What did you do in the garden today?

[Smokerbill]

I forgot to mention that 2 of the tire beds I've been growing potatoes in have died. I looked closer at the remaining beds and they appear to be infested with Colorado Potato Beetles. I haven't been home to pick them off... We ARE taking a day off from packing up my mom's house tomorrow so maybe I'll have a chance to play catch up in the garden. I wonder if Neem works on potato bugs?

Back in the 70's I farmed a few acres of potatoes with my grandpa. The previous year, 100# sacks of potatoes were going for $11, which was great in those days. So we decided to make some money.

As the potatoes grew, they became infested with Colorado potato beetles. Grandpa had the fix. He pulled out a bottle of DDT, mixed up a 55 gallon barrel and we sprayed the potato patch. Killed every beetle, and probably every other living insect unfortunately.

We also sprayed around the foundation of his house, which probably kept it pest free for years to come.

I don't know if DDT was still legal at the time, but even if it was it was potent stuff that shouldn't have been used, for many reasons.

Anyway, I guess karma got the best of us. Seems everyone planted potatoes that year because of the previous year's high prices. The going rate for the potatoes we grew was only $1 per 100 pound bag.

Karma can suck. LOL

 

[Paz]

I think this video is a promotional scam, its impossible for egg plant cutting to grow bananas. However, he has another video where he plants egg plant cuttings into cut carrot tops and pollinate some flowers with a white round egg plant and white egg plant grow out of the flowers. In addition, the cut carrot tops turn into whole carrots.

The aubergine would stay the same until the next generation. The carrot tops wouldn’t grow back if there are plants using them as growing medium. They would take all the nutrients and crush the carrot top.
The aubergine he planted in the carrots must have been white to begin with.

 

[CNJ]

The aubergine would stay the same until the next generation. The carrot tops wouldn’t grow back if there are plants using them as growing medium. They would take all the nutrients and crush the carrot top.
The aubergine he planted in the carrots must have been white to begin with.

The plant produced long black egg plant, but he took a flower from a round white egg plant and pollinated some flowers on the long black egg plant and it fruited white. After harvest, he pulled out the plant and the cut carrot root top grew into a whole carrot.

 

[abmung]

Today at the garden area I water my plants and work on my compost.

 

[chickengr]

got a few more melons, watermelons and cucumbers. going to plant them later.

 

[Acre4Me]

a total of three opossum babies were caught, and I doubt we will get a forth, but we’ll see.

Starting to work on the last section of run fence that needs to be replaced. Another gate needs to be built too. Looking forward to having it all done.

The persimmon trees (2 varieties) are growing very well. Their leaves look different from each other, so this should be attractive when they grow larger.

Weather looks to be cooler this week. Mostly mid 70s to low 80s. So hopefully we don’t need to water quite as often. With this last heat wave we were watering daily.

We have one broody girl! She’s been on eggs for about 20 days, so we might see chicks within the next few days!! Hopefully the eggs were fertile. I’ll definitely post pics of there are babies!!

 

[LifeSimpleAndSweet]

I forgot to mention that 2 of the tire beds I've been growing potatoes in have died. I looked closer at the remaining beds and they appear to be infested with Colorado Potato Beetles. I haven't been home to pick them off... We ARE taking a day off from packing up my mom's house tomorrow so maybe I'll have a chance to play catch up in the garden. I wonder if Neem works on potato bugs?

I wonder about putting a little fence around the potato plants and putting several chickens inside. Would they clean the plants for you?

 

[fuzzi]

Sorry - excessively long post!

I haven't been in the garden much this last week, so not a lot to report.
I lost my friend this morning. She was the only resident at my place of work who was actually my friend. I will miss her greatly. But her suffering is over and I know that she is with the Lord God. I will see her again.

For months, I have been dealing with water issues. My bill has steadily increased, the water company insisting I must have a leaky toilet. I did, but not THAT leaky. It was fixed, the bill kept going up. They said, well it must be because it wasn't fixed until a week after the meter was read. On and On.

Yesterday I got a whopper. What used to be a 22.50 a month water bill, had at first gone up to 35 in Feb., 45 in Mar, 55 in April, and I was hit with 130 dollars yesterday. Said I'd used 25 thousand gallons this month. Um.... no. I should still be at 22 bucks.

They said, good luck finding that old water leak. Bye! So I contact my landlord contact, and turns out he is on his deathbed and I end up talking to his wife, who knows nothing, I'm then passed to her sister (the actual owner of the place I rent) who is beside herself with barking orders at hospital staff while I am trying to apologize for bothering them at this awful time (which I had no idea of until I called.)

Then the husband of the owner calls me and wants to know what I want to do about it... I said I have no idea what to do, except the woman at the water company suggested I talk to another family member. So... I'm grateful for Nathan, a 45-year-old member of the family who lives across the street and ended up with the task of figuring out and repairing the leak.

All of this while the meter is spinning. Nathan left me a tool to turn it off until he could get there. I'm off all night and all this morning at my jobs. I went to turn it off and the entire water meter hole was full of water and pumping more out into the creek.

Anyway, Nathan thinks he found the leak and is off getting supplies. Thinks I'll have water again this evening. And all of this while his yard maintenance customers go without. I know this is setting him back. On top of it all, he thinks he has a few big round bales of old hay I can use for mulch when he can get to it in a few days. I'm to remind him if he forgets.

These really are wonderful neighbors and landlords, but this was a perfect storm of a series of unfortunate events. Call me Lemony Snicket.

Happily, I have four days off. Here is the project I just completed for my yard swing. I'm really happy with it. It cost more than I wanted, but it will give me so much joy from use. Lowe's has been seriously short of a lot of things I need lately and they didn't have any galvanized hooks. I hope these little black cup holder hooks last long enough for me not to regret using them. It's still tacky, but I enjoy imagining my drink and book there while I swing when it's dry.

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I also decided to open the gate from the chicken run for the first time and let the flock free range. I'd not been gone 90 seconds and when I walked back, a hawk was screaming, flying across the pond, and landing in the tree about 20 feet away from the chickens. I'm going, "HERE, CHICK, CHICK, CHICK, CHICK!!!!!" and throwing food into the pen in a desperate attempt to get them back in before all heck breaks loose. I was successful, but seriously!!! That was the fastest arrival of a chicken hawk I'd ever seen! So much for free-ranging! I need a chicken tunnel to roll across 5 acres. Like I need something else to do.

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I like your drink holder. I don't think it's tacky. If someone else thinks so...who cares if it makes YOU happy?

 

[jerryse]

A few degrees cooler today. I did not do much yesterday as I did not feel well. The heat I suspect. I have a few tomato plants starting to bloom. Everything is growing well.

 

[Nomadicus]

Back in the 70's I farmed a few acres of potatoes with my grandpa. The previous year, 100# sacks of potatoes were going for $11, which was great in those days. So we decided to make some money.

As the potatoes grew, they became infested with Colorado potato beetles. Grandpa had the fix. He pulled out a bottle of DDT, mixed up a 55 gallon barrel and we sprayed the potato patch. Killed every beetle, and probably every other living insect unfortunately.

We also sprayed around the foundation of his house, which probably kept it pest free for years to come.

I don't know if DDT was still legal at the time, but even if it was it was potent stuff that shouldn't have been used, for many reasons.

Anyway, I guess karma got the best of us. Seems everyone planted potatoes that year because of the previous year's high prices. The going rate for the potatoes we grew was only $1 per 100 pound bag.

Karma can suck. LOL

In the late 40's I walked behing my grandpa in his fields that he worked from start to finish with a mule. He never owned a tractor. My uncle made movies of me walking behind him as he cranked on a backpack duster filled with DDT. Vegetables had top be pretty and clean or now one would buy them. A couple of years later in another state a neighbor left a mixed up batch of liquid DDT for me to stumble upon and I drank it. Parents to me to the hospital and got my stomach pumped. Now over 70 years later consumers all to often think by paying a much higher price for vegetable labeled organic that they have not been sprayed with anything. Sad news is it just has often been spray with a new and improved insecticide approved by the same people that once approved DDT. At least one of the new ones requires a special type of respirator to be worn by the applicator. I learned a lot when I took and EPA certifications class for applicators long ago to become a certified operator and passed it but never got a license as EPA was ripping people off that wanted to do things right. There are things right now on the market that should not be allow to be used today as the toxic level it has on bees. I get riled real easy when I walk down the aisle where the box stores have it out and anyone can buy it and misuse it raking havoc on our food chain.