What did you do in the garden today?

[chickmom3941]

Gardens looking great, picking tons of cukes and the zukes are producing now, yellow squash are about ready. Peas done, beans soon. Lots of kale (Love kale omelets) swiss chard almost ready to pick. Maters are getting huge but none ripe yet (mouth drooling in anticipation..)
For those like me usually over run with zucchini, my FIL chunked and pickled some last yr. They were surprisingly really good and crispy also.

Our zukes and yellow squash are starting to go gangbusters here, also. I made a yellow squash casserole last night, which went over surprisingly well. I'll probably make again several times since the YS are really kicking in. Tomatoes are starting to ripen, and the asst. peppers are getting pretty big - won't be too long till they're ready.
I haven't done much gardening the last couple days because of rain. Today I have to go to PT, so may not get much done today, either. We have a nice weather forecast for the coming week, though - yay!

 

[chickmom3941]

Variable weather makes for migraines for me, haven't been out to garden for almost a week. Working today, tomorrow I move rocks. Lots and lots of rocks. And water the plants.

Sorry to hear about the migraines. I've never had one, but even a regular headache can really put on a hurtin'. Glad you're feeling better! Please don't overdo it with the rocks!

 

[NorthTexasWink]

Morning sweet peeps! I've been up and about, but not liking it this morning. My old bones are creakin' and joints are poplin' something fierce!

Cap, your tomatoes look like mine after getting all that rain. We call it early blight around here. It is fungal, spreads in the water both outside and inside the plants. One of the reasons you don't water from above (wetting the foliage) or use dirty pruners (spreading the contaminated plant juices). Eventually it kills the plants and messes up the fruit too. Tomatoes are hit hardest, and durnes if I've ever found anything that helps. Most other plants that get it can stay ahead of it enough to keep producing till the season ends anyway.

Watered, harvested, got the biddies outside, getting ready to feed HE, and got errands today. Please have a happy productive day folks!

 

[Beer can]

Morning sweet peeps! I've been up and about, but not liking it this morning. My old bones are creakin' and joints are poplin' something fierce!

Cap, your tomatoes look like mine after getting all that rain. We call it early blight around here. It is fungal, spreads in the water both outside and inside the plants. One of the reasons you don't water from above (wetting the foliage) or use dirty pruners (spreading the contaminated plant juices). Eventually it kills the plants and messes up the fruit too. Tomatoes are hit hardest, and durnes if I've ever found anything that helps. Most other plants that get it can stay ahead of it enough to keep producing till the season ends anyway.

Watered, harvested, got the biddies outside, getting ready to feed HE, and got errands today. Please have a happy productive day folks!

I started using liqued copper fungicide on our tomatoes after losing a whole crop to late blight yrs ago. I usually only have to apply it a few times unless we're getting tons of rain.
Home Depot has it.
Edited to add pic,

If you want to give it a try I recommend getting the southern ag stuff it's concentrated, enough for 50gals I think. The ready to spray stuff is a ripoff $$ and won't go far if you have a lot of big plants.
I use a pump sprayer, easy to apply fine mist covering tops and bottoms of leaves. Comes in handy also for applying organic thuricide to kill cabbage loopers on broccoli cauliflower cabbage kale etc.

 

[NanaKat]

Sounds like everyone has been really busy!!! Baking, gardening, building and caring for the critters.
It has been a busy few days here. After taking the neighbors skin and bones cow to the vet...found out she has Anaplazmosis. Her calf was born early and if she doesn't make it, I will raise the tiny heifer. The vet recommended vaccinating his whole herd. We helped run those cows thru the chutes on Tuesday morning. The calf is getting a little milk from mom every few hours. At 21 days, she should be getting 1/2 gallon each feeding and nursing three times a day. So I'm taking a formula bottle to her every morning to supplement and get her ready for bottle feeding...just in case.
In the garden, we have seen three speckled Kingsnakes....I convinced hubby to leave them be because the field mice and a rat are getting into my cukes and cantaloups. The bull snake and kingsnake we found in the brooder room and the hen house both were dispatched. Once they find an easy source of food, they continue to hunt there. Hen's eggs in both of them.

So far the garden is growing and producing. Spider mites are on the cukes so will be spraying them and will hit one bed of tomatoes again. Cleared them on the other three beds of tomatoes with Malathion when the Pylorum and Soapshield didn't get them. I use Benomyl for fungus on tomatoes and squash....more natural is 1/2 c powdered milk and 4 tsp baking soda mixed with water in a sprayer with a tsp of blue Dawn per gallon of water.

We grow a bamboo that makes great garden stakes each year....some are long enough for fishing cane poles.

I'm working on raising the height of the fences on my chicken pens and will be adding a span of 1" chicken wire across the tops of all pens since an owl has decided to make forays into the pens with shade cloth covers. It is 108 - 110 degrees heat factor the past few days so the work has been slow going. I'm using PVC pipe with fittings added to the tops of the T-posts to hang the 24 inch wide chicken wire and will figure out how to support the 6 foot wide stuff with wire or fencing poles.....

Should be getting a little chance of rain as the heat dome moves west of us...hopefully...our pastures and ponds need the rain. At least it will move the temperatures down to the 90s.

I've been falling asleep in the recliner each evening with a bowl of elderberries that I'm pulling off the umbrels to make jelly juice. The stems make the juice bitter so I take the time to pick each berry off .... I get so relaxed watching tv and cleaning the berries that I start snoozing.

Going out to tend the birds and work on the fencing. Need to let the ducks out into the garden again to help with the weeding.

Everyone have a great day!

 

[Taote]

Hope you feel better soon. Hugs. How did the sale go? I did not kill the snake, it was just doing what snakes do. My fault. I will relocate him tomorrow.

Sale went well (our table was pretty bare at the end), still down from migraine and overdoing it.

We don't kill snakes as a rule unless they're poisonous. We have a large king snake we allow to stay on the property. John has relocated a few black rat snakes.

But I'm not sure how I'd handle it if we came home to a massacre.

 

[igorsMistress]

Sorry to hear about the migraines. I've never had one, but even a regular headache can really put on a hurtin'. Glad you're feeling better! Please don't overdo it with the rocks!

Thanks. Some are worse than others for sure.

No way on over doing. I'm paying the grandkids to help. They want money, they're going to earn it. Never too early for that

 

[chickmom3941]

Thanks. Some are worse than others for sure.

No way on over doing. I'm paying the grandkids to help. They want money, they're going to earn it. Never too early for that

Oh, absolutely! The grandkids have LOTS of energy, and no achy, creeking bones - lol. When our grandkids came to visit a few years ago, they were a great help in the garden. They loved it, and me & hubby's backs were thrilled!

 

[chickmom3941]

Sounds like everyone has been really busy!!! Baking, gardening, building and caring for the critters.
It has been a busy few days here. After taking the neighbors skin and bones cow to the vet...found out she has Anaplazmosis. Her calf was born early and if she doesn't make it, I will raise the tiny heifer. The vet recommended vaccinating his whole herd. We helped run those cows thru the chutes on Tuesday morning. The calf is getting a little milk from mom every few hours. At 21 days, she should be getting 1/2 gallon each feeding and nursing three times a day. So I'm taking a formula bottle to her every morning to supplement and get her ready for bottle feeding...just in case.
In the garden, we have seen three speckled Kingsnakes....I convinced hubby to leave them be because the field mice and a rat are getting into my cukes and cantaloups. The bull snake and kingsnake we found in the brooder room and the hen house both were dispatched. Once they find an easy source of food, they continue to hunt there. Hen's eggs in both of them.

So far the garden is growing and producing. Spider mites are on the cukes so will be spraying them and will hit one bed of tomatoes again. Cleared them on the other three beds of tomatoes with Malathion when the Pylorum and Soapshield didn't get them. I use Benomyl for fungus on tomatoes and squash....more natural is 1/2 c powdered milk and 4 tsp baking soda mixed with water in a sprayer with a tsp of blue Dawn per gallon of water.

We grow a bamboo that makes great garden stakes each year....some are long enough for fishing cane poles.

I'm working on raising the height of the fences on my chicken pens and will be adding a span of 1" chicken wire across the tops of all pens since an owl has decided to make forays into the pens with shade cloth covers. It is 108 - 110 degrees heat factor the past few days so the work has been slow going. I'm using PVC pipe with fittings added to the tops of the T-posts to hang the 24 inch wide chicken wire and will figure out how to support the 6 foot wide stuff with wire or fencing poles.....

Should be getting a little chance of rain as the heat dome moves west of us...hopefully...our pastures and ponds need the rain. At least it will move the temperatures down to the 90s.

I've been falling asleep in the recliner each evening with a bowl of elderberries that I'm pulling off the umbrels to make jelly juice. The stems make the juice bitter so I take the time to pick each berry off .... I get so relaxed watching tv and cleaning the berries that I start snoozing.

Going out to tend the birds and work on the fencing. Need to let the ducks out into the garden again to help with the weeding.

Everyone have a great day!

Sounds like you've been very busy, as well. So the disease that your neighbor's momma cow has, is it really serious? Is she going to be okay?

 

[CapricornFarm]

So sorry to hear about your guineas, Cap. How sad! I assume they were young ones? I haven't seen even one snake since we bought our house (about 5 years ago). We do have garter snakes in MN, but haven't seen any here. Our dog is pretty good at catching anything inside the fencing. He has killed several rabbits and mice, and even a few rats from the field. He's a rescue mutt, but looks like he may have some Jack Russell in him - he's a great hunter!

The guinea keets were hatched July 11th. So young, but not babies. Thanks, i was upset all last night. Then this morning i discover something ate my petunias last night. I had lost some bean plants, so the garden is fenced. But the flower beds are not. This place is full of deer. Some of the plants were pulled right up by the roots so i figure deer did it but could be rabbits.
Back out to do more painting. Hope the rain holds off.
Hope Jen is feeling better.