Weekly Gardening Thread – 2011 (Vol. 21) June 03

Free Republic | 06-03-2011 | Red_Devil 232

[Red_Devil 232]

Good morning gardeners. Here in East Central Mississippi the heat has arrived. It was 101 yesterday and is expected to be in the high 90s and pushing 100 for the next week. A heat advisory is effect. My garden is surviving these hot afternoons. Some of my younger plants have needed watering every afternoon. My established tomato, squash and pepper plants have been doing well with a deep soaking of water about every three days. Looks like it is going to be a hot summer.

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.

[OB1kNOb]

We’ve gone from a cooler and wetter than normal May straight to mid to upper 90’s. The garden grew alot the first few days of sun after all the rains, but the scorching temps will start taking a toll soon if we don’t get a break from these high temps. I can water some but likely not enough to overcome what the sun and wind takes out of the ground each day.

[Red_Devil 232]

I bought a back pack sprayer (holds 4 gallons) earlier this year. I have been using it with some AlgoFlash and Sea Magic Seaweed to feed my young plants. But only fill with 2 gallons of water and the Ferts. Kind of heavy even then but darn easy to use. I devised a way to mount it behind the seat of my riding lawn mower so I could fill it with 4 gal. of water and Roundup and ride and spray my fence line and the damned ditch in front of my property while just riding along. Well 4 gal. weighs a little over 33 lbs. Got every thing set up and ready to ride and spray yesterday morning but the mower would not start. Tried all morning long to get it running - but no. Wore the battery down. So I walked the fence and sprayed. I also took care of the damned front ditch. Charged the battery over night and the mower cranked right up this morning. I have been out mowing but it is very sunny and hot already, 90. Needed refreshment.

[gramho12]

Another good tip - we’ll see how they do. I also read where another person takes plastic milk bottles, puts a small hole in the bottom and fills them with water so they get a constant supply of water. I don’t drink enough milk to do that!

[Red_Devil 232]

Sounds like you could use some row covers. Use flexible PVC pipe and cover with plastic film.

[momtothree]

Are there any neighbors around you with sort of large families? If so, ask them to save you a few milk jugs. A family with kids will probably laugh and you will have to cut them off at ten or so! If not, do you have a Dollar store near you? You can buy gallons of water for a dollar each. Drink the water and you have the jugs.

[30Moves]

It is man tampering with nature again - in order to mass produce beef.

From EHow website:

“Grain-fed beef is the heavily-marbled, inexpensive red meat most familiar to US consumers. Grass-fed cattle produce meat that is more nutritious and lower in fat, but is less tender and flavorful than grain-fed beef.”

“Grain-fed beef cattle often require a number of antibiotics and other chemicals to bolster their immune systems weakened by complications that stem from an increase in digestive acids. This practice has introduced antibiotic and acid-resistant strains of bacteria into the US food supply.”

So I imagine with needing more antibiotics - they would be more susceptible to bacteria.

Lovely.

[Gabz]

Our riding mower is down the road at a buddy of my husband’s. Hopefully with the break in the heat predicted for the weekend he’ll be able to get to it. We’re at the point of desperation to get it running.

I’m in the middle of uploading some pictures right now and as soon as they’re done I’ve got a really funny story to share with everyone......it’s not exactly gardening related but it does involve a cottonwood tree, corn, and the marsh.

[Red_Devil 232]

Share away!

[Gabz]

I was telling Diana this story yesterday and told her I would be posting pictures.

We were at a friend's Wednesday afternoon evening and throwing some corn and chicken on the grill. Her property adjoins one of the many marshes this area is well known for and in addition to the normal marsh grasses there are also lots of pine trees which of course means a thick bed of pine shats in the reeds/grasses. There is also a cottonwood tree at the edge of the marsh which is in full shedding mode.

We were laughing how it actually looked like hubby was standing in the snow at the grill in shorts, so we decided to take some pictures of the June "snowfall" on DelMarVa.

And that is when the fun started. As I snapped the first picture, a piece of smoldering corn husk blew off the grill and into the "snow."

Well, we've been well over a week without rain and all that marsh grass and the pine shats were a bit on the dry side............

With everything so dry and it being windy, the hose could not keep up with the flames. The fire company (God Bless the Volunteers) were there in a matter of minutes and spent over an hour putting it out. I was so impressed with them, they were even looking UP into the pines to make sure they got all of the smoldering put out.

Needless to say, dinner was a bit delayed...........

[Drill Thrawl]

All three had just returned from Germany and the same for the seven in Britian.

My guess at this point is that the problem lies in the German distribution system.

[Gabz]

ACK -— I didn’t mean for them to be so big -— I’m so sorry everyone.

I think I’ll hold off posting the other one I was going to post which had to do with part of the upside of this little conflagration -— it shows the poison ivy wrapped around the pines all in flames -— which is why the firefighters were looking and spraying up and not just down.

[Red_Devil 232]

Post it!

[B4Ranch]

This is being posted to raise the awareness of all you farmers and city gardeners of the latest reports concerning plants and their ability to feel pain. That's right, plants can feel pain!

A Vegetarian's Nightmare or A Dissertation on Plants Rights

Lyrics to "A Dissertation on Plants Rights" (pdf. file)

Eat Beef for breakfast lunch and dinner.

[rightly_dividing]

I already had staked about 8 tomatos a few weeks ago, but have needed to stake some others so I just returned from Lowes getting some lumber to make some more stakes. The big boy and better boy tomatos are about 6ft tall already. I am going to feed them all some high phosphorus food this weekend and see what happens.

My neighbor with the large garden has been asking questions about my drip system with timer and landscape fabric. He is working himself to death fighting weeds and grass and having to water by sprinklers manually each day, while mine is maintenance free. He has prior experience gardening in past years, and I am a novice. That picture seems backward. But I have the advantage of a weekly garden thread and the advice of many experts to help out. Thanks Red and all others gardeners here!

[Gabz]

At your command. LOL!!!

[Drill Thrawl]

I think a lawn thick with dandelion blooms is pretty, until they go to seed, then it's ugly. That yellow and green does give it a nice "John Deere" look.

Dandelions are edible. The leaves, buds and flowers. If you have not been treating your lawn with chemical fertilizers\weed killers I would suggest you give it a try.

[Gabz]

It was pretty. We don’t treat our “lawn” with anything. If it weren’t for the weeds there would be no green :)

[Red_Devil 232]

Yep! Once my landscape fabric is down and I cover it with straw I have no weeds to contend with. Like I explained before the straw is there to keep the heat down a little in these very hot Southern summers. I love it!

[Drill Thrawl]

It’s not the humidity, it’s the heat. More specifically your body’s heat. It has to do with your bodies need to regulate temperature or put simply, to sweat. Evaporation is a cooling process. Your body sweats, the moisture evaporates, you cool down. When the air is very humid, it can not absord the extra water (sweat) as quickly so you start to heat up more and sweat more. When it is very dry the sweat evaporates very quickly and so it feels cooler than it really is. So hot and dry is not so bad, cold and dry is really cold. This is also the key factor in wind chill as moving air evaporates moisture more quickly.

[Drill Thrawl]

Same here. I learned from my mom that from the street it all looks the same as long as it’s green so why worry if the green is fescue or crab grass.