What did you do in the garden today?

[TJAnonymous]

You may remember that I ordered this indoor greenhouse to get my cocoa tree through the winter. These plants can be very finicky about humidity... They need a stable humid environment that maintains relative humidity between 75-85%. Naturally that is difficult to maintain when you bring plants indoors for the winter.

Even in the summer, I keep this plant inside an outdoor greenhouse under a giant oak so it gets indirect, bright light. I spray water heavily inside the greenhouse to keep the humidity high in there during the summer.

But I digress... I'm happy to report that this indoor greenhouse seems to be working out really well. I check the humidity daily... It's maintaining between 80-85% daily. Temp is steady around 75 degrees. The plant is so happy that it's putting out a lot of new growth. I am ecstatic since I wasn't sure if the direct lights from the grow lights overhead would be too much. Seems to like it though.

 

[Sueby]

He might be telling you something.
I had a woodpecker on the house going to town. Turned out I had carpenter ants in the siding he was going after.

I've looked, I'm not really seeing much - but that doesn't mean there isn't something. I'm hoping we have a freeze soon & whatever it is dies!

I found this new Cento vegetable paste, it's mixed with carrots, celery, onions and tomatoes. I think it's a great idea, I'll try making something with it and see how it tastes next time.
View attachment 3971552

I would buy that, love that idea!

Still warm here, a little cool down this weekend & then back to above normal warm. & still no rain. I'm going to hold off on planting the garlic for a little while.

Leaves are falling, need to start collecting them for the garden. Planning on taking apart & burying one of my greenstalk strawberry planters in them. The other I'm going to stuff with straw & wrap in burlap & see which does better.

Of course it's so warm & no frost so I'm still eating strawberries every time I go out.

 

[Liz Birdlover]

I've had a wicked sinus, throat & whole body virus, I guess its a virus. Anyway, it hit me hard the past week. Almost turned into pneumonia, I fear. I'm on the mend now. Taking antibiotics.

We have still not had rain & it is downright dry & crunchy when walking in what should be grass, or in my case, weeds. I've never seen the ground so bare or dry. I still have tomatoes & okra, despite a few nights into the 30s. The deer knocked over the garden fence & trampled my Marigolds, knocking many tomatoes off of the vines. Brats! I tried to fix the fence back up. I also see a bunch of holes dug...I guess mice. Tis the season for those brats, too. Not feeling well,y garden is neglected, so dry, my poor tomatoes leaves are not happy.



One of my sweet roosters has an injured foot and I am worried. The bumblefoot wound healed & swelling went down, but his foot does not look right. He did not like being in the hospital so I think I moved him back with the girls too soon...now he is limping. I moved him back into the "hospital" cage so he won't be trying to run & jump around. He ate & drank & nestled down into cushy wood chips. I hope he will be ok. He is on antibiotics. Poor boy.
Here he is getting the sore foot soak in warm water with Epsom salt & tea tree soap. May not look comfortable but he is calm on my lap. The good foot just dangling.


My sweet boy in better days, before bumblefoot.




I saw these 3 Assassin bugs. Got a closer look, saw that 2 were mating & I guess...1 was watching? Or was going to join in? You nasty buggers!

 

[pennyJo1960]

@Liz Birdlover I love the marigold patch you have.

 

[TJAnonymous]

My lemon tree, which I brought indoors 2 weeks ago, is infested with aphids. Ugh... I wanted to spray it down with Captain Jack's before bringing it inside but I simply didn't have time to do it. It is a big and heavy tree so I cringe at the thought of dragging it back outside again to spray it....but I gotta do something!

 

[Liz Birdlover]

@Liz Birdlover I love the marigold patch you have.

Thanks. I always have Marigolds all around, yellow, orange & the red & gold varigated petals, my fav go to flower because I can always count on them all summer into November. I save seeds & just sprinkle them down to surround the entire garden perimeter along the deer netting, inside & out. It definitely deters the rabbits & groundhogs from digging in. Deer do not seem to mind them, though. They stomped them good. Fox just gracefully sailed over, sniffed all the plants, hopped back out & looked at me with a puzzled expression...like she was thinking, why are you always in here, there's nothing good to eat, not for a fox anyway. She only visted in there one time. It's a real hoot to see a fox jump though, they have this high exaggerated arch & act like they're auditioning for some ballet performance. They do that catching mice, moles & voles, too. Cool to see.

 

[Sally PB]

The beans made it through another "would have been frosted" night with sheets over them. I have another 3-4 nights, and then we have a warm up. The pods are getting fatter with seeds.

 

[cj2024]

My black rice experiment is working. One of the food grade containers has holes on the bottom and two don't. They seem to like it wet. I fill the containers up until there are traces of water on top and by end of day it is gone, so I don't have to worry about mosquitoes. I will do the same thing when I transfer them out to 5-gallon buckets. I am using 50% sifted soil and 50% compost.

The one with seeds that were topped with more soil mix seem to be doing the best.

 

[Minanora]

In all my years on earth, I haven't really learned how to use tomato paste to make sauce until I stumbled upon this Japanese Italian chef specialist.

Note: it makes a big difference on the brand of tomato paste being used.

YUMMMM!!!

 

[Minanora]

I am so tired. My kitchen flooded this morning.... I don't want to get into it. This isn't the first time.... I laid into DH about it this morning. I was livid. And you know what you don't say to an angry wife...."you're being dramatic" I WILL END YOU!

Yes, I am dramatic. But it's completely justified.

A lot of my garlic is coming up. The early italian is the most grown. Followed by inchelium, then red toch, and silver white is lagging, but it has roots.

I have caught 5 gophers this week. 2 in a tunnel next to my apple tree, by the pumpkins and berry pots. 2 in a tunnel in one of my raised beds that the hardware cloth rusted out on this year. and 1 in my newest ground level bed where my butternut squash are. DEATH TO THE BURROWING DEVILS!

The ones that were under the apple tree, I returned those to the yard they came from, right over the fence. Take back your vermin you refuse to kill yourself. Neighbors with joining fence #1 to the East. Lets just say they're the NE neighbor.

The ones in the raised bed... I like those neighbors too much to return their gophers over the fence, so I leave them on the ground for their cat to bring back to them. Those are the neighbors to the south.

The one that was in the lower bed.... I imagine it came from the neighbor to the south, but I threw it over the fence to the neighbors to the NE by the apple tree. There's several other gophers of theirs in my orchard that I haven't tried to trap yet, so, they get a bonus gopher.

My neighbors to the north.... they chase their gophers into my yard with those sonar spikes... I toss their gophers back even if I know their dog is out. I could aim for their hot tub or pool, but I don't. I think about it sometimes though. When they're talking outside of my bedroom window at 3am. One time they almost burned down their house by disposing of paint cleaning chemicals improperly in their trash. I have lots more stories about them, but there's a saying that if you don't have anything nice to say.... But. Gophers. Kill them yourself or I will and I will give them back. I'm not going to bury your problems for you. Lol

Mind you, when we moved into this home, I killed 47 gophers in a calendar year. Year two, 29. Since then, I was down to 18ish a year. This year, since gaining new neighbors on all property lines in the three years. I've gained rats, and upped the number of yearly gophers back yearly as neighbors changed. This year I'm back up to 32.