What did you do in the garden today?

[Liz Birdlover]

View attachment 3945877
Stopped into TSC for some wormer for the chickens, and they had these bags of flower seed on sale for $1. Yes, I bought all they had. 22 bags.
She said they purchased 25 and only sold three all spring and summer, so OUT they go since they are putting out snow shovels, blowers, and winter clothes. YES! The pollinator patch is due for a solid hay mulching and reseeding!

That is so great! Absolutely Love deals like this.

 

[Liz Birdlover]

Good morning! Having more coffee b4 I leave for work. I get a few days, Thursday & Friday, to catch up around here & I'm looking forward to it. I am So far Behind! Working several days in a row, including weekends, since July has left me wiped out, not even knowing what day of the week it is. I'm scaling back a bit going forward. I was trying something different to see if it reduced my pain at L4, L5, sacroiliac & hip & knees at all. I was watering the garden center at Lowe's since July & I actually loved it, despite 100 degree days. This old gal did surprisingly well, drank a lot of water & didn’t even take real breaks. I guess already being accustomed to weather outdoors (chicken life) all day primed me.

So...they wanted to keep a good worker on, but moved me to a different department after Labor Day. Well, not only does it bring the intense pain levels back, but I miss the garden center. I miss it bad. Everything was thriving, I rejuvenated the neglected greenhouse plants, picked up windblown trees & replanted them when their potting mix fell out of thr pots, I actually saved many from the dumpster, etc. I need to go back to doing tile work. It is much better pay & I get much more time off. Retail just saps energy, dulls enthusiasm, takes up Alot of time & doesn't pay enough to sustain. Lesson learned.

Anyway...in the garden...the tomatoes are still producing. We've got Cherry tomatoes, Plum tomatoes, Beefsteak tomatoes, all thriving.

Sadly, the 1 Cherokee tomato plant, although producing slowly, all tomatoes have all been kind of mushy All summer. The chickens have enjoyed every single one. I'm about to yank that plant out, the tomatoes are getting weird, like all splitting early while still green & just nasty when they begin to turn purple red ready to pick. I've never had a tomato plant do that before, so I really dont know what the heck is up with it. Maybe I will have better luck next year...maybe I got a bum plant?

It has been So Dry here all summer. Watering has kept everything alive. My last cucumber vine is hanging on with a pitiful few tiny cucumbers, but they never really recovered from those darn squash vine bugs combined with drought conditions. We only got a few cucumbers. This is the rebounding part...little cuke is trying, gotta give it that.


Corn is looking good, a few large ears but the rest are smaller ears, lack of rain I suspect. I peeled the largest 1 after work last night & ate it right there in the garden.
I wonder...Am I the only one that eats corn on the cob sometimes fresh without cooking?
All of the kernels were fine, no gaps, so pollination was good & it tasted sweet & delicious. I will give the other ears more time to grow. We are "supposed" to get a few days of rain. So far, it's only been a foggy, humid, mist the past 24 hrs. 70s temp range.


The Sunflowers are happy.



The okra is coming along slowly. I think my tomatoes overshadowed some of their sunshine.


So tell me this...our forecast for rain. It was supposed to be a rainy 3-4 days.

Ok see all the green blobs? Yup, sure looks like a rainy day to me.


Then why, oh why, does the rain Always Skip Us!?

 

[Smokerbill]

Fresh corn right off the plant is great, but I've always heard that if you eat to much the coarse fiber can knot together and cause a blockage.

 

[WthrLady]

I've taken down all the hummingbird feeders except for one. There aren't many birds coming through now, but I did just see one yesterday, so I'll keep going. I can see this feeder from the house, so I can keep better track of the feeder and the little things.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

I put my sourdough sponge together lat last night. I was really tired and messed up and added 3 cups of water to the starter when I was only supposed to add 1 1/2 cups of water. So I added more starter and flour to make a double batch of bread. I picked basil and sage for the dehydrator early along with a few tomatoes, some kale, a radish and micro mustard greens. Cleaned all that, washed the basil then loaded that into the dehydrator. I strained the yogurt I made yesterday and put that into containers in the fridge. The very patient man who arrived to clean my pellet stove is being serenaded by my sweet reactive Chloe while I wrestled a double batch of sourdough into lovely 2 batches of bread dough. Finally having my second cup of coffee.

 

[pennyJo1960]

I have so many green tomato left my gourds are fine.

 

[CatInTheHenHouse]

It almost looks like an Anaheim chilli. I have some and thought that they were supposed to be green but some of them turned red

It does look a lot like the Anaheim I’ve grown in previous years. The top is a little flatter but that could be for any number of reasons.

That big pepper looks nice. Are you going to plant its seeds next year? And were all the peppers on that plant similar?

To the first, I don’t know, I want to avoid it crossing with the cayenne (and am now wondering if I should be labeling the cayenne seeds I have drying as cayenne or as pepper mix, since they were definitely close enough to cross pollinate this year) but I don’t have anything against sweet peppers. I do have the seeds for that one drying too (on a separate paper towel and yes I labeled each!).

To the second, that’s the only pepper that plant has produced so far. It has some tiny buds on it now but as late in the season as it is I doubt it will produce another.

If no heat might just be an Italian frying pepper. Looks like some we’ve grown, maybe “Jimmy Nardelo” as a variety example. The sweet Italian, or Italian frying peppers are versatile and good tasting.

I don’t think it has heat. I washed off a couple pieces in some vodka (to clean off any contamination from the cayenne since water doesn’t work on capsaicin) and ate them and my mouth isn’t on fire right now.

Mind, I’ve never tested that trick previously. I might need to slice a bit off one of the remaining cayenne to test further.

 

[Liz Birdlover]

I have 2 days off so I can get caught up around here. We barely got any rain but it may rain overnight. I hope so, we need it. I did some weeding after work but only had an hour of daylight left.

Forgot to post pics of the tomatoes this morning, so here ya go. The cherry tomatoes are becoming my favorite just because I can pop them into my mouth like eating grapes lol.


My pitiful cucumber


A big Mayfly hanging out at the coop door. I'd rather see this than an Assassin bug.

 

[fuzzi]

Good morning! Having more coffee b4 I leave for work. I get a few days, Thursday & Friday, to catch up around here & I'm looking forward to it. I am So far Behind! Working several days in a row, including weekends, since July has left me wiped out, not even knowing what day of the week it is. I'm scaling back a bit going forward. I was trying something different to see if it reduced my pain at L4, L5, sacroiliac & hip & knees at all. I was watering the garden center at Lowe's since July & I actually loved it, despite 100 degree days. This old gal did surprisingly well, drank a lot of water & didn’t even take real breaks. I guess already being accustomed to weather outdoors (chicken life) all day primed me.

So...they wanted to keep a good worker on, but moved me to a different department after Labor Day. Well, not only does it bring the intense pain levels back, but I miss the garden center. I miss it bad. Everything was thriving, I rejuvenated the neglected greenhouse plants, picked up windblown trees & replanted them when their potting mix fell out of thr pots, I actually saved many from the dumpster, etc. I need to go back to doing tile work. It is much better pay & I get much more time off. Retail just saps energy, dulls enthusiasm, takes up Alot of time & doesn't pay enough to sustain. Lesson learned.

Anyway...in the garden...the tomatoes are still producing. We've got Cherry tomatoes, Plum tomatoes, Beefsteak tomatoes, all thriving.

Sadly, the 1 Cherokee tomato plant, although producing slowly, all tomatoes have all been kind of mushy All summer. The chickens have enjoyed every single one. I'm about to yank that plant out, the tomatoes are getting weird, like all splitting early while still green & just nasty when they begin to turn purple red ready to pick. I've never had a tomato plant do that before, so I really dont know what the heck is up with it. Maybe I will have better luck next year...maybe I got a bum plant?

It has been So Dry here all summer. Watering has kept everything alive. My last cucumber vine is hanging on with a pitiful few tiny cucumbers, but they never really recovered from those darn squash vine bugs combined with drought conditions. We only got a few cucumbers. This is the rebounding part...little cuke is trying, gotta give it that.
View attachment 3946427

Corn is looking good, a few large ears but the rest are smaller ears, lack of rain I suspect. I peeled the largest 1 after work last night & ate it right there in the garden.
I wonder...Am I the only one that eats corn on the cob sometimes fresh without cooking?
All of the kernels were fine, no gaps, so pollination was good & it tasted sweet & delicious. I will give the other ears more time to grow. We are "supposed" to get a few days of rain. So far, it's only been a foggy, humid, mist the past 24 hrs. 70s temp range.
View attachment 3946420View attachment 3946419

The Sunflowers are happy.

View attachment 3946418

The okra is coming along slowly. I think my tomatoes overshadowed some of their sunshine.
View attachment 3946425View attachment 3946426

So tell me this...our forecast for rain. It was supposed to be a rainy 3-4 days.

Ok see all the green blobs? Yup, sure looks like a rainy day to me.
View attachment 3946430

Then why, oh why, does the rain Always Skip Us!?

View attachment 3946431

I've seen big green areas of precipitation on radar part like the Red Sea when they are about to drench us. I understand!

 

[chickengr]

going to transplant more lettuce and broccoli I bought yesterday. made green tomato relish and mixed veggie pickles.