What did you do in the garden today?

[Liz Birdlover]

The temperatures are wonderful! Waking up to 70s instead of 90s is great. We did not get the rain, though, so yeah, still watering.

Lots of green tomatoes, some are huge.
Squash & zucchini are doing so well.

 

[jerryse]

Local sweet corn is ready and I bought some. Made tomato, onion and cucumber salad. A summer treat. Fried squash cut like French fries.

 

[chickengr]

my oaxaca corn is about 2 feet tall and I can see a few tassels. I hate heat. there will be no tassels when ears develop. it was supposed to grow first but heat did not let it. happened in the past (collected just a few seeds). I still have some seeds so I'll plant the second round of corn next week when temperature drops a bit.

 

[Minanora]

I had more to say on my last post but I was falling asleep. Lol. The pool shed and chicken shed are the same shed. Just there's a wall between the sides.

My garden was recovering from the heat. But we're back into 95°+ days.

My first cantaloupe fell off of the vine. I was checking on fruit development and smelled the cantaloupe before I could see it. I found it hiding in the mess of vines. I'm thinking it's not totally ripe, but it sure smells amazing!

My pumpkins are doing well. Except the carving ones, still struggling there. I'm not sure what to think. I'm going to amend the soil with a healthy dose of compost this winter. The further from the chicken run, the less robust the plants are, interesting.

Some of my Winter Luxury pumpkins.

The pumpkins I planted a few weeks later when I was fighting the gnats are doing amazing. I think it's because of the chicken run misters and the compost in the run. The leaves are enormous, the vines are thick and there's fruit developing.

Close to chicken run.

Right next to the chicken run.



I'm not sure what's going on with the tomatoes in this one raised bed. None of them are taking off, two are dying. I fertilize regularly, water consistently-ish. This plant in particular got all wilty and yellow in less than three days so I'm thinking it's not a pest, maybe a disease? It's a roma.

The other one is a sun gold. But it's dying slightly differently. The leaf trusses are crisping on the edges, yellowing, and falling off of the main stem. It's been dying more slowly than the sudden decline of the roma. It could be RKN, but I'll have to rip out the plants to check. Though, I did give the sun gold a good tug and it was firm in the soil. This is why I plant 40+ tomatoes... Next year I'm planting less, assuming a good canning run from this year's crop.

 

[pennyJo1960]

One of my tomatilla is wasting like that all the others are in great shape.
Morning Gardeners lot's of time I kind of lurk through here.

 

[Smokerbill]

Somehow I ended up with what I think is a dwarf Roma tomato plant. It's a small bush, not even two feet tall with a few small fruits at the bottom.

It came from the same packet of seed as the two Roma plants right next to it, which are pushing four feet tall and have probably three times the vegetation of the dwarf plant.

I'm kind of excited about it and will save seeds to plant next year to find out if they pass on the trait. It would be pretty cool if I had my own dwarf Roma variety.

The shorty Roma is on the left side of the determinate row of tomatoes. (I slipped a section of 6" drain pipe over the 2x4 so there's a less severe bend where the branches drape over.)

 

[Smokerbill]

Garden tour, July 19...

First zucchini


Kale, cauliflower, collards. The greens were much bushier before I stripped off the last batch of big leaves.



Potatoes, red leaf lettuce between the taters and collards.


Onions, big patch of zinnias from seeds I saved last year.


Front to rear, green beans, yellow beans, carrots with marigolds mixed in. And a couple more cauliflower on the left side.


Rattlesnake vining beans


Peppers, basil, butternut squash, carrots, flat leaf parsley.


Indeterminate, determinate tomatoes


Volunteer flat leaf parsley and curly parsley blooming, chives, crocosmia, tarragon, oregano, lemon balm


Mixed blossoms


Lavender next to parsley


Another pic of the butternut squash. I'll let them vine over the side of the bed onto the ground.




And something I put together yesterday from odds and ends I had laying around. It's a garden watering multi-tool. LOL

Attached to one side of the splitter valve is the wand, 1/2" rigid PEX pipe that makes it easy to water at the base of plants without getting leaves wet. And a brass hose nozzle is on the other side of the splitter valve for spraying large areas from above. I really like its versatility!

 

[akroberts1085]

Hey, when I'm at work all day then home tending for flock afterwards, & on a day off I'm enjoying weather & doing many chores outside, I am rarely inside, so inside my place is a wreck these days & guess what, it's nobody's business. Yeah I clean, the kitchen counters, stove, sink & refrigerator are clean, laundry & dishes done daily, bathrooms are clean, but the rest of the house inside is not at the top of the list. When we focus on this stuff, that other stuff will suffer a bit. Living creatures come 1st. Kitchen food areas & bathrooms & bed are essential cleaning, but don't look at the rest of my house. It'll get spotless again when we get a several day hurricane, or in cold winter. Lol

Don't let stranger's comments get to ya, they do not know you, the life you live, how full your plate is, what challenges you've dealt with or are currently dealing with, or how many little mouths you're feeding that depend on you.

That's why this site is the Only site I visit on a regular basis...no judgements here because we get it, we all understand because we are all living flock life.

I have so much to do and no little kids anymore but my husband and I still have our youngest daughter living here and when she comes back it'll be total chaos for me bc she doesn't clean. I keep telling myself I need to clean the table and then I get started on the laundry, dishes, garden, chickens, dogs or any of 100 more things and it's just crazy. It probably won't take more than 10 minutes to clean it but it's just not a priority to me. I greatly appreciate you sharing your thoughts with me. Thank you

 

[pennyJo1960]

I should vacuum and dust not the priority?
I can cook take care of the birds and dogs and humans.

Dog hair is still a condiment right!

 

[akroberts1085]

I should vacuum and dust not the priority?
I can cook take care of the birds and dogs and humans.

Dog hair is still a condiment right!

I absolutely agree. Dog and rabbit fur is definitely a condiment here. Plus I can't leave out the dust.