What did you do in the garden today?

[Acre4Me]

Tomorrow the sun makes its appearance. Rain for the past 5-6 days. In addition to this weird weather, the lows tonight and tomorrow night will be 51F and 53F!!!! It’s early August, so this is strange weather with days of rain and cool temps.

chicks: false alarm, I think they ship today. There is a tracking number bc they printed the label, but as of 9 pm last night they hadn’t been picked up at the hatchery, so they must ship today.

plan for today is to decide if I’m going to replant the potato bed with something or use clear plastic and create greenhouse effect to kill seeds, bug larvae in prep for next year. Then, I need to decide if I’m going to try to grow a new batch of cucumbers, small ones for pickling. there is at least 70 days before first frost, so I might have success in getting proper small cukes for pickles. Then there is some weeding that needs to occur.

 

[Sueby]

@karenerwin I hope you're feeling better today.

@Acre4Me strange weather indeed! We've had more 90 degree days already this year than we usually have all summer & it's only the beginning of August. We had tornados the other day & now this hurricane has put out more tornado warnings. Yet - I'm still missing all the rain!

I've been thinking about putting plastic down too to kill all the darn bugs I have. I'll have to google that. I don't want to do this again next year, somethings gotta help.

So everything's tied down or put in the shed. Tomatoes are tied up good (hopefully). The chickens feeds have all been moved inside. We culled mean girl yesterday, I didn't want to deal with it anymore & she was just never gonna get along no matter how hard I tried. I have a back doc appt today, the first time I've really gone anywhere since march & it's in the middle of the worst of this storm, of course!

Ok, have a great day all!

 

[Sueby]

Gosh it is hot! I picked butterbeans. Chickens were checking the garden out. I put a couple of worms that were on my plants right in front of them and they didn't touch it. So much for them being pest control.
So organic gardeners, little caterpillars are chewing up my leaves. I put out DE to see if that would help. I don't want to use pesticide in case any of my chickens decide to eat anything.
What else can I use?

I don't think a soap spray is going to help with the caterpillars, but I'm no expert. I think, like @Acre4Me said, you'll need the bt spray (or just keep picking them off by hand). Many of the bt's are certified organic. I struggle with spraying stuff in the garden, but you can do it organically & be successful. I know that just because it's organic it can still be harmful to certain critters, you just have to take care & follow the directions, like spray at night when pollinators aren't around or keep the chickens out till its dry. You inevitably will need to treat for some things or your garden will eventually be decimated. Especially if it's bigger - picking bugs by hand gets to be too much. Things like insecticidal soap, neem oil, copper fungicide can all be organic & are a great help if you read the label. JMHO & not that you asked me, but I thought I'd share because I struggle with it.

 

[Sueby]

Todays take from the garden, garlic is dried & 2 sungolds from the volunteer, picked a few san marz:

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Good morning gardeners. Hot and humid yesterday. Already had a shower move through this morning. What's left of Isaias will be moving through starting around noon today. Hopefully the wind is not too bad. It's just not been a good year for the garden. That is unless you are using tons of chemicals (I'm not talking about the organic stuff). I just can't do that. The whole point of raising vegetables is to have them chemical free. Next year I need to plan better for getting the bug repelling plants in the ground. I picked a zucchini this morning and a few small bell peppers. I had expected to pick 2 cucumbers, however all I found was one of the stems attached to the vine. I'm sure it was a squirrel. So no cukes today. There were 3 half ripe cherry tomatoes on the vine so I picked them. At least the squirrel won't get them. They will be fine in a couple of days. If I don't have enough cucumbers for a batch of pickles by the end of the week I will likely hit the farmstand down the road. Your yellow squash looks nice @Sueby. My yellow squash plant is not doing all that well. I am getting a zucchini nearly everyday though. Good luck with the chick shipment @Acre4Me. I did manage to get a couple of house plants transplanted yesterday. Not much else going on, just waiting for this tropical storm to pass through. Have a great day everyone.

 

[Acre4Me]

Good luck with the chick shipment @Acre4Me.

Thanks! I just checked tracking. they WERE shipped yesterday, but good 'ol USPS didn't update until HOURS after the package was received. So, 16 hours ago they arrived (Express) in MN, and no other updates. I think this will be the case where I get a call to get chicks and then hours later the tracking will be updated to say they are available for pickup, all the while the (hopefully alive) chicks will have been in my possession.

 

[MrLeeHo]

Picked a few tomatoes that I wouldve liked to have left on the vine another couple of days but thanks to all the rain from the hurricane they started splitting. One tomato fell off the vine presumably from the hard rain, was ripe enough to eat for lunch atleast. Main vine from the squash plant snapped from the downpour, it had about 6 squash growing on it...chicken food and compost now.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Morning gang will have to see started the day a bit late woke at 6
but did not get out of bed till 9.. Lost a cochin to the heat

 

[igorsMistress]

Thanks! I just checked tracking. they WERE shipped yesterday, but good 'ol USPS didn't update until HOURS after the package was received. So, 16 hours ago they arrived (Express) in MN, and no other updates. I think this will be the case where I get a call to get chicks and then hours later the tracking will be updated to say they are available for pickup, all the while the (hopefully alive) chicks will have been in my possession.

I had a similar experience recently. My eggs were supposed to arrive Friday, Wednesday I got the text they would delivered that day with no updates in between. Then I got the delivered text 2 hours after they were in my incubator.

 

[igorsMistress]

Good afternoon gardeners. I managed to get almost everything watered before work. Most of the succulents in pots on my patio have died from the heat even though they're in the shade I just don't have a place inside to put them that's safe from kids, dogs or bunnies so I'm giving up. Whatever doesn't make it isn't being replaced. No relief in sight from the heat and no rain in our forecast. Yesterday I put a block of ice in one of the wading pools for the chickens; by dusk the pool was completely dry so I waited until after work today to put one out. The chicks are growing so fast I'm worried they'll outgrow the brooder before the temps are cool enough to leave them outside. That's about it. I'm making taquitos for dinner, need to get busy. Stay safe and healthy everyone.