BS: Gardening, 2009

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Bobert
Date: 12 Aug 09 - 08:24 AM

Hydrangea blooms: Wait at least a couple more weeks, Janie, for the Anna Belles... The Oak leaf have allready turned and you can probably cut them now... Back to the A-Belle... Might just wait until they are a color you like and then cut them, bring nside and hang upsidedown until dry...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 12 Aug 09 - 08:19 PM

The heat wave left right behind Kendall.

Fall garden catalogs arriving daily.

I was cogitating, Maggie, on how much later you can start a second crop of tomatoes than can we can here, given that our climate temps are actually pretty similar. I wonder if it has to do with day length (and possibly an earlier cooling of average night time tempuratures than do you.)

Tomatoes significantly slow production here by mid to late September, well before first frost.   Ditto peppers, cukes, and some varieties of dahlia.   You are enough further south that your fall day lengths are likely enough longer to perhaps make a difference. Over the years, I've noticed a number of plants that love both sun and heat decrease significantly in production here long before first frost, but after night temps begin to routinely drop into the low 60's to low 50's, even when day temps stay in the 80's to upper 70's.

Whaddaya'llthink?

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: maire-aine
Date: 12 Aug 09 - 09:41 PM

I checked the ground under my tiger lilies, and found that the bulbils are beginning to drop by themselves already. I cleared away some of the mulch and poked them into the ground about an inch. We'll find out whether they sprout in the spring.

Maryanne

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Aug 09 - 12:35 AM

The main thing about night time temps that affect tomatoes here is that if it doesn't drop below 80 degrees at night they won't pollinate. This has been an unusual summer. We usually end up with several weeks where it stays that hot, but after a couple of really hot weeks in early July, it has been cooler. And rainy at times.

My answer to hot temps is to go around with the blossom set spray and a cotton swab, and touch each flower. They tend to get pollinated by going to all of the flowers, but just in case, the liquid on the swab will trick the plant to thinking it has been pollinated.

I tried some of my chard tonight--it has reached the point where it's kind of bitter. I'll start some new this week. It's had a good run.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Bobert
Date: 13 Aug 09 - 08:49 AM

We're getting tired of some of our garden... We put in a half row of Roma Beans and the sumabiches have been cranking out 2 1/2 pounds a day... We've frozen 10 pounds and given away another 20... Time to pull them up...

Cukes ain't far behind... The one we planted the 1st of June is crankin' out 10 per day... The one we put in the middle of July is just about ready to produce so... Bye-de-bye, plat #1... No time to make relish... Plus, we still have 7 jars from '07...

Gonna dig taters soon as it dires out a little and till up the tater patch for fall crops...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: maeve
Date: 13 Aug 09 - 09:24 AM

Meanwhile we have Purple Gem rhodies in bloom for the second time this year. That is a first in our experience!

maeve

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Bobert
Date: 16 Aug 09 - 08:26 PM

Lousy potato harvest on Friday... Too wet a spring and put the chicken amnure on too late which clodded on top of the soil which even after tilling didn't fluff out like it's supposed to... Oh well, maybe Mr. Clifford will sell us a bushel 'cause that's about all we got out of our garden...

Our lirope is doing very well... The majestic blooms have fanned and seperated... The Christmas blooms are perfect as are the Monroe White... Great not having to share our gardens with deer... We haven't had these blooms since moving from Wes Ginny... Might of fact, the hydrangeas are blooming their heads off...

Unfortuanately, so are the weeds... The price to pay to have no deer... I had forgotten how many weeds those miserable creature ate in addition to our gardens... Oh well...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 16 Aug 09 - 09:54 PM

Had planned to start doing some serious digging today, but ended up with two good excuses. 1. The clay is too hard and dry and it would have ruined the soil structure, and 2. For some reason uncle Arthur showed up with a vengance and stayed all day - still here as a matter of fact. Hands won't close, knuckles, shoulders, knees and hips all with sharp pains, and back hurts from stem to stern, with muscle spasms, especially in in the neck and shoulders.

Don't mean to whine - like a lot folks, I generally just accept arthritic pain and mostly ignore it, but today has been unusually bad.

It was also a good excuse to not work out in the heat and humidity.

I really, really would like to get at least 1 raised bed in soon to plant kale, turnips and salad greens for fall. If need be, though, I guess I can do pots again.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Aug 09 - 12:03 AM

Janie, get some golden raisins and a good brand of gin. Pour the gin over the raisins in a container with a good lid, and every day eat a teaspoon of the raisins. You can let the gin evaporate if you want or not, they work as well. It works out to about 9 raisins a day, but is supposed to be very effective on arthritis. This is one of the home remedies from the Gradens on NPR (People's Pharmacy).

I'm bringing in a few cherry tomatoes every day; the plants have sprawled all over the place and seem to be doing fine. The exhausted plants from other types have been pulled out of their midst. I was going to peg a couple of branches of the cherries to grow new plants and rearrange the bed a little, but I think I'll leave them all alone. I put the new super fantastic tomatoes in different parts of the garden.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Aug 09 - 01:57 PM

I found an old purple onion in the back of a drawer in the fridge that had sent out big green sprouts. I peeled it down to those sprouts and for the heck of it poked them out in the garden. We'll see if anything grows from them. :)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Bobert
Date: 17 Aug 09 - 07:50 PM

Uncle Arthur is our Mr. Clifford, Janie... Stays all day following us around watching us work...

The P-Vine made me my 1st BLT (turkey bacon)of the season today... Yummy...

Anyone have an almanac for plantin' fall crops??? Our's is missing...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Aug 09 - 12:39 AM

No, but my fall tomato plants are looking very nice and are putting out flowers. My cherry tomatoes are still looking good from summer and though they're sprawled all over the place, are still producing.

What shall I do with these corn stalks when the cobs are finished?

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 18 Aug 09 - 08:16 AM

Tree daturas

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: maeve
Date: 18 Aug 09 - 08:43 AM

SRS Corn stalks may be cut and used as ornaments. I prefer to grind them up as soil amendment/compost material. They are also used as feed for cattle when they're still green. I leave the roots in the soil. They decompose over time, and help hold the soil in place. Plant around them when you replant the area.

m

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Aug 09 - 11:03 AM

I've seen corn stalks bundled together and used as Halloween ornaments. I don't have any cattle to feed (they're still green). I'll try leaving the roots in, that's a good idea.

Brought in a half-dozen eggplant this morning and photographed some interesting bugs on a plant leaf. The plants aren't as healthy in this spot; it's a new garden area, so I need to really work on the soil amendments and drainage for next year. I'll build it up this fall.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Aug 09 - 10:39 PM

Mudcat's own potter Guy Wolff is featured in Martha Stewart's blog today. I've been waiting all day for Mudcat to come back up to post this, but I think it will still be available at her blog.

April 18, 2009.

Here's the album first page--she posted 43 photos of his place and his work!

Even more exciting than that, she says that his pottery is featured in the September issue of Martha Stewart Living!

I'll start a new thread for this.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 19 Aug 09 - 09:46 PM

Dry, dry, dry.

Been moving the hose around at 1/2 hour intervals ever since I got home tonight. We are poised on the edge of official drought again here.

Haven't been watering the daylilies and they are showing it. Hoping Hurricane Bill will pass close enough to the coast to bring some showers, but it is doubtful.

Hope you New Englanders and folks in the Canadian Maritimes are keeping a weather eye out.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Aug 09 - 01:01 AM

Got some great photos of bugs in the garden this morning. Then realized the memory card wasn't in the darned camera. . . I got a few more shots in the sunset light, and maybe something tomorrow, but I have a lot to do. Darn!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Aug 09 - 11:13 PM

It has been hot and humid and rain is predicted for east of here. I expect to water tomorrow.

My front lawn needed mowing and the back will get it tomorrow. Normally this time of year the grass has stopped growing with the extreme heat. Right now the rain has passed, the heat is here, and we have to go out in it to mow. No fun.

Fall tomatoes are looking good, cherry tomatoes plugging along. I took a bag of tomatoes and eggplant to work today. They never refuse free produce!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 20 Aug 09 - 11:15 PM

We were the recipients a series of quick and furious showers this afternoon and early this evening. Came down too fast to have lasting effect, but welcomed in the short term.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Alice
Date: 20 Aug 09 - 11:33 PM

Well, as I said a looong time ago here, harvest is very late in our zone.

That means I've just started seeing green bush beans forming. Only one bean has grown large enough to pick. It was delish.

alice

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Aug 09 - 12:09 PM

I woke at about 6:30 this morning to the thunder in the distance, and by 7 we had a downpour. I wish I'd thought to go pick up my newspaper when I first heard the thunder. I'm sure a lot washed off, but a lot soaked in. My garden is very happy this morning!

I picked a few cherry tomatoes and peppers and three beautiful eggplants. Those plants are starting to look better as they put out new leaves and drop the earlier ones. I had let the tomatoes spread into the eggplants, and when the tomatoes got mites, they spread. I always try to give space between plants, but they always grow beyond where I expect them to. Next year I'll try to space them more.

Have you seen any of the information about "keyhole" gardens? Maybe this is something you could manage if you have one sunny spot, Janie. I'm running out the door, but I'll post what I found if you don't come up with the Newsweek article that published last week.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 21 Aug 09 - 11:43 PM

I'll look, Maggie, probably tomorrow.

We have a second generation of cicadas singing now. This group sings loudest late afternoon and early evening. The first batch started in earnest at dusk and continued until the wee hours of morning, when the volume faded a bit. I assume they are different species or subspecies. There was a bit of a lull in the action for 2-3 weeks, or at least a decrease in volume. The current chorus is as loud as the late night singers at their peak, but start earlier, and begin to fade a bit by late night.

Not certain, but katydids may be just beginning to join in the nocturnal chorus.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Bobert
Date: 22 Aug 09 - 08:03 AM

We have a bumper crop of banana peppers... Anyone have a decent recipe for canning them??? Be nice to have some picklin outta the process, too... Maybe some heat???

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Aug 09 - 02:04 AM

I don't have as many sweet banana peppers as last year. They seem to perk up in autumn and I get a lot more then. The plants are quite large.

I slice and freeze them.

We did a birthday lunch today, then we all ended up in the driveway and into the gardens. Poking around in the corn I found another ear with "corn smut," ugly large fungus-filled kernel's. Moonglow tells me (after researching via Wikipedia) that this is a delicacy in Mexico. Eww. Like eating cancer. . .

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Aug 09 - 10:20 AM

I have to run to the feed store and get a syringe today to inject BT into my squash stems. See if that will knock out the worms.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Alice
Date: 23 Aug 09 - 11:54 AM

The raspberries were loaded this year, a very abundant crop.
Not so much the bush green beans.

But, a surprising volunteer from the bird feeder seeds that came up in a container of dirt that was on the deck, a very big millet plant with huge seed heads... just waiting to see how well it ripens and when the birds find it.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Maryrrf
Date: 23 Aug 09 - 01:12 PM

Maggie don't be afraid to give cuitlacoche a try. It tastes kind of like a smoky mushroom. It is indeed considered a delicacy in Mexico and I had it several times when I used to travel there on business. I also had a couple of other Aztec delicacies, such as escamoles which are basically ant eggs, and fried maguey worms . The ant eggs and worms didn't taste too bad (we made tacos out of them) but that evening I became violently ill, so I don't think I'd eat them again. I did not try fried or chocolate covered grasshoppers, which are also available in Mexico.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Maryrrf
Date: 23 Aug 09 - 01:35 PM

By the way is there anything that more defines the taste of summer than red ripe watermelon. I had a lot of melon this year and I still haven't gotten tired of it. Munching on some now!

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Aug 09 - 03:08 PM

Learn something new every day!

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Bobert
Date: 23 Aug 09 - 08:14 PM

There is a reason that that we don't have bug farms...

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: maeve
Date: 24 Aug 09 - 06:23 AM

Late Blight has shown up in our area, including some of our plants. We'll be pulling and bagging the plants, then burning them to reduce the spread.

maeve

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Bobert
Date: 24 Aug 09 - 08:05 AM

We took out our Roma Beans yesterday... If it doesn't rain today, I'll till up the space for fall crops this evening... Also dug a srtay potato from last year... Ugliest white taters I think I've ever seen... Look like Three Mile Island taters... lol...

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Aug 09 - 04:40 PM

Who cares what they look like, how do they taste?

I'm in the stage of pulling, transplanting, replanting. I'll put some chard in this week, for over the fall and winter.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Bobert
Date: 24 Aug 09 - 05:06 PM

Don't know how they taste, Magz... They are still hardenin' off... Prolly ready to come in by tonight...

Came home early and tilled the old tater patch and so we're ready to put in our brocolli seedlings and plant out fall seeds... Hot here... Pushin' 90... Wore me out tillin'... Think I'll chill fir awhile...

Oh yeah, we have scale and lace bugs problems on some of the plants at the garden center so we quarenteened all the affected plants and sprayed them with insectica; soap today and ended up with several customers and had a purdy big sales day... Who would have thunk that???

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 24 Aug 09 - 06:01 PM

Growing many fall crops here is a bit dicey. Kale and turnips always do well, and green onions. Baby lettuce greens might do ok, depends on when the soil temperatures cool down enough for germination. Broccoli struggles in the late summer and early fall heat, but if it makes it through that, will do ok.

Part of the reason I may have had trouble with fall lettuce is that my garden didn't get nearly as sun in the fall as in early spring. Our large pecan tree leafed out late, and also shed very late in the season.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Aug 09 - 12:36 AM

Hopefully you'll at least get some pecans! We all love them, they grow so well in Texas. My dogs will kill for a pecan on the ground and eat them shell and all.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 25 Aug 09 - 07:01 AM

Alas, the pecan was at the old house.

My mom, the big Christmas baker, counted on me to keep her supplied. She is heart-broken;>)

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Aug 09 - 08:23 PM

I cut down the corn stalks this afternoon and set them aside to dry. Maybe they'll be useful in a decorative fashion? Clearing those gives me room to put in another fall crop. I'll replace the soaker hose in that area first, it sprung enough of a leak that I had to turn it off (I had two that were attached to a siamese fitting and would drag the hose to it every couple of days).

Looks like we have a chance of rain tonight.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 26 Aug 09 - 08:35 PM

i ran into a gardening friend this morning and she has recently noticed flat head worms in her garden. Their spread into this immediate neck of the woods is quite recent. Not much information available on them that I could find. They apparently eat earthworms, but also slugs. Dave's garden has a bunch of posts, most neutral and a few negative, but no real information regarding whether they should be considered friend or foe in the garden.

Maggie, I'm guessing you have them. Any thoughts or information?

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Aug 09 - 09:57 PM

Those are the planaria (aka planarian) that you dissected in ninth grade biology, and they are not good for the garden. They're introduced, and if you find one, don't squash or cut it because it just becomes that many new ones. Seal it in plastic and throw it in the trash, or spray it with orange oil and let it shrivel and melt away.

Land Planarian from the dirtdoctor.com site.

Planaria reproduction.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Aug 09 - 01:46 PM

I woke to a gentle rain, about 1/4 inch.

I rescued a toad out of the dogs' wading pool. I guess I can't give them credit for problem solving--I've been putting a couple of bricks in the water as a way for critters to get out of the water even if they can't get out of the pool, but this week we've had a gecko drown in a water pan (a dutch oven we found down in the creek when Mudcatter Marion was in town for a visit) and this toad in the pool was in desperate shape when I pulled him out. But then, he might just have been a little stiff because the water cooled overnight.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Janie
Date: 27 Aug 09 - 11:20 PM

Will cut and start drying oregano and basil tomorrow evening. Should have done this with the oregano 6-8 weeks ago. Even well past bloom, however, I figure it will be more potent and flavorful once dried than what I might otherwise buy in the store. Having trouble using enough fresh basil to keep it cut back to prevent budding, so it time to start drying. Have frozen an ice tray or two of pesto, but will also freeze some basil, stems and all, to make pesto this winter.

Had good success with drying some of the mophead hydrangea blooms.   Also got a few dried heads of the native hydrangea to dry green, but the timing is apparently a bit more critical with them than with the mopheads.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Aug 09 - 07:44 PM

Janie,

What is your pesto recipe? And how do you freeze your basil? It is my experience that freezing any herb is tantamount to freeze-drying them. To keep the coriander/cilantro flavor I want for beans I put it in a pie pan, pour a little boiling water over it to wilt the leaves, then freeze the whole thing. I pull out my block of ice and chip off enough for whatever I'm using it in. I want to make pesto, I've picked up a couple of recipes, but the more information the better.

I've been picking and drying oregano off and on all summer, I trim off any flowers or seed heads and then dry the leaves so I don't have to sort it out later. The basil went to seed but I've had great luck cutting branches and giving them to people only the have to plant grow back new great looking branches very quickly. And of course it is seeding itself in the garden and I have plants all over. (I love it!) I was over at the ex's house last weekend and it smelled strongly of oregano. I've been sending these herbs home with him and he has basil, oregano and rosemary drying all over the kitchen.

I think that for all of the time I've been a gardener, one of the things I will never get tired of is that there is usually enough to share, and it's so nice to be able to send people home with fresh grown things that they really appreciate receiving. Or to be talking to someone in the yard and be able to reach over and pick a nice tomato or squash or something and send them on their way. I'm thinking about taking up the practice I read about somewhere (maybe here) of planting something down by the street so people can help themselves from that plant as they walk by. If no one picks it, I'll harvest it, but tomatoes or peppers, I think they'd go quickly and they're easy to pick (eggplant have such tough stems you practically destroy the plant if you don't have a blade of some sort with you). What do you think? I already know that people regularly pick twigs of rosemary off of the bush I have growing next to the street in my front yard.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Aug 09 - 02:05 PM

I did a little foliar feeding and dosed the tomatoes with BT--after our heavy rain I'm sure the last batch washed off. I'm picking eggplants and cherry tomatoes these days. I have a huge crop of basil so will make pesto.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Bobert
Date: 29 Aug 09 - 05:38 PM

We've had a bumper crop of tomatoes this year... Probably the chicken manure... Anyway, we've put up 14 quarts of marinara sauce and today put up 19 pints of V-8 juice...

Still not much rain here so the oscillator goes from dawn to dusk...

Ready for winter...lol...

Actually, there's plenty of gardening yet to be done before winter... Lotta weeding around a healing bed that we put in that is growing out azalea cuttings and boxwood cuttings... The weeds are growing in the mulch itself... Easy to pull but geeze...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Maryrrf
Date: 30 Aug 09 - 01:04 PM

I cleared half my garden, where the squash and cucumbers were, and fertilized it, then tilled it. The weather seems to have cooled off a little, it's only in the 80's today. I guess it's time to put in the fall stuff like lettuce, collards, carrots, radishes, etc. I'm still getting okra, eggplant (made another batch of babaganoush last night), tomatoes, melons, and peppers, so I'll leave that section for a few more weeks. The cantaloups produced, then didn't do anything, but now they're producing again so looks like they got a second wind.

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 Aug 09 - 12:15 PM

I'm going to start onions from seed along one soaker hose that will stay in place over the fall, in case it is needed. They'll do fine on their own over the winter and will be ready by spring.

Other stuff also, but I need to decide when I'm going to start reshaping this new bed. I'm going to add dirt and make it into a truly raised bed.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: Bobert
Date: 31 Aug 09 - 08:42 PM

Maryrrf,

I used to have a garden when I lived in Richmond and had eggplant and tomatoes well into October... Also peppers of all varieties...

We have lettuce pokin' up and our brocolli has doubled in size since last week...

We've got a black squrish beetele on the limas and think he's eatin' bean beetles 'cause we don't see too many so we'll just leave well enough alone and hope they fill out... Limas are my favorite fresh bean outta the garden...

Went into my local deli Sunday to pick up a few sandwiches while the P-Vine and her sister had the kitchen clogged up with making yet more tomato sauce and was talkin' with my buddy who owns it and mentioned that I have an abundance of tomatoes.... Bottom line, I'm dropping off 20 or so pounds tomorrow in exchange for a couple lunches for me and the P-Vine... I love barterin'...

Down in the 50's tonight here in Page Co., Va... Yezzir... Good sleepin' weather...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Gardening, 2009
From: maeve
Date: 18 Sep 09 - 10:19 AM

Refresh... I'll post when I have more time.

maeve