Posted on 06/24/2011 5:15:19 AM PDT by Red_Devil 232
Good morning gardeners. Well this past week brought a respite from the sunny hot weather here in Mississippi. We received two days of beneficial rains, which helped to revive my garden. Watching the radar it looked like a good portion of south-central Texas from San Antonio to the northeast corner received some rain also. I hope it was helpful to our gardeners over that way. My winter squash are growing like mad and my hot and sweet peppers are doing great. What is left of my tomatoes seem to have revived a bit during these rainy and cloudy days. I really hope that what ever weather you have had improved a bit for you and your gardens this past week.
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.
Raised beds are worth it. Perhaps use this summer to build the beds for next growing season, and do some container gardening this summer.
I live in New England. We know rocks. Not sure where you are located, but we have so many rocks we stack them up into walls. Stick a shovel in the ground and you will hit a rock around here. I went with raised beds because I used to dig holes for a living here (archaeologist) and we would go through 3-4 shovels a year per person. Not because of handles breaking, but because we wore out the blades on all the rocks.
We finally had two days of warm, DRY weather. Nice enough to get into the garden and pull weeds and plant tomatoes (finally), peas, beans, annuals and other things that have been languishing in pots for weeks.
I just wanted to share a novel, to me, garden thought. I recently gave a talk on “Junk in the Garden”. Recycling or repurposing, really. I’ve found colorful advertising tins at the dump and planted them with complementary flowers. They are thriving and making an unusual, attractive display in the flower garden. Just thought I’d share.
We got about 20 minutes of rain a couple nights ago. First in who knows how long. It also brought the temperature out of the 100s - hey, 99 isn’t three digits.
The tomatoes have had it. Don’t know if it was just too much heat or if hubby spraying them with Miracle Grow did them in but they turned yellow the very next day.
Still no zukes. Huge healthy plants but not zukes.
Thank you for the information about the trellises. We’re extending the garden in the pasture and will be using cattle panels and rebar stakes. ala justadumbblonde.
Suddenly my walmart tomatoe plants are putting out tomatoes like gangbusters. All they needed was 1 inch of rain. Hopefully we’ll get more rain, we sure need it. My heirlooms are still fruitless, but have lots of flowers. My cherry tomatoes have some fruit and are now putting out more flowers, after the rain.
Good morning Stef. It looks like it is going to nice today. I’ve got WE Energy people wandering all over my back yard today. They have to install a new electric line to my house because we lost half the feed the other day. i.e. (according to my resident engineer) all electricity comes into the house as 220v. Then it splits and 110v serves all the regular plugs. 220v (both legs) serves the stove, dryer, etc. And there is a neutral leg. We had 75v on one leg and 0 on the other.
We had been having problems with our TV sets — dropping stations, turning off in the middle of a program, etc. All of a sudden my stove did not work. Then the microwave dropped out, etc., etc. etc.
I have a house full of guests. No water (pump on the well out) no HOT water, no stove, no microwave. Despite 120,000 customers out from an overnight storm (did you see that Tues night) WE Energies considered us an “emergency” and came out and srung a temporary feed — big orange cables to my house. They are putting it underground today.
I complain about their prices (which they assure me are the cheapest in the country) but they are excellent on service.
We got a much needed 1.0” this past Tuesday......
However, the temps are fast approaching 100 degrees again -— the garden is burning up.
Just trying to keep the okra & peppers alive.
I have two words for this weather, and they aren't 'Merry Christmas'.
That's your answer...New England is all rock; so everything I grow is either in a raised bed or self-watering containers; such as Earth Boxes or home-made 'global buckets'. You can purchase nice garden mixes by the cubic yard at your local landscape center...just make sure you get the 'good stuff' instead of 'road sweepings'...
At this time last year, it was so much fun working in the garden. Watching all the veggies grow & the harvesting.
With the drought & heat this summer, it’s a major disappointment. We had a short window of harvesting, but for the most part, it’s over.
Even with watering the temps are preventing any fruit production and the plants are literally burning up.
We had no spring.
Oh well, all we can do is hope for a fall/winter garden.
Beautiful weather in Central Missouri this past week. The garden has really jumped and is starting to look halfway decent. Tomato plants are waist high and blooming nicely, summer squash is starting to make, cucumbers are blooming, garlic and potatoes have been harvested, okra planted where those came out. Pulled a mess of chiogga beets and boiled them up for supper a couple nights ago. Yummy...
The chickens and ducks have cleaned up the cicadas and have started eating their pellet feed again. It was quite a hatch this year - they went three weeks on one filling of the self-feeder in the hen house. Normally I have to fill it every four or five days.
This is the first potato planting of 3 rows of Red Gold and 1 row of Yukon Gold
This is the later planting of 2 rows of Yukon Gold and 2 of Red Lasoda with Shallots in the background...
My wife picked the first gallon of Heritage Raspberries yesterday and it is tedious work...
Then she picked the second gallon of Cascade strawberries
I’ve never heard of chinese parsley. Is it a flat leaf, a strong flavor?
Sunflowers to clean radioactive soil in Japan
Campaigners in Japan are asking people to grow sunflowers, said to help decontaminate radioactive soil, in response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster that followed March’s massive quake and tsunami.
Volunteers are being asked to grow sunflowers this year, then send the seeds to the stricken area where they will be planted next year to help get rid of radioactive contaminants in the plant’s fallout zone.
The campaign, launched by young entrepreneurs and civil servants in Fukushima prefecture last month, aims to cover large areas in yellow blossoms as a symbol of hope and reconstruction and to lure back tourists.
“We will give the seeds sent back by people for free to farmers, the public sector and other groups next year,” said project leader Shinji Handa. The goal is a landscape so yellow that “it will surprise NASA”, he said.
The massive earthquake and tsunami left more than 23,000 people dead or missing on Japan’s northeast coast and crippled the Fukushima nuclear power plant that has leaked radiation into the environment since.
Almost 10,000 packets of sunflower seeds at 500 yen ($6) each have so far been sold to some 30,000 people, including to the city of Yokohama near Tokyo, which is growing sunflowers in 200 parks, Handa said.
Handa — who hails from Hiroshima, hit by an atomic bomb at the end of World War II — said the sunflower project was a way for people across the nation to lend their support to the disaster region.
“This is different from donations because people will grow the flowers, and a mother can tell her children that it is like an act of prayer for the reconstruction of the northeast,” Handa said.
“I also hope the project will give momentum to attract tourists back to Fukushima with sunflower seeds in their hands. I would like to make a maze using sunflowers so that children can play in it.”
http://www.breitbart.com/print.php?id=CNG.ea298a6179f170db0cbddba5974710a6.1c1&show_article=1
What sort of mulch are your strawberries resting on?
It's cilantro.
Your garden is magnificent. Are you trying to make all of us feel incompetent?
When did you plant your potatoes?
I’m growing the same varieties. I planted mine about 3 weeks ago, but they are not up as high as yours. The Yukon golds are growing must faster than the Red LaSoda.
I just came in from helping my tomatoe flowers put out more fruit.
Everytime I see a picture of your and Mrs. Bender’s garden, I envy you. Your gardens look so productive and you have done so much to improve everything. I’ve noticed you use a lot of wire over some of your produce. To keep out critters and birds?
I like your idea. Earlier this spring we repurposed some old bicycle wheels. We cut the rubber tire off,scrubbed the metal “rims” and painted them black. Then we planted them in a row, largest to smallest with a peony in between. They extend out from the very large metal wagon wheels that flank the path from the front porch to the road. yesterday my little girl and I screwed plant pots to the wood posts that support the wagon wheels and planted wave petunias (she required pink flowers for her help in this project). I don’t know anything about posting pics but it looks pretty neat and makes a “fence” of sorts.
Oh, thank you.
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