What Did You Do In The Garden?

[thistlebloom]

I get a lot of mites in a clients landscape. It's full of conifers, two hundred year old Ponderosas and other cultivated varieties. They seem to especially enjoy the cranberry viburnums and will make a mess of them. If I am diligent about hosing them down a few times a week the mites seem to lose the advantage and don't proliferate to the point of making the shrubs ugly. The few summers that I didn't take the time the viburnums suffered and it was too late to reverse the damage.

Speaking of dahlias Steve, I'm real happy with the ones I started early. They have been blooming for about 3 weeks. They're great flowers and I won't be without them now.

 

[ducks4you]

Yesterday I weeded by pepper/okra/bean/pumpkin/(1) zucchini and (1) cantaloupe bed and put Preen around the plants. I cleaned up the 3 roses just east and past the clematis and Preen'd the whole bed plus put not quite fresh horse manure around each rose.
Had to mow and I FINALLY got a handle on my sprayer, so I got some weeds killed around the house and ESPECIALLY around the well/cistern (inner sanctum in front of the barn) where I had chopped down volunteer sapling sized 5 ft sprouts from the trees. I FINALLY laid down D-2 all around that and heavily on the stumps.
I destroyed our John Deere riding mower--froze up the engine--and mower repairman sold us a used (large) John Deere and a Toro riding mower. Very good price, they are working fine and now I don't have to keep taking my tow wagon off of the riding mower for DH.
I finally planted 18 sweet potatoes in one of the 100 gallon (leaky) horse troughs. It is against the west side of the garage and will get a LOT of sun and heat.
I also, again a FINALLY, laid down two 16 sq ft and one slightly smaller (it was ancient and already on the property) paving stones. I had prepped the area in the bed next to the driveway. We ALWAYS cut through there and I wanted to not get muddy walking around the garage. We keep our trash can there.
DH and I have divided up the front yard. I mow north, he mows south.
Pictures soon...

 

[flowerbug]

picked another bucket of cucumbers this morning, so that is my chore for this afternoon. took yesterday off for chiropractor, visited a friend for a few hours and then read a book.

 

[Zeedman]

Funny thing, speaking about cucumbers... we just planted some today. Pretty late in the season for that, but if this heat holds up, we might get a few before frost... it will be an interesting experiment. They went into the space left empty after digging the garlic (which was disappointing). We put a few zucchini seedlings into that space also.

 

[digitS']

It will be interesting but it usually works for me, @Zeedman . This week a few cucumbers went in with the onions - how's that for plant cruelty . Well, the onions around them will be pulled soon enuf.

Often, I'm putting zucchini between the early cabbage and broccoli. Won't this year because I can't get those plants out of the way. The very warm May weather messed them up but the cool June brought the cabbage and broccoli back. I'd say that they have been doing fine but it's a different experience growing, especially with the broccoli.

They tried to make buds as tiny plants in May - clipped those off. Sooo, the currently much better looking plants are growing many, many lateral buds. Harvesting those!

Leaving those plants, probably until frost and I don't usually do that. But, they haven't expended all their energy into a large, central head.

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

the cucumbers here have been going for a month, so i'd say you have a good chance if you're planting starts and not from seed.

we've already talked about pulling some plants here, but i have a gallon of apple cider vinegar yet to go so Mom said to keep going until that's gone. unfortunately, i don't really like this vinegar so i'm worried that the pickles made from it aren't going to be that great... hope the dill masks the flavor i guess...

 

[digitS']

Okay.

I guess that I'm all finished being jealous that you have cucumbers, @flowerbug !

Your growing season must come on strong, there in mid-Michigan. We didn't have Junuary this year, altho it was close and is not uncommon.

I'm gonna try to be out tilling some paths near the cucumbers, this afternoon. If it isn't blindly hot, I'll try to see if they have gotten beyond a flower or two. I'm optimistic, tho. Gotta get those paths tilled before the vines overrun them!

Steve

 

[flowerbug]

got distracted last night for a while and so was up extra late...

Okay.

I guess that I'm all finished being jealous that you have cucumbers, @flowerbug !

Your growing season must come on strong, there in mid-Michigan. We didn't have Junuary this year, altho it was close and is not uncommon.

I'm gonna try to be out tilling some paths near the cucumbers, this afternoon. If it isn't blindly hot, I'll try to see if they have gotten beyond a flower or two. I'm optimistic, tho. Gotta get those paths tilled before the vines overrun them!

Steve

we also have 15 plants. i'm not sure why we got so many this time, but it is nice to have enough to actually put them up and to not have to do small batches and still have some to give to my brother fresh. he's always so happy to get them it's like giving him gold.

time to get out there and water before it gets too late... have fun in the gardens.

 

[Zeedman]

We went big on cucumbers last year; rows in 3 different locations, 24 plants total. The intent was to use some raw, make a lot of pickles, and give the rest away. As it turned out, we gave nearly all away.

Because we also grew a 30' row of an heirloom gherkin, wanting to test their pickling ability. These had far fewer spines than the West India gherkins I had tried previously (some almost completely spineless) and grew much larger before getting tough, or filling with seed. The first batch of refrigerator pickles from the gherkins was so good, we gave up on pickling cucumbers, and pickled about 20 quarts of gherkins instead. The canned gherkins turned out just as good, really crisp. Everyone who tried them loved them... chances are we'll probably never pickle cucumbers again.

 

[flowerbug]

We went big on cucumbers last year; rows in 3 different locations, 24 plants total. The intent was to use some raw, make a lot of pickles, and give the rest away. As it turned out, we gave nearly all away.

Because we also grew a 30' row of an heirloom gherkin, wanting to test their pickling ability. These had far fewer spines than the West India gherkins I had tried previously (some almost completely spineless) and grew much larger before getting tough, or filling with seed. The first batch of refrigerator pickles from the gherkins was so good, we gave up on pickling cucumbers, and pickled about 20 quarts of gherkins instead. The canned gherkins turned out just as good, really crisp. Everyone who tried them loved them... chances are we'll probably never pickle cucumbers again.View attachment 27331 View attachment 27332

we like pickle spears, they're so easy to do in widemouth jars. the cucumbers we're growing are not very long (compared to the burpee cucumbers we've grown some years these are rarely over 7-8 inches even when very mature). i would love a spineless cucumber like the burpees though. that is what takes so much time when prepping them for the jars to wash off the spines and any dirt between the bumps or in the sides if they're on the small side and to check them over for things we don't want in the jars. last year i put up a lot of small ones and i ended up having a used toothbrush handy because that could get almost all the dirt off them. this year i've decided to pick everything a little bigger so it's not so hard to get that done, but it still takes more time than i'd really like.

these cucumbers also don't get very seedy until they get over 3 inches across. some of them i'll cut in half and scoup out the seeds before slicing them and filling the jars, but the past several weeks we've just been giving those to my brother to eat fresh or make refridgerator pickles. about every 4-5 days has been the schedule - this last batch could have used another day. the plants have filled out the garden and are starting into the surrounding pathways.

as for the rest of the gardens, everything is still coming along pretty well. the onions are bulbing out. the garlic is getting ready to be lifted. the tomatoes have a ton of flowers and are putting on fruits (in this heat i'll drench them when watering to give them some chance of pollinating, it also dings the flowers which helps with that) the plants are looking good - about this time i have to check for tomato worms and if there are any to find them the early morning is the best time to get them before they go hide for the day.

diseases will be coming along eventually. the hollyhocks are already dropping some leaves. we had so many nice ones here for years and no problems with them and then one year rust blew in on the wind and it's not ever been the same since. there's too many hosts/carriers around here now. the same for powdery mildew, black spot, late blight and whatever gets the asters later in the season. all of these aren't pretty but they do not usually prevent us from getting a crop so i don't spray anything for them. i've thought of trying to get a bacterial worm tea brewing and spray that sometime to see if it would help, but with everything else i always have going on and the lack of it doing enough damage i'm just not that concerned. if i have complete crop failures then i may try something some year. not this year...