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Derald wrote:
songbird wrote: Thanks; I needed that. Several newsgroups I frequent are objects of a major sporge flood. Although, the newsreading service my ISP uses is filtering it, traffic is reduced to a virtual standstill. Messages in this NG have been so sparse I feared that it, too, had been affected. But Lo! My test trawled up a living person; hope remains ;-) children... my newsfeed does a good job of filtering gunk out too. redoing a large garden. eek! I can relate, although, not on a very large scale. This spring, I reclaimed the last two of nine raised beds that had been fallow since '98, '99, or thereabouts. This morning, they host "Delinel" filet beans and baby Lima beans, respectively. I started the reclamation in winter '07 for '08 planting. it's nice to see a garden redone and planted. we have almost a full acre of gardens of various kinds. there is always something that needs to be done or redone. i like that i can pick a project based upon how much energy i have and how long i want to be out. usually one thing leads to another anyways. we are finally getting some rain now after three weeks of not much at all. whew! the gardens in clay are tough to do any deep weed removal when it's cracked and like a brick. by saturday the ground should be perfect for getting some of the deeper rooted weeds pulled. doesn't look like i will get to redoing the grape trellis this season. Maybe this fall, huh? When do they shed their leaves? i might be able to squeak it in, at least the part that involves moving the posts. i probably won't be able to cement them in until spring if the temps get too cold. usually the leaves are gone by mid-october. I am de facto custodian of a muscadine trellis that has needed to be rebuilt for years. The vines aren't actually on the ground yet so it isn't exactly a pressing need; LOL! Nothing much except the bluejays has much interest in them, anyway, although I do grudgingly water them from time to time. actually it is probably better to ease off watering them if you are only giving them a little. instead the next time you get some rain would be the better time to water them (and to do so deeply). otherwise you are encouraging the roots near the surface and those will be more drought susceptible... kinda contrary to common sense. for arid regions they keep the top of the plant pruned to keep it within the amount of rainfall and that improves the taste and quality of the fruit (for winemaking). not much rain so having to water. almost all flowers are cycling fast with the heat and dry weather. Don't I know it. We had an exceptionally rainy March but since then, essentially no rain. June is typically one of the three wettest months down here but this month only slightly more than one inch so far. i think we've gotten about an inch today so far, and that would make our June total about an inch and a quarter). i'm glad to not have to be out this morning watering. .... Down here, the gardening seasons are very much out of phase with yours. The cool weather greens are long gone; I've been picking English peas since late February but the heat now just about has them whipped. i'm hoping to get more peas the next few weeks before the real high temperatures return. all the greens that have bolted i'll let flower and go to seed so i can see what the blooms look like. Tomatoes, too, are hurting from the hot weather; will try to extend their season a tad more with shade cloth but am not optimistic, based on past experience. huh, we have tomatoes growing all summer. they don't set as much fruit when it gets really hot but they don't wilt either. we have heavy clay soil. when we water them we have buckets with tiny holes in the bottom set down in the ground that we fill up. Been eating on the yellow squash, cucumbers, peppers and eggplant (aubergine) for a while. we don't do much with cucumbers or eggplant and we grow the peppers for inlaws more than for us. Pickle worms have become a bit of a problem this past couple of weeks but a night-time barrier seems to be helping quite a bit. i don't even know what a pickle worm looks like. Bt is somewhat effective but as a general rule the little buggers already have bored into the pepo before the Bt does its thing. At least, though, they don't just keep gnawing away. we don't have much sod/grass around and i think that keeps a lot of the grubs and worms from getting going. the tomato worms we pick off by hand. i don't think i've seen more than one japanese beetle so far. Getting a few okra, although, the second planting is not yet mature enough to begin bearing; probably another week away. "Provider" green beans are just coming in; first picking probably late today or tomorrow. Next, I expect the blackeye peas to be ready, followed by the "Delinel" green beans and the baby Lima beans. Kitchen herbs -- all container grown -- are doing well, although last year's parsley is blooming and the sun is getting to the thyme. i like okra, but haven't tried it here yet. i keep thinking it needs more heat than we get. does it do ok in soil with a lot of clay? i should put it on the list for trying sometime. Won't be doing any more "relay" or succession planting for this season. Just sort of in hover and maintain mode and planning for late summer and autumn planting. are there any cover crops you plant in the bare spots? i plant beans or buckwheat for any spots i want to plant again next season. any spots i can leave go for a few years i plant with alfalfa or birdsfoot trefoil. songbird |
#2
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Derald wrote:
songbird wrote: we have almost a full acre of gardens of various kinds. Oh, I just have nine raised beds that are nominally 3'X8' along with a variable number of containers that range from three gallons to thirty. The garden is "just enough, plus": It allows us to have some kind of fresh vegetable year-'round and some in the freezer. The only neighbor to whom I'd offer food doesn't cook and by the time the kinfolk received any garden produce, they definitely wouldn't want it! Back in the day, DW&I did the whole canning and dehydrating thing but, nowadays, I'm content to pay the power company to keep the stuff edible.... that's plenty enough space to feed two people quite a bit of produce. actually it is probably better to ease off watering them if you are only giving them a little. instead the next time you get some rain would be the better time to water them (and to do so deeply). Well, to my certain knowledge, these two vines are at least twenty-five years old and may be as old as thirty-three; there is some confusion on the issue. For virtually all save the first five (maybe) and the last three of those years, the vines quite literally have been on their own. They are in a small island in the "yard" that has been allowed to naturalize. A few years back, the nearest neighbor expressed an interest in the vines along with a desire to prune them in an effort to restore vigor and increase yield. I provided him with a couple of texts on the subject that had been in my possession since the early '70's and gave him carte blanche. I've not noticed any profound improvement and would as lief leave the water in the well so, perhaps, I'll return them to Nature's ministrations. how have they done fruitwise? every other year is good? do you use the fruit for wine or jam making or eat it fresh? has the neighbor given up? all the greens that have bolted i'll let flower and go to seed so i can see what the blooms look like. Think, "yellow", LOL! Heirloom greens seeds are so plentiful and inexpensive that I usually just go ahead and consign plants to compost shortly after they bolt -- when they get bitter. I do still have a few broadleaf mustard but they're soon to go: I just realized they're competing with the tomatoes for what few pollinators are active now; DUH! oh good, we like yellow. we keep as many flowers going as we can as there are many species of bees around. in a large patch of cosmos in mid-summer i can usually count over ten species. huh, we have tomatoes growing all summer. they don't set as much fruit when it gets really hot but they don't wilt either. Well, here the vines continue to do well, although, they do often develop the leaf curl associated with excessive bottom heat when grown in raised beds and/or containers as mine are. I insulate with wheat straw or pine straw, whichever is ready-to-hand. However, tomato biology and the pollinators' seasonal hiatus combine to virtually stop fruiting as summer progresses (so-called "blossom drop"), although, I manage to extend the season somewhat with shade cloth and hand pollination.Typically, a few canes of the indeterminates (usually "big boy") may be layered in order to have vigorous daughter plants that are productive until low temperatures take them out for real, which usually occurs sometime between mid-October and early November. if we could get to that late we'd have bushels more to put up. we have heavy clay soil. when we water them we have buckets with tiny holes in the bottom set down in the ground that we fill up. Here, it's sand and more sand over limestone. It eats organic amendments and compost for breakfast. I water with those soaker hoses that are made from recycled tires but they're a constant maintenance headache and I'm converting to pressure-compensated drip lines (as beds are re-planted), for which I should have sprung in the first place. do you add clay? here we have to add sand and organic materials to grow root crops. tomatoes do fine in clay as do the beans and peppers. should help hold more of that organic material and nutrients in the soil too. we don't do much with cucumbers or eggplant and we grow the peppers for inlaws more than for us. DW dices and freezes the peppers for use year-'round as an ingredient. We pre-cook eggplant and freeze it. Tried dehydration but the eggplant does not rehydrate well. ew, i'd imagine... if it were up to me i'd dice and freeze the green peppers too for use in chili and a few other dishes, but Ma can't stand them in the freezer. i don't even know what a pickle worm looks like. Click , learn, and count your blessings: http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/veg/pickleworm.htm. Down here, the best defense against pickle worms and squash vine borers is to get the seeds in the ground as early as possible. I don't even try to grow hard shelled "winter" squash or pumpkins because I tire of dealing with those two pests. read. glad to know they don't usually get this far north. fire ants as a control, hoho. ouch. haven't grown squash here for quite some time. will have a few plants this year by accident so we'll see how it turns out. i like okra, but haven't tried it here yet. i keep thinking it needs more heat than we get. does it do ok in soil with a lot of clay? i should put it on the list for trying sometime. Can't address the clay issue. The only clay with which I'm familiar comes in bags. meow? Okra does love the heat, although, down here it can be planted in March because the ground never freezes. You might be able to find a "early" short-season variety that'll make for you, although, I can't personally recommend any. However, if you occasionally have trouble getting tomatoes you may as well forget okra. we don't have trouble getting tomatoes. every year we've planted we've done well so far (knock on wood!). no troubles that many others seem to have (with BER and other various wilts and rots). we probably have between 5-7 bushels. sometimes we have single tomatoes that can almost fill a quart jar. i thought when we first planted this year we would have our first difficult season. the plants were still in their containers and had gotten rained on for two weeks. i thought for sure that they'd croak from fungus troubles. yet as soon as they got planted and the sun came out they greened up and took off. cages go on this weekend before they get too big. are there any cover crops you plant in the bare spots? Not regularly. I garden intensively and interplant aggressively so there rarely are bare spots and I believe the notion of leaving an area "fallow" to be fallacious. i'm getting that way. it help so much in keeping the weeds down too. For example, when I pull the defunct "Little marvel" peas (today or tomorrow), the bed still will be fully occupied with peppers, eggplant and marigolds ,which will last until October. Likewise, when the very last planting (4-30-2011) of "Little marvel" peas is done -- another week, maybe -- the interplanted "provider" green beans will remain. Having said that, though, I'll give a provisional "yes": When the early snap beans play out, I'll replant even though I know that come August and September they'll suffer from insufficient pollination. When I need bed space for late season squash, onions, garlic, or whatever, those beans will be among the first things to go. *nods* For a time I would underplant peanuts as a green mulch until I realized that, if the peanuts were getting enough sunlight to thrive, my main crops simply weren't planted closely enough, LOL!. makes sense. Nowadays, I don't put down any kind of mulch at all because, in my old dead daddy's words, "Mulch ain't nothin' but a place for cutworms to hide"! Plus, it retains too much moisture in this humid climate and encourages all manner of nasty stuff that I don't even know what is. here mulch is used in the strawberry patch to keep the berries out of the dirt. no troubles so far from cutworms that i can tell. i haven't mulched the tomatoes or peppers ever and they've done well with that. by the time it gets really hot the plants are big enough to shade the soil. any spots i can leave go for a few years i plant with alfalfa or birdsfoot trefoil. I get my alfalfa in a bag from the feed 'n seed or from a horse's patoot. Fortunately, I have both forms on hand. I don't know that I've ever seen either plant. i'll snap some pics and post 'em. they are both flowering now. this pic is just the trefoil. you can see the signature "birdsfoot" near the center of the picture. http://www.anthive.com/flowers/100_5477_Trefoil.jpg this one is of both, with the alfalfa being the taller plant with the small purple flowers behind the trefoil (you can tell which parts i've gotten weeded and those that i didn't get to). http://www.anthive.com/flowers/100_5...ot_Alfalfa.jpg and then there's this one, a surprise tulip bloom. i thought it wasn't going to do anything this year and then there it was. http://www.anthive.com/flowers/100_5...p_Surprise.jpg and a flower from earlier http://www.anthive.com/flowers/100_4808_Orange.jpg [the last two are not OT because tulips are edible for some folks... ] ok, 'nuff said. songbird |
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