Whatcha Up To???

[w_r_ranch]

Picked orka, japs & corn today. Japs were stuffed with cream cheese seasoned w/the seeds & taco seasoning for a cold side dish with tonight's tacos.

While we were having our margaritas this afternoon, we saw a squirrel feeding on the corn (he ran off before I could shoot him). I'll harvest a tub of corn tomorrow to make sure we get our share & to lessen the temptation... The squirrel will eventually end up in stew for deer season, it's just a matter of timing...

 

[ErnieCopp]

Your garden sure grows a lot faster in that warm weather. My okra has not even flowered yet.

Ernie

 

[Ibtsoom]

Is it Indigo Rose? If so I grew one this year. Small fruit but plentiful and tasty.

 

[ErnieCopp]

That sounds familiar. Black Krim has been my favorite and good producer the last two years but was not doing anything this year. Pllants were from a different source, so when i saw the purple top and red bottom, i decided to try it. I have the label for it, did not read it again after i bought it.

I likd small flavorful tomatoes so what you say sounds good to me.

Ernie

 

[Rahab222]

I watched it rain. It's so good to finally see some rain on the garden

 

[Rahab222]

Whistech, Did the north side get the same storm we got Weds. morning? My poor garden dog, Lily, was trying to climb up in bed with me and she never does that unless there's severe weather. The thunder was so loud, the walls were shaking with it. When I looked outside, all I could see was a solid wall of water with lightening cracking through it. I hear we're in for more of the same Thursday morning.

 

[whistech]

Rahab, I didn't get the storm Wednesday, but I got .5 inch of rain on Monday and 2.1 inches on Tuesday. It looks like we may get some rain today.

 

[whistech]

Rahab, I ended up with .6 inch of rain this afternoon.

 

[Rahab222]

We got hit again this morning - hard. LOTS of thunder, lightening and rain. Fortunately, no significant wind. I had to take my poor garden dog Lily to the vet this morning because I think she has a bladder infection. Her bladder was empty, so the vet said he'd have to keep her until they could get a urine sample to see if there are any crystals showing. I'm praying it's just a bladder infection because I can't afford surgery for her. I know she was scared to death at the vet's when the weather came through this morning. I went out and picked a few things from the garden and it just seemed strange without my Lily by my side.

 

[w_r_ranch]

Kind of taking the day off... although I did pick some stuff for tonight's supper (okra, japs, tomatoes & green beans). Finished vacuum packing the frozen corn & spaghetti sauce.

 

[w_r_ranch]

Picked tomatoes & okra. Weeded the melon patch & saw that we got loads of baby melons on all 4 varieties!!! If even half of them make it to harvest, we will have way more than we need & will offer them to anybody here that wants to make the drive out.

After that, I watered everything (garden, trees, pots, hanging baskets & flowerbeds).

 

[Rahab222]

I put up a trellis for one box of my pinto beans that have turned out to be climbers and were busy strangling my purple hull peas. It was a real job separating the tangled web from my purple hulls. I also staked some of my pepper plants that I planted later in the summer because I had held them out to replace any pepper plants that didn't make it initially. I tied up some branches on my tomatoes and did some weeding.

I was also inspecting my box of determinate, bush tomatoes. One of the plants has basically quit producing, but does have some flowers on it and one baby tomato. What do you do with plants - like this tomato plant and my green beans - that appear to be petering out? Do you pull them and plant something else; or leave them for whatever produce you can squeeze out? The plants still look VERY healthy.

 

[whistech]

I would pull the determinate tomato plant and plant something else. I am pulling my 5 tomato plants this next week.

 

[Rahab222]

Whistech; What are you going to plant in place of your determinate tomato plant? Are you going to do a fall garden? If so, what are you going to plant - tomatoes?

 

[whistech]

Rahab, I am going to plant 5 bell peppers that I started about 6 weeks ago. Although I am a novice gardener, my experience shows that bell peppers don't do too well in the summer, but if I can keep them alive they really produce in the fall alt the way up to a frost.

I am going to plant a fall garden and grow sugar snap peas, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and I am going to try beets for the third time. For me, a fall garden is so much more enjoyable than a spring and summer garden since the temperature moderates and I don't sweat gallons in the garden. I think I will also try some spinach this fall.

 

[ErnieCopp]

I picked some Kohlrabi and a few beets, enough tomatoes dribbling in to take care of the table, and there are thousands of Babcock peaches, but they are only good for eating fresh. I am going to severely prune it back and keep it small, as it is growing fast and will shade my melon patch. Okra is flowering and setting a few pods, Fresno peppers turning red, and sweet pepperrs producing plenty. Grapes getting close to ripe but need a couple more weeks maybe.

Weather much drier this year, so no downy mildew on squash plants,but i learned last year to prune the Zucchini leaves severely on lower part to let air go through.

It looks like I am very lucky to have two volunteer Nutmeg melon plants, as my helper apparently planted two blocks of Persian melons instead of one Persion area and one Nutmeg. Saved Seed, so either seeds were labeled wrong or since they look alike he may have thought all were the same kind. I will have 8 to ten nutmegs on each plant so that is enough, but will try to avoid the mistake next year.

Ernie

 

[w_r_ranch]

Ernie, all 4 varieties of melons we have planted have set fruit!!! Your Nutmeg & Persian are growing great, the seem to really like Texas!!!

 

[ErnieCopp]

I am sure the Texans will like them, too. The Nutmegs are different and pretty good, but the Persians are my favorite of all. I will have somme ripe ones in another week or two of Nutmegs and Hales, but it will be a while longer for the Persians. My Watermelons are getting huge, too but it will take them some more time, too.

It is up to 81 degrees today, and last night was a lot warmer, so more heat will help tomatoes and melons both.
I should keep records of when things ripen each year but have never developed that habit, so each year i just guess and wait.

Ernie

 

[Rahab222]

Whistech; I have two Big Bertha, Bell Pepper plants that are about 4 ft. tall, lush and beautiful, but they have done absolutely nothing so far. Only one has one flower on it at this time. I was going to pull them up, but maybe I should leave them 'til the fall to see if they do better in cooler weather.

I am going by the Texas A&M planting chart for our area. I have lots of tomatoes, but they are being very slow to get a blush. My sweet peppers are finally picking up.

This fall, I plan to put in a ton of onions - 10/13 and the purple, as I was way under what I estimated I would use. I'm going to try potatoes again in August; as I think they did pretty well this spring and I'm almost out of those, too. Carrots, green beans, lettuce, spinach and some radishes - even though I haven't had much luck with the radishes forming a bulb. Some do and some don't.

I'm going to look at some other things to plant this fall, too, and I'm actually going to retry the tomatoes this fall with Better Boy, as my cousin in Dallas had good luck with these last fall. My tomato plants did nothing in the fall.

My squash and two more cucumber plants are just getting started. They have been very slow to grow since I planted them late, as I had the room.

I'm also going to plant a blackberry patch. I read I can propagate more plants from the new plants that have come up this year, so I am going to. They are Triple Crown Thornless and I didn't get many this year, as the varieties with thorns produce more heavily. I'm still hoping to get some cuttings from my brother's friend when he prunes this fall. I'll have to fence these in so my garden dog, Lily, doesn't get into the briar patch.

So next week, I too, will pull my green beans and bush tomatoes plants that are winding down. I've always tended to do a lot of gleaning, but I'll keep the thought of starting something new.

Thanks for the input, Whistech and Sam. Much appreciates as usual.

BTW, the stink bugs are showing up again and I'm picking them off by hand each time I see them. At least the cooler spring seems to have kept them at bay longer this year, as last year I had a major infestation by the end of May/1st of June. Now this is a cheery note to end on.

 

[45 ACP]

Got home from vacation and picked lots of japs, some eggplant, and some okra. The cukes are done so I pulled them.

I'm down to just okra, eggplants and peppers now.

 

[45 ACP]

Canned a bunch of japs yesterday. Sliced these nice and thick. Ended up with six jars. Cant wait to try 'em and see how they turned out.

 

[ErnieCopp]

ACP,

I cannot handle the Japs, but i certainly admire your chopping block, That is the prettiest one i have ever seen. That third dimensional appearance under the knife blade is outstanding.

Ernie

 

[45 ACP]

Thanks Ernie.

You are gonna laugh when I tell you that I got that cutting board for my wife about 8 years ago for Christmas ..... at a gas station. LOL.

We have these gas stations around here called "Buc-ee's". It's like a dang mall in there. Gift shop, deli, breakfast, clothes, and anything to do with Texas. They have about 15-20 employees per store.... huge places. While I don't visit them much anymore because of the crowds, they were all the rage back when they first opened up. You can figure on at least a 30 - 40 minute stop if you pull over there for fuel with your family on a road trip.

 

[ErnieCopp]

It is always good to see some one come up with an idea and management ability to create a roaring success, while most everyone else is crying hard times and no opportunity.

We would visit my Grandmother during the early thirties, depth of the depression, in NW Arkansas. It must have been one of the poorest areas in the USA, and it was just seven miles from Rogers, where Walton started Walmart. I am not sure just what year he started, but I do know he started in an area where no one else saw any opportunity.

Ernie

 

[Mr_Yan]

Started designing canning labels that will be applied to the lids (don't want to muck up our jars). It easier to see what product is in the jars.

WR do you just use sticky sheets or a preformed adhesive sheet for the lid covers? I'm looking to do the same thing with beer. I now have three different beers in bottles. One has the Brewer's Best "B" logo caps, one gold caps, one gold caps with sharpie on them. I was thinking about colored sticker dots like for garage sale prices but haven't been overly motivated in my search.


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Garden has been on auto-pilot this week. I've been checking pumpkin flowers and attempting to pollinate female flowers that open daily after work.

Mostly we've had the hatches battened down. We've averaged a nearly inch of rain for about 10 days in a row now. I'm thinking I can about kayak to work. I've slept on the couch more than twice in the last week because of my gun shy wimp of a dog.

Oh yeah this week really cooled off. Last week we had dew points around 75 F but today's high was about 65 F.