Our actual crops - wheat, feed corn, alfalfa and soybean are ALL looking terrific - our gardens? Not so much!
Getting an inch of rain today, so I’ll be processing my second picking of ‘Saychelles’ Pole Beans that I picket yesterday. Beau also harvested a basket of ‘Clapp’s Favorite’ pears for me, but he’d like them dehydrated, so they need another day or so to ripen a bit more, then I will tackle that.
If anyone is interested in a really good dehydrator, buy the one made by Presto (Wisconsin Company!) 21-937
Alas, my wife’s garden isn’t
The plants are healthy but bearing little. Even the pole beans are few. The flowers just drop off before fully forming. Tomatoes are there but no plentiful and small. The egg plant just isn’t. There were only two yellow squash.
The jalapeno peppers are not doing so bad
The RoS bushes are blooming up a storm this morning - they seem happy & recovered from their shipping experience. It’s a cloudy day, 74° with a breeze & just delightful. If I thought the weather would stay this way, I’d go ahead & plant them, but I expect more (nasty) hot weather.
Counted 10 caterpillars - still munching, haven’t done cocoons yet.
Picked jalapeños that are turning yesterday. This will give me enough for batch #2 of jelly. I am hoping that we will have the new roof by the time I have batch #3
With the new roof, I can check my gas stove vent & see why it is letting outside air back into the house. It’s not high up at all & I should be able to reach it with my highest step ladder, but will probably have to lean on the roof - can’t do that with the slate shingles. I really need the gas stove for canning. There were 2 roofs ahead of us weekend before last - 1 of those 2 should have been done last week, the 2nd should happen this week. Next week ‘should’ be us (fingers crossed).
Diane, it has been an odd weather year for gardeners, not so bad for farmers. (China is having a lot of problems according to Freeper Lone Palm. Flooding has ruined agriculture for them this year.)