What did you do in the garden today?

[CNJ]

I don’t know my problem. Either un motivation or forgetfulness. Or both.

I plant things that I like to eat and does well in my area like I can't grow regular potatoes, but I can grow sweet potatoes. Regular potatoes usually get blight and die, but sweet potatoes doesn't have this problem where I live.

The bugs attacked and killed my string bean plant, but didn't infest my long beans on the same trellis, so I grow only long beans.

Although, bugs like to infest my egg plant leaves, they fall off and new ones grow back and I still get a lot of egg plant to eat, so I grow them.

I gave up with things that get powdery mildew, but I will try again in the summer. I get better results with Japanese cucumbers than I do with other types. Although, my Japanese cucumber plants get attacked with bugs, they live long enough for me to get tired of eating cucumbers..,

 

[ChicksnMore]

We never got rain here and the clouds have gone . It only reach 102 today though so at least it was a tiny bit cooler.

It was definitely a housework kind of day still.

I did my morning watering, made my rounds of critter/plant care and started pulling the compost out of my keyhole garden. I only got it about half done before I decided ac sounded better then fresh air! I discovered that my daughter chucked all the fresh horse manure on top of my little pile so I had to move that to the big pile. But I got that done and can refresh my little pile tomorrow.

I was happy to see that my bay leaf trees are branching. I removed all the leaves early this spring to force branching and they're starting to look good again.

Not the best pic...but there's some small branches on the skinny trunk too

 

[chickengr]

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

It'll be a tough week, but I'm looking forward to getting home & spending some time in the garden. I never did pick up peppers from my friend so I'm very short. I may see if there are any left at the garden store on my way home today. DH bout died when I sent him a link to an article on a sriracha shortage. He lives on the stuff so I better get some peppers to get him through!

I should have flowering squash when I get home, hopefully just in time to start hand pollinating.

DH put out a couple bigger traps yesterday in hopes of getting more squirrels or chippies. He texted me this am that he got a skunk & a possum. He said he let them both go. They don't bother anything & this year is a horrible tick season so that possum is dearly needed. The skunk on the other hand I could have done without! He also said he watched a turkey chase a rabbit out of the yard, lol.

We've had quite a bit of rain, I need to feed the garden. Maybe tomorrow I'll have time. Hopefully.

sorry for your loss.

 

[chickengr]

We're currently building a small barn and paddock to keep goats next year, and our original plan was to have wethers to keep the blackberries under control, and be pets. But maybe a better plan would be to have a breeding family so we can milk them...The way food prices are increasing, anything we can do to be self-sufficient might be necessary.

the milk price is the main reason I plan to keep goats. they are not big eaters and will help with wild blackberries down the road just opposite of my second land plot. unfortunately I cannot keep them on that plot as they might get stolen. this country has become kingdom of gypsies and illegal immigrants.

any suggestion what guardian dog I can keep around my animals? I need smaller dogs as their feed is something I must consider.

 

[chickengr]

Part of the reason we didn't have enough time to complete our plans for the garden this weekend, is because our neighbors invited us to their party for their son's high-school graduation. He's a smart, motivated and hard-working young man who is going to college, he'll be the first in his family to go to college, and I'm sure he will graduate. His parents are immigrants who came here many years ago, worked hard at various jobs, learned English, raised their kids to respect their family and their new country, and now this young man will help make our country great.
He's American, but also part of his parents' culture, and this is what makes America great. Young people like him. who understand more than one culture, are the ones who come up with new ideas and invent new things.

when I bought my house on the island the only 2 kids in my neighborhood who were graduated are albanians. their parents immigrated here and they took the best of the 2 countries. progress from greece and helping other people - an obvious albanian trait. when I had to go for a 10 day trip their parents looked after my animals although I did not know them well. I could not even ask any other neighbors except another albanian family who has 3 kids so I preferred these people who had more free time.

 

[chickengr]

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...

I don't have any mulch around peppers. I saw a few blossoms on my pepper plants. not sure if they will be able to support peppers.

 

[Blue Penguin]

Blue corn and waxy corn

And growing red corn

 

[chickengr]

. A lesson learned yesterday- never leave your radish on the counter over night. Mine went mushy and in-edible.

just put it in a dish with some water and in a couple of hours it will be as if you have just picked them up.

 

[CNJ]

I remember in 1975, while I was a senior in High School, my uncle kicked me out of his algebra class for fooling around. I told him I took algebra in summer school and didn't need it, so he sent me to a higher level geometry class. He told the principle we were family and didn't want to create any problems, so the principle agreed.

My geometry teacher turn out to be one of my football coaches, and there so happen to be a gas shortage during that time and the gas station lines were very long, so at the beginning of every class week, I would be sent on a special detention assignment.

Fill up gas and buy lunch for after class answer session...........and when ever I took a test, I was told to leave the answers that I don't know blank.

Anyway, I think we are headed for a gas shortage like we have seen in the past.

• That gas crisis resulted from an oil embargo imposed by members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) and led to fuel shortages and sky-high prices throughout much of the decade. For a time, we could only get gas on even or odd days (your license plate number).

pamelafrostdennis.com/who-remembers-the-gas-shortages-in-the-1970s/
Who remembers the Gas Shortages in the 1970s? | Pamela Frost

 

[Acre4Me]

I use to have a problem of over fertilizing, when ever I saw plants and trees do good after fertilizing, I add more and they burn.

I did this will strawberries in the past. Killed about 1/3 of the bed with too much fertilizer! So, I remind myself of this every time I use fertilizer.