Posted on 07/10/2015 12:45:50 PM PDT by greeneyes
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Thank you for the johnny news. He is a determined kind of guy and funny. Prayers continue for him and Arrowhead.
We have fireants on the okra, so today, I’m going to spray them with Cheyenne pepper mixed with a few drops or soap and water. I’ll spray the ground, the stem, leaves and mini okra. We’ll see if that stops them. I worked for my squash and strawberries. I have another keyhole ready to put together. I’m going to put this one in my back yard. First I need to remove a dead althea shrub and a mini peach that has never done anything but sit there and look pretty.
Off to the community garden and murder some of those fireants.
LOL. A couple of years ago, we planted some corn and squash. A raccoon was spotted so we put out a live trap. Sure enough he entered the trap. As hubby a friend removed the trap, the coon reached out and picked a squash. He just sat there and ate the squash as he was carried off. The next animal was a feral cat. He was carried off to a neighborhood some distance from us. The next day, on our return from church, guess who was sitting on our fence? Yep, the cat. We named him Blackie and he still visits.
Thanks for the idea.
Rice Hull? I’ll have to look into that. Thanks!
My dad said he’s going to use packing tape on the corn when it starts to show so the raccoons can’t get them off. I keep laughing at the image of my dad out in the small field of corn with rolls of packing tape up his arm so he doesn’t run out. LOL! He’s been such a great help this year since we just had a baby. I just can’t be out there as much as I’d like. He is a farmer at heart and just can’t stay away. Love my dad!
Michigan is not that great for drying herbs, too humid most of the time.
Yes, I try to get the lettuce planted near the tree. The sunlight hits the garden in the early morning but then a large tree inside the corner of the garden starts to block it as the day progresses. In the afternoon, the house blocks it.
Hubby stole separate little north side bed that gets lots of sun that the tomatoes enjoyed. Moved the tomatoes this year to the south side of the garden right by the tree. Last year, they grew but never produced on the east side that gets the most morning sun. They, like the peppers, haven’t grown much since transplanting in April. Don’t know what’s going on. The sandy loam soil looks good, is getting plenty of water and there are more worms and less bugs this year.
The cukes are now in the shadiest bed by the house and have to vine toward the sun. They’re producing enough that with stretching, we’re not missing much at mealtime. I just planted some spinach on the shady side of the cukes so will see if that comes up or not.
Having mustard greens and cukes with dinner tonight. The mustard is doing well this year with very little bug eaten leaves.
Never heard of trapping squirrels. Shoot ‘em and have them for dinner. We have tons of them but the only time they bother the garden is when their planting pecans. The cats are keeping the population under control. Eh, I let them be.
Or lay the herbs out on paper towels and nuke them. Zero dust. It stinks up the house though.
I found a green hornworm in my tomatoes tonight - first one ever. The good news .... he was covered with little white cocoons from a braconid wasp ... bye bye hornworm. It looked like this:
http://www.organicgardeninfo.com/braconid-wasp.html
We had a family reunion yesterday, so I had to cram a whole weekend worth of work into Saturday. I'm not fully acclimated to the heat yet this summer and wound up over doing it a bit I think.
I got the tractor out and flipped the hay bale pile. With all of the rain we've had they are rotting down much faster than they would in a normal year.
I dug all of the garlic and one row of potatoes. This is the worst crop of fall-planted garlic I've ever had. Too much water, not enough sunshine. The heads are half the size or less compared to last year and the husks that normally cover the heads are rotted away completely. Aside from some damage the moles did this row of spuds was decent.
Beautiful Day lilies and great photos
Thanks for the pics. Sorry about your nightshades and blue berries, but at least you got some straw berries. We have not had any decent black berries since the really hot summer drought. Never got any blueberries or grapes yet-planted in 2010 - hope springs eternal.
And this year we didn’t even get strawberries. Sigh. I am hearing from everyone that their tomatoes are all failures this year. Mine aren’t doing well either - except for the volunteers.
I planted some potatoes this spring and mulched around them really well, and sort of forgot about them. When I went out to check, there were a whole bunch of tomatoes and some sort of melon vines, a bunch of weeds growing.
The tomatoes were doing great, and every thing was so intertwined, I decided to just let it go. I have been harvesting some great looking tomatoes there. One of the plants appears to be a larger beefsteak variety, but most are medium size. I know they must be heirloom, since that’s all I plant in the beds, but just which ones who know. Last planting of nightshades there was 3 years ago.
As soon as they turn orange, I pick them so the squirrels don’t get them, rinse them, dry and wrap in newspaper. I have one that almost red enough to eat.
Is that corn kinda shorter than usual? What type is it anyway? Hubby will be planting another batch of corn - Evergreen within the week. The peaches and cream corn is harvested, and I’ve got to figure out how to make room in the freezer for it.
Hope all the drought stricken places get some rain. Missouri has had enough for a while.
I am crushed - crushed I tell you. How could I be the wrong person? LOL
I didn’t get with it to plant my summertime lettuce, I like to have a good bit of growth before it gets really hot. Now I’m debating whether to plant some now, or wait a while. I may just plant some in a long narrow planter and grow it indoors and plant some outdoors later.
Well, I didn’t want to mess with fixing them, and Hubby didn’t want to shoot a gun in the neighborhood subdivision.
That will change if times get harder.
Those are beautiful flowers. Thanks so much for sharing the pictures. I do love lilies. We have some that are orange and some that are yellow. Really easy flowers to grow without tons of maintenance.
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