What did you do in the garden today?

[chickengr]

something ate new cucumber seedlings I planted recently. no trace of them. so I sowed a few seeds of some salad cucumbers around my trees in the orchard. hope no garden pests there and vines will provide some shade for the young trees. I also planted around the trees some muscade de provence pumpkins, yellow zucchini and black turtle beans. they have enough room, sun and water as I have an irrigation line there. I have to check if there are some purple potatoes to dig as the plants died. I never checked if they bloomed. I planted them down the hill where I rarely go.

 

[Sally PB]

I have a bean question, I know @Acre4Me is very knowledgable on this subject. The black turtle beans are really producing a lot. I planned on letting them dry on the bush but I’m concerned about bugs eating them. Should I just pick them and dry in my dehydrator?

I hope she answers too, as I'm not sure I'm doing it the best way.

What I've done in the past was let the pods stay on the vines until they were crispy dry, then pick them. I shell the beans, then finish drying them in the dehydrator, as they need to be totally dry so I can put them in storage and not have them rot/mold.

I haven't had to worry about bugs eating them. The bugs I've seen are interested in the leaves.

I don't know how early you can pick the pods and have the beans be done developing. That would be a good thing to know, for sure!

 

[chickengr]

Good morning gardeners. Thankfully the power cam back on between 10:30 and 11 last night. It was really hot. I ordered a battery operated fan last night. It will arrive later today. I have a bean question, I know @Acre4Me is very knowledgable on this subject. The black turtle beans are really producing a lot. I planned on letting them dry on the bush but I’m concerned about bugs eating them. Should I just pick them and dry in my dehydrator?

not an expert at all but I believe beans have to ripen before being picked. when the shell starts drying you might pick whole plant and let it ripen for a while.

waiting to hear from the experts as I would like to learn this as well.

 

[Liz Birdlover]

Good morning, it's still hot & dry here, no storm, no rain, only lightning all night long. The flashes made their way into my dreams. Dreamt it was back in the 70s at my grandma's, aunts, uncles & cousins (all long deceased now) busy getting a Sunday early dinner ready, a pleasant summer breeze blows white curtain sheers & fills the room with scents of Gardenia...then some fat uncle starts taking photos with that big ole camera with the bulb...you know the ones we only see in old movies now. You see spots for a good hour after that thing blinds ya. So yeah, I wake up & realize those flashes were actually lightning & it's the middle of the night in 2024. I smiled, remembering family times, hugs, cousins playing jacks, hopscotch or giggling while racing a slinky down the steps, grandma's awesome homemade cooking & picking tomatoes & figs from her garden, & drift off back to sleep. Miss y'all so much.

I'm looking forward to picking figs in the morning.

 

[Sueby]

I think I may have learned a good thing about garlic.

1. Add compost to the bed and work it in before planting garlic in the fall. I already knew this, but will just mention it.
2. When the plants are about 6" tall in the spring, sprinkle some blood meal around the bed.

My Music garlic usually has 4 big/huge cloves per head. Occasionally 5 cloves per head. This year, most have 5, and several heads have 6 and 7 cloves! Not all are the huge ones, but still! I will be using blood meal on my garlic next year, and also my multiplier onions. Maybe the EWOs too.

I used blood meal on my garlic this year because I had to spring plant & I think it helped tremendously. Could be the reason I actually have decent bulbs!

Haven't been out to the garden yet. Been doing laundry and dishes. Fed and watered the dogs and chickens. Got some chicken wings out for dinner tonight don't know what to make with it yet but oh well I will figure it out later, all of this thinking is giving me a headache

I had chicken wings last night too. & a side of sliced cucumbers. Because...well...I have to have cucumbers for breakfast lunch & dinner from now on.

I was finally able to get into the cucumber bed & pick some. Sheesh, out of control. Thankfully this batch of suyo long cukes appear to be parthenocarpic so me being away last week didn't matter.

I have quite a few spaghetti squash growing, the female flowers are now shriveling up before opening so I'm guessing it thinks it has enough fruit to handle. Is that a thing?

Fed the chickens 3 hornworms today. Will have to go out tonight with the black light, I'm sure there are more. I hate touching those things, even with gloves, they creep me out how well they hold on. I'm scared I'll squish one puling it off & it will spew green guts all over me.

 

[Sueby]

Oh & my melon plants already have bacterial wilt - they don't even have fruit yet. Stupid cucumber beetles. Debating on trying under cover next year or just giving up on melons.

 

[chicken opey]

I’m trying to reclaim some of my planters that had fire ants in them! I hate than so much. I also realized that this one needs some paint and work on it.
I transplanted my lavender. Here goes my millionth try to grow them.
This is a wild currant tomato secured to telephone pole w a wild morning glory. The chickens and birds love these tomatoes or I would have burned them to ground for tricking me the first year of starting tomatoes (I thinned out the ones I planted and left these which were evidently in soil)

Loofah overtaking greenhouse. Dh asked me if I wanted him to clean it out and I said no - let’s see what it does w no water and a teaspoon of soil

 

[Minanora]

Oh & my melon plants already have bacterial wilt - they don't even have fruit yet. Stupid cucumber beetles. Debating on trying under cover next year or just giving up on melons.

Never give up! Never surrender!

I put mine on a trellis this year and it made a huge difference. I actually have fruit and not a wilty floppy waste of time. It's my first time getting to see growing fruit on my cantaloupe and honeydew. 9 years of trying, finally got it. Still not mature though. Hopefully we get there!

 

[TJAnonymous]

Working on breaking my broody 23 week old....

I picked peaches today!
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It's so painful to watch my heirloom beans go to seed.... I need the seed for next year's garden, so I only picked a few. Next week I get to pick the first ears of sweet corn!

Starting to get tomatoes every day. Soon I'll be canning them!

Cucumbers are done. The heat and lack of water killed them. I'm going to pull most of them on Thursday.

I'm so jealous! How do you get such beautiful peaches without worms?

 

[TJAnonymous]

Well rain started last night around midnight. Big ground shaking bangs and very flashy lightning. All night... Hard to sleep through that... Still pouring buckets this morning. Acu-rite gauge says we've gotten 4 inches of rain so far which might be low since I haven't recalibrated it yet. Supposed to rain until the afternoon and then pick up again later this evening into tomorrow...

The best part? It's 70 degrees!!!