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BS: Gardening 2010
Related thread:
BS: Composting (38)
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: maeve Date: 11 Jul 10 - 10:44 AM I've posted a few photos on the Mudcat Gardeners' page. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: Janie Date: 10 Jul 10 - 10:02 PM I love bleeding hearts. They are early bloomers here in the mid-south. I had to hunt for enough shade for them at the old place. When time and money permits me to develop the beds under the trees, I expect to have large drifts of them in spring. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: Bobert Date: 10 Jul 10 - 08:34 PM We have both white and pink bleeding hearts but they have come and gone... Like you, Janie, we have picklin' cukes by the bucket full but the Sweet Slice is a tad lazy... Gotta a wierd tomato, however... It has set a couple tomatoes but they are shaped like cukes??? Never seen anything like it... I know we got some odd-ball seeds but I don't remember ordering any seeds that made cuke shaped tomatoes... Got in a little weeding this evenin' until two of our cats decided to have a rumble right there where we were weedin'... Kinda took the mellowness outta it... Tomorrow is the anual azalea cuttin' exchange... I don't want any!!!... We're growing over 200 from last year and it's time consuming... Plus, just don't need any more azaleas... I will try to get a cutting going of the "Seigi" for you, Janie, but if that's all I do that will be fine... There is a limit to how many danged azaleas one needs... The Lowers, both in the 80's, have some 15,000 azaleas... I really feel for Phil every time there is an auction of cutting exchange 'cause his wife, Frances, just can't get enough azlaeas... He teases me that I'm gonna end up like him... That, my frineds, ain't gonna happen... I'll go tomorrow but not for the cuttings but the pot luck lunch and the company... No more azaleas!!! B~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 10 Jul 10 - 07:14 PM Alice, we had bleeding hearts all around the yard where I grew up in Seattle, and I think we took some with us when we moved to the next town north. I know my mother moved her peonies when she moved back to Seattle some years later. Good luck with the transplant! SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 10 Jul 10 - 07:04 PM Last night I made a salad of a cubed store-bought cuke, a couple of cubed home-grown tomatoes, a sprinkling of feta, with a little Italian dressing over the top. I barely have enough fresh tomatoes now to make another batch of it. What a strange summer. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: Janie Date: 10 Jul 10 - 06:04 PM my pickling cuke is bearing like crazy. The other (straight 8) has yet to yield a cuke. The first two Mortgagelifters are coloring up! Tomatoes really starting to come in. Some rain showers overnight. Had hoped for more today, but the sky is completely clear now, after threatening to shower earlier today. Temps have modulated but the humidity has shot up. This 87F with the humidity is much more uncomfortable than was the 97-101F with low humidity several days ago. Ah well. Just keeping up the time honored tradition of complaining about the weather:>) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: Alice Date: 10 Jul 10 - 05:25 PM When I bought this house in 1987, the realtor gave me a gift of three large bleeding heart plants. They went into a shady corner, but eventually neighbor cats that liked to dig there and overgrowing junipers eliminated most of the growth. I found a few leaves still growing under the juniper today and dug what is left of the bleeding heart out of that location. Hopefully what little was left of the root will survive in its new location. Mild in comparison to the rest of the country, but I'm not yet used to this much heat. A. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 10 Jul 10 - 05:09 PM I blanched and froze about 3 pints of tomatoes that were getting too ripe to use for slicing. Not enough to can, so into the freezer they go. I'm down to only 3 ready to eat tomatoes right now. What a summer. By now I should have them lining the windowsill and covering the kitchen counter top. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: Bobert Date: 10 Jul 10 - 02:24 PM Wish you could, too, Magz... But we're happy with what we got... Maybe more on Tuesday??? No waterin' today... Hooray... The P-Vine is goin' to make 14 pint jars of dill pickles from an award winnin' recipe she has from way back that come outta Tennessee... B~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: Alice Date: 10 Jul 10 - 02:24 PM Have to water the aspen trees today for the first time. Hoses are out soaking the grove and flower bed. Sun is so bright this morning that it triggered a migraine aura. A. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 10 Jul 10 - 02:20 PM I wish I could send you more. I feel positively mildewed we've had so much rain lately. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: Bobert Date: 10 Jul 10 - 07:44 AM Red skies at night Sailors delight... Very pretty... Speakin' of very pretty??? There's 1.3 inches showin' in the rain guage!!! And it's till raining softly... Thak you, Lord... This is a major relief... B~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 10 Jul 10 - 12:46 AM Lovely sunset, Alice! I stopped making sun tea when it was pointed out (last year) that letting dried organic material (tea) soak in water at temperatures not hot enough to kill anything, only to let bacteria grow, is an invitation to a nasty bug growing in the jar. I don't make sun tea any more. I make a quart or two at a time, but I use green tea bags and boiling water. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: Alice Date: 09 Jul 10 - 11:46 PM Nice weather today, but hot enough to make a jug of sun tea this afternoon. This evening we had a typical summer Technicolor sunset for Bozeman, like this one: CLICK |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: Bobert Date: 09 Jul 10 - 09:34 PM Different story here, Magz... It has been raining for about 2 hours here... Nice gentle, soft rain... Thank you, Lord... First rain since June 14th when we got 4/10s of an inch in about ten minutes... Most of that ran off... This is the first real rain we've had since around the 2nd of June when we got 7/10s over about 2 hours... Think this means that we'll be hearing lawn mowers again... Haven't heard one in 3 weeks... I donno... Maybe this won't even bring back the grass... It almost white... The P-Vine is going to make dill pickles tomorrow... We got 40 of these little pickling cuke outta the veggie garden and so she's gonna make 14 pint jars... Well see how our dill holds out... We have one monster plant but not too much else??? B~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 09 Jul 10 - 05:17 PM I can't believe this. It's just about to start raining again. It's gotten really dark and the outflow boundary is stirring up the tree outside my window. Enough already! My crops won't start looking like they have more fruit till all of this rain finishes. I never get as much out of the garden with these rainy spells, but afterward, the plants go to town with production. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: Bettynh Date: 09 Jul 10 - 02:40 PM The rosemary is just for the summer here. It's in the ground and very happy with our heat and drought. I've promised myself that I'll be ruthless and cut it to the ground just before it freezes. We have that beautiful blue sky here, too, Alice, but it's not as big - hemmed in by trees and hills. The predicted thunderclouds aren't here. I live on the line between where worms are native and where they're an introduction. It's very hard to think about. The glaciers killed them off and they were slowly migrating back when Europeans arrived. I read a really strange colonial report of a "plague of worms" in the springs they were using for drinking water. They were saved by the work of "cherry birds" - the American robin. I read all this in various gardening and nature magazines. I think I'd like to talk with a scientist who can read history like that in our soil, but I don't know who they are. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: Alice Date: 09 Jul 10 - 01:12 PM I wish things were actually ripening and edible from the garden (other than wintergreen and basil, nothing to eat yet). Today the waterfall (pumped) into the pond was at a trickle, so I pulled out the pump to see what was plugging the flow. I have some screen wrapped around the pump to keep twigs and leaves from clogging it. There was a mass of earthworms filling the pump and screen. They must have gone through the screen as babies and grew too big to get out. It is a good thing I planted many series of the packet of sunflower seeds, as the first few plantings were either eaten by birds, didn't germinate, or smashed by weather. I have about 10 surviving sunflower starts in various places. It is so late now for them to grow before fall snow... we'll see how they progress. Another beautiful, big blue sky day. A. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 09 Jul 10 - 12:30 PM Bettynh, you need to work your way over to our de-clutter threads. I have a lot of that same stuff here in my house, from a great aunt's house. Lots of depression glass, lots of sets of things, lots of sewing stuff. It is overcast again, certainly below 80 at night, so I hope some fruit is finally setting on its own in the tomatoes. I have huge rosemary plants around the yard, it's a great evergreen shrub, and the dogs smell so good when they've been chasing around running through the one in the back yard. The basil is seasonal, of course, but the oregano is pretty tough and I have some of it year round. I'm waiting for the burrowing wasps to stop their thing before I dig up any more oregano. They don't like it when I disturb their nests. I mowed once this week and it needs it again already. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: Bobert Date: 09 Jul 10 - 11:28 AM Lucky you, Janie... I've just taken a break... Been weedin' right in the middle of a large bed that has lots of flowers and shrubs and the bees are having a ball... Except the one that stung me on my left hand... Must have done something wrong... usually I'm in there with them and we co-exist nicely... Oh well, put some onion on it and it seems to be doing a little better... They are calling for a 40% cahnce of rain here this evening and a 50% tomorrow... I donno??? I do know that the Big Guy ain't answerin' the phone when he sees it's me: "Hi, this is God... Leave a message..." is all I'm gettin'... We need rain and soon... Sounds like a nice ol' house, Bettynh... Being a reformed "collector" hearin' about places like this always remind me of my "praticin'" days as a collector... That was before Betty Ford... lol... Back at it... B~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: GUEST,Janie Date: 09 Jul 10 - 11:16 AM Judging from my birdbath, we had a hard shower or two last night, but they must have been fast and furious. Good chance of showers for the next few days. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: MMario Date: 09 Jul 10 - 10:23 AM Black raspberries just starting; need to check my cherries. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: Bettynh Date: 09 Jul 10 - 10:22 AM I can't remember rain. Thunderstorms have tracked just north or just south for more than a month. June rainfall total was 0.17 inch and nothing in July. Pansies in the front bed are fried, and I had to water the basil. The cabbages are looking great, however, and the parsley and rosemary are thriving. The tomatoes are standing still, hopefully digging deep while waiting for cooler weather to set fruit. A crunchy lawn doesn't need to be mowed, at least. But there was no second hay crop for the farmers. All the hayfields look as if they were mowed yesterday and it's been a month. There are reports of brush fires, most of obscure origin. If this continues, we're at risk for real forest fires, something we haven't seen here in a long time. This town (Nashua, NH) is built on a sand barrens, which normally burn periodically, so it could happen. I live in my grandfather's house, and it's full of the detritus of 4 generations (if you count my kids' stuff, left behind when they moved out.) These hot days are good for sorting in front of a fan. I really do understand why a woman might need 2 sets of dishes, one for daily use and another for holidays. So far, I've found at least 8 sets, including a fancy depression glass set. My mother sewed, as did my grandmother. I've boxes of cloth, zippers, buttons, stuff. When the weather cools a bit, there'll be a big yardsale and I've put some good china and glass in a consignment shop. There was a penny from 1797 in the button tin. I don't want to see good stuff go to the landfill, but it's overwhelming sometimes. I'll keep the penny, though, I think. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: Bobert Date: 09 Jul 10 - 07:59 AM Our chicken plants are doing much yet... Awwww' jus' funnin' with ya, Magz... We got about 1minute's worth of rain overnight... Not even enough to measure... Greater chances this afternoon and tomorrow... We have yet another mini-tour tomorrow for one of the uppity-ups in the Georgia chapter of the azalea society who is makin' the rounds collectin' cuttings... He's in Philly today collectin'... Oh well, another day of movin' oscillators... B~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 09 Jul 10 - 12:20 AM Made chicken and eggplant Parmesan this evening. Fresh from the garden. It rained three times today. Hurricane slopover, I guess. Getting a little tired of it, but the raised beds are helping all survive. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: Janie Date: 08 Jul 10 - 10:45 PM Seeking recipes for garden-fresh cucumber and mint salads and dressings. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: Bobert Date: 08 Jul 10 - 10:34 PM Hoses??? We have just this year got enough hoses, posts with hose holders, splitters, etc. so that we can get to all 5-6 acreas we have behind deer fence and are taming/gardening... The 5 gallon buckets will work ya'... Especially here where everything is *uphill*... lol... Yeah, lotta downhill, too... We planted some "patio" cukes and they are coming in big time... 10 a day... They are really pickeling cukes... About 3-4 inches long when ripe... Not bad in vinegar & oil with some of Uncle Vern's onions... Not bad, at all... Happy gardenin'... B~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: maire-aine Date: 08 Jul 10 - 10:05 PM Finally got a little rain this afternoon-- hope to get more overnight. Dead-headed most of the perennials, so the flower beds look nicer. The black raspberries are over, so I cut back the old branches. There are still a few left, but the birds & "woodland creatures" can have the rest. I'll shred the branches after they've dried up. The tomato plants are holding up well in spite of the heat. Maryanne |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: Alice Date: 08 Jul 10 - 06:51 PM Turned the compost again today and it is steaming nicely in the center. Today was a gardening day of cleaning up weedy edges, screening soil and enjoying the recovery of the garden after the storm. Summer is so short here, I have to appreciate every warm day. A. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: maeve Date: 07 Jul 10 - 03:41 PM Around here we have lots of hay (with accompanying weed seeds) but straw is expensive and hard to find. TL and I have acres of pine and balsam fir, but no time for bagging and hauling the needles. I use whatever I have for free or close to it: newspaper or cardboard covered with hay, sawdust from firewood cutting, woodchips, compost, stones (under the apple trees), dried lawn clippings, and shavings from the chickenhouse or a nearby boatbuilding shop. When I can get seaweed I add it to compost and also mulch with it. I just built a new asparagus bed by piling a big mess of sun-cooked weeds (pulled up back in the springtime) in a long, low mound on top of growing weeds, a thick layer of mulch hay (damp and decomposting fast enough the hay was hot), topped with 5 layers of newspaper, compost, and appropriate amendments. I'm keeping it watered in the heat, but in another week or two I'll top it off with another layer of compost, water it with diluted fish emulsion, and mulched with shavings and chicken manure from the old chicken house. I just wish we could water with hoses instead of my back and buckets. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: Bobert Date: 07 Jul 10 - 03:26 PM Fortunately for us there is a massive pine grove here in Pine Grove holler and we're friends with the folks who own the land and they let us come get whatever we want... We can fill 5 contractors bags in about a half an hour... The bales are real expensive around here... Like $4.50 a bale and these bales are just half the size of a straw or hay bale... That's too much... We have our entire veggie garden mulched with straw... 'Bout 6 inches deep... Works real well and unlike the pine needles, low in acid so it can be plowed under in the fall and not mess with the Ph... B~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: maeve Date: 07 Jul 10 - 12:41 PM I've found the bales of pine needles online, Bobert. Wish I could get them locally, both for mulch and the Longneedle pine variety for basketry. They are the best mulch for tomatoes, potatoes, and strawberries! I could also use some pine needle mulch when I move my wildflower nursery to a new nursery bed in case we build a new little house. I'll have to move them either way, for if I wait until we are ready to build I'll never find all of the ephemerals. I'm struggling to keep the potted fruit trees and the vegetables and flowers watered. TL filled every available container for me Sunday night (using a generator and the tilted, old leaky water tank hooked to a hose)and I've already carried and poured out half of it. I don't dare run the camper's ac until TL needs it to cool off after work; it uses too much electricity. It's hard to breathe. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: Alice Date: 07 Jul 10 - 12:35 PM The garden was covered up, tucked in and heated for the night, so everything came through okay. Peppers really don't like night temps lower than 50, though, so who knows... but they do have buds. I put up the aluminum press plates on the west end of the A-frame to reflect more heat and light into the garden today. Hail and birds took out almost all of the sunflowers that sprouted, but I have about 4 left that are about inch to two inches high in little pots I made from paper and sawed off sections of a mailing tube. ONWARD into the garden!! A. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: Bobert Date: 07 Jul 10 - 08:45 AM Well, one thing I have been able to do with the heat is weed and mulch our beds which are right up next to the woods... The sun is off that area by 1:00 leavin' it shady for the remainder of the day... However... ...I have run out of the "chopped" pine mulch which I use underneath a decorative shredded pine mulch so... ...we've off to Baker, WV again for another 40 3 cu.ft. bags... The P-Vine is going with me just to get away for half a day... Come on, rain!!! B~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: Janie Date: 06 Jul 10 - 09:43 PM Keep your fingers crossed. It looks like at least some rain is possible late in the week. The lower humidity really does make this more bearable than it otherwise would be. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: Bobert Date: 06 Jul 10 - 09:14 PM Geeze... Forcast here: 1,000 degrees tomorrow... Heck, it's almost dark right now and it's in the 90's... But, I worked in it purdy much all day.... Got some day lillies transplanted... Did some weedeating... Did lots of oscillator moving and managed to weed and mulch about 30 feet of one of our many beds... Just kinda have to pace yerself and do the hardest stuff early... B~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: Alice Date: 06 Jul 10 - 07:58 PM Getting ready to go out and cover the garden for the 30 degree low tonight. I am using the little coffee cup hot plate as a heater, now in the tent shaped garden A-frame that I constructed. It worked well last night. It's like babying the garden through the cold back when I was first planting in May. I have old aluminum newspaper press plates, which make good heat reflectors at night, light weight and easy to position to keep the heat reflected into the garden tent. Good luck with all the high temps, folks. I have the other extreme, but at least I can put on a sweater to deal with my weather. Alice |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: maire-aine Date: 06 Jul 10 - 07:35 PM This is our 8th (maybe 9th) day without rain, and the 4th day in the mid-90sF (34C-ish) in southeast Michigan. The black raspberries are all over, but I had to water them today because the new growth was looking very wilted. I've also been watering the tomatoes. Used the soaker hose on the flower bed, but only every 2nd or 3rd day. At least the grass isn't growing very much. Keep cool y'all, Maryanne |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: Alice Date: 05 Jul 10 - 11:43 PM Forecast low tonight of 34 degrees F. Forecast low tomorrow night of 30 degrees F. Wish I could send some coolness to all of you who have too much heat. I just came in from covering everything feasible to cover. Flowers beds and such will just have to freeze. I moved the wagon under a juniper and put a chair in front of it. I covered the tricycle with rakes and the wheelbarrow. Veggies and the garden have more plastic and better coverings, but the flower beds... just can't protect everything. Que sera, sera. A. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: Stilly River Sage Date: 05 Jul 10 - 11:37 PM I'm buying my squash and zucchini now, none growing in the yard. Tomatoes are a mess now, but lots of blooms from last week may produce fruit. Still get a few strawberries. Lots of herbs. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: Janie Date: 05 Jul 10 - 10:33 PM No pics or descriptions quite match it at this stage. May be a slime mold that hasn't turned slimy yet. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: Janie Date: 05 Jul 10 - 10:30 PM For myself, I opted for more cukes and basil and pulled the zukes. Working close to 70 hours a week right now between the day job and the private practice. If it can't get by with watering, fertilizing every 2-4 weeks, and an occasional application of either neem oil or insecticidal soap, then it will have to die or be pulled up if the pests might jeapardize future crops if allowed to propagate on the host plant. Between the time I left for work this morning and when I got home tonight a large (6"x4" patch of a bright yellow fungus/mold has appeared on the soil immediately adjacent to my slicing tomato plant, which got a quick ground shower this morning to tide it over until I could get home tonight to water well. Think I'll go see what Google turns up. (lots of interesting fungus, molds and mushrooms on this lot.) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: Bobert Date: 05 Jul 10 - 10:06 PM Yeah, the P-Vine goes after 'um too then uses duct tape??? I know, sounds like it won't work but it does... The ol' gal uses duct tape on all kinds of plants for various and sundry issues and it seems to work??? Me??? I'm the official "undergardner" meaning I get all the "hard" work... I leave that creepy stuff to her... B~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: maeve Date: 05 Jul 10 - 09:53 PM Pneumonia, I think, Janie. Congratulations on your successful "500", Bobert. I just locate and kill the borers, then cover that part of the stem with compost. They can root and continue growing. I am a one-woman bucket brigade watering the vegetables, flowers, and potted fruit trees. We need rain; I'm grateful we were able to mulch the veggies before the heat spell began. Roses and many different poppy selections are lovely right now. maeve |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: Janie Date: 05 Jul 10 - 09:43 PM Phenomia? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: Bobert Date: 05 Jul 10 - 09:11 PM ...got it right this time... 500!!! B~ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: Bobert Date: 05 Jul 10 - 09:10 PM First of all that BT is what gave me phenomia and secondly... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: Janie Date: 05 Jul 10 - 08:12 PM I may just pull the zucchini up. I should have just planted it in the small raised bed I have it in, although it may have been ok if I had planted it on the west side of the bed instead of the east, as most of the sun is morning sun. It is shading out a basil and a cucumber, and it isn't producing, probably because of the borers. Red about injecting the stems with BT, but I don't think I like zucchini well enough to go to that trouble. Maybe I'll try your suggestion next year, pdq, along with regular surface treatment with BT. Cherry tomatoes coming in well now, and I have my first cucumber! We had a few really lovely days with highs in the mid to upper 80's and night time lows down to 60 or the upper 50's. Today in the mid nineties and headed for the next several days into the high nineties. Humidity is not as high as is usual for this time of year, so it could be worse in terms of how it feels. Irrigating something or other every night. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: pdq Date: 05 Jul 10 - 03:48 PM Squash borers... try putting out a few salad bowls full of yellow-dyed water with a few drops of liquid soap in them. This may catch a few adults before they lay eggs. Once the larvae are established in a stem there isn't much you can do. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Gardening 2010 From: GUEST,Janie Date: 05 Jul 10 - 03:32 PM Arrgh! Squash borers. |
