Ducks4you for 2022

[baymule]

LUCKY!!! i thought everybody had them.

Don’t have any here.

 

[ducks4you]

AMAZing!!! Hope that you Never see them!
They are invasive--you SAW what they did to my baby grape!!!
The roses seem to handle them ok, leaves are chewed on, but everything grows back after they leave...mid August.
I have even seen them chewing on my basil.
Had I Planted my 3 baby grapes, they would have been goners. I may have to bring a 2nd one onto the porch, where they cannot Touch them.
I Do have a bed on the south side of the garage with room for MORE roses, and it's 6 ft from the 3 surviving grape vines. Cheapo roses are available each Spring, so why not?
I figure that some of the herbs that were suggested could work planted underneath the vines, bc they are better than the burdock I have to kill growing adjacent to one of the grape vine trunks!!
I hope to start painting my t posts tomorrow. I have neon orange, teal blue, red, purple, and I Think there is a metallic pink and some other funky spray paint colors that DD's have left in my tool shed (to die.)
I have silver metallic that paint over the white tips bc it reflects light.
I looked Into phosporescent paint. It is incredibly expensive, so I threw OUT that idea.
Since most of my July planting will be completed tomorrow, I can focus on cleaning up the vines and their supports, that take appropriate pictures.
I decided that my DD's will make the call of color order of the posts and placements.

 

[Zeedman]

This weekend I transplanted 13 cabbage (clearance and kept alive under gro lights), 7 cauliflower (kept in water until 2 weeks ago), planted an 8 x 8 patch of beets (15 rows), and FINALLY got the rest of the corn planted.
The cauliflower and cabbage are shaded by trees 1/2 of the day.
I had bought an over the counter package of sweet corn. IT got planted in row#3.
Row#4 got planted with the same "early" seeds, staggered rows, like 1, 2, and 3.
Row#5 "early" seeds, BUT, I didn't want to save them, SO, I made boxes with my hand rake, sprinkled seeds from the jar that they were in, then covered up. Each box is about 12 inches wide and the row is 12 Ft wide.
ALL seeds are in.
We'll See what I get.
I also tilled up where my plumber had left kind of a mess several years ago and laid down both 100 pounds of oats and 5 packages of wildflower seeds that are supposed to attract pollinators.
I swept the barn and covered the whole section of lawn, just east of the cistern and adjacent to/south of the sidewalk by the house. Took 4 wheelbarrows full to cover. I will be soaking it this week to get the seeds to sprout and the cover to keep them wet.

Wow... I got tired just reading that. Don't know how you get so much done in the heat.

The dog days are here, dew points in the upper 60's / low 70's. Fortunately the majority of my garden work is done, other than weeding & tying some of the remaining string trellises as needed. My brother & I are doing construction for most of the week though; we take a few hours off in mid-day to cool down & re-hydrate.

 

[Zeedman]

I'm not familiar with Japanese beetles. What are you trying to achieve (pls remind me - I'm happy to reply to your threads).

You are gifted on the West Coast to not have some of the serious insect pests that plague those of us in the East & Midwest. I miss the days I gardened in SoCal, where I could grow squash without fear.

Japanese beetles are an aggressive invasive species, which is spreading slowly. They traveled here from Michigan several years ago, and their population (and level of damage) increased quickly. It would not surprise me if they reach the West Coast eventually; but since the grubs feed on grass roots, arid buffer zones might stop them. Best hope they don't hitch a ride with someone or something traveling cross-country.

 

[ducks4you]

Wow... I got tired just reading that. Don't know how you get so much done in the heat.

The dog days are here, dew points in the upper 60's / low 70's. Fortunately the majority of my garden work is done, other than weeding & tying some of the remaining string trellises as needed. My brother & I are doing construction for most of the week though; we take a few hours off in mid-day to cool down & re-hydrate.

Looking forward for you to have a Good harvest!!

 

[ducks4you]

I lost one of my sweet peppers. I could not BELIEVE that not only did I find a sweet pepper for sale at WM, BUT it's a red one. Who KNEW that I could buy this mid July!!! God is So good!! It's going in the ground toDAY. I moved my soaker hose over to the sweet peppers. Tomato garden, the 24 plants are SO healthy this year. I counted 20 tomatoes, tiny to golfball sized on those plants. I know I will probably harvest a few end of month, but once they start coming in, it Will be canning season!

 

[ducks4you]

My middle DD lives near Peoria and she goes regularly to a Farmer's Market. I discovered that most grocery store garlic grows in China OR California and won't do well here. I have tasked her to buy me locally grown garlic, so that I have a better harvest next year.

 

[flowerbug]

My middle DD lives near Peoria and she goes regularly to a Farmer's Market. I discovered that most grocery store garlic grows in China OR California and won't do well here. I have tasked her to buy me locally grown garlic, so that I have a better harvest next year.

PM in the early fall and i'll send you some hardneck garlic from here. it won't be upset at all by an easier winter down there. also won't need to be mulched at all. it's survived benign neglect for 15 or more years by me and many years of local growing by the person who gave it to me.

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

I used to work at an onion garlic chile dehydration plant, in Gilroy CA. All of that garlic came from Yuma, then southern CA, then central, then northern CA as the fields matured.

 

[ducks4you]

PM in the early fall and i'll send you some hardneck garlic from here. it won't be upset at all by an easier winter down there. also won't need to be mulched at all. it's survived benign neglect for 15 or more years by me and many years of local growing by the person who gave it to me.