Posted on 09/30/2011 5:02:33 AM PDT by Red_Devil 232
Good morning gardeners. Fall is in the air here in East Central Mississippi on this last day of September. It has been beautiful weather for cleaning up outside and taking care of the yard. Our daytime temperatures have been in the 70s with an occasional bump up into the 80s and the overnight lows are ranging from the 40s to the 60s. While I am waiting for Spring to arrive I will be occupied by continuing to hone my skills at home brewing.
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.
I hope all your Summer gardens did well this year and your Fall gardens prosper.
I only pulled the vines up. I used a potato fork to dig the potatoes. I wanted to see what was below. The soil is so condensed because of lack of moisture I had to start way out from the base to dig because huge clumps of soil held together. These are two different beds planted around two weeks apart, and I dug up one hill in each. I start my own sweet potato slips from the previous year sweet potatoes. And I was pleasantly surprised at what I found. My guess would be over 20 lbs. of varying sized sweet potatoes. Of which I have already given away over half of the potatoes. I boil the very small ones and the others I either bake or peel and deep fry.
These beds are raised. In a normal rain fall year minus a full month of nearly 100 degree temps the beds stay moist. But this year wet early, then July was a blast furnace with NO rain, then August the heat broke and a couple of heavy deluges, but very very little since.
Your weather sounds exactly like what happened to my garden. Glad you got some nice taters out of that cement!
I watch a guy on PBS up in maine of all places do that. He had to brush the snow off. there was plastic on the top. Lots of hay and then low and behold there was a garden under it.. He was picking some fresh carrots for his chirstmas dinner... Pretty neat....
They grow black berrys along the fence lines down here in south fl. The cows will not touch them. Every few years we get a record crop... Lots of berrys and lots of blood from the throns... Best pies ever!
I'm glad you posted this as we were down to turning the faucet off when we brushed our teeth to conserve water and in a matter of weeks of the first rain Shasta Dam was over flowing as were the rest of the reservoirs of northern Cal. The spring at our mountain cabin on the Klamath River was down to a gallon a minute from the normal 5 gallons per minute. I had to develop another source of water for the garden. Never used it again after the rains started...
Only reason I remember it was only 6 weeks is because I left Redding for Air Force Basic Training during a drought and came back at Christmas to a never ending rain and Shasta Dam was overflowing.
My Prayers are with you for a speedy recovery Ellendra...
And why are you fermenting it in your wife’s washing machine???
Because when the socks are thrown it it gives it a unique flavor!
That’s what my last beer tasted like Red! The year was 1975...
If my last beer had been in 1975 I would not have survived to this day!
I encourage everyone to drink more beer Red because it brings the cost of my Red Wine down...
Have a glass of red on me and then send me a link to where you are getting your drip irrigation supplies!
WoW!!! you drive a hard bargain Red. Go here and ask them for a print catalog or two and study it while you’re sampling your brew... http://www.dripworksusa.com/
First off, I hope you get better very soon. Secondly, I have worked in a busy call center, so I know what you mean - boy do I ever! Third, check into medical disability leave. Research online and speak to your Dr. Do what you need to do in order to have time to get better.
Last, how do you harvest the green bean seeds? Do you leave the pods on the plant till frost? I have let some go so that I can harvest (heirlooms), but not sure how to do that.
Looks like the Heart of The Garden Kit is the way for me to get started. Thanks, I will have a lot of questions for you to answer so don’t do to much of the Red!
Rule # 1 is good filters for micro drip. I use the inline models on each main line.
From what I’ve read, the beans are supposed to be left on the vine until tan and dry, then brought in to finish drying.
Realistically, Wisconsin has very wet autumns, so I’ll probably just wait until most of the leaves have fallen off the bean plants, then bring the pods in and let them dry. Right now, they’re turning tan but getting soggier by the day.
I’ve been on medical leave, but it doesn’t quite cover all the bills. But, just a couple hours ago I got word that the Tier 2 tech support team where I work needs help sifting through paperwork and assigning callbacks, so tomorrow I start learning how to do that! Yay!!!!
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