on each kernal
I rmemember it because it tore up my hands pretty well , and I needed "Corn Huskers Lotion", or "Bag Balm" in order for my hands to recover.
Now they have a sixth-finger which fits into your palm, like a ring facing the palm, to assist in schucking the individual kernals.
Note to self : Find Bob a new Hobby ! LMAO !!
Frequently birds and deer will avoid anything moving and shiney.
Consider a few stands of mylar Christmas tinsel which is very effective
unless there is no wind !(blush)
Joe Bastardi at weatherbell.com this last Saturday report says that this winter will be just like last year(13-14), but more snow and cold in the Eastern mid-section.
Unusally warm waters south of California should bring some rains, perhaps even monsoon-like.
I know some folks on the West Coast need more rain and snow for the resevoirs.
I hope , for your sake , it includes you and the garden.
Sounds good
Cole crops (Cabbage, brusstle sprouts, califlower,etc.) beets , onions and others should do well , with a certain amount of protection, right up untill Christmas.
I envy you, (especicially now that it is 45 degrees here, tonight).
After our garden was saved Thursday night because the unexpected lingering cloud cover kept it from getting as cold as forecast (32 instead of 28), last night was just the opposite (30 instead of 35). All the 'sensitives' are shot; even the potatoes, which were dying down anyway, couldn't take it.
Our Russet Burbanks gave us 50 pounds; but the ones in the ground out-produced the ones in the tires nearly 3:1!* At that rate, we would have had about 75 pounds. These are also the BIGGEST spuds we've ever grown. Naturally, they aren't ALL that big, but (only a handful of puny ones) a good percentage are jumbo sized. We're also getting a good crop of the German Butterballs, with as much as 5 pounds from a single plant.
We got a handful of small sweet potatoes, and I will plant them again, as this was a horrible year to grow anything that needed even a modicum of warm weather. Not a single tomato ripened. The speckled butter beans are deceptively hardy, so I'll at least get my seed back from them. We will have an abundance of corn, both regular and Indian.
We had close to 2" of snowfall late Wednesday afternoon into Thursday night, though only a trace actually stuck, and was gone before noon Friday: earliest measurable snowfall since the 1880s; tied for third or fourth earliest freeze on record.
The rye is a Medusa: cut off a head, and 7 more appear. Close to 250-260 pounds, once the gleaning was finished; close to 70 pounds of wheat. The wheat is more difficult to thresh, as it has thicker, stiffer, more brittle cores to the heads. The rye heads pretty much remain intact, spilling the seeds; the wheat heads break and interfere with dehulling, requiring a threshing, coarse winnowing, and then rethreshing to remove the hulls and final winnowing.
* The potato vines in the tires were taller, but less bushy, more spindly. They gave the same to slightly more tubers per plant, but much smaller, both on average and on maximum sizes, than the in-ground plants. Also, the Burbanks, in the tires, all produced potatoes only at the bottom of the plant; they did not produce any side shoots into the upper straw layers. That was not my experience using tires in Southern California in the 1970s. Can't remember what variety I used back then, though it was russet type. Those put out stolens at each tire level; these didn't.
Old Computer disks/dvds too.
Bamboo is a nightmare to dig out. I would recommend that you plant it only in the yards of your enemies.
Thanks for the picture. Those are some big taters.
Hubby got some big ones like that this year too. First time we ever got big ones like that.
I threshed my rye with a flail,by hand , between two tarps . Just make sure the furthest piece connected by chain is shorter than the handle.
Other wise, you will give yourself a cerebral hematoma.
Don't ask how I know it ... Lol !
Trial and error .
You learn more by your mistakes , than by your successes.
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