Cukes are all done, (and canned) now it's on to the tomatoes and peppers - Bells, hot Cherries and Jalepenos are all ripe for pickin'.
Tomatoes are Early Girls and an un-named heirloom type - ugly but delicious.
I got all my garlic and most of my onions harvested and drying.
Hard to believe summer is racing by like it is.
We need to start working on splitting and stacking wood, but it’s been so stinking HOT!
We still desperately need rain. Local ponds are down a good foot. Not good for the critters who live in them.
Feral chickens love mangos... Eat them clean to the pit...
Fresh picked tomatoes, sliced gently cook in best olive oil w/
lots of fresh garlic, chili pepper bits, and a sprinkle of fresh mint.
Yay...August...101 today...too hot, but the cukes are growing fast. I have two plants in a hanging pot...as starts they went on vacation with us to Montana and back. They are hanging on an arbor to prevent grey diggers from eating them. So far so good, as long as I water them well during this high heat I may actually get some to eat this year. Tomatoe that vacationed with us doing “ok” but slow.
OK to add pepperoni, salami, etc.
For once, my tomatoes are growing well. :-) Planted from seed around late April / early May, courtesy of the generosity of my sister. She gave me some “Better Boy”, “Early Girl”, and “Abe Lincoln” out of her seed supply. Knocking on wood that at least a couple of each kind survive to harvest time.
I’ve become a big fan of (and unofficial local spokesman for) Diatomaceous Earth to deal with the blister beetles and grasshoppers. Seeing far, far fewer of them than usual, which is A-OK in my book.
I started an experiment with regrowing vegetables that I get from my local grocery store. I am currently growing green onions, radish, and garlic. I have gotten almost immediate regrow from the green onions and I see positive results from the others. All of this in less than a week.
I called my local radio garden show and was immediately scoffed at and told the quality of the product that I was growing was inferior and that I was wasting my time.
I would to hear from FReepers and what are your thoughts.
I’m in Florida.
My purple flowered queen crepe myrtle tree is spectacular.
Awwwww.... NUTS!
Our well pump has frozen up.
Luckily it rained a bit last night, so, the garden should be ok for a day.
Most of the year, the water table is only 20’ down or so, and probably half the year a lot less (in Spring it can literally be a foot down even a week after rain), but, this is a jet pump (2 pipes leading down) rig. IIRC the foot valve is about 35’ down.
The Drummond well pumps Harbor Freight has actually get quite good reviews for durability, but, they don’t have a jet pump version. Looks like I’ll be out some pretty serious $$ to not get a crap brand. These things have really gone up. Crap...
Well (pun intended!), at least it’s not mid-winter in a blizzard, like the last time we had a well pump quit.
BTW, I was thinking of getting a hand pump for emergency backup. Is there anything out there under $50 that will pump from as deep as 35 ft. or so, noting that usually the actual water table is much closer to the surface (positive pressure @ foot valve)?
More hot and dry mixed in with hot and wet here in Central Missouri this past week. It’s an unusual summer here when you have to mow the grass once a week to keep it from turning into a hayfield.
The tomato plants are acting like they want to do something. I’ve been getting enough to have a tomato sammich or two every day. Mrs. Augie’s cukes are going very well at the moment. She’s got half a dozen jars of lacto-ferments processing now. Zukes and yellow squash are producing steadily as well. I even managed to get over the entire garden with the weed whacker so it doesn’t look like a totally neglected mess out there.
I need to give the sweet corn another shot of nitrogen today, hit the toms with some Grow-More 10-52-10, and give everything a good soaking.
We finished Nephew’s Sprinter van last weekend. He took off for the east coast on Tuesday to grab a load and start getting paid. With that task accomplished it’s time to clean up the mess in my workshop. I got a good start on that yesterday after work. I’ll finish that this morning then pull the boat out and give it a bath. Mrs. Augie has been wanting to go for a boat ride so that’s what we’re going to do tomorrow.
My tomatoes are still doing pretty well, and I’ve got more Sugar Baby watermelons than you could shake a stick at. The neighbors’ kids are looking forward to the harvest, which I hope won’t be too long from now.
One thing I’ve started to see is one or two little black caterpillar-type things on top of the soil in one of my containers. They’re about 1-1/2 inches long in all, and segmented. Anyone have any ideas?
Whew, dodged a bullet earlier this evening: 70 mph winds, various damage from that, and 1-1/4” hail, just to our northwest. Here our winds only topped out at around 55 mph, and we got about 2-1/4” of rain in a bit under an hour. Plus a lot of cloud to ground lightning — the power went out briefly a few times, but never for long. I think the longest outage for us was a couple minutes. But, again, not too far away, some people still don’t have power back on.
Round 2 gets here around 4 a.m., maybe. Supposedly it’ll be less of a wind / hail event, but more of a rain dump.
Another new question:
Has anyone here used “Vulkem Max” caulk as an adhesive in really tough applications? Mine is one of the toughest — repairing shoes that are otherwise more than good enough for work / yard shoes, but the soles or heels are starting to come loose. What with most shoes and boots even from supposedly reasonably good brands seeming to fall prey to this, a really good high flexibility, high adhesion adhesive would be great. I’ve used “Shoe Goop”* but results are so-so. I suspect the synthetic materials in a lot of shoes, and boots’ soles are tough to get superior adhesion to. I used to get a glue called “Moyen 3065” from the place I worked — it’s absolutely great, but my old workplace bit the dust 15 years ago. (Poor management and foresight by the owner — we needed at least 5x the marketing effort!) 3065 is sort of like a super-duper Weldwood (solvent based contact cement that can be used as a wet set glue too and given a couple days to cure — really, a week before use is best.)
Strangely(?), the best light boots I’ve ever had (still have) were some Wally World “Brahma” boots. They have to be over 30 years old and still haven’t failed, although: A) The soles are completely worn smooth, so forget about any “traction”, and, B) My feet are just simply bigger than they were 30 years ago, so, the Brahma’s are too tight! I can wear them for 30 minutes at most...
Another pair bought about 20 years ago lasted a few years and then the sole on one started detaching.
Anyway, “Vulkem Max” looks pretty interesting - might be worth a try?
*Shoe Goop” appears to be the same stuff as “”Through The Roof” roof repair caulk / adhesive, and is very close to if not the same as E6000. All have some Xylene or Toluene in them, I believe, which helps with adhesion to plastics like polypropylene, though as plasticizers work their way out of the plastic over time, the adhesion degrades.
Thanks!