What did you do in the garden today?

[WthrLady]

Some of yesterday’s harvest.
3 kinds of cucumbers, 3 kinds of squash.
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Young praying mantis hunting among the soybeans
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Part of one large garden bed.
On the left, 8 varieties of melon.
Middle many peppers in the cages for three rows.
On right, pumpkin vines filling in walkway in front of tomatoes.
Appraising all is Penny the cat.
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So…what bug has left this pile of poop on the Borage?? Not a lot of damage, could not find a single caterpillar of any kind, and any hornworm would show up well on borage, but the poop doesn’t look like hornworm anyway.
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Maybe mr Caterpillar showed up too well and bird got him before you looked for him.

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We spent 2 hours last night digging buffalo bur and thistle. It's either been too rainy, too windy, or too humid to spray 2,4D. So we have to walk the fields going after the larger ones, or ones in flower by hand. What a PIA.

 

[saysfaa]

We are 6A in Ohio. We sow peas, mustard, spinach, beets direct sometime in Aug. if you want brassicas, then start indoors now or try from seed end of July into Aug. So, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, rutabaga, turnips are all cold hardy. yes, beans may have enough time to produce, just pick a shorter season one.

I'm having trouble getting the seeds to come up. I don't know if problem is germinating or something else.

I had a little better results when I put them in damp paper towels in the house to germinate. Then I put the germinated seeds in six pack seedling containers because I don't know what stage I lost the earlier attempts. I thought temperature might be the problem. Or watering. Or a combination.

 

[saysfaa]

In the garden today, I

• snipped the squash bug eggs off the zucchini leaves
• checked for Japanese Beetles (didn't find any)
• looked for the cabbage moth worms on the broccoli (didn't find any; maybe the holes are from grasshoppers instead?),
• gave a chickens a couple more lessons in hunting grasshoppers
• picked two quarts of black raspberries
• pulled three lettuce plants that had bolted and two radish plants for the chickens to eat
• Turned and watered about a quarter of the compost pile
• Harvested broccoli (heads, stems, and leaves)”, cucumbers, zucchini, and snap peas for dinner
• Promised to transplant the pea seedlings and brussels sprout seedlings very soon but didn't do it yet
• Found out broccoli leaves are edible and very nutritious, possibly even yummy.

 

[karenerwin]

It rained this morning for about an hour so that took care of watering the garden. I chopped up 6 cups of chopped white onions thst I had harvested from the garden a few days ago. I put them into food saver bags and put them in the freezer for later.
I picked a small handful of cherry tomatoes.
We took the 3 grandsons that are staying with us to go see Mission Impossible at the theater tonight and then my husband and I met up with my daughter and her husband for dinner afterwards. The grandkids went back to our house with their mom.
Edited to add: I have 6 spaghetti squash on my counter and at least that many more on the vine ready to be picked. Does any one can them or freeze them or just put them in the basement for later?

 

[gtaus]

I previously mentioned that I bought a "new" used Murray riding mower at a pretty good price at our local Fleet store. The original owner had them put in a brand-new engine and then never paid for it. So, I got it for about half the price of what the shop had into the repair job.

Anyways, little update, after only a few hours, the Nikki carburetor flooded out, drained a tankful of gas into the engine block, and put the mower into hydro-lock and the rider was unable to start or run. Bummer!

Of course, although the engine has a 2-year warranty, it does not cover the carburetor.

I talked to the head mechanic at the shop about options, and he just suggested I add a manual on/off valve inline the gas line. So, I dumped the engine oil (which was full of gas), blew out the gas in the spark plug hole, and put everything back together with a on/off value on the gas line.

Happy to report that the engine started right up and is working great. Only thing I have to do is to remember to manually turn off the gas valve when I'm done mowing just in case the carb floods again. I'm still very happy with the purchase, but it's disappointing that these new carbs can go bad in no time at all.

I'm not a mechanic, but I love it when I can fix things on my own and save a $100 shop repair bill. I can live with the on/off valve on the gas line. I have installed those valves on all my other riding mowers over the past few years. Just makes it so much easier to drain old gas and/or change out the fuel filter. This is the first time I have needed that shutoff valve for a flooding carb, but it's a cheaper fix than replacing the carb itself. I bought that 3 pack of valves about 6 years ago and it only cost me $5.00 at the time. I still had one valve left in the pack, so it did not even cost me anything this time.

I bought this rider mainly to tow behind my carts, as in the picture above. I load it up with all my gardening supplies and stuff when I work out in the gardens. Also, when I sift my chicken run compost, I hook up a Gorilla cart to the rider and take it wherever I need the compost. When I make a new hügelkultur raised garden bed, I load up a cart with heavy logs and drive it over to the raised beds. When I was younger, I just used a one-wheeled wheelbarrow. But now I'm all for saving my back and letting the riders pull the heavy carts.

 

[Sueby]

It rained this morning for about an hour so that took care of watering the garden. I chopped up 6 cups of chopped white onions thst I had harvested from the garden a few days ago. I put them into food saver bags and put them in the freezer for later.
I picked a small handful of cherry tomatoes.
We took the 3 grandsons that are staying with us to go see Mission Impossible at the theater tonight and then my husband and I met up with my daughter and her husband for dinner afterwards. The grandkids went back to our house with their mom.
Edited to add: I have 6 spaghetti squash on my counter and at least that many more on the vine ready to be picked. Does any one can them or freeze them or just put them in the basement for later?

I have only stored them, never canned or froze. They lasted for quite a while here, we ate them all before they could even think of going bad. I'm so jealous of your bounty of spaghetti squash!

Nice job @gtaus! DH puts a shut off valve on every thing we own. He is a firm believer that it saves lots of hassles & gives me a real hard time when I forget & just shut something off instead, lol.

Looks like we got a little rain yesterday & overnight. It's insane how much rain we've had, & we haven't even had it like some have. DH is still being delayed work at the power plants, it's too dangerous to put divers in the water & they don't want to miss out on producing with all this water flowing. This is usually outage time, there is never water flowing in the middle of the summer! I'm just happy to not have to water the garden though.

 

[jerryse]

I previously mentioned that I bought a "new" used Murray riding mower at a pretty good price at our local Fleet store. The original owner had them put in a brand-new engine and then never paid for it. So, I got it for about half the price of what the shop had into the repair job.

Anyways, little update, after only a few hours, the Nikki carburetor flooded out, drained a tankful of gas into the engine block, and put the mower into hydro-lock and the rider was unable to start or run. Bummer!

Of course, although the engine has a 2-year warranty, it does not cover the carburetor.

I talked to the head mechanic at the shop about options, and he just suggested I add a manual on/off valve inline the gas line. So, I dumped the engine oil (which was full of gas), blew out the gas in the spark plug hole, and put everything back together with a on/off value on the gas line.

Happy to report that the engine started right up and is working great. Only thing I have to do is to remember to manually turn off the gas valve when I'm done mowing just in case the carb floods again. I'm still very happy with the purchase, but it's disappointing that these new carbs can go bad in no time at all.

I'm not a mechanic, but I love it when I can fix things on my own and save a $100 shop repair bill. I can live with the on/off valve on the gas line. I have installed those valves on all my other riding mowers over the past few years. Just makes it so much easier to drain old gas and/or change out the fuel filter. This is the first time I have needed that shutoff valve for a flooding carb, but it's a cheaper fix than replacing the carb itself. I bought that 3 pack of valves about 6 years ago and it only cost me $5.00 at the time. I still had one valve left in the pack, so it did not even cost me anything this time.

I bought this rider mainly to tow behind my carts, as in the picture above. I load it up with all my gardening supplies and stuff when I work out in the gardens. Also, when I sift my chicken run compost, I hook up a Gorilla cart to the rider and take it wherever I need the compost. When I make a new hügelkultur raised garden bed, I load up a cart with heavy logs and drive it over to the raised beds. When I was younger, I just used a one-wheeled wheelbarrow. But now I'm all for saving my back and letting the riders pull the heavy carts.

This is why most ridiers now have a fuei solenoid.shut off. Most or many push mowers have a manual shut off.

 

[Sally PB]

checked for Japanese Beetles

Because they are all over here!

This is a weed (anyone know what it is) that is growing near the farmer's cornfield. The JBs LOVE it! I'd like to plant it as a "trap crop" in my field.

I catch them for the chickens. I'm saving some in the freezer for a winter treat.

This is the most, the fastest, I have ever gotten JBs. I'd guess that's at least 200.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Good morning gardeners. So far our area has got over 10 inches of rain for the month of July. Good grief. It's humid like a tropical rain forest and the ground is still squishy. Actually you hear the squish noise when you walk across the yard. At least my lime tree is loving it. I thought it was on deaths door so I put it outside at the beginning of the month. It is looking very healthy and putting out new leaves. It can spend the rest of the warm season outside. The garden is doing well. My SM tomato plants are still a little on the small side so I'm trying to let them grow another foot taller before I stop pinching off blossoms. Of course I missed a few flowers and discover a few tomatoes forming. I'm letting them go for now. After several lovely female blossoms on my butternut squash I finally got some male flowers opening. Hopefully they can sync their blooming time. I picked more lettuce and kale this morning. Also got another half pound of green beans. Then I cleaned most of the grass growing between the carrots and kale. The grass is just insane with all this rain we've been getting. You can’t even tell I pulled it out of the leek bed a week ago. The nightshades are doing well in the high garden. The eggplants are the largest right now aside from the Sweet 100's bush. That is nearly 5 feet tall already and loaded with tomatoes and blossoms. The cherry tomatoes and sweet 100's in the big garden are doing well also. The Brandywine tomatoes are all at least 3 feet tall and are blooming. Can't wait to see how they produce. The corn is growing well. It's now about 3 feet tall that's about 1 foot taller than just 4 days ago. My cucumber plants and hot peppers are still going through the transplant shock right now. I'm sure they will all start growing like crazy soon. Laundry today. I may try to do some weed whacking in the front yard. It depends on how much smoke is blowing in from Canada. Have a great day all.

 

[gtaus]

Nice job @gtaus! DH puts a shut off valve on every thing we own. He is a firm believer that it saves lots of hassles & gives me a real hard time when I forget & just shut something off instead, lol.

This is why most ridiers now have a fuei solenoid.shut off. Most or many push mowers have a manual shut off.

When I was online and researching my carb flooding issue, I came across a number of videos about adding a fuel shutoff valve to the rider to prevent a leaky carb from flooding the engine. My rider engine does have a fuel solenoid shut off switch which, in theory, should prevent any flooding of the carb.

However, a quick search on YouTube and you will find that many, many fuel solenoids are just junk and fail. In fact, one mechanic said about half of all brand new solenoids they get in their shop don't work straight out of the box. The mechanic showed how to test the solenoid to see if it is working, or not. I'll be checking that out on my rider. Replacement fuel solenoids are ~$50, so I'll still money ahead by installing the manual fuel shutoff valve.

Another common problem on these Nikki carbs like I have is that one small O-ring inside the carb is known to frequently fail and lets gas leak by when in storage. Again, a manual fuel shutoff valve prevents that issue. Anytime the repair shop touches a carb you can expect a $100 minimum repair ticket. The replacement O-ring may cost only pennies, but the labor cost to fix the carb will just kill you.

I read in one article that the manual fuel shutoff used to be standard equipment on engines, but now they are found mainly only on real high end expensive riders.

From my perspective, my older riding mowers from 30 years ago ran better and lasted longer than the newer gas engines on my riders I have purchased in the past 5-10 years. I know a lot of people say that the problem is with the ethanol in today's gas, and that might be true. But a lot of people just say that the carbs we get from China today are just junk.

All I know is that I have replaced almost all my small gas engine equipment with battery operated electric motors. I used to replace my small gas push mowers every ~3 years and my gas trimmers were lucky to last more than a couple of years. Here in northern Minnesota, my outdoor equipment sits in the shed for a good 6 months of the year and the carbs always seemed to foul up over the winters. Even with draining all the gas and adding stablizers, etc... to prevent that issue.

Anyways, I got my first battery powered push mower about 10 years ago. Guess what? It still works today as good as it did out of the box brand new. Just slap some fresh batteries in it and go to work. Ditto with my battery powered grass trimmers, cultivators and mini tillers, and now, even battery chainsaws. I'm a homeowner and don't use most of those things very often. The battery powered tools just work better for me, and I doubt I'll ever go back to the small gas engines on those tools.

I would buy a battery powered riding mower if the cost was reasonable, but locally, the battery riders are easily 2X-3X the cost of a gas powered rider. It's just not in my budget at present, so I'm out there fixing my stuff and putting in manual fuel shutoff valves to protect my gas engines. Oh well, like I said, I'm really happy that I was able to fix my rider and it's working really good now.