Posted on 07/26/2013 12:53:13 PM PDT by greeneyes
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/johnny
I don’t know where you are, but I got some great tomato and pepper plants from our local 99cent store here in Rancho Cordova CA (near Sacramento.) The Early Girls are producing abundantly, the Beefsteaks are also doing just fine, I screwed up the sweet peppers but the serranos, jalapenos, habaneros, and cayenne are going gangbusters. All for 99cents each plant, sales tax free cause they’re food.
Howdy from Tennessee. The gardening is coming along well. Mild temps and some rain with loads of mosquitoes thrown in to the mix. Put up a couple more batches of pickles and relish. Tomatoes are on the vine-still green. The hybrids are doing well-the heirlooms not so much.
Going to plant some bush beans soon. We’ve had better luck growing them on the back end of the season than the beginning when the bugs are worse. Our season lasts until mid to late October. Lots more time.
Appreciate the info on stuffing peppers and growing paprika and planting carrots. Very, very helpful info.
Happy gardening everyone!!
Thanks for the tips. I’ll try that next spring. I think what happened this year, is that they weren’t kept damp long enough. The bed I used was completely Mel’s mix with some fresh compost added.
I’ll be planting some rye or clover to the bed this fall, and step up the compost content when I prep the bed for next year.
Makes sense to me. We made up a whole bunch of them in 2010 and had boxes and boxes in the freezer. Then just heated in the microwave.
Hubby liked them, but I couldn’t stand the mushy shells. Hummm. I wonder if I could can the stuffing? Heat it up in the microwave stuff a homegrown pepper from my indoor supply and heat a little more??
Gonna let that percolate a while.LOL
Thanks for the picture of the rose.LOL Our heirlooms are doing well this year, if we could just keep the critters from harvesting them.
Usually we can pick them right after they get a little blush, but for some reason they are being taken and eaten while still very green this year.
We have had no luck catching any in the live traps either. I am thinking that they have wised up to the produce in the cages.
Yeh, like I said biodegradable - that’s what I sometimes call stuff that I throw in the compost pile. I am running out of room for keeping stuff like plastic pots etc.
I either recycle or compost everything. I have so many milk jugs and soda cans, it will take months to haul them all to the recycling center.
Plus I have all kinds of plastic stuff sitting around waiting for their next duty. The garage is too full to park the cars, and we don’t have an outdoor storage shed yet.
The plans are to have a basement/rootcellar under the shed/carriage house. Me-I’d settle for an 8 x 10 that I could stick plastic ware and garden tools in.
Hey I have an old brown plastic spa out back with a cover that now functions as a storage compartment for plastic jugs and such. I’m thinking of covering it with thick plastic and creating a mini-green house for wintering plants and close the lid on real cold weather days/nights. We get some of that here in North Texas but it comes and goes in spurts. I also found an old storm door thrown out but I took the 2 glass panes off and might try a simple built cold frame and see if I can nurse some cuttings and early seedlings starting in February and transplant later with a good running start to the season. We shall see how it rolls along thataway.
Excerpted from Wikipedia; full article here:
In 1970, David Burpee sold his company to General Foods. In 1974, Burpee moved from its north Philadelphia location to its current headquarters at 300 Park Avenue in Warminster, Pennsylvania. ...
In 1979 the company was acquired by ITT. David Burpee remained as a consultant until his death in June 1980. (personal opinon: that's when it really started going downhill.) In 1991 the Burpee company was acquired by George Ball, Inc., a diversified horticultural family business. Jonathan Burpee, the founder's grandson, was the last Burpee family member to work for the company.
More about Mr. Ball here
A message board of complaints and woes concerning ordering/buying, mislabeling, poor product, and poor customer service from Burpee here
Ball claims truthfully, but with a forked tongue, that "Monsanto doesn't own Burpee", then goes on to state that "he doesn't buy or sell genetically modified seeds." (article here) and that he gets his seeds from Seminis. NOTE: the article strongly implies that he is NOT producing any seeds; he buys all of them from a single source.
Monsanto OWNS Seminis! source
Seminis was established in 1994 to consolidate leading companies in the fragmented fruit and vegetable seed industry. The process was realized by takeovers of such companies (mostly Dutch) as: Asgrow,[1] Petoseed,[1] Royal Sluis,[1] Bruinsma Seeds,[1] Genecorp.[1] Monsanto still uses some of these brands.[2]
On March 23, 2005, Monsanto Company announced that it had completed its acquisition of Seminis, Inc. According to the press release announcing the deal, Monsanto paid $1.4 billion in cash and assumed debt, plus a performance-based payment of up to $125 million payable by 2007.[1]
I just ordered a 50 pound sack of winter rye seed today. I can pick it up anytime a week from Monday at the “local” elevator: 7 miles to town; 5 miles to the junction; 7 miles to the next junction, then 2 more miles to the elevator.
Fortunately, except for the last 2 miles, it’s on the way to Rapid City, so we’ll combine the trip into an multipurpose shopping & tank repair run....and stop for a double feature at the new drive-in theater on the way home.
Also at the elevator, I’ll spring for a 100 pound sack of chicken feed for $18. The feed stores sell it rebagged at $14/50 pounds.
Well, there ya go! Great trip and lots of results.
A NEW drive in theater???? A NEW one??? LOL I didn’t know they were making a comeback.LOL We have a very old drive in theater here. It’s the only theater around, and it’s 10 miles outside of town. I thought we probably had one of the last few existing ones.
All the others around us have closed and been torn down.
Good Idea. I have an old window frame, that I asked Hubby to make a cold frame with about 3 years ago. He says what’s that? I show him a picture. Well I guess so he says.
Wait a while. Ask him again will you make me a cold frame?? He looks at me-cold frame??? What’s that?? I can’t find the picture, go to the internet and print another-Oh yeh that thing ok.
The thing will be rotten and panes broken by the time he gets around to it, I have a feeling. I tried making one using styro foam around it on my raised beds; it just didn’t work well.
Well you know, there’s only so many hours in the day, and that’s just not at the top of his list.
We have 16 of them in SD; this one opened last summer, and is the first twin screen in the state; and it’s fully digital, with the screens optimized for HD & 3D. Sound is short range FM to your car radio.
Roy runs it May-Oct, and only charges $8; $6 kids, seniors, and military with ID. Both screens have a double feature, all of them current films. We love it.
You have a tank? How cool! What size is the main gun?
/johnny
Here is my cold frame (obviously not in use this time of year). It was cheap, took a couple of hours to put together and lasted well. I'll replace the top plastic this fall, but the plastic is cheap.
It has 4 stakes that I drive into the ground when I put it where it goes to hold it down.
I like the plastic top, because the weight is easier to handle than glass, and less likely to break.
When properly installed and the stakes are pounded in, it slopes so that rain runs off and I can point the low side to the south.
/johnny
And if you use your favorite chef's knife to shred it for cigarette tobacco (like I do).
WASH the knife after slicing jalapenos and before shredding the tobacco (like I didn't).
/johnny
Well, well, well. There you have it. Burpee doesn't buy seeds DIRECTLY from Monsanto but from their middle man.
A simple way to improve carrot germination is to sow the seeds, gently water them in, then cover the area with an old board or even thick cardboard (weighted down). For small patches in a raised bed, scraps of wood leftover from other projects work fine. Start checking daily after a week and remove the cover as soon as the plants are out of the soil.
The cover retains moisture and reduces temperature swings, so you get high germination rates without needing to water constantly.
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