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Post by grannyg on Aug 8, 2021 19:59:18 GMT
When the harsh winter destroyed my water lilly pond, made from an old, old antenna dish, it became my lettuce patch....grape arbor is over the top.....
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Post by grannyg on Aug 14, 2021 23:19:54 GMT
This is a neat idea.... Stephanie Frahm August 8 First year growing squash vertically. I kind of love our little squash trees 🥰. Plus they take up much less space! I used a 6ft garden stake from Menards ($1.50) As the main stalk grows I used twine, zip ties, pipe cleaners, whatever to keep it going upwards. Any leaves under the zucchinis are not beneficial and you can prune. More energy going into the fruit.
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Post by grannyg on Aug 14, 2021 23:35:33 GMT
Wow...got to get me a blacklight flashlight.... Karen McGuire August Thanks to those of you who suggested the black light flashlight to look for tomato hornworms at night! We checked the plants during the day and couldn’t see any, we went out after dark and BOOM we found 5! They glow like glow sticks under the light!
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Post by mogal on Aug 15, 2021 20:25:41 GMT
Wow...got to get me a blacklight flashlight.... Karen McGuire August Thanks to those of you who suggested the black light flashlight to look for tomato hornworms at night! We checked the plants during the day and couldn’t see any, we went out after dark and BOOM we found 5! They glow like glow sticks under the light! ME TOO!! Pretty bummed right now. I'd planted the sweet potatoes on an old semi-rotten hay bale a neighbor didn't come get. I put made a barricade around it with bits of fencing wired together, T-posts, etc. Vines were looking very good. Today, I noticed the goats had knocked down enough to get inside. Vines are all gone. ALL gone.
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Post by Woodpecker on Aug 15, 2021 21:59:03 GMT
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Post by farmerjack on Aug 16, 2021 0:28:05 GMT
Sold the last of the beets today. The extreme heat has taken a toll on them. Have always been able to grow beets all summer. The last ones I planted about a month ago, up and died this week. Pulled the green bean vines, they have stopped producing. Actually had a pretty good crop from them this year. Finished processing the second planting of corn. Should have another bunch ready by the middle of September. Cukes might be coming to a end also.
Guess taking in account the crappy weather gardening has been pretty fruitful this year. We have had heat on this side of the country, some of you folks have had nothing by rain. Like they always say, next year will be better.
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Post by susannah on Aug 16, 2021 13:19:48 GMT
Gardening season is winding down here in northern Wisconsin. For me, anyway.
This week I'll pull up the cucumber plants. There are a few more to pick, but the little tiny ones either won't get a chance to ripen, or will look like alien cucumbers. We've gotten many, many cucumbers this year, so I have no complaints - it's been hard to keep up with all of them.
Tomatoes are ripening like crazy. Unfortunately, the annual epic battle of husband v chipmunks has begun. Yesterday we found not one but two big tomatoes with bites out of them. Oh, and chipmunks running around in the area near the shed - deer netting does nothing to keep them out. This is actually pretty late in the season for chipmunks to begin their attacks, but we've had a lot of fox activity in the yard this year (to the delight of my grandchildren) and if the foxes are out hunting, the chipmunks are either attacking other gardens or hiding.
This has been a strange summer, weather-wise, for us. Very warm, and very little rain. The rain deficit continues - while almost the entire state got a lot of rain last week, we once again were on the low end. I mean, it worked out well since the grandchildren were here and wanted to hang out in the water every day. We did get a little rain each day, but very little - and it was of the "half hour or less of wet, and it's sunny again" variety. Now that the gardens are winding down and I'm not so dependent on full rain barrels, I fully expect lots of rain in the future. Because, well, Murphy's Law.
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Post by grannyg on Aug 23, 2021 15:40:32 GMT
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Post by grannyg on Aug 27, 2021 19:48:38 GMT
Check this idea out.....<3
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Post by susannah on Aug 27, 2021 20:51:59 GMT
The basil is done - I picked the last of it to use in some fresh tomato pasta sauce today.
The cherry tomato plants are just about done, too - what's ripening is pretty small - my husband calls them "tomato bb's". The rest of the plants are dying vines. I plan to pull them up this weekend.
The orange Clementine cocktail tomato plants are producing like crazy. I'll definitely be planting those again next year. An added bonus is that they draw lots of hummingbirds, and since I have the plants in containers on the deck, we all get to enjoy the visits.
The full size tomato plants continue to do well, and hopefully will for a few more weeks.
Dh's experiment with bunching onions was successful beyond his wildest dreams. We've been putting those little onions in everything - well, everything savory, that is. Using the stems for chives, since the chive plants did nothing this year. Strange, though - I usually have more chives than I know what to do with.
Kale is huge, and the chard is doing well. I have some later lettuce that hasn't bolted and is still sweet. Due to how short our growing season is/how early our first frost comes, I didn't do another planting of lettuce this year.
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jenn
Full Member
Posts: 226
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Post by jenn on Aug 31, 2021 20:20:30 GMT
Started my fall garden last week with Irish potatoes and lettuce etc seeds. The next planting I did yesterday is already sprouting (hope my seed, not weeds) after (Hurricane Ida distant edge) 2" rain past 24 hours and last week's stuff is looking a lot less impressive. ALmost time to plant English peas for the fall already. And had better start my leek and onion seed indoors soon.
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Post by susannah on Sept 5, 2021 14:35:34 GMT
Well, the raised bed garden is over and done for the season. The deer fence perimeter has been breached. While the lettuce had bolted and I'd picked all the onions, the chard was growing nicely and the kale was absolutely going crazy. Yesterday as I was walking to the mailbox, I glanced over at the garden thought "hey, what happened to the kale?" Normally giant plants towered over the wooded base of the garden. All I saw were stems. If you've dealt with whitetails, you know the look: whatever plants or flowers you may have had, they're either eaten down to stems or down to the ground. The deer fencing was still standing - and the maze we have to get into the garden was still intact. The deer had to have jumped to get in, because deer fencing can tangle up anyone or anything if you get close to it, and like I said - the fence was still standing.
Due to the layout of our house, the kitchen/dining room/living room and master bedroom are all on the back of the house to allow for lake views. The garden is on the front of the house, where the two guest bedrooms are, as well as the hall leading in from the garage. So most of the time, we're not looking out at the front yard. Well, I was last night. And there was a doe that kept walking around the garden but never attempted to go in. So either she knew I was watching, she had eaten everything she considered "good", or it was a different doe since our county has one of the highest deer populations in the state. Oh, well. I'd gotten a lot out of that garden, and our average first frost date is rapidly approaching. If a deer had to get smart or gutsy, at least it waited until September.
Lesson learned. Single row deer fencing worked fine for one season and most of the second one. We're already plotting the second - and higher - fence that will encircle the current fence. For next year.
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Post by mogal on Sept 6, 2021 15:33:03 GMT
This is a neat idea.... Stephanie Frahm August 8 First year growing squash vertically. I kind of love our little squash trees 🥰. Plus they take up much less space! I used a 6ft garden stake from Menards ($1.50) As the main stalk grows I used twine, zip ties, pipe cleaners, whatever to keep it going upwards. Any leaves under the zucchinis are not beneficial and you can prune. More energy going into the fruit. Grannyg, I know it's late in the season but with any luck, we'll have at least 6 more weeks of growing season. Our first average frost is mid October. ANYWAY, this morning, I finally got out and staked 2 zucchini plants. I'd been cutting away the leaves below the fruit but when I lifted the plants to tie them to a metal T-post (what I had available), I was surprised by the # of adult squash bugs under the vine. I killed as many of them as I could. It was a bunch considering it was fairly cool this morning then got after the juveniles and egg clusters under the leaves. If nothing else, being able to see and control the squash bugs more easily is a boon. The funny part is that I'm "vertically challenged" and the closest posts were 6 1/2' tall. I had a bear of a time driving them then lifting the driver off the top of the post. Finally, I pushed as hard upwards as I could and stepped quickly out of the way. I hoped it wouldn't fall on me and it didn't. Grin.
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Post by susannah on Oct 4, 2021 14:15:35 GMT
The weather has been unusual and amazing this autumn. While our first frost date is normally September 15th, this year is proving to be anything but ordinary. We haven't had a frost yet, and there's no frost in the forecast for the next week. We were 80 degrees two days last week, upper 70's a few others. This week is forecast to be in the mid 60's to low 70's depending on the day.
I picked all the remaining green tomatoes on the Clementine gold cocktail tomato plant. They're ripening in the house. There just isn't enough sun hitting the deck area anymore. The plant has been removed, and the dirt dumped into a low spot in the back yard.
The scallions are tinier, and not doing all that well either. We've been picking and using them up; we should run out of scallions in the next week or so.
The kale is re-growing quite nicely after the deer attack. The chard is growing again as well. The raised bed shows no signs of any further deer action.
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Post by mogal on Oct 4, 2021 16:02:51 GMT
The zucchini languished most of the summer. NOW they are blooming and setting fruit--go figure. This morning I picked 2 five gallon buckets of tomatoes and about 1/3 of a gallon bucket of Nadapeno peppers.
Our average first frost is Oct. 10 but the forecast is for 70's and 80's in the next couple of weeks.
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Post by grannyg on Oct 7, 2021 1:35:16 GMT
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Post by grannyg on Oct 7, 2021 2:16:22 GMT
Tomorrow, I need to get out my dehydrator, pick blackberry and chocolate mint leaves off the plants and dry them for winter teas...
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Post by mzgarden on Oct 7, 2021 10:30:11 GMT
End of season report for us. Bush beans did very well this year, as did the tomatos, lettuce, spinach and fennel. Our potatoes were a total loss - vines looked great, died back on time but little did we know the voles/mice had made their home in the dirt under the vines and had happily eaten all the potatoes. We found plenty of holes and tunnels and half eaten potatoes - first time for everything I suppose. Got more summer and winter squash this year, but squash bugs eventually took everything out, as they do every year. First year we had asparagus and that was a treat. The fronds have grown 8 feet tall and are starting to die back, so we'll give them a hair cut and mulch them for winter. We were swamped in elderberries, which made several of my friends happy. Filled up on okra this year too. Grapes and blackberries struggled, peaches did just ok. Rhubarb did not do well again this year but the cantaloupe went great guns and that was fun and yummy. All in all we had some big wins and some losses but we got enough to stock the pantry and go again next year.
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Post by mzgarden on Oct 11, 2021 14:27:08 GMT
You gotta love volunteer tomatoes. This one 'ate' my compost bins this year. Saving seeds from this bad boy - must be a super tomato.
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Post by grannyg on Oct 14, 2021 0:15:15 GMT
Planted kale, collards, two types of spinach and radishes ....radishes planted in buckets that cracked across the bottom from winter use....I love seed tapes, the wind was blowing, quick to get them covered....
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Post by mogal on Oct 17, 2021 21:18:20 GMT
I grew peanuts this year just to see if I could. I'd tried to give them as long as possible to develop since they need a long season. WELL!!! Yesterday, I thought I should dig some to see how mature they were. I was so disappointed to find a lot of peanuts but a good number of those had sprouted in the shell. No way can I save them over winter. Since the others are probably over-wet as well, I'm planning to cure them to save for next season and do a lot more research on them this winter. ARRGH!
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Post by countrymom22 on Oct 18, 2021 20:45:55 GMT
mogal, don't sweat it! there is a learning curve to everything. At least you tried and are learning from your mistakes. I don't even know anyone who has tried to grow peanuts. Better luck next year!
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Post by Maura on Oct 18, 2021 21:42:13 GMT
MzGarden, peppermint is toxic to rodents. Just something to think about next year.
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Post by mogal on Oct 19, 2021 18:31:45 GMT
mogal , don't sweat it! there is a learning curve to everything. At least you tried and are learning from your mistakes. I don't even know anyone who has tried to grow peanuts. Better luck next year! Thanks for the encouragement, countrymom22. I used to say that all the time--there's always next year as I think gardeners are very optimistic people--but at my age, I hope I have a bunch more "next years" to comfortably play in the dirt. This morning I pulled my marshmallow plants for the roots then dug the rest of those poor peanuts. I think I probably increased my seed from the sample I bought last spring but it remains to be seen if I can cure them properly without losing them to varmints. You'd think that with 4 cats, we would never see a mouse on the place, inside or out. The up side is that while digging the peanuts, I was actually turning/prepping that bed that's in the hoop house for some seedling broccoli and cauliflower that's all hardened and ready for planting. We also have wet, cooler weather coming in tomorrow into Thursday so it might not be so pleasant to try to dig those peanuts later as well. Still no frost to give the tomatoes and roselle more time. YEAAA!
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Post by susannah on Oct 19, 2021 21:03:20 GMT
I picked the remaining scallions out of the very last container on the deck, and as always, dumped the dirt into a low spot in the yard. We'll never run out of low spots. The raised bed garden is over and done with, thanks to a little help from a hungry bear. I'm okay with that. We were getting to the end of the season, and the bears do need to bulk up before they go into their dens for their long winters naps. Mainly the bear nibbled on what kale remained, and dug up the beets that I'd abandoned. Bears apparently like beets. Note to self: since the beets didn't do all that well and seem to be bear candy, don't plant beets next year.
We have the LED grow lights set up in the basement, have the table covered, and I planted the first planter of lettuce seeds today. I'm hoping for a good indoor lettuce harvest like last year. While we'll never grow enough indoors to provide all our salad wants/needs in winter, what we do harvest is a wonderful, fresh tasting supplement to grocery store lettuce.
I had planned to plant a tub of chives today but found out that the one type of seed I am completely out of is...yes, chive.
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Post by grannyg on Oct 20, 2021 15:50:15 GMT
Loved the rains about a week and a half ago...funny how excited you can get about some little green radish sprouts that popped up in your buckets where you planted them just before the rains....looking every day for greens from the collards, kale, and spinach to show...I tried frying radish greens yesterday, but just did not care for them....
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Post by grannyg on Oct 24, 2021 2:26:40 GMT
The joy of finding green Roma tomatoes growing in a ditch on the right of way...they are now transformed into eight pints of Chow Chow
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Post by smokey on Oct 24, 2021 22:15:13 GMT
We still have a few ragged looking Sweet 100 tomato plants hanging on and giving us some ripening tomatoes every day or so and two cucumber plants in containers that are working on their last few cukes along with a few lettuce plants. And a dozen cabbage plants that are doing great in the cooler weather, I'm really looking forward to fresh cabbage. After that it's all over for this year other than planting the Inchelium garlic, Hopefully tomorrow if the incoming storms are done with us. As we empty out each bed I'm adding in compost and Sphagnum moss and then mulching them for their winter break.
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jenn
Full Member
Posts: 226
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Post by jenn on Oct 30, 2021 1:03:50 GMT
Zone 8A/B, but I missed 4 weeks watering midsummer so lost some ground. However a San Marzano tomato has rooted along a branch and is giving me green toms, I might have 2 weeks or 6 before a frost- we'll see. Lettuce carrots and spinach coming up poorly- this time of year never know if it got too dry too hot or too wet. Only had one cilantro plant come up- so bought some this week- but now have several others started in another bed. Need to resow the bare areas. and hope the lettuce keeps going all winter (first batch started even had some of them bolting, yet supposedly too late to plant it now).
Have a mess of onions started in the house- much better germination than expected- did TOO well- so I transplanted clumps to individual pots. Hope I'm keeping them wet enough to have decent sized transplants soon. Hope for better bulbing (short day variants only here) if they're in the ground/ sown in fall than in spring. Popped some potatoes from the store in the ground- got the multi color pack for fun- but only 4-5 of 10 sprouted/ didn't die off. Again unclear what went wrong.
Eating satsumas now, and so long as it stays dry will just pick a dozen for us to eat daily. Last year we had a torrential rain right before they were ready, I got only two off the tree.
Collecting bagged leaves from the nearby town; mulching the blueberries and beds that'll get toms and peppers next year, and keeping some in the bags to put around plants as mulch when I have any big enough.
Got my fall bulb order- 400 planted past 2 days, 40 to go.
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Post by farmerjack on Oct 30, 2021 2:59:59 GMT
The garden is going down hill a little more all the time. Strawberry bed has plastic over the hoops, normally used for bird netting. Finding a couple dozen berries every two or three days. Surprised each time I pick. Still getting broccoli, grown for one granddaughter, spinach is slow to recover after harvesting. Planted more spinach a week or so ago, nothing showing up yet. A couple cooler night, tonight upper 20’s and tomorrow night mid 20’s, then warming back to around 30 at night for the next week or so.
Grinding up leaves fro use on next year’s potato bed. Will work them in before it freezes up hard. Really happy with the new chipper/shredder, grinds everything quite fine, will decompose easy.
About all that is left is to dream about next years garden. Hopefully will get a good snowy winter and have a good supply of irrigation water for next year.
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