What did you do in the garden today?

[TJAnonymous]

pigs or wild boars are another option. if I don't feed them in the evening they would eat any night intruder, lol.

I can google anything here. unfortunately we don't have real government.

Definitely an effective means of deterrence

 

[esturtz27]

Raised beds and square foot gardening allow you to grow a lot in a small space. After seeing the price increase with inflation this year, I am so happy to have food available outside my back door. DH is actually thinking of making a hoop greenhouse for me so we can extend our season. The kids are older so they don’t need the grass as a play space anymore. Hatching & growing chicks will be an alternative for meat for us (even if broilers are not available, smaller meat is still edible meat), we just bought a 1/2 steer for the fall & winter, and DH will be in hunting season soon. I am canning & freezing more than usual this year, and have a few extra bags of flour stored. Three local feed mills within 15 minutes to get chicken feed as needed, although we prefer one over the other two, food is food in a pinch. Hopefully it won’t get to that, but we are ready nonetheless. Just gotta figure out the gas bill…I don’t want to drive anymore.

This is almost exactly what we are doing this year...except I've got an 18 month old strapped to my back when I garden or he's picking with Me . I'm keeping about 20lb of mixed flours, and since the bakers in my life (auntie and uncle own a bakery) have been whispering about yeast shortages I've been getting good with my sourdough start.

 

[TJAnonymous]

I’d have a heck of a time catching my chickens! I’d have to grab them off the roost at night and then stash them some place until morning. Maybe put them in a portable dog crate.

Exactly.... Lol. Carrying them is the easy part... Lol.

 

[esturtz27]

So can we all get a clifford ?

I have one he's just 120lb Bloodhound

He does eat tomatoes...and blackberries...and sometimes pumpkins

 

[WthrLady]

Good morning gardeners. I’ve watered this morning except for the largest shrubs and the grass so far. I need to water outside the wall but it’s too dark to see in the shed and it’s a disaster.

@WthrLady I want to see Clifford when he changes too! We have a house lizard named Jerry.

I swear he doubled in size overnight.
I didn't see any litter mates in the grapes this morning when I harvested him some fresh leaves. I will move him to a larger jar next week.

Grabbed a handful of Marzanos and a couple of cosmonauts this morning. I have to keep reminding myself that I am about 3 weeks behind schedule for harvest due to our weird spring and brutal summer stunt.

The sweet potato vines are looking ragged and we're still aways from September harvest. They like heat, but phew...I get it boys...it's been tough.

 

[Elyrian1]

My cherry tomato plant won't set fruit. Poor thing. I think it's been too hot. We've been between 96 and 106 for over a month now. Sunday (98F) MAY be our last super hot day of the year. Mid-August, so the timing is right. It's also time now for end of August rain storms, so we'll see what happens. I need to get DH and his truck down to the nursery this weekend and pick up a couple bags of compost. They have mushroom, cotton bur, chicken, and cow compost. I'm tempted to mix a bag of each together and throw in some peat moss or perlite and use that to top the garden beds for fall planting. I still have a ridiculous amount of hay left over from TSC giving us the loose stuff from the delivery trailer, but it's also getting to be the right time of year to ask the local feed stores about straw.

Finally feel completely recovered from the covid, other than a nagging cough. But that's just me. I do that for a week or two after being sick no matter what the heck it is. Slightly vulnerable lungs I guess.

I also, the other evening, planted a poor Russian sage plant that had been stuck in a pot for over a week while we were sick. I got it 50% off at Lowe's, so about $8. They had a lot of Russian sage that looked fine and was half off. It was just at the end of its blooming season and the flower stem bits were dying back so they thought the plants were done for. Now I have two in the ground. Fingers crossed they make it and come back next year, because pollinators love them. They had a handful of flowers when I brought them home and all the little pollinators came out in force to cover them.

Now back to the regularly scheduled programming. It's watering and chicken feeding time.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Just checked the extended forecast.... WOOOOHOOOO! High of 82?!?! Heck yeah!

 

[Acre4Me]

Sweet potato flower!! Looks like only 1 variety had buds/blooms, and not many at that.

Anyone know what this caterpillar is? Don’t recall ever seeing one like this. It was on the soybeans - on the plant leaf, not on the ground. I removed the leaf and placed it on the ground to get a pic.

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

Sweet potato flower!! Looks like only 1 variety had buds/blooms, and not many at that.
View attachment 3220489

Anyone know what this caterpillar is? Don’t recall ever seeing one like this. It was on the soybeans - on the plant leaf, not on the ground. I removed the leaf and placed it on the ground to get a pic.

View attachment 3220493

Yeah that's the same worm eating my tomatoes! Common to corn and other stuff as well...armyworm I think is its name

 

[high5]

So…the rain was supposed to start at 7am…pushed to noon…pushed to 2…quickly picked up the garden supplies at 1:30 when wind & thunder started & I felt a couple of huge drops…still nothing…Forecast has rain for the next 6 days, waiting for that to change to zero days as seems par for the course. If we get nothing I will water in the morning.

I know the feeling! We're supposed to get rain tomorrow, but I won't hold my breath. Been through this scenario a few times now. They're saying that water levels are at crisis point, but farmers are still gushing it onto the corn.

Do you ever get the feeling that you're being played around with?