My neighbors chopped down their two remaining citrus “trees” after about eight years of trying to get them to take.
They were planted in full sun here in my part of Florida south of Tampa.
We got lots of rain Thursday which should keep other plants alive.
6’ + tall Brandywine with 5 tomatoes on it. 5’ Black Crim with about 10 on it. All the others except one are short and getting loaded with tomatoes.
Zone 8a.
Lost all my pepper plants, bell & jalapeno. Low temps at night (low 40’s). Leaves all fell off. Cukes are looking pretty bad as are some small cherry tomato plants - fingers crossed they’ll pull through. I’ve bought replacement pepper plants & transplanted them from 4-packs to individual peat pots. This will give them a little room to grow while I wait for better weather. They’re looking pretty happy right now.
My Celebrities (which were about a foot tall when I bought them) are doing fabulous, despite the weather. One is blooming - not sure if it will set fruit until it warms up a bit more - should have nights above 50 after tomorrow.
I’ve started flowers in peat pots - tithonia, giant sunflowers, marigolds. I sowed some seeds directly in a flower bed a while ago (tithonia) & zero came up. The peat pots are working a lot better - most of the seeds have germinated & for those that did not, I replanted seeds yesterday.
Chilly night last night - first fire in the new fire pit at the garden. It was fabulous - could see the stars, some good wine, good company.
Greetings from southern New Hampshire! The weather is warmer and we are preparing planters. Busted my butt two days ago “weeding” one of our original raised beds that had laid fallow for about 4 years. Quack grass was miserable, but now, it is ready for Household Six to rake smooth, put down a layer of cardboard and then I will screen several loader buckets full of compost from the local landfill, and she will work her magic and plant a new strawberry bed.
She has hundreds of seedlings, tomatoes, peppers, herbs and flowers that have hardened-off on our back deck. Just tomatoes and peppers coming into our dining area at night, now, but it was quite a migration for a week or two.
I have put up four cattle panel trellis now. Still need to zip tie them to their posts, but they are out of the way.
Household Six planted her herb garden that I described, earlier. Just need to setup the automatic watering.
I finally completed the seven trusses for our new garden shed. Next, the walls.
I opened up our RV and have over half of the screen room platform installed. Hope to finish up, this morning.
Busy times, but really delighted to be rid of the RV Seasonal life! Home is wonderful!
It’s finally nice out!!!!!
I almost have my second raised bed finished. I just have to finish filling it with dirt and I can put in my tomatoes. The timing will be jsut right for the frost date.
My garlic is going gangbusters and the onions I put in last fall for seed are doing terrific. The potatoes are starting to come up. The asparagus is looking good.
Still lots to do, but it’ll get done.
I worked hard this week to get everything in the ground, and now no rain for 10 days , temps near 90, me away most of the time, depending on hubby and sons to water, and they don’t know exactly what or where....
This year I have a deer fence as yet unbreached.
Waiting for the little censored cutworms to get to work, hoping the collars and diatomaceous earth stop them. Next comes squash borer, I had good luck in the past with Tetsukobuto, got that and Tromboncino from Pinetree, customers swear by both.
Then the birds after the berries, oh Coopers hawks, come back to me, the only good year was when you nested in the pine trees.
The cats go out at night and kill mice and voles, but the chipmunks go out during the day and eat tomatoes. Although they are scarce this year, knock on wood.
There was a groundhog burrow inside my garden fence.
You know when I pick peaches? Before they ripen, when the squirrels are after them. Then it’s monitoring them for fruit flies.
Why do vegetarians think their diet is nice to animals? You have to fight off all manner of critters to get a meal, let alone actually feed people.
The only problem is the mockingbird that hangs around the garden eating bugs (a good thing); however, it likes to perch on the chair backs for a 'bird's eye view' - this is a bad thing because I end up with bird poop all over the chairs. I have turned the chairs over/back down so the chairs are no longer a high perching point. The bird has moved to the top of the tomato cages & cuke trellis.
Looking forward to lots of nights under the stars with a great fire & good company.
The forecast is for the mid 80’s for a couple days and the about 80 for a couple more.
What effect will that have on my broccoli, cabbage, and brussel sprouts?
Generally cool and damp here in Central Missouri over the past week. We made it home safely from our trout fishing trip. I was extremely pleased with the performance of the 6.4L Hemi in the new RAM truck. I always felt nervous pulling the camper with the old G2 truck because it was so tired. It was nice to get away and relax for a few days, but it’s even nicer to be home.
The rain slacked up just enough yesterday that I was able to get some stuff done in the victory garden. Set up the cucumber fence and stuck some seeds in the dirt. Sowed three hills of summer squash. Did some weeding.
Tomato and pepper plants are doing well. The cool weather has made for a bumper crop of radishes and green salad. Carrots, beets, and spinach are all sprouted. Still waiting on the pole beans, winter squash, and canteloupe to show themselves.
Mrs. Augie has been wanting to make a flower bed on the outside of my potting shed, so I hauled up some crushed limestone and landscaping blocks for that. Laid a course of blocks on a nice gravel bed and then back-filled with compost. I’ll need to add more as it settles, but for now it’s planted with elephant ear and canna. It ought to look really nice once the bulbs sprout and start growing.
Well, guess I won’t be connecting the new irrigation pump to the garden water tank any time soon: A turkey decided to nest too close to it, and we don’t want to unduly upset her.
Just have to keep it wet the hard way, hauling jugs down there, and doing it by hand, for a while.
Need some help.
My tomato plants are blooming at 12-18 inches tall even with me having pruned them.
Last yr and the yr before I had 7 foot tall tomato plants and I need them to bloom at a higher level than 12-18 inches to keep rodents from devouring the fruit later.
Will these tomatoes Co time to grow taller even with a giant batch of blooms opening on thr top of the main stem?
Is there something I can do besides normal pruning to get them to continue growing taller?
As an aside I think they started blooming because we were in 50s degree nights when I transplanted them...then we had a week of mid to low 40s at night. Even some of my new chard transplants got nervous and bolted.
I have about 75 tomato plants and about 45 pepper plants.....only thr tomatoes are having issues so far....peppers are just extra slow on their growth right now.
I just gave them a 0-10-10 shot the other day but other than that I use liquid kelp once a week and 3-4-4 at transplant time
For flower lovers, the Colorado State Univ “Flower Trails” competition winners (some nice pics):
http://flowertrials.colostate.edu/trial-winner/?y=2020&c=Annual