What did you do in the garden today?

[Justagalwithchicks]

Do you know if it's early or late blight? I think my plants all succumbed to late blight this year. Or are in the process. But the tomatoes are still ripening.

My tomato garden looks like a disaster zone. I saw one cage leaning weeks ago, and put a stake in it to help support the weight. The next time I was up there, nearly ALL of the cages were leaning or had fallen over. I said a few choice words (my choice) and let them go. They were too tall and too heavy to prop up.

I need to find a better way to support the plants. But, TBH, the tomatoes cages they sell are WIMPY! I've had wire coat hangers that were thicker.

I use cattle panels and love them. If that's not an option for you I know some people use the Florida weave method..I've never done it but it might be worth looking into?

 

[Justagalwithchicks]

Yesterday, harvested and hung the onions, with DH's help. Moved the straw mulch over to the green bean towers and cucumbers, which are comingbin. I have picklers and Suyo long, bumpy and tasty. Picked green beans, and 5 beet stragglers. So much to do, with watering, weeding, pruning. So happy about my dahlias blooming like crazy. This one is called Mai Tai. DH put the electric fence around the grape arbor to deter those fat raccoons who have robbed
me the past years, and maybe the deer as well. It has been hot for us since Saturday, and will be until late Wednesday. View attachment 4204565

WOW - those are gorgeous! I didn't grow them this year. The Japanese beetles attack them by the hoardes here. Yours look so healthy

 

[dirkandlorie]

I’ve never grown either but I remember hearing that SMs are very prone to blight

I've always grown the Roma tomato for my sauce. Never a problem. This year I tried the san marzano, got hit by blight and it spread to my slicers, cucumbers, everything. To be fair, I got sick about the same time unable to go spray and treat the plants, so maybe it wouldn't have been so bad otherwise. But guaranteed next year I put the Roma's back in my garden!

 

[TJAnonymous]

I love dahlias... They are just gorgeous. But I've had little luck getting bulbs to overwinter. I've dug them up and tried leaving them in the ground. With a couple of exceptions, they've simply not made it through the winter here. I've pretty much accepted that I have to treat them as annuals.

 

[Minanora]

I'm looking into growing those next year, or maybe romas for salsa. No need to peel the tomatoes, so it doesn't matter that they're small, assuming we got enough.

What do people here think of SMs versus romas as paste tomatoes? I gave up on Amish Paste. I might try them again, but I'd like to see if other varieties do better for me.

I've had good luck with "Roma 3". SMs do well for me but the fruit is always pretty small. I prefer the improved roma. But I'm in zone 9b, and if my determinate tomatoes try to set fruit during a heat wave, I'm out of luck. So I try to just grow lots of indeterminate paste types. I also have root knot nematodes... Amish paste did good for me this year. Speckled Roman as well. Chili Verde is doing the best it's ever done this year. My own op paste is doing great, I will save seeds from it again this year.

 

[Minanora]

We were less than 5000$ to getting rid of 600$ a month payments and then he decided I need a new truck because he didn't like the scratch down the passenger side door. WTF, are you thinking. It got worse when our youngest daughter said Dad told me he only got it because you wanted it. OH H@@@ NO. I still don't like that truck. I miss my Xterra.

The main reason we're getting a "new" truck is because we need more towing capacity. I need bigger brakes, better gearing and to sell our truck while it's still a good truck for someone who tows lighter things.

I can't fully load our trailer and truck without being over capacity. I need at least 12,000 of towing capability to be comfortable loading to a full 10,000#. Sure, I could dish out the cash for bigger springs, and bigger brakes for our truck, but then I'd be worried about the differentials, transmission and camshafts.

I got peppers and tomatillos into the freeze dryer today. Watered the potted plants in the garden.

I got one of those brass impact driven sprinklers that hook onto the hose. Game changer. I can water much more area with less moving the hose. Which made it so the ground was soft enough to pull weeds. My hamstrings are toast from pulling weeds yesterday. I didn't realize I was out there doing squats for two hours. The blisters are recovering, neither of the bad ones popped and I left them alone long enough that they are shrinking quickly. Yay!

 

[Minanora]

Oh yeah and my chickens are molting. At least two are. I found so many feathers in one of their dust bath areas that I immediately went to count chickens to make sure I didn't lose one to a hawk. Then I looked in the coop... You'd think I'd never cleaned it because of all the feathers.