Weekly Gardening Thread
Weekly Gardening Thread
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In central NJ we are battening down the hatches, so to speak.
Zucchini and yellow squash are really producing. Tomatoes have produced nothing yet. Ready to start digging up some potatoes too.
My Brussels sprouts are finally forming up. Thanks to those who answered ny question about them a few weeks ago.
Of course, now they’ll have to deal with Irene passing over!!
Off to pick as much as I can. I planted purple green beans and they sure do produce!! Too bad most of my harvest has been blanched and frozen. Have all coolers ready to go & will be getting ice tomorrow, just in case we lose power.
My 5.5 lbs of fruit became 2 lbs of fruit after pealing and coring and cutting and a few of the pears were just to ripe to can and were eaten.
Eye of Irene passing close by on Sunday night...hoping it spends a lot of time over land before it gets here, or my 12-foot corn is doomed. My tomatoes are tied up on cattle panels, so they MAY make it...
I see this thread and just want to cry! I live in Texas and my garden is dead. DEAD, I tell you!!!
My only remaining morning glory which just put out the first purple trumpet, died later in the day probably due to rabbit predation.
My four foot tall gone to seed leaf lettuce plant is now ready for seed harvest.
Squirrels have left me five European plums, which I picked before they disappeared. I failed to net the tree.
My netted apple tree suffered from bad buds in the spring. Very late very wet very cold. I have three apples under the net still attached to limbs.
Four ash trees began to exhibit extreme stress all at the same time. A crash program of water stick, below ground watering was begun and they appear much improved. Other than that gardening is over for the year.
Our gardens have done well here in Southwest Virginia. It has been a little dry, and some of our beans have been tough. Is this from a lack of water? There are still lots of good ones, so it may be because of something else.
We have had bushels of cucumbers, squash, beans, and tomatoes. We grew extra thinking that neighbors without jobs could use it. I guess times are not as hard as we thought. Or maybe food stamps replace the need to gather. Whatever.
One question about your pear preserves; did your pears cook down into a mush or did they remain chunky? I have made them from "hard" pears that remained chunky after cooking and was basically just cooking down the pear chunks with sugar till making a thick syrup with tender chunks. They were made from Sand pears, which are common in Mobile, but not Texas. I bought some unidentified pears the other day to make some jam with that turned out the be Bartlet pears. We shall see how that works out.
How on earth do people use pantyhose to support spaghetti squash? Can anyone explain the procedure to me?
I finally have one reddish cherry tomato. Woot!
Al Capone had a home right off Bluemound Road (very rural in those days)...The street, now known as Capone Court, was his driveway and "nobody arrived unexpectedly at Al Capone's house." A watchtower was built for a lookoutpost, And Capone kept a flock of well-fed flock of Canada Geese on the property. If federal agents tried to surprise Capone, the geese would make enough noise to warn him. A tunnel led from the house to the garage so the gangster could make a quick getaway without being seen.
Question: should I just remove all of the plants now? Should I treat with Sevin and remove all of the plants in a week, or so? I read that adults that have not mated will over winter. I'd like to kill them all dead right now. (And, please don't tell me to squish them between my fingers. I just had a manicure today!)
Update to the garden harvest... Lady Bender shucked anothe ear of corn and proclaimed it ready to eat!!! the bad news is she said it looks like all 148 ears will ripen within 24 hours. My late potatoes have contacted Late Blight so I can’t use the Red La Soda or Yukon Gold for seed but they are available at the feed store in the spring. I picked the last bush of Blueberries and we continue to get about a gallon of Strawberries per week. We got 9 Diva salad cukes and new ones are forming, we are using the Basil as needed. I will start a new compost pile next week if we can get over to the stables for a pickup load of bedding,
SOUTH FL UPDATE: Getting ready to transfer all the baby plants into the garden. RotoTiller guy will be here Saturday..
Video of the new plants from seed. Mostly Burpee. I have less problems with their seed for some reason down here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNhGle33YxE