Weekly Garden Thread - July 23-29, 2022

July 23, 2022 | Diana in WI/Greeneyes in Memoriam

[SovereignJ]

My cousin has a farm market and the visitors from eastern Europe always choose the ugly tomatoes because they have more flavor.

[metmom]

Some of my tomatoes have some kind of disease. I’m not sure it’s blight as the potatoes mare not affected and most of the tomatoes are not.

I have started harvesting garlic yesterday. I do the plants as they are ready. The plants were some of the smaller plants, but I was impressed with the size of the bulbs. If the bigger plants produce bulbs proportionately bigger, it’s going to be a fantastic crop.

Once the garlic is up, I’ll put in some Brussel Sprouts, turnips, and beets.

[Qiviut]

I made round wire cages some years ago out of the wire panels used for reinforcing concrete and at the time, I thought they were the solution to my tomato ‘cage’ issue - the old ‘funnel’ variety cages just weren’t working very well. The round ones have been used for at least 5 years until this year, when I cut 2 of them up & I’m using the ‘half round’ pieces as support for tying up my Celebrities. So far so good - really happy with the arrangement. I saw this article & took the idea of trying a not-round cage from it:

https://oldworldgardenfarms.com/2020/05/10/stake-tomato-plants/

The issues I had with the round cages were two-fold:

- Although I constantly pulled tomato branches through/out of the round cylinder, I still ended up with a ‘column’ of dense growth inside the cage ... too thick to be healthy.

- The branches that were sticking out of the cage got heavy & then would bend over the wire. The bends were sharp & cut off the nutrition to the branch below the bend.

My tomatoes are grown for my folks since I am “allergic” to nightshades. I have cut back this year to 2 Celebrities & 1 Sungold so we’re not overrun with produce. I used to have about 8 plants & I canned tomatoes & made a lot of salsa for gifts. I guess I’ve gotten lazy & this year in particular, was a terribly late start due to knee injury/surgery so the garden is very limited.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

KC;

Real Cajun Recipes

This is on the first page; they show at least 6 pages of recipes so be certain to click on "Show more pages" at the bottom.

Our Figs Recipes

You might have to sign up at the site to view these, but there are some good recipes and you have a lot of free figs!

Ourfigs.com is a website dedicated to fig cultivation. https://www.figdatabase.com is another. It might help you determine what type of fig you have. Look at Celeste fig. It is an old southern favorite. There is another

Here is an old online book which has some recipes in the index. (I have not looked at them!)

USDA Edible Figs their Culture and Curing

Here is an interesting fig tree grown on a Virginia Barrier island you might consider adding to your orchard! (Out of stock this year!)

Hog Island Fig

(Off to water while its still in the 80s!)

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Yes, I have had the same problem. Either there is a small rabbit hidden somewhere in my garden, or there is a hole in the fence that I have not found, or its a squirrel or maybe a possum. They ruin the low hanging ripe fruit. The best solution is to out produce them.

If you have some extra chicken wire surround your tomato plants!.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

S. J They say that red cedar oil repels japanese beetles. Maybe spray with Neem and red cedar oils with some detergent as a surfactant. Test it on your plants first to see if they burn! I found it somewhat effective on my plum trees. (My plum trees which between the low winter temperatures and high summer heat here which already do not do well, would be totally skeletonized by the Japanese Beetles if I did not use a garden fabric bag.)

Door County, the Thumb.... I got lost on the corner of Cana Island road and Cana Island road for a couple of minutes once (Thats what the sign post at the cross road said!) Cherry trees! Al Johnson’s! Goats on the roof and Swedish Waitresses! Door County has and old meteor strike someone down toward Green Bay!

[Bon of Babble]

We are battening down here as well (SoCal) - heat, lots of it and dry dry air. Winds will start up in the next few weeks making it worse.

Got my water bill yesterday and was pleased to see I'd used less water than I did June-July of last year - still in Tier 1. Pulling out the lawns was the correct thing to do when we are under water restriction.

I am harvesting grapes.

These are so old that I've forgotten the variety:

And roses are starting to come back:

Hibiscus too even though I'm battling wretched white flies (again):

The last of my apples (they don't like the heat). We made an apple pie and it came out great:

My helpers were busy hiding in the house with the air conditioning.

[Sequoyah101]

No, no chipmunks thank you though they might bring the cats alive until they bore of them. Just north of here about 70 miles or less there are many but not here. Ditto with ground hogs which we never saw growing up but are now pretty common here. They like cooler locations so with all the global warming I don’t quite understand them moving southward.

[left that other site]

It’s been really hot, and we are under water restrictions, so a lot of my herbs and flowers have died.

But they are mostly perennials, so there’s always next year!

[Sequoyah101]

I have done similar but leaving the cattle panel as one section along the length of the row and promise that my garden is full of weeds and grass unlike the one pictured.

I have also bent the panels in an arch planting the tomatoes on the inside and covering the arch with shade cloth.

Tying the plants is a pain so I opted for something simpler than that.

What I have done this year seems to work well. My cages are about 18” in diameter or so. Tomatoes seem to branch well enough.

I am planning raised beds for at least part of the garden next year hoping that helps with watering and weeds. I’ll plant Okra and beans on the ground though. I am conjuring a scheme for hot houses over the beds, maybe a cold frame but storage of those things is always a problem. Just the greenhouse may be best.

[GaltAdonis]

We used to have raccoons here also, but they have moved on - or died.
But we still have some skunks, and the foxes which I suspect may be rabid.
A few months ago I heard an owl at night - but they are very rare here now.

So it's deer and chipmunks for us, mostly.

[Qiviut]

My garden is all in raised beds. That will help some with the weeds.

Last year, I had the absolutely cleanest beds I’ve ever had! We have a lot of large, mature (80-90 yo) pine trees & in the fall, there are lots of pine needles on the ground. The last 2 years, I have started raking them up & putting them in large trash bags (30 gallon), then storing them in our pole barn out of the rain. I also dumped a couple of utility trailer loads in the walkways between my raised beds & just pitchforked them straight onto the beds as mulch in the spring.

So in some of the beds (tomato in particular), I work the soil, put in any fertilizer I’m using, plant my tomatoes, then put down cardboard from boxes I’ve saved & cover with a thick layer of pine needles. No weeds .... maybe a stray one right around the stems where the mulch (box/needles) doesn’t cover. When I remove the pine needles in the fall to clean up the bed, the cardboard is almost gone & there are plenty of earthworms under what cardboard is remaining.

If you don’t want to use cardboard, but still have access to pine needles, I found that mulching with them between my rows of zinnias kept the weeds down considerably - also used in my herb bed. Since the needles don’t decompose very much, I don’t seem to have a problem with them making the beds ‘acidic’ (which someone else was worried about).

In the fall, when I take the old pine mulch off the beds, I put it in the walkways between the beds .... those walkways are a lot more weed-free than where there are no needles.

[Alas Babylon!]

I have a lot of this kind of growth.

I use tomato spirals and tomato towers.

Back two months ago, I got a lot of suckers but didn’t remove them. They had green tomatoes on them! How could I; amirite?

I do this every year.

Now, it’s just a jungle of growth, and I can’t get in and harvest them all. It’s so dense I can’t even see the ripe ones without stepping on them.

I’m a sucker for them suckers.

[CapnJack]

Would be nice to have a cat or two, but my wife is allergic and outside cats don’t last long with the coyoties and Fisher Cats running around.

[Psalm 73]

"Once the garlic is up,..."

We pulled ours three weeks ago, (central Connecticut) they are hanging up in our basement. Just finished the last of the scapes yesterday, mmmmm.

Great rebound year for zuchinni - we are swimming in them.
Green beans are being picked daily.
Have picked grape tomatoes, but the rest are week or so away.

Same with peppers, yellow squash, and cukes, another week or so.
Getting too hot for lettuce, they're done until september.

Strawberries, gooseberries, and raspberries have come and gone - flash-frozen to wait for "Jam Day"!

[Sequoyah101]

We don’t try to live off of our garden but in season and with a little local farmer’s market produce that is what we mostly end up eating. The garden is now about 40 x 60. I’ve had much larger and used the Extension Service planting guide but it turns out to be enough to feed an army or keep us canning and freezing through mid-July if we plant according to the time guide. This year it was too wet and cool so we ended up planting late and all of it on just about one day, never a really good plan.

I’m wondering how many square feet of raised beds you use? I am thinking of about 250 square feet 16” high using concrete blocks. My arrangement would be a total of 64” wide with 48” useful and 16’ long consisting of four beds plus a concrete block compost pit that I can reach with the tractor.

I too have pine trees but not so old and am concerned about acidity which I fight beneath them.

Not all zone 7s are equal of course. It only speaks to the temperatures. We get plenty of rain through the year most times but it is in groups of bunches in the growing season.

[Capt. Tom]

I was drivng through Norwell Ma , yesterday and spotted a lone well-trimmed bush in the middle of a persons property.
The only deliberately grown bush of this species that I have ever seen, it was a bitter sweet vine, (Celastrus scandens).

My property is filled with this invasive vine, growing 55 feet up on one of the trees in my backyard, as well as growing everywhere else.

The person who has that vine as a maintained shrub, has to keep his eye out for that vine taking root amongst his other plantings. - Tom

[cherry]

it is hot and dry here in eastern Washington, which is our normal....thankfully we have enough water to keep our plants happy...

since it was a cool and wet June, gardens are behind the curve...

I've got lots of big tomato and zucchini plants..

I've started cutting back on the tomatoes to get the green ones to do something and my winter squash plants have very small fruits growing so I think I'll give them a haircut too....

we've enjoyed lettuce, zucchini, raspberries, dill(in salads) and will have some beans in a day or two....

[redryder_90]

Diana in Wisconsin; All

Got a sick tomato plant (beefsteak) ...it was bought at a chain store with a sweet cherry tomato plant. Both were just fine and starting to blossom and have little greens and then all of a sudden, the beefsteak has turned yellow and wilty :(

Have checked for bugs, worms, leaves have no fungus or spots.

Any ideas or help would be appreciated. I sure hope I don’t have to pull it out and or remove the cherry tomato too if it gets sick!

[Qiviut]

I have:

2 beds that are 4' x 8' (wood - 10" deep)
2 beds that are 4' x 10' (wood - 10" deep)
4 beds that are 3' x 6' (galvanized metal - 12" deep)

The wooden beds are my main 'veggie' beds. Year before last, the galvanized beds were majorly on sale at Northern Tool ($20 off/bed) & I was looking for beds to use for flowers, without having to use the veggie beds. The galvanized beds are also outside of my fencing, so anything growing in them is subject to deer, crows, skunks digging, old dog next door digging, etc. This year, I have my zinnias (2 beds) & herbs in the galvanized beds. I am going to put some fall plants in the 4th bed - small enough I should be able to protect it (sunflower bed plastic mesh will be coming off from around it soon - can use it on the galvanized bed).

The sunflower bed is 4' x 10 (wood) - that's all we use it for - my dad loves sunflowers. I could fence it & use it for veggies, but it's in the yard & closer to the woods & the squirrels are bold enough to go there (just tore up the one volunteer sunflower that was growing) - my veggie garden is in a field & the squirrels don't venture out that far in the open (we have hawks - quite a few!).

For fencing, some years ago I took PVC pipe (10' length), pvc 'corners' & made fencing using some plastic 'wire'/mesh that my brother found on a place he'd just bought. I use zip ties to attach it to the pipe. One pipe, cut in half made top/bottom & I got 3 sides out of another pipe. So far, shockingly, it has kept the deer out - although they could easily jump the fence, they are jumping into a very contained space & they don't like that. It definitely keeps the crows, rabbits, skunks & old dog out! The zip ties need replacing at least yearly - the heat/cold makes them brittle & I do not pay for the more expensive UV resistant ones. I get bags of them at Harbor Freight fairly cheap. Replacement is 'staggered' so I usually have about 4 per panel to replace at a time - sometimes I just add another if I see one that looks like it might break in the near future.

Veggie beds, fencing, round tomato cages with row fabric for sun shades. This was before galvanized beds added:

Galvanized beds - first year last year using them: