Weekly Garden Thread - July 2-8, 2022 [Our Founding Gardeners Edition]

July 2, 2022 | Diana in WI/Greeneyes in Memoriam

[Diana in Wisconsin]

The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you.

If you have specific question about a plant/problem you are having, please remember to state the Growing Zone where you are located.

This thread is a non-political respite. No matter what, you won’t be flamed, and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked.

It is impossible to hijack the Weekly Gardening Thread. Planting, Harvest to Table Recipes, Preserving, Good Living - there is no telling where it will go - and that is part of the fun and interest. Jump in and join us! Send a Private Message to Diana in Wisconsin if you'd like to be added to our New & Improved Ping List.

NOTE: This is a once a week Ping List. We do post to the thread during the week. Links to related articles and discussions which might be of interest to Gardeners are welcomed any time!

[tob2]

Happy Fourth of July! Took advantage of a cool morning and did some transplanting. Consolidated a couple of the older and broken planters. Tomatoes are doing well. A couple of them are starting to turn yellow. I can hardly wait for them to ripen! Several small tomatoes and plenty of blossoms and buds. Yummy.

[tob2]

Beautiful pictures!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I actually had a DREAM about a yellow slicing tomato last night, LOL! They can’t get here soon enough for me, either!

2” of much needed RAIN yesterday and overnight, but now we are looking at gawd-awful humidity and temps in the mid-80’s all week. Ugh!

So glad I worked ahead in the garden and am 100% caught up with weeding chores and transplanting.

I am goofing off today. Had a houseful of family from Friday through Monday and I am pooped!

Beau leaves for Bear Training Camp today, so I have a mini VACATION for a week or so. He’s taking 12 of our dogs, so that leaves me with only TWO to care for, plus our ‘Majordomo’ Beagle, two cats, two raccoons and the mule.

How will I EVER fill my days? LOL!

[Pollard]

Beau leaves for Bear Training Camp today

What's he training the bears to do?

Got one red slicer starting to turn red. Something took a bite out of the bottom when it was little but I should still be able to get a half tomato out of it. Heat wave this week. 99 today, 100 tomorrow, then 99, 98. Lows in the high 70s. Heat index is already close to 100 and it's not quite 10 am.

Some cherry mater clusters have formed and more are forming. No colors on those yet. Luckily the maters get shade by 4pm. Haven't seen any blossom drop yet. Will have to water them every 2-3 days. I mulched heavily with old hay a few days ago so that should help.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“What’s he training the bears to do?”

To surrender peacefully! ;)

He has five young dogs to train, (Ours: Shasta & Fremont, Training for another: Babe, Olive & Gator) so lots of work ahead before the season actually opens end of August. You can track and chase bear now, but no shooting. ;) Our ‘seasoned’ dogs will help train the younger ones. This is when the dogs ‘make it or break it’ for their careers. Two of the three he’s training for a friend are going back to the owner as pampered pets; Beau will keep the one with the most potential. So basically, if you WIN you get a life of hunting bear. If you LOSE, you get a life on the couch!

Heat Index Warnings for us on and off all week. More rain, tonight. Glad I ‘Tom Sawyered’ the kids into helping me a lot this weekend. I’m all caught up in the garden for a change! Happy, Happy! :)

[MomwithHope]

Thanks for the beautiful pictures!

[MomwithHope]

Beautiful pics, thanks for posting.

[Qiviut]

My little cuke seedlings have taken off in the last week (3 of 4 anyway - #4 has been struggling since germination, but hanging tough). They have some nice big leaves & tendrils reaching out looking for something to grab. Last night, I released them from the protective “tubes” I had them in; however I did put up some row cover around the area under the trellis where they are planted. Not sure if the sun will still be too much, but today is partly cloudy & that is helpful.

I transferred a cuke “tube” to my struggling jalapeno - maybe that will help. I was trying to figure out how to transition my two larger jalapeno plants from the porch out into the garden. Last night the idea occurred to me to use two of my very large round wire tomato cages and put row crop fabric on them about half way around to give the plants shade in the afternoon when the sun is hottest. The cages are quite large so when the plants are hardened off, I can just take the cages off.

Sungold tomatoes are ripening so at least some results are good - crazy gardening spring & then I was super late with everything due to the injury. It’s all been very frustrating.

[MomwithHope]

Two racoons!!! I won't comment. Glad you still have Ithaca.
It's been a few weeks and I have had pics to post. Just about everything except shishito peppers and 2 tomato plants I started from seed at the beginning of April. I am most amazed with the broccoli and peppers. So much was jammed into the garden I made a diagram on white butcher paper and have it taped to the wall in the garage.
What we are growing - Asparagus almost done. A nice harvest little bit better from last year. This spring I added another row and it all came up. We always get Jersey Giants. Garlic, we have 2 varieties harvested one row already, about a third more heads than last year. Have another longer row to do in a week or so. When that is done I will train the butterkin squash vines to go into the finished garlic and asparagus beds.
Only about 10 tomato plants. Tomatoes are green and growing, Sabre, celebrity, better boy, campari. Many varieties of peppers, mostly red sweet and snacking. I have 4 beautiful Costa Rican Red Pepper plants from seed, they are delicious. Shishitos just flowering now.
7 big broccoli plants. We always buy plants in the spring but this year we used seed, calabrese variety. They are huge plants, first head forming. cucumbers, red raspberries tiny fruit, chinese long beans, sweet pea pods, romaine lettuce, heads in the garden and up to on the patio.
Radishes done until fall, baby bok choi all harvested. Looking for full size seeds. I could only find the mini this spring and man was it mini. Delicious but I can get a second crop of the bigger ones.
Kale - what can I say. First time growing I gave the row a haircut and steamed and froze small amounts to cook with, soup, etc. I also cut again and combined with parsley, cilantro and basil, lemon, garlic, oil, etc and made chimichurri, A whole plastic grocery bag of greens in the mortar and pestle along with the other ingredients yielded about 2 cups. Amazing on a steak, which was not in our budget, but fantastic on a good beef burger too. No bun or anything else.
Have picked a couple of banana peppers so far, all others are just blooming now. Also growing sweet onions. I think that is about it.
We pretty much quit the bird seed in the summer to encourage the insect eating birds which we have a lot of . They come to the birdbath which sits right above the garden and will perch on the tomato and fence stakes, We have not seen a single bug or worm in the garden.
Have fertilized twice now with Dr. Jim Z's Chicken soup for the Soil. It concetrates on increasing the microbes in the soil. Amazing stuff, our second year with it. End of May and mid June I had 2 cataract surgeries which went great. Noticed this year that I started having back pain for the first time in my life. Bending over in the garden is what does it, so I just have to be careful. Have kept up reading the posts the last few weeks, just have not been able to post anything. Forgot to mention flowers. Irises all done they were beautiful just could not get down there to take many pictures. Pic of my favorite a big 2 tone, and a vase with some, love the big pink ones. Also our clematis kicking butt, two are in flower, one done and they joined together on their own. Just love that. Roses, we have 4 different ones, all from our house I grew up in Chicago, all 70 or more years old. A rosa rugosa, seven sisters, A tea type fragrant very bushy, and a VERY thorny and most fragrant called Amelia Damaske Also picked up a mason bee house I have always wanted to try them. Just bought the house and hung it up. It is filling up, hung it on the outside of the barn. OK that's it for now. Happy gardening, love you guys.

[Qiviut]

Heat warning from 3 - 7 today - index up to 106! It was stifling. It looked like a T-storm was coming around dinner time, but it split in half ... one part went north, the other south so no rain other than a few sprinkling drops.

The tomatoes needed a major watering (like a gallon each, 2 gallons for the Sungold). I have to use my stopwatch & the hose - can’t really get a gallon watering can spout in there. I time how long it takes to fill the can & then water the tomatoes that amount of time. About 2 hours later, the tomatoes looked happier. The index was 98 when I was watering the tomatoes but at least there was a good cloud cover to keep the sun at bay.

Around 7:30, I went back out to see if I could get the jalapenos planted. A nice breeze had come up & it was much less humid - the T-storms had stirred things up in the atmosphere I suspect. The jalapenos had a few blooms this morning, but today must have been “bloom” day - they were loaded this evening! I want them in the garden where they can get pollinated for sure. The large tomato cages worked out great for mounting row crop fabric & I hope this will help the plants not get burned to a crisp (still 90’s the rest of the week). Almost dark when I finished - the sunset had a lot of pink in the clouds so it was very pretty - nice way to end the day.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Beautiful flowers! Nice yard!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“It’s all been very frustrating.”

Yep! The year I broke my right foot was a year like you’re having. I was off my feet from August through October, so everyone but ME got to harvest my garden. ;)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Everything looks great! I’m behind you, but I’m catching up!

[bert]

I’ll jump in.....

2022 is an important year. For the first time in history, our tomato plants produced not one but 4 ripe tomatoes before July 4th

My wife’s efforts have allowed us to enjoy kilt lettuce, abundant snow peas, and yellow squash to date.

The scattered garden is doing quite well

[campaignPete R-CT]

I cut down 6 small trees with a hand saw. Last week.

Down to 134 trees now. Sunlight increased by 5%

It’s a decision that’s slightly traumatic.
I transplanted pots of free plants into a bare, shady spot out back. Now I have empty pots to dig up the next round of trans-plants.

[Albion Wilde]

Fantastic Founders' gardens thread, all! I'm late to the party, but having grown up around here, I can say that several of the Founders' homes are well worth touring.

The farm and gardens at George Washington's home, Mount Vernon, are wonderful to visit, as is the indoor visitor center. Takes most of a day to really see all points of interest. At the time, Geo. Washington was the wealthiest man in America. His estate being situated on the Potomac River about 15 miles south of DC, he was able to ship his farm and fishery products to other states and Europe.

Mount Vernon's four-acre Farm site explores George Washington’s role as a visionary farmer.

George Washington's estate features four separate gardens for guests to enjoy.

Not too far from Mount Vernon is James Madison's Montpelier, the central Virginia home of the author of the Constitution. Until 1984, private owners from the duPont family had overlaid the structure with "modern improvements." For the past 20 years, a foundation took over and has been slowly returning the estate to its original look—except, perhaps, for the riding-mower stripes on the lawn, which during Madison's time was kept trim by a herd of sheep. A kitchen garden and formal gardens in the French style are in stages of restoration. I toured Montpelier maybe 10 years ago when they had just ripped many of the interior walls down to the brick—it is much more developed now. The view of rolling hills descending to the horizon from the room where Madison wrote the Constitution is not to be missed!

James Madison's Montpelier

Thomas Jefferson's renowned Virginia home, Monticello, also features beautiful flower and vegetable gardens, fruit orchards and vineyards, if you can stand the recent woke alterations to the tour narratives:

Thomas Jefferson's Monticello Farm and Gardens

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

L.J.; Link for others that are interested in Probiotic pickles.

https://probioticscouncil.org/probiotic-pickles-the-benefits-and-recipe/

[Qiviut]

Some years ago, I had the pleasure of working on some of the trails in the Old-Growth Landmark Forest at Madison’s Montpelier. We were doing tread improvements & putting in erosion controls.

After our work, we were treated to a tour of the house, which at the time was under renovation. We also got to see the movie at the visitor’s center & walked around the garden(s). It was a bautiful day weather-wise, too - in total, a great experience.

I’ve seen the gardens at Monticello as well .... inspires you to want to “up” your garden game considerably at home! There was (and maybe still is) an arch covered in Hyacinth Bean Vines ... it used to be you could buy seeds at Monticello. We got some seeds from a friend who bought them there and have grown them on our place in years past.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

More on Fermented pickles. They list Raspberry leaves as a substitute for Grape leaves or Oak leaves for tannin to keep pickles crunchy. (I did not know this!)

https://fermenterskitchen.com/tannins-for-crunchy-fermented-pickles/

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Did you ever stock with crayfish to feed the perch?