Garden reports where you at and whats next?

[lukem]

Wanted, dead or alive.

 

[Jags]

So I gotta ask, what are you going to do with it, if it is caught alive?

 

[lukem]

So I gotta ask, what are you going to do with it, if it is caught alive?

Make it so it can't eat my garden. There are a number of ways to make that happen.

 

[smokinj]

Call DNR and get a special permit. Or, they may just tell you to shot it.

 

[mellow]

I will take the tenderloin, I am all out.

 

[osagebow]

Have not looked at my "Summer Rambo" apple tree in a few days, was planning on picking it this weekend. Apples were small this year but it set a good crop. Even had some graft branches set fruit. Saw three squirrels on it this morning....went out to look, and.......IT'S BARE!
They normally eat a few, but have never cleaned me out competely.

It's on. They drew first blood on the Rambo, not me....

 

[Doug MacIVER]

I would set up a camera but the squash borer is a little to small. losing my zucchini one by one to the damn things. I always wondered what that strange red wasp like moth was. beware of frass!

 

[lukem]

Sweet corn in a couple days. Winter squash and melons are completely out of control and taking over the garden.

 

[mellow]

I got tomatoes coming out the ying yang, wife won't can them so I am having to take them to work and give them away. Now the peppers are starting to really produce in numbers, gotta figure out what I am going to do with them. Planted less this year thinking that would help keep down how many go bad before we eat them.

 

[DevilsBrew]

Extra peppers? I've started to go tapas crazy.

Best garden I have ever had. Not super good like everyone else's but really successful. Had to share my joy.

 

[begreen]

Good to hear things are growing strong. I love this time of the year.

 

[firebroad]

I got tomatoes coming out the ying yang, wife won't can them so I am having to take them to work and give them away. Now the peppers are starting to really produce in numbers, gotta figure out what I am going to do with them. Planted less this year thinking that would help keep down how many go bad before we eat them.

Why not freeze them, if you have a freezer? My brother and his wife used to toss them in zipbags right in the deep freeze. Then when they wanted to make sauce and such, the skins would slip right off.
Peppers can be diced and frozen, too. I usually have a couple of gallons in my freezer.

 

[mellow]

I have tried freezing them in the past and they come out mushy when we thaw them, I guess that would be ok for sauces and what not, just won't make a good BLT in the middle of the winter.

 

[firebroad]

Well no, but then neither would a canned tomato...
But what the heck, at least you are popular at work!

 

[jharkin]

Well our garden is done. We went away for vacation for a week and the deer ate it all. Everything except for some celery is trash. My wife about wanted to cry.

Next year we will have to put up some kind of fence.

 

[SolarAndWood]

I feel all of your pain about the tick bags. Vinyl coated metal fence on 8' t posts reinforced every two feet with galvanized wire didn't keep em out. I'm almost done with my lower fence project, pulled the old retaining wall out, sunk 16 ft 4x4s and then rebuilt the wall. The rest of the project should be relatively easy, drill holes and set the poles. Should have it done before the rut this year which is when they really get out of hand. This is good because a small herd was eyeing the garden as they just walked buy in the lower part of the lot.

We have gotten a ton of rain this year. We have 30 roma plants in that look like a hedge row now. Should be a great year for em if I can keep the blight out.

 

[firebroad]

Well our garden is done. We went away for vacation for a week and the deer ate it all. Everything except for some celery is trash. My wife about wanted to cry.

Next year we will have to put up some kind of fence.

Oh, how awful. I have never lost an entire garden to them--yet. Maybe you can go hunting later and recover some of that lost produce?

 

[jharkin]

Oh, how awful. I have never lost an entire garden to them--yet. Maybe you can go hunting later and recover some of that lost produce?

Ha.. You know my wife hates guns and yesterday she was joking about getting a shotgun to take a shot at the deer. In jest but that's how mad she was. Our tomato plants were full of green buds as we left and she was expecting a big harvest this weekend.....all lost.

 

[begreen]

Oh man Jeremy, you have my utmost sympathy. I have been holding them off from the main garden with a portable, battery powered electric fence and a water-pressure scarecrow. It seems to be be working. In the meantime our orchard is getting clearr cut up to the 5 ft level. We are seeking a good professional bow hunter that wants some easy meat.

 

[lukem]

If my garden wasn't fenced I wouldn't have a garden. Whatever the dog wouldn't eat, the deer would.

My fence is only about 6' tall, but have never had a deer inside...knock on wood. 8' treated buried 24"-30" deep, 4' of 2x4 mesh welded wire and 3-4 courses of smooth wire on top of that.

I expanded the garden this year for corn and the deer ate a lot of it. I drove in some 8' T posts on the corners and tied up yellow mason's line every 18" or so and it has completely kept the deer out...for now.

 

[begreen]

I found a bambi in the yard this morning. There's no way could it jump the fence. That got me looking at an area where I noticed deer droppings yesterday. Voila! Although it looked intact, when I pulled on the bottom of the fence in that area it was free of the bottom guy wire. Now I know what happened. That line of the fence is in common with the neighbors. They keep their yard very neat so for the first year I religiously weedeated along that fence line. That weakened the bottom edge and they exploited the weakness by tearing the fence and crawling under the fence. I spent the morning reattaching the good edge to the bottom guy line. It is nice and snug there now. Fingers crossed, this is getting old.

 

[DevilsBrew]

Some spares from this morning

 

[lukem]

I picked about 100 ears of corn this weekend. Gave a couple dozen to the neighbors and boiled up a big pot last night at the in-laws. It was ridiculously good.

Dug about 100 lbs of taters over the past couple weekends.

Picked a "test" watermelon yesterday. It was about a week too early and still good...really good. Inspected the 'loupes and I have about 30 that I can see from the edges of the patch. Good thing my 8 year old son can crush a whole cantaloupe in one sitting my himself.

Winter squash is rockin'. Should get about 30-40 of them.

Did so much canning this year and the over-the-winter stuff (taters, squash, garlic, etc) did so good this year I had to build some extra shelves down in the basement to hold it all.

Got the fall stuff planted too. Hard to believe the season is almost over.

 

[Doug MacIVER]

I found a bambi in the yard this morning. There's no way could it jump the fence. That got me looking at an area where I noticed deer droppings yesterday. Voila! Although it looked intact, when I pulled on the bottom of the fence in that area it was free of the bottom guy wire. Now I know what happened. That line of the fence is in common with the neighbors. They keep their yard very neat so for the first year I religiously weedeated along that fence line. That weakened the bottom edge and they exploited the weakness by tearing the fence and crawling under the fence. I spent the morning reattaching the good edge to the bottom guy line. It is nice and snug there now. Fingers crossed, this is getting old.

that's how the Hatfield and McCoy thing started

 

[PapaDave]

I may try some more lettuce soon.
Picked all the green beans yesterday, and one tomato. It wasn't fully ripe, but I couldn't help myself.
Out of the 24 GB seeds I planted, I only got 7 plants. Seeds were a little old, so not too surprised. I expect one more picking, at least.
Next year will be the "Year of the Green Bean".
Does anyone know how big sweet potato plants should be to able to dig up the taters? We have 8-9 plants, but they haven't gotten very big. I'll wait a while longer, but I'm curious.
I dug the red potatoes too soon a couple years ago.