Posted on 07/25/2020 5:39:18 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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Munch, crunch, packing my lunch.... for a party thrown by the anarchists bunch.
Have some treats from garden, fresh vegetable goodies. But that’s not what I am going to feed the assholes in black hoodies.
Pulled my cukes and lettuce. Replaced with spinach and escarole.
The Garden & Wildlife Week!
The garden is doing well (mostly). Cuke vines are dying, but I know what he problem is – will plant them in a different location next year. We can’t eat all the cukes anyway, so no big loss.
Green bell peppers are the best I’ve ever grown.
Jalapenos are doing great – lots of peppers for Jalapeno Pepper Jelly! This is the best pepper year ever.
Tomatoes – finally starting to turn. They got a late start when I had to replant all of them due to cold weather late in the spring.
Flowers – sunflowers in full bloom and gorgeous. Zinnias still blooming, but many are going to seed and the bed will be replanted this coming week for a second, late crop of flowers – the birds/bees/butterflies really appreciate having a food source late in the fall.
Now for the wildlife …..
Something is eating tomatoes & partially two cukes. We think it’s a squirrel – no groundhogs this year at the barn. The crows can’t get in (fencing) so they are not the culprit. No luck with the squirrel trap.
Animal sitting for the next door neighbor from last Saturday evening through last evening – dogs & chickens. Monday morning, I opened the door to check the nest boxes for eggs & was eyeball to eyeball with a Rat Snake. The rascal ended up being 5-1/2 feet long – biggest one we’ve ever caught in the hen house …. longer than I am tall! Tuesday evening – took the top off the trash can where the chicken food is kept – Snake #2! Much smaller. There was a hole in one feed bag, nibbled by a mouse – I’m sure that is what the snake was after.
Baby Bun Bun, the one that visits our front porch, is now Somebunny who likes sunflower leaves! The squirrels are knocking the plants down (volunteers that came up around the bird feeders) to eat the seeds & Somebunny is eating the leaves.
A juvenile Red-shouldered Hawk landed in the back yard & was eating something – checked out the spot after the hawk left, but couldn’t figure out what it was eating. The hawk needs to work on the squirrel population.
A doe is visiting the yard regularly – she’s already all but destroyed my mom’s hostas (gourmet salad bar – green ones only) & is now visiting near the bird feeders. The squirrel trap was moved off some corn I had bating it & I think is was the deer who did it.
Crows – think “The Birds” (school yard scene)…. yes, it’s almost that bad!! They have youngsters & they are constantly sounding off (want the adults to feed them).
Hummingbirds – delightful!! They are really using the feeders & yesterday morning, one was sitting on top of the shepherd’s crook that holds the feeder – fluffing some wet feathers after thunder storms overnight. Another male came along, chased off #1 and then spent some time looking handsome on the same perch.
LOL. I feel like that’s what we do for the squirrels and likely coons. Something is getting the corn before we do, and the apples and peaches, and cherries and grapes.
So far the only thing we have are tomatoes. We pick them with a slight blush and bring them in to ripen. We got some lettuce earlier in the year. How come we can’t have lettuce and tomatoes at the same time-lettuce bolted a few weeks before tomatoes were here.
We have the basement walls and floor completed on our storage project. It’s costing twice as much as I budgeted-because hubby doubled the size without consulting me.
This means that I won’t get my number 1 wish for a sunroom off the dining room with a little soapstone stove. To grow way more indoor plants and the stove for heat or cooking when the electricity goes out. I knew I should have insisted on the sunroom first. Ha.
Number 2 wish for a commercial plastic cistern to hold the rainwater, since the above ground pool keeps getting holes and the cover doesn’t last long enough to keep the crap out.
It’s a bummer and I just can’t believe Hubby did that. I think it sort of slipped up on him-he’d add something to the plan that wouldn’t be that much, then later on have another idea and add it and pretty soon it was huge dollars. sigh.
Well, maybe there will be enough to make a window wall facing south and south west, and get a stove and some insulation for the year around growing of plants? I dunno.
I am so disappointed about my sunroom dreams going up in CONCRETE. Ha.
I have, for the first time, a couple of jalapeno plants. They were mistake purchases by my mom. I’m growing them to give to my neighbor who loves them.
Question is, when are they ready to pick? Having never grown them I’m clueless.
Thanks.
I’m pleased to report the third hatch of baby wood ducks at our Lake of the Ozarks property.
Looks as if our new duck boxes are welcoming mom ducks and the moms are “kicking them out.”
When the jalapeños exibit spider lines on the surface, it’s time.
Suggest buying some cream cheese to stuff, then wrap in bacon before cooking.
Enjoy !
LOL!
We have bunnies, chipmunks, squirrels, mice, and lots of birds (American Goldfinch, Robins, Jays, etc) who love my garden, and foxes, coyotes, feral cats, and Red-tailed Hawks who love those who love my garden. :-)
Thanks. Had no idea when to pick them. I planted late so none are quite ready yet.
I like the taste of hot peppers but my stomach gives me hell for days so the neighbor will be getting the peppers.
I’ve tried every trick in the book but with my stomach its not worth the days of being tied to the porcelain throne. :(
This is the first year that I’ve had problems this close to the house - but I’m also not raising a litter of pups in the yard this summer, either. ;)
BTW, we leave the bacon out of the stuffing & actually wrap a half/whole slice of bacon around the stuffed jalapeno.
I leave most of mine on the plant until they start turning red (for jelly) ... first they get sort of 'black' before going to red. I take them off the vine when I see them starting to turn & let them finish inside. I use only red ones for Jalapeno Pepper Jelly - the jelly ends up the most gorgeous amber color. If you make the jelly out of green ones, the color is a 'muddy' green & green food coloring is generally used to brighten up the color.
If your jalapenos get 'old' on the plant, even as they turn red, they get sort of 'age' lines .... I don't know how else to describe it. I'd pick before they get 'lines'.
You may want to leave a couple on your plant & watch the process & then you'll have an idea of what they do as they 'ripen'. You could also take a look at jalapenos in the store - that would give you an idea of 'size'.
Some pictures:
Notice top right - pepper turning - green goes blackish, then goes to red - the one on the very far right, mostly red, has some 'age' lines.
Jalapeno pepper jelly color when you use red peppers.
Our cucs are just starting to be ready to pick. We have been picking bush beans all week. Tomatos are still very green. Peppers are very slow. Eggplant should be ripe late next week. Sunflowers taller by the day! Trimmed up the basil, mint and thyme and bundled them for drying this morning. Not much for pests yet and just the usual fungus trying to defoliate a couple tomato plants, but keeping that at bay. July has been a great garden month here.
Oh boy, that is Trouble ... capital “T”!!
We had an old, large boar raccoon a couple of years ago, raiding the bird feeders at night. I caught him hanging off of my most expensive one ... he actually bent the metal perches down (fortunately, I was able to bend them mostly back up, enough that the birds can use them).
I ended up taking my bird feeders down every night, loading them into my Gorilla Cart, & putting them in the garage. Every morning, I hauled them back out & put them up. This got ‘old’ fast, but saved my feeders until late spring, when I no longer had the feeders outside. No idea what happened to that old boar (he also raided our trash cans, but I was able to stop that with bungi cords/rope aka “Ricky Wraps) - saw a mom raccoon with about 3 babies last year so somebody is “romancing” the ladies! No issues with raccoons messing anything up since the old guy.
Local Mennonites at our farmers market have both hot and not hot jalapeños.
I know the not hots are uncommon but you might look for them...
Raccoons are not a problem hereabouts.
We do have way too many armadillos but so far, the raised beds are safe.
I have a 1 inch plastic pipe frame around the gardens with bird netting top to bottom.
Then, over the top, chicken wire, bent to fit.
This last step keeps out the squirrels...
Two of the knuckleheads were off hunting rabbits with the Beagle, when there were two easy targets right in the house yard! *Rolleyes*
They aren't raiding the garden, but they're getting into the greenhouse - bone meal seems to be their item of choice for spreading around - think 'Toddler With an Open Bag of Flour!
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