What did you do in the garden today?

[WthrLady]

Wow! Thats early! One district here won't start until Sept 7. My kid's school starts in 2 weeks, which is more typical of this area. .

public school starts here next Monday.

 

[Elyrian1]

Everywhere around here is packed with back-to-school shoppers. Totally crowded, crammed to the gills at the mall and Walmart. I went for a haircut, and had to wait in line for a bit behind about five kids getting their hair cut for school. I'm glad I don't have school age kids, but we're not planning on sending ours to a regular school anyway. So I buy clothes when DS needs them, replace shoes as they wear out, cut hair as it gets shaggy... No waiting for some magical weekend in August to get it all done means I get better deals too. To each their own, of course.

Plants are... not happy. It's 100F outside and feels every bit like it. I'll water in a bit, need to do some light weeding this evening too. A wild amaranth is trying to choke out my grapes and I'm not happy about it. The wild amaranth around here gets about 7 feet tall though. Very impressive.

 

[Birdsonghill]

IT being Sunday, I have done no garden work today. but will likely check the water, insect and overall garden needs late today and plan for tomorrow. Yesterday I picked two bushels of crowder peas, one bushel of barlotto bean ( Myself and a friend shelled peas and beans till midnight last night!), 12 asst. melons, half a bushel of cayenne peppers, a peck of Tennessee cheese peppers, a peck of jalapenos, a peck of heirloom bell peppers, almost a peck of Santa Fe and Anaheim chiles, 7 eggplants (Rosa Bianca and Rosita), a peck of mixed cucumbers, a few heirloom zucchini, a few carrots and several baskets of herbs(basil, thyme, Italian parsley and a bit of dill). Whew, I am still worn out and I had some help for a while! The almost 90% humidity and temps in the mid 90's made it a miserable job, but the food security is good and the flavor of homegrown is best! I hope I can continue for several more years!

 

[WthrLady]

Our Florida Schools were all year around, so fall sesssion started July 10th-ish.
Garden doesn't look the worse for wear. (yay for wind mitigation)

Steamy outside today, will feel like 108 tomorrow and then stormy again.
2.67 inches of rain in two hours last night, we're good for a while, but more is OK as well. The corn is in full swing, so water doesn't last in the fields for long.

Heading to the kitchen to start processing chicken. (Batch one is cooling in the pressure canner)
20 pounds of trimmed breasts are in a large pan in the oven I'll shred that to can, some quart, some pints.

I picked up some pizza sauce and salsa mix to try on these tomatoes sitting on the counter.

Still haven't wandered to the garden to check for damage, but it looks ok from the house. the 10 foot plus sunflowers are still standing anyway.

 

[Birdsonghill]

Growing the food is just the start of the work! I need a kitchen "drudge" to help me! I am fortunate in having a grandson (27 years old) that helps me fairly often and a young man in his late thirties, that is sort of an "intern"(learning gardening/homesteading skills), that helps sometimes with garden and processing work. The 18 hour days can get tough on an old person. I have cut my gardens in half and got rid of my horse, sheep flock and goats, already. My wife is totally not into food gardening work or cooking, but she appreciates my producing food and my hard work. Maybe my great grandsons will be gardeners and come help sometimes soon. As I slow down, the weeds speed up , it seems! Here is a few pictures from this spring and last year, sorry no new pictures this summer, yet!

 

[pennyJo1960]

I was certain this was Saturday called being retired I guess

 

[Sally PB]

Today was in the upper 80s, but the humidity was oppressive. I picked the beans and put them in the fridge so they'll stay nice and crisp for snipping tomorrow afternoon. I was soaked with sweat by the end of the first row. A breeze would have been nice...

Tonight, I cooked up some of our potatoes in my brand new air fryer. I can see that that is going to be a hit. No more 45 minutes for our favorite taters, and we can also have them when it's, well, mid 80s and oppressively humid, because we don't use the oven on days like today.

 

[TJAnonymous]

I'm losing the war with the squash bugs. Once they killed all my curcubits outside the hoop house, they attacked them all inside. I had 1 yellow squash, 1 spaghetti squash, and 2 pickling cucumbers left. This morning I realized 1 of the cukes was in a wilted, dead heap on the ground. This evening I went about my daily rounds catching & killing squash bugs and clearing out any eggs I find. I must have captured 2 DOZEN adults & large juveniles. I sprayed dozens more with neem oil and also squashed countless nymphs by hand. But removing eggs was the worst.... There were so many that I just started tearing holes in the leaves instead of trying to gently remove them without damaging the plants. And I also found eggs ALL OVER the place aside from the plants. They are laying eggs on the hoop house netting, on my tomatoes, on the runner bean leaves, on flowers, everywhere!

Words cannot describe how frustrated I am.

 

[Acre4Me]

I'm losing the war with the squash bugs. Once they killed all my curcubits outside the hoop house, they attacked them all inside. I had 1 yellow squash, 1 spaghetti squash, and 2 pickling cucumbers left. This morning I realized 1 of the cukes was in a wilted, dead heap on the ground. This evening I went about my daily rounds catching & killing squash bugs and clearing out any eggs I find. I must have captured 2 DOZEN adults & large juveniles. I sprayed dozens more with neem oil and also squashed countless nymphs by hand. But removing eggs was the worst.... There were so many that I just started tearing holes in the leaves instead of trying to gently remove them without damaging the plants. And I also found eggs ALL OVER the place aside from the plants. They are laying eggs on the hoop house netting, on my tomatoes, on the runner bean leaves, on flowers, everywhere!

Words cannot describe how frustrated I am.

we hate squash bugs too!!

they are multiplying now -seeing more than earlier in the season. The cucumber beetles cause us a lot of grief-can’t hardly grow more than a few cucumbers before the entire plants wilt. We have tried many varieties.

it is very frustrating when a bug can have such a big impact!

 

[TJAnonymous]

we hate squash bugs too!!

they are multiplying now -seeing more than earlier in the season. The cucumber beetles cause us a lot of grief-can’t hardly grow more than a few cucumbers before the entire plants wilt. We have tried many varieties.

it is very frustrating when a bug can have such a big impact!

I haven't really seen but a couple cucumber beetles this year. I have seen some that look like cucumber beetles, only red instead of yellow? I don't think they are ladybugs because they are more oval shaped than round?

However I tried to load up on companion plants this year - Dill, nasturtium, marigolds, primarily.... Those are supposed to attract good predators who would eat squash bugs....

They must not have gotten the notice at my place because I'm OVERRUN!

After the season is over, I'm going to pile up all the wood mulch I used into the center of the garden and burn it. That ought to kill any pests that might be wintering in it. Then I can mix the ashes in....