Posted on 09/27/2013 12:37:17 PM PDT by greeneyes
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The problem may be the owners and not the dogs. Everywhere we’ve lived, the neighbor dogs have ended up at our house. They had evil owners. One would dig under the fence to get to our house because her owner wanted to put her down. She was safe until we moved... and that was that. We have door scratches from another one who’s owner’s wife hated him and his dog. I have no intention of painting over them. That owner put us down in his will as the dog’s guardians. When he was in the hospital, the dog turned up dead and she filed for divorce. I don’t believe in coincidences.
Fresh Kimchee is great, but canned?
Fresh cucumber is very spicy, lots of hot pepper and onions, at least that’s what I’ve had. I tried cabbage, fermented,
once, one taste. Not to my liking.
James is a sweet fellow who is fairly well preserved for his age but who’s belly jiggles like a bowl of jelly. However, he does tend to get pickled quite often, usually in the hot tub. I won’t go into details on Marcella’s joyful “can do anything with” but you wouldn’t believe the stories her squirrels are chattering about.
We always have the same varmint trouble..Last night I look out the back door, and think, "Is that a cat?" Heck, no it was a ginormous raccoon, laying there like he's waiting to come in for supper. I opened the door, and shrieked at him, and he vamoosed in that fast clumsy lumbering raccoon way.. over the playhouse, and the fence.
“...but you wouldn’t believe the stories her squirrels are chattering about.”
Which is why I’m trying to catch them - they are ruining my reputation.
There's your problem. It's just been way too hot here. Anything over about 90 degrees will do a number on the garden. Not much will flower when it's that hot. Do NOT pull up anything. Our temps have dropped and hopefully you got some rain the past few days so that will help. You can water all day long but rain does all kinds of magic. Your tomatoes and beans should be producing soon with the cooler temps. Lettuces and greens will do good planted now.
/johnny
I grow them from transplants from the nursery.
These tomatoes are not heirloom tomatoes. They are bred to resist nematodes, and other plant diseases:
Tycoon Tomato
“Tycoon” tomato is the 2011 Rodeo Tomato. This tomato variety named “Tycoon” is a large, firm, oblate tomato that has very high yield potential, with outstanding fruit quality, on a determinate plant. It is a mid-early variety with heat set ability and high tolerance to tomato yellow leaf curl virus. “Tycoon” also offers tolerance to Verticilium, Fusarium race 1 and 2, nematodes, and tomato spotted wilt virus.
Solar Fire
VFFFSt) Are you tired of looking for a tomato that can be grown in hot, humid and wet climates? Well, look no further, because despite these conditions, these compact plants will set loads of firm, glossy red, crack-free fruits that average 9 to 10 oz. Best used for fresh eating. Disease resistant and also exhibits tolerance to fruit soft rot. Developed by researchers at the University of Florida.
Forgot to add - Your tomatoes should produce until the first freeze around the end of Nov. The afternoon before the first freezing night, go out and pick everything. Doesn’t matter if the tomatoes are green, pick them. Lay them out on trays or cardboard or whatever and they’ll continue to ripen over a few days. Or enjoy some fried green tomatoes. You can also make green sauces with them. Don’t pull up the plants until you know for certain the freeze got them.
Save some of the seeds and start your next year’s tomato and pepper plants at Christmas. Because we in Central Texas can have late freezes that kill the transplants in April, start some seeds in Feb and again in March as back ups. You WILL need back ups. Remember, there were two bad hail storms and two floods that wiped out gardens this last spring.
Thanks. I don’t know if there is a nursery around here. Rightly probably knows if there is.
Garage sales and thrift stores used to be great places to get jars. Neighbors used to beg me take them off their hands. Now days, with the economy, it seems people are hanging on to them.
I bought a couple of herb/gardening books at the big annual community sale yesterday but didn’t see any jars or garden tools. There was only one small pressure cooker when usually there are several. There were fewer gardening and cookbooks and not a single one on preserving. I was looking for prepper stuff but no luck this year or last year. Very telling.
Cocoa trees are pretty picky about where they grow. They like a lot of humidity, no cold, and rich, acidic soil. I tried one a couple years ago (along with cinnamon and jakfruit), but they all failed in my greenhouse. I just couldn't keep the conditions right.
We've started planting lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, radish, carrots, kale, collards....all cool weather plants. They live through any cold snap that hits our area if you put a plastic drop cloth over them when it's forecast to drop below 20 degrees.
Wife and I have not found a true nursery anywhere around here or the parts of Houston that she travels through. There are a few garden centers that we frequent, though, that are much like Lowes, only better. Her favorite one is in Tomball. If you are looking for tomato starts, good luck on finding any this time of year, although Mrs. Henderson’s had a few Early girl and Goliath last week when we went there to get bird/squirrel feed.
I wish I could have fresh cukes till Christmas. We have trouble growing cukes and melons etc. all the time here during the normal season-no way we could grow them off season, I’m afraid.
We are fast approaching our first frost date-Oct. 15. After that, is when we will plant the winter wheat. Gotta let the frost kill that Hessian Fly.
I finished digging my potatoes. My small patch - a little less than 12 sq feet-did well. I planted 1 lb of butte russet, and I got a little over 7 lbs. Not much effort and good return. This was my first year for potatoes.
I will be planting some more of these next year. I have several egg sized that I’ll put back for seed potatoes to use next year. Will also expand the amount planted. Gonna have to get another bed set up or else cut back on the tomato space.
Well, it’s the owners for sure, but not as evil as your neighbors. These owners have indoor dogs, and no fenced area, so they just let the dogs out to do their duty.
Next thing you know, they are roaming around the neighbor hood, just being regular dogs. They are friendly to humans and other dogs they encounter on their trips.
My grand kids dog-I dogsit- is not friendly to other dogs. She is a combo rat terrior and jack russell terrior, and fiercely defends her turf from anything that moves except humans.
She welcomes all humans with tail wagging. In addition she barks to welcome family members, but is totally silent when unknown people come around. Totally worthless as a watch dog from that respect, but she is protective of the family.
It’s a pity. I would surely like to grow my own coffee and cocoa beans. By the way, I hear that the cocoa crop has failed this year in one of the major supply areas-don’t recall which.
Predictions are for a huge increase in prices by December.
I tried the 5 gallon bucket method to grow potatoes, but no luck. Most of the taters were about quarter sized. We used to have rows of potatoes on the farm. One 200 foot of terrace with about six or seven rows three feet apart produced a lot of taters. I saved some onion seed this year and just tossed them into dirt. I think every seed has come up.
Marcella, you have voiced the frustration that I think every gardener must feel from time to time. I know I have! LOTS!
I planted a cherry tomato in the June/july planting and it is only now starting to blossom. Don’t give up the towel yet! I’ve had some disasters also, but have been examining them as points of personal instruction which my garden angels, fairies and gnomes are giving me! LOL!
While I share the understanding that you do that these lessons are of critical importance, the truth is that this year, by God’s grace, we are not dependent on our garden procedes so we have the luxury of being philosophic.
For example, this year I’ve learned that okra does REALLY well in our yard! The 4 plants are a veritable jungle out there and I’ve given them away and had lots of fresh gumbo. Sunflowers do really well also.
I’ve learned that several other plants would do well, but I need to learn how to handle the pests.
I’ve learned about using rooting hormone. I’ve learned about temperature/shade issues for plants which died after nursing them along during rooting.
I’ve learned about too much phosphorus being a burn agent if used in excess. (I murdered my yellow squash plant with too much phosphorus.) I’ve learned about the joys of just-right fertilization.
I’ve learned so much from your researches. I learned about walking onions, sunchokes, and T squash among other things.
Timing. Seasons for planting...for harvesting...for learning!
All these things were traumatic at moments, but how grateful I am that I’ve been able to increase my learning curve with you and all the participants of this thread! Because of all of you that curve is almost straight up! The other day, Darlin, who has been letting me make my mistakes and approach the learning process in my own way has helped greatly by support and a useful tip and hand given from time to time, actually stated that I’ve learned so very much and is proud of me!
I have more I hope to report later! Gotta go work on a project in which I’m immersed up to the armpits!
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