What did you do in the garden today?

[pennyJo1960]

Made the view of mount Rainier not as impressive too.
We have great views of it and St. Helen's look distant or cloaked.
We see both on the dive home.

 

[Sueby]

We had some big storms come thru last night that kept me awake. Much nicer out there now. Mother Nature seems to be in a tizzy all over, hope everyone stays safe & gardens make it thru, or at least recover.

I trimmed & staked the squash as much as I could before the storms. Planted tons of new bush beans in a greenstalk & watered all of them. I love that I can sit on a bench & plant (or pick even) bush beans, love my GS.

 

[Sally PB]

I did gave to resort to spraying the fruit trees bc of the Japanese beetles, but they are not flowering and should only impact the JBs. I the pesticide is helping bc limited damage and a lot more growth this year on the fruit trees.

JBs are a problem here. I catch as many as I can, but I don't have a scissor lift to get up into the trees.

What did you use on your trees? I never/almost never use pesticides, as I have honey bees, but it's way past flower/fruit on my trees, so I'd consider using something to kill the JBs.

 

[Liz Birdlover]

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

Fire Ants are nasty little demons. Do you know which type they are? We've got the European Fire Ants, they can tolerate cold & have flourished in many states now, even Maine & Canada. It's said that everything has a purpose. I'm Still pondering what theirs is.

 

[Liz Birdlover]

Picked my first tomato of the season.

Photo! We need to see the 1st born!

 

[Liz Birdlover]

I let them dry on the plant. I have insect problems on green pods, not usually when drying. The bigger problem is moisture bc they can mold/mildew which ruins the beans. So, tall trellis or other means of good airflow. For bush beans I put stakes along the row and use at least 2 layers of twin. One about 8” up, next about 3-4” above that. And more if needed. This way the beans grow up, and pods stay off the ground. If mostly dry, but rain or cold (freeze) coming, I’ll pick them a little early. Then shell them, and all my drying is in open containers or in a large all-wire colander.


The Cherokee Trail of Tears black pole beans I grow are pretty vigorous. They try to produce a second crop, but the season isnt long enough, and I get more mold/mildew problems in that second flush.



Mine too-this year is disappointing. There are a couple types that look ok, not great.

I applied third round of predatory nematodes. They hit up to 200 types of insects, cucumber beetle being one type -and fire ants too(although no fire ants are here)! So, I’m hoping with 2-3 applications remaining I’m going to have a better year next year.

Where did you get your nemotodes?

 

[Liz Birdlover]

I can see a couple of cherry tomatoes that are nearly ripe. I'll let them go a couple more days.

The cucamelon is going to be on my list of "grow every year" things.
View attachment 3893962
I think later ones will be a bit bigger, but not much. They do taste like cucumber, with a hint of lemon. The skin is firm, crisp, and crunchy. I found a couple on the vine, and after eating them, I looked for any more and ate them on the spot. I'll have to plant more than 3 next year so that I can get enough to take back to the house. They'd be good in a salad.

So cool! Cucamelons sound delicious . Where did you get seeds?

 

[Liz Birdlover]

We had some big storms come thru last night that kept me awake. Much nicer out there now. Mother Nature seems to be in a tizzy all over, hope everyone stays safe & gardens make it thru, or at least recover.

I trimmed & staked the squash as much as I could before the storms. Planted tons of new bush beans in a greenstalk & watered all of them. I love that I can sit on a bench & plant (or pick even) bush beans, love my GS.

Sit while picking...you just got the attention of my aching sacroiliac.

 

[Sally PB]

So cool! Cucamelons sound delicious . Where did you get seeds?

A friend sent me some. I'll have to save some of my own if I can't find them. Well, I should save some anyway, right?
(going to ask google where to get some right now)

 

[Liz Birdlover]

I was so wiped out, from working in this blast furnace heat all week, mostly in sun past 2 days of it. I'm starting to feel like a human prune. I watered the garden when I got home from work, watered the peach tree, fig tree, sunflowers, tomatoes, corn, squash, cucumber sprouts, strawberry plants with strawberries still on them which is a 1st for me this late in summer, okra is young & doing well, marigolds sprouting among the older blooming marigolds, blueberry plants with their last berries, but I did not have the energy to even go get the 5 gallon buckets let alone pull weeds, no energy to pick blackberries either. I gave my pigeons & Guineas fresh water, Rick watered the chickens. I went into the house, drank 5 glasses of water, took a cool shower & hit the sack. I didn't even eat dinner, felt nauseous. I had lunch so I figured it's OK. Well, I heard thunder but this morning saw very little evidence of rain. What happened to the storm? We got diddly squat! I'm glad I watered the garden. The plants & my sweet flock are doing ok. I set up 1 pigeon & 2 young hens in the a/c, they didn't look like their chipper selves. At least I feel somewhat rested & better this morning. I picked some blackberries & had them with oatmeal. Coffee too, of course. We may get rain later, but who knows. At least it is cooler!!! I could throw a party just to celebrate that!!!