What did you do in the garden today?

Not sure that I will garden much today. Work meetings all afternoon until 5pm. If I do get out there, I need to check on the corn and probably pick a bunch of banana peppers. I still have banana peppers on the counter from days ago though. If I pick more I need to pickle them. I have tons of kale out there too. I should thin the leaves a bit. I don’t feel like eating it now though. Perhaps I will try to blanch and freeze it. I am considering some late plantings. I haven’t decided what though. I have about 60 days left. I would to plant frost hardy things to be safe. Ideas are welcome.
Try not pulling your kale. Keep the big leaves harvested before they get cruddy, if you don’t want to eat them feed some to your chickens or compost it. When the days and nights cool that’s when the kale will be the sweetest. It will produce until a very hard Frost. I realize you’re in a very different zone than I am, but those big plants will give you lots more sweet kale until they freeze out than replanting. I give them a good foot or more between plants, they get BIG and we have fresh kale most of the winter. It usually overwinters here, and when it starts regrowing in early spring to go to seed, the new shoots are the finest sweetest “broccoli” you’ll ever taste! Don’t feel guilty not wanting to eat it now, midsummer’s big kale leaves are why people don’t like it. Now is the time for summer squash and green beans tomatoes and cucumbers.
Sorry for the sermon, I have just come to love how generous kale is and it almost makes me cry when I see people rippin it out before it’s had a chance to be at its best. :oops: Carry on…:gig
 

@Swiss are you still in Michigan ?
Yes, still in the mitten!
Congrats on your move into your house. When I was in the service, at one point we moved so much that we had almost half our stuff in shipping boxes and never bothered to unpack them. It's nice to live somewhere where you can just unpack everything and stay awhile....
It's like Christmas! I don't remember us having so many mugs! And things I thought we still had that we don't. Shopping for new house stuff is simultaneously fun and stressful (because of the sheer amount of money being spent).

Congrats on finishing the move @Swiss! Yay!
Thanks! We are both really happy to be out in our own, again!
 
Try not pulling your kale. Keep the big leaves harvested before they get cruddy, if you don’t want to eat them feed some to your chickens or compost it. When the days and nights cool that’s when the kale will be the sweetest. It will produce until a very hard Frost. I realize you’re in a very different zone than I am, but those big plants will give you lots more sweet kale until they freeze out than replanting. I give them a good foot or more between plants, they get BIG and we have fresh kale most of the winter. It usually overwinters here, and when it starts regrowing in early spring to go to seed, the new shoots are the finest sweetest “broccoli” you’ll ever taste! Don’t feel guilty not wanting to eat it now, midsummer’s big kale leaves are why people don’t like it. Now is the time for summer squash and green beans tomatoes and cucumbers.
Sorry for the sermon, I have just come to love how generous kale is and it almost makes me cry when I see people rippin it out before it’s had a chance to be at its best. :oops: Carry on…:gig
I definitely am not gong to pull it. I just need to thin out the leaves a bit too increase airflow. I so feed extra kale leaves to the chickens and ducks. They love it. We don't even mind the taste of kale right now, but we have eaten it quite a bit recently so I have just grown tired of it temporarily. We did still end up having kale yesterday for dinner though as a salad with grilled chicken.

As for its growth habits, it certainly does grow large. We pick leaves from the bottom always, and it keeps growing and growing from the top. Our plants are at least a foot apart and planted in a block in a raised bed that gets afternoon and evening shade. They seem to be happy. Seeing I am in zone 5, I doubt the plants will survive all winter but I will look forward to the sweeter kale leaves come Fall and early winter. December and January are sure to freeze the plants will below their frost limit though, so we will not likely have the Spring growth you speak of.
 
@cavemanrich and others who responded to my request about the best way to take down a hung trunk/branch safely. Thanks for your comments. My task is completed, successfully, and I thought I would post some pictures.

Here is a shot of the tree where you can see tree trunk broke about 20 feet up from ground level. In this picture, I have already trimmed off all the lower branches and all that is left is about a 15 foot section of the tree trunk hanging from the top incomplete break.

20210727_192607.jpg


Definitely a widow maker there, the lowest portion of the tree trunk is about 8 inches wide and the portion where it is incomplete broken at the top of the tree was about 16 inches wide. So this was a very heavy, and dangerous, operation for me.

Here is a closeup of the top of the tree where the tree trunk had the incomplete break and was hanging on to the dangling trunk/branches below.

20210727_192717.jpg


So, taking the advice from the respondents, which was also my general plan, I threw a chain around the dangling portion of the hanging tree and used a second chain hooked up to my Explorer to give me a safe distance to pull the partially broken trunk/branches down.

I rocked it back and forth a couple times, as suggested, and it broke off completely the third tug.

20210727_193839.jpg


20210727_193946.jpg


Happy ending from this situation. Took me another hour to trim up the branches and buck up the trunk. I was completely soaked with sweat after the job because it was so hot and humid again today.

Anyway, that's the only thing I got accomplished today but it was a job well done. Again, thanks to those who offered some suggestions because it confirmed that my plan was pretty much in line with what others suggested.

:old I work alone, and when it comes to things that can literally kill you, I'm not too ashamed to ask for thoughts from others before I set off on the task.
 
Nice job @gtaus! My Dad had a tree accident when we were young, I have a healthy respect now.

I have 3 types: Dragon Tongue, a purple bush, and a green bush. The green bush bore first. The purple bush will probably have the most beans per plant, but I only have about 8 plants.

Dragon Tongue is by far my favorite. It has nice, big beans that are juicy, not tough. Since they're a mottled purple on yellow, they're easy to see. They may have been the latest to start, but not by much. I plan to save some seeds to plant next year, as well as planting some purchased seeds because I somehow ended up with 2 packets.
Good to year you opinion - I have Dragon Tongue in my cart right now so I'll def keep it there. I really do enjoy the purples but they aren't a whole heck of a lot easier to see on the vine (or bush)!

Next year (hopefully) I'll have the cattle panel arches up, 1 for beans & 1 for cukes. I plan on a ton of beans, as it is now we've eaten all I've picked & I really need to get some in the freezer. Once the blue lakes start producing I should be good.

Finally cooling off here a bit but still humid. & the smoke is lighter. Got a little rain overnight. I also have a couple brandywines starting to blush, yay! I can't remember if I got pink or red...
 
I definitely am not gong to pull it. I just need to thin out the leaves a bit too increase airflow. I so feed extra kale leaves to the chickens and ducks. They love it. We don't even mind the taste of kale right now, but we have eaten it quite a bit recently so I have just grown tired of it temporarily. We did still end up having kale yesterday for dinner though as a salad with grilled chicken.

As for its growth habits, it certainly does grow large. We pick leaves from the bottom always, and it keeps growing and growing from the top. Our plants are at least a foot apart and planted in a block in a raised bed that gets afternoon and evening shade. They seem to be happy. Seeing I am in zone 5, I doubt the plants will survive all winter but I will look forward to the sweeter kale leaves come Fall and early winter. December and January are sure to freeze the plants will below their frost limit though, so we will not likely have the Spring growth you speak of.
I’m in zone 5 also! I threw row cover over my kale the last two years. Year 1 as soon as it thawed in March, I could go out and eat the leaves, which was awesome! The foot of snow on top insulated it from the cold temps until it melted and we had a warmer week. Last year, I did the same, but a mouse or something must’ve gotten to it first as only the (alive) stems were there. It did grow back new leaves once it go warmer though. And the mouse did not touch the collard plants that were right next to the kale, so we had collards in very early spring at least!
 
Heading for feeling like 115 today.
The garden is pruned. I did notice the green beans are taking off like crazy. Did they grow at all in Spring like they're supposed to? Nope, they stayed 6 inches tall and did nothing. Now, they SHOULD be half dead in the heat and they're taking over the planet.
Cooling off and eating breakfast and then heading out to spray some copper on the tomato fungus.
 

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