Weekly Gardening Thread – 2010 (Vol. 21) June 25

Free Republic | 06-25-2010 | Red_Devil 232

[Red_Devil 232]

Good morning gardeners. Here in East Central Mississippi the weather has been typical for the middle of June and the official start of summer. Temperatures have been in the mid nineties in the afternoons and high sixties to low seventies overnight with afternoon showers every other day or so. My garden is thriving in this weather and doing very well. I have not had to do any extensive additional watering which is good.

Also this past week I noticed quite a few honey bees up in the garden. I hope they decide to visit often. In the past years my main pollinators have been bumblebees and they are all over the garden also. Things are a buzzing!

I hope all of your gardens are doing well.

If you are a gardener or you are just starting out and are in need of advice or just encouragement please feel free to join in and enjoy the friendly discussion. Our Freeper community is full of gardeners, each with varying interests and skill levels from Master Gardener to novice.

If you have a question about gardening or just an observation to share please feel free to stop by and participate. There are no stupid questions, just honest ones.

[trisham]

We have deer flies here. I have to drive up to the street to get the mail.

I just ordered some sticky patches for my cap that should help cut down on the population of the little vampires.

[trisham]

Wonderful photo!

[trisham]

LOL!

[JustaDumbBlonde]

Good morning, FRiends! The garden is producing in bushels and I have been going non-stop for 15 hours a day. Stopped long enough to take a few photos this morning.

First of all, my miracle of all miracles -- english peas growing and producing in 100 degree temperatures. I have them in the same area corner of the garden as my greens and radishes, which gets shade at a couple of intervals during the intense heat of the day.

The pepper section has become the pepper jungle! (Indian corn in the background)

Spaghetti squash growing on a trellis.

Lady (cream) peas are producing well. We have been picking for about a week now. I love "top pick" pea varieties so that you don't have to stoop to pick them!

The green stringbeans made almost 150 lbs. We have pulled them up and replanted for a second crop. The planting dates in the guidebook were July 1 through September, so I figured a week early probably would not hurt.

Tomatoes are finally turning:

White scalloped squash is setting blooms. I think I planted about 30 days ago.

Yellow squash with one row of trelli in the background:

The oldest of the tomato section ... I still have a tray of Romas and Rutgers to set out and I'll probably start some additional seeds in the coming week.

The produce stand is a huge hit and is busy every day. I'm going to have to expand to meet the demand and that will require hired help and more refrigeration. The market is certainly there for a thriving business.

[txhurl]

Man alive! Are you growing in mostly sand?

[MagnoliaMS]

Mornin’, Red,

I’m happy to report that up here, a little north of your area, I have had several honeybees every morning on the blooms in my little garden. Been a long time since I have seen any of those.

They stay as busy as, well, bees! My squash had been planted for about 6 weeks, and done nothing BUT bloom. It is very large and has been covered with blooms, but no squash. That is, until right after I started seeing the honeybees. Now it is covered in little squash.

[Chickensoup]

Will you marry me?

[murrie]

I have several dirt people friends and they recommend not even trying to grow grass under trees because of the light issue. Grass, regardless of whether it is labeled as “shade tolerant” or not will not grow without sunlight. Your energy time and money might be better spent planting ground covers under the tree like monkey grass or vinca-not the flower vinca but the ground cover vinca.
Just my 2 cents. Good luck.

[dainbramaged]

Great pictures - that is a major league garden.

[daniel1212]

Golf in 100 degree weather? It rarely gets that hot in MA, and the humidity is usually high, so you feel both the heat and the cold more.

And while i was just kidding, i find planets interesting, and 100F is still not at as hot as Mercury can gets, as its surface ranges in temperature from -270°F to 800°F, depending on time and location, while a 100 pound person would weigh only 38 pounds. And a daytime lasts 58.65 Earth days, while its thin atmosphere consist of trace amounts of hydrogen and helium. You won’t grow tomatoes there! and Mars is much colder than the Earth, and with no oxygen, and don’t even ask about Venus.

In short, God made the earth man to inhabit.

[Red_Devil 232]

Well your garden is beautiful as usual! Glad to hear your stand is doing well. You will have to show us your stand when it is loaded with produce and customers!

[Red_Devil 232]

Great to hear it has finally warmed up at your altitude!

[Red_Devil 232]

I have two homemade earth boxes. They have done well with strawberries. I think FReeper - who knows what evil? - does a lot of gardening in the earth boxes.

[kacres]

Could you post her recipe, Please.

[kacres]

We have this problem too, someone told us it won’t grow due to the oils from the leaves or something like that. We did plant some St. Augustine next to the patio were some of the oak branches hang down over it, and it has done okay..just does not spread. I live in Ga. and have clay soil, so don’t know if that has something to do with it to.

[Red_Devil 232]

I had to look up the term Missouri pruning as is shown in post #28.

If you have not removed any suckers all season and they have grown out of control, you should be careful about taking off the entire sucker, as it could cause too much sun to hit the developing fruit. In this case remove parts of the sucker to the last set of leaves. This is called Missouri pruning, where you pinch just the tip of the sucker, letting one or two leaves remain. This gives the plant more leaves and thus more photosynthesis and aids in protecting developing fruit from sun-scald. In this case, suckers should be removed gradually, over a period of a week or more, so the plant is not shocked too much.

[rightly_dividing]

I have been told that lime helps, but have no further details on how to use the lime, or what kind of grass to plant. Erosion control is part of my concerns for the area.

[who knows what evil?]

Yes, he does. :-)

[who knows what evil?]

Peppers like bone meal...especially habaneros and scotch bonnets. You might want to check on Bhut Jolokia/’ghost pepper’...I have used Algoflash on my hot peppers in the past; with great results.

[who knows what evil?]

I have used Earth Boxes for several years...currently I am using them to grow 30 types of tomatoes. I also have one with telegraph cucumbers, and a couple of others with bush beans. I used to do peppers in them, as well; but switched to Smart Pots this year. No reason...just for the hell of it. The key to an Earth Box is FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS. I still have my originals, and will be buying more next year if I can get more land.