WEEKLY GARDEN THREAD JULY 22, 2016

freerepublic | July 22, 2016 | greeneyes

[greeneyes]

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. It is impossible to hijack the Weekly Gardening Thread. Planting, Harvest to Table(recipes)preserving, good living - there is no telling where it will go and... that is part of the fun and interest. Jump in and join us!

NOTE: This is a once a week ping list. We do post to the thread during the week. Links to related articles and discussions which might be of interest are welcomed, so feel free to post them at any time.

[greeneyes]

It is hot, dry, and sunny in our little area of Missouri. I have 3 green tomatoes and several have flowers on them.

Corn is about 6 inches high, my cuke in a pot has blossoms and a tiny rice size cuke forming.

We are leaving early afternoon for St. Louis, and won't be back till bedtime, so I figured I should post this earlier than usual.

Last week's thread ended with a request of how to store gourds, so I thought I'd mention that in case anyone has had experience with that.

Hope all is well with you and yours. Prayers up for all. Have a great week end. God Bless.

[greeneyes]

Pinging the List.

[WakeUpAndVote]

We are in a severe drought warning in North Central PA. Glad I did 3’X3’ raised beds this year. Only taking a fraction of the 20’X 20’ fenced in area. I can direct the water to where I need it. Ground in between has DEEP cracks in it. Did 80% tomatoes this year for canning. All are heavy in green tomatoes. This heat will stress them but, the leaves are totally covering the bed base now. The water is not evaporating as bad.

[Dirt for sale]

Worms are visibly increasing, just fed the four bins on a frozen melon diced fine
Sunflowers got devoured by bugs, whatever, I would prefer native flowers that are tough.
Compost is full again, for the fifth or sixth time. At some point I’ll stop adding layers so I can let it finish and use the stuff. Fascinating to see how quickly the earth and it’s inhabitants work to break everything down.
Brown paper bags or anything opaque covering the figs prevents stupid birds from spoiling the fruit. Doesn’t stop fire ants, though. English brown turkey makes tons of large (~2 oz.) closed eye fruit with strawberry flesh and brown exterior when ripe. One of my favorites. Kadota is sweetest. Magnolia makes the biggest fruit but can’t keep a closed eye.

[Vigilanteman]

We took the hillside on the west side of our house mostly down to build the 20' x 45' plateau for our 14' x 40' barn. Since this is SW Pennsylvania where exposed ground will grow nasty stuff like milkweed, thistle, Queen Anne's Lace and staghorn sumac if you don't plant SOMETHING for ground cover, I am looking for ideas beyond the clover which I started. I have ample volunteer English Ivy, Trumpet Vine, Rose of Sharon, catnip and other stuff. but I am looking to avoid high maintenance, and poison fruit yielding stuff like nightshade as well as prevent erosion.

Something that bloomed wouldn't be bad either.

The soil is high in clay content and compaction, is mostly sunny toward the front of the barn and mostly shady toward the back (north) where the natural drainage flow lies. You don't have to dig down very far to strike tree roots, so stuff that requires deep digging is out as well.

I know lots of my Freeper friends know more about landscaping than I do, so ideas are welcome.

[greeneyes]

Raised beds have worked out well for us too.

[greeneyes]

I wonder if one could use brown paper bags to protect peaches?

[fwdude]

What is “hot” in Missouri?

[greeneyes]

I really like the “walk on me” thyme plants as an alternative ground cover.

[Ellendra]

Garlic braiding is a learned skill, and I clearly need more practice:



The hardneck braid is already coming apart. I'll wait until they dry a little more and redo it. The softneck braid is messy, but holding, so it can stay as-is.

While talking with an advisor about some unrelated matters, I mentioned my plans for my farm. He suggested that I rent the unused fields from 2 of my neighbors. That would give me almost 3 additional tillable acres to work with, and the average rate of $200 per acre per season is certainly reasonable, if I can be sure the lease period is 3 years or more. Pleurisy Root should bring in an estimated $14,000 per acre every 3 years, so I'd be able to rotate a full acre every year, where before I was assuming 1/3 of an acre. With my expenses as low as they are, that's enough to live on. It'll just have to wait until my hours pick up, because I don't have the money right now. Those neighbors are currently letting a local farmer use the fields for hay, but he's not paying rent on it at all. And when I spoke to him last spring, he said he was mainly farming those fields because it pained him to see them go unused. I think I can make this a win-win-win situation. Eventually.

We had a gullywasher of a storm last night! The backyard garden seems to have come through ok, in spite of the hail. But a friend on the other side of town posted pictures, her street is flooded 6 feet deep in spots!!! Thankfully she's ok, but there's a lot of cars that tried to go through it that are total losses.

[Vigilanteman]

A special resilient variety of thyme which holds up to foot traffic? Or just regular thyme?

[blackbetty59]

I pulled all my spring planted tomatoes except for 5, and they will come out this week. I planted a handful of fresh tomato plants for fall, and I’ve started seed (under lights) for broccoli, green cabbage, red cabbage, chinese cabbage, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, swiss chard, spinach, kale, mustard, collards, butternut squash, acorn squash, more cucumbers, dill, cilantro, and I plan to direct sow some other things like turnips and beets, a few beans and maybe some zipper cream peas. For fall, I’m rearranging the garden a little (ok, a lot) and shooting for a bio-intensive planting (John Jeavons style). I plant fairly closely anyway, but this will be a nice experiment.

[greeneyes]

Heat is relative, I think. I can’t take the heat, so high 80s is bad for me, but doesn’t bother Hubby. We have pretty high humidity, so they say that makes the heat worse.

Temperatures above 100 degrees Farenheit are not frequent, but have happened in every section of the State. Temps can rise to 90 and above and last an average of 40-50 days in the N.West part of the state, and 55 to 60 days in the S.East.

The basic gradient for regional differences in climate is along a line running diagonally from the N.West to the S.East.

Inland location, means we experience frequent changes in temperature, very prolonged periods of very cold or very hot weather are unusual - they are broken up by occasional periods of mild weather.

We average 110 days of temp 32 or below. Our season is approximately 178 days, but can sometimes be 198 days.

The old saying in Missouri is, If you don’t like our weather, just hang around a while-it will soon change.LOL

[greeneyes]

Nice looking garlic. Thanks for the pics. Great Idea about renting the land. Since they aren’t getting any money now, they might be willing to wait for the rent check, till after your harvest, or maybe for a small % share of the profit after expenses?

[greeneyes]

I have always thought it was a special variety. I see it advertised in the Catalogs. I think Burgess and Guerneys. It has red flowers and “walk on me” in the name, so you might just want to google it.

I am thinking of planting it in a few bare spots just to see how it does.

[Psalm 73]

Thanks for the PING, greeneyes.

- Harvested garlic several weeks ago - great crop this year!
- Cukes are all played out - fun while they lasted.
- Massive amounts of zuccinni, and still coming.
- Tomatoes are about a week or so away, we're getting close.
- Peppers (jalapenos, bells) are always later - so maybe late August.
- Snap peas were done early, but green beans are still coming.

Took a break from eggplant this year - three disappointing years in a row - maybe try again next year - could use some tips if anyone wants to pass along some eggplant wisdom.

[goodwithagun]

The grat garlic harvest of 2016 is in and curing. I harvested over 300 bulbs, and I plan on planting 750-1000 for next year. I’m getting nearly a pound of lettuce every other day. The heat is making the tomato blossoms drop, unfortunately.

[Ellendra]

Sunflowers got devoured by bugs, whatever, I would prefer native flowers that are tough.

I'm not sure where you're located, but sunflowers are native to the Americas. Some of the modern varieties have been "improved" to where they can't take care of themselves, though.

I'd suggest looking for an older variety. Maybe Hopi Black Dye?

[left that other site]

In the midst of a drought in New England too!

[mrsmith]

A neighbor grew her cucumbers up the back porch and it’s TERRIFIC. Just picks them standing on the porch AND they give lots of shade without blocking the breeze.

Miserable gardening for me this year. Maybe the watermelons and cantaloupe will save the year.