Been up since 5 am as usual.
Sprayed the garden with “Garrett” juice. *Dirt Doctor*. 73 degrees here, coolest I can get.
Going to hit 100 today per the weatherman.
Planning a re-installment of Rosemary in the front yard (lost them in the freeze last Feb.).
Mowing and weeding beds + compost/mulching today before it gets hot.
Zone 8a East Texas (Henderson County)
Greetings from southern New Hampshire!
While mowing, on Wednesday, I noticed one of my swarm traps had fallen from the tree it was attached to and laying upright on the ground. It had been hanging from a French cleat, securely screwed to the tree trunk, about 10 feet up.
It turns out that apparently Brer Bear climbed up and ripped it, cleat and all from the tree, snapping off all three screws. But, because I had wrapped a ratchet strap around the trap top and French cleats, the bear couldn’t get into the trap itself. I removed the strap and top and pried one of the frames up enough to see a couple of honey bees working a comb. Last night, we moved the trap up to our bee pergola, and this morning, I observed one bee leaving the trap. I will give it a couple days before transferring the frames and colony to a vacant hive.
We are fine-tuning the critter fencing around the raised beds, and Household Six has been applying fox urine around the garden. Critter problems seem to be lessening. Six busted a young groundhog that was acting aggressively. Don’t want to risk rabies!
I have been making significant progress on the wire fencing around the garden. Soon, it will enclose the garden area, and we can let our ducks out to police the bugs.
It sure has been a weird spring/summer, so far.
I have to get a lot done in the next month, before my trip to Georgia to deliver my son’s workshop equipment to their new home, along with our “guests”, Niko the Husky and Olaf and Baboo, two felines. They are residing in our RV while visiting. I am sleeping out there and they seem to be enjoying the vacation.
Plumerias and vincas are blooming (from my garden):
The monarch butterfly is real, the parrots are not.
And, my orange bougainvillea is beginning to recover from a heat wave:
From my travels: A beautiful fuchsia. They don't fare well where I'm from - too hot and windy. Doesn't stop the local nurseries from selling them.
And this unidentified flowering plant that I passed and couldn't resist taking a photo of:
Happy Gardening!
Maybe have a serving of this!
And a super sparkelly night! !
Happy Birthday!
I am a good bit closer to 70 than you are .... avoided the family wanting to ‘rub it in’ when I turned 60. I hate birthday parties; however, a “garden party” is something I believe I would enjoy .... I’ll keep that in mind when I hit the next decade! :-)
Best wishes for many more birthdays & splendid gardens. Thanks for this thread, too - a bright spot in the year every Saturday! ~Q
happy birthday...so wonderful you still have parties, our little jagdterrier treed a small bear the other day off a pasture in some woods. This was on our farm but outside of our electric fence. Still scared to death pulling dogs off a bear tree. We had a few times a bear came down while removing dogs from the tree. Missouri has a bear season now but NO dogs. Our blackmouth and kemmer stock curs have yet to tree a bear...great fun... im way older than YOU
I worked all night then got him at 530....remembered that I did not deep watery tomatoes on Friday and did that until 7 am.
Stumbled off to bed but not before seeing g the garden turned was up and running.
My Chinese broccoli seeds were delivered wjile I slept. They get started the end of August.
Picking squash. Heat slowed the green beans, so it’ll be a couple more days for them.
The corn that began tasseling last week is all umbrellas & silks now.
The early spuds are starting to look droopy, so won’t be much longer for them....nor for the onions.
Flowers are all over the Muncher cukes.
Scarlet Runners are a mass of red; pole beans are still climbing, and no flowers yet.
Just mix chp veggies, cream cheese,shredded cheddar.
Spread on flour tortillas, roll up, cut bite size.
An exotic Mexican inspired iced coffee. Nice change of pace.
Coffee Cooler
INGREDIENTS
2 oz Southern Comfort 80
.5 oz New Orleans Coffee Liqueur
.25 oz Demerara Syrup
20 drops Orange Cream Citrate
20 drops Xocolatl Mole Bitters
.5 oz heavy or light Cream.
INSTRUCTIONS
Shake ingredients with ice. Pour into a collins glass filled with crushed ice.
Coffee or chocolate powder garnish.
The little bulbs called, ‘Bulbils’ don’t have to go in more than an inch, spaced an inch apart, pointy side up, but that really doesn’t matter. I would plant them in a separate space, because it’ll take a few years for them to develop into decent heads. Cover with 4” or so of straw. Next spring when you see growth, pull back the straw so things don’t rot. Let them grow all season and dig a few in the fall to see what size they are. They won’t be big, of course. Cover them back up and let them go another season, or use the smaller, basically FREE garlic as you normally would.
I’ve never planted garlic from the seeds. Let’s ask the expert if he’s available! :)
Recipe link below:
