What did you do in the garden today?

[Sueby]

Double post and off topic.... baby has arrived! In less than an hour. Now we get some sleep, lol. Have a lovely day gardeners.

Oh CONGRATULATIONS! & Happy Birthday little one! That was a quick delivery, eh? Good for you.

Morning all. Henri shifted way east before hitting shore so we got the rain instead of the wind, thankfully. I've got to get out there & untie all the the plants that I tied way too tight. Pick some peppers & see if any of the tomatoes didn't split. & lots of beans to pick too.

 

[Sally PB]

I like it baked with butter in it. Would make a really nice pie I imagine.

That's the way I like B-nut. A little brown sugar if the squash are new; they get sweet by the time they've sat around for a couple months. They easily keep in my basement until December, even February, if I'm vigilant and watch for any soft/rotting spots.

They make a fantastic pie.

 

[littledog]

That's too bad if someone did that intentionally. I don't know how the farmer sets his machine for baling straw, but I too noticed a big weight difference in bales when I used to buy them years ago. Maybe OP should buy straw by the pound instead of by the bale to ensure consistent and adequate coverage. A half weight bale would only cover half the area of a full weight bale.

Just out of curiosity, after you had your learning experience, how did you buy straw bales after that to make sure you got a full bale and not a lightly packed fake bale?

I try to avoid buying hay or straw from the $$$ "Chip and Joanna" feed store, but occasionally I have to - at least the bales they sell tend to be a consistent weight so I know what I'm paying. When buying from local farmers, I nail them down to a specific price per ton, weigh 3 or 4 random bales to get an average and pay accordingly.
When buying from professional hay growers in Eastern Washington, they usually have a contract with their local scale, so we can weigh our trailer empty, go pick up the hay, come back to the scale and weigh our load, and pay whatever price they quoted per ton - and know that we are getting what we pay for.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Good morning gardeners. Did my walk around the garden this morning and all is well. No wind damage. Nothing much to pick. I dumped one of the remaining 5 gallon potato bags. Very disappointing, just three small potatoes. I think the 5 gallon bags are too small for potatoes. My peach tree made it through the storm (part 1, part 2 of the storm is scheduled for this afternoon) only one peach fell to the ground and that one is nearly ripe. I did a little weeding in the my cutting garden and picked a couple of zinnias. Yesterday I finally made the ravioli. Swiss chard, ricotta and mozzarella cheese tucked inside layers of freshly made pasta. All total weighed in just under two pounds of ravioli. They are now languishing in the deep freeze waiting for some homemade tomato sauce. The plan for the day is to work on my first batch of pickles. Call me boring but I just love the bread and butter pickle recipe out of my Joy of Cooking book. I still have leftover cheese filling and I'm tossing around the idea of making some tomato sauce and lasagna noodles and whipping that up for dinner. The next 3 days are going to be really hot so there won't be much outside work addressed. I will have some more peppers and okra to pick in the next day or two and the peaches are getting closer to harvesting. So it won't get boring around here for awhile. I wanted to give a shout out to those on this thread living in Tennessee. Hopefully you missed the awful flooding. Wishing you all affected my very best. Have a great day everyone.

 

[gtaus]

Anyway, if I had listened to my gut, she'd still be alive. smh.... That's 3 chickens in the past few weeks - 1 by fox, 1 by old age, and now 1 by accident.

Sorry for you loss. Hope things turn for the better.

 

[WIchickMama]

I cleaned up the watermelon vines, as it is too late for anything to start now. I have some tomato and cuke plants to clean up today and sunflowers to pull and hang for drying. getting to the end of the year--my freeze is packed with tomatoes for canning when I have more time. Gonna be hot and steamy the next couple days, most things should end here soon. I can't believe it is going to be Sept next week!? bring on the apples and pumpkins

 

[Birdsonghill]

Right now it's the only thing that kills bindweed. I use it only on the bindweed, and it still takes years. That stuff will kill a crop faster than anything and spreads like wildfire!

I remember they did when we lived up there, but I can't remember on what. You could SMELL it when it when they did it.

I was always worried about the defoliant they used down south when they sprayed the cotton plants. You wore that for DAYS when they sprayed. No IDEA what that stuff was. You could taste it. U

Growing them is easy. Threshing is a pain in the butt.

"Hull less" oats are available from Johnnie's Seeds. They are still some work
, but doable by most. My chickens like them and they make "green manure"/cover crop, planted with white clover or such. A bit expensive, though.

 

[Birdsonghill]

I escaped the flooding that was east of me. My heart goes out to the folks in the bad hit areas. The tragic loss of life , especially the babies , is heart breaking. We have had a lot of rain at my house! Now the sun has turned us into a steam bath! I am overwhelmed by the heat these days, and having helped my grandson with a fence installation, I exhausted myself. So now, I am trying to use the soaked ground, as an excuse, to stay in the AC more! Kidding ,aside, it is miserable outside and trying to get any work done is almost dangerous! 110 degree heat indexes nearby, sounds conservative to me! I picked the okra and that was enough at one trip! My chickens are appreciating the rapid growth of the new hops vine and bottle gourd over their run! Just, the morning sun is withering now, and the east side of the run, needed some summer shade in the AM hours. These are the moments in summer, I contemplate reducing my gardens, every year, lately! I am blessed with so much, that I can even waste time thinking about that. Best wishes for happy gardens and be sure and try and extend your season, with planting fall crops and over wintering spring crops, where and when you can. I know all you seasoned gardener's do, that are able!

 

[WthrLady]

"Hull less" oats are available from Johnnie's Seeds. They are still some work
, but doable by most. My chickens like them and they make "green manure"/cover crop, planted with white clover or such. A bit expensive, though.

I mentioned that, but the germination rate and disease rate is higher than regular oats and wheats.

 

[Birdsonghill]

I mentioned that, but the germination rate and disease rate is higher than regular oats and wheats.

correct on both accounts, as well as the price being higher... I can't keep up right now, so excuse me if I seem disjointed or a bit out of sync! I am slower than the pace of events for sure!