What did you do in the garden today?

[Hensintexas]

I wear gloves if I don't trust the rooster for his own protection. I don't trust myself..........

I don’t blame you!!

 

[Hensintexas]

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

Let us know!

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.

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.

Wow! I can’t grow dill at all. Bought seeds, plants . . . And have decided dill hates me. My grandmother had it everywhere, not me - it just curls up it’s toes and dies! lol

 

[Iluveggers]

Wow! I can’t grow dill at all. Bought seeds, plants . . . And have decided dill hates me. My grandmother had it everywhere, not me - it just curls up it’s toes and dies! lol

You need to take a trip to upstate NY and visit this tiny hole-in-the-wall farm stand and get the prolific dill! I do nothing except not trim it. You’ll have dill coming out of your ears!

 

[Hensintexas]

Wow! I can’t grow dill at all. Bought seeds, plants . . . And have decided dill hates me. My grandmother had it everywhere, not me - it just curls up it’s toes and dies! lol

On the other hand, maybe if I just threw the seeds out there, they’d grow?? A trip to NY is a bit far for me to go for dill seeds, being in TX! But I’d love to go - hole in the wall places are the best!

 

[Sueby]

I have never had trouble starting dill, either direct sowing or in the aero garden (that's how I started it this year). My trouble is it always bolts too soon. But I, like @WthrLady grow it mostly for the swallowtails so it's all good. I use the flowers in pickles in the fall (& any actual dill if there's any left by fall).

Does anyone hand pollinate cukes? The flowers are just so tiny, it doesn't feel like they're getting pollinated! I guess I'll know soon if they grow or shrivel up. I've been using a couple males on each female. I have soyo long & pickling cukes now (hopefully) pollinated.

I have a crookneck squash ready to pick, maybe for dinner tomorrow. & lots of beans ready. I need to thin the rutabaga - keep forgetting. & get up another JB trap.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Does anyone hand pollinate cukes? The flowers are just so tiny, it doesn't feel like they're getting pollinated! I guess I'll know soon if they grow or shrivel up. I've been using a couple males on each female. I have soyo long & pickling cukes now (hopefully) pollinated.

I hand pollinated my cukes last year because they were inside my hoop house. I used a small paintbrush to do it. Worked really well and I got quite a few cukes before I came down with Covid and the squash bugs killed everything.

I have my cukes outside the hoop house this year so I'm just letting pollinators do their thing instead.

 

[chickengr]

Organic and Free Range have specific USDA designations, doesn't seem right for the state to decide you can't raise your birds that way and sell them as such!

organic in european union means that chickens eat at least 80% (or so) organic feed and can be caged. free range means that chickens must get out for at least 2-3 hours every day. space is not required so their run can be overcrowded.

do you understand why I got chickens and don't eat store bought eggs and meat?

 

[TJAnonymous]

organic in european union means that chickens eat at least 80% (or so) organic feed and can be caged. free range means that chickens must get out for at least 2-3 hours every day. space is not required so their run can be overcrowded.

do you understand why I got chickens and don't eat store bought eggs and meat?

Since owning my own non-caged, free ranging chickens who get lots of room to roam and are spoiled rotten so they produce rich, healthy, wonderful eggs, I cannot eat store bought eggs anymore. That also means I can't eat breakfast at a restaurant because they all use store bought eggs. They are just pale, nasty, flavorless snot. It turns my stomach just to look at commercial eggs.

 

[chickengr]

Not in the garden, but the other 2 zucchini plants on the far end are as green as can be. I was doing a little research last night and here's my theories on what could be happening -

1. Underwatering - I water the garden several times per week but I'm thinking maybe the cardboard is inhibiting the water actually getting to the plant. I pulled back some of the cardboard so water can get underneath. All these plants were doing awesome when it was raining consistently. We haven't had decent rain in a month with ridiculously hot temperatures. It coincides to when the plants started going downhill.

2. Disease - the plants are inside the hoop house so I can rule out SVB and cucumber beetles but I know a few squash bugs have managed to get inside and, of course, aphids can get through the netting. When I pruned yesterday, I killed 3 squash bugs - 1 adult and 2 teenagers. Didn't find any small nymphs or eggs. If they are around its in very small numbers so I think they can be ruled out. Not enough of them to take down 2 very robust plants. And the aphids seem to prefer the tomatoes across the aisle. I've never seen any aphids on my zucchini. There are ANTS though... Tons of them but they are on all the zucchini plants and focus mostly on the flowers/pollen, not the plant itself.

3. Lack of nutrient access - if the soil is out of whack, it can cause vital nutrients to become bound up in the soil. However I fertilized the soil before we planted anything and, as I mentioned above, the plants were very robust and producing well until the past 2-3 weeks. If the soil was unbalanced, it would have shown symptoms prior to now and it would affect all plants, not just 2 of them.


I really think #1 seems to be the most logical. Especially since the offshoots had produced a huge root system which couldn't reach the soil because of the cardboard. I think it was searching for more water/nutrients.

Note to self - don't put cardboard around the zucchini next year... This actually shouldn't be a problem because I'm going to try vertical planting next year. I'll do them outside the hoop house in the main garden and wrap the lower stem in tubing sections to keep the SVB away.

as I have pepper plants between zucchinis and they thrive I am 100% positive everything is fine there. I sowed zucchinis late and maybe brutal heat is the reason they do not mature. especially if they sold me some green house hybrid - there was no sign about variety.

 

[chickengr]

We aren't allowed to reuse cartons either. Even cartons we buy.... One time use only. Of course, everyone does it anyway... That's another thing the inspectors pretend they don't notice...

they talk about climate change and ecology. then they kill forests to make one time use cartoon.