Posted on 07/01/2024 6:30:55 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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Just checked the budget. Wiggle wire and track for sure next week.
Can’t wait to share pictures with you guys of all the stuff Mom and I got accomplished this week.
The woman is a MACHINE at age 86! :)
Yes, a nice break, and I have to take wifey’s cousin to Chicago / O’Hare airport. (It will make the trip a lot nicer, but I’d rather get in work outside, and maybe peel off to wet a line some evening!)
Well, it’s for sure, now: The Roma tomato plants I bought this year were mislabeled and are “something else”. I guess we’ll see how the fruits fill out and mature, but so far the fruit shape looks like Celebrity tomatoes. That’s ok if they are (Celebs), as the Heatwave II’s are going to town*, and HW II’s have a similar bland / low acid taste like Romas; good for those uses. The Better Boys are doing “ok” (varies) and the two Best boys are doing well too: The “Best” Best Boy is over 7’ tall now, with several fruits half-way grown. I thought the seed pack said “determinate’ — at 7+’ tall and still growing fast??? I’m going to have to rig extra support for it!
*Even the HW II that was dying and I chopped off the lower stem and roots and part of the top, then just rooted the remaining stem & foliage, is doing well: It’s about 3’ tall and flowering a bit.
I have a big(!) ol’ volunteer pumpkin plant going too: It’s been flowering for a while but I don’t see any fruits started. Will a single pumpkin plant pollinate itself? If yes, maybe I need to find out how to ID male vs. female pumpkin flowers and help it out? If this thing can’t pollinate itself even with a little help, I should just dig it out, as it has to be sucking up a ton of water and nutrients... Even if fruits start now, how big will they get? Zone 7A.
So funny that you posted this! I had to explain the sex-life of a Zucchini plant to my 86 year old mother today, LOL!
Here’s a clear picture of a male v. female squash blossom. A Pumpkin is a squash, but not all squash are Pumpkins. ;)
https://extension.psu.edu/pumpkins-and-squash-what-are-their-pollination-needs
If you want to keep it, you can do some hand-pollinating. A Q-tip works just fine for this. Your plant SHOULD have both male and female flowers, though sometimes due to weather conditions their bloom cycles are a bit off, but they eventually get it together. Mother Nature, IN for the WIN!Transfer the pollen from the male flower to the female flower and you’re in like sin. ;)
Here’s a good tutorial on All Things Pumpkin from Farmer’s Almanac:
https://www.almanac.com/plant/pumpkins
I turn into a sloth when it’s over 86. Almost made it to the door last weekend in mid 90s but then it was time to come in so I turned around.
With a 105-110 heat index going on, Monday I ‘spot’ mowed grass (weeds) at the new place from 8:30 - 10 when the ‘excessive heat warning’ went into effect ... got enough done that the place looks pretty good.
I had planned to come home Tuesday anyway ... got a call at 5 in the morning that my 90 yo mom was going to the ER via ambulance. I threw stuff in the truck, slapped a lock on the trailer so I could leave it, & headed for the ER - made it in about 2 hours. It turns out she had an ‘intussusception’ ... part of her small intestine had telescoped into an adjacent part. Very rare ...1% & serious because blood flow can get cut off to part of the intestine. She was admitted & another CT scan scheduled the next morning - the hospitalist said “most” resolve themselves, otherwise there would be surgery. Well, it resolved itself - 2nd CT scan was clear ... whew. I brought her home Wednesday late afternoon.
Tomorrow (Saturday) is supposed to be rainy here - we had a very nice shower yesterday. I hope we get a nice steady rain all day, but I suspect it will be hit and miss. The new house is not getting rain - there are news stories about how trees in the area are becoming so stressed, they are dying ... we lost one large pine already & 4 or 5 out of about 12 Leyland Cypress trees, planted as a screen, are dying. I will likely have to cut them down this fall.
It’s just been too hot to work on the heavy duty outdoor projects (rocks, digging post holes). I hope the heat wave breaks for longer than a couple of days by the end of the month (which is rapidly approaching).
Since I don’t have WiFi hooked up at the new house, I download podcasts on my phone & then I have something to listen to without burning up ‘data’ on my phone. A podcast with 3 episodes I really enjoyed was RFK Jr’s podcast ... the episodes were on regenerative farming, using less chemicals, etc. RFK Jr is really good on this subject (not so much on others) - Biden & Trump don’t ever mention it. You can go to Apple, Spotify, or wherever the podcast plays ... I will give the link to Spotify & name the episodes so you can look for them ... I highly recommend them ... my favorite was the Amish farmer, Joel Salatin was next & the 3rd farmer, Rick Clark, was good as well:
https://open.spotify.com/show/30DqNXrHLKzz4xzmoty6xf
Small Farms Healthy Food with Joel Salatin
Hope From Farmers with John Kempf (Amish)
From Chemicals to Regeneration with Rick Clark
Glad your Mom’s issue resolved itself quickly. Such a relief for you both, I’m sure!
I know you are super-busy, but it was nice for the update, so thanks! :)
Joel Salatin is a great resource. I’ll plug his books. ‘The Wonderful Pigness of Pigs’ is really charming and informative, though I have no desire to raise pork. A steer a year and chickens for eggs is enough for now. :)
His, ‘Everything I Want To Do is Illegal’ is also a great read.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/2623.Joel_Salatin
Our neighbor grew up Amish, but still certainly has the Work Ethic. The best compliment I’ve ever gotten was from Enos: “You sure do know how to grow a tomato! They taste just like my Mom’s did.”
Hard to top that! ;)
And when you’re done with your coffee, take the spent grounds to your compost pile!
How to Make Compost Tea Fertilizer for Your Garden Plants:
Ingredients
3 to 4 gallons non-chlorinated water*
2 to 6 cups compost
Equipment/Tools
5 gallon bucket
Shovel
Strainer
Spray bottle
*Well water. If you don’t have a well, use collected rain water or put the needed gallons of ‘city water’ in a bucket and let it sit for a few days for chemicals to ‘perk out.’ Seriously, though? City water isn’t going to hurt anything in the long run.
https://www.treehugger.com/how-to-make-compost-tea-5207373
Good Morning!
(((HUGS)))
18 Clever Uses for Coffee Grounds at Home and in the Garden
1. Compost Pile
2. Attract Worms
3. Repel Slugs & Snails
4. Repel Cats
5. Freshen the Fireplace/Pit
6. Sweeten Smelly Hands
7. Natural Deodorizer
8. Fix Furniture Scratches (From the cat? LOL!)
Continues at link: https://www.bobvila.com/articles/uses-for-coffee-grounds/
Nothing like ER/hospital visits to throw a wrench in the plans. I’m glad to hear your Mama is home. I hope you can keep her around for a bit longer, what with all the work you’ve done at the new house.
When we went to that garden tour a few weeks ago, one of the places had a compost station, and the husband explained how he made compost tea. Fascinating.
It’s good stuff! :)
Thanks for the ping.
Not much going on here. I’ve been a bit lazy this week. Only watered and weeded.
I also decided that broccolini plant just wasn’t worth the effort I was giving it. It needs more sun, more water, less water, different nutrients, or something. I pulled it out so I don’t have to stare at it wondering what to try next. That little experiment made me decide that the broccolini packages from Sam’s are just fine.
The only thing that’s going right in my garden are my herbs. I have more tarragon than I can possibly use, and the thyme and dill are very happy, too.
Those baby potatoes I planted have grown like crazy above ground. I will be surprised if anything develops underground, but maybe. I figure I have to wait until fall to harvest, correct?
The plants will tell you. First they will BLOOM, so you’ll know there are taters below. Then the plants die back of their own accord (mine usually die back in August, Zone 5a) whether you’ve been watering or not. I stop watering after the plants are done blooming.
When the plants are pretty much gone, you can dig your taters. If you want baby taters, wait until after the blooms fade, then dig some. De-lish! :)
And they’re not particular. You can leave them in the ground (or pot) up until a hard freeze as long as they’re not water-logged.
Speaking of male vs. female flowers . . . Many gardeners have wondered (complained) that their squash plants produce only male flowers. I’ve heard that this is Mother Nature’s way of luring in bees and other pollinators. Once they’ve learned that this is where they’ll find yummy flowers, out come the females to get down to business.
So if they never bloom there won’t be potatoes? I’ll have to check it.
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