2022 Garden Thread

[EatenByLimestone]

It’ll be 41 this morning when I get outside. It’s time! Pretty soon it’ll be ski season! After the field hockey game last night the little one and I were discussing the upcoming ski season!

 

[clancey]

Everybody's gardens has done really well but reading all your postings make me feel really tired. Now its time for people to take a nice break to get ready for the winter season. Hey free that pond is beautiful but it involves a lot of "after work" to keep it in good shape--would not you think? And DG its time for you to relax and do something different for this year--maybe rent a nice video or something and just let your hair down..lol There is a saying and it might not be exact here but all work and no play is not good for you and makes life dull or something..Yea I am reading about all of you and Lime you can take a vacation too as well as all the rest...Why I get tired just keeping up with my house work and talking to the tomato plant--lol...Enjoyed all your postings and have a real nice holiday season...I just know that you all will be eating well and good job...clancey

 

[Dan Freeman]

Everybody's gardens has done really well but reading all your postings make me feel really tired. Now its time for people to take a nice break to get ready for the winter season. Hey free that pond is beautiful but it involves a lot of "after work" to keep it in good shape--would not you think? And DG its time for you to relax and do something different for this year--maybe rent a nice video or something and just let your hair down..lol There is a saying and it might not be exact here but all work and no play is not good for you and makes life dull or something..Yea I am reading about all of you and Lime you can take a vacation too as well as all the rest...Why I get tired just keeping up with my house work and talking to the tomato plant--lol...Enjoyed all your postings and have a real nice holiday season...I just know that you all will be eating well and good job...clancey

EEKS! I hate the Winter season. I get cabin fever very easily when I can't work outside.

Thanks for the kudos on my new pond. It will take some work, but as long as I keep up with it, it should be fine.

It's nice to hear from you in your two latest postings here, Mrs Clancey. I was becoming concerned since we haven't heard from you in a while. Hang in there!

 

[begreen]

I'm with you Dan. Summer is my favorite season, with Spring second.

Tomatoes are ripening, slowly. We had p. mildew starting to attack the leaves so I stripped all of the lower leaves off. We have been roasting up batches for eventual canning as sauce. Next week will be busy with them, but this week it has been all about green beans. Canned up a dozen dilly beans and freezing the rest. This is the biggest crop we have ever grown.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Every season brings something new here. I like them all! Just as I start getting tired of the one we’re in, it changes!

I wiped the stove down today. Wow it was dusty

 

[clancey]

Yea I wiped my stove off today too and looked at it. This Big Boy tomato plant produced ten more red tomato's so I gave them once again to the neighbors and they said they will take all that I want to give away because those tomato's were wonderful tasting. I tasted my three and you can cut them with a fork and they are so so juicy. Wonderful taste and just have a full acre of ground and plant them smack in the middle of it,,,lol This plant takes up a lot of room and one can start them now for next year for they sure take awhile to gear up.. I am going to be tomato "too much" real soon and I will make some tomato sauce out of them as well as frying some of the green ones...Anybody wanting any tomato's I will ship them to you--lol lol...Sometimes "free" I just do not feel like much posting and prefer just to read the postings...everything fine...clancey

 

[Dan Freeman]

Glad to hear your tomatoes are doing so well. Fried green tomatoes are wonderful.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

@clancey , your tomato looks great. Congratulations on another year of growing delicious and nutritious food and sharing it with friends and neighbors. I’m also glad you checked in here to let us know you’re okay.

@begreen , that’s wonderful that you’re having such good harvests of green beans and tomatoes. Those are both great foods to put away for winter (though I’d probably say that about just about any fresh vegetable you grew that could be preserved).

This week I’ve caught and removed one large raccoon and two skunks from the gardens. I’ve had two nights without digging, so I’m hopeful that things will be better, but I still have traps in the garden and mesh protecting my beds as I can.

We also had the blessing of a small thunderstorm last night. It gave us about a quarter inch of rain, but I had just transplanted sugar snap peas, radishes, and leeks yesterday, so I was grateful for extra moisture for them. It also rained harder a bit upstream of a creek that runs down at the bottom of the huge hill we live on, and so I’m hopeful that there will be a bit more water and food for the local wildlife for a time.

Here are a few photo updates.

The Captain Lucky tomato plant that never bore earlier in the summer and that I cut back to let it grow out again now has some fruit.


The Seminole Pumpkin Vine that I cut back because of borer damage to the stem has really started to take off. It has male flowers blooming, so I’m hoping for some potential fruit soon.


This is the zucchini that I raised indoors that got nearly dug up earlier this week. The tap root wasn’t severed, though, so I replanted it. It lost a lot of leaves, but it still looks good in the center. I’m really impressed that it looks to be coming back despite the rough treatment it had.


This is a row where I used to have watermelon plants on the trellis. I took those out after some repeated digging in this bed. I put my sugar snap peas in the back behind the bush beans. (They’ve been blooming, but they haven’t set pods. We really need a cooler fall still.). I’m hoping to be able to keep them through the heat to get a harvest Before winter. I’ve never had success with sugar snap peas yet, but I‘m trying again.

 

[Dan Freeman]

Two nights without any digging. Looks like you may have caught the culprits.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

I sure hope so. It will be a little while longer yet for the sun to come up so that I can get outside and check again. Each day these days I just wait for it to get light so that I can go see what the garden looks like.

 

[begreen]

Solar hours are declining and the angle of the sun increases. All this leads to a shutdown of most garden systems here. The greenhouse cucumber is kaput, after delivering an unprecedented number of great cukes. Today I harvested several eggplants and peppers. Tomatoes are being processed and my wife groaned as I picked another 5 lbs. of green beans.

 

[Dan Freeman]

Solar hours are declining and the angle of the sun increases. All this leads to a shutdown of most garden systems here. The greenhouse cucumber is kaput, after delivering an unprecedented number of great cukes. Today I harvested several eggplants and peppers. Tomatoes are being processed and my wife groaned as I picked another 5 lbs. of green beans.

Other than our 2nd crop of beets and turnips, everything has been pulled up. Always sad to come to the end of the season. Days in the 50's and 60's now. Nights in the 40's. I never look forward to winter.

 

[clancey]

Winter time and low light has special offerings too...Think of the coming holidays with all your love ones. My tomato plant is still putting out tomato's so I just leave it go natural--so to speak...I pick 4 today and I have "plenty of green ones still on the vine ready to turn red--maybe...clancey

 

[Dan Freeman]

Winter time and low light has special offerings too...Think of the coming holidays with all your love ones. My tomato plant is still putting out tomato's so I just leave it go natural--so to speak...I pick 4 today and I have "plenty of green ones still on the vine ready to turn red--maybe...clancey

I like winter up until Christmas. As of December 26th, I'm ready for Spring.

 

[begreen]

I pulled the greenhouse cuke today. Sad to see such a champ quit. Before removing the base of the plant I did an autopsy and found this. Is this the squash borer that others are seeing?



Picked another 5 lbs of green beans yesterday. That's 25+ lbs. and there are more to come. Harvested a row of carrots, there are many more that have been succession planted so that we can harvest through fall. New lettuce plants are happy. The oldest are ready for a pruning. Eggplants & peppers are coming in strong now. Still getting strawberries too.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Yuck. I don’t know what those little worms are. They are not squash vine borer larvae. Those are much bigger and white with a dark head. Do you have a county extension agent to whom you could send the pictures? It’s good that you did the autopsy. I hope you can find out what’s going on there.

 

[Dan Freeman]

Today's weekly email from The joe gardener Show with Joe Lamp’l features his latest article and podcast about Beneficial Insects. I thought it might be of interest.

How to Get More Beneficial Insects in Your Garden to Manage Insect Pests Naturally
(broken link removed)

 

[clancey]

Wonderful article with enough of information for a good read...I now feel itchy but I have more knowledge about the good bugs for our gardens...thanks clancey

 

[Dan Freeman]

Today I filled a few more pots with potting soil for my winter tomatoes and lettuce in the den.

The two pots on the left I planted Tiny Tims seeds in last Tuesday. The two pots on the right will get more Tiny Tim seeds this coming Tuesday. (Want to space them out.) The two smaller pots in the middle I planted romaine and butter crisp lettuce seeds in.

I also got the weatherproof box for the electricity to the pond mounted on a 4x6 post and wired the outlets. I need to move it down to the pond, dig a hole for the post, and then bury the wire back up to the tool shed, and eliminate the extension cord I am using now for the power to the pond.

 

[Riverbanks]

Looking sweet, how about a preservative on that 4 by 6?, It doesn't look the best, I see knot, I see rot, a little cwf goes a long way, I'm just mentioning that cause of fencing I've put up, has failed way sooner than I expected

 

[Dan Freeman]

Looking sweet, how about a preservative on that 4 by 6?, It doesn't look the best, I see knot, I see rot, a little cwf goes a long way, I'm just mentioning that cause of fencing I've put up, has failed way sooner than I expected

That post was used in a chicken run I built back in 2013. I plan to paint BlackJack 57 on the part that goes into the ground. (https://blackjackcoatings.com/products/black-jack-rubr-coat-57). That should outlast me. LOL. The top has another 20 years in it, also outlasting me.

 

[clancey]

I like that outlet box--neat and secure especially the weather...Are you going to put those wires underground in anything maybe like some kind of a pipe--just curious--for I know nothing about nothing--lol.. Ha still waiting for you to fix the gate and get it closer to the fence line--just bugging you. I have ten more red tomato's today and I must have a hundred green ones "left" and they are still on the vine and this "big boy" has been a unruly "trip" and taking up half of that side of the yard...but I keep feeding it and it has become like a "pet" sort of--lol clancey

 

[Dan Freeman]

The wire is UF-B wire. It can be buried directly in the ground without any piping.

LOL. A pet tomato plant! Those tomatoes look great, Clancey.

 

[clancey]

Thanks.. I was thinking along the lines that if anything ever happened to the wire that you maybe could pull it through the piping and not have to dig too much to find the bad spot in the wire if this should happen and it would protect it better for the future--just thinking here--lol...Even the best of the wires I would put through piping if it were to go underground at any point and it would make it easier I think for future work because you could fish another wire through if need be down the road. clancey

 

[Dan Freeman]

I ran the same type of wire from my house to my workshop almost 25 years ago. Never had a problem. If this one lasts 25 years, it will be around after me.