# 2020 Garden Thread



## AlbergSteve

Well, 2020 has started off cold and snowy for us, and probably for you @begreen . 
There's 1500 garlic under there, somewhere...




Spent most of the week on the tractor clearing snow, for us and a few of the neighbours.



...and I forgot to dig potatoes before the storm hit. Dug these in this evenings twilight!


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## begreen

Fortunately, this is not our place It's picture sent to me by a friend in Concrete today. They got another dose overnight. 

In comparison, we got no snow the past few days and just a dusting before that. The ground here is bare and dry.


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## Montanalocal

Organizing and saving my garden seeds

This time of year is not only a good time to order your seeds for the coming year, but also a good time to organize them. 

For many years I just threw my leftover seeds into small cardboard boxes, and then dug through them towards spring.  One snowy winters day I decided there must be a better way, and got a little more organized.

First, I threw away everything I knew I would never plant again, and also everything that was obviously way out of date.  Then I created a spreadsheet containing each seed packet.   I entered the variety, the year, the amount, the brand and where I have them stored.  I sort my storage jars by planting time.

This really helps me when it comes time to order new seeds.  As I plant, I update the list in pencil, crossing out packets that I use up, and making any other notes.  Thus when I go to order seeds for the coming year, I can tell at a glance what I need.  Then when I get my seed orders, I enter them into the spreadsheet and print out a new copy for the coming year. 

I also store my storage jars in a fridge.  The professional seed banks store their seeds at the lowest possible temperatures and lowest possible humidity.  Thus glass jars in a fridge or freezer is the best.


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## SidecarFlip

Keep my unused seeds in the freezer in a ziplock bag and yes, I do have one of those tractor things to plow with....


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## AlbergSteve

Wife has ordered seeds this week. This will be the first year with an indoor seed starting setup with lights, timers and heat mats on thermostats. In the past we used our unheated greenhouse and heat cable in a ''sand box'' and started a bit later in the year. The other project that I'm about to start is building a cabinet incubator to hatch chicks. Pictures and details to follow!


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## SidecarFlip

AlbergSteve said:


> Wife has ordered seeds this week. This will be the first year with an indoor seed starting setup with lights, timers and heat mats on thermostats. In the past we used our unheated greenhouse and heat cable in a ''sand box'' and started a bit later in the year. The other project that I'm about to start is building a cabinet incubator to hatch chicks. Pictures and details to follow!




Be careful now, the neighbors will think you are growing dope...


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## DuaeGuttae

Montanalocal said:


> I also store my storage jars in a fridge.  The professional seed banks store their seeds at the lowest possible temperatures and lowest possible humidity.  Thus glass jars in a fridge or freezer is the best.



I also save dessicant packs/oxygen absorbers from medicine bottles and keep them in my glass jar in the fridge.

We bought the lumber to make a new asparagus bed, but it isn't assembled yet.  We need to get cracking.


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## AlbergSteve

SidecarFlip said:


> Be careful now, the neighbors will think you are growing dope...


Yeah, nobody cares here any more, everyone's got a plant or three in the back yard. The elderly neighbours would be more interested in what strain you were growing, and would it help them sleep at night!


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## EatenByLimestone

Last year life got busy and I didnt get the garden in enough to call it a garden.  The wife and kid were unhappy about this and promised to help this year.  Win!   

So I'm itching to get started!

Potatoes from last year were set out on the window sill to start the eyes.  

Seeds will soon be ordered to replace older packets and things like tomatoes will be started March 1st.  It seems like a good amount of time away, but is really around the corner!

Are you guys preparing yet?

I cant wait to see if the apple trees I put in last year will produce this year!


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## semipro

I wanted to get started earlier too so I built a cold frame last year from some old deck boards and a double glazed storm door. I've added foil coated XPS insulation to the inside since the photo. I added a Smartthings temp sensor to it so I could monitor temps and open/shut the door accordingly.  I also bought some auto closers meant for greenhouse windows that I plan to install to regulate temps.


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## AlbergSteve

EatenByLimestone said:


> I cant wait to see if the apple trees I put in last year will produce this year!


That might be a bit optimistic. We've planted about 24 trees last year and aren't expecting fruit for three or four more years.


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## EatenByLimestone

Maybe.   I guess it would depend on the age of the tree that was planted and how well it acclimated to the new spot.


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## EatenByLimestone

semipro said:


> I wanted to get started earlier too so I built a cold frame last year from some old deck boards and a double glazed storm door. I've added foil coated XPS insulation to the inside since the photo. I added a Smartthings temp sensor to it so I could monitor temps and open/shut the door accordingly.  I also bought some auto closers meant for greenhouse windows that I plan to install to regulate temps.
> View attachment 255898


I use flipped over clear Rubbermaid tubs.    I don't have a ton of room to store coldframes and such so I had to go stackable.


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## Easy Livin’ 3000

We have some sort of rodent in the garden that is thriving, particularly near the compost piles.  When we had an inch of snow, there were many trails hollowed out under the snow that were easily observed.  I think they are voles, but need to catch one to be sure.  They are moving a lot of dirt around.


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## EatenByLimestone

If they are voles, knock that population down before you plant in spring!


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## Easy Livin’ 3000

EatenByLimestone said:


> If they are voles, knock that population down before you plant in spring!


Thanks!  I have a feeling that the population has been growing over the years due to the conditions I've made for them.  I'll make some enclosures to put traps in, so they will out of the weather.


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## EatenByLimestone

Once you get it down to a "natural" level, predators will keep it under control.  But the population can easily get out of hand under a heavy layer of snow!


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## EatenByLimestone

A mouse trap set in their path with a little cover over them is deadly!


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## begreen

Garlic got planted and I've harvested carrots and potatoes. Not much garden prep yet. The soil is too wet. I top-dressed some beds with some bunny poop. Started copper spray of peach and nectarines. This will continue every 2 weeks up to blossom stage.


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## EatenByLimestone

I want to harvest some peaches this year.  I'm going to have to take out a bunch of grey squirrels.  They'll strip the tree within a few days.


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## SpaceBus

Before too long I'm going to make some raised beds that can be moved with the tractor. Eventually I plan on building a permanent garden, but we just aren't there yet.


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## DuaeGuttae

We got the asparagus crowns in today (they shipped earlier than I expected, so it was really a rush).  I had intended to finish the bed and soil as much as possible before the new year, but I had forgotten just how much the high levels of cedar pollen down here bother me.  I just can't work outside as much as I would like in December and most of January.  We had laid out the plot and put some fencing around last year, but the bulk of the work was the past two Saturdays.

             We put down our cardboard weed barrier last week (though the non-soil is pretty barren still), finished the actual construction of the large raised bed, and managed to move two wheelbarrow loads of organic matter into it (rotted wood/soil from an area of our property where a former neighbor used to pile wood which he cut but didn't really use much).  This morning we added a few more loads from underneath a different woodpile and all the compost we had in one of our bins.  The rest of the depth is/will be a nice potting soil mix made locally that we were able to pick up this afternoon in bulk.  I also installed my "olla" clay pots to help try to keep moisture near the roots for our long, hot summers.  I was suprised when I learned that people do grow asparagus down here, but it was a pleasant surprise.  We'll see how it does in coming years.

@begreen, is it possible to merge this thread and the other garden thread that was started recently in the DIY forum into one?  I don't want to miss what other folks are growing.


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## begreen

Getting ready for spring. The daffodils, camelias and crocuses are already in bloom. I got started on pruning yesterday. Will do some more this week. The plums and peaches have fat buds on them already. I started lettuce, peas and spinach too.


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## AlbergSteve

Easy Livin’ 3000 said:


> We have some sort of rodent in the garden that is thriving, particularly near the compost piles.  When we had an inch of snow, there were many trails hollowed out under the snow that were easily observed.  I think they are voles, but need to catch one to be sure.  They are moving a lot of dirt around.


I had the displeasure of moving about 2 cords of wood from a shed that was attached to our chicken coop this weekend. I have never seen so many rats nests in one place, and each and every stick of firewood had a pile of rat pellets on it. Grim.


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## AlbergSteve

begreen said:


> Getting ready for spring. The daffodils, camelias and crocuses are already in bloom. I got started on pruning yesterday. Will do some more this week. The plums and peaches have fat buds on them already. I started lettuce, peas and spinach too.
> View attachment 257175


I got our pruning done before Christmas. The trees are one and two years old so it was a quick one hour  job. With 30 trees, going to be a much bigger job in a few years! Seed starting starts today.
Wow, that seems early for Camellias.


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## begreen

I got a heatpad for starting plants. It will be interesting to see how this works out.


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## AlbergSteve

Garlic's doing great. Germination rate looks to be about 99.99 percent!


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## SidecarFlip

Nice. I'm a long way from planting anything.  Snowing here right now and 21 outside.  I hane my thick layer of horse and cattle poop on the garden though.


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## DuaeGuttae

begreen said:


> Getting ready for spring. The daffodils, camelias and crocuses are already in bloom. I got started on pruning yesterday. Will do some more this week. The plums and peaches have fat buds on them already. I started lettuce, peas and spinach too.
> View attachment 257175



We’ve had a really mild winter down here in Texas Hill Country.  We had lots of freezing weather (for us) in the fall but warm temperatures in December and January.  My daughter was climbing the cherry tree (that bloomed all winter) yesterday looking for fruit and found some.  Last year we lost all our cherries and peaches to freezes in March.  I’m hoping this year won’t be a repeat of that.  The blueberries are also starting to bloom.  They’re in pots, so they could be moved if a hard freeze threatened (I let them survive 31 degrees last week), but they’re pretty big pots, so it wouldn’t be easy.

We have about a dozen thin spears of asparagus poking up in the bed we planted.  My three year old is especially excited, and thankfully he’s been very good about not stepping on the soil or touching the spears. He gets really close, though, and points to each one and counts all of them one by one.  When he’s finished, he doesn’t want to go back inside.  He wants to look at it all again.  I’m afraid that the garlic and parsley no longer hold any charms for him with this new plant around.


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## SidecarFlip

It grows wild here in the roadside ditches.  No point in cultivating it, just drive down the road, stop and snap it off.

Be a while here before anything comes up.  Probably mid April and by then I'll be getting equipment ready to farm.

Just got one of the tractors back from my dealer.  Needed a bunch of upgrades, a valve adjustment and a front crank seal.


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## begreen

Mostly finishing up pruning and now dormant spray + copper spray on the peaches to hold back peach leaf curl. Lots of yard work happening but not much in the garden beds yet.


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## SidecarFlip

Be about 45 days out from that here.  Don't think yard work in the 20's is too good.


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## begreen

We've been in the mid-50s during the day recently. Plums are just about ready to blossom.


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## DuaeGuttae

We were in the 40’s during the day for three days this week, but it warmed up to 60 today with some sun.  I took the opportunity to transplant some lettuce into large containers.  I had started the plants inside under lights using cotton balls as the starting medium, and more plants sprouted than I expected.  It was really just an experiment, but the lettuce was doing so well, the plants  needed to be transferred to soil.  We put them in their containers but put the containers on a wheeled plant cart so that we can do a gradual hardening off process and move them inside easily.

We also direct sowed some beets and radishes today.  I’ve found that I’m less successful with direct sowing in Texas, partially because it’s so easy for the top layer of soil to dry out quickly and partially because of critters.  We’ll see how we do with these seeds.  I just seeded some tomatoes and peppers indoors today (which could be considered late down here.)

Our asparagus continues to come along.  I counted about thirty spears  today as I was adding another layer of soil and watering the bed.  I’ve heard that there are places where asparagus grows wild (*Stalking the Wild Asparagus* was on a bookshelf in our dining room growing up;  my daughter now owns that copy), but I imagine that’s in more northerly climes.  To my knowledge I’ve never seen any, even before I moved to Texas, but I have lots of memories of playing in the red-berried ferns in my mother’s garden in my younger years.  We planted all-male hybrids for better productivity down here.


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## begreen

Our seed starts for lettuce, spinach and peas are starting to sprout. Won't be long now.


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## DuaeGuttae

Some tomatoes have started peeking up today, including the one Black Krim seed that I found in the corner of an old seed packet from 2013.  My daughter really wanted to try, so I said we would, and I was surprised to see it so lively.  We’ll see if we can keep it going and growing long enough in the Texas heat to get a ripe tomato.

It’s a cold one tonight, though, possibly 25*.  I covered the olives and helped move the blueberries into the garage.  They’d been given some bigger pots last year, including some lovely terra cotta ones that neighbors gave us when the moved.  Those made it extra hard to move the plants.  I’m thinking of sewing a remay box to put over the entire 8x8x8 cube where they normally live.  The plants are flowering now, which is why they need the extra protection, and I expect we might face the same situation in future years when the plants will be even bigger.


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## begreen

That's pretty nippy. Blueberries should be able to take 25º, at least when they are dormant. Ours have seen temps in the teens.


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## AlbergSteve

begreen said:


> I got a heatpad for starting plants. It will be interesting to see how this works out.


We don't have a greenhouse yet, so were trying lights and heating pads this year. Setup for 12 trays with 40 soil blocks per tray.


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## begreen

AlbergSteve said:


> We don't have a greenhouse yet, so were trying lights and heating pads this year. Setup for 12 trays with 40 soil blocks per tray.
> View attachment 257682
> View attachment 257681


Looks like a pan of brownies.


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## DuaeGuttae

begreen said:


> That's pretty nippy. Blueberries should be able to take 25º, at least when they are dormant. Ours have seen temps in the teens.



I don’t have any worries about the bushes themselves, but I wanted to keep the blooms from damage.  My understanding is that early-blooming rabbiteye blueberries often need some frost/ freeze protection, and we have a mixture of early- and mid-season varieties.  We had some unusual cold in October and November, and my two bushes with the lowest chill hours must have met their quota pretty early.  The forecast for the next two weeks looks warm, and then we’ll see.

The blueberries are spending one more (probably unnecessary) night in the garage, and then we’ll move them back to their cube.  I’m definitely thinking of sewing a custom cover for future years as I don’t want to move them again.


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## DuaeGuttae

AlbergSteve said:


> We don't have a greenhouse yet, so were trying lights and heating pads this year. Setup for 12 trays with 40 soil blocks per tray.
> View attachment 257682
> View attachment 257681



I’d love to hear details of some of what you’re growing.  It looks like leeks or onions in the photos.


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## begreen

DuaeGuttae said:


> I don’t have any worries about the bushes themselves, but I wanted to keep the blooms from damage.  My understanding is that early-blooming rabbiteye blueberries often need some frost/ freeze protection, and we have a mixture of early- and mid-season varieties.  We had some unusual cold in October and November, and my two bushes with the lowest chill hours must have met their quota pretty early.  The forecast for the next two weeks looks warm, and then we’ll see.
> 
> The blueberries are spending one more (probably unnecessary) night in the garage, and then we’ll move them back to their cube.  I’m definitely thinking of sewing a custom cover for future years as I don’t want to move them again.


That makes sense. You have to deal with different issues like high heat. Our blueberries stay outdoor all the time.  I haven't heard of rabbiteye blueberries. Had to look that one up. It sounds like a good one for the south. All of the varieties suggested for Texas are unfamiliar to me. How do they taste?


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## AlbergSteve

DuaeGuttae said:


> I’d love to hear details of some of what you’re growing.  It looks like leeks or onions in the photos.


I'll have to ask the head gardener...


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## begreen

AlbergSteve said:


> I'll have to ask the head gardener...


Does she grow head lettuce, cabbage, and broccoli heads? Or these?



Hopefully not these!


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## SidecarFlip

Ordered up my spuds for this season.  I'll get my cabbage starts locally.  Have Ambrosia seed corn in the deep freeze from last year.  Germ rate should still be fine.


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## DuaeGuttae

begreen said:


> That makes sense. You have to deal with different issues like high heat. Our blueberries stay outdoor all the time.  I haven't heard of rabbiteye blueberries. Had to look that one up. It sounds like a good one for the south. All of the varieties suggested for Texas are unfamiliar to me. How do they taste?



I had never heard of them either before moving here, but I was excited to learn that I could grow any variety blueberries this far south.  Heat, caliche, and water are big issues here.  Our average pH of the “soil” (and we have very little soil due to the previous owner’s allowing overgrazing) is 8.3, and our tap water is 250 ppm of calcium.  Thus our blueberries are in big pots with peat and compost, and I use rain water and air conditioning condensate to water them.  I’ve been pleased with their growth, and the little harvest we had last year produced some lovely berries with size and flavor similar to the Duke, Blue Crop, and Patriot bushes we used to grow before we moved way down here. 

My husband and I laugh about how we seem to have to protect plants from cold much more often now that we live in what we call “the land of very little winter”.  Part of it is that plants don’t always go dormant here or break dormancy earlier when there’s still a good chance of freeze.  (We definitely lost some peaches that were set during the most recent cold snap), part of it is that we’re establishing some plants (citrus and olives) where we’re right on the border of hardiness at times.  We decided we’d invest the time and energy needed to protect the plants in their early years in the hopes that they’d be hardier by the time they’re big enough to make it too hard.


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## AlbergSteve

DuaeGuttae said:


> I’d love to hear details of some of what you’re growing.  It looks like leeks or onions in the photos.


Onions, artichoke, and cardoon to start. More seed starting this weekend.


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## SidecarFlip

At least with us, we only grow what we eat and what we can or freeze for the winter.  Nothing fancy.  Sweet corn we strip from the cobs and freeze (the cobs go in the cattle feed), Cabbage for sauerkraut, onions and potatoes for the root cellar as well as carrots and beets for canning.  For meat, we rarely buy from the grocery except chicken.  We have a working farm so I have cattle on the property and I slaughter as needed and everything gets used.  What we don't consume gets ground up and mixed with the dog food plus I hunt so we always have wild game in the deep freezers as well.  I usually have Elk and deer in there and we fish so we filet and freeze fish as well.

I have wild rasberries growing on the fence line, we pick those and my wife makes jelly and jam from them.  Nothing beats canned beets, sauerkraut, frozen corn, steamed carrots or spaghetti with sauce made from the garden vegetables, we grown green beans and tomatoes and green bell peppers but not every year, just as the root cellar gets depleted.

This year is a cabbage year and probably cauliflower too.  We make our own kraut and ferment it in crocks and add apples from the apple trees on the property and we also make our own apple cider and freeze that too.  Last fall I ran 30 gallons of cider and gave gallons of frozen cider for Christmas presents, everyone thinks my cider is fantastic, so do I. Have to consume it in moderation however.  Unlike store bought 'pasteruized;' cider, mine is an instant laxitave if you get stupid with it....

I farm but I'm not a row crop farmer, I'm a commercial forage (hay) grower.  I only run large round bales and I have one customer who buys everything I make and has for years.  Nice income for me.  Nice supplement to retirement.  keeps me out of my wife' hair'...lol


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## AlbergSteve

Might be slightly off topic, but the chickens are a big part of our farm garden. I've finished building a cabinet incubator to hatch chicks. We are starting to breed Delawares and there aren't many people in the PNW doing this breed. We have found a breeder near Port Townsend and she's excited to exchange hatching eggs which will help both of us to deepen the gene pool of our respective flocks.

A old 50 bottle wine fridge for the cabinet...



A few parts from Incubator Warehouse-heaters, fans, PID controller, humidity injection...



Everything installed and wired...



Stores locally want $100 for one cheap plastic egg turning tray - I made three for about $80.



Temperature controller with backup data logger...



And the finished unit.




Currently set up to hatch about 90 eggs and could easily expand to 180. Hoping to have about 60 eggs to go in on the weekend.


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## EatenByLimestone

Got notice yesterday my seeds have shipped!  Hopefully I can get them started this week.


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## AlbergSteve

@begreen , think I can see your plume from here!


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## begreen

'Bout time. I'm getting tired of sending all those smoke signals with no response.


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## DuaeGuttae

We had a little bit of rain on Monday, but the temperatures have been pretty warm.  The plants seem to be enjoying it, though I’m thankful it’s going to get a little cooler in coming days.  I just planted out more lettuce as well as some cauliflower and cabbage.  I was late starting those as I needed to get seeds.

The asparagus is coming up nicely.



We’ve had spring break this week, so the kids and I had time to paint the lids for the blueberry ollas.  I had rearranged the plants when they moved back to the cube so that the smaller ones got a bit more sun exposure, and I thought it would be helpful not to get the varieties mixed up to have the names on the olla lids.  Having them painted also helps water not to evaporate through the lid, I understand, but mostly I just wanted to let my seven year old label them for me.  (Her older sister helped.)




I’ve also had time just to walk around and look at buds on trees.  The mandarin orange is loaded, and the lime and lemons are also showing new growth.  The extended forecast isn’t showing any more cold (lowest temp at 54), so I’m hopeful we won’t have to do any more protecting or lose any more fruit to cold.  (We did lose peaches or cherries with our dip into the twenties a couple of weeks ago.)

I’m even debating setting out my tomatoes, but I haven’t committed yet.  They’re hardened off, but they’ve still got some room to grow as I hadn’t expected it to be quite so warm in March.  I’m also thinking of starting some cucumbers.


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## EatenByLimestone

Finally got my seeds in.  Will start them tomorrow.    Also have to trim the peach tree.


Noticed last Monday that the rabbits girdled the apple trees.  Sigh.


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## begreen

We're going to be chilled for the next week. May put the peas out, they are getting big.


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## AlbergSteve

Seventeen of the last 31 days saw freezing overnight temperatures, which is unusual for us - headed for -4 again tonight, and -4 to -2 for the next four days.


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## begreen

AlbergSteve said:


> Seventeen of the last 31 days saw freezing overnight temperatures, which is unusual for us - headed for -4 again tonight, and -4 to -2 for the next four days.


Yeah. High temp today of 37º and below freezing expected tonight.


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## EatenByLimestone

Got seeds started.  I usually plant cold stuff mid April.   Warm stuff later April.     

I'm going to do something different this year.  I've never gotten a good snap pea crop.  We go from too cold to too hot for them too quickly.  I started 36 plants today in a tray.  They'll get a good jump on my regular in ground planting.


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## EatenByLimestone

Got the old and dead brambles taken out.   They're ready to go when they decide to.   Half the peach tree was pruned.   Every year I feel like I chop too much off of it, but it seems to thrive with abuse.


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## begreen

I got a second batch of seeds started today. Mostly tomatoes and peppers. Will need to transplant the peas, spinach and lettuce as soon as this cold wave passes.


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## AlbergSteve

Change is around the corner, highs of 7 to 13C next week.


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## DuaeGuttae

Begreen and AlbergSteve must have sent the cold my way.  I planted out some tomatoes and peppers last week when the extended forecast looked warm.  I knew it was a risk, but I figured I could protect them if the forecast changed.  Sure enough, all of a sudden a forecast for temperatures in the 40s appeared for Friday night.  I started saving milk jugs in case I needed them.

We had thunderstorms and rain last night, and I woke up this morning to the temperatures at 55.  That’s the air temperature where I start to be concerned.  I know they’ll live, but the heat down in here in the summer means that you have to get tomatoes started early, in the ground early, and protect if temperatures get too cold.  They’ll live but apparently too low of temperatures can have an effect on the plants’ ability to photosynthesize even after the cold has passed.

I debated whether to use full-on frost cloth over wires or just the milk jugs I’d been saving.  I decided milk jugs would be easier, and the other plants in the bed could stay fully exposed to what rain we get.   I went down to the kitchen and discovered that my ten-year-old son had decided the recycling needed to be compressed and had smashed my milk jugs.  Thankfully he hadn’t done it very completely, and he restored them for me by blowing them up like balloons.  I ended up only using a few jugs and one empty coffee jar and a collection of pots, all of which I weighted down with limestone that sits around my garden in piles.  They’ll stay on tonight, through the day tomorrow (I don’t expect enough sun to cause problems with heat), and on for Saturday night as well.  After that temperatures warm back up again, even into the eighties during the day later in the week.  The plants will be happy.   (Well, the tomatoes and peppers will be happy.  The lettuce will put up with it.)

The citrus is all blossoming, and the peach tree has a good number of peaches set.  We lost some in a freeze, but thankfully it wasn’t the whole crop.  We may well lose any that do start ripening to squirrels as we did our first year here.  We have new neighbors with some outdoor cats that visit, though.  I’ve seen one cat in one tree where squirrels have been known to nest.  I wonder if it will make any difference.  Probably not.

Rain is in the forecast for tomorrow, so I doubt there will be gardening.  I need to add more compost to beds that haven’t been planted.  Meanwhile, my cucumbers inside are getting some tiny true leaves.  I’m also sprouting a couple of pimiento peppers with the thought that I might keep them indoors all summer.  They won’t mature before the real heat comes, and it will be an interesting experiment.


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## AlbergSteve

We had another hard frost this morning...


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## begreen

My day at the office in self-quarantine. Getting there. I put the peas and some of the spinach in the ground outside on Wed. So far it looks happy.


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## DuaeGuttae

@AlbergSteve, I guess you didn’t send all the cold my way then.  Do you have more seed starting adventures to share?

@begreen, that’s a great way to spend self-quarantine.  Can you share more photos of that greenhouse, please?

@BKVP, I read in another thread that you are starting a garden while quarantined at home.  Please come join us here.


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## BKVP

DuaeGuttae said:


> @AlbergSteve, I guess you didn’t send all the cold my way then.  Do you have more seed starting adventures to share?
> 
> @begreen, that’s a great way to spend self-quarantine.  Can you share more photos of that greenhouse, please?
> 
> @BKVP, I read in another thread that you are starting a garden while quarantined at home.  Please come join us here.


Well...I'm fairly certain that my expenditures for a raised garden could have fed us veggies for a decade....but I've never been good at investing!  This measures 40' x 30'.


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## begreen

Thanks for posting, Our major investment for raised beds was about $2500 8 yrs ago. They are cement, no rotting.
Your soil looks nice. How does one manage beds that deep?


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## BKVP

begreen said:


> Thanks for posting, Our major investment for raised beds was about $2500 8 yrs ago. They are cement, no rotting.
> How does one manage beds that deep?


Not certain.  We planted asparagus seeds last year...the grew into little spears popping up this year.  We have a friend with a huge greenhouse that wants to give us more stuff.  

So how do we grow blue agave plants?


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## BKVP

We do have, for past 10 years, 33 blueberry plants.  We harvest close to 50 gallons a year....in fact, I smell blueberry banana bread coming out of the oven.


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## begreen

BKVP said:


> Not certain.  We planted asparagus seeds last year...the grew into little spears popping up this year.  We have a friend with a huge greenhouse that wants to give us more stuff.
> 
> So how do we grow blue agave plants?


We used to harvest asparagus plants by the bag full growing wild along the roadside in some areas of Walla Walla.

Not sure how well blue agave plants will grow up here, but corn, rye, hops, grapes and barley do well.


----------



## BKVP

begreen said:


> We used to harvest asparagus plants by the bag full growing wild along the roadside in some areas of Walla Walla.
> 
> Not sure how well blue agave plants will grow up here, but corn, rye, hops, grapes and barley do well.


All good options for another consumable fluid.


----------



## AlbergSteve

DuaeGuttae said:


> @AlbergSteve, I guess you didn’t send all the cold my way then.  Do you have more seed starting adventures to share?
> 
> @begreen, that’s a great way to spend self-quarantine.  Can you share more photos of that greenhouse, please?
> 
> @BKVP, I read in another thread that you are starting a garden while quarantined at home.  Please come join us here.


Well, what we have started looks good. Peas went in the ground today. Was hoping to hit the garden hard this week but the forecast looks like showers all week, possible snow on Wednesday.



Might have to start another shelf.


----------



## EatenByLimestone

All seeds to be started early have been introduced to soil inside.

Then we got something like 7" of wet snow today.   

Sigh.


----------



## AlbergSteve

EatenByLimestone said:


> 7" of wet snow today.


Damn, that's depressing.


----------



## MTY

We have seeds started, but need to come up with a battle plan before they go in the ground.  Rabbits, turkeys, deer and the occasional bear and elk have to be dealt with.   This will be our first year planting at the new place and since we are not there full time the fencing will have to be top notch.  We will freeze overnight for at least another month.


----------



## DuaeGuttae

My three year old and I potted up a dozen cucumbers today.  They spent a few hours outside to start hardening, but I kept them out of the sun.  It got to the mid eighties today and is supposed to be similar the next three days.  The outside plants seem to enjoy it.  The seedlings looked happy, too, but I know I often underestimate the Texas sun in the spring so thought I’d better not push them.





Walking back to check on the mandarin orange was an absolute delight this afternoon.  Even before I heard the buzzing surrounding the tree, I could smell the fragrance of the flowers.  Closer in, it was like standing next to a beehive, except it was numerous species rather than just one.  I saw honeybees, bumblebees, sweat bees, and others I can’t really name.  There were also so many butterflies: numerous monarchs and red admirals, a couple tiger swallowtails, and one black swallowtail.  It was a pollinators’ paradise.

My husband and I measured the tree earlier this spring.  It has about an eighteen foot diameter, and it’s covered with blooms.  I really can’t capture a good shot of it, but here’s an idea.


----------



## DuaeGuttae

BKVP said:


> Not certain.  We planted asparagus seeds last year...the grew into little spears popping up this year.  We have a friend with a huge greenhouse that wants to give us more stuff.
> 
> So how do we grow blue agave plants?



Is your greenhouse friend trying to give you a blue agave, or you just want to start one? 

People grow lots of agave in our area, but I think it’s a native Texas variety that can survive zone 8.  We have a few “pups” in our backyard.  I assume there was once a large plant that flowered and died and left these behind.  I’ve never done anything but tried to avoid stepping on them.  The wisdom is that agave grows best with neglect, little cold, and little water.  If you really wanted to grow the tequila species in your zone, I think it would do best on the south side of you house with ample winter protection (keeping it in a pot with casters and moving it indoors or thinking about a pop-up greenhouse with lighting for heat in the winter.  You’d also want to be careful that the soil was not too heavy for it.  They don’t like to stand in water.

Thirty-three blueberry plants and fifty gallons of berries.  Wow!  With all the hunting and fishing you do, I’m beginning to think you must have multiple freezers.  Do you have any pictures of those plants?


----------



## BKVP

DuaeGuttae said:


> Is your greenhouse friend trying to give you a blue agave, or you just want to start one?
> 
> People grow lots of agave in our area, but I think it’s a native Texas variety that can survive zone 8.  We have a few “pups” in our backyard.  I assume there was once a large plant that flowered and died and left these behind.  I’ve never done anything but tried to avoid stepping on them.  The wisdom is that agave grows best with neglect, little cold, and little water.  If you really wanted to grow the tequila species in your zone, I think it would do best on the south side of you house with ample winter protection (keeping it in a pot with casters and moving it indoors or thinking about a pop-up greenhouse with lighting for heat in the winter.  You’d also want to be careful that the soil was not too heavy for it.  They don’t like to stand in water.
> 
> Thirty-three blueberry plants and fifty gallons of berries.  Wow!  With all the hunting and fishing you do, I’m beginning to think you must have multiple freezers.  Do you have any pictures of those plants?


I have 3 freezers.  2 are very large chest freezers.  The blueberries, halibut, elk take up most of the space.  As for the agave,  it was a side note to reflect my proclivity for collecting tequilas and bourbons. 

I'll post a picture once the blueberries have foliage...they are all budding right now.

My friend's greenhouse has dozens of different veggies and I'll be accepting his offer once the weather stabilizes here.


----------



## begreen

We are getting innovative and preparing for possible shortages. So far the crop looks promising, though I am concerned about rain setting them back. Do you think I should tent with remay fabric?


----------



## EatenByLimestone

Always wondered how they grew TP.


----------



## DuaeGuttae

begreen said:


> We are getting innovative and preparing for possible shortages. So far the crop looks promising, though I am concerned about rain setting them back. Do you think I should tent with remay fabric?
> 
> View attachment 258609



I really think that the spacing is a little too close there; you’re going to end up with a spindly crop.   There’s also too much competition from weeds.  Tenting with remay is probably wise but only after a little more attention to the soil conditions.  Thanks for the laugh, Begreen.  Can you send me some seeds?  I’ll need a crop in three weeks.  

On a real gardening note, I left my cucumbers in the wrong spot today, and they got too much sun for a bit.  I noticed them wilting and put them back inside.  They perked up immediately and don’t seem worse for wear.  Phew.  I’ll have to remember to put them on the table under the tree tomorrow, not the one that gets the noonday sun.  I think I’ll need to move my lettuce containers to more shade, too.

I’m already ready for the heat to move on its way.  I think it took out one of my cauliflower plants today and a pepper that never had really taken off after I transplanted it.  I had damaged the roots by accident, and I was pleased that it had hung in there for a couple of weeks, but 87 degrees and bright sun all afternoon was too much for it.  I think I got too much on the back of my neck today, too.  Time to pull out my wide-brimmed hat.


----------



## begreen

DuaeGuttae said:


> I really think that the spacing is a little too close there; you’re going to end up with a spindly crop. There’s also too much competition from weeds. Tenting with remay is probably wise but only after a little more attention to the soil conditions. Thanks for the laugh, Begreen. Can you send me some seeds? I’ll need a crop in three weeks.


Do you want the seeds pre-fertilized or will you do that yourself?


----------



## EatenByLimestone

Finished trimming the peach tree.  I got the kid to earn her keep a little cleaning the branches while I tackled the garden that got away from me last year.     It's going to take some sweat to get it back in shape.   

A nice surprise is some garlic I planted 2 years ago is coming up.  Some Egyptian onions are coming up too.  It looks like a good deal succumbed to allelopathy, but some survived.


----------



## AlbergSteve

@begreen , like us you probably ordered or bought ahead of time all the seeds you'd need for the spring. Our local garden shops and every other shop in between has been cleaned out. Shops that do have seed stock are limiting to 10 packs.


Amaranth and lime beans left...

We decided to advertise chicks and hatching eggs for sale this year, the demand is overwhelming - inbox full of emails of people looking for poultry of every description.
One exchange:
Her: I'd like   chicks/pullets/hens/layers.
Me: Everything is sold.
Her: I'll take what ever you have.
Me: I have a few five year old hens and rooster, for free, you'll get an egg or two a week
Her: When can I pick them up.









						America Stress-Bought All the Baby Chickens (Published 2020)
					

In times of anxiety, we hoard the sources of eggs.




					www.nytimes.com


----------



## begreen

I got the seeds we need, but I also buy started plants for those items we only grow a few of. These are grown by local nurseries. I like supporting their businesses. This is going to be doubly important if local farmer's markets remain shut down.


----------



## EatenByLimestone

I buy started broccoli.


----------



## DuaeGuttae

My cucumbers had a big day yesterday in that they made it through an afternoon of Texas sun.  They had an even bigger night in that I forgot about them when I had planned to bring them in since it was dropping to the 40s.  Oh well.

Since they held their own so well, I decided to get them in the garden today.  Our neighbors had recently amended their garden beds with some aged manure compost they had delivered.  They ended up with lots left over and kindly let us have it.    It took some work with shovels, buckets, and a big wheelbarrow, but we added compost to the beds that hadn’t been planted, filled up the asparagus bed a bit more, and top dressed all the other beds.  Additionally we have extra compost stored in a large bag in our garage.   I noticed this afternoon that my three year old’s skin is getting a bit darker, his hair a bit lighter.  He spends the most time with me in the garden.

We’re supposed to have cooler weather (during the days) with a possibility of storms for the next four days.  I’d be glad for the rain.  I hope there’s no hail.


----------



## EatenByLimestone

I never worried a out 40 as a low temp.  I guess it's all perspective.  We have such a short growing season I try to get tomatoes in the ground when nights are still 40.  I toss a flipped over clear bin over them when I worry about a frost.  It's like a mini greenhouse. 

It's kind of like farming on the us/ canada border.  On the us side, nobody wants to farm as it is too cold.   Flip across the border and it's the most southern land they've got!


----------



## BKVP

2 year Asparagus starts shipping today!  It snowed here this morning.  About to plant seeds this weekend.  2 weeks from now, should be no lows below 45.....finger crossed.


----------



## EatenByLimestone

Plant the seeds!     Itll take a few days for them to sprout.   If it gets too cold, lay a sheet over them!


----------



## BKVP

Thanks! Usually about 1-2 weeks to sprout...


----------



## DuaeGuttae

EatenByLimestone said:


> I never worried a out 40 as a low temp.  I guess it's all perspective.  We have such a short growing season I try to get tomatoes in the ground when nights are still 40.  I toss a flipped over clear bin over them when I worry about a frost.  It's like a mini greenhouse.
> 
> It's kind of like farming on the us/ canada border.  On the us side, nobody wants to farm as it is too cold.   Flip across the border and it's the most southern land they've got!



The bigger worry down here is definitely high temperatures.  I didn’t realize that when I first moved here and tried planting a small garden.   I had been expecting a nice long garden season, and it was pretty disappointing to learn that it was too hot for my tomatoes and cucumbers to pollinate.    The heat means that instead of one long growing season, there are actually two short ones on either side of the hottest months.   It means putting plants in as early as one can and then protecting them.  That sounds like what you’re saying you have to do in your northern climate as well.  

My temperatures in the 40s the other night weren’t even at the lower end, but it was the coldest my little seedlings had seen.  I had been hardening them off for a while, but I had concentrated more on their acclimation to sun and wind.  They’re looking great in the garden now, but they had a whole day of temperatures in the 60s and mist/light rain.  Perfect.

I realized yesterday that I had completely forgotten to start sweet potato slips.  I spent time in the morning gathering more compost from the neighbors’ leftovers (with permission) and saw where they had had sand dumped the previous summer for a project.  That reminded me, and I got some sand as well.  The plan is to harvest our garlic and shallots in May and plant sweet potatoes in that bed.   I figure that’s a good crop for the Texas heat.


----------



## begreen

Lettuce starts are moving from 4" pots to outdoors today. All potatoes and onions are now in the ground. We have our annual strawberries (Shucksan) in the ground, but still waiting on the Tri-Stars. First asparagus are starting to poke out. Won't be long now.


----------



## Montanalocal

I do not grow lettuce, but I do grow spinach.  However, I do not plant it or start it.  I let my old spinach go to seed in the late summer and scatter volunteer seed.  It comes up in the late fall and overwinters quite well for me here in central Montana at 5,000 ft. elevation.  This is some of my volunteer spinach coming up.  Of course it will have to be drastically thinned.  I am eating spinach by the time some people are planting it.  A friend of mine does the same with his leaf lettuce and it overwinters quite well also.


----------



## AlbergSteve

We were starting to worry that we wouldn't find seed potatoes, every shop has been cleaned out of everything and most have closed. One last try yesterday at our local feed store and they just put out a couple hundred pounds of seed potatoes so I got 30 pounds. Satina, Jennifer, Norland, Warba, and Yukon Gold.
We still have potatoes in the ground from last year and thought we might have to dig them up and replant!


----------



## semipro

I called the independent local nursery where we usually buy veggie plants and they said they wouldn't have tomatoes and other summer plants out until mid-May, our historical last frost date.  I think they're missing the mark.  Given climate change I've been planting summer plants a month or more early the last several years without a problem, just earlier, longer harvests.  We haven't had freezing temps here in several weeks and none are forecast.


----------



## Gearhead660

Finally warm and dry enough to start working the garden.  Did the first tilling today.  Gotta plan out what we will grow.  Should have seeds in the ground in a couple weeks.


----------



## EatenByLimestone

Ugh.  Snow expected tomorrow.     Not sure how much.   Broccoli might get beaten on a but, but should come back.

I dont think anything else has sprouted that was planted outside.  

The aloe and rosemary was moved back inside.


----------



## EatenByLimestone

My seed potatoes and onions were held back again.  They won't be shipped until the end of April.   I cant see myself ordering from Gurnseys ever again.   

The seed potatoes I kept from last year are already in the ground.  I just wanted more Yukon Golds.


----------



## AlbergSteve

West Coast Seeds has gone to working 24 hours a day to fill orders and delivery times are 30 to 45 days. They are seeing about ten times their normal demand.


----------



## DuaeGuttae

I’ve been noticing a lot of companies have even stopped taking orders because they can’t fill them fast enough right now.

I had a bit of a shock this morning when I checked my garden.  Something had eaten off a lot of beet greens and pulled up others out of the ground.  Almost all my tomatoes had some part eaten, and one cucumber was just a stalk.  There were what looked like paw prints in the asparagus and some damage there, but for the most part it looked okay.  I go to my garden every morning to check on it, do whatever may be necessary, and just for a lift for my spirits.  This morning was not so uplifting.

Our fencing is not completely secure, but it had seemed to be working.  The eating pattern seemed that it could have been a deer, but the tracks looked like very large paw prints.  It was kind of strange.  My husband put mesh over the front gate where rabbits could have entered.  If a deer is willing to jump into such a crowded space, I’m not sure we will be able to keep it out. 


Here’s what the garden looked like this morning.  It’s still growing, and a number of plants were undamaged. 





Here’s a tomato that got partially eaten and the one cucumber that was damaged.  Maybe the animal decided it didn’t prefer that flavor since eleven more seemed unharmed.




Because I was sad about my garden, my seven-year-old daughter walked around with me to find happy things.  There are some flowers on one of my overwintered peppers (but the picture was blurry), and the blueberries and peaches are coming along nicely.  We also got a touch of rain and more is in the forecast.  I just don’t want hail.


----------



## EatenByLimestone

Yeah, I imagine lots of people are thinking of victory gardens.   Not a bad thing, except when the normal gardeners have their orders held back.


----------



## EatenByLimestone

If its deer, you may need 7 ft fences.    I doubt you'd need to go the full 10 ft since you shouldn't need to worry about snow.


----------



## DuaeGuttae

EatenByLimestone said:


> If its deer, you may need 7 ft fences.    I doubt you'd need to go the full 10 ft since you shouldn't need to worry about snow.



We got the fences to slightly above six feet all around today fastened quite securely.  I don’t think we can go any higher, but the whole garden area is small enough and crowded enough that that should deter deer.   (Our whole back yard has only four foot fencing around it, but it’s very rare that a deer will ever jump into that area, even though I see them leap four-foot fences in open areas with ease.  When I do see a deer back there, I go out and find that someone has left a gate open.)  We had expanded our garden space this year, and had rabbit fencing all around the new area and some temporary panels and wire to make it higher, but there were some gaps and weaknesses.  We’re still not sure that it was a deer (those prints in the asparagus didn’t look like hooves, but what big creature with paws is going to eat greens?), but it needed to be protected better against them because this area has a huge population of white tails, so it’s done now.  We definitely do not need to worry about snow (sadly).

The plants actually looked pretty good this morning.  I have an extra German Orange Strawberry tomato in the house, and that’s the one tomato plant that was killed outright.  I can plant it out after we get through a cold snap next week.   I’m not sure what the other tomatoes that were essentially topped in their adolescence will do now, but I’ll let them grow since I don’t have replacements for them, and they look pretty good despite their haircuts.  I’ll be interested to see if the cucumber stalk sprouts any new leaves.  If it doesn’t, I have a container variety that I’ve been hardening off that I can put in its place.


----------



## semipro

EatenByLimestone said:


> Yeah, I imagine lots of people are thinking of victory gardens.   Not a bad thing, except when the normal gardeners have their orders held back.


"Normal Gardeners"? 
I get your point though.  Apparently it's hard to get chickens right now too - fair weather farmers.


----------



## semipro

I put in some cold-hardy plants and one tomato plant, hoping for the best.  
I woke up this morning to snow but the little "Early Girl" seemed unfazed.  
I put a bucket over her tonight - dreaming of early tomatoes.


----------



## EatenByLimestone

Early tomatoes are wonderful!


----------



## AlbergSteve

Things are starting to dry up, good time for tilling the fall rye...


----------



## AlbergSteve

EatenByLimestone said:


> Early tomatoes are wonderful!


ANY tomato is wonderful!  Haven't grown these in about five years because seeds have been hard to find. But I found some in Ontario (Greta's Organic Seeds) and a small mom and pop farm in PA, http://store.happycatorganics.com. I've ordered from both so I'll have lots of seeds for this year and next.
These are my all time favorite for fresh eating, salads and sandwiches. Sweet and lots of acid for zing!









						Auriga
					

Happy Cat Farm now is a small sustainably operated Farm and Nursery that specializes in heirloom vegetable seeds, over 200 varieties of tomatoes, produce and heirloom transplants.




					store.happycatorganics.com


----------



## begreen

DuaeGuttae said:


> We got the fences to slightly above six feet all around today fastened quite securely. I don’t think we can go any higher, but the whole garden area is small enough and crowded enough that that should deter deer. (Our whole back yard has only four foot fencing around it, but it’s very rare that a deer will ever jump into that area, even though I see them leap four-foot fences in open areas with ease. When I do see a deer back there, I go out and find that someone has left a gate open.)


For years I thought that when deer got into one of our gardens that it had jumped the fence. I kept making it higher, but every once in a while they got in. It was finally when I had to chase one out (very gently or they ruin the fence) that I saw how they were getting in. They weren't jumping the fence, they were belly-crawling, commando-style, under the fence. Since then I have either put in a low perimeter wire that is firmly anchored to the ground. Or for our smaller upper garden I added a 4' metal fencing over the heavy 7' poly fence. That has stopped entry in to our gardens now for several years. Raccoons, however, are another issue.


----------



## EatenByLimestone

Michigan Gov. Whitmer Under Fire For Order Closing Gardening Sections Of Large Stores, Banning Gatherings ‘Of Any Size’ [Corrected] | The Daily Wire
					






					www.dailywire.com


----------



## begreen

WTH? She deserves to be called out on that one.


----------



## DuaeGuttae

I couldn’t read the exact article linked above but found another and was pretty shocked.   (Car seats not essential?  Tell that to a pregnant lady!). I told my 83-year-old mother who has grown just about all her fruits and vegetables for the past four decades and more about a ban on buying seeds, and she got a little feisty.  She doesn’t live in Michigan, though, and she has most of her vegetables started, though she hasn’t been able to get red onion sets.

@begreen, that story about a commando-crawling deer made me laugh.  I had not thought about that mode of entry, but I watch for signs of rabbits or armadillos coming in.  We have a wire rabbit fence on the bottom row, but our big metal gate is covered with poly mesh.  We know it’s a weakness, but it definitely helped last year. 

@EatenByLimestone, here’s a picture of one of my coddled tomatoes.  Temperatures are supposed to be in the low forties for the next four nights, so my husband helped me cover the four garden beds that have tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers with frost cloth just to keep the air temperature a bit warmer.  A couple tomatoes have the beginnings of blooms, so I’m babying them.




Here’s a picture of a passionflower that bloomed today.  This is a native Texas variety often called a Maypop.  It has been blooming just about every day for a week or two, but it grows on a huge arched trellis, and I can’t usually get a good picture as the flowers are over my head.  I noticed this one lower down today and thought folks might enjoy seeing it.


----------



## EatenByLimestone

I remember the passion flowers when I lived in houston.   

I just bumped my San Marzano tomato starts into old chinese food soup containers so they are buried to get a better root system.


----------



## EatenByLimestone

Yeah, cant see how buying plantlets or seeds is a bad thing.    In a month the plants will be producing food and keeping people out of the grocery stores.  Budgets are stretched enough already.  A package of pole bean seeds will feed a whole street.


----------



## begreen

DuaeGuttae said:


> I couldn’t read the exact article linked above but found another and was pretty shocked.   (Car seats not essential?  Tell that to a pregnant lady!). I told my 83-year-old mother who has grown just about all her fruits and vegetables for the past four decades and more about a ban on buying seeds, and she got a little feisty.  She doesn’t live in Michigan, though, and she has most of her vegetables started, though she hasn’t been able to get red onion sets.


A few years ago I've bought a case of onions from these folks in Texas. They were Red Zeppelins, but these are meant for long day areas like us, not Texas. The starts were very good quality. Nice people and a good product. They know their onions!




__





						Home - Dixondale Farms
					

Order with confidence.Mix and match true varieties.




					www.dixondalefarms.com


----------



## EatenByLimestone

I'll have to remember them.  

I'm not happy with the people I ordered my onions from this year.


----------



## DuaeGuttae

Thanks, @begreen, for the recommendations on onions.  I’ll tell my mother.

We had a cold and windy night last night, and I was surprised to see one of my potted blueberries blown over this morning.   It must have been a pretty strong gust. Thankfully there was no major damage to the plant or pot.

I couldn’t edit my comment above in response to the seed buying ban where I included a reference to car seats, but for accuracy’s sake, I want to note that Governor Whitmer said today that her order does not forbid buying car seats for children.  I’m sorry for the tangent on the gardening thread, but I did not want to leave misinformation out there.

Back to gardening, our vegetable at dinner tonight was salad from the containers on our back deck.  It was supposed to be cooked radish greens, but things got away from me in the kitchen, and I scorched them.  I was glad to have something else growing with which to improvise.  The salads were small, but at least there was enough for six of us.  The leaves were a combination of Winter Density, Green Ice, and a variety that a Moroccan man grows in my mother’s garden.  We don’t know what it is, so we just call it Moroccan lettuce.


----------



## EatenByLimestone

Can you post a pic of the Moroccan lettuce?

I just read an article saying seed companies are suspending taking orders due to demand.


----------



## DuaeGuttae

I think that is from about a month ago.  The “Moroccan Lettuce” is the container on the right, though I think I dropped a Green Ice seed when I was germinating them, and it’s the crinkly-leaved one in the front.    (The container on the left has Green Ice in the front and Winter Density in the back.). I cut off a lot of leaves for our salad the other night, so this gives a better idea of the look of the plant even though they’re smaller.  I’m growing them in containers so that I can move them into more and more shade as spring progresses.


----------



## EatenByLimestone

It reminds me of a spinnach!


----------



## EatenByLimestone

Jumped the shark putting in the watermelon and pumpkins.  Tonight and last night I covered them with contractor bags.      We are down into the low 30s.   Oops, lol.


----------



## begreen

DuaeGuttae said:


> think that is from about a month ago. The “Moroccan Lettuce” is the container on the right, though I think I dropped a Green Ice seed when I was germinating them, and it’s the crinkly-leaved one in the front.


What is Moroccan lettuce? I did a google search and just came up with salad ideas and recipes.


----------



## DuaeGuttae

begreen said:


> What is Moroccan lettuce? I did a google search and just came up with salad ideas and recipes.



“Moroccan Lettuce” is simply the name our family uses for a variety of leaf lettuce that we grow, the original seeds of which came from Morocco.  We don’t know the actual variety.  It could be something fairly standard here in the States, but we call it Moroccan Lettuce because of how we came to have the seeds.  

My mother has worked a small family farm for well over four decades.  She’s always gardened, but she also raised milk and beef cattle, chickens, bees, and sheep over the years.   A number of years ago, a Moroccan man stopped by her house to inquire about buying a lamb, and he took a great interest in my mother’s garden.  He had been a farmer in Morocco but had immigrated to the U.S. with his wife, and they were living in an apartment with no place to have a garden.  He had seeds from his home, and my mother let him use extra space in her garden to grow some crops for his family.  (Little did she know the first year just how much his variety of squash would spread!)  This lettuce is from what he used to grow in her garden.  I believe that he owns a home now with his own garden space, but he and his family still visit my mom on occasion.

This is the first time I’ve managed to grow any of the lettuce.  My mother gave me seeds she had saved when we moved to Texas a couple of years ago.  We tried planting lettuce our first fall, but I found it difficult to germinate seeds outside down here.  The sun just dries the top of the soil so quickly.  I didn’t try lettuce last year at all.  This year I started several varieties of lettuce inside and planted it out in containers.  We’ve managed to have a couple of salads out of it so far.

All the lettuce pictured above was from seeds we already had when we moved to this new (hot) gardening zone.  This year I’m trying a new type as well that comes recommended by extension agents and Texas publications.  It’s called “Crawford Reseeding Lettuce.”  The trick was I couldn’t find any seeds locally, and it isn’t very common online either.  I did get a packet of seeds this winter from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange (along with some Hill Country Okra that I’m looking forward to planting when it’s warmer).  I have a little growing in one of my garden beds now (though I found that a massive caterpillar had been chowing down on what had been the biggest plant  other day).  I’ll be interested to see how it does when the heat kicks in.


----------



## begreen

Try a shade netting cover to filter out the sun over cooler crops like broccoli, spinach and lettuce.


----------



## DuaeGuttae

begreen said:


> Try a shade netting cover to filter out the sun over cooler crops like broccoli, spinach and lettuce.



We do have shade cloth for a little later in the summer.  My plants might have wanted it today, though.  Last week was cool and gray all week with temperatures in the lower forties at night until Thursday.  Yesterday wasn’t as cold, but even the daytime temperature didn’t get above 60.  Today was bright and sunny, and I saw 88 on the thermometer.  My plants looked a bit wilted in the heat of the day despite having moist soil.  I think today was the highest, but it’s supposed to be a hot week.  I suppose the tomatoes and peppers will be happy, and I can think about planting corn and okra soon.

@begreen, @EatenByLimestone, @AlbergSteve, and any other fruit growers who care to share wisdom, how do I most reasonably protect peaches from squirrels?  We have a decent crop set on the tree, and I’d like to get some of them at least for our family.  I have extra bird netting and was thinking of trying to wrap part of the tree, but I’m not sure I can really do that.  I’ve also read of some kind of bag that goes around fruit, but I’ve never had experience with anything like that.  I was wondering if you all had any advice.  (I am hopeful that a new neighbor’s three cats who visit might help us a bit, but I figure I should take my own steps.)


----------



## begreen

BB gun will give the message.


----------



## AlbergSteve

We have a lot of invasive Eastern Grey Squirrels and they are voracious.  What I've done with with my bird feeders is placed a metal collar/disk about 16 inches in diameter on the post at least four feet above the ground. You may try that with the trees if they're not too close to each other. I've watched them jump vertically 3 1/2 feet to get on a feeder.  Small live traps with nuts work well.


----------



## EatenByLimestone

The first hint that the squirrels are ready to nibble on fruit, you've got to trap them out.   Here's what I use...









						WCS™ Tube Trap™ - Standard
					

WCS™ Tube Trap™ - Standard from Wildlife Control Supplies




					www.wildlifecontrolsupplies.com
				




If I dont get to them within a day or 2, they'll strip the tree.


----------



## begreen

I've used a medium-sized Hav-a-hart using peanut butter.


----------



## DuaeGuttae

I’ve been giving some thought to the various suggestions (except the one about keeping them out of the tree since it’s growing alongside a fence corner and underneath an oak tree) and I’m pretty sure that I’m not going to be shooting or trapping.  I was surprised to learn that wildlife relocation is legal under certain conditions in Texas (it was not in Virginia), but there’s no one from whom I’m going to seek written permission to deliver squirrels to their property.

Last year we had no peaches set because of late freezes.  The year before was our first spring here, and we had lots of peaches, and we never saw the squirrels near them.  Little did we know that they were lulling us into a false sense of security.  One morning in May just as the peaches were getting close to picking, we went out, and there was one single peach left.  That was it.

This year the crop is smaller (and the tree is smaller), but the peaches are growing and coloring up a bit.  They’re not close to ripe, so I know the squirrels are biding their time, too.  I was thinking of trying to put mesh bags (like the kind that store onions) around some of the fruit to save some.  I wonder if the squirrels will just chew or tear right through them.

On a happier note, I had to thin some beets today, so we had a nice side dish of greens and beetroot at our midday meal today.


----------



## EatenByLimestone

I always liked beer seeds.   They always looked like pieces of cork to me, lol.


----------



## EatenByLimestone

Beet


----------



## AlbergSteve

Where can I find beer seeds, *where*!


----------



## EatenByLimestone

Lol.  The question we've all asked ourselves!


----------



## begreen

Make 'em hoppy!




__





						Hop Plants for Sale | Grow Your Own Hops at Home - Burpee
					

Grow your own Centennial, Chinook, Mount Hood or Cascade Hops in your garden. A favorite for home brewers! Burpee




					www.burpee.com


----------



## semipro

I transplanted a bunch of tomatoes and peppers from containers to the garden this evening since further freezes are unlikely.  
I continue to wonder why I used to spend so much time tilling and prepping my garden every year.  
We've gone no-till for about 10 years in our raised beds and I  really appreciate the decreased workload.  We plant, mulch, and then top with lots of organic matter at the end of the season, then repeat again the following season.  Sometimes I'll take a fork and turn the soil a bit in early spring, but not often.  We add only compost and wood ash for nutrients. 
Meanwhile, the rototiller sits in the barn.


----------



## EatenByLimestone

I've been no till for about 9.    It was pure laziness at first, then I started reading up on it and it became my way.  

I woke up to 25F this morning.     I'm ready for sun!


----------



## Sawset

After working with relative recent garden beds, that have gotten more and more weedy, year by year - this year, it's compost raised strips, with untilled paths between. Should be able to be like year 1, with very little weed seed load, and very little carry over. We'll see. About a month before plants are set out. Beets are in (compost strips). Potatoes are in. Seedlings are started.


----------



## begreen

I've started moving these babies outside for hardening off.


----------



## DuaeGuttae

I planted out the last few seedlings I had today: container tomatoes, a cutting of purple basil I had rooted, and some pimientos that I put in pots so that I can more easily overwinter them if they survive the summer.  Two of my peppers that I dug up last fall made it through the winter in the garage, and they are blooming nicely now.  (The water trough was left behind by previous owners, and it has plenty of drainage holes rusted through in the bottom.  I also have an abundance of pots from them and from former neighbors who gave me all their plants when they moved.)  These are late for transplanting around here.  Some of my other tomatoes have a few flowers, and the Glacier that got chomped by “Mr. Mystery Beast” has a couple tiny fruits.





Yesterday I planted out corn and okra seeds and gave the entire garden a good soaking.  Our rain tank is running low, so it took a while, but the plants needed some extra fortification to face the 94 degree day and bright sunshine.  Thankfully this weekend is cooler.

When I walked back to the backyard after watering my seeds this morning, I found a gnawed peach on the gate by the peach tree.  I decided that today was the day to implement peach protection, and I needed to make due with what was on hand.  I had a few mesh produce bags and some laundry bags, so I protected some clusters of peaches on individual branches that way.  My husband helped me secure some bird netting around a portion of the tree.  The squirrels have plenty of unsecured fruit (including hundreds of ripe loquats in another part of the yard). I hope they’ll be at least somewhat deterred by my attempts to get some peaches.


----------



## begreen

Tomatoes and cukes are in the ground. I have backups in case they don't make it, but the one tomato I put out last week is doing well so far.  I will see how they do and continue with more soon. Good luck kids. More to come.


----------



## Sawset

mcdougy said:


> Would anyone be interested in renting a garden plot?  I'm wondering how many people are thinking this way? May be a source of income as I realize in suburbia it's not always an option. 100$ a season for a plot 5' x 20' ?


Equals $43,560 /acre.  Going rate here is around $135 / ac.
Maybe time to sign up for farmer/producer direct to the consumer.
I've been ordering garden seeds for decades from Jungs out of Randolf WI.  This year they were sold out of a lot of my go to things, and still haven't shipped an order that's a month old.  Can't recall any of that happening before.  I have seeds left over from last year, so I'm kind of good to go, but will be changing tactics for next year.


----------



## EatenByLimestone

Potatoes and onion starts haven't shipped from an early February order for me.     I'm ticked.


----------



## mcdougy

That's what I'm hearing/thinking....a large uptick in vegetable gardens. Considering it would be an extremely low input start up, it could prove a viable option. If it didn't work out I wouldn't be out much at all and could rent it back to the farmer...here the going rate is about 225-300 a acre. We have 33 workable on this 50 acre farm. I think 100 a plot sounds reasonable?  I would need to supply a water source from my well.    Or would you think less or more?


----------



## Sawset

In the past, I could bring up my account at Jungs, pick on past ordered items and hit reorder.  This year my account was mysteriously gone.  Decades of history gone too.  Recreating with the same username and password made a fresh account from scratch.  Hmm.  Must have had a crash or account breach or something.
They did send the taters last week.  No onions yet, and no seeds.  They are just down the road (45mi) so I could just drive in and pick the things up - maybe.  Usually they speedy delivery it all in a couple days.


----------



## begreen

Sawset said:


> In the past, I could bring up my account at Jungs, pick on past ordered items and hit reorder.  This year my account was mysteriously gone.  Decades of history gone too.  Recreating with the same username and password made a fresh account from scratch.  Hmm.  Must have had a crash or account breach or something.
> They did send the taters last week.  No onions yet, and no seeds.  They are just down the road (45mi) so I could just drive in and pick the things up - maybe.  Usually they speedy delivery it all in a couple days.


They are probably a bit overwhelmed with orders this year and perhaps a bit short-handed too.


----------



## DuaeGuttae

begreen said:


> Tomatoes and cukes are in the ground. I have backups in case they don't make it, but the one tomato I put out last week is doing well so far.  I will see how they do and continue with more soon. Good luck kids. More to come.
> 
> View attachment 259753
> View attachment 259752


Those look like some nice transplants, Begreen.  What are the light-colored speckles on top of the soil?  I know at my house they would be bits of eggshell from our homemade compost that hadn’t yet broken down, but I’m wondering what it is in your garden.  My screen won’t let me get a good enough look.

Some of our cucumbers have started blossoming.  Unfortunately it looks like some early heat is coming this weekend.  It could be a bad year for my garden if it gets too hot too soon.  It’s also very dry right now.


----------



## begreen

Yes, those specks are eggshell fragments from the compost.

Corn is in the ground. I sprouted it first. Will it be knee-high by 4th of July? Hope so.


----------



## Sawset

begreen said:


> They are probably a bit overwhelmed with orders this year and perhaps a bit short-handed too.


The rest of the order showed up yesterday. Later than usual, but not bad. Frosty night last night, and a good chance of more of that for the next couple weeks, so only tolerant things can go in at the moment.


----------



## begreen

Beware of garden trolls.


----------



## begreen

Sawset said:


> The rest of the order showed up yesterday. Later than usual, but not bad. Frosty night last night, and a good chance of more of that for the next couple weeks, so only tolerant things can go in at the moment.


Our first order of strawberries (Shuksans) came in quickly and are looking great. But the second order for Tristars from another place never showed and I had to put in a different order from another place. They just went in the ground early this week, which for us is very late.


----------



## DuaeGuttae

begreen said:


> Yes, those specks are eggshell fragments from the compost.
> 
> Corn is in the ground. I sprouted it first. Will it be knee-high by 4th of July? Hope so.



What do you do to sprout your corn before planting?  Just wet paper towels or something else?

My son and I planted corn about 9 days ago, and two sprouts have popped up in just a couple of days but nothing else since then.  We planted okra the same day, and just this morning I saw the first three sprouts.  I’m hoping that the next few hot days will really encourage both crops.  I wanted to plant another round of corn in another week or so.

Our cucumbers seem to be doing well.  They are climbing their trellises and flowering.  I was surprised to see a baby cucumber this morning.


----------



## Sawset

We have 13line ground squirrels here, (not moles, not burrowing gophers). They multiply exponentially. Soon, I can get sweet corn planted. But staggering after that gets anniliated by all the rodents - they dig after the seeds till they're goon.  Seedlings are like flags - dig here, seed below.  Have struggled, no solution yet.


----------



## begreen

DuaeGuttae said:


> What do you do to sprout your corn before planting? Just wet paper towels or something else?


I put them in a small glass jar and soak them for 24 hrs. Then I dump out the water and leave the lid just loose on the top. Rinse with fresh water every 8 hrs. In a few days, they will be sprouting. Plant before the root sprout gets too long.


----------



## begreen

Sawset said:


> We have 13line ground squirrels here, (not moles, not burrowing gophers). They multiply exponentially. Soon, I can get sweet corn planted. But staggering after that gets anniliated by all the rodents - they dig after the seeds till they're goon.  Seedlings are like flags - dig here, seed below.  Have struggled, no solution yet.


Can you lay hardware cloth over the rows until they have sprouted about an inch?


----------



## Sawset

begreen said:


> Can you lay hardware cloth over the rows until they have sprouted about an inch?


I did that lately (chicken wire laid flat) to keep the chickens from scratching, and that worked great. Trouble with the gophers is that the corn can be 2-3" high, and they'll go after it for whatever seed is left. This year I'll try some form of hardware cloth. It seems like physically keeping them out is the only way, because eliminating one means one more waiting. They're everywhere. I remember setting a box trap once, and I caught 8 little ones all at once before the trap tripped shut. They were all in there.


----------



## DuaeGuttae

begreen said:


> I put them in a small glass jar and soak them for 24 hrs. Then I dump out the water and leave the lid just loose on the top. Rinse with fresh water every 8 hrs. In a few days, they will be sprouting. Plant before the root sprout gets too long.



That sounds very much like what I do in my cooking.  I sometimes sprout chickpeas for making hummus.  I  often sprout our einkorn wheat berries and dry them before grinding into flour.  Tonight’s dinner is sprouted einkorn tabbouleh.






The parsley is from the plants I started last spring that overwintered in the garden.   They haven’t shown signs of going to seed yet, but we’ve had some (too) hot weather for a few days, and the leaves were getting a bit crispy.  Thankfully it has cooled back down to the 80’s today, but I harvested a bunch of parsley this morning.  I figure after this I’ll let it grow and go to seed.  I started new plants this year as well.

I don’t know if you can see them, Begreen, but in the upper righthand corner of the einkorn picture, there’s a corner of my jar with sprouting corn kernels.  I was thinking that my corn might not be germinating because the seed might not be viable (it’s three years old—longer than recommended).  It seems to be sprouting very well in the jar, though, and today four more shoots have appeared outside.  Maybe I’m just being too impatient, but I’m glad to know this technique.  I might try it with my okra seeds, too, if I don’t see more germination soon.


----------



## EatenByLimestone

DuaeGuttae said:


> Our cucumbers seem to be doing well.  They are climbing their trellises and flowering.  I was surprised to see a baby cucumber this morning.



The female flower has a baby cuke at its base.


----------



## DuaeGuttae

I had nine new corn sprouts in the garden today.  I definitely attribute that to the pre-sprouting.  Thanks, @begreen.  I am soaking okra seeds now.

Most of the day today was spent planning and accomplishing getting the condensate drain from a new air conditioning system that we had installed last fall (replacing the twenty-three-year-old one that died) to tie into another drain where we had set up an “aqueduct” that leads into a rain barrel.  The new system should produce a lot of water once it gets miserably hot here in Texas, and I need to collect every drop of it to keep my blueberries watered.  It’s been so dry here that our numerous barrels and tanks (5 ranging from 35 to 500 gallons) are pretty much dry.  Our tap water has such high calcium and alkalinity that I would really only use it on the blueberries if I had no other choice.

While I was watering in some soil acidifier to the blueberries this afternoon, I knocked a dark blue berry loose.  We have a number that look ripe, but I’m waiting.  They need to be ripe enough to fall off with just a tickle (or inadvertent elbow from the aquaria).  I gave this one to my seven year old who needed a little cheering, and it was lovely to watch her pop it in her mouth, chew it up, and see the joy suffuse her face.  I got a big hug.  Now the trick will be to keep the kids from trying to eat them prematurely.


----------



## begreen

Good deal. Our corn is all poking up from the ground too. It's off to a good start. Almost all of our plants are in the ground now. The tomatoes have perked up and the cukes are climbing. 

Good idea to capture the condensate from the AC.


----------



## MTY

I am not sure if I did well enough, but I spent Sunday and Monday building fence around the garden.  32X48 with a post at each corner, one every 16', two extra support posts at each corner, a t post in the center of every 16' section and field fence buried around the perimeter.  The posts are 4" peeler posts 8' long, buried 2.5'.  There are 16' sections of 4' high horse fencing above the 26" field fence.  The fence is 5.5' high.  I am mostly concerned with the deer mowing the garden down.  

I have a rainbird set in the center with a timer to auto water.  Two days of this kicked my butt, so I took today off, ordered kitchen cabinets and went to work for a while.


----------



## DuaeGuttae

We’ve finally had rain.  I think it’s been four inches this week.  We’ve collected probably more than 800 gallons in our tanks, so I’m happy, and the garden is happy.

Here’s a shot of a glacier tomato plant that has really surprised me with the fruit it has set so far.  I had the seeds from before I moved to Texas, and I wouldn’t have picked it for this climate, but it‘s impressing me so far.




Here’s where we first planted corn.  You can see the difference in the shoots that first came up, and the second round, though I think some of the first round came up, too, because we’ve had extras, so to speak.  You can see a tiny corner of the last batch of beets we harvested and ate today and can perhaps make out the garlic and shallots that we also dug.  I don’t know that they were anything to write home about, but they’re curing now, and we’ll enjoy them. 



This is a view from through the back fence over the new asparagus bed toward the rows of tomatoes and cucumbers.  The asparagus is sending up a third round of shoots, and these guys are thicker, so it seems that we’re doing okay.




We’ll probably harvest a small crop of blueberries tomorrow.


----------



## begreen

Thanks for sharing the shots. It all looks great! You are over a month ahead of us. Our corn is just about 1.5" tall and our cukes have just started climbing. We do have a few cucumbers setting in the greenhouse along with one tomato so far. I am bummed out though. We lost a whole row of carrots in the past two days. Not sure if this was sow bugs or slugs. I am going to spread diatomaceous earth on the remainder of the row. 

What are the upside-down clay trays for? Are these bug traps?


----------



## DuaeGuttae

begreen said:


> Thanks for sharing the shots. It all looks great! You are over a month ahead of us. Our corn is just about 1.5" tall and our cukes have just started climbing. We do have a few cucumbers setting in the greenhouse along with one tomato so far. I am bummed out though. We lost a whole row of carrots in the past two days. Not sure if this was sow bugs or slugs. I am going to spread diatomaceous earth on the remainder of the row.
> 
> What are the upside-down clay trays for? Are these bug traps?



I’m sorry to hear about the carrots.  My cabbage and cauliflower have been getting eaten, and I just reapplied DE this morning since it had been washed off by recent rains.  With the cabbage loopers and the heat, it may be hopeless, though.

The clay saucers are the lids to my “olla” clay pot irrigation system.  Here’s an article about the concept.









						How to Use Olla Irrigation to Water Efficiently
					

Use of low-fired, clay ceramic vessels (ollas) and olla irrigation is an ancient technique for watering crops efficiently. First used more than 4,000 years ago, the technique has spread through arid regions of the world. The use of ollas (pronounced oh-yahs) can save gardeners time, energy, and...




					wateruseitwisely.com
				




I don’t have fancy purpose built ollas, but I found some great unglazed clay pots that lacked drainage holes and buried them throughout my garden.  (I collected them last year on various half price sales and hope to get some more, but it’s not essential now, and we’re not shopping for non-essentials.)  They help keep the soil moist under the surface, and the plants actually wrap their roots around them.  It was amazing to see the root mats at the end of the season last year.

I had some ollas that I recently lifted from some large pots when we transplanted the plants to the ground, so I went out and took a picture for you of the pots themselves.  They each hold about two quarts of water.

The next picture is the hole where I lifted an olla out where the beet greens had been planted.  Beet greens don’t grow the same kind of root systems that the tomatoes and cucumbers do around the pots, but I thought I could give you a little glimpse if you can see the roots along the wall, so to speak.  I didn’t want to lift one where my plants are actively growing for fear of harming the roots.




Watering is a chore down here, and there are times I long for the push of a button or the turn of a faucet, but the water that comes from the community well is restricted, and my understanding is that drip irrigation systems clog frequently down here because of high calcium and magnesium.  We collect rain water as much as possible, but we haven’t invested in pumps, so I fill my ollas and let them water for me as much as possible.  I, of course, need to do some surface watering when I seed or plants are very young, but it’s nice to get away from that when the plants have more developed root systems.

My four year old loves to help me fill the ollas.  He takes the lids off for me and loves to move the hose from pot to pot.  Thankfully we were just able to refill the 250 gallon rain tank near the garden.


----------



## SidecarFlip

Working away on my hayfields as usual.  Have to overseed yet and plant some disced up spots if it ever quits raining.  Potatoes in straw bales this year.  Haven't planted anything yet but will.


----------



## MTY

My 2100 gallon cistern is over flowing to the tune of 1300 gallons per day.  I can run rain birds most of the day and by the next morning the cistern is over flowing again.  When I was growing up we never had enough water.  When we first looked at this property, the water alone convinced me to purchase it.  
I hooked up a cheap pump and pressure tank combo from Harbor Freight and have been squirting this stuff out of rain birds for 3 years to keep a green belt around the house we are building.  A timer turns the pump on at night to water the garden.  
With more time and a greener thumb, I could probably raise quite a crop.  Half for us, and half for the wild critters.  I'd never have the patience for ollas.  My hat is off to you DG.


----------



## SidecarFlip

Water is no issue here either, glad of that.  Living in the Lake Erie basin, plenty of water, always.  Not the best though.  Limestone causes minerals in the water.


----------



## begreen

First tomatoes and cucumbers are showing up in the greenhouse! Yay! There are 6 baby cucumbers so far. With 2 plants also outside we are going to have them coming out of our ears soon.


----------



## SidecarFlip

begreen said:


> First tomatoes and cucumbers are showing up in the greenhouse! Yay! There are 6 baby cucumbers so far. With 2 plants also outside we are going to have them coming out of our ears soon.
> View attachment 260313
> View attachment 260314


Something I've always wanted to erect but never did it.  You build your own or put up a kit or what?  Do you heat it in the winter?  Please elaborate on it...


----------



## begreen

SidecarFlip said:


> Something I've always wanted to erect but never did it.  You build your own or put up a kit or what?  Do you heat it in the winter?  Please elaborate on it...


We built it. I had a couple picture windows and doors left over from a remodel on the house. It's insulated including the slab. Normally we don't heat it unless it gets bitter cold which is not common here. I have a little space heater and a Jotul 602 in there for those occasions. Usually the mass of the greenhouse will keep temps about 5-10º above ambient. I have heat pads that I put under seed starting trays this year for the first time. They were cheap and worked out well.

These are some shots from 2010, the year after it was built.


----------



## SidecarFlip

Very nice.  Was thinking about a pre fabricated greenhouse built on pressure treated 6x6 timbers with a 3/4" .40 retention floor with pull rings on each end so I could move it around with one of the farm tractors if necessary.  Not too big.  Just large enough to start plants in and have fresh greens over the winter.  Probably install a propane heater, one of the ventless ones.  Propane is cheap here but so is electricity.  Been kicking it around for a while now.  Maybe this yer.


----------



## DuaeGuttae

The ollas do take some patience, @MTY, but part of the benefit for a garden for me is to have a place to get outside and care for something in calm and quiet.  It can be a chore, but it’s also a pretty small space.  Your cistern sounds absolutely luxurious.  

@SidecarFlip, I understand about limestone.  We basically live on the backside of a limestone cliff.  The average pH of the ”soil” is 8.3.  Our property lacks much topsoil, however, having been extensively overgrazed under previous ownership.  

@begreen, your tomatoes, cucumbers, and greenhouse all look beautiful.  Thanks for sharing the photos.  I love seeing things grow.

I did harvest one “patio snacker” cucumber yesterday morning and a generous cup of blueberries.  The cucumber wasn’t large (in a child’s hand), but we had little to no success with this variety last year, and it was much larger than anything we saw then.   We ate it as part of our dinner.  





Yesterday I decided that my cucumbers needed a pretty drastic pruning, so I got that done this morning before it got too hot.  I’ve done the single stem method in the past but I don’t think I pruned my cucumbers last year down here.  This year, however, they were already going wild.  Because I hadn‘t started early, I did have to sacrifice some nice fruit and flowers, but I think the plants will benefit in the long run.  There was one fruit that I couldn’t sacrifice, though, so I left an extra stem to let it come to maturity.  A number of the vines are already over my head.


----------



## EatenByLimestone

Got a lot done in the garden myself.  The onions and potatoes finally came in.   I sprouted the eyes and got them in the ground today.  Zucchini went in.  


While doing the weeding I found a bunny nest in my garden.   I'm thinking my fence isnt a as secure as I thought!     I covered the bunnies back up.   Once they move on I'll work on fixing the fence.


----------



## EatenByLimestone

We're planning on starting to blanche and preserve the kale.   It's been volunteering itself for 2 years now and is already showing flowers on the stems from last year.


----------



## SidecarFlip

Get yourself a good Tom cat.  No more bunnies in the garden.


----------



## DuaeGuttae

The morning’s harvest:





Now that those two cucumbers are picked, I trimmed the vine back to a single stem as well.  There are four other cucumbers (on other vines) that are maturing fast as well.  I hope to have them coming out of my ears soon, @begreen, because my kids are longing for pickles.  These two will become tabbouleh today again.

I found a branch of my glacier tomato broken off this morning.  I haven’t supported the plant, and I don’t know if it was simply the weight of the tomatoes or if a child bumped it.  It has several nice green fruits on it, and so I stripped the bottom leaves and stuck it in one of my ollas to see if it might root.  If it doesn’t, it doesn’t.  If it does, I’ll have gained a plant.


----------



## SpaceBus

We are working on some raised beds and starting vegetables indoors. Hopefully in a week or so the raised beds will be finished. The last frost should be memorial day.


----------



## EatenByLimestone

This is the only year since I really started to garden that the frost free date really meant something.    It's been a cold spring!


----------



## DuaeGuttae

I debated putting this photo of fermenting pickle slices  in the cooking thread, but I decided that it was more appropriate for this one.  I picked three slicing cucumbers this morning, and what was most delightful was that I could also harvest homegrown dill (though I needed to avoid some tiny swallowtail caterpillars on it), stop by the porch of the shed where the garlic is curing and grab some small pieces, and then head to the back yard to cut a few bay leaves that should add some flavor and help keep the pickles crisper.  It’s only a small jar (about two cups), but it was just delightful to have the materials all growing here.

I also potted up the broken glacier tomato branch and put it under the peach tree.  I thought it needed to some shade, but there was nowhere in the fenced garden area with enough.  The deer rarely jump into our back yard where the peach is, and it’s also very close to our air conditioning condensate collecting barrel, so it will make it easier to keep moist.  It has six green tomatoes on it, so it’s entirely possible that it won’t have the strength to put out roots, but I want to give it a try.  If it doesn’t work, I think I have a recipe for green tomato cake somewhere.


----------



## DuaeGuttae

SpaceBus said:


> We are working on some raised beds and starting vegetables indoors. Hopefully in a week or so the raised beds will be finished. The last frost should be memorial day.



What kinds of plants are you starting?


----------



## DuaeGuttae

EatenByLimestone said:


> This is the only year since I really started to garden that the frost free date really meant something.    It's been a cold spring!



My mother has been gardening for almost five decades in Virginia.  She told me this has been one of the more difficult springs for her because it was so warm in April and so cold in May.  She had a freeze a week or two ago that damaged cucumbers, tomatoes, and potatoes that she had in her garden despite her efforts to protect them with coverings.


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## SpaceBus

DuaeGuttae said:


> What kinds of plants are you starting?


Currently we are sprouting and starting snow peas, cabbage (I don't recall the type), and Swiss chard. Once we get the beds built there are plenty more packs of seeds to sprout. Originally we planned on building the garden space and beds this year and planting next year, but we are bumping up the timeline in light of recent events.


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## begreen

Third and last spinach harvest. Next few days will be sunny and warm. I have transferred the last of the heat lovers into the garden beds. Everything is looking good. We've started harvesting sugar snap peas, radishes and a ton of lettuce too. There are 7 tomatoes forming in the greenhouse and even more cucumbers. The outdoor tomatoes are starting to set flowers. Won't be long now. We also said goodbye to the mason bees. This is one of the last ones out harvesting. Till next year.


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## DuaeGuttae

SpaceBus said:


> Currently we are sprouting and starting snow peas, cabbage (I don't recall the type), and Swiss chard. Once we get the beds built there are plenty more packs of seeds to sprout. Originally we planned on building the garden space and beds this year and planting next year, but we are bumping up the timeline in light of recent events.


 
Yum.  I love all of those.  I’m attempting to grow cabbage down here in Texas for the first time, but it’s not going so well.  I haven’t gone so far yet as to pull it out because it does have heads, and they are growing, but the caterpillars have been almost too much for me.

It is hard to build and plant all in one season.  We did that last year, and this year has been nicer.  We did expand our fenced area and add one large bed for asparagus (which is doing so well that it delights me every time I see it!).  We have room for more beds in the future now but haven’t put them in yet.  I’d love pictures of your garden area if you have any.


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## DuaeGuttae

begreen said:


> Third and last spinach harvest. Next few days will be sunny and warm. I have transferred the last of the heat lovers into the garden beds. Everything is looking good. We've started harvesting sugar snap peas, radishes and a ton of lettuce too. There are 7 tomatoes forming in the greenhouse and even more cucumbers. The outdoor tomatoes are starting to set flowers. Won't be long now. We also said goodbye to the mason bees. This is one of the last ones out harvesting. Till next year.
> View attachment 260496
> View attachment 260498



Beautiful, Begreen.  Do you freeze your spinach for later use?  That looks like a lot for two people.

My garden time early this week was putting up all sorts of hail protection for the storms we were likely to get.  Thankfully we missed almost all of the hail, but there were definitely some close calls.  We took down the jury-rigged stuff today but left up the bird netting that is shielding the majority of the cucumbers, tomatoes, and asparagus.  It’s high overhead and doesn’t interfere with moving in the garden.

We’ve eaten a good number of slicing cucumbers this week, and I’ve been harvesting some picklers and keeping them in the refrigerator for now.  We also harvested one ripe pepper (they’re a small sweet variety that survived the winter in the garage)  and a couple of glacier tomatoes (also small).





The glacier tomato plants were my big surprise this year.  I had the seeds from before we moved to this climate zone, and I wouldn’t have guessed that they would do so well, but they are just loaded with fruit.  I hadn’t supported them, and they needed help, so we managed to get them very carefully up onto an unused trellis today.


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## semipro

DuaeGuttae said:


> My mother has been gardening for almost five decades in Virginia.  She told me this has been one of the more difficult springs for her because it was so warm in April and so cold in May.  She had a freeze a week or two ago that damaged cucumbers, tomatoes, and potatoes that she had in her garden despite her efforts to protect them with coverings.


I'm in Virginia and have planted more than a month early the last 3 years without a problem.  This year was different.  We lost some tomatoes and peppers to a frost around Mother's day, the usual last frost date.  It's a real pain because I'll give any plant a chance is if shows signs of life.  This just means we'll be harvesting later than we have the last several years.


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## begreen

DuaeGuttae said:


> Beautiful, Begreen. Do you freeze your spinach for later use? That looks like a lot for two people.
> 
> My garden time early this week was putting up all sorts of hail protection for the storms we were likely to get. Thankfully we missed almost all of the hail, but there were definitely some close calls. We took down the jury-rigged stuff today but left up the bird netting that is shielding the majority of the cucumbers, tomatoes, and asparagus. It’s high overhead and doesn’t interfere with moving in the garden.


You're doing great. Yes, we freeze up a lot of the spinach because we also have a lot of swiss chard being harvested now from last year's plants too.


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## SpaceBus

We picked up two yards of soil today and hopefully I'll have the raised beds built by the end of the week.


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## EatenByLimestone

I like raised beds.   They dry out faster, but also warm up faster in spring.


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## begreen

Almost ready to pick. Getting so close I can taste them.


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## DuaeGuttae

semipro said:


> I'm in Virginia and have planted more than a month early the last 3 years without a problem.  This year was different.  We lost some tomatoes and peppers to a frost around Mother's day, the usual last frost date.  It's a real pain because I'll give any plant a chance is if shows signs of life.  This just means we'll be harvesting later than we have the last several years.



My mother is in the central part of the state, and her 90% chance of last frost is mid-April, I think.  She’s always telling me, though, that she’s seen frost as late as May 20th.  She covered her plants but actually had a hard freeze that did some damage.  She’s just the same about giving any plant a chance, though, and her plants are recovering.  

Tomorrow I have plans to transplant six tomato suckers that I’ve been rooting.   I’m kind of a sucker myself for giving potential plants a chance.


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## DuaeGuttae

SpaceBus said:


> We picked up two yards of soil today and hopefully I'll have the raised beds built by the end of the week.



I’m not sure we could garden here in the Edwards Plateau without raised beds.  I got some good advice last year on this forum, Spacebus, to secure the corners with metal clamps or to put a small piece of 2x4 inside each corner and drill into that.  We took that route because it’s what we had on hand, and we even did it retroactively after building the beds because it seemed to be the prevailing wisdom from this knowledgeable group.




May I also suggest that if having any sort of arched trellis appeals to you or your wife, cattle panels are a great way to set something up pretty easily and economically?


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## DuaeGuttae

begreen said:


> Almost ready to pick. Getting so close I can taste them.
> 
> View attachment 260705



Those look great, Begreen.  We’ve had a good number of cucumbers this week, and now that I’ve harvested so many, the vines seem empty.  We’ve got some higher temperatures rolling in this weekend, and I’m worried that the heat will keep the plants from being so prolific.

I’m sure for your first cucumbers you’ll want to enjoy them in a salad or by themselves, but I did just post a simple recipe for a cucumber sorbet over in the cooking thread in case you find yourself with too many in the coming days.

Our asparagus keeps sending up new shoots, and I’m very pleased.  It’s getting hard to get to some of the ollas when I water.




The corn is growing, and the okra seedlings are alive and slow.  I’m hoping next week’s heat will help them grow, and they can eventually shade my cucumbers a bit.


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## begreen

Garden visitor to our blackberries. There have been a lot this year.


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## SpaceBus

DuaeGuttae said:


> I’m not sure we could garden here in the Edwards Plateau without raised beds.  I got some good advice last year on this forum, Spacebus, to secure the corners with metal clamps or to put a small piece of 2x4 inside each corner and drill into that.  We took that route because it’s what we had on hand, and we even did it retroactively after building the beds because it seemed to be the prevailing wisdom from this knowledgeable group.
> 
> View attachment 260777
> 
> 
> May I also suggest that if having any sort of arched trellis appeals to you or your wife, cattle panels are a great way to set something up pretty easily and economically?


My plan was to use 2x4's or 2x2's in the corners and fasten the outer boards to them. What are you growing on your trellis? We are going to make a "tipi" with our snow peas, which have gotten to be six inches tall in the last week. We are still nervous about putting anything outside yet, but I can feel that we are rapidly approaching the time. This winter we are going to try and use our spare bedroom as a greenhouse.


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## SpaceBus

@begreen how did you plant your swiss chard? We are trying to sprout a handfull of chard seeds but are not having any success. Is it better to just sow them right to the soil?


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## DuaeGuttae

SpaceBus said:


> My plan was to use 2x4's or 2x2's in the corners and fasten the outer boards to them. What are you growing on your trellis? We are going to make a "tipi" with our snow peas, which have gotten to be six inches tall in the last week. We are still nervous about putting anything outside yet, but I can feel that we are rapidly approaching the time. This winter we are going to try and use our spare bedroom as a greenhouse.



On our big arched trellis we grow vining cucumbers and tomatoes.  We love how sturdy it is, and we enjoy walking through it when it provides shade in the summer.  We also have simple vertical trellises made from electrical conduit.  We used to have nylon trellis netting on them, but we replaced it last year with some wire fencing we were given.   That allowed us to make slightly wider beds that what he had had in Virginia. We’ve used those to grow tomatoes and cucumbers as well as beans, peas, squash, and last year we ended up with sweet potato vines climbing one.

I’ve not used a tipi structure personally, but my mother uses a bunch of them as her property is overrun with bamboo in one section, so she has a great supply of poles.  They can work well.

Peas can tolerate more cold than heat-lovers like tomatoes or cucumbers.  Have you been hardening them off gradually?


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## SpaceBus

DuaeGuttae said:


> I’m not sure we could garden here in the Edwards Plateau without raised beds.  I got some good advice last year on this forum, Spacebus, to secure the corners with metal clamps or to put a small piece of 2x4 inside each corner and drill into that.  We took that route because it’s what we had on hand, and we even did it retroactively after building the beds because it seemed to be the prevailing wisdom from this knowledgeable group.
> 
> View attachment 260777
> 
> 
> May I also suggest that if having any sort of arched trellis appeals to you or your wife, cattle panels are a great way to set something up pretty easily and economically?



My wife is inquiring about the buckets with the beige lids. She is asking if they are for watering the garden.


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## begreen

SpaceBus said:


> @begreen how did you plant your swiss chard? We are trying to sprout a handfull of chard seeds but are not having any success. Is it better to just sow them right to the soil?


The start from seed, similar to beets. For just a few plants however, I buy starts from a local nursery or farmer as we are trying to support community farmer and growers. A 4 pack was like $3 and will provide more chard than we can eat.

You'll want to get your peas going asap. They like cooler weather. Germinate them indoor is a jar like sprouts, then plant. Or start them in flats indoors and then transplant.


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## DuaeGuttae

SpaceBus said:


> My wife is inquiring about the buckets with the beige lids. She is asking if they are for watering the garden.



Your wife hit the nail on the head, Spacebus.  The biggest drawback to raised beds for us is the propensity to dry out, and in the Texas sun in summer that can happen pretty quickly.  Begreen inquired about them earlier, so go back to post #165 in this thread, and you’ll find more explanation and an article I linked about clay pot irrigation.  A drip irrigation system would be easier, but we thought this was better given our climate and water situation.


I thought you all might be amused by the addition I made to our garden today.  My husband helped me move some self-watering planters off our deck into the garden area so that I could transplant some rooted tomato suckers into them.  I was too hot working in the garden and didn’t want the plants to suffer in the bright sunshine, so I pulled out the two beach umbrellas we own.  




While I was out there, I took a picture of the big trellis.  My older daughter wants us to build another set of beds like this just so that we can have another arch.


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## begreen

I think I am going to look into making a trellis like that between beds. It would liberate some growing space. Right now I am still using pvc "towers" I made years ago.  This is also how I support the bird netting over the blueberry bed.


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## semipro

begreen said:


> This is also how I support the bird netting over the blueberry bed.


I've been thinking about something similar.  We lose almost all of our blueberries to birds.  I'm concerned about catching birds in the netting.  Has that been a problem?


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## begreen

semipro said:


> I've been thinking about something similar.  We lose almost all of our blueberries to birds.  I'm concerned about catching birds in the netting.  Has that been a problem?


The netting needs to be seamless and well anchored. Otherwise, some birds will wrangle their way in and inevitably get trapped.  I have 2x3s along the perimeter of the netting tent to hold it down and prevent sneaky intrusion. With this setup I have not had issues.


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## SpaceBus

Must be good blueberries if your birds are taking all of them. We are pretty sure next summer our chickens will eat all of ours since they are wild and just grow in our "yard".


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## DuaeGuttae

In Virginia we arched black polypipe over rebar and netted our blueberries that way.  I think I did have to free a bird one time.  It worked, but it was something of a pain to work with at harvest time.  We never secured a board at the bottom as Begreen suggested, and I think that would have helped.

When we moved to Texas and started to grow blueberries (necessarily in pots because of our high alkalinity caliche), I asked my husband for a different solution.  He built me what we now just refer to as “the cube,” a 2x4 structure with a door that is netted on 5 sides.  It has worked really well for us, and I’ve never seen a bird get inside.  The biggest advantage for us is that I need to water my blueberries fairly regularly because they are potted, and it‘s lovely to be able to walk into the area and never have to worry about unsecuring or resecuring netting.

This is a picture I took last year when we had newly relocated the blueberries (and added a couple varieties).  I was surprised looking back to see how much smaller the plants were then.


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## begreen

DuaeGuttae said:


> In Virginia we arched black polypipe over rebar and netted our blueberries that way. I think I did have to free a bird one time. It worked, but it was something of a pain to work with at harvest time. We never secured a board at the bottom as Begreen suggested, and I think that would have helped.


That is how we protect the strawberries. Our blueberry plants are too tall for the arched poly to work. The arches also get called into duty for row cover ribs in cool weather.


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## DuaeGuttae

begreen said:


> That is how we protect the strawberries. Our blueberry plants are too tall for the arched poly to work. The arches also get called into duty for row cover ribs in cool weather.




The height of the potted blueberries was one reason I didn’t want to go the polypipe arch route again down here.  We were able to use the rebar and piping to make the supports for the frost cloth that we occasionally put around our young Meyer Lemon Bushes and Persian Lime Tree.  Our hope is that by the time they outgrow their ribbing that they will be strong enough to withstand the occasional freezes we get.


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## Country Living in VA

semipro said:


> I'm in Virginia and have planted more than a month early the last 3 years without a problem.  This year was different.  We lost some tomatoes and peppers to a frost around Mother's day, the usual last frost date.  It's a real pain because I'll give any plant a chance is if shows signs of life.  This just means we'll be harvesting later than we have the last several years.


I too live in southwest VA and know what you mean.  We moved to our current location late last summer and the climate is totally different that where we used to live.  It is generally 8-10 degrees colder than in the Roanoke area.  My soil was usually warm enough in March to plant out early season stuff and I usually planted out everything else in early April.  I knew I had to wait this year though and sure enough, we had a hard freeze in early May and another heavy frost a few weeks later for two consecutive nights.  I was fortunate not to lose anything.  I had purchased  many plants and had to just keep hauling them in and out of the house.


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## begreen

We have had a cooler, more normal spring too. My peppers and eggplants are eagerly waiting for the soil to warm up. Looks like all the heat went up to the arctic this year, where we don't want it. Places were 36º above normal there.


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## DuaeGuttae

We had quite a warm end of winter down here in Texas, and spring feels like summer to me, but that might be normal here.  Unfortunately we’re having a dry spell right now.   More of my tomatoes are starting to ripen.  We had a few in a cucumber salad for dinner tonight after a long day of work in the garden.

In the winter we finished expanding our fenced area around our garden beds so that we could build a new bed for asparagus and subsequently add others.  This morning we made our final plans on sizing and spacing, and this evening we started building.  It will take us some time, but we hope to have four new beds to complete the fenced area.  It will be a bit crowded but workable and protected from deer, I hope.  (A deer got through a gate in our backyard this morning and managed to find a tomato branch I had been rooting in a pot under my peach tree.  It got almost completely eaten, but it has some growth, and I’m sure it has rooted, so I’ll just leave it be for a while.)

Amazingly enough, while @begreen is waiting for his soil to warm to transplant eggplants, I’m making plans to start some seeds for fall crops in the near future.  It’s recommended to transplant eggplants by mid July here.


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## begreen

DuaeGuttae said:


> Amazingly enough, while @begreen is waiting for his soil to warm to transplant eggplants, I’m making plans to start some seeds for fall crops in the near future. It’s recommended to transplant eggplants by mid July here.


Rub it in. Texas has 3 growing seasons.


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## semipro

begreen said:


> Rub it in. Texas has 3 growing seasons.


Yeah, "almost summer", "summer", and "still summer".  
I remember well after living there for more than 20 years.


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## SpaceBus

We are filling the sunniest room in the house with our seedlings. The peas will probably be ready to go out soon and after more than two weeks the Swiss Chard has finally germinated and sprouted. It won't be long until we start planting stuff outside.


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## DuaeGuttae

begreen said:


> Rub it in. Texas has 3 growing seasons.



Now if only I could learn how to take best advantage of them to produce anything like what you manage, then I’ll have accomplished something.


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## DuaeGuttae

SpaceBus said:


> We are filling the sunniest room in the house with our seedlings. The peas will probably be ready to go out soon and after more than two weeks the Swiss Chard has finally germinated and sprouted. It won't be long until we start planting stuff outside.



Good job, Spacebus.  I love watching plants grow from seed.  I’d love to see some pictures of your seedlings and your garden area if you have a chance to take some.


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## SpaceBus

DuaeGuttae said:


> Good job, Spacebus.  I love watching plants grow from seed.  I’d love to see some pictures of your seedlings and your garden area if you have a chance to take some.


I'll grab some pics tomorrow in the sunlight. The previous owners neglected to put a light fixture in that room.


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## EatenByLimestone

The garden is basicly in.  I was going to plant some beans a second crop in a potato space and call it in.  Then I got an email for low priced, get rid of inventory San Marzano tomato plantlets.   I picked up 8 of them.   I was weak!    And there was a little space for them.   So I had to weed a spot and I'll throw down some mulch in anticipation of their arrival.


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## DuaeGuttae

I was cooking a potato dish today, and the last potato in the bag was pretty well sprouted.  I have it sitting on my counter now because I’m considering planting it.  I have a huge pot that is only partially filled with soil.  It would be easy to start it off there.  It would be a bit early for a fall crop according to the charts of when to plant.  Is it a problem to plant potatoes a few weeks early?  It will just be hotter later in the summer.  

If I do try for potatoes in my pot, I’ll have to rig up some kind of deer protection.  We moved what had been there when we planted our olives in the ground this spring.  I can’t imagine that deer would leave anything alone if I don’t protect it.  They still manage to get what I do protect.


A couple of days ago I discovered one of my tomatoes partially uprooted.  As I was replanting and staking, I realized that a good chunk of the plant had been eaten (including four or five green tomatoes).  I realized that my husband and I had moved the planter a bit, and the plant had been growing toward the fence.  A deer must have been able to use one of the four inch holes to nose in, grab the plant, and chow down.  After I made some adjustments, my daughter went out and found the deer outside the garden fence trying and failing to get to it again.  The plant looks like it is recovering, but sadly it was a determinate variety, and I had been looking forward to those tomatoes ripening.


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## begreen

Might be time for some venison stew in which to use those tomatoes.


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## DuaeGuttae

begreen said:


> Might be time for some venison stew in which to use those tomatoes.



We actually love venison stew.  It’s one of my kids’ favorites.  It was always what Grandma served us for dinner when we would arrive for a visit.  She also used to give us canned venison to take home for our own stews.  Alas, we live too far away now to enjoy that.

  The particular deer I suspect of the theft is a doe with a fawn who has been spending a lot of time in that area of the property, and we can’t hunt on our land anyway.  I’m afraid that the population of deer is quite high here, and some of the neighbors intentionally feed them.  I do so only unintentionally.  I was quite shocked to discover the other day that a potted Christmas cactus had been devoured.  I really hadn’t expected a cactus to be in danger.  If only they’d eat the horehound, thistles, and prickly pear instead.

It was a day of hard work in the garden.  The four new beds are all built and in place, and we managed to put one twenty foot utility panel on t-posts to serve as a trellis.  We had two such panels on the property when we moved in, and part of the new garden design was to take advantage of such sturdy trellis material.  There was also a lot of cardboard laying and mulch raking.  It was a lot of work, especially in 92 degree heat, and we haven’t even started to fill the beds.  It’s a good thing we’ve got time.

My seven year old took a few pictures in the garden today.  She especially enjoys close-ups, and I thought they were pretty fun to look at.  It’s the beginning of a corn tassel, sweet million tomatoes getting ripe, and a tiny baby butternut squash behind the flower.


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## DuaeGuttae

semipro said:


> I've been thinking about something similar.  We lose almost all of our blueberries to birds.  I'm concerned about catching birds in the netting.  Has that been a problem?



I was thinking about the question of birds in the blueberry netting this week as I was freeing butterflies.  Our blueberry cube is located near a large trellis where we have a number of passionflower vines growing.  Passionflowers are a host plant for the gulf fritillary butterfly, and we see numerous butterflies and caterpillars on our plants.  This year, it seems, some of the caterpillars decided that crawling off to the blueberry cube to pupate would be ideal.  I’ve had three or four emerge in the past week.  Sunday morning I noticed one that was still finishing drying, so I decided to try to for a few pictures while I kept the door open to the cube to help it out.  It did eventually leave, but only after three other butterflies had actually flown into and out of the cube through the open door.  Thankfully the cube is near a window by which we sit frequently, and it’s easy to notice if there’s a fluttering butterfly inside.






While I was hanging out in the cube, I also noticed a little frog on one of the blueberries.  These frogs are also all over our garden.  My four year old loves them and sits down and tells them stories sometimes.




Our cucumbers have really slowed down in recent weeks.  Tomatoes are ripening.  We’ve picked a couple of peppers, but I think tomorrow and the next day will be a big harvest of small peppers.  These are “lunchbox” peppers that I started in January of 2019.  I dug them up last fall (with several other plants), and these are the two that survived the winter in the garage.  I moved them outside when temperatures were warm enough.  They were pretty scraggly then and desperate for more sun, but they have really filled out and done well.  I think I’m going to try to do some more overwintering this year.


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## begreen

Year-round peppers! That's awesome. Sounds like you might be able to start a new fall crop of cucumbers now too.


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## DuaeGuttae

You make it sound more impressive than it really was.  We did get a few peppers that colored up over the winter, but there really wasn’t enough sun for the plants to do well (and I might have forgotten to water them at times).  The good news is that two plants lived, and they really did take off when we got them back to good sunshine and warmth.  I’ve never seen my plants so loaded with peppers.

It has been a busy garden week this week and was very busy today.  We had earlier gotten the beds all built for the new space, and we’ve been slowly moving organic matter and soil.  Today was the last of that for now.  There are four new beds, but we’ve really only finished filling three.  The fourth has container plants that we had put in the garden and we decided to put them inside an empty bed for now.  We’ll fill it when those plants are done for the season.

We installed the arched cattle panel trellis that my daughter wanted, so she got to help do that hard work.  We also put shade cloth over the plants to try to keep the soil temperatures cooler for the tomatoes.  They’ve been handling the heat well, but it will be picking up, and the bright sunshine is just too much.  I probably should have done it earlier, but I didn’t want to shade the okra.  I had hoped that it would grow and provide shade itself, but though it looks healthy, it’s still quite short.  I decided that it will have to make due, and the tomatoes need shade going forward.

Here’s the newly expanded garden, and a view of the empty bed that’s filled with containers.  This more than doubles our garden space for annuals, and we’ll be able to plant some fall crops without having to remove the summer plants that are still producing.  I have tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, and sweet potato slips hardening off right now.  Next I’ll work on starting cucumbers.


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## begreen

First tomato almost ready to pick in the greenhouse. There are small green tomatoes outside.  We've started getting a steady stream of cukes and zukes in spite of a cool start to summer. Early blueberries are turning blue too.


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## DuaeGuttae

begreen said:


> First tomato almost ready to pick in the greenhouse. There are small green tomatoes outside.  We've started getting a steady stream of cukes and zukes in spite of a cool start to summer. Early blueberries are turning blue too.
> 
> View attachment 261408



That looks like a good size for Early Girl, Begreen, and such a lovely shade of red.  

Our cucumbers have some healthy new growth at the tops and are setting some good fruit, but I think it’s only a matter of time before the powdery mildew does them in, especially now that the high heat is adding additional stress.   The past two days have been 96, today 98, all with bright sun.  It makes me wilt.

We had zucchini in our dinner tonight, and now the children think we need to grow that, too.  I’ve got about a month before planting time, so I can consider it.

One of our blueberry bushes may be a goner.  Part of it had died earlier this year, and I pruned it away.  The rest had been looking pretty good, but I had noticed some reddening at the base of some leaves recently.  All of a sudden tonight it looked wilted after the sun was off of it.  (It seemed fine during the afternoon.)  When the other part of the plant died, it was likewise very sudden, so I wouldn’t be surprised to find this one gone by morning.  I admit that I’m pretty sad about it.  I hope it’s nothing that will spread to my other varieties.


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## begreen

Hot dry soil can kill a blueberry bush. Is the area around the bushes heavily mulched? Blueberries like cooler feet, even a bit damp. They grow well even in boggy areas.


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## DuaeGuttae

begreen said:


> Hot dry soil can kill a blueberry bush. Is the area around the bushes heavily mulched? Blueberries like cooler feet, even a bit damp. They grow well even in boggy areas.



Thanks, Begreen.  The pots themselves are mulched with wood mulch and cottonseed meal, and the area in which the pots stand was thickly mulched with shredded leaves last year.  It could use some wood mulch added to it.  Each pot has its own dedicated “olla,” but I’m wondering if I perhaps overwatered the plant.  It’s in a plastic pot, and it may be that the drainage holes have become clogged.  I had noticed that its olla hadn’t been using water at the same rate as its neighbors, and I attributed it to smaller size, but I think it might have been becoming waterlogged.  I had done some extra surface watering because of the intense heat.  I haven’t removed it from the pot yet, but I’ll be interested to see what I find.  Thankfully all the other blueberries seem to be doing well (or as well as anything can do in July during a heat wave) and are even still putting on new growth.  We actually have them on the north side of our house to provide them a bit more shelter, but even that shelter is pretty limited with the sun so high at this time of year.

I planted out sweet potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers on Monday night since Tuesday was forecast to be a bit cloudy and the coolest day of the week.  It turned out to be sunny with a high of 96 or so, but thankfully the transplants all did well, and I didn’t even need to deploy the shade cloth that I had kept available for them.  I still may use it because the heat is supposed to keep climbing this week, and there’s no rain in the forecast for the foreseeable future.

I started a few more pickling cucumbers inside today.  The variety of picklers that I have now gets bitter in the heat, and I had to compost a few from a recent harvest tonight because they were absolutely inedible.  I think I’ll end up pulling up those vines.  The slicers are still producing sweet cucumbers, so I’ll hope to get a little more from them before the end.  I’ll post a picture of yesterday’s harvest that provided some ingredients for a yummy gazpacho.  (The green tomatoes are a green variety, so they are ripe.)





Ants have decided to start farming aphids on my pimiento plants.  I think I’ll spray some neem tomorrow and sprinkle some DE on the mulch.  One plant has lovely pimientos on it, and I don’t want to lose it.  

All the tomato suckers that I rooted in June are showing baby fruit.  I even had to prune some branches of the Black Krim variety, and of course I’m rooting them in water, too.  If they take, that will be six plants from that one little seed we found this spring.


----------



## Country Living in VA

Since moving out in the country at a much higher elevation and cooler weather, it has definitely been a different gardening year for me.  Where I lived before, I could start planting some varieties of colder weather veggies like the lettuces, peas & cabbage in mid to late March and would generally plant out other things in mid April.  I ended up waiting until May 22 to plant anything out due to some unseasonable late frosts and cool soil temperatures.  Once I got my stuff planted, we have had several floods where we had prolonged periods of steady to heavy rains for 4-5 days.  Even though the moisture was good, some stuff did not come up and had to be replanted.  Don't know whether it was too much moisture or planting "in the wrong sign" as the old timers say, but I have to plant when I actually have time.

Fast forward to today and now we have been nearly two weeks without any rain!  I have been watering regularly,  so no big deal there.  I usually have tons of tomatoes coming in, but it looks like it will be later in the month before I get any.  To me, there is nothing like tasting that first home grown tomato after eating cardboard tomatoes for the past 8-9 months.  I have been harvesting broccoli, romaine lettuce, buttercrunch lettuce, collards, cucumbers and some squash.  I canned 6 quarts of bread and butter pickles on Monday and have been giving family pounds and pounds of cucumbers.  I looks like I will have some green beans ready this weekend.  Wish I had a couple of good homegrown tomatoes to eat with them!


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## DuaeGuttae

That garden looks great, @Country Living in VA .  I‘m a Virginia native and do miss it.  I’m having to relearn all my gardening in this new climate.

It has been excessively hot and dry down here, but my garden is still alive, so that’s a victory.  The plants aren’t producing much, just sort of hunkering down and surviving.  (Mostly surviving, that is.  I did lose my smallest okra plant and a recent tomato transplant before I hauled out all the stops and tried to shade just about everything.)




We had already used all of our shade cloth prior to this weekend, but Saturday I pulled out all the frost cloth as well.  It catches the wind and acts like a sail at times, so I keep having to reclip, but it has definitely helped.  Where there are gaps or a piece tears out of the fastener, the plants wilt down in the sun pretty drastically.  Keeping them more shaded has definitely helped get them through the 100+ afternoons we’ve been having for several days.  Thankfully it looks like it might cool off gradually down to the lower 90’s by the end of the week.  What we really need is rain.

We have plans to get more shade cloth in the future.  This was just the best we could do for this heat wave.


----------



## Country Living in VA

DuaeGuttae said:


> That garden looks great, @Country Living in VA .  I‘m a Virginia native and do miss it.  I’m having to relearn all my gardening in this new climate.
> 
> It has been excessively hot and dry down here, but my garden is still alive, so that’s a victory.  The plants aren’t producing much, just sort of hunkering down and surviving.  (Mostly surviving, that is.  I did lose my smallest okra plant and a recent tomato transplant before I hauled out all the stops and tried to shade just about everything.)
> 
> View attachment 261582
> 
> 
> We had already used all of our shade cloth prior to this weekend, but Saturday I pulled out all the frost cloth as well.  It catches the wind and acts like a sail at times, so I keep having to reclip, but it has definitely helped.  Where there are gaps or a piece tears out of the fastener, the plants wilt down in the sun pretty drastically.  Keeping them more shaded has definitely helped get them through the 100+ afternoons we’ve been having for several days.  Thankfully it looks like it might cool off gradually down to the lower 90’s by the end of the week.  What we really need is rain.
> 
> We have plans to get more shade cloth in the future.  This was just the best we could do for this heat wave.


I would think it is quite a drastic change in climate and the way you garden.  The main advantage is that your growing season is so long and you can have vegetables at times where we only dream about fresh veggies.  You have a very nice looking garden as well.  My elevation is 2400' above sea level, so the temperatures have been very tolerable mostly in the mid 80's and a day or two here and there in the low 90's.  Yesterday morning, when I left for work at 5:15 AM, it was 52 degrees and felt kind of cold in a way.  It was 62 when I got to work which is about 40 miles from where I live.  We had a brief shower during the night about two nights ago which was a nice relief, but yesterday everything was dried back out.   Lets all do a rain dance and hopefully get some much needed rain.


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## SpaceBus

Country Living in VA said:


> I would think it is quite a drastic change in climate and the way you garden.  The main advantage is that your growing season is so long and you can have vegetables at times where we only dream about fresh veggies.  You have a very nice looking garden as well.  My elevation is 2400' above sea level, so the temperatures have been very tolerable mostly in the mid 80's and a day or two here and there in the low 90's.  Yesterday morning, when I left for work at 5:15 AM, it was 52 degrees and felt kind of cold in a way.  It was 62 when I got to work which is about 40 miles from where I live.  We had a brief shower during the night about two nights ago which was a nice relief, but yesterday everything was dried back out.   Lets all do a rain dance and hopefully get some much needed rain.


You must be close to where I was born. At one time my grandmother had a nice farm in the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains.


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## Country Living in VA

I live in the heart of the BRM about 20 minutes north of Blacksburg


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## SpaceBus

Country Living in VA said:


> I live in the heart of the BRM about 20 minutes north of Blacksburg


My grandmother's farm was in Botetourt County, so not too far north, I do miss it sometimes. For several years I lived on the other side in Bluefield WV. I wish growing here in Maine were as easy as the south side of the BRM!


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## Country Living in VA

SpaceBus said:


> My grandmother's farm was in Botetourt County, so not too far north, I do miss it sometimes. For several years I lived on the other side in Bluefield WV. I wish growing here in Maine were as easy as the south side of the BRM!


I actually lived in Fincastle (Botetourt Co.) for about 10 years in the 1980's - 1990's.  I lived on site at Camp Fincastle where I managed the facility.  I recently moved to Craig County from Roanoke County and believe it or not, growing is totally different even though it is only about 40 miles different.  We had a frost on May 17 and I couldn't plant out until about May 20.  In Roanoke county, I generally planted out a month earlier.


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## SpaceBus

Country Living in VA said:


> I actually lived in Fincastle (Botetourt Co.) for about 10 years in the 1980's - 1990's.  I lived on site at Camp Fincastle where I managed the facility.  I recently moved to Craig County from Roanoke County and believe it or not, growing is totally different even though it is only about 40 miles different.  We had a frost on May 17 and I couldn't plant out until about May 20.  In Roanoke county, I generally planted out a month earlier.


The farm was out in the county, but I think it had a Fincastle address. We lived on the farm for a few years when I was a baby, but just visits after that, so about the same time period even. It's a small world. My grandmother went to Mill Creek Baptist church for some 50+ years I believe.


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## Country Living in VA

SpaceBus said:


> The farm was out in the county, but I think it had a Fincastle address. We lived on the farm for a few years when I was a baby, but just visits after that, so about the same time period even. It's a small world. My grandmother went to Mill Creek Baptist church for some 50+ years I believe.


Botetourt County has changed quite a bit over the past 10 years, some parts you would not even recognize.  The further north you go towards Covington, the less the change.  The area around Lord Botetourt High school has really developed with industry & and there is a really nice golf course & high end housing just past the high school.  The property values and taxes have really increased dramatically as of late and I would bet that growth continues as the taxes in the Roanoke area have really gotten high and for other social reasons as well.  I have been to several church sales at Mill Creek Baptist church, but never attended a service there.  The folks I met (and knew who went to church there) were real down to earth good people and typical of what you would expect from a country Baptist church.


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## DuaeGuttae

@SpaceBus and @Country Living in VA , may I just say that I actually know how to pronounce “Botetourt” from my days of being in 4-H?  I feel that that is something of an accomplishment.

The heat has at least been good for something.  I had my first okra flower today.
	

		
			
		

		
	




I planted this back in May, and it has grown at a snail’s pace.  It’s really all still less than a foot tall, but it looks healthy, so I’m just waiting.  I do hope it manages to give me a harvest, or I’ll be pretty disappointed.  Our corn grew, but the ears are being eaten by fire ants, I think.


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## begreen

Corn is tassling and no fire ants thank goodness. Onions and garlic just harvested and the tomatoes + cukes are starting to deliver regularly.


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## Country Living in VA

DuaeGuttae said:


> @SpaceBus and @Country Living in VA , may I just say that I actually know how to pronounce “Botetourt” from my days of being in 4-H?  I feel that that is something of an accomplishment.
> 
> The heat has at least been good for something.  I had my first okra flower today.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> View attachment 261600
> 
> 
> I planted this back in May, and it has grown at a snail’s pace.  It’s really all still less than a foot tall, but it looks healthy, so I’m just waiting.  I do hope it manages to give me a harvest, or I’ll be pretty disappointed.  Our corn grew, but the ears are being eaten by fire ants, I think.


Good on the Botetourt pronunciation, but just down the road from the Mill Creek Baptist church is a town called Buchanan.  How do you pronounce the name?  Is it Bew-cannon or Buck-cannon?


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## Country Living in VA

begreen said:


> Corn is tassling and no fire ants thank goodness. Onions and garlic just harvested and the tomatoes + cukes are starting to deliver regularly.
> View attachment 261621
> View attachment 261622
> View attachment 261623


Nice.  I see you allow your tomatoes to ripen on the vine.  I have had such a problem with varmits messing up my tomatoes that I have generally been picking them when they blush or are turning red, pink or yellow.  We don't have fire ants to deal with around here, but I am sure the raccoons are watching closely for the corn to come in.


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## SpaceBus

Country Living in VA said:


> Good on the Botetourt pronunciation, but just down the road from the Mill Creek Baptist church is a town called Buchanan.  How do you pronounce the name?  Is it Bew-cannon or Buck-cannon?


This is the true test.


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## begreen

Lots of unusual names around the country. Many are bastardizations of Indian tribal names. Want to try and pronounce Puyallup?


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## Country Living in VA

begreen said:


> Lots of unusual names around the country. Many are bastardizations of Indian tribal names. Want to try and pronounce Puyallup?


I would pronounce it Pue Yal up but a quick google search shows it pronounced pew-AWL-up, so I wasn't to far off.  How to the locals typically pronounce it?


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## begreen

Country Living in VA said:


> I would pronounce it Pue Yal up but a quick google search shows it pronounced pew-AWL-up, so I wasn't to far off.  How to the locals typically pronounce it?


Most say Pew-WAH-lop.


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## DuaeGuttae

begreen said:


> Corn is tassling and no fire ants thank goodness. Onions and garlic just harvested and the tomatoes + cukes are starting to deliver regularly.
> View attachment 261621
> View attachment 261622
> View attachment 261623



What varieties of onions do you grow?  Do you manage to store them through the winter?

Your tomatoes look amazing, Begreen.  I wish I could leave mine on the vines till ripe, but I’ve learned that when I think, “I’ll just give that one more day,” I come out the next day and find that a critter has taken or damaged it.  It was especially disheartening when a large Black Krim that my seven year old had been cherishing completely vanished.  I think the photo is your greenhouse tomato, though, so it’s protected.  Are you able to ripen your outdoor crop as fully?

Some red wasps have been building a nest in our shed eaves, and I’m afraid that they’ve taken to attacking me when I walk to the garden (passing through a gate that borders the shed).  Yesterday one divebombed my head and stung me.  I tried to be charitable and assume that it got briefly tangled in my hair and felt threatened. Today, however, after I left the area through the gate and was headed back to the house, one flew right to my arm and stung me.  Thankfully I’m not allergic but am what doctors call “sensitive,” so the stings make me somewhat sick.  I think the nest will have to go since the spot where I got stung is also where my four year old rides his tricycle while I’m in the garden.


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## DuaeGuttae

Country Living in VA said:


> Good on the Botetourt pronunciation, but just down the road from the Mill Creek Baptist church is a town called Buchanan.  How do you pronounce the name?  Is it Bew-cannon or Buck-cannon?



I think I’ve heard of a Buh CAN nun, Virginia, but that was just a gut reaction to your question and not any actual knowledge.  I know more of the central and northern parts of the state.  I think I only remembered Boutetourt because of competing against their FFA groups at the state fair in Jr. Stockman’s and Jr. Dairyman’s contests.  It was just fun for me to see you and Spacebus interacting about it and having it trigger a memory from my childhood.


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## Country Living in VA

DuaeGuttae said:


> I think I’ve heard of a Buh CAN nun, Virginia, but that was just a gut reaction to your question and not any actual knowledge.  I know more of the central and northern parts of the state.  I think I only remembered Boutetourt because of competing against their FFA groups at the state fair in Jr. Stockman’s and Jr. Dairyman’s contests.  It was just fun for me to see you and Spacebus interacting about it and having it trigger a memory from my childhood.


It seems like its a small world sometimes.  FYI, all the locals pronounce it Buck anon.  It is a small town that time forgot.  The James River flows just outside the town and is a popular spot for fishing and tubing.


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## Country Living in VA

DuaeGuttae said:


> What varieties of onions do you grow?  Do you manage to store them through the winter?
> 
> Your tomatoes look amazing, Begreen.  I wish I could leave mine on the vines till ripe, but I’ve learned that when I think, “I’ll just give that one more day,” I come out the next day and find that a critter has taken or damaged it.  It was especially disheartening when a large Black Krim that my seven year old had been cherishing completely vanished.  I think the photo is your greenhouse tomato, though, so it’s protected.  Are you able to ripen your outdoor crop as fully?
> 
> Some red wasps have been building a nest in our shed eaves, and I’m afraid that they’ve taken to attacking me when I walk to the garden (passing through a gate that borders the shed).  Yesterday one divebombed my head and stung me.  I tried to be charitable and assume that it got briefly tangled in my hair and felt threatened. Today, however, after I left the area through the gate and was headed back to the house, one flew right to my arm and stung me.  Thankfully I’m not allergic but am what doctors call “sensitive,” so the stings make me somewhat sick.  I think the nest will have to go since the spot where I got stung is also where my four year old rides his tricycle while I’m in the garden.


A few years ago, I had gotten some special heirloom tomato seeds that were just recently discovered from a family who was selling them at a farmers market in Georgia.  I had my garden fenced in to keep as many of the varmit's out as possible, but the groundhogs always had a way to get in by pushing their way under the fence or digging their way in.  The tomato seeds I planted grew well and were among the most healthy looking tomato plants in my garden.  It was a very large beefsteak type of tomato and was late in the season before producing tomatoes.  I finally noticed one blushing and knew it wouldn't be long.  I made the mistake of leaving it out one day too long and I looked out the window of my kitchen and there was that darn groundhog looking straight at me at the edge of the garden actually standing up on his back legs with that rather large tomato in his two hands eating my tomato (his tomato at this point).  The way he was looking up at me in the window was almost as if he was taunting me and we were about to go to war.  It made me pretty angry to say the least, but ultimately I got over it.  That particular area I lived in at the time was a suburban neighborhood and most of the groundhogs holes were on other properties and I could not shoot them as it was in a residential area.  I always just planted enough knowing that the varmits would get their share.  

DuaeGuttae, like you, I try to leave the bees alone as much as possible, but there are definitely times when it is a necessary thing to kill off a nest and you are doing the right thing, especially after being stung twice.


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## Country Living in VA

My red cone flowers Amazing Grey Poppies are finally blooming.


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## DuaeGuttae

Your groundhog story, countryliving, reminds me of our “Fluffy” who arrived in our backyard one night in Virginia and promptly stripped our brussels sprouts and Zinnias to stalks.  We used to watch it climb the fences between our yard and the neighbors’ properties.  It grew large but could sneak under the pallets we kept our to-be-split wood on.  Eventually it visited the wrong yard and was shot with an arrow. 

Your flowers are very pretty.  I never managed to get marigolds or most sunflowers to sprout.  We have a couple of zinnias blooming, and we have some pretty purple basil flowers, but our current garden is a bit lacking in blooms.  Nevertheless this morning I was startled by a hummingbird.  They are so loud when they are close that I always jump.

We aren’t quite as hot as we were, but we are dry, dry, dry.  There’s a chance for some rain this weekend if tropical weather comes this far west.  I’m currently hardening off some cucumbers and a few pepper and tomato replacements, but I may not get them in the ground this weekend if it looks like hard rain.  I’ll gladly wait a few days for a chance to get moisture.  Even the native plants around here are drooping.

The sweet potatoes are happy in the heat, and my other recent transplants are holding their own, though I’ve been discouraged to see ants farming aphids on the young peppers.  I had put DE around a few days ago, but tonight I sprayed more neem.  That really helped the pimientos I treated the other week.   I’m also seeing more ”critter damage” on green tomatoes.  I think as things dry up here, even less appealing garden food becomes more appealing unfortunately.  

I started some brussels sprouts, cabbage, and cauliflower inside for transplanting a bit later.  It’s so hot and dry right now, it seems silly to be trying for cole crops, but I suppose it’s no different from starting hot-weather plants inside when it’s still freezing at night.


----------



## begreen

It looks like this summer is going to be a challenge for many of our beds. We are fighting mosaic virus in 3 beds and it is really challenging our crops of tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and cukes in these beds. I have never seen tomato plants so stressed. Only the early girls and brandy boys seem somewhat resistant. Fortunately we have crop spread into other bed too, except for the tomatoes. The greenhouse has been producing some good early girls, so that has helped, but outside has been disappointing. Those tomato plants are struggling. I have cukes, peppers and eggplants  in other beds too and so far they look ok. Not sure what the strategy will be for next year considering this new problem.


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## Country Living in VA

DuaeGuttae said:


> Your groundhog story, countryliving, reminds me of our “Fluffy” who arrived in our backyard one night in Virginia and promptly stripped our brussels sprouts and Zinnias to stalks.  We used to watch it climb the fences between our yard and the neighbors’ properties.  It grew large but could sneak under the pallets we kept our to-be-split wood on.  Eventually it visited the wrong yard and was shot with an arrow.
> 
> Your flowers are very pretty.  I never managed to get marigolds or most sunflowers to sprout.  We have a couple of zinnias blooming, and we have some pretty purple basil flowers, but our current garden is a bit lacking in blooms.  Nevertheless this morning I was startled by a hummingbird.  They are so loud when they are close that I always jump.
> 
> We aren’t quite as hot as we were, but we are dry, dry, dry.  There’s a chance for some rain this weekend if tropical weather comes this far west.  I’m currently hardening off some cucumbers and a few pepper and tomato replacements, but I may not get them in the ground this weekend if it looks like hard rain.  I’ll gladly wait a few days for a chance to get moisture.  Even the native plants around here are drooping.
> 
> The sweet potatoes are happy in the heat, and my other recent transplants are holding their own, though I’ve been discouraged to see ants farming aphids on the young peppers.  I had put DE around a few days ago, but tonight I sprayed more neem.  That really helped the pimientos I treated the other week.   I’m also seeing more ”critter damage” on green tomatoes.  I think as things dry up here, even less appealing garden food becomes more appealing unfortunately.
> 
> I started some brussels sprouts, cabbage, and cauliflower inside for transplanting a bit later.  It’s so hot and dry right now, it seems silly to be trying for cole crops, but I suppose it’s no different from starting hot-weather plants inside when it’s still freezing at night.


We have several hummingbirds that visit us all the time all day long.  My wife put out a hummingbird feeder and changes it every three days.  They still work our flowers as well.  They are like ghosts sometimes-they are no where to be seen and then just out of the blue, they are right next to you hovering.  My wife and I were sitting out on the porch one evening and my wife had on a colorful botanical type of shirt and one of the hummers flew within a foot of her shirt I guess thinking it was real flowers.

We have very dry and hot as well up to two days ago.  We had storms last evening and the day before, so after about 20 straight days of no rain, the storms were welcome.  All of my corn had tasseled and now one row is laying on its side.  I was splitting some wood yesterday evening when the storm started rolling in.  After a rather close lightening strike in the sky, I shut off my splitter and covered it and headed back to the house.  As I was walking across the field, I heard some distant thunder immediately followed by several turkeys gobbling across the road.  Seemed kind of strange this time of year.

I haven't started my fall cabbage or broccoli seeds yet, was planning on doing that next week.  The only difference I see in starting seeds in the summer and pre-spring is that they will germinate so much faster.  I don't have a greenhouse, so most of my stuff gets started on a heating pad and next to a window.  Temps are usually around 68 in my house that time of the year.  With the temps reaching around 90 every day, I have a feeling that they will germinate rather quickly.


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## DuaeGuttae

I’m so sorry to hear about Mosaic Virus, @begreen .   I can see how that would be discouraging, especially as it’s such a tenacious virus, I believe.  I plant so many tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers throughout my little garden, I’m not sure how I’ll ever really successfully avoid replanting an area too soon.  How many beds do you have to work with in total?

I just pulled out the last of my cucumber vines this morning.  They had been suffering from powdery mildew, but neem treatments had definitely helped knock that back, and the new growth looked nice.  They might have been able to produce a few more fruit, but the last three I harvested were smaller, and one was dry enough that I didn’t even use it.  I figured it was better to get the bed ready for some fall crops.  It has a nice trellis so I plan to sow some pole beans there.   I have a few pickling cucumber plants that I plan to put in the new beds, perhaps this evening depending on what the weather forecast shows.

@Country Living in VA, you were right about fast germination.  I seeded my brassicas Monday, and I already have several cabbage and cauliflower seedlings up.  I don’t have a greenhouse either and use LED lights in the house.  It’s in a room that doesn’t have HVAC venting but is very open to our main living area which does.  (The room actually has some nice windows, but we keep the blinds pulled much of the summer because of the heat.)  I had been worried about temperatures being too hot because this spring my third round of lettuce seeds  gave me 0% germination.  Earlier in the spring it had been great, and I had wanted to grow one last batch to keep indoors since it was getting so hot outdoors, but I never managed, and I think it was because my indoor temperatures were not cool enough by April to do it.  I think the brassicas aren’t so picky about germinating at higher temperatures.


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## DuaeGuttae

My son and I took a few pictures around the garden this morning, and I thought I’d share some with a few updates.


It’s not the best photo, but this first sight is what prompted taking the camera out to the garden.  After weeks and weeks of heat and dryness, we’ve had a few small showers of rain.  (I’m so thankful to have some water in the rain tanks again, but it doesn’t stop me from wanting more!)  We got a total of one inch in a few storms the last week of July, and just yesterday we got a very short downpour yielding about 3/16 of an inch.   When the ubiquitous ants find their underground nests getting waterlogged, they move them above ground.  When I went to check on the garden this morning, I discovered an ant nest being built right around the stem of one of my eggplants.  It’s there in the shadow in the picture.  We sprayed it off with a strong stream of water (and neem), and I put DE in the area.  Any garden-safe suggestions for bait to kill the nest? 




Last month I finally succeeded in growing and planting out sweet potato slips.  They all came off one potato from the grocery store, and I planted thirteen slips.  New stems and leaves can look a little purple, but they turn green pretty quickly.  This one slip, however, has ended up variegated.  The whiter parts seem to burn more easily in the Texas sun, and it seems to be slow to spread.  (I have a quick one that has climbed to almost my height), but I just find it fascinating to see the variation in this one slip.



My son and I seeded a few sunflowers way back in May, and most never came up.  This one popped up in a crowded corner, however, and has been overshaded by tomatoes the whole summer.  I recently pruned off the withered and unproductive foliage from the tomatoes, and the extra sun helped the sunflower grow, I think.  It’s only about knee-high, but it makes me happy.



Here are some of my most developed transplants:  a month-old tomato and a week-old cucumber.   I’m amazed at how quickly cucumbers grow.




I seeded about 60 pole beans last Friday night (in hopes of more rain than we ended up getting, but we did at least get some).  I’ve been hauling water to them regularly, and about forty of the sixty have sprouted so far.  My spring crop of Kentucky Wonders is mature, but I think the heat was too much for them to set blossoms for a while.  I’m seeing more now but no fruit as of yet.    The new planting is a mixture of Rattlesnake (good in heat) and purple pole beans.  Hopefully having them mature in the fall will be a help.



We have a very steep driveway, and the rain washed some leaf mold that had been accumulating at the edges down to a low spot at the bottom.  My four year old has been collecting it in a little ride-on toy that he calls his wheelbarrow.  This morning his older brother helped him really shovel it up, and they brought it to me in the garden.  I spread it around the transplants in the newer bed.  Their soil had never been rained on until recently, and so it had been compacted a bit and needed some supplementing .  




There’s a lot of struggling plants in the garden, tomatoes being stolen left and right by critters (I’ve lost 9 of 10 Black Krims while still green), sunburned parsley, but I figured no one needs pictures of my discouragement.  All gardeners probably have enough of that.  I thought maybe someone else would enjoy the little interesting things and encouragements.


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## begreen

DuaeGuttae said:


> There’s a lot of struggling plants in the garden, tomatoes being stolen left and right by critters (I’ve lost 9 of 10 Black Krims while still green), sunburned parsley, but I figured no one needs pictures of my discouragement. All gardeners probably have enough of that. I thought maybe someone else would enjoy the little interesting things and encouragements.


Sounds like it's time for some action. An electric fence can deter varmints, but a trail cam might help a lot first to identify them.


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## DuaeGuttae

begreen said:


> Sounds like it's time for some action. An electric fence can deter varmints, but a trail cam might help a lot first to identify them.




At least it's time for different actions because the ones I have taken have failed.  I can't say the idea of a trail camera had even occurred to me, but we think it's pretty likely a squirrel that's taking the large tomatoes.  I've witnessed female cardinals pecking at the cherry and pear varieties, but most of my black krims have completely disappeared, and no songbird could do that.    The garden is fenced for rabbits and deer, and that seems to be working. I had put up some fake owls that were on the property when we moved in, and that helped for a bit, then stopped being a deterrent.  Weeks ago I borrowed a small Havahart  trap from the neighbors.  A few times the seeds or half tomato has been taken, but the trap hasn't been tripped.  I set it again tonight with the most recent tomato victim.  I had wrapped it in a mesh bag with a tight drawstring farther down the branch.  The critter failed to steal it but mangled it pretty well.  I think I managed to adjust the setting to make it easier to spring the trap, so we'll see in the morning.

I also once again showed my husband the traps that EatenByLimestone had recommended this spring for my peach trees.  He's coming around to thinking it might be a good idea because I put an awful lot of work into that garden, and I've got fall crops planted now.   I think also that since we don't plan to release any squirrels anywhere, it might actually be more humane.  @EatenByLimestone, what has your experience been with that type of trap?

I'm hardening off the six brassicas that actually sprouted.  Those few germinated quickly, but it was only 25% of my seeds.  The Brussels sprouts were old, and they were the worst, but the cabbage and cauliflower are new this season.  I think maybe the indoor temperatures were pushing the range.  (The outdoor temperatures are definitely too high.)  I'll try again later.


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## SpaceBus

If you have half eaten stuff left behind and no obvious answer mice would be my guess. I let a garter snake live under a lumber stack and now we have less nibbles on our garden plants.


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## Country Living in VA

Perhaps a woodchuck?  They can be very hard to catch in a trap from my experience.  They were famous for eating my tomatoes and other stuff.  They seem to find a way under fences that would surprise you.  I watched one go right through the electric fence I had placed about 8 inches off the ground.  It seemed like the fur kept the varmit from grounding and getting shocked.  I eventually purchased a motion sensing garden sprayer and left it on at nights.  Seemed to work pretty well.


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## begreen

With August comes the serious harvests. The peppers are still a bit behind, but coming soon. After this harvest yesterday I collected cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and broccoli sprouts.


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## Country Living in VA

begreen said:


> With August comes the serious harvests. The peppers are still a bit behind, but coming soon. After this harvest yesterday I collected cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and broccoli sprouts.
> 
> View attachment 262088


Nice Harvest.  I have been getting so much recently and trying to get things canned that I haven't had any spare time for anything.  It seems like when it rains, it pours.  Been giving a lot away to family, neighbors, friends and co-workers as well.


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## begreen

We have been canning fruits, making jams so far and drying herbs. The carrots, onions and potatoes are easy. Serious tomato sauce making usually is toward the end of August. Lettuce crop #4 is in the ground and looking good.


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## EatenByLimestone

DuaeGuttae said:


> At least it's time for different actions because the ones I have taken have failed.  I can't say the idea of a trail camera had even occurred to me, but we think it's pretty likely a squirrel that's taking the large tomatoes.  I've witnessed female cardinals pecking at the cherry and pear varieties, but most of my black krims have completely disappeared, and no songbird could do that.    The garden is fenced for rabbits and deer, and that seems to be working. I had put up some fake owls that were on the property when we moved in, and that helped for a bit, then stopped being a deterrent.  Weeks ago I borrowed a small Havahart  trap from the neighbors.  A few times the seeds or half tomato has been taken, but the trap hasn't been tripped.  I set it again tonight with the most recent tomato victim.  I had wrapped it in a mesh bag with a tight drawstring farther down the branch.  The critter failed to steal it but mangled it pretty well.  I think I managed to adjust the setting to make it easier to spring the trap, so we'll see in the morning.
> 
> I also once again showed my husband the traps that EatenByLimestone had recommended this spring for my peach trees.  He's coming around to thinking it might be a good idea because I put an awful lot of work into that garden, and I've got fall crops planted now.   I think also that since we don't plan to release any squirrels anywhere, it might actually be more humane.  @EatenByLimestone, what has your experience been with that type of trap?
> 
> I'm hardening off the six brassicas that actually sprouted.  Those few germinated quickly, but it was only 25% of my seeds.  The Brussels sprouts were old, and they were the worst, but the cabbage and cauliflower are new this season.  I think maybe the indoor temperatures were pushing the range.  (The outdoor temperatures are definitely too high.)  I'll try again later.




I probably recommended the tube trap from WCS.     It's a great trap.   We use them all the time.  I've had some squirrels taking my tomatoes too.


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## DuaeGuttae

begreen said:


> With August comes the serious harvests. The peppers are still a bit behind, but coming soon. After this harvest yesterday I collected cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, and broccoli sprouts.
> 
> View attachment 262088



Begreen, that's just beautiful!  I started some eggplants from seed for my fall garden this year, and my transplants were doing well, but apparently the fire ants love them.  They have been chewing at the growing points and have really done a lot of damage to one.  The other is doing better, but they've chewed through the stem of the first bud.  Maybe the plant will be stronger for it.  The two plants are at least twelve feet apart, but the cucumbers and tomatoes in between aren't being attacked as much.  It must be something tasty about eggplant.

The mystery critter took a few days to go into the trap (the bait was untouched, so it was probably off at the neighbor's garden), but yesterday it managed once again to swipe the tomato without springing the door even though I had tried to make it easier to trigger.  I think mice couldn't take such a big fruit, @SpaceBus, though it's entirely possible that they're around.  Maybe it's a Texas-sized mouse because the one time I thought I saw one (darting under some rosebushes not near our garden,) it was big.  That was the original impetus for borrowing the trap because I wanted to see what that creature was.  No success with that, either.

I don't think it's a groundhog, @Country Living in VA , because there isn't enough damage.   We still have a butternut squash and watermelon on the vine, and I think those would have disappeared, too, and my zinnias would have been stripped, and ...  Well, you know how they are.  In the meantime, we see squirrels all the time on our property, and they have taken what few apples, pears, and pomegranates we had this year, so we need to address that anyway.  I had tried bagging the fruits to protect them, but it didn't work.  @EatenByLimestone, it was the WCS tube you recommended, and we are planning to get one or two.  Any tips for using them?


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## begreen

DuaeGuttae said:


> I started some eggplants from seed for my fall garden this year, and my transplants were doing well, but apparently the fire ants love them. They have been chewing at the growing points and have really done a lot of damage to one. The other is doing better, but they've chewed through the stem of the first bud. Maybe the plant will be stronger for it. The two plants are at least twelve feet apart, but the cucumbers and tomatoes in between aren't being attacked as much. It must be something tasty about eggplant.


That is a bummer. Does spinosad work to discourage fire ants?


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## Montanalocal

This video shows how to make a bait jar to keep a critter from stealing your bait.  It is geared toward raccoons, but it should work for other critters.  I tried to live trap a raccoon and it kept stealing my bait.  I made a bait jar like this and caught it right away.


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## EatenByLimestone

DuaeGuttae said:


> Begreen, that's just beautiful!  I started some eggplants from seed for my fall garden this year, and my transplants were doing well, but apparently the fire ants love them.  They have been chewing at the growing points and have really done a lot of damage to one.  The other is doing better, but they've chewed through the stem of the first bud.  Maybe the plant will be stronger for it.  The two plants are at least twelve feet apart, but the cucumbers and tomatoes in between aren't being attacked as much.  It must be something tasty about eggplant.
> 
> The mystery critter took a few days to go into the trap (the bait was untouched, so it was probably off at the neighbor's garden), but yesterday it managed once again to swipe the tomato without springing the door even though I had tried to make it easier to trigger.  I think mice couldn't take such a big fruit, @SpaceBus, though it's entirely possible that they're around.  Maybe it's a Texas-sized mouse because the one time I thought I saw one (darting under some rosebushes not near our garden,) it was big.  That was the original impetus for borrowing the trap because I wanted to see what that creature was.  No success with that, either.
> 
> I don't think it's a groundhog, @Country Living in VA , @EatenByLimestone, it was the WCS tube you recommended, and we are planning to get one or two.  Any tips for using them?




The key to all trapping is the trap needs to be where the animal will pass it.   Sounds simple, but I see a lot of people putting traps where the animal isn't. 

Be careful setting the tube trap.  Its powerful and could probably break a hand if it went off and you were distracted.  

Are there any droppings left?  Maybe it's a rat?


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## DuaeGuttae

begreen said:


> That is a bummer. Does spinosad work to discourage fire ants?



According to Texas A&M, Spinosad is an effective treatment safe for gardens.  Unfortunately I have not been able to find any bait locally that uses it.  There are rows of fire ant treatments in the stores, but they are all the chemicals I don't want.  The good news is, though, that the little borax outdoor spikes have helped.  I picked some of those up in desperation even though fire ants weren't listed on the package, but I figured that they might be attracted to the moisture, and within an hour of my installing a few, they were mobbed.  There are still some ants about, but they seem to be choosing the bait over my plants.  I hope it will get back to the queen and kill her, too.


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## DuaeGuttae

EatenByLimestone said:


> The key to all trapping is the trap needs to be where the animal will pass it.   Sounds simple, but I see a lot of people putting traps where the animal isn't.
> 
> Be careful setting the tube trap.  Its powerful and could probably break a hand if it went off and you were distracted.
> 
> Are there any droppings left?  Maybe it's a rat?



I sure hope it's not a rat.  The critter that I saw in the back yard definitely did not have a naked tail, but I'm not sure that that critter is the same one that's in the garden.  I've never seen the one in the garden.  I'm just assuming it's a squirrel because the damage looks the same as what I find among the fruit trees in the back yard. 

Thanks for the warning about the tube trap.  That's one of the reasons we didn't get it in the spring (some small children), but we plan to make it accessible to squirrels but not to kids.

I may have to keep  trying  the Havahart trap in the meantime with more secure bait or making sure the hinges are well lubricated.  Thanks for the pointers, @Montanalocal .


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## DuaeGuttae

Thursday afternooon my plants were so wilted in the afternoon sun despite a good watering that morning  that I decided that I needed to get out early on Friday morning to deploy our new shade cloth.  (I had taken down the frost cloth some weeks ago because it didn't do well in the wind and was getting torn.)  The last three days it has been 100+ with lots of sun, and the garden has been doing well.  Having the shade cloth up really helps the soil retain moisture, and I even transplanted my Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and cauliflower yesterday to the garden.  I figured it was cooler there than on the back deck where I had been hardening them off for a while. 

I had to pull out some older tomatoes to make room, and there are more that will go as soon as it's time to plant something else.  The new tomatoes, though, are beginning to flower, and I was rather shocked to find a small fruit had set even in this heat.  The cucumbers are flowering nicely as well.     The front of this picture is sweet potato vines climbing a trellis.  I harvested some leaves the other day and sauteed them for a side dish, and my kids loved them.  They've been asking for more, but I don't want to prune too much just yet.


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## begreen

We're at 97º here. Probably a record breaker. I watered the main beds heavily yesterday and will again tomorrow when it's supposed to cool down into the 80s. Using the heat pump in cooling mode today. Second time this year.


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## EatenByLimestone

I think I'll get the potatoes out of the ground.  We had a cool spat, and one of the old bushes bloomed again, lol.    It's probably trying to put out new tubers.    

I kind of want to get the bed ready for garlic though.  I've always wanted to do an intensive garlic planting.  Tight enough to control weeds.  I've never had enough garlic to plant though.  I'll buy out the local co-op one week, lol.


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## SpaceBus

EatenByLimestone said:


> I think I'll get the potatoes out of the ground.  We had a cool spat, and one of the old bushes bloomed again, lol.    It's probably trying to put out new tubers.
> 
> I kind of want to get the bed ready for garlic though.  I've always wanted to do an intensive garlic planting.  Tight enough to control weeds.  I've never had enough garlic to plant though.  I'll buy out the local co-op one week, lol.


I planted a whole clove of garlic, broken up of course, in a five gallon fabric pot and they are doing great. I'm hoping to get enough to keep replanting until I have several of the fabric pots full of garlic and then I can have garlic whenever I want. The plan is to grow indoors once the sun drops low enough to get good light through the south windows.


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## EatenByLimestone

SpaceBus said:


> I planted a whole clove of garlic, broken up of course, in a five gallon fabric pot and they are doing great. I'm hoping to get enough to keep replanting until I have several of the fabric pots full of garlic and then I can have garlic whenever I want. The plan is to grow indoors once the sun drops low enough to get good light through the south windows.




I had trouble with garlic in pots.  They warmed up in spring sun enough to grow,   but the bottom of the pot was too frozen to drain.     I know it can be done, I need to figure out a way to get the water out better.  Maybe a perforated pipe up the middle would work.


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## begreen

I've only "intentionally" planted garlic in the late fall or on the winter solstice, but some elude picking and I have had surprise batches show up next year. It's actually a perennial.  Here is a guide that might prove helpful. 








						Growing Garlic as a Perennial
					

While most plants are planted in the spring for fall harvest, garlic is just the opposite.  Usually, garlic is planted in the fall and harvested mid-summer the following year.  Why is garlic so different?  Because




					practicalselfreliance.com


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## EatenByLimestone

I've had surprise garlic show up too!  It's usually in bunches as I left the garlic in the ground and each clove sprouted.  It's real small when that happens though.


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## begreen

Getting into full harvest mode now. Raspberries, blackberries, tons of green beans, 23# carrots, and many tomatoes. We are pretty busy picking and preserving. Peppers, eggplants and tomatoes will be next. 
 This is a partial load (18# of primo carrots)



And this is pretty much an every other day harvest now.


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## DuaeGuttae

Begreen, that harvest is beautiful.  I'm impressed (and envious).  How large is your garden?

I was excited this week to get hold of some locally grown, organic Texas Rose garlic heads.  I haven't had great success with garlic the past couple of years here in Texas, but my husband wanted me to try one more crop this fall.  I'm attempting to vernalize the cloves in the refrigerator before planting this year, and I plan to plant them deeper than the usual recommendation because I've read that it's necessary to combat our heat when the bulbs are sizing up.


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## DuaeGuttae

@begreen and I were in danger of confusing the cooking thread and the garden thread (the two go well together, though!), so I'm going to quote one of his comments over here and respond more fully.

From Begreen: "I love pickled hot peppers. Fresno peppers are mildly hot, but tasty. Habeneros are hotter if that is desired. We have poblanos, sweet yellow bananas, bells, jalapenos, & allepo (hot) this year. In past years we have grown hot Bulgarian carrot peppers which dry very nicely."

I looked up Fresno peppers last night, and they do sound yummy.  My neighbors every year grow bumper crops of habaneros, serranos, and poblanos, and we can have a pepper any time we need one (which isn't really too often), so we didn't use our pretty limited space for them.  This year since we expanded the garden,  we wanted to grow some hot peppers this year, though, but a milder sort of hot for pickling.  It's our first attempt at any sort of hot peppers.

We're trying three types: a very mildly hot banana pepper, a purple jalapeno (such beautiful dark green foliage and purple blossoms!), and an heirloom called a fish pepper.  It has a longer days to maturity than the others and could be hard to get a crop, but we decided it would be worth a try just as an ornamental if we did get hit with an early frost.




Some of my pepper plants are beginning to bloom, but it needs to cool off before there's much chance of fruit set.  Unfortunately my cucumbers, zucchini, and pumpkin are being hit pretty hard by what I think are thrips (and vine borers, too) and I don't know if the plants will stand the stress to make it to a crop.   There's been a late-August heat wave here, but the shade cloth has definitely been helping.  It may cool off enough by mid September for it to come down.


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## SpaceBus

We found a hidden cucumber plant a few days ago, it even has flowers. The wind came through and roughed up our flowering tomatoes, but seems that all the flowers made it. Our broccoli all "bolted" without making the nice floret clumps. On the bright side humming birds seem to love the yellow flowers. we are going to let the see pods fall and plant themselves. So far we have harvested lots of snow peas, cabbage, and collards. We got a late start, so whatever we get is awesome.


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## begreen

We have had a brief cool spell here and right on cue, powdery mildew started showing up on the older zucchini leaves. I gave the plants a good haircut up to the flowering part of the stems. And I pulled out the rambling delicata squash plant. We got bout 16 squash from it. The butternut squash is still growing so I will give it a chance. After cleanup I drench sprayed everything with a neem oil spray. Summer heat is supposed to return in a couple days, so I am hopeful that I can keep the PM under control with early intervention.  Our pepper plants are packed with peppers ripening and the eggplants are now producing. The DeCicco broccoli has been a very good producer this year with many nice side shoots. I gave all the heavy feeders a feeding of bat guano/fish emulsion. One very bright spot has been our day-neutral strawberry patch. I completely redid the bed in spring and put in new plants. We have been getting steady basketfuls of beautiful strawberries for a couple of months now. My wife is in heaven. I will be picking the last crop of blueberries today along with the last ears of corn. It was a good year for them too.

I planted a new variety of broccoli (to us) for this fall, Piracicaba. This was developed in Brazil and is supposed to be very tasty and exceptionally heat tolerant. If our winter is mild I have been told that it may also overwinter. We'll see. I have cabbage, beets, lettuce, broccoli, kale crops all growing for fall harvest and a few big heads of swiss chard.






						Piracicaba: a flavorful broccoli that can take the heat
					

It took me years to find, but I finally have a favorite broccoli. I’m actually not a fan of the standard hybrid types; I don’t love their flavor, they take up a lot of space for just one harvest, and ubiquitous as they are, I’m limited in what I can charge for them. So I kept trying all the...




					www.growingformarket.com


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## DuaeGuttae

@SpaceBus, congratulations on your harvests! Snowpeas, cabbage, and collards are wonderful!  How long do you have before your first expected frost for those tomatoes and cucumbers?

@begreen, I had a lot of powdery mildew on my first round of cucumbers earlier this summer.  I, too, trimmed and sprayed, and the neem really knocked it back.  It's interesting, though, because my version flourishes in the heat and dry.

I actually just used up my bottle of neem concentrate trying to deal with thrips on the fall cucumbers (and zucchini and pumpkin), but that has been less successful.  I may end up pulling some out soon if they don't show signs of healthy growth.  I'm also having problems with vine borers.

I'm glad you're having success with your strawberries and broccoli.  You had mentioned a discouraging year with your tomatoes (though the ones pictured above look beautiful), and it's wonderful to get encouragement where you can.

We were supposed to have a cooler day (high of 88) with cloud cover and the possibility of showers, and I took the opportunity to remove the shade cloth this morning.  (We get a lot of wind, and I was having to resecure it a fair amount, and I didn't want it whipping around if the promised cold front moved in).  It managed to be bright and sunny and a high of 97, and my plants were a bit upset with me before the showers did move in.   It was a gentle rain but it lasted a while, so that should provide at least some small help for the drought conditions we're dealing with here.


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## begreen

First time batch of sauerkraut is a success. Well, at least so far I am still living. The fermented dill pickles came out good too. I did a double-dare and had both for lunch.


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## DuaeGuttae

begreen said:


> First time batch of sauerkraut is a success. Well, at least so far I am still living. The fermented dill pickles came out good too. I did a double-dare and had both for lunch.



Yum.

I think we're not going to manage homegrown cucumbers for pickles this fall.  The thrips have taken such a toll on the plants.  I've pulled out two of five, and I think the other three will go soon, but there is still some healthy growth, so we'll see.

We had three inches of rain last week, and the garden and other plants look so much better.  We've been in moderate drought conditions recently.  I don't know if this will bring us out or not, but our rain tanks are full again at least, and the sun is less intense, so the soil is not drying so quickly.

I planted some daikon radish, sugar snap peas, kale, beets, and rhubarb (attempting to grow the last as a winter annual) in recent weeks.  The temperatures are more reasonable (eighties for highs and high 60s for lows), so I hope to be able to have some harvest this fall.  The daikon radish is more for the soil than for harvest, but my children really enjoy a nice fermented kimchi from time to time, so we might harvest one or two if we actually succeed in growing them.


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## Sawset

Digging taters.


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## Riff

We're under a frost advisory tonight and probably one for tomorrow night. Took that as a good enough reason to harvest the rest of the garden and call it a season. Will pickle the green tomatoes tomorrow and the 4yr old is already talking about making pumpkin bread with one of the squashes.


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## begreen

Riff said:


> We're under a frost advisory tonight and probably one for tomorrow night. Took that as a good enough reason to harvest the rest of the garden and call it a season. Will pickle the green tomatoes tomorrow and the 4yr old is already talking about making pumpkin bread with one of the squashes.
> View attachment 263463


Wow, frost in VA already?


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## begreen

Sawset said:


> Digging taters.


Nice. That's a good-sized spud.


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## Riff

begreen said:


> Wow, frost in VA already?



Doesn't look like we ended up getting it last night and if the forecast is right we won't be getting conditions for it again for the foreseeable future.


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## NickW

My garden was quite productive this year... 128 zucchini, 148 cantelopes (neighbors & family were happy with that...had a 3 day stretch with over 90), 35 mango hybrid melons, and still harvesting peppers. I don't do a lot of things, but this year everything did well. The mango hybrid melons I had never done before. I couldn't taste any "mango" flavor, but they tasted like cantelope only sweeter and more flavorful. Lots of zucchini halves blanched and frozen for stuffed zucchini this winter. Shredded some for zucchini bread and zucchini grilled cheese and made some zoodles too. Cleaning and freezing green peppers and jalapenos as they ripen for stuffing and poppers.


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## DuaeGuttae

We had our first ever meal of homegrown zucchini today.  I know that having four small zucchini off of two plants is no major accomplishment, but with high heat and drought at planting time and thrips and vine borers, we were happy to get our first meal.  This is hopefully the beginning of our harvest season for the plants, and we're hoping to have lots more.  

We were hoping to get some rain from the outer bands of Beta today, and it was gray and windy but no measurable precipitation.  There's still a chance, but it's diminishing.

Our beans are finally starting to set some fruit.  We planted Kentucky Wonders back in May and have been wondering all summer if they'll ever have fruit.  Even though we planted within our recommended window, it must have just been too hot by the time they matured, and they hunkered down till rain and cooler temperatures came.  Now all three of my varieties are starting to set some beans, even though the other two weren't planted till the very end of July.  Next year if I do summer beans, I'll try to get them in much earlier.  Now that the garden is larger, there should be more choice of space for them.


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## Sawset

DuaeGuttae said:


> Even though we planted within our recommended window, it must have just been too hot by the time they matured


Some beans and corn varieties can become infertile when temps are above 90 during blossoming or silking. I remember in 2012 here, we had record temps over 100 for weeks, with nights into the 90s well past dusk. I watered and watered, and got a total of 3 ears and few beans from otherwise healthy looking plants.


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## DuaeGuttae

Sawset said:


> Some beans and corn varieties can become infertile when temps are above 90 during blossoming or silking. I remember in 2012 here, we had record temps over 100 for weeks, with nights into the 90s well past dusk. I watered and watered, and got a total of 3 ears and few beans from otherwise healthy looking plants.



And tomatoes, and peppers, and cucumbers, and it seems just about everything.  My okra has even been doing better since it cooled off, and I thought for sure that it wouldn't mind the heat.  I've been watering regularly from our rain barrels, and even though it's good water, it doesn't compete with actual soaking rain.

Record temperatures over 100 for weeks and nights in the 90s.  That sounds awful.  Really awful!  We did have temperatures over 100 a couple of times this summer, and that's actually a bit unusual for our particular area.  I understand 2011 was brutally hot here, though I didn't live here then.  Even though 100 is a bit unusual, temperatures are regularly in the high nineties for long, long stretches, and the solar radiation is intense.  I've been having to learn a new kind of gardening down here which is much more dependent on a short spring season, and a short fall season, with summer not being a productive time at all.   It's only been a couple of years of building our garden and learning, and my husband often encourages me when a crops fails that I've at least harvested some knowledge.   I have hopes for some fall food crops if we don't get a really early (for us) freeze.


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## begreen

Things are starting to wind down here with the cooler and shorter days. We've harvested most of the heat lovers. Only green tomatoes left on the plants and some small eggplants. If we get a warm fall, they may continue on. Got a bumper crop of nice red Fresno, yellow banana, poblano, bell, and Allepo peppers with many still on the plants. Winter crops are looking good. We have some serious swiss chard action going, kale, cabbage, broccoli, lettuce and some carrots. I have some spinach just starting too.


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## Montanalocal

We had our first killing frost here 3 weeks ago at 5,000 ft. elevation in central Montana.  I have cleaned everything out of the garden except the members of the cabbage family, which will soldier on for some time yet.  In the foreground is brussels sprouts on the left and kale on the right.  Behind them on the left is rutabagas.  In the background is cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower.


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## begreen

Looks pretty neat and tidy. Are those beets on the middle right side?


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## Montanalocal

Yes it is.


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## DuaeGuttae

The cooler weather has been good for our garden.  This was a couple of days' worth of pole beans.  I also harvested three pimientos, a zucchini, and a few okra pods.  I'll have some more coming in in the next couple of days and need to think of a good way to put them together.


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## DuaeGuttae

We've got some peppers and tomatoes that have set some nice fruit in recent weeks.  We're about a month out from our average last frost date (but two of the three falls I've lived here we've had it in October).  I'm hoping it will be later this year because the peppers and tomatoes could use the time.  (And, yes, there are Christmas ornaments on my tomato plants.  Some other folks in the neighborhood recommended that I put them up before the tomatoes set fruit to teach the birds that there isn't a benefit to pecking.  I don't know if it helps, but after my summer discouragement with stolen and damaged tomatoes, it was worth a try.)


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## Country Living in VA

I still have some broccoli to come in, but after about 5 frosts now, everything else is done.  DuaeGuttae, in some ways you are lucky to still be getting fresh veggies,  I envy you in that regard, but would not want to deal with the hot weather when it is really hot.  The hottest it ever got at my this summer was 91 degrees.


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## Country Living in VA

Some glass gem corn that I grew this year.  I will save the seeds once they dry out.  We used the stalks for decoration:


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## SidecarFlip

Cabbage broccoli and some other stuff tolerate frost pretty well, but, a good lower 30 degree freeze will end their lives.  I need to pick what is left of the green peppers today as NWS says low 30's here tonight.  I keep contemplating a greenhouse but so fat it has not materialized.


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## DuaeGuttae

Country Living in VA said:


> I still have some broccoli to come in, but after about 5 frosts now, everything else is done.  DuaeGuttae, in some ways you are lucky to still be getting fresh veggies,  I envy you in that regard, but would not want to deal with the hot weather when it is really hot.  The hottest it ever got at my this summer was 91 degrees.



Quite frankly, I don't want to deal with the hot weather either, but it is what it is.   I try to make the most of this new climate, and at least my mandarin orange tree is doing well.
	

		
			
		

		
	



	

		
			
		

		
	
  It's about eighteen feet in diameter and pretty loaded with fruit.  The oranges are swelling and turning lighter, but they won't be truly ripe till December, I think.  We're really slightly cold for a lot of citrus, and I've realized that the previous owners must have planted a bunch that didn't make it as I've recently identified some mystery plants as trifoliate orange that appears to be growing from the rootstock of no-longer present trees.

I pruned tomatoes recently to tone down new growth and suckers, but I'm debating doing a much more radical pruning of tomatoes and peppers to focus the plants' energies on the fruit that's already set.  Anyone have any tips or warnings about that?

I have a handful of brassicas scattered about the garden.  I think they'll enjoy the cooler weather in the weeks ahead, but they've held their own during some unusual heat this month, too.


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## begreen

Things are wrapping up for the season. A cold snap due later this week will wipe out all but the hardy plants. We'll be taking down most plants now and composting them. The cabbage, lettuce, carrots, beets, chard, kale will remain.


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## gggvan

I'm looking to grow indoor wildflowers, how deep of a tray do I need.


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## gggvan

Does anyone grow inside over the winter? Use grow lights? I'm finishing my basement and want to add some plant life and flower beds.


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## DuaeGuttae

Unless your basement has a remarkable amount of natural light, you'll surely need grow lights for many kinds of plants.a  I've known numerous people who maintain all sorts of plants in the winter, but not usually in basements.  Circumstances differ based on what kind of light and heat you have, of course.  

I did know an engineer who had a large house and small yard who set up a hydroponic system in his basement and grew large, indeterminate tomatoes with it.  It can be done, but it's an investment. 

We own two Aerogardens, one received as a gift, one bought used years ago.  They seem to have gotten crazy expensive and bigger in recent years, but they are easy and provide some nice opportunities for winter growing depending on what you want to grow.


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## DuaeGuttae

The cold snap even pushed itself this far south.  We had a much cooler week last week than originally forecast.  One day didn't even get out of the thirties for more than 24 hours (that's impressive down here), but thankfully the heat-lovers all survived.  I do have some beautiful tomatoes, zucchini, and peppers that I'd like to see mature.  The weather will still be cool overnight but back up to the 70's during the days this week.

I planted my garlic yesterday as well as seeding some more daikon radishes as well as lettuce and kale.  We don't have rain in the forecast (and haven't had much of anything since September, I think), so I'll have to be pretty diligent on surface watering for some of those seeds.

I seeded some sugar snap peas a good while ago, and the heat in October was really hard on them.  They are all putting out new growth now that things have cooled, so there's hope yet.

I have some beautiful cauliflower plants that have been growing for a couple of months, but there have been no signs of heads.  I know that they can be temperamental about temperature, and it has been a pretty up and down fall here.  Is there hope for head formation now that we've got cooler weather, or do the plants get to the point where they just won't produce heads at all if they're too old?  I'm tempted to cut them and cook the leaves like collards if there isn't any chance now.


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## Riff

The cold snap this weekend was enough to have a killing frost. We harvested the last of the green beans on Friday. Enough for two meals and have 4 quarts worth of them in the pressure canner right now. Not a bad year for having only put in the garden this summer. Planning to put down some aged manure this winter and expand out the garden in preparation for next year.


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## DuaeGuttae

We've had some cool/cold nights, but it has been an above average October and November in general.  It has slowed my heat lovers, but they're still in the garden and show signs of some maturing.  My eight year old and I harvested one ripe Black Krim tomato yesterday.  We had one old seed that we planted inside in the winter.  The plant went into the garden in the spring.  It bore a first crop in the very early summer.  It bore a late crop in late summer, but that was decimated by squirrels to our disappointment.  We have fewer squirrels now, and I trimmed the plant back to one strong sucker in late summer.  It has grown large again and has a third crop of about eight green tomatoes in varying stages.  I'm proud of that one little old seed.  This first tomato that we harvested was a bit cat-faced, but it still yielded some nice slices for BLT's (and it got sliced immediately for lunch yesterday, so there is not picture).  I also harvested some leaves of Crawford lettuce that had volunteered in the shade and moisture next to one of my ollas.  Now that it's much cooler and I'm watering some Daikon seeds in the same bed, and there are lots of tiny seedlings showing up.  I hope it's more Crawford lettuce (went let it go to seed there this summer), but it will take some time for me to determine if it's that or weeds.  

We did harvest one of our earlier Daikon plantings the other day.
	

		
			
		

		
	



	

		
			
		

		
	
  (The photo shows the lettuce as well, hiding by the pot.)  We didn't have a lot come up from the first round, but we wanted to try one.  Since I was motivated to plant them to help our soil, I kind of felt bad about harvesting it, so I ground up the leaves in the blender and poured them back down the planting hole.  The sliced and salted Daikon was a hit.  Now  we have about two dozen newer seedlings growing for the winter.


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## DuaeGuttae

We cut and mulched the asparagus today in preparation for "winter."  (It hit 82 today, and the sun was out while I was spreading mulch.)  We also moved some of the containers of brassicas out of the empty raised bed frame we had built earlier this year to make room for organic matter in preparation for planting onions next month.  I had expected the tomatoes to be dead by now, but they still are ripening on the vines, and the vines are so twined into the trellis that we didn't want to disturb them.  We're about at the time of average first frost, and there is a cold front moving in tomorrow, I think, but I don't expect frost for a while yet this year.


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## EatenByLimestone

We went hog wild on garlic this fall.    We intensively planted 2 beds with them.  Hundreds of plants, lol!    I wonder what their growth rate is?  I wonder how big they'll be if I start harvesting in June?

I ran into a time constraint again this year.  2nd year in a row.   Even with the wife working from home.    I think I need to reevaluate what I'm planting and how I plant.


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## begreen

Looks right tidy mam.


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## DuaeGuttae

It looks like some cold and wet weather may move in this weekend with the possibility of a hard freeze on Monday.  We took the opportunity of having a day off today to harvest most of the heat lovers and clean out the garden.   Sadly something had been eating most of the well-formed sweet potatoes.  The nibblers left me the little ones and ate into most of the good-sized ones.  I'll cure them, but I was disappointed.




This is my second batch of fairly ripe tomatoes this week.  The first got turned into some pretty yummy tomato basil soup.  These will sit on the counter for a bit and will probably become sauce for pizza or pasta.


We also harvested the rest of the tomatoes and peppers as well.  We cleared off a shelf in our pantry, and we'll see how they do in there. 



The only plant we tried to transplant out of the garden was our fish pepper.  I pruned off the vast majority of its foliage when we picked the peppers, but it had some nice young growth at the base, so we figured we'd see if we could overwinter it inside.  We really just enjoy seeing the variegated leaves.  (Its peppers are also striped; they're in the box just beyond the purple jalapenos.)



We also spent a lot of time adding new mulch around the inside and outside of the garden fence.  Weeds and grass had been growing in some spots, and I wanted to get it under control before the rain.  My husband made me nine cart loads of cedar mulch, and I got it all down.  There's still more perimeter to do, but we've got plenty more brush piles to tackle.


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## DuaeGuttae

We got our rain. I'm so thankful as we have been in a drought for so long.  It was just over an inch, and we could certainly use more, but it was the best we've had in the past two and a half months.

A surprisingly hard freeze (for us) is forecast for Monday night into Tuesday morning, and it has the potential to be low enough and long enough to damage the satsumas on the trees.  We therefore harvested the majority of them this afternoon.  I have no idea how many there are, but it's a good-sized box and eight paper bags about half full each.  I have an old refrigerator in the garage that doesn't cool well enough for our regular groceries, but it can maintain a temperature in the forties, so I anticipate using it as storage for lots of oranges for the time being.


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## begreen

DuaeGuttae said:


> We got our rain. I'm so thankful as we have been in a drought for so long.  It was just over an inch, and we could certainly use more, but it was the best we've had in the past two and a half months.
> 
> A surprisingly hard freeze (for us) is forecast for Monday night into Tuesday morning, and it has the potential to be low enough and long enough to damage the satsumas on the trees.  We therefore harvested the majority of them this afternoon.  I have no idea how many there are, but it's a good-sized box and eight paper bags about half full each.  I have an old refrigerator in the garage that doesn't cool well enough for our regular groceries, but it can maintain a temperature in the forties, so I anticipate using it as storage for lots of oranges for the time being.
> 
> View attachment 267957
> View attachment 267958
> View attachment 267959


What a treat!


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## DuaeGuttae

begreen said:


> What a treat!



It is a treat, @begreen.  My kids got fresh-squeezed orange juice for breakfast this morning.  Tomorrow they'll have marmalade and English muffins with their poached eggs.

My compost bin is suddenly so full of orange peels that I'm wondering if I'm going to cause myself some sort of problem.  We have plenty of shredded leaves piled up that can be added to increase carbon if necessary (we usually have way more carbon available than nitrogen in our yard), but are there other factors I need to consider?  This is a bin that we just emptied recently, so it's getting a fresh start.  Right now it's basically shredded oak leaves, sweet potato vines (cut), and orange peels.  I think the orange peels will be accumulating daily for a while.


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## begreen

Today I harvested the third and last potato crop. They have been under cardboard since August. I knicked a couple with the pitchfork but we got about 35lbs from this bed. My wife picked a half-dozen tomatoes from the greenhouse. The Early Girl is still producing.


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## DuaeGuttae

begreen said:


> Today I harvested the third and last potato crop. They have been under cardboard since August. I knicked a couple with the pitchfork but we got about 35lbs from this bed. My wife picked a half-dozen tomatoes from the greenhouse. The Early Girl is still producing.
> 
> View attachment 268603



Very nice potatoes, Begreen.  I'm also impressed that your Early Girl is producing.  What kind of temperatures is your greenhouse seeing these days/nights?

The green tomatoes and peppers that we brought in before Thanksgiving started ripening almost immediately.  I think that being in the warmer house at night sped things up.  Not all of them had hit the green mature stage, though, so I don't think they'll all ripen.  Maybe I need to find my recipe for green tomato cake that I made years ago.


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## Dobish

we had a few flowers come up (not the peonies though... they never bloomed)
	

		
			
		

		
	




and we got our garden boxes (phase 1) built and in. The yard is sloped, with a 10' wall drop on the other side of the garden, so we wanted to limit the ability to walk behind. 





We also had to get creative with our trellis for the squash.  It actually worked out pretty well





we had a rogue watermelon plant that made it through 2 freezes, and a hail storm. We got 6 watermelon, but they were not ready to eat, or they were rotted. it was a nice experiment though!



I had to get creative during a few hailstorms and sudden freezes.... Fortunately I thought about it when i was putting in the garden boxes and put some PVC that I could slide some supports into.


we ended up with tons of lettuces, greens, carrots, radishes, beets, kale, hot peppers, sweet peppers, zucchini, butternut squash, yellow squash, eggplants, tomatoes, broccoli, cucumbers..... mmmm thinking about it is making me crave fresh salad. Tons of basil pesto, carrot top pesto, and mustard greens (SO MUCH MUSTARD GREEENS!)

We ended up getting free greenhouse in the summer, so we will utilize that this spring. We also tore out a lot of weeds and put in some native drought resistant plants. I started building the stairs to the wood pile, but that got delayed (i found more boulders, project got bigger)


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## DuaeGuttae

Dobish said:


> we had a few flowers come up (not the peonies though... they never bloomed)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> View attachment 268794
> 
> 
> and we got our garden boxes (phase 1) built and in. The yard is sloped, with a 10' wall drop on the other side of the garden, so we wanted to limit the ability to walk behind.
> View attachment 268801
> 
> 
> View attachment 268800
> 
> We also had to get creative with our trellis for the squash.  It actually worked out pretty well
> View attachment 268795
> 
> 
> View attachment 268796
> 
> we had a rogue watermelon plant that made it through 2 freezes, and a hail storm. We got 6 watermelon, but they were not ready to eat, or they were rotted. it was a nice experiment though!
> View attachment 268798
> 
> 
> I had to get creative during a few hailstorms and sudden freezes.... Fortunately I thought about it when i was putting in the garden boxes and put some PVC that I could slide some supports into.
> View attachment 268799
> 
> we ended up with tons of lettuces, greens, carrots, radishes, beets, kale, hot peppers, sweet peppers, zucchini, butternut squash, yellow squash, eggplants, tomatoes, broccoli, cucumbers..... mmmm thinking about it is making me crave fresh salad. Tons of basil pesto, carrot top pesto, and mustard greens (SO MUCH MUSTARD GREEENS!)
> 
> We ended up getting free greenhouse in the summer, so we will utilize that this spring. We also tore out a lot of weeds and put in some native drought resistant plants. I started building the stairs to the wood pile, but that got delayed (i found more boulders, project got bigger)
> View attachment 268797




Thanks for the update and the photos, Dobish.  If that garden is just phase 1, I can hardly imagine how grand future phases will be.

Hail and drastic temperature swings cause me to have to protect my plants down here in Texas, too.  We haven't had a devastating storm since I've lived here, but everyone tells me tales of a huge, huge storm that hit the area about a year and a half before we moved.  Our insurance rates down here tell me that story, too. I had never used frost cloth before moving here, and I'd never even heard of shade cloth or hail netting.  Now I use the first two every season, and they help protect against the light hail we've had.  I figure that if we have a devastating storm, there isn't really much I can do.


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## Dobish

DuaeGuttae said:


> Thanks for the update and the photos, Dobish.  If that garden is just phase 1, I can hardly imagine how grand future phases will be.
> 
> Hail and drastic temperature swings cause me to have to protect my plants down here in Texas, too.  We haven't had a devastating storm since I've lived here, but everyone tells me tales of a huge, huge storm that hit the area about a year and a half before we moved.  Our insurance rates down here tell me that story, too. I had never used frost cloth before moving here, and I'd never even heard of shade cloth or hail netting.  Now I use the first two every season, and they help protect against the light hail we've had.  I figure that if we have a devastating storm, there isn't really much I can do.


phase 2 involves some bigger trellis, some plexi sides, and a roof. Also, will probably be adding 2 more beds, and some more potted plants.


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## DuaeGuttae

Dobish said:


> phase 2 involves some bigger trellis, some plexi sides, and a roof. Also, will probably be adding 2 more beds, and some more potted plants.



Those are grand plans indeed.  We have some cattle panel trellises that we have really enjoyed, especially the ones that arch and create some shade between the beds during the height of summer.


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## EatenByLimestone

I've thought of planting pole beans in a way that will provide shade for cool season stuff that likes to bolt early.


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## DuaeGuttae

EatenByLimestone said:


> I've thought of planting pole beans in a way that will provide shade for cool season stuff that likes to bolt early.



I had some potted plants in the arches this summer to benefit from the shade.  They were actually peppers that were getting sunburned, and they did much better under the arch than against the southern side fence.   Texas sun is pretty vicious in July and August.   We actually moved our whole garden area after our first summer because we learned that even though garden sites (even in Texas) recommend full sun, it's just not ideal here for any plants.  Now that it is December, my self-seeded lettuce is coming up nicely.


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## EatenByLimestone

I remember a neighbor growing February peppers when I lived in Houston.   It shocked me, but also made sense.


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## DuaeGuttae

Do you mean just putting the new transplants in in February, or do you mean having ripe peppers?  If the former, I'm beginning to believe it after living here for three years, though Houston is a different gardening world since it's one zone warmer and a lot more humid than I am.  The last two years I've put transplants in in March, and they made it.  Depending on how spring looks this year, I may see if I can grow the transplants larger and wait till April.  It's a tough call here because it's too cold at night, but the heat comes so early that one does have to rush the plants.

I transplanted onions last week.  That's when Dixondale Farms said I should do it, so I did it, and they survived the cold front that blew in strongly on Sunday and seem happy in the garden now.  This is my first attempt at bulbing onions, so it will be a learning experience.


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## EatenByLimestone

I bet they went into the ground earlier than that.  Houston would  get into the 60s and 70s inFebruary.  I used to joke that it'd be in the 90s from Valentines day to October.  You'd have some days in the 30s in December, but not many.  I bet they could be planted now with a cold cover on the cold days.  

I just checked th he weather down there.   Yeah,the stuff is in the ground now!


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## DuaeGuttae

EatenByLimestone said:


> I bet they went into the ground earlier than that.  Houston would  get into the 60s and 70s inFebruary.  I used to joke that it'd be in the 90s from Valentines day to October.  You'd have some days in the 30s in December, but not many.  I bet they could be planted now with a cold cover on the cold days.
> 
> I just checked th he weather down there.   Yeah,the stuff is in the ground now!



You got me curious about the weather differences between Houston and here (about three hours west).  It's definitely colder here at night.  We hit 28 two nights ago, 27 last night (with my temperature sensor perhaps too sheltered to be most accurate), whereas Houston was supposedly mid to upper 30's.  I actually do (as of yesterday) have one bell pepper plant that hasn't died in my garden (it's closest to a large tree and perhaps getting shelter from some cauliflower, too).  I thought it would be interesting to leave it unprotected to see how long it could survive.  If it makes it through this month and next, I'll probably have to start protecting it in February and March because it will put out new growth, and I'll feel bad if I let it die then.

It looks like we get the same extreme heat in the summers though with less humidity.  It probably makes it more comfortable for humans (not that it could be called comfortable)  and harder on the plants because of increased sun intensity and drought.  

I did spend time yesterday afternoon making sure that the pots of my blueberries were thoroughly wet as well as the ground around the young pomegranates (pretty hardy but needed a good watering anyway) and young citrus and olives.  We're on the border of hardiness for those but hope to give them some extra care for their first few years to get them strong enough to take the occasional cold.


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