Posted on 07/01/2024 6:30:55 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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lovely
I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a finch or any other kind of bird catch and eat a japanese beetle. If the doggone things taste like they smell I can’t imagine anything wanting to eat them.
That said, I’ve got a ton of finches that live around our property, and if they’ve learned to eat the stinking things it could explain why I’m no longer overrun with them.
Good Morning! :-)
Mrs. Augie and I picked a few wild blackberries yesterday evening. There weren’t enough for a cobbler so we just ate em right off the vine. There’s a nice patch of them back in the woods but I’m not sure if it’s worth fighting the ticks to get to it.
It’s too muddy to dig post holes so I guess today will be weed whacker day. I don’t like weed whacker day. lol
I’m going through garden withdrawals. We’ve been gone for almost two weeks and can only imagine what shape the garden is in. And the lawn which hasn’t been mowed.
I had lots of tomatoes and had just finished cutting the garlic scapes and finished a big snow pea harvest. I hope we had some decent rain. I expectthe weeds to have thrived, though.
I’m just praying God is protecting it as He has in the past.
Yeah, japanese beetles have a stench about them.
We have June beetle ‘hatches’ after rains on occasion. We have a crow family that hangs around our place & they seem to like eating June beetles. The crows are on the ground, hopping after the bugs, trying to catch them, which is pretty comical to watch.
June beetles (we get the green ones) are large, scarab type beetles so they would be pretty “crunchy” & I cannot imagine they would be very tasty, but then I am not a crow!
Good morning BipolarBob... same here. Weeds are my biggest issue and at 82 yrs and bad arthritis, eeks!!!...Thinking Container gardening in the future here.
Did some weeding yesterday. Between a wet Spring, me using overhead micro-sprinklers when I direct sowed some seed and an inch of rain a couple of nights ago, it was quite jungle like. I’m sticking to drip from now on and will start things indoors and put out seedlings instead of seeds.
Gotta pick some shisito peppers today and get the mushroom spawn started. Picked up a few more bags of manure + compost for that.
None of the salad greens are liking Summer, mainly because the summer bugs really like the greens. Will have to try again with some insect netting. The greens made it through the high 90s just fine and they’re calling for the 80s all week which would be even better, if the bugs didn’t already destroy them.
Lowe’s is no help. Only netting they have says, “Small 1/4 In holes in plastic netting prevents insect penetration”.
Finally getting really close with automating the linear actuator that I’ll be using to open/close the seed room window, which is basically bench testing for doing the same with tunnel sides. The actuator takes 6-7 seconds to open/close. Relays can be on/off/pulse with pulse being an on signal for a set time. 3.2 seconds puts it as 50% from either extent.
Had to do a workaround. The X-420 is the unit that reads the wind speed but it has no relays. It can read/write to other units over ethernet but the 3.2 second pulse won’t work, probably due to a lag over the ethernet. Finally figured out a more direct approach. The X-420 has digital outputs which is a 5 vdc signal. The new X-332 with 16 relays that I’m using to run the actuators, also has 16 digital inputs.
Connected a X-420 digital output signal to a X-332 digital input. Instantaneous communication.
Wind speed over ** mph turns on a X-420 output(tested with temp sensor but wind will work too)
Digital input on X-332 is used to pulse a relay on the X-332 for 3.2 seconds to extend the linear actuator half way
Of course it gets trickier. Wind over ** mph closes window or tunnel side half way. Wind under ** mph opens it fully again. Great, but it’s gusty here in hill country. I could end up with the sides opening/closing every 10 seconds if I’m not careful.
I need to learn the timer feature. Wind over ** mph starts timer countdown. When timer reaches zero, if wind is still over ** mph, close tunnel sides half way.
I don’t mean to butt in, but I’m 84 with advanced osteoporosis, and container gardening has been great for me for many years now. You might really like it, and no weeds!
Only hours old. These three had already nursed, but Mama Dog Taylor had to have an emergency C-Section to deliver 4 more puppies, three of which survived. We had to feed these three every few hours for a couple of days while Taylor recovered - and thank goodness she did! The 'Baby Daddy' did NOT show up to help!
Just a few days old, reunited with Mama Dog Taylor and the rest of the gang. Eyes still closed. Six survivors from a litter of eight, which is normal.
A few weeks in. They are fed, 'communally' so you can see if anyone is going to be aggressive about food. So far, so good!
Big excitement! Their first opportunity to dig into the Chewy pet food delivery. My Fed Ex Man thinks I'm nuts, but he's used to us and LOVES dogs. He's a Labrador Fan - and I've had three through the years.
We have four females and two males. Beau wants to keep the males. This is the larger of the two - 'Code Name' for now is 'Jigsaw.' We name them so we can identify them and keep tabs on who is smart about what, but don't necessarily train them to that name until later, as we don't know who we will be keeping. The smaller male WILL be keeping his 'Fur-ever' name, and that is 'Omaha.' Beau names his hunting dogs after American Indian Tribes.
The puppies weaned themselves amazingly fast - like at FOUR weeks. Taylor spent time away from them so we could dry her up as she has Black Bear hunting to do this Fall. ;) The puppies would pester her to some extent but she found a way around that. Good Girl, Taylor!
Temporary puppy names: Jigsaw, Male. Ohama, Male. Blaxter, Female. Spot, Female. Zee-Zee, Female. and Joker, Female. They're all named for identifying patterns in their fur. Zee-Zee has the same 'Zoro Stripe' on her rump as did her Uncle Yakama, Taylor's brother. They were both from a litter of seven I raised in 2017.
This is my life, now. They're VERY helpful in the garden. NOT!
Thanks!
Can cukes be started this late in Zone 7A?
“None of the salad greens are liking Summer, mainly because the summer bugs really like the greens.”
This season is DISGUSTING! You pick a head of Romaine and a thousand Earwigs fall out of it! YUCK! Box Elder Bugs are the WORST I’ve ever seen! I can’t hardly wait for the Japanese Beetles to show up. Ugh!
Hoping against HOPE that I can grow all of the crops I normally grow in the Spring, again in the Fall...if we ever dry out!
I have NEVER had so many Garden Failures as I have had this season. The DROUGHT of 2012 was EASY compared to this!
OK, I’m done, LOL! (For now!)
Great pictures thanks for posting. They look great. Good job being a foster mom.
We are having a challenge with a second groundhog. Got the first one in May and have not seen another until now. I got into the peas, even though I had chicken wire around the base for 3 feet. So I went into Tractor Supply and got another roll of that wire mesh I used for the broccoli cages. Speaking of which we have aa deer that came up and ate the tops of the broccoli leaves. Couldn’t get at any crowns or secondary growth. So I took the rest of the wire mesh after protecting the peas and covered the broccoli cages. Curses fouled again. Also put out 4 bars of irish spring I had in blackplastic dishes, the food ones you toss in the trash.
So far nothing else has been touches. Have picked lots of lettuce, about two gallons work of shishitos and they are just getting started. Our fist tomatoes are a new variety of cherry we tried. Artemis. they grow long clusters and when some got ripe - wow they are small. but loaded with flavor. We love them and will save some seed. We have about 20 tomato plants nothing has touched them. Healthy and not a single worm as usual. Lots of baby cukes which I will use nearly all for pickles. So far a very good year.
I think you may have missed your Window of Opportunity on the Cucumbers. :( Planting guides say May-June for Cucumber in Zone 7a.
HOWEVER - if you have a shaded spot that gets MORNING sun (East side of the house, barring any leafy trees that would block the sun) you could still try them in pots. :)
Or, hit the Farmer’s Market; cucumbers are like a nickle a-piece in High Season but you’ll be supporting a local Farmer! :)
Wisconsin grows SO MANY root crops - potatoes, onions, carrots - that I don’t bother to grow them. They’re always cheap and plentiful for me.
Do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are. :)
A combo of Timers and Counters. Both can be set to whatever arbitrary number I choose. If counter exceeds the limit of ** mph wind gusts while the timer is counting down, do something.
Create two pairs Timer/Counter one for too windy and one for no longer too windy.
Now that I know the components and the control logic better, I know what's needed and it's different than what I have. 🙄 Kind of expected but hands on is how I learn.
I can get by with what I have but eventually will resell some modules and buy some different ones.
AH ha.... so you can relate CatDancer!! LOL.. I walk with a walker and long for a cement walkway to some raised beds.
I did manage to weed the beds today but had to take an Aleve ASAP..lol...
And no.. you didn’t butt in!! LOL
The bugs are really liking water sources on every blade of grass or leaf or the ground most all of the time.
I haven’t had one tomato split yet so there’s that.
OH so sweet!!! My daughter raises Golden Retrievers. One of her moms just gave birth to 12 on July 4th! Another is due in several days. They are gorgeous!!!! Not sure of her website but I will find out.
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