Another gallon of raspberries was picked. I still have bumble bees buzzing around looking for flowers in there too. I should be getting raspberries for another few weeks yet. Oddly, I have a bed of strawberries quite large, that is half one variety and half another. half of it died completely...
I started rage quitting the summer garden. Tossing diseased tomatoes on the vine, removing blossom end rot peppers, cutting overgrown branches out of my way, pulling out the cucumber vine. I am now allergic to the cucumbers. So many hives from touching it yesterday. Love when allergies just show...
I absolutely did that this year!!! I've only ever grown indeterminates so I just went about it, business as usual, single leader etc. OOOPS. More than half my plants are determinate.
Ran outside to pick raspberries and that's about it! So hot, so humid, so much sweat.
In other news, Sprout, our splash silkie started crowing... loudly. We can't have roosters so he is being claimed by the same person who took our last two roosters. He originally got them to keep at his house...
I've barely been in my garden. I admit that I hate the heat.
Looks like I'm taking heavy losses on the pumpkins- stupid squash borers. I picked a ton of raspberries yesterday and barely dented what's coming. I put them straight into the freezer. One of my grape varieties is ready and delicious...
We had a family crisis this week and my garden time has been smashed to pieces because of it. I lost large branches from my tomatoes because they flopped and snapped in my neglect, so that is a bummer. My beans are growing but no flowers yet. Cucumbers coming out my ears, watermelons, musk...
I had a complete win this weekend. My husband found out the our towns entire collection of shredded leaves are piled up and dumped at a canoe launch just a half mile up the road from us. There must be 200 yards of the stuff there.
I filled up our truck and dumped a load into the chicken run...
Technically, the onion starts you get in the store are just that, onions started the prior year but the trouble with them is they never get terribly big before that go to seed. I'd just use them this year but I prefer seed starting my onions in the late winter.
Had to make pickles last night. I pulled something like 15 cucumbers off of my SINGLE cucumber plant. I am shocked by this varieties non-bitterness. Considering the environmental stresses, I thought for sure I'd be tossing bitter cucumbers left and right. Filled a gallon jar with them and set...
Overloaded my fruit trees and lost some branches even after thinning. I did some pruning of the damage and mourned my nectarines. They were still sweet although hard so me and the kids were eating the loses.
Plum curculio spotted on the outside of my peach tree net here in south jersey for...
Managed to throw some fertilizer down on my tomatillos before the downpour came last night. Also means my grapes finally got their potash watered in since I never bothered...
I have too many cucumbers from my single cucumber plant. I might start secretely dropping them off at neighbors houses...
I just had bad technique with the florida weave. It seemed like once my plants got big, they ended up flopping no matter what. I ended up moving to a cattle panel attached to 9' tposts where I prune to 1-2 leaders and tie them as they grow. The severe pruning helps me in my area because the...
Staked up some of my sunflowers since their taproot seems to be limited by the rocks in my garden bed and they are flopping, oops. I potted up some jersey tea seeds after doing the boiling water method, so we will see how they do. Started the 9 month process of germinating winterberry seeds- put...
No new beetle damage after spraying bt, too early to tell though. I was frantically watering my front beds since I don't have drip here (yet). Some of my plants were looking a bit sad. In their defense, I have not mulched so they are really roughing it.
I found my culprit and as luck would have it, it's in the same family! Asiatic beetles have been eating my roses and beans. So I ended up spraying the Bt anyway since it will take care of ALL the beetles (supposedly). I need to get a dust buster for my war efforts.
We were away for the weekend so I came home to more random digging in the garden, some slug(?) damage or maybe cutter bees on my newly germinated scarlet runner beans, pumpkins and watermelons have germinated, and my single cucumber plant with 6 ripe cucumbers to be picked. I only managed about...
Checked on my cold striated wild lupine and russell lupine seeds. 100% germination in the fridge after 2 weeks (outrageous) so I quick potted them up in my 5" plug trays and stuck them in my guestroom/grow station. I'm still waiting for my delphiniums to germinate. I will see if everything grows...