What did you do in the garden today?

[Pensmaster]

Your sunflowers are beautiful! Looking at your pics reminded me that tomorrow is Sept. 1st. That's the arbitrary date I usually set to start putting out my fall decorations. I'm a real autumn zealot, and have all kinds of decorations I put out every year - scarecrows, mums, fake pumpkins & gourds, etc. Just love it! My real pumpkin/squash plants are growing well, but I'm certainly not going to have any fruit for decorating with (too cool this summer, I think). I will have some corn stalks I can use, though. I can't wait to get started decorating, but canning must come first! Do any of you guys put out fall decorations?

Home Depot already has decorations out. Saw them putting them up yesterday.

 

[jerryse]

Anyone have any experience growing tatume/calabacita sqaush?

I have grown it . Depends on what you expect . It is small and seedy . More gourd like IMO . Shell does not get really hard . I tried it trying to find a borer resistant summer squash . Not your typical summer squash .

 

[Lazy Farmer]

When grown on a trellis the vines soar 12-18 feet and often to 25 feet"

That is a fact! When toms are able to flourish, on strings, trellis or tall stakes, the will grow like a weed tall. Tomatoes are actually a vine. They can grow up, down , sideways and in circles it you train them during their growth. When we crown the tops, they branch more and more creating a thicker trunk and shoot out more branches= more flowers.
Also if they collapse our with out damaging the plant, the trunk will root and the vine will bounce back 10 fold.
The rain wiped up out this year.. Boo..hoo.
Last year these dudes got us bad..

This spring we will be back in the game.
What doesn't kill ya, only makes ya stronger.
Nice reading your stuff.. Thanks for sharing.
Connie jane

 

[Pensmaster]

That is a fact! When toms are able to flourish, on strings, trellis or tall stakes, the will grow like a weed tall. Tomatoes are actually a vine. They can grow up, down , sideways and in circles it you train them during their growth. When we crown the tops, they branch more and more creating a thicker trunk and shoot out more branches= more flowers.
Also if they collapse our with out damaging the plant, the trunk will root and the vine will bounce back 10 fold.
The rain wiped up out this year.. Boo..hoo.
Last year these dudes got us bad..
View attachment 1125307
This spring we will be back in the game.
What doesn't kill ya, only makes ya stronger.
Nice reading your stuff.. Thanks for sharing.
Connie jane

Marigolds next spring will help keep them at bay.
Plant one or two per tomato plant.
Be sure to use the ones that actually smell like marigolds

 

[Lazy Farmer]

Marigolds next spring will help keep them at bay.
Plant one or two per tomato plant.
Be sure to use the ones that actually smell like marigolds

That is true. I think those horn worm thingies are soil born.

 

[Lazy Farmer]

That is a fact! When toms are able to flourish, on strings, trellis or tall stakes, the will grow like a weed tall. Tomatoes are actually a vine. They can grow up, down , sideways and in circles it you train them during their growth. When we crown the tops, they branch more and more creating a thicker trunk and shoot out more branches= more flowers.
Also if they collapse our with out damaging the plant, the trunk will root and the vine will bounce back 10 fold.
The rain wiped up out this year.. Boo..hoo.
Last year these dudes got us bad..
View attachment 1125307
This spring we will be back in the game.
What doesn't kill ya, only makes ya stronger.
Nice reading your stuff.. Thanks for sharing.
Connie jane

Lol.. I just noticed that was a pic with a pair of scissors when I was cutting them in half to dispatch them.

 

[Pensmaster]

That is true. I think those horn worm thingies are soil born.

Those worms give me the creeps. I can handle most things in the garden but they attack. Pruning shears for them. One year a volunteer tomato came up in compost pile no marigolds,worms all over it. Garden with marigolds by tomatoes none.

 

[Lazy Farmer]

Those worms give me the creeps. I can handle most things in the garden but they attack. Pruning shears for them. One year a volunteer tomato came up in compost pile no marigolds,worms all over it. Garden with marigolds by tomatoes none.

On a grosser comparison, I will chuck some of the ugly toms to the adult pigs as a healthy snack. When it rains, the poo makes it to edge of the fence line and tomatoes grow there. I have never ever seen any bugs in the poo toms. When they ripen we just throw them back in for another cycle of poo toms.
Lol, Marigolds smell better I know for a fact!

 

[lazy gardener]

For your reading pleasure.

https://www.thespruce.com/identifying-and-controlling-tomato-hornworms-2539845

I have never found marigolds to prevent them, or any other flower, for that matter. Though, I have an abundance of dill, a serious infestation of dill, and have not seen a THW all year. We don't get a lot of them here.

I get great pleasure out of giving them to the chickens. They shake them out of their skin, and run around with the skin like it's the greatest prize.

I can't tell you how many times I've had an old timer tell me about seeing "baby hummingbirds". They'll even point to a sphinx moth, and tell me that's a baby humming bird. Totally can't convince them that it's not... so I just smile sweetly and use hubby's favorite "uh... that statement is so totally ridiculous." response statement. "WOW!!!" Then, change the subject, quickly.

 

[GldnValleyHens]

You might try neem oil. Don't know if it kills beetles or hard shelled insects but they say it kills the grubs that turn into beetles. I'm using it on aphids this year and it seems to be working. It's not instant first day I was disappointed, second day they were dying. It's supposed to work on spider mites as well.

ok thanks!