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Greetings gardeners. Well it is certainly July weather here in Missouri. Hot as a dessert and dry as a bone. Down to my last 50 gallons of water, hubby is using the 10 gallons of air conditioner water. Corn was a bust - Was doing great till we ran out of water. Squash bit the dust today.

I was observing that it sure seemed like the swimming pool of 4000 gallons didn't last very long. So hubby fessed up - seems he had a few occasions that he turned on the water from the pool to his garden, went inside and got on the computer and forgot it - hence one of the reasons that the pool is already empty.

He said he needs a pump so that he can just go out and water the garden and get it over with - the gravity method is too slow. I agreed, but also suggested that setting a timer might work too-he didn't seem to care for that solution though. LOL

Well we got a few peppers most were shriveled, and had to have the bad spots cut off, but tasty in a stir fry. Hubby also got a few onions and some beets, and quite a few taters.

I steamed some beets, and then skinned them and sliced them potato chip thin with a mandolin, fried them in oil till crisp, drained, sprinkled some salt on them, and they were really good - best recipe ever - no earthy taste-just sweet and salty- what's not to love?

Speaking of bones - we actually had a store that was selling some beef ribs for barbeque recently. So I got a couple of packages. Now I always simmer the ribs in water for about and hour and half before grilling- usually put a little hickory smoke and soy sauce in the water, but this time I just used salt and pepper.

After they cooked for a while, I pulled the meat off the bones and put the soy, hickory smoke, and bbq sauce in with them in a small crock pot. Then I put the bones back in the stock pot broth along with the celery, onion, carrots, and some balsamic vinegar.

That is now cooling. I'll scoop off the fat tomorrow and can a batch and freeze the rest - Bone Broth - my favorite cold weather drink for lunch or supper.

I have some space in my garden now that the garlic is harvested, but I'm going to wait till later to plant stuff - making a list of short Days to Maturity items to plant this fall and next spring. Best to have a spring crop and fall crop and forget about July and August except for maybe a few buckets for tomatoes and cukes.

Hubby didn't get any cukes - makes me wish I'd planted one. Last year I got all the fresh ones we wanted and grew enough for 2 batches of pickles - all from one plant in a 6 inch pot - I never got around to repotting it into a bigger one. Just stuck a tomato cage in the ground around it - worked great.

Hope you are all doing well. Prayers up for all. Have a great weekend. God Bless.

The bone broth sounds great. I like a good hot cup of beef broth in the winter so will have to try that. It’s been raining a lot here. I’ve been getting a lot to eat from the garden. I got a zuke so big I could have clubbed someone with it. The 3 foot high plastic fence has kept all the critters out too. My Indian corn in the tree planter is looking very nice. I dreamed up something I’m going to try. Hot Italian sausage in a stuffed pepper (tin foil) on the grill. Any suggestions, should I precook the sausage first. I broke down and bought a food dehydrator finally, lol. I’m getting all kinds of peppers, planning on drying most of them for my winter bean soup.

The tomatoes are coming in ..... two roasting pans full in one picking & I need to get back out there and pick again! Tomato sandwiches, tomato pies are good for starters, but I need to start canning/freezing ... salsa will be the first project.

My jalapenos aren’t doing so well this year, but the Hungarian Wax Peppers are just fine. I picked everything & now have 4 cups of “mush” in the freezer for making Hot Pepper Butter at a later time. My SIL has jalapenos galore so I can get what I need from her for making Jalapeno Pepper Jelly.

The straw bale garden is doing well; however, it would be doing better if I hadn’t overcrowded it. I have lots of cukes, the eggplants are producing, I’ve gotten some yellow squash (the squash bugs just found the plants - boo hiss), and I have okra .... growing it for the first time. I’ll probably try some fried okra over the weekend. I’ll definitely do the straw bales again - a great way to extend my garden space without having to put in more raised beds, plus I’ll have great compost once the gardening season ends.

All is very dry now - watering the straw bales, but the tomatoes need a soaking today. I’ve put out water for the birds. A cute little doe has been visiting and eating all the hostas - gourmet salad. The crows were hanging out (flock is now up to 11), but as soon as the fences went up around the garden, they quit coming .... ‘funny’ how that works!

Found this recipe - something different: Lemon Summer Squash Bread. It’s made with yellow squash, although you could use zucchini.
http://www.creative-culinary.com/lemon-summer-squash-bread/

Bummer about you running out of water. I’m glad your hubby was honest about what he did, I’m sure he felt sheepish.

This reminds me of a question – how many of you water your garden is. I have been watering mind the last two years and I am sick of it! We use our well water, that has too much sediment in it for drinking. It also runs out after about an hour. So cast isn’t an issue. But I am sick of dragging a heavy hoes out there! I have a physical problems with my arms as it is, and just keeping up with weeding, staking, and the produce is probably at the limit of what I can do.

I’m thinking of just letting nature takes it’s course but then when I think of my little babies out there shriveling up...I give in

Hi greeneyes and everyone!

I’m so sorry to hear of the water issues your garden has been experiencing, greeneyes.

Since I checked in, I have harvested a few okra, kept the stevia alive, and became disappointed that the ant bed in the garden patch is alive and well. Have put out more diatomaceous earth, but the little buggers have destroyed my mammoth sunflower heads. Only one or two are showing any possibility of forming heads at all - never mind lack of seeds.

Someone has chowed down heavily on the bee balm. Put down the DE in hopes to at least slow it down. Other herbs, especially parsley are doing well. I hope to see the butterflies consume it all in the fullness of time! I planted it for them! (I scrupulously did NOT put DE in the parsley pot because I don’t want to hurt the caterpillars!)

The garlic sprouts are continuing to grow in their large pot. The garlic plant in the ground patch formed a lovely seed head. I went ahead and shook it in the place I hope a garlic patch might form. With the ants there, though, it may be a race!

Grass is growing all the time, and it seems like that is all Darlin is doing these days: MOW!

Hope everyone else is having a better time of it than Darlin and I are!

Crazy weather in Central Missouri over the past week. Africa-hot with terrible humidity, 3.5" of rain early Sunday morning accompanied by one of the most amazing electrical storms I've ever seen, and today back to more normal temps.

The rain came hard and fast, but it couldn't have come at a better time. I've been running dripline irrigation in the pumpkin patch 24/7 for a couple weeks now, and I was able to shut that down for awhile at least. The pumpkins are in full bloom and should be setting fruit soon. The butternut squash are all loaded with little baby squashes. Cucumbers are suffering in the heat.

I picked the first ripe tomatoes over the weekend. There's nothing like a BLT made with fresh home-grown tomato. Green beans are vined 10' up the arbor and blooming like crazy. Cabbages have pretty much folded up from the heat, and the lettuce is toast. I expect that I'd find my pepper plants loaded if I could find some time to clean up the weed patch that has overtaken them.

Rocket's coondominium is almost done. #1 Daughter helped me on that a bit yesterday. We got the wire up on two sides. Need to finish the wire wrap and build a cubby hole on the inside and she'll be able to move in.