What did you do in the garden today?

[TJAnonymous]

Didn't do much in the garden today. Apps say it's 88, feels like 93 which is 10 degrees cooler than we've been... But it still feels stifling hot to me.

Mowed about 80% of the overgrown front pasture very early this morning before I ran out of gas. Not sure where DH hid the diesel so I guess we'll finish it later tonight. I kept getting pelted by grasshoppers trying to avoid getting massacred. Ugh... I hate grasshoppers. They are all over inside my hoop house too... I have yet to find anything that gets rid of them either.... Other than chickens, which are NOT allowed in the garden...so....

 

[MapleLaurelFarms]

Almost nothing! My husband's hives are in an area next to our garden, and they've decided that the garden is now theirs. Every time I try to spend more than a few seconds in the garden, they attack me. It's too hot and I have too much to do to put on a bee suit every time I want to pick lettuce.

I told him that everything in the garden may go to the chickens this year, because I'm not fighting a hoard of honey bees. I don't really mean that (the first part, not the second) but at the moment I'm kinda fed up with getting stung.

He has plans to move them away from the garden, but that can't happen until winter. In the meantime, pray for me.

 

[Smokerbill]

I might have jumped the gun but I harvested some of the biggest dill heads today and put them in the freezer for making pickles later. I'm growing Mammoth dill and the largest head was a good eight inches across. They were flowering but hadn't started forming seeds.

I've read that for making dill pickles the heads should have just formed seeds, but they're still green. And I've read it doesn't really matter what stage of growth the heads are in. Confusing.

There are plenty more heads growing that just might be in sync with the pickling cuke harvest in 4 or 6 weeks. One dill plant hadn't started forming seed heads yet and was still lush and green. I cut the top half off, trimmed off the fronds and froze those too.

I got an inline valve to attach to the end of my garden hose so I have better flow control when watering. The spigot is 75 feet away and it was a pain walking back and forth trying to get the flow just right. The way the garden hose is routed it would be impossible to have the hose end next to the spigot to watch while adjusting it, in case you were wondering.

 

[pennyJo1960]

I will keep my herbs going have a great bit of them.
Have been pulling weeds out of the garden area we made last couple years.

 

[TJAnonymous]

I might have jumped the gun but I harvested some of the biggest dill heads today and put them in the freezer for making pickles later. I'm growing Mammoth dill and the largest head was a good eight inches across. They were flowering but hadn't started forming seeds.

I've read that for making dill pickles the heads should have just formed seeds, but they're still green. And I've read it doesn't really matter what stage of growth the heads are in. Confusing.

There are plenty more heads growing that just might be in sync with the pickling cuke harvest in 4 or 6 weeks. One dill plant hadn't started forming seed heads yet and was still lush and green. I cut the top half off, trimmed off the fronds and froze those too.

I got an inline valve to attach to the end of my garden hose so I have better flow control when watering. The spigot is 75 feet away and it was a pain walking back and forth trying to get the flow just right. The way the garden hose is routed it would be impossible to have the hose end next to the spigot to watch while adjusting it, in case you were wondering.


View attachment 4164230

I have one of those, although mine looks like little different. Very useful watering when you're like me and get distracted in the garden by a bazillion things during the process.

 

[Justagalwithchicks]

Lost a zucchini plant today. It was covered in squash bug nymphs late yesterday. I went out to spray it tonight and it was collapsed. Could have been SVB too that did it in... I did spray the rest of the plants with spinosad... My tomatoes and cantaloupe too. Oh, and my kale which has been decimated by cabbage loopers and harlequin beetles.

On a positive note, I picked another large pickle, a couple of tomatoes, and a handful of green beans. Probably need to plant more green beans because my current ones are nearly tapped out.

And I DESPERATELY need to weed the garden. It's just so stinking hot and the bugs/mosquitoes/biting flies are brutal right now. But the weeds and grass are just RIDICULOUS. I mowed around the barn with the brush mower on Saturday. It ALREADY needs mowed again... I've never seen stuff grow up this fast but we've had a foot of rain in the past 30 days...

I don't use regular bug spray and was getting bit like crazy. I found this recipe which is cheap and easy. A small spray bottle add couple teaspoons vanilla essential oil (cheap online) and fill rest with water shake n spray. I was amazed how much it keeps mosquitoes away and you smell slightly like vanilla!

 

[dirkandlorie]

I don't use regular bug spray and was getting bit like crazy. I found this recipe which is cheap and easy. A small spray bottle add couple teaspoons vanilla essential oil (cheap online) and fill rest with water shake n spray. I was amazed how much it keeps mosquitoes away and you smell slightly like vanilla!

I don't use bug spray either. What's the point of growing veggies without poisons if you're going to spray poison all over your body? Thanks for the tip.

 

[Sally PB]

Almost nothing! My husband's hives are in an area next to our garden, and they've decided that the garden is now theirs. Every time I try to spend more than a few seconds in the garden, they attack me. It's too hot and I have too much to do to put on a bee suit every time I want to pick lettuce.

I told him that everything in the garden may go to the chickens this year, because I'm not fighting a hoard of honey bees. I don't really mean that (the first part, not the second) but at the moment I'm kinda fed up with getting stung.

He has plans to move them away from the garden, but that can't happen until winter. In the meantime, pray for me.

WOW! What kind of bees does he have? Why are they so ornery?

I've reserved a strip down one side of part of my garden for flowers for our honeybees. I've walked by them, taken pictures of them, pulled weeds near them, and they don't mind me being there at all.

Our hives are about 50-60 feet away from the garden. The girls were happy to visit the asparagus flowers when they were in bloom.

 

[cj2024]

That Sicilian eggplant you posted looks good. Quit growing eggplant years ago because it didn't freeze well after making it into eggplant parmesana, my favorite dish with eggplant. Might try growing it again after seeing that recipe.

This is my first year trying it this way and I got addicted to it. I modified the recipe to suit my local taste. The soft skinless texture kind of remind me of mushrooms. I used to get overwhelmed by the number of eggplants a plant can produce, but now I look forward to each harvest.

 

[Smokerbill]

I set up drip irrigation in one of my raised beds today. All I need to do to water it is hook up the the hose with the pressure regulator for an hour or so. I think the emitters put out 1 gallon per hour. 6 tomatoes, 5 zucchinis and a row of pickling cucumbers.