[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.

[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.

[fwdude]

What is “hot” in Missouri?

[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.

[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.

[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.

[DungeonMaster]

I'm very happy with my tomatoes this year. For years they have been getting poisoned by the Walnut tree next door.

This year I further raised my tomato bed and limited it to 4' x 4'. It is raised to 32" by 4 layers of cinder blocks. I'm having the best luck I've had in a long time! My theory was to keep the tomato roots away from any walnut tree roots that grow under the garden.

[NTHockey]

String beans doing very nicely; as is red lettuce, but that’s coming to an end. Looking for another variety to plant in August. Got my first pickle; eight more developing. Eggplants have tiny holes on leaves - found out they are flea beetles. Wife is gathering herbs. Tomatoes still green.

[SLB]

Okra is loving the heat here in Central Kentucky. Have to keep it watered, but that is part of it. Winter squash and pumpkins are also doing fine as long as I can keep the pump running in the creek to get water to them. Once the creek gets too low I will have to use county water and file for bankruptcy when the bill comes. LoL

Tomatoes have lots of blossoms and some little green ones, but so far with the exception of some yellow cherry that is it. I think the heat and drought have slowed them down.

[Redleg Duke]

Back operational after my foot surgery. Had a nasty bunion removed. The weeds have taken over my garden. Will be weeding potatoes, shallots and the new asparagus bed tomorrow. Our honey bees are now making honey for us. The left hive has one honey super on it and they are drawing out the combs. The right hive now has two honey supers! Checking them yesterday, I pulled a frame and had trouble lifting it. Turns out it wasn't stuck, just full of honey! I am afraid I am going to need to pick up a third super for these over-achievers! Barb and our new Border Collie, Princess Mandy, are at our trailer. I am working on the kitchen renovation and critter-sitting. Our Springtime guest, Thomasina's the wild turkey is back with three chicks. They were in the pen when I let the chickens and ducks out. Apparently Gallahad, our Black Copper Marans rooster went after one of the turkey chicks and I saw Thomasina in hot pursuit. She cornered him and started plucking Gallahad until I showed up. He has been "low-profile" today! 😂

[tubebender]

Weather continues to wow us with bright sunshine after the fog burns off around 10am. Our temps average highs of 68 to 74 and nighttime 58 to 60 as we are located 2 miles from the north pacific ocean near the Oregon border to the north. We have been digging potatoes as we need them or to share with family. Yukon Gold, Deserie and German butterball. We could be eating our own cord in a couple of weeks instead of buying it at the local farmers market but I have a fear it will come on all at once.

[tubebender]

Benderville has two farmers markets a week. Tuesdays in the Old Town district and Thursdays shopping center near our home. Here is a couple from yesterdays. The cooler contains squash blossoms for stuffing and deep frying, Next is a couple of musicians and a street view of the vendors…

[Qiviut]

It’s been a good week - tomato sandwiches & lots of Ichiban eggplant big enough to eat. The zucchini plant is ‘done’ & removed from the garden & the crook neck squash plant looks like it is will be coming out of the garden in the next day or so.

The heat wave has moved in, starting yesterday - triple digit heat index with high humidity. Wednesday night, we had a nice T-storm with a 1/2” of rain & Thursday night we had another storm which dumped 3/4” of rain. It’s made quite the difference - grass greening up & the garden perked up. I want to be more scientific in watering the garden so to put down an inch of water over the whole bed, I found the calculation that would give me the gallons needed. For my 4 x 8’ raised bed it is 20 gallons & close to 25 for the 4 x 10’.

We had so much rain earlier in the growing season & I have plants like I’ve never had before - the ‘good water’ was the difference so for future gardens, adequate water is what I want to accomplish - 1” a week should be the minimum. Since we got rain Wed/Thur that totaled over an inch, I figure I’ll be watering probably by Tuesday because of the severe heat. In the meanwhile, the tomatoes may not be setting fruit, but what is on the vines is certainly ripening.

BTW, the Alton Brown “Kinda Sorta Sour” pickles have been marinating in the fridge for almost two weeks so I tried a couple. I really like them - definitely sour, almost the same experience as eating something ‘hot’ & spicy (except there is no ‘heat’ ingredient), and I love the faint garlic addition to the flavor spectrum. I am definitely making up a second quart, even if I have to buy some pickle cukes.

[Black Agnes]

Picking tomatoes by the 5gal bucket now. Dehydrating them for tomato powder and cooking them down for sauce in the crockpot. Ditto sweet peppers. Dehydrating those for dices to throw in cooking rice and soups and pizza sauce/etc. Picked the first pumpkins a couple weeks ago (Montana Jack, not vine borer resistant but got a crop before the borers struck, planting those again in a few weeks for a fall crop). Fall peas coming up nicely and starting to pick apples and pears now. Probably dehydrate the apples and pears (in dices to add to oatmeal this winter) that don’t make it to the canner for pie filling or jam or some sort.

Starting some asparagus from seed today along with some mangels, peanuts (90d valencia ones) and sweet potatoes (90day ones).

Suckered a bunch of my tomatoes a week ago and will be transplanting those for a fall crop. We are especially enamored of the Super Sauce ones from Burpee along with Blue Beauty from Jungs and White Wonder (from either Jungs or Totally Tomato). The white ones, sliced, make really delicious pizza toppings with mariachi peppers and valencia onions with a couple pieces of bacon crumbled on top of all that.

This evening late we’ll be transplanting some blackberries, grapes, and moving my Persian lime tree to a larger (#25, presumably 25gal?) container we bought online somehwere to play musical containers and promote other stuff up the line.

[Augie]

The weather here in Central Missouri over the weekend had me longing for a vacation home in the Sahara. It was absolutely sick-hot outside.

I did two days worth of work in the tomato patch on Saturday in hopes of having an easy day yesterday, but it didn’t work out that way. There was still two days worth of work left to be done. LOL

I took 2 bushel of tomatoes and a half bushel of cucumbers to the auction last Friday. Then I picked tomatoes Friday evening, and I picked tomatoes Saturday evening, and I’ll pick tomatoes after I get home from the salt mine today. I’ll have at least another bushel for the auction tomorrow, and that’s just from the slicers. The Romas are going absolutely nuts right now. When they finish sizing up and start to turn I’m going to have some serious weight to sell.

Everything in the kitchen garden is doing well now. The Blue Lake green beans started to bloom a few days ago, first planting sweet corn is in full tassel, butternut squash are taking over the north fence, watermelon and cantelope are vining like crazy and covered with blossoms, okra is waist high, and it’s time again to murder some weeds.

And it rained again last night.

[goodwithagun]

If anybody has extra shallot sets for fall planting, I’d be happy to pay you or arrange a trade!