What did you do in the garden today?

[Fishychix]

Looking for advice for my peach tree - ive said im going to cut it down but I havent got the courage up yet (or the time). So the deal is, besides the deer and squirrels esting them before us every year, is that it has that large hole right by the trunk and im fairly certain it has either a disease or bug issue. It had a hesled slit in the trunk and two "fresh" ones and slso a large knob that i dont know whst it could be at the base as well.
Is it worth saving or should it just go?

 

[igorsMistress]

Everyone was busy today.
Got up at dawn and got chores done, then DH and I loaded this year's hay into the curing shed.View attachment 3169718
100 bales ready in the barn from last year. 22 bales in the curing shed from last year, and 48 bales this year.
The field is 2/3 empty this year, the other 1/3 is being allowed to rest and reseed itself. The smell of the clover and the alfalfa is heavenly up there.View attachment 3169720

Beat up by thetractor again, but bruises go away. Real beauties though. LOLView attachment 3169722View attachment 3169723
Garden needs watered, I'm not trusting the rain to make it. and the second shade cloth installed, but I need a wind free half hour.

Owie!

 

[WthrLady]

Do you use a mini round bailer? I've seen them recently and thought that would be a benefit to getting the hay cured and dry properly.

Curing is a storage issue and air circulation consideration.
Drying is luck of the weather, and proper spreading in the field, windrowing, and tedding.
Waiting until it is actually is dry to bale is the key, and many contract baling teams don't wait long enough, or the weather intervenes.
Another consideration is when the hay is cut for nutritional value for the critter you are feeding. I cut for grass and alfalfa- horse quality. Most around here cut end of season for cattle hay, which is low in alfalfa - cow tummys don't care for it.
If the weather really behaves, we can get three cuttings out of the field each summer. Mid June, Mid july and then end of August.

 

[WthrLady]

Looking for advice for my peach tree - ive said im going to cut it down but I havent got the courage up yet (or the time). So the deal is, besides the deer and squirrels esting them before us every year, is that it has that large hole right by the trunk and im fairly certain it has either a disease or bug issue. It had a hesled slit in the trunk and two "fresh" ones and slso a large knob that i dont know whst it could be at the base as well.
Is it worth saving or should it just go?

Let it go.

 

[WthrLady]

Owie!

Indeed. Only hurt when I did it, and when someone pokes it. So don't poke it.

 

[CNJ]

If anyone is interested in making their own home made yogurt, I found that Dry Milk powder from Walmart work the best. They come in 10 x quart size pouches which cost about the same as regular milk.

The advantage of using powder milk is I can bring the water close to a boil before stirring it in and then add 3 TBS of liquefied corn starch to thicken it. This prevents scorching on the bottom, but I still need to stir it while its cooling in cold water. to prevent a skin from forming. After it cools down to 120F, I mix a little of the warm milk with a cup of plain Greek yogurt from the store and then mix it into the rest of the warm milk. I cover it and put it on top of my freezer where it is warm and let it sit over night.

For every mango that I puree, I use half a cup of pure cane sugar and set it a side. I put the mango puree on top of my plain yogurt, right before I eat my yogurt.

I also mix 2 mango puree with 1 cup of pure cane sugar and mix it in with a quart of home made yogurt and freeze them in silicone ice trays. I blend the frozen mango yogurt ice cubes with milk into a shake. Its great for hot summer days.

I found out that the beneficial bacteria in yogurt stays active even if we freeze them. I made yogurt with frozen yogurt to prove that this statement is true.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Making some homemade cobbler with the blackberries I picked this morning.

Haven't been out to the garden yet this evening... Too hot. We went from a prediction of half inch of rain tomorrow to maybe sprinkles in the span of 3 days.... Smh.

Going to pick the grand baby up tomorrow for the holiday weekend. Yay!

 

[589205]

Harvested some green and gold beans today (purple not quite ready yet):

Also mowed the yard, hosed down everything in the gardens, filled up water tanks and cleaned/refilled hummingbird feeders.

 

[esturtz27]

Making some homemade cobbler with the blackberries I picked this morning.

Haven't been out to the garden yet this evening... Too hot. We went from a prediction of half inch of rain tomorrow to maybe sprinkles in the span of 3 days.... Smh.

Going to pick the grand baby up tomorrow for the holiday weekend. Yay!

Sounds like where I live. Went from an inch of rain to uummm maybe next week... everything is crunchy(my veggies are ok they get watered

 

[Iluveggers]

So I've just heard that planting dill next to your vining veggies repels the squash bugs. Anybody seen that happen? Cause if it's true I'm going to develop my dill growing skills asap.

I have lots of dill but not next to my squash. It seems to be keeping the cabbage moth off my kale so far.

WOW - I just collected ripe Dillseed from a volunteer in the greenhouse - I'm scattering it asap in the squash areas! This is an experiment - like most all my gardening - just an experiment.

Let us know!

I’ve not had much luck growing dill. I planted seeds with my SM tomatoes and one plant came up. It’s growing between two of the tomato plants. I’m hoping it keeps the bad bugs away. I could try planting some with my summer squash and see what happens.

Two years ago I bought one single dill start from a local farm/stand. The woman told me the dill was very prolific and would grow tall. It grew to be about 4-5 feet tall before it bent sideways and flowered. I haven’t had to buy or plant dill since. It is in the walkway, the raised bed, the herb garden, one of the raised rows. I love it and it is super skinny but tall, and smells great, so I just let it volunteer all over unless it is right in the middle of a new planting. It’s dark now but I’ll take a pic of some of it tomorrow! Best garden purchase I ever made.

A small flying type insect cuts a ring around the young shoots of my tomato plants, I call them cutters. I really hate them. I have officially declared war on them, I hope my tomato plants can handle the after shock of this war.

I lost whole tomato plants last year. Cut like a sawed tree. I bought a few packs of small skewers about the length of two toothpicks, and put them around the bottom of each tomato stem at ground level. Yes, all 36 plants. It was a huge PITA but I didn’t lose any plants this year. They compost right in at the end of the season so no cleanup needed. If you need a visual, let me know.