Posted on 07/15/2011 5:13:42 AM PDT by Red_Devil 232
Good morning gardeners. It has been another week of hot humid weather. My little garden got its small share of a 60% chance of rain yesterday afternoon. A nice pop up T-storm spent about half an hour dropping a nice steady rain on my garden. There is a 70% chance of rain today. If the percentage for rain is not above 50 the pop up T-storms seem to pass me by. I did get to harvest about a dozen ripe tomatoes this past week but they are on the small side. My replacement paste tomato plants are coming along just fine so far. I will leave them to develop in their 5 inch peat pots for a couple of more weeks before setting them out in the garden.
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I hope all your gardens are flourishing.
I cheated and bought a plant that had pretty good growth on it already.
I have found it easier to root tomato branches or suckers by placing them in a vase or similar container of clean water until the little white roots are visible, then put them in soil. If you try it that way, keep the container with the cuttings and water in partial sun to full sun.
I lost a few seedlings, including all my pattypan squash and about half my peas, but the ones that hung in there seem to be strong. My beans are flowering, but no pods yet. My tomatoes are starting to complain that the beans are shading them out, and my watermelons seem to have suddenly realized that they’re vines and are trying to climb up (and strangle) other nearby plants. I never got the trellises put in, and now there’s too much growth in the way to put them in. I’ve been doing daily patrols to untangle the vines and get them pointed in more benign directions.
In the front garden, the strawberries are blossoming again, it looks like there’s a good second wave in the works there :)
My red raspberries are just starting to ripen, not even enough to be worth taking a bowl out, but they sure taste good standing there in the yard.
Out on my land the black raspberries are ripening, I managed to get out there for a few hours this week. I picked almost a cup of berries, planted some mulberry cuttings, and started on my conteder for the World’s Largest Chia Pet!
When mixed with water, chia seeds form a gelatenous gluey substance, which in their native habitat allows them to cling to the sides of sandstone rocks in the southwestern desert. On my land there’s a part of the hillside that’s eroded, and when the sun shines it turns into a rock-hard mass of sun-baked clay, most plants can’t grow through it. So, I mixed chia seeds with some perennial seeds, added water, and slung the resultant goo at my eroded spot. Hopefully the chia will shelter the perennials long enough for them to get established and spread.
On a related note, I’ve found a way past 3 of the 5 major obstacles to getting a house built on my land. Please pray that I can get past the other 2.
Thanks much for the info and the link!
However, since the ones in the pots took off so fast, I never did it again. I'm all for the Laziest way. LOL.
Greeneyes, when you say you "hacked them again, and stuck them in new pots" after overwintering indoors, do you mean you started new tomato cuttings, or that you pruned down the old tomato plant (in the pot) and then re-potted it?
Or both?
Maybe I should plant those as a trap crop.
Makes sense. Black-eyed peas, okra, and watermelons are all native to north Africa, so it makes sense that they’d do well in the heat and drought.
You are in good company. I understand George Washington grew ground cherries. Many settlers had it in their gardens. You can still find feral plants around old home places. My grand mother used to make ground cherry preserves.
prayers up for your other two obstacles!
Where did you buy the chia seeds? Interested in your erosion project using the chia. Let us know how it goes, please.
Of course, the original experiment, was that I just hacked off all the limbs that had flowers or green tomatoes on them the night before the first frost. All the tomatoes ripened on the vine, and most of the flowers set new fruits(I flipped them everyday with my fingers.
I put them in front of my southwest patio door, and when the days got short, added about 3 hours of full spectrum High Intensity grow light. That way I did not have to turn on the incandescent lights, and the newer grow lights are more energy efficient supposedly.
I was just so determined to have a few fresh tomatoes for as long as possible, and equally determined not to buy any crappy tasting grocery store tomatoes.
Oops. I should have read farther before posting my reply about ground cherries.
The well is in an E-W running narrow gully, so no windmill & very limited solar. It is also almost 1/2 mile from the house & garden...and power lines.
Also bear in mind that this is a shallow, dug (open) well; not drilled & sealed.
There used to be another dug well next to the house, but it was filled in decades ago, or I’d use it for watering.
It’s really no problem to haul, as we go into town at least twice a week, and go right past the water station. Most out here do haul, especially for their cattle.
Your post was on last week’s thread, but I wanted to tell you how beautiful your cucumbers and the resulting pickles are!!!
I’ve been researching pedal- and treadle-powered equipment recently, and there are several designs that might work better in your situation than either the generator or the hand pump. You can find some of the designs at http://www.instructables.com
I’m curious what materials they used, exactly? I made one 4 years ago that still looks as good as the day I made it, and only cost about $10.
I had 8 last year in a 2 x 8 ft. space, and they did quite well. Then I had about 13 more in a 2 x ?? space along the fence. That did become chaotic. I had a great crop in those areas, and the 2nd space is where some have reseeded themselves. I’ve probably pulled out about 500 volunteers. But, I’ve left a few there because I just want to see what happens.
The 2nd space had plants growing through the fence that my dog would eat any that ripened outside the fence. Probably the deer ate them too. And maybe racoons, although I think ‘coons could have climbed right over the fence and gone after the main crop.
Rubbermaid 18-gallon tubs...
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