What did you do in the garden today?

[WthrLady]

Mine won't touch squash bugs. THe mulch will be full of eggs from this year for next, so don't no squash types there next year either.

I took your advice and took 6 Silkies down to the hoop house. It is the first time they've ever been out of their pen so they are quite confused.... So far they don't seem remotely interested in the squash bugs.... Even the nymphs. I'm going to leave them in there most of the day and we'll see how they

 

[TJAnonymous]

Mine won't touch squash bugs. THe mulch will be full of eggs from this year for next, so don't no squash types there next year either.

I'm going to pile up the mulch in the center of the garden and burn it but not until much cooler weather.

I'll have to decide where to move the squash next year. I'm considering doing it in 5 gallon buckets up by the house. That would put them in range of the chickens who, I'm sure, would love to help keep them bug free... And near the house isn't typically squash bug territory.

 

[Acre4Me]

Conversely my peach trees are looking better. They were touch and go all summer. They are another high maintenance tree....

Different area, but my neighbor has 3 peach trees. Purchased at Walmart 5 years ago. Never sprayed, never pruned. However, I think might have sprayed 1x this spring. He harvested peaches for the first time this year-no worms. Trees look quite nice too. So, never thought that the “ignore the fruit trees” was a successful approach, but it has worked for him so far.

Spouse loves apples. FIL grows over 100 apple trees (many many varieties) bc he loves them too. So, he sprays and tends to them, and thins the apples every year. It is a lot of work but he loves his apples. The oldest trees in his personal orchard (he does not sell any apples - uses them all) are around 35 years old. Bc of this first hand experience, spouse does NOT want to grow apples! But, it is also a fruit that is easy to find and purchase good ones at the store. But, never can tell what the future holds, maybe he’ll want an apple tree or two.

We planted two varieties of Asian Pear last year. It may not do well here bc we are surrounded by farms. The farmers spray herbicides, the Asian pear seems heavily affected with curled leaves, etc. we will see how it does the next couple years. Last year one of them produced several fruits, but the got zapped by a freeze. It was not much of a loss since we would have removed most to all of the fruits anyway as it was only planted 1 year before, and we would not have wanted it to spend energy producing fruit, we want it to develop good roots right now.

 

[karenerwin]

Canning more blackberry jelly today. Having to use pint jars because I’m out of half pints and I can’t find any more.
Then I have to start on grape jelly!
My garden is about done. Just getting cherry tomatoes and jalapeños. I have some kind of pepper. I guess it was mislabeled. Maybe a wax Hungarian or something?

 

[Acre4Me]

This morning, the flock was mostly located here! It was a bit windy, so I guess it wasn't so windy here.

The gourds now. I think I counted 40 gourds (a few around the corner and some hidden in the leaves going up the downspout). And that doesn't count the luffa as it hasn't done much producing.

Fall planting bed 1: Top half is green beans with beets in the middle. bottom half is 3 types of turnips on the left, and just planted radish seed on the right.

Fall planting bed 2: beets in the middle (same type as in above pic, just planted later), and green mustard on outer edges.

Fall planting bed 3: Red mustard

Brussel sprouts: Planted in June. taking F.O.R.E.V.E.R.

Fall planting bed 4 (and the first bed to be planted for fall).
Top half is a combo of carrots, green beans, and beets.
bottom half is purple top turnips.

Fall planting bed 5: Bottom corner is golden beets. Top portion (above the melon ) are rutabaga. The melons finally grew and produced after an application of more fertilizer...not sure if these will ripen, but hope springs eternal!

Okra in the foreground. It is almost a fall crop as it doesn't really begin to produce here until August sometime. But, The okra is getting pretty tall now. In the background, there are my bean towers for dried pole beans. There is one variety still green and growing (pods are produced, just still completely green).

This same spider has been in the same spot for about 2 months. I swear it has gotten noticeably fatter. Oh, and its right near the on/off valve for the hose - luckily we leave it on, since the spray nozzle is on the end of the hose.

 

[WthrLady]

@Acre4Me ABSOLUTELY gorgeous! The whole lot of it.

The spider is a golden orb spider, and she is a friend. Let her get fat, make an egg sack and visit Charlotte.

 

[TJAnonymous]

If only I could get so lucky.... Not likely though. I have 2 apple tree seedlings and 2 plum tree seedlings still to plant somewhere. These were all seeds I cultivated from store bought fruit. I've been waffling on whether to try to plant them this fall or keep them in containers another year.

I have a lot of shade trees on my property which makes it hard to find a new spot for seedlings. Then there's the horses and goats to protect them from too. Once I figure that out, there's the cedar rust and other pests....

Yeah, getting fruit trees to grow in the south, at least on my property, is like hitting the lottery.

 

[Acre4Me]

@Acre4Me ABSOLUTELY gorgeous! The whole lot of it.

The spider is a golden orb spider, and she is a friend. Let her get fat, make an egg sack and visit Charlotte.

Oh yes! Definitely she is allowed to gorge on insects. She won’t be killed. We don’t even kill the hairy wolf spiders…..unless one gets in the house, which is rare. But y’all boots go in for dealing with the compost mid-summer and on bc the wolf spiders LOVE the compost!

 

[Fishychix]

Whereas my new raised beds worked MUCH better than flat earth, the critters had a field day with a lot of my produce. I like sharing but I wish it were more on my own terms. I got a total of 3 green beans. Thats it. We saw two pumpkins but something else got to them first so they ended up chicken feed. We got several Genovese zucchini but they didnt really taste very good, pretty watery and bland. The carrots are super tiny still. Not sure whats up with that. I got bupkis on cantaloupe. Weird one with that. I saw them blooming but they never developed any fruit.
I would like to start planning for next year with what worked and what didnt, but I dont know exactly what that is.
I do have plans on staking tomatoes and putting up the netting differently, but thats it. Other than that, I dont know what I could have done differently. I cant enclose the space where the beds are any better really. Thats out of my budget and possibly my skill set. And that would only help with the deer and rabbits anyway. Mice, squirrels, chipmunks, etc are my main nemeses.

 

[Elyrian1]

Oh yes! Definitely she is allowed to gorge on insects. She won’t be killed. We don’t even kill the hairy wolf spiders…..unless one gets in the house, which is rare. But y’all boots go in for dealing with the compost mid-summer and on bc the wolf spiders LOVE the compost!

They love eating black widows too! DH was weeding and working with the mulch yesterday, and he was pleased to disturb quite a few wolf spiders, including one I spotted that had a leg spread approaching the size of my palm. (I'm not a large person, don't totally freak out )

I'm still on restricted lifting duty (although I don't follow it very well), so most of the garden prep is falling on DH right now. He' been bringing home some seriously thick cardboard from work. I swear this stuff is at least twice as thick as regular shipping boxes. I figure it'll make really good weed barrier though, and the few tufts of grass that have dared grow in the mulch so far pull right out without any trouble. Not sure what kind of grass, just that it's a runner type.