Weekly Garden Thread - July 29-August 4, 2023 [Planting a Fall Garden Edition]

July 29, 2023 | Diana in WI/Greeneyes in Memoriam

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Been on the fly this week/end! Plans for my Fall Garden include, but are not limited to:

A second planting of Zinnia
Purple Broccoli
Green Onions
French Breakfast Radishes (mild, red, long with a white tip)
Salad greens

Pro Tip: As soon as Walmart has their 6-packs of Mums for sale, I’ll get those potted up to grow some before re-planting Porch Pots for Fall. If you have the means to do it, it’s SO much more economical to buy 6 Mums for the price of one big one later in the season. ;)

Mom is coming out today to start raiding my garden. I have zucchini to share, some semi-ripe tomatoes she can ripen at home and I’ll send her home with a flower bouquet. BLTs for lunch and a slice of Zucchini bread! Yay! :)

Going to mow today after the dew dries. It’s so hilly here, I’ll just SLIDE if I don’t wait. This is only the 4th mowing all season; no rain early on, but we got 3” over the past week, so things have stabilized.

The peaches are a gorgeous color, but still hard as a rock. I check them every day because when they turn, it’s GO TIME!

Puppies are growing so FAST! This morning they’ve already had First Breakfast at 6am; Second Breakfast for the Hobbits is at 11am - Elevensies, LOL! Right now they are playing tug of war with a shop rag they found somewhere. So far they have found the following treasures and brought them into the house yard:

a headless squirrel
a cow knee bone; great for gnawing on!
assorted rocks and old bones
tin cans
an empty plastic oil jug
a child’s shoe!
a sleep mask!
and...a log, LOL!

It takes me longer to pick up the yard than to mow it! They’ve also decamped to the greenhouse; I don’t have the heart to clean it up yet and ruin their fun. Puppyhood is short enough as it is, and they’ll soon be on the Bear Hunting Chain Gang. :(

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“Pulled another bucket full of carrots yesterday morning, along with a nice mess of blue lake pole beans. Supper last night was BLTs with fresh green beans and fresh sweet corn. It don’t get much better than that.”

Amen. Amen! AMEN! :)

[Augie]

I *think* it’s early blight, but I’ve never seen plants affected like this so I’m not really sure. They are all dying from the bottom up. The two that are completely dead... they got sick and in less than a week turned brown from the bottom to the top. I’ve hit all of them twice with sulpha powder and three times with copper spray to no avail. I’ll grab a couple pics after the rain stops.

Now that I think more on it I’m sure it’s my own fault that ALL of the plants are sick. I need to put a jug of bleach in the potting shed to disinfect my pruning snips after working on each plant. Cages will definitely need to be bleached after they’re torn down for winter. Humbug! Bah!

I’m generally not a fan of hybrid tomatoes, but Pops likes Better Boy so I always plant a few of those for him. They are by far the least sick of the lot.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I used to be a ‘purist’ too - especially when I worked for Seed Savers, but I’m all about PRODUCTION and the least amount of extra work I can make for myself these days. So, hybrids it is!

With all of your wet weather, I’m not surprised you got the blight.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

"Headless squirrel"

Easily caught so no doubt the favorite type of squirrel for a dog to hunt! (Also File under "Rock Group Name"!)

"The peaches are a gorgeous color, but still hard as a rock. I check them every day because when they turn, it’s GO TIME!"

Enjoy! I do not think there is a fruit better than a warm ripe peach just off the tree!

Have a great day!

[Qiviut]

Home again, home again, jiggity jig ... as of yesterday. The driving was a pain, but the visiting was ‘priceless’.

While I was gone, my SIL borrowed (permanently) one of my spaghetti squash and made it. She said it turned out perfectly & she wants to plant them next year :-)

I currently have one baking in the toaster oven (400° for about 30-40 minutes). It will be paired with a “Hearty Meat Sauce” I make. It will be delicious - I love ‘spaghetti’ & used to eat it frequently until I had to give up pasta. Spaghetti squash makes a spaghetti dinner possible again.

[Augie]

Monsoon season is in full swing. We got another 1.8" rainfall overnight and there's more on the way.

I checked the tags on these two - both are SuperSteak which is a hybrid variety, but isn't resistant to alternaria.

The hummingbird moths came to visit Mrs. Augie's flower garden yesterday evening. There were two of them buzzing around feeding but I never could get both of them in the picture.

I tilled up a patch at #1 Marine Daughter's house back in the spring where Mrs. Augie is helping her get a natives garden going. A couple days ago they mentioned there was something coming up that was really pretty but they didn't put it there. I went over there yesterday to check it and found a bountiful crop of Jimson Weed. I'm going to offer it to a friend who is one of the local witch doctors. If she can't use it I'll pull it up and get rid of it.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Augie; Tomatoes, yes, one of them looks like its gone. Could try to clean up the dead leaves on the other and spray it and see what happens. Some of the tomatoes might survive and ripen.

It rained again this morning. Some more moving through now, but mostly to the south of me. (Probably hit you though!)

https://radar.weather.gov

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Ugh! Those tomatoes are breakin’ my heart! You DO know that the larva of the Hummingbird Moth is the Tomato Horn Worm, right? ;)

They are fascinating, though.

[Augie]

Yep, I hand pick hornworms when I find them and toss em into the pond for a fish snack. Between the blight and the excessive rain and Peter Cottontail munching on the low hangers this has been a rough tomato season at my house. One or two worms can’t make things much worse. lol

[Qiviut]

Caught up on mowing today - 5 hours & all the back fields are done. During the heat wave last week, there was also a decent breeze blowing & any moisture got sucked right out of the ground. It’s very dry & dusty & some grass patches are brown & ‘crunchy’. It was somewhat overcast, no bright sun, & humidity was lower so it was a great day to mow.

As I came around the end of the old horse ring, there was a gorgeous buck in the far back field. Not a ‘monster’, but still a large, symmetrical rack. He finally had enough of the mower & jumped the fence. I’m sure we will see neither hide nor hair of this big boy when hunting season comes in.

[tob2]

That is quite a list of good, healthy vegetables. Good to know about the green beans and their cold tolerance. My bean plants are looking super great and have beans in all stages of development. I can hardly wait for them to mature so I can eat them straight from the plant!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

LOL!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I am growing ‘Saychelles’ green pole bean and they have some small beans on - I should have beans by now, but I got them in late.

‘Good Mother Stollard’ is the drying pole bean I’m growing and they are blooming like mad.

I’m tucking in ‘Velour’ purple bush-type, wherever I have space as other spring things peter out.

Beans. They really are an awesome ‘filler’ veggie and they’re not fussy in the least. :)

Today I’m getting the Purple Broccoli started and some lettuces, spinach, arugula and green onions. I moved my grow rack from the pantry/laundry to my office and the difference has been like night and day. It’s a lot cooler in the pantry/laundry and I’m really seeing a difference in faster germination where the rack is now.

Tomatoes are slow in ripening, so whatever I’m not eating fresh I’m chopping and freezing now for later use in Salsa and V-8 Juice. :)

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

My Personal Pace Toro mower became a push mower this evening. The front yard is done but I need to get it fixed before i try the back. No bucks here, but a few animals like to leave scat in my yard. (And maybe a few owl pellets!)

[Qiviut]

Oh no - hope it’s a relatively easy fix on the mower.

The Plan was to finish mowing yesterday - upper pasture (where garden is located), front field, yard & both entrances (circular driveway). A half inch of rain derailed the mowing plans - as dry as we are, I am not complaining. Through Monday, it should be cooler and wetter, which is unusual for August around here.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Thanks! It might just be a minor adjustment or replace the drive belt.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Posted this on the Watermelon thread, so also posting to the gardening thread!

A link to 25 watermelon varieties!

25 of the Sweetest, Juiciest Watermelon Varieties You Can Grow

[Qiviut]

Garden ‘story’ - making a run to the fire department this evening with several boxes of tomatoes & a couple of gallons of cherry tomatoes. I was wading around in the spaghetti squash plant, trying to find a couple of ripe ones to go with the tomatoes. A rather small baby bunny bolted out from right under my feet - almost gave me a heart attack! Great place for the baby to hide - lots of large leaves/shade & inside the fence where the foxes can’t get through!

[MomwithHope]

Tomatoes starting to come in we are loaded this year and plants still healthy. I am close to 7 gallons of shishito peppers. Not sick of them. Putting many in the freezer. Eating some fresh nearly every day. I'll be making gazpacho soon and using them for the first time instead of green bell pepper. A bunch of small bottom ones went red on me so I am slicing them up and mixing with sweet banana pepper rings and pickling. Heres a link to an article about the event I helped with. And a few pictures of the quilt display. Could not get the link to go live, cut and paste I guess.

https://lowellsfirstlook.com/second-annual-fallasburg-village-celebration-a-success/?swcfpc=1&fbclid=IwAR0Azz7uXDAsb-5hPv5JMWDGkP3tU3Q_LkTO94sDj25n8og2uAVrIO-aRCM

my favorite car