Posted on 06/01/2024 6:22:03 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
Neither of us could see a thing - overcast - and now it’s raining on us and intends to do so for the entire day. Family Party at Governor Dodge State Park; grilling in the rain. Oy Vey!
We have a shelter rented but this is some serious rain with flood warnings, etc. Lots of our family will have already been camping so everyone should be a wet, crabby, muddy mess. Ugh! I’m bringing bottles of bubbles for all the kids to play with, so that should be amusing. Can you blow bubbles in the rain? ;) And wine for all the Moms, LOL!
My tomatoes are REFUSING to grow. They. Want. Sunshine - and so do I!
Your day, on the other hand, sounds wonderful! Is Mavis the ‘One Hundred Dollars a Month’ gal? She has some amazing ideas. :)
11 Edible Flowers With Potential Health Benefits
Hibiscus
Dandelion
Lavender
Honeysuckle
Nasturtium
Borage
Purslane
Rose
Squash Blossoms
Pansy
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/edible-flowers#TOC_TITLE_HDR_10
Good Summer morning. Love most of those plants. On vacation, watching the grey diggers eat in my garden via security camera...uugghhhh
Hope your party goes well. It will be pouring here tomorrow. We have a graduation party to go to fortunately it’s in a park with a nice pavilion.
Hopefully the sun will come back SOON! Your tomatoes will make up for lost time then. :-)
Planted 3 seeds of sweet corn, just as an experiment. All 3 have germinated! Unbelievable. Maybe I don't have such "black thumbs" as I always thought? They're probably planted too close together, but we'll see what happens.
Yes, that’s Mavis :-)
No tomatoes planted this year, but I have ‘volunteer’ Sungolds coming up everywhere between the raised beds. My SIL was at the lake for a week & the crows got in her garden & pecked up/ate her tomatoes. She had the dog with her too, so the crows were undisturbed in her tomato patch. Since she’s been home, the crows have relocated to my garden site & are there every morning, probably keeping an eye out for anything they can raid off the volunteer tomato plants ... those stinkers. There’s a flock here at the new house, too - visit a couple times a day & set off the driveway motion detector.
There’s not too many outdoor activities I hate more than camping in the rain! The wine for moms is a great idea! :-)
Good Morning! :-)
Catching up from the last week of posts. If you don’t need to deadhead these, they’d be pretty neat to have!
Now that’s some smart shopping!
Edible Pod snow peas turned out to be a favorite...and they just kept coming.
I just finished harvesting my garlic scapes and the snow peas are done with their first good batch of peas. Got lots of romaine, too.
My tomatoes flowered and fruited early, but the tomatoes near the bottom when the plants were little, are kind of yellowish and very hard and dry looking. I pulled them off, figuring they would amount to anything. I never saw tomatoes do that before.
I planted more lettuce, beans, and lots of dill.
I’ve been harvesting and drying the herbs and some of the scapes. The rest of the scapes I’m freezing.
The other day I went to our local orchard market, where they have lots of fruits and vegetables that are locally grown. They also sell some nice home items in one sections: things like dish towels, vegetable bags, aprons, etc.
I saw a mug that said “Gardeners know all the dirt” and it was pretty cute, and colorful. I love color in my kitchen. So I bought it for myself, cheaper than on Amazon, too. I didn’t need it, but it may me feel cheered up.
https://www.amazon.com/Now-Designs-Smarty-Plants-L04050/dp/B0BV4189PH
I also found a hybrid sunflower that called out to me.
I’m still learning about dill. I have one plant in a large pot, and it’s doing pretty well, better than any I’ve planted before. Should I keep harvesting so it doesn’t start to flower, or should I let some flower and turn to seeds?
It’s been great to have fresh dill again. Used it on smoked salmon filets last night. Lemon juice on the filets, followed by olive oil, then smothered in fresh dill and herbs de Provence, smoked on the grill. So great!
The tarragon is still going strong. When we went to visit family a couple of weeks ago, I harvested a bunch to share with my sisters. One sister said it was the best tarragon she’s ever had. She wants more so I’m trying to figure out how to send it.
Does anyone know how to propagate it? Can I divide one plant and send that priority?
I don’t know about the dill. I just started doing it in earnest this year, so am learning as well.
I’d also be interested in some advice from someone more experienced with it.
Never grew tarragon.
One thing I plant dill for is it provides a great place for anise swallowtails to lay eggs. I’ve found caterpillars on it.
Went to Ace Hardware for a couple of bags of compost for this Almond Agaricus mushroom spawn to grow in. No compost this year. They sell plants and have 10 types of bagged soil but no compost. No composted manure. No peat moss. Nothing like that. They had things like that last year. Weird.
The other little hardware store had manure/compost mix .05 - .05 - .05 which should work fine.
I got the 2 lb jug of spawn/sawdust instead of the 5lb bag. They say two 9 sqft beds for 5 lbs which works out to 3.6 sqft/lb or 7.2 sqft for 2lbs. I’m going to shoot for 6.5 sq ft or so.
Just went out and measured the two bags of compost sitting stacked one on top of the other. Came out to 2.2 sq ft and 6-7” tall. They recommend at least 5” deep. I need more compost. They say you can double the rate of spawn to compost so maybe I’ll get two more bags for 4.4 sqft x 6” deep. Don’t want to spend any more money than that on this experiment.
If it goes/grows well, I’ll do it on a larger more cost effective scale next year by taking advantage of their discount for quantity spawn pricing and should have enough of my own compost for it. I think I can scrape and scoop up about 20 gallons of goat manure from the barn as of right now.
Belt for the finish mower came in so I’ll be mowing the over 1 foot tall grass down and can shred some leaves too this weekend.
Ahhh, that’s great!!
I am waiting on fresh dill. Great on so many things. Best potato salad ever, no eggs, 1/2 mayo, 1/2 sour cream, chopped sweet onion and dill.
You can have some of our upcoming Monday 98 degree sun and heat. I’m sure my tomato plants won’t mind.
I’m making three water trips tomorrow morning. Two to fill the stationary garden IBC tank and one to refill the mobile house tank.
Tractor has been leaking coolant/water from the radiator so I hit the parts store for some stop leak. They had $7 in a bottle or $17 in a bottle, then I saw the old dispenser behind that with alumaseal. No price on it but it was $3.25 and I’ve always had good luck with it in the past.
Gonna put that in and refill with water. Gotta move a few things with the forks on the tractor and then I’ll hook up the finish mower, put the new belt on and do some mowing. Keep and eye on the water and hopefully the leak stop will have worked before the day’s out.
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