What did you do in the garden today?

[WthrLady]

The three tiny volunteer dill plants were eaten down to the nubs by 8 swallowtail caterpillars. And I felt bad that they were out of food.
This morning I found them all fat and happy living on the 8 foot tall Lovage plant. THAT should take them a while to work though. I'm going to have the only 800 pound swallowtail caterpillars in the whole state.
Who knew???
Found one ripening tomato. Like most years past, there is a blank zone in the plants due to a heat wave which won't allow for fruit set.
Another 3 cups of blackberries, the grapes are going gangbusters, the apple trees that managed to get apples are doing well. I forgot to check the magic pear trees.
Neighbors are cutting hay. I'm not seeing the window they think they're seeing in the weather. We're SO humid today, which would be fine if we were HOT and SUNNY, which we're not.
Might rain tonight a little, but tomorrow will be HOT and sunny, but no wind.
Monday HOT and sunny, but no wind. Then we start looking at rain again.
3 days in the minimum for GREAT conditions, of which these are not.
SO here, on this ranch, I WAIT.
The water softener is in the shop for a new resin bed. UGH> I already miss soft water. It's been one whole day without. LOL
I'm out of washing soda, so....market is a must for laundry day.

 

[OnlySympathy]

I’ve planted two more tomatoes in ground

 

[TJAnonymous]

How far along? Maybe mark the ones you think are the oldest and hope for the best.

She's at least halfway through... I'd have to candle them all to check which would be hard(ER) because she's an olive egger so her eggs are hard to see through.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Hmmm.... Thanks for the feedback on the onions. There's a couple that are maybe a little bigger than a golf ball. I'll probably just chop those up and freeze dry them. The couple that are walnut sized, I may allow to sprout new greens, then peel the outer layers and replant. We'll see what grows from that...

 

[Sally PB]

When I take seeds for my breeding program I always take seeds from individual plants that show this trait. So I get more of these monster blooms than normal!

I think I'll do this. I save seed for the next year. Most of my tomatoes are for canning, and bigger tomatoes make the job go faster.

I actually read an egg study this week, about how great eggs are in preventing dementia

Link to the site/study?

They just released an egg study. Eggs are even better for you than previous study. Recommend one egg per day.

Link?

I would love a reason to eat more eggs. They're right on the counter, quick and easy to cook, go with a lot of stuff from the garden. Plus, I get "free" eggs because I have chickens.

 

[Justagalwithchicks]

In my world onions are just the white version of beets and they both hate me.

If you haven't bought onion starts from Dixon Dale, I would suggest looking at their website and see if your long day or short day and order this winter. I always have great success with the starts they send. Even this year with bolting onions I have quite a few that didn't and are good sized. Or you could start them from seed, but have to start them very early. I feed my onions before they start to bulb ALOT of nitrogen and they are planted in composted chicken manure. But I can't grow a sweet potato that's decent sized whatsoever. Haha

 

[Bsmac]

I think I'll do this. I save seed for the next year. Most of my tomatoes are for canning, and bigger tomatoes make the job go faster.

Link to the site/study?

Link?

I would love a reason to eat more eggs. They're right on the counter, quick and easy to cook, go with a lot of stuff from the garden. Plus, I get "free" eggs because I have chickens.

Easiest way to save tomato seeds is to scoop them out into a jar add a bit of water. Wait for them to ferment (white and moldy looking on top) agitate them once a day then 2 or 3 days later I like to use an old flower sifter rinse them off well then put them on a piece of paper. As they dry shuffle them around a bit or they will stick together. This works great! Also will kill any disease the pant could have had!

 

[Sally PB]

Here's my experience with bulbing onions (what my husband calls "regular onions"):

I always miss a couple when I dig them up. I find them sprouting the next year. If I dig them, they are invariably small, about the size of an onion set, which means they didn't grow much the season before. They are always mushy and rotten feeling. Sometimes they send up a flower stalk (bolting). I have saved seeds from onions and had poor luck growing the seeds.

Onions like nitrogen. The bulb is specialized leaves, not a root.

I've had great luck some years, and crappy luck some years with the harvest. It's been a couple of crappy years since the last great year. Crossing my fingers that they're bigger and better this year. Last year was a more crappy than usual year.

 

[Bsmac]

Easiest way to save tomato seeds is to scoop them out into a jar add a bit of water. Wait for them to ferment (white and moldy looking on top) agitate them once a day then 2 or 3 days later I like to use an old flower sifter rinse them off well then put them on a piece of paper. As they dry shuffle them around a bit or they will stick together. This works great! Also will kill any disease the pant could have had!

Oh in case you don`t know, if you save seeds from hybrid tomatoes they will not breed true from seed as they are the result of crossing two different plants so the resulting seed will have genes from both parents. Just like breeding two different breeds of chickens! If you want to save tomato seed save them from heirloom varieties or also what is reffered to as an open polinated variety.

 

[Justagalwithchicks]

I fertilized my little corn patch again, injected BT into the squash and broke the syringe part of the needle. Shoot. Eyed my cabbages and decided this coming week I'll be canning Pepper Cabbage (like a coleslaw kinda) and making sauerkraut. Dug under a potato plant to see if they are rotten, found a huge nightcrawler and decided I can't tell if they are rotten or not yet. Time will tell.