What did you do in the garden today?

[DParker75089]

81 degrees and a dewpoint of 76 at 8am.

Yeah, we're experiencing a cold front here too. It's expected to only reach 99°F today, down from yesterday's 107°F. Brrrrr.

 

[TJAnonymous]

my pepper plants are stunted as well. sudden heat?

Well, it might be the heat...but I'm starting to wonder if there's something wrong with my mulch. The peppers are doing better since I pushed all the mulch back to give them a 6 inch clearance between the peppers and the edge of the mulch. But places where the mulch is touching my nasturtiums, sunflowers, and dill, I've also got plants dying. Most of my nasturtiums are dying after reaching about 6"+. The sunflowers that don't have any mulch around them are doing great. The ones in the mulched area have either died or are stunted. That just seems like an awful lot of coincidence to me to not be suspicious of the mulch. It was a pile of green mulch (shredded bark, logs, leaves, pine needles, in addition to wood chips) that was dropped last spring (2021) so it has had a year to break down and compost a little. There's tons of fungi that grows on that pile but I don't know what else would make it toxic or bad? It's not exposed to chemicals or anything...

 

[TJAnonymous]

some more rain here so no watering today. zucchini still have a fertility issue. I don't see many bees this year.

Here's something else funny.... My zucchini have also stopped producing. They were doing great. I have already even pulled 6 large, plump fruit off my plants. Now suddenly they have stopped producing female flowers. All the baby fruit are rotting before the flowers even open. This is happening on plants that were flipped by the storm as well as those that weren't. Again, not sure what is going on..... I will try to add some bone meal later tonight. Too hot to do it now and garden is already watered for the day. I'll water again on Wednesday.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Morning all. Dad passed away yesterday. Thank you all for your thoughts & prayers, they meant a lot.

I'm so sorry for your loss Sueby.... My dad passed in 2017. I still miss him dreadfully every single day. My prayers go out to you and your family.

 

[ChicksnMore]

@Sueby I'm sorry about your dad. I hope it was as peaceful as possible for all of you.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Yes! Our area is Blackberry Hell. Himalayan blackberries here in Western Washington are not native, they were introduced in the 1800's and have taken over ever since. I swear, when you try to trim them, they attack! They curl themselves around a weed-whacker head, making it stop running and destroying the motor, Use a hand trimmer to chop them, and they find your hands, and slash them with their thorns.
This past weekend, our object was to re-take our driveway, where these plants from hell had taken over and grown all over our wood-chip pile. We did our best working with the saw-blade attachment on our weed-whacker, but these Satan plants creep along the ground and destroy the blade when we try to chop them. So then we put the edger attachment on the whacker and we were able to cut them off in a mat, dispose of them at the edge of our property, and then bind our wounds, bleeding slashes in spite of tall boots, leather chaps, eye protection, long sleeves.
The main reason why we've been wanting to have some goats was to have some wethers to keep the blackberries under control. Now milk prices are making it even more attractive, maybe we should get a breeding herd and get milk.

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I think our blackberry patches must be related..... I think ours act the same way. The only thing more annoying than the rabid blackberries are the wild raspberries and the pokeweed. The raspberries are bitter and super invasive. They are nearly IMPOSSIBLE to irradicate. And I just plain HATE pokeweed. I spend most of my summer trying to tear it out wherever I find it and it keeps coming back. I've even taken an axe to the rhizome and it STILL comes back.

We have two goats. They LOVE to eat the blackberry leaves but we have far too many for 2 goats to handle. I really want to get another female goat but prices on them have gone up too. First of all, unless you go to an auction, they are terribly hard to find. Lots of wethers and billies on Craigslist, few to none on the females. When you do find a female, they are usually $300 - $400. I simply haven't been able to justify that cost for another female.

 

[DramaBrahmaMama]

I snuck out and added some extra straw to the boxes this morning. We are under a heat advisory. It's so hard to keep the water in raised beds. So... I mulch mulch mulch!!! The problem.... the bales got wet.... so I had some white mold. I banged them out as much as I could, and added them anyway. Got to keep the seedlings wet. And the wind and heat just scorches the dirt. So, here's to hoping it's enough to get through the next week of heat!!!

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Good morning gardeners. So sorry for your loss @Sueby. Warm wishes to you and your family. The garden is doing well here. We only got a bit of a sprinkle overnight. I started laundry early this morning so I can water the garden before noon. I’m going to assemble my garden hod today. I really need it. And yes, I will take a picture. My chard and other salad greens are doing very well and I’ll be picking some tomorrow. The extended forecast is comfortably warm but dry. Good growing temps. Regarding the Foodsaver vacuum sealers: there is quite a range in models and prices. Of course money is a problem with gas prices and everything else skyrocketing. So any suggestions which model to go with? Busy day, I may try to mow the front yard today.

 

[Sueby]

@Wee Farmer Sarah I have this one:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MDRSCVF?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_dp_TS4RPG7RR8A723EKSHDK

I like it well enough, but I've never had another to compare. It does have the handheld part for bags or sous vide, but I've never used it. I buy generic rolls on Amazon & they work just fine. I do use it pretty heavily & have had it for a couple years with no issues.

There are a couple weird things I had to learn by doing it wrong, lol. Like put a book under the bag to be sealed to raise it up.

 

[igorsMistress]

81 degrees and a dewpoint of 76 at 8am.
Finishing breakfast and spraying the weeds and calling it done for the day.

I think that’s a good plan!