[greeneyes]

Pinging the list.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Hi! I’m doing nothing with the garden this year because of my recent surgery. It looks awful. I can’t even mow because I’m still traumatized by my mower accident 2 weks ago.

I was starting to mow the front pasture, which was really long because of all the rain we’ve had. I was proceeding slowly with the blades set up as high as I could set them. Suddenly, thud,, crunch. I turned around and found that I’d mowed over a newborn fawn. There was no sign that that little creature was underneath the long grass.

After talking to people around here (I’ve lived here more than 25 years) I find that this kind of accident is rather common among the farmers when they are cutting hay. But, I amstill devastated, and there is no way I can get to my garden area now because it is surrounded by chest high grass. It will stay that way until Fall.

[NormsRevenge]

I’m an all fruit cropper this years.. The nets seem to have kept birds and squirrels from feasting while we cruised Alaska.. could be a bumper crop for Asian pears, 3 kinds, and Fuji apples look good too. Bees were around but some of these trees pretty much take care of their own pollenious stuff just fine regardless. Wish I had cherry and a berry or two too.. oh vell

[JRandomFreeper]

The New Mexico peppers are moving into bulk harvest mode. I expect I'll be processing a bunch of them by mid-next week.

Tons of green tomatoes, even after losing some limbs from the wind.

The remaining squash after the wind storm are doing well, and I'll have fresh squash tonight again for supper.

Tobacco is doing great, and I'm keeping ahead of the horned tobacco worms, mercilessly killing the little buggers every morning and evening when I find them. They are getting rare.

Everything is doing great, including the dipper gourd plant that I didn't expect to do well here.

Oh, and I have my first baby cantaloupes now, too.

/johnny

[Ellendra]

On Sunday I managed to escape to my farm for a few hours. (Yes, I'm calling it a “farm” now, not just “land”.) I was amazed that the corn was almost 4 inches tall already, it was only a week old! Granted, some of them needed help finding which hole to grow out of through the landscaping fabric. But still, I love it when seeds are eager to grow like that!

That kind of got me thinking about the varieties I've tested over the years. If anyone’s wondering what to look for when choosing plants for the survival garden, the first thing I'd suggest looking for is vigor! I've tried too many varieties that made great promises in the catalog, but limped pathetically through the growing season like they were crippled. I realize there are things that can be done with the soil and with watering to improve a plant's health, but the plant has got to do SOME of the work itself! I demand resilience in my garden. I want a vegetable that's as determined as I am.

Unfortunately, my opalka tomatoes aren't looking like they're going to make the cut. I had to replant 3 times before I got some that would sprout. And now that they did, they seem to be staying kind of wimpy, not like the other tomato that I started from seed. It's going gangbusters.

Can anyone recommend a good, open-pollinated or heirloom, indeterminate paste-type tomato that actually has a strong will to live? I need recommendations for next year.

On another note, my potatoes are finally sprouting! apparently it just took a while for them to realize they weren't in the crisper anymore. Now they're determined to make up for lost time :) And my strawberries are ripening, but the rabbits are getting most of them before I have a chance. Phooey, I was looking forward to being buried in berries again, like the previous 3 years.

[tob2]

Everything has been growing nicely because of cooler temperatures. That is supposed to change next week with a rise from the 70’s to 90’s. I need to get to a garden center and see what plants are available.