Mumsy's Romantic Garden Advice

[MumsyII]

Our county fair is going on this week also. My favorite things to do are to go through the poultry barns, through the 4H barns and the flower and veg barns. Now I can't wait!!!!

I love the cow, pig and goat barns too. The kids are so cute when they try to talk to you about their animals. I always vote for peoples choice award when they have it. That way I can ask the kids the names of their animals.


This is Bruce the Brown Angus. This kid was so nice. He told me Bruce was going into the 4-H auction last day of fair. I wish. I voted him my 'peoples' choice.


This sweet little goat is Ilene. I just liked how good she could stretch. I voted for her in the goat barn.


And of course I was smitten by Helena the pig. The little girl that owned Helena was a real campaigner to get me to vote for her. So cute!

In the poultry barn a little girl was so proud of her hen. She called it a RIR but I didn't have the heart to give her the 'Production Red" speech. I took her picture instead. Who am I to be the old lady to ruin her day? She was such a cutie.




I love little county fairs. I can't think of a more fun and charming way to spend the day. Oh! And the food! I got an elephant ear and Strawberry lemonade for breakfast and a grilled burger smothered in grilled onions for lunch. I won't need to eat again till next week!

 

[armorfirelady]

Congrats Mumsy!!! I did take some pics of flowers I liked that had identifying markers on them so I can try to add them to my gardens. I also visit the same places you do. While in the veggie barn all I kept saying to my mom was how were theirs so big when my still have buds and no fruit on them. I'm going to try those straw bales next year and see if I can get bigger crops next year. Most of the entries are 4-h members so I don't think I could enter even if I got something decent but it will be fun to try. They had bushels of grain and a friend who works there is going to see if I can purchase them when the fair is done or grab them if they are left behind

I was out tying up tomatoes again tonight. I had sprayed LAB on them last week to see if it would stop the blight. Well I didn't see any more leaves with it. I don't know if its the cooler weather, watering in the morning only now or the LAB. I also don't see any more squash bugs & only found one more clump of eggs I sprayed with the LAB. Maybe its working?

My rogue tomato plants all taller than me with lots of blooms and green fruit (I am 5'2) and my sunflowers are over 9ft tall with giant seed heads, I am watching them carefully because I don't want the birds or squirrels to get them. The yellow finches have been enjoying the smaller sunflowers already. I've left a few out for them.

I also found 4 acorn squash, a bunch of cukes and have zucchini growing. I am hopeful they have time to grow bigger before our first frost. Maybe we will have a nice long Indian summer and no frost till the end of October

And you were talking about mushrooms before.......I found 2 weird ones I have never seen before in my garden. I almost thought they were half of an orange or grapefruit since they were big

The edges are white. Taking the picture at dusk made he flash go off and make it darker than it appears. The grass is growing thru the mushroom. One is as big as an acorn squash the other a grapefruit. The edges were damp to touch but the orange jelly looking like center is hard. Ay idea on what it is?

 

[midnightroo]

Congrats Mumsy on your awards! Everything looked so beautiful.

Armor, that is a cool looking mushroom. Does it look like any of these? https://www.google.com/search?q=ora...64APMiYDwCg&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAA&biw=1024&bih=644#

The fairs this year have really inspired me to sign my daughter up for 4 h this year. I think she is going to have so much fun.

 

[MumsyII]

Congrats Mumsy!!! I did take some pics of flowers I liked that had identifying markers on them so I can try to add them to my gardens. I also visit the same places you do. While in the veggie barn all I kept saying to my mom was how were theirs so big when my still have buds and no fruit on them.

I'm going to try those straw bales next year and see if I can get bigger crops next year. Most of the entries are 4-h members so I don't think I could enter even if I got something decent but it will be fun to try. They had bushels of grain and a friend who works there is going to see if I can purchase them when the fair is done or grab them if they are left behind

I was out tying up tomatoes again tonight. I had sprayed LAB on them last week to see if it would stop the blight. Well I didn't see any more leaves with it. I don't know if its the cooler weather, watering in the morning only now or the LAB. I also don't see any more squash bugs & only found one more clump of eggs I sprayed with the LAB. Maybe its working?

My rogue tomato plants all taller than me with lots of blooms and green fruit (I am 5'2) and my sunflowers are over 9ft tall with giant seed heads, I am watching them carefully because I don't want the birds or squirrels to get them. The yellow finches have been enjoying the smaller sunflowers already. I've left a few out for them.

I also found 4 acorn squash, a bunch of cukes and have zucchini growing. I am hopeful they have time to grow bigger before our first frost. Maybe we will have a nice long Indian summer and no frost till the end of October

And you were talking about mushrooms before.......I found 2 weird ones I have never seen before in my garden. I almost thought they were half of an orange or grapefruit since they were big

The edges are white. Taking the picture at dusk made he flash go off and make it darker than it appears. The grass is growing thru the mushroom. One is as big as an acorn squash the other a grapefruit. The edges were damp to touch but the orange jelly looking like center is hard. Ay idea on what it is?

Off hand no. I don't know what it is but I can teach you how to begin to identify it if you are really interested. There are many thousands of these kinds of mushrooms. Big, brown, slimy, and they come up after rain or watering. Spring or Summer.
This is how I identify mushrooms. And sometimes I never do. It's very difficult with some varieties.

First I take pictures of it growing. I make note of where it is growing. Then I pick one carefully. Being careful not to break it and keeping the cap and stem intact with a bit of the root part if possible. Then I take another picture of it from underneath. Noting if there are gills. The pictures are important because often they begin to decompose and change visibly very fast. This makes it incredibly more difficult to identify them. This is how I take a spore sample. Step by step.


I picked a young specimen and a more mature specimen.


Remove the large cap of the more mature specimen. Gill side down on a piece of plastic wrap with a glass bowl over the top. Leave undisturbed over night.


Carefully lift the cap off the plastic and note the spore print that is left.

I take a sharpie and make notes about the spore print. Sometimes this can happen within a couple hours. The color of the spore print is how you can look it up in books. It can be brown, white, black, purple, orange, and in between colors. It is the biggest clue in the journey to identification.

 

[armorfirelady]

Thanks Mumsy I am going to try it and see if I can identify it

 

[midnightroo]

Thank you for sharing that abut the mushroom identification! I never knew the spore print was important.

I also wanted to add last night that the local nature center grew there potatoes in bales of straw. I haven't been back to ask how they grew, but it seems as if the practice is popular.

 

[aoxa]

Congrats Mumsy!!! I did take some pics of flowers I liked that had identifying markers on them so I can try to add them to my gardens. I also visit the same places you do. While in the veggie barn all I kept saying to my mom was how were theirs so big when my still have buds and no fruit on them. I'm going to try those straw bales next year and see if I can get bigger crops next year. Most of the entries are 4-h members so I don't think I could enter even if I got something decent but it will be fun to try. They had bushels of grain and a friend who works there is going to see if I can purchase them when the fair is done or grab them if they are left behind

I was out tying up tomatoes again tonight. I had sprayed LAB on them last week to see if it would stop the blight. Well I didn't see any more leaves with it. I don't know if its the cooler weather, watering in the morning only now or the LAB. I also don't see any more squash bugs & only found one more clump of eggs I sprayed with the LAB. Maybe its working?

My rogue tomato plants all taller than me with lots of blooms and green fruit (I am 5'2) and my sunflowers are over 9ft tall with giant seed heads, I am watching them carefully because I don't want the birds or squirrels to get them. The yellow finches have been enjoying the smaller sunflowers already. I've left a few out for them.

I also found 4 acorn squash, a bunch of cukes and have zucchini growing. I am hopeful they have time to grow bigger before our first frost. Maybe we will have a nice long Indian summer and no frost till the end of October

And you were talking about mushrooms before.......I found 2 weird ones I have never seen before in my garden. I almost thought they were half of an orange or grapefruit since they were big

The edges are white. Taking the picture at dusk made he flash go off and make it darker than it appears. The grass is growing thru the mushroom. One is as big as an acorn squash the other a grapefruit. The edges were damp to touch but the orange jelly looking like center is hard. Ay idea on what it is?

It looks like a rotting pancake!

 

[texaschik]

Hello, I'm pretty new to gardening, so I'm gonna ask a kinda green question. Should you plant roses in the fall?

 

[BlueMouse]

congrats on the fair win Mumsy! as always the flowers are beautiful. I'm admiring everyone's morning glories and thinking of planting them on part of my garden fence. They can take over there to their heart's delight with no harm to anyone, and will disguise the ugly metal fence

I hate that fence. It's such an eyesore.

I love the fair too! I don't think my veggies are good enough to win anything but I used to win ribbons with Jams and baked goods every year when I was a teenager and a young adult. I nver entered in the 4H competitions with anything but sewing and yarn. After going this year with the kids and looking at the exhibits I decided next year I'm entering handspun again, and maybe some knitwear. I'd love to see them have a bigger display of those items, and I think I could win some ribbons, which would be fun.

My friend here planted her potatoes in towers. She put straw around the outside and then layered the inside with dirt, compost, and seed potatoes. I will report her findings. They have not been terrible to keep moist because the straw sort of insulates the dirt inside. My potatoes look great, but I forgot to hill them up, so I doubt that I will have that many.... Ooops....

I pulled up all that dead nettle from the stump. I have lots of time to weed because I take the kids outside every day. I can't work in the veggie garden, but I can potter in the yard and weed the flower beds. My kids are so small that I have to watch almost at every moment while they play, and I can't do that effectively out of the vegetable garden, sadly. Both to referee and because we don't have fence up yet, so the creek is twenty feet away from their play area. My older son doesn't have the sense that the good lord gave green grass, and is too young to really understand the danger. It's kind of a scary combination. Hopefully next year we can put up the fence. Maybe even this fall with some luck. Anyhow, back to the stump... Maybe I could plant some sort of Ivy on it, and then some flowers around the base? It's very rotten and things are growing all over it. What kind of Ivy could I plant that wouldn't take over?

 

[Jessica Lynn]

Thank you for sharing that abut the mushroom identification! I never knew the spore print was important.

I also wanted to add last night that the local nature center grew there potatoes in bales of straw. I haven't been back to ask how they grew, but it seems as if the practice is popular.

I agree! I've never heard of spore print identification before!