A little hippy-dippy, but she makes some great points. I do many of the same things in Fall - lighting candles, cleaning out the garden, tidying the house, preserving, craving spices and deep colors - I'm sure other gardeners do, too.
I didn’t grow any vegetables here in North Idaho this summer because so many household projects took time. But the deer appreciated our banquet of many Shrubs and flowers. They started eating my potted mum’s this week.
Reporting from Southern California.
The fires are abating so we’re having less ash fall - air is “moderate” still, but far better.
Cooling a bit too, although I see temps in the 100s later in the week. My roses are just starting to return after the oppressive 110+ degree heat we had. We get a second flush in the fall, not as good as the spring but still can be beautiful.
I noticed the raccoons are starting to get my pomegranates, I don’t have a lot this year, small crop - but I’d like all of them. I noticed some neighbors have put netting around their pomegranate trees and I may do that this weekend as my garden project.
Planting more irises, I collect them and some are spectacular, I really like the re-bloooming ones so I get two sets of blossoms over the year.
Pray for rain!!
It’s just amazing...... my wife’s egg plant has grown to the size of a small shrub and is prolifically pumping out it’s fruit. It is nearly October but there are currently 8 small eggplants developing on a single plant.
We have been enjoying eggplant two or three times a week for some time now and I guess it will b e everyday soon.
Are there any breakfast egg plant recipes out there?
Her second planting of snowpeas are blooming. The new lettuce is up good.
Egg Plant, snow peas and kilt lettuce is on the near horizon
So glad the weekend is here .... this week was exhausting. Long story short, I’ll list the top 3 things: dead truck battery the morning we were supposed to take a trip in it (getting new battery was a “cluster-you-know-what”); downed tree that took a power line with it (still ‘live’ line) in our cabin driveway; outpatient surgery for close relative - I had to take/bring home & deal with post-op instructions, etc.
On the garden front, still have peppers (bell, jalapeno). I’m cutting up the bells & frying with onions - a pile of peppers reduces to something manageable. Jalapenos - I’m going to do an experiment & see if I can freeze pepper bits in vinegar for processing this winter into jelly.
Blooming: Fall zinnia garden (I love it!) & marigolds. The giant ones are like balls of sun - visible from a distance.
Growing: Cardinal Climbing Vine - now to the top of both trellises
Wildlife: Saw mama deer & her twins running across the field - first time I’ve personally seen them. I think they were visiting the old apple tree which has a few apples falling every day. Hummingbirds appear to be all gone - feeders still out, just in case & for any birds migrating through.
Fall color: our maples are starting to turn.
Gloomy, rainy day .... hope it clears out with some sunshine later. Fall is my favorite season of the year, so I’m glad it’s here.
Quick update on my garden situation.
In the Pacific Northwest here, have been getting a ton of rain last 3 days and will continue through Sunday.
But we have been getting dry hours and occasiona bursts of clear skies.
All my cherry tomatoes have split and there is no cure for that when the rain and 53 degree nights come.
My large heirlooms tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants are holding up well.
I have ablut 200 heirloom tomatoes of all sizes and shapes on my dining table right now.
Greens and peas and squash etc are all perking up with lower temps.
My purchase of Texas property is moving along.
Have a signed agreement to purchase 11.5 acres, earnest money is at the title company, just waiting for the seller to clear up an easement purchase that brings the land size up from 10.6 to 11.5 acres.
Should close around October 15th.
Cool front moved in overnight and brought some badly-needed rainfall to us here in Central Missouri.
Still getting tomatoes and have a few butternut squash still maturing on the vine.
Made a run to KC on Friday to meet fish guy. Brought home smallmouth and hybrid striped bass and stocked them in my pond. All that’s left to stock now are the walleye.
I’m really getting in at the end of this week’s thread!
The Opo squash are still trying to produce, but, it was down to 40 deg. last night, and the forecast continues mostly cool. Not sure we’ll really get a lot more out of them, but, A) We can only use so much at a time; B) We’ll have seeds for next year; and C) I’ve learned a lot.
The latest lesson: Build stronger supports for these to climb on! Part of my “rig” broke down when 3 heavy fruits developed close together.
Also, a realization: Unless my wife wants to trade some of these fruits w/ friends, I may want to goose the plants (fertilize them with blossom booster) somewhat sequentially. Ie., fertilize some a little earlier than others. That, and start a few seedlings in March, indoors. Opo are rather slow germinating, and the initial growth was modest. I think they’d still be manageable to move by the time frost danger was over...
Now, my “real question” is:
Wood bees have taken up residence right at (in) the door frame of my shop, which is a metal “skin” pole barn, basically. I keep spraying them when I see them, and also, heavily, the opening they go in, but can’t seem to knock out the colony. These suckers are TOUGH. Nothing so far seems to have enough residual action to do the job.
The most recent formulations I’ve used @ the entrance are:
#1) Deltamethrin 0.02%; S-Bioallethrin 0.05%; “other” 99.93%. (Claims to kill most any insect, with “12 week control”. Action seems slower than “2”, but well sprayed wood bees DO die, eventually.
#2) Prallethrin 0.02%, Cypermethrin 0.05%, inert 99.93%. “6 week control” claimed. (This is not a “Flying Insect Killer” but it does-in well sprayed-on wood bees faster than almost anything I’ve tried except “Jet” wasp spray, and I think the latter is effective mostly because (when you can hit it well) it hits the bee with so much spray: A little of the wasp spray has little effect, and residual action seems nil, on wood bees, whereas I find wasp spray quite effective on wasps and hornets and their nests.
#3) Sevin, at up to 3 oz. per gal. mix.
I also used up the last of a spray can of “flying insect killer” but I tossed the can, so I’m not sure of the ingredients, and I don’t think it was any more effective than “1” anyway.
It occurred to me that some cool evening I could try to partially block the entrance with something like the “Slime” my daughter used to make. The borax in it might do the trick as the bees tried to chew through it? Or, I could mix in powdered pesticide?
Effectiveness is about 100x more important here than any consideration of “organic”, “natural”, etc. I want to nuke these SOB’s, for once and for all!
Suggestions? A hotline # to President Putin?