[greeneyes]

Greetings from our sunny little acre located in the mid - eastern side of Missouri. This is a great time of the year when the Show Me State starts showing the fall colors. Nice temperature in the 70s and nights down to around 60s. Great Gardening weather.

Persimmons are starting to ripen. I have been able to find 3 or 4 each day this week. The tree is loaded with these little bags that will feel like a bag of jelly(that's what they feel like when ripe).

My peppers are still producing. Hubby's tomatoes are still going strong. Volunteer vines are producing some sort of melons, we just aren't sure what, so we hope they finish up before frost to see what they are.

I harvested the lavender, chives, and rosemary, and Dakota pearl potatoes. There is one patch of taters left to dig, when I get a little more room in the storage bin.

I have planted some old supermarket taters that sprouted and covered them with hay. Hubby says they'll be ok during the winter and start out early next spring. We shall see.

I have planted one of the winter beds with carrots, lettuces, spinach, and another patch with Siberian Garlic. I Will be planting some more spinach, and radichio and winter density lettuce during the next week.

Will also be planting some peppers, and tomatoes in pots for indoor production - salad at Christmas time. The spaces left over outdoors will be used for compost/leaves or winter wheat and rye or hairy vetch.

FROM THE ALMANAC: Plants or essential oils that repel mosquitoes: Citronella, Lavender, cedar, lemon eucalyptus, Peppermint, Geranium, Fever Few, Rosemary,Neem.

To make your own essential oil, crush the plant, and combine it with 3 parts alcohol. Let it set for several weeks before using.

Hope you and your gardens are doing well. Have a great weekend. God Bless.

[dware]

tomatos and chili’s like crazy! And, I’ve a newfound respect and serious taste for basil, after growing for the first time, ever. AMAZING basil! Lol. Got chocolate mint every where, too. Makes one mean cup of tea!

[gorush]

The Asian and Box Elder Beetles have made their fall appearances in Hitchcockian fashion...makes one hope for a hard freeze.

[knarf]

I had a mediocre carrot crop this year, but better than last (this was my second year) and I would like information from anyone that has been successful

I tilled 8" deep and monded about 4" loose on top of that

sprinkled carrots all along the "ridge", covered them with weed paper/fabric until they sprouted ... uncovered and let them go

Had about 2 or 300 carrots ... about 50% 3" and shorter, maybe 40% between 3" and 5" and maybe 10% 5" to 6"

I harvest them all and use them in salads and other cooking, but I'd like to see more of the 4"-7" carrots

Next year my plan is to trench a row probably a foot deep, fill with loose (sand .. vermiculite?) soil and see what happens

I live in SW Pa

Thanx

[rightly_dividing]

In before the ping.

[greeneyes]

Pinging the List.

[rightly_dividing]

Sounds like your garden is doing well. I wish we still had persimmon trees.

[FamiliarFace]

I’m in central Indiana, but just moved a year ago from Ohio. I’m still learning about gardening. Last year, a dragon-leaf begonia was fiercely stubborn when the temps dropped, so I took a chance and over-wintered it in our sunroom, and made stem cuttings from it. So now I’m wondering if I can do this same kind of thing with other plants that I usually think of as annuals.

Does anyone here have experience with bringing geraniums, tuberous begonias, caladiums, and/or coleus indoors? Any ideas on how to propagate these? Should I invest in a grow light or do they want to go dormant? Any information would be helpful. Thanks!

[trisham]

That’s wonderful! Here in Massachusetts, we’ve got nothing left, really. We’ve already had two frosts. The leaves are all turning, the humidity is low, and we had a cool but sunny day here today. Winter will be here before we know it. :)

[Arrowhead1952]

Got the garden all tilled up today. Volunteer shallots are already six inches tall. Must have missed a few bulbs last spring.

[left that other site]

Happy Friday, greeneyes!
Since we have had major rain every single solitary day for over a month, the trees are as lush as a rainforest around here.

Except of course, for the blackened stumps of the ones that were struck by “Spider lightening”.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Wife and I toured Shaw Nature Reserve at Gray’s Summit last week. If you are in eastern Missouri, it’s worth a visit.

[Slump Tester]

A place to tell my secret of growing really HOT peppers!:

Put a bag of Miracle Grow potting soil into a black garbage bag.
Poke holes all the way through both bags so water can get out.
Cut 2 or 3 holes in the top and plant your peppers.
Place them where they will get the most sun possible, and water them a little each day.

The sun will heat up tghe black plastic and make the roots put off more Capsaicin. I did this with some Jalapenos and Habaneros one year, and they were the hottest peppers I'd had for a long time.

[gunnyg]

Gunny G: Unusual Bamboo...

http://gunnyg.wordpress.com/2014/09/24/gunny-g-phyllostachys-praecox-viridisulcata/

Dick Gaines
GunnyG @ gmail.com
*****

[Bailee]

Anyone with Experience on Sarpo Mira Potatoes in the US

[Ellendra]

Last weekend's harvest:


Plus the last of the summer squash:


And the "Pile O' Squash" as it stands today:


That's about a third of the garden harvested. The corn needs longer, the T-squash and cucuzzi aren't quite ready yet, and I ran out of room on the sled for the red kuri and the rest of the pumpkins.

I'm a little worried about my corn. The DE I sprinkled into the ears seems to have worked, but now the ears are trapping water inside them. I'm seriously considering getting some cheap socks to put over them to kind of direct some of the rain elsewhere, but that would also slow evaporation and might make things worse. Maybe I should just grow one type of corn per year so I can harvest in the summer when it dries easily.

I'm still battling the mice for my chickpea pods. They've been winning so far, but I'm wrapping the latest pods in row-cover cloth and scattering mothballs around underneath them. If I get 10 seeds out of this, I'll be happy. But those mice are persistant.

The potato bed right next to the chickpeas is ready to dig up. I wonder if that will disturb the mice enough that they move elsewhere? Especially if I have my kitty supervising?

I got some lab equipment from Amazon this week. I'm going to see if I can sell herbal preparations and distillates in addition to my seeds. I even have an idea for my first product: a cat shampoo scented with catnip oil!

[Black Agnes]

Ok, I’ll give you something to laugh about.

I ordered some Yukon Chief sweet corn seeds from bestcoolseeds.com. Planted them out the Thursday or Friday before Labor Day.

They were tassling less than 4w later. They’re only about 18”-2’ tall right now LOL. Fully tasseled out. Our daily highs have been high 80’s to low 90’s and night time lows have been anywhere from upper 50’s for a couple nights to mid 70’s and everywhere in between.

Hubby tilled in a couple of buckets of chicken poop (fresh) before I planted. I soaked the seed overnight in warm water. Once it was up, I strew another bucket of fresh chicken poop directly around the 6” or so tall seedlings, then I mulched it with newspapers covered by grass clippings. We haven’t had much rain so I put a soaker hose amongst it all and I’ve soakered it deeply once or twice a week. Can already see the little baby ears.

I’m *hoping* to get a few smallish ears for my kids and to let the rest of it go to seed, IF the weather will cooperate this year. I will likely have to arrange a covering of some sort using tposts, 2X4’s and plastic covering if the weather doesn’t cooperate.

Ok, that’s my funny for this week’s thread. Planting corn at Labor Day. YMMV.

[Augie]

No gardening for me over the weekend. Went to the sprint car races in Wheatland. Took the WhinnyBago and camped at the track Friday and Saturday nights.

Got home around 1:30 yesterday afternoon. Unpacked and cleaned up the trailer then spent several hours in the pond with Nanner. I’ve made some good progress on that job over the past couple weeks.