yesterday i finished up removing one of the
chive patches that was taking up too much space
at the bottom of the north garden. the smell
of the roots and dirt make me rather sick to my
stomach so i was very glad to be done.

most of the clumps of roots were buried upside
down under a layer of dried stuff or whatever
paper scraps i had on hand and then six to eight
inches of dirt. they will likely never be able
to come up through that and the worms will turn
them into fertilizer in time. yesterday a few
piles ran out of dried stuff to use so i may see
some of those again this season. probably will
plant extra beans/peas on top of them because it
is in an unfenced garden.

still it is now a lot less cover for the bunnies
to hide in along that edge with the chives gone.
it is rather low there now too and since i was
trying to get a low garden going with some creeping
plants that like moisture and eventually i'm sure
strawberries will get in there too. a layer of
shredded bark would be nice there but i have to
get a decent edge in place to keep it from washing
into the neighboring crushed limestone. don't
want to raise the whole area up too far as i sure
don't want yet another retaining wall or more
formal edge. that neighboring crushed limestone
and flat flood plain may eventually get turned
into more gardens as i can find the fill for it and
if Ma will let me get away with it. the
neighboring fake pond is falling apart and we're
going to do something with it this year or next.
hmm, too much to ponder and too many other projects
in the works for me, but i better be sure to get
a say in what happens next as if i don't then it
more likely than not will mean more work for me
later...

some of the earlier plantings have sprouted and
seem to be doing fine (peas, onions, turnips,
rutabagas). these too are in the unfenced garden
so they may get raided by bunnies at any time.

the other project finished up the other day was
getting the back spiral garden/green manure patch
weeded and to dig out all of the garlic in there
that i could find. it is much easier to do this
before the alfalfa and birdsfoot trefoil gets
tall. this also gave me a good chance to observe
the quality of the soil and to see how the late
summer cover crops of buckwheat and turnips had
fared. considering the condition of the soil
when i started several years ago it is coming
along well. i'm now going to be adding a mix of
other plants into that patch in areas so that it
can start being an alternate and back up food
source. turnips, beets, beans, peas, fennel,
bak choi, rutabagas, ..., and some other things
i can find today (rainy day errand run).

now that these two projects are done i can
switch to the fenced gardens and getting them
weeded or turned -- getting them ready for
planting and seeing how they are faring. most
of them have a light cover crop of winter wheat
or winter rye and will not need to worry too
much about the impact of that rotting down.
one garden has a much higher crop of wheat and
rye and i'm tempted to leave that alone and see
if i can get any kind of harvest from them but
i suspect the goldfinches will beat me to it.
the finches have a pretty good eye for any seed
bearing plants. then again, if the field to
the north of us does not get turned under we'll
have winter wheat galore for them over there...
hmm...

late last summer i also planted turnips in the
north patch to see how they went. some did get
fairly large and i gave them to someone who likes
them and appreciates them, the rest i left to see
how they survived the winter without being
covered or mulched in any way other than what was
provided by the snow. many did survive. i pulled
some the other day to see if they were edible. no.
so they are now worm food for the worm bins here
in my room. the rest are out there growing and
are going to hopefully be a source of seeds for
future generations. yet, it is pretty likely i'll
get a lb of turnip seeds today as they are a nice
cover crop for bare spots and they aren't too
expensive.

the killdeer are out there running around in
tribes (mating season i suspect). funny...


songbird

On 29/04/2014 11:49 PM, songbird wrote:
yesterday i finished up removing one of the
chive patches that was taking up too much space
at the bottom of the north garden. the smell
of the roots and dirt make me rather sick to my
stomach so i was very glad to be done.

:-)) IMO, you can never have too many chives. I use them so often in
the kitchen.

most of the clumps of roots were buried upside
down under a layer of dried stuff or whatever
paper scraps i had on hand and then six to eight
inches of dirt. they will likely never be able
to come up through that and the worms will turn
them into fertilizer in time. yesterday a few
piles ran out of dried stuff to use so i may see
some of those again this season. probably will
plant extra beans/peas on top of them because it
is in an unfenced garden.

Members of the allium family are reputed to stunt peas and beans so it'd
be interesting to know if that same reputed impact applies to planting
on top of interred alliums.

still it is now a lot less cover for the bunnies
to hide in along that edge with the chives gone.
it is rather low there now too and since i was
trying to get a low garden going with some creeping
plants that like moisture and eventually i'm sure
strawberries will get in there too. a layer of
shredded bark would be nice there but i have to
get a decent edge in place to keep it from washing
into the neighboring crushed limestone. don't
want to raise the whole area up too far as i sure
don't want yet another retaining wall or more
formal edge. that neighboring crushed limestone
and flat flood plain may eventually get turned
into more gardens as i can find the fill for it and
if Ma will let me get away with it. the
neighboring fake pond is falling apart and we're
going to do something with it this year or next.
hmm, too much to ponder and too many other projects
in the works for me, but i better be sure to get
a say in what happens next as if i don't then it
more likely than not will mean more work for me
later...

some of the earlier plantings have sprouted and
seem to be doing fine (peas, onions, turnips,
rutabagas). these too are in the unfenced garden
so they may get raided by bunnies at any time.

the other project finished up the other day was
getting the back spiral garden/green manure patch
weeded and to dig out all of the garlic in there
that i could find. it is much easier to do this
before the alfalfa and birdsfoot trefoil gets
tall. this also gave me a good chance to observe
the quality of the soil and to see how the late
summer cover crops of buckwheat and turnips had
fared. considering the condition of the soil
when i started several years ago it is coming
along well.

:-)) Isn't it a great joy to notice those sorts of improvements?
Non-gardeners never seem to understand why that gives gardeners such a
thrill.


i'm now going to be adding a mix of
other plants into that patch in areas so that it
can start being an alternate and back up food
source. turnips, beets, beans, peas, fennel,
bak choi, rutabagas, ...,

I've forgotten what the rest of the English speaking world calls them.
Is it turnips??????

and some other things
i can find today (rainy day errand run).

now that these two projects are done i can
switch to the fenced gardens and getting them
weeded or turned -- getting them ready for
planting and seeing how they are faring. most
of them have a light cover crop of winter wheat
or winter rye and will not need to worry too
much about the impact of that rotting down.
one garden has a much higher crop of wheat and
rye and i'm tempted to leave that alone and see
if i can get any kind of harvest from them but
i suspect the goldfinches will beat me to it.
the finches have a pretty good eye for any seed
bearing plants. then again, if the field to
the north of us does not get turned under we'll
have winter wheat galore for them over there...
hmm...

late last summer i also planted turnips in the
north patch to see how they went. some did get
fairly large and i gave them to someone who likes
them and appreciates them, the rest i left to see
how they survived the winter without being
covered or mulched in any way other than what was
provided by the snow. many did survive. i pulled
some the other day to see if they were edible. no.
so they are now worm food for the worm bins here
in my room. the rest are out there growing and
are going to hopefully be a source of seeds for
future generations. yet, it is pretty likely i'll
get a lb of turnip seeds today as they are a nice
cover crop for bare spots and they aren't too
expensive.

the killdeer are out there running around in
tribes (mating season i suspect). funny...

I think I'll go and have a rest after reading of all your busyness.
You've made me feel quite weary :-))

Fran Farmer wrote:
i'm now going to be adding a mix of
other plants into that patch in areas so that it
can start being an alternate and back up food
source. turnips, beets, beans, peas, fennel,
bak choi, rutabagas, ...,

I've forgotten what the rest of the English speaking world calls them.
Is it turnips??????


Yes turnips or perhaps swedes (not Swedes). Other than stock feed the only
reason to grow them is to get something fresh when it is very cold and not
much else will grow. SWMBO puts them in winter soup, luckily there are many
other things in there and you don't notice. Thinly sliced in salad - well
you would have to be desperate.


D

Fran Farmer wrote:
songbird wrote:
yesterday i finished up removing one of the
chive patches that was taking up too much space
at the bottom of the north garden. the smell
of the roots and dirt make me rather sick to my
stomach so i was very glad to be done.

:-)) IMO, you can never have too many chives. I use them so often in
the kitchen.

that's part of it, that we rarely actually even
use them. we sure don't need 100sq ft of them.
besides the two main patches (now down to one) we
also have them scattered around growing in other
locations.


most of the clumps of roots were buried upside
down under a layer of dried stuff or whatever
paper scraps i had on hand and then six to eight
inches of dirt. they will likely never be able
to come up through that and the worms will turn
them into fertilizer in time. yesterday a few
piles ran out of dried stuff to use so i may see
some of those again this season. probably will
plant extra beans/peas on top of them because it
is in an unfenced garden.

Members of the allium family are reputed to stunt peas and beans so it'd
be interesting to know if that same reputed impact applies to planting
on top of interred alliums.

hmm, these are buried quite deeply below the root
zone in most of the area. i can always put beets in
the shallower spots (where i didn't have enough stuff
to cover). otherwise, i didn't notice any trouble
in my previous years growing of beans on top of
similar piles of chive sod.


....
the other project finished up the other day was
getting the back spiral garden/green manure patch
weeded and to dig out all of the garlic in there
that i could find. it is much easier to do this
before the alfalfa and birdsfoot trefoil gets
tall. this also gave me a good chance to observe
the quality of the soil and to see how the late
summer cover crops of buckwheat and turnips had
fared. considering the condition of the soil
when i started several years ago it is coming
along well.

:-)) Isn't it a great joy to notice those sorts of improvements?
Non-gardeners never seem to understand why that gives gardeners such a
thrill.

i consider it a lifelong process which i hope
will go another twenty or thirty years. each
year certain things get easier too.


i'm now going to be adding a mix of
other plants into that patch in areas so that it
can start being an alternate and back up food
source. turnips, beets, beans, peas, fennel,
bak choi, rutabagas, ...,

I've forgotten what the rest of the English speaking world calls them.
Is it turnips??????

swedes, they are a type of turnip, but not the
same as the purple topped globe turnips which are
very common. these are pale yellow inside and
turn yellow/orange more when cooked. they have
a fairly mild flavor to me. turnips i like to
fry up in the pan in a little olive oil until
they get a little brown on the outside. to me
much better than potatoes...


....
the killdeer are out there running around in
tribes (mating season i suspect). funny...

I think I'll go and have a rest after reading of all your busyness.
You've made me feel quite weary :-))

wasn't too bad as it was stretched over
the past few weeks. i left out some of the
great blunders and adventures in sillyness.

i did find some diakon radish seeds and some
dill, also restocked the buckwheat and turnip
seed supplies.

the earliest tulips are starting to show up.
that's about when it is the time to start
getting more peas in the ground. still might
get some frosts here or there but the worst
of the hard freezes should be over. at least
i sure hope they are.

oh, and the apple seeds i planted last fall
seemed to have sprouted. i'll have plenty of
scrub apple trees or root stock for grafting
by the looks of it. all experimental as with
the rabbits and deer around here i'm not sure
i'll ever see a fruit tree make it very far.
if i do it will because the thing has armor
and fences around it.

time to check the weather radar and see if
i'll get out to plant anything or just keep on
goofing around today.


songbird

David Hare-Scott wrote:
....
Yes turnips or perhaps swedes (not Swedes). Other than stock feed the only
reason to grow them is to get something fresh when it is very cold and not
much else will grow. SWMBO puts them in winter soup, luckily there are many
other things in there and you don't notice. Thinly sliced in salad - well
you would have to be desperate.

two different turnip types. swedes are
rutabagas are orangy/yellow pale color.
some people raise them for animal feed too
i grow most of them here for worm food (as
a soil cover crop).

some people like the greens. (wonder how
Derald is doing down there in FL with all the
recent rains...?)

i like them better than potatoes if they
are going to be cooked. haven't tried them
pickled, fermented (kraut) or raw yet. not
in any hurry...


songbird

songbird wrote:
I've forgotten what the rest of the English speaking world calls
them. Is it turnips??????

swedes, they are a type of turnip, but not the
same as the purple topped globe turnips which are
very common. these are pale yellow inside and
turn yellow/orange more when cooked. they have
a fairly mild flavor to me. turnips i like to
fry up in the pan in a little olive oil until
they get a little brown on the outside. to me
much better than potatoes...



This is where common names don't travel very well. I think we are talking
about two different but related plants. The thing you buy in the supermarket
here called a 'swede' is roundish, tapering towards the root, purplish skin
on top and cream below with off-white flesh that stays dirty-white when
cooked. The flavour is quite strong and to my taste unpleasant. I am
guessing you call this a turnip and the yellow/orange one rutabaga? I
haven't seen the yellow/orange one here.

D

In article
"David Hare-Scott" writes:
songbird wrote:
I've forgotten what the rest of the English speaking world calls
them. Is it turnips??????

swedes, they are a type of turnip, but not the
same as the purple topped globe turnips which are
very common. these are pale yellow inside and
turn yellow/orange more when cooked. they have
a fairly mild flavor to me. turnips i like to
fry up in the pan in a little olive oil until
they get a little brown on the outside. to me
much better than potatoes...



This is where common names don't travel very well. I think we are talking
about two different but related plants.

Perhaps this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutabaga
would be useful in the discussion.

To muddy the language waters, I grew up (in the USA) with my mother
calling these things (boiled and mashed) "turnips." I don't care
much for rutabegas, but I like turnips in moderation.

The thing you buy in the supermarket
here called a 'swede' is roundish, tapering towards the root, purplish skin
on top and cream below with off-white flesh that stays dirty-white when
cooked. The flavour is quite strong and to my taste unpleasant. I am
guessing you call this a turnip and the yellow/orange one rutabaga? I
haven't seen the yellow/orange one here.

D



--
Drew Lawson Some men's dreams
for others turn to nightmares.
I never would have thought this
in my wildest dreams.

David Hare-Scott wrote:
songbird wrote:
Farm1 asked:
....
I've forgotten what the rest of the English speaking world calls
them. Is it turnips??????

swedes, they are a type of turnip, but not the
same as the purple topped globe turnips which are
very common. these are pale yellow inside and
turn yellow/orange more when cooked. they have
a fairly mild flavor to me. turnips i like to
fry up in the pan in a little olive oil until
they get a little brown on the outside. to me
much better than potatoes...

This is where common names don't travel very well. I think we are talking
about two different but related plants. The thing you buy in the supermarket
here called a 'swede' is roundish, tapering towards the root, purplish skin
on top and cream below with off-white flesh that stays dirty-white when
cooked. The flavour is quite strong and to my taste unpleasant. I am
guessing you call this a turnip and the yellow/orange one rutabaga? I
haven't seen the yellow/orange one here.

yes, you've got it, the usage i am famiar with comes
from the UP of Michigan where they have pasties (a meat
pie with minced onion, carrot, rutabaga, potato) and that
was for the copper miners that were brought from overseas
to work in the mines. supposedly of Cornish derivation,
but the plants go back much further.

the wiki seems to cover it well (along with the
clarification on usage subtopic) and reflects what
i've generally known.

as usual, English borrows heavily from other
languages as in i liked the comment about root bags
from Swedish.

neeps is a fun word.

too many good pictures of food/recipes in those
pages, made me hungry and it was time to sleep, with
a rumbly stomach.


songbird

Derald wrote:
songbird wrote:

some people like the greens. (wonder how
Derald is doing down there in FL with all the
recent rains...?)

He's getting very little of the rain. None of it that caused the
recent flooding in the panhandle A whopping 0.4" overnight.

hope things have improved? we're doing ok
on some rain, but light rain and very scattered.
frosts still here or there. not much warmth but
perhaps that will change this week as we might
break into the 70sF.


I grow those turnips that make somewhat spherical white roots with
magenta tops. You know: The ones with the creative name. The last of
mine, planted in late Nov. joined the compost on April 2. I shall begin
planting them again when the weather cools somewhat in October.

the ones that survived the winter have surprised
me the past few days, it looks like they are going
to flower. i thought it would be sometime this
summer or even in the fall before they would flower.
learn something new all the time.

you ever eat the flowers or seed heads from
turnips?

i was also surprised by how the daikon radish
seeds were reasonable edible.


Right now, have "Little Marvel" peas coming in; carrots, too. For
practical purposes, the brassicas are all gone save for a handful of
collards and some laggard broccoli. The celery is doing well; I had no
expectations of it so any result is gratifying. Have green beans,
cowpeas, okra, tomatoes, cukes, yellow squash, jalapeño peppers coming
along well. Noticed some "Scarlet Nantes" carrot seedlings today. Took
them 18 days to germinate; had about given up on them. Interested in
seeing whether they thrive or develop much flavor as the weather warms
(more).

good luck with the carrots. i seem to recall
that like some other veggies that they seem to
get better after a bit of frost hits them.


songbird

Derald wrote:
songbird wrote:
Derald wrote:
songbird wrote:

some people like the greens. (wonder how
Derald is doing down there in FL with all the
recent rains...?)

He's getting very little of the rain. None of it that caused the
recent flooding in the panhandle A whopping 0.4" overnight.

hope things have improved? we're doing ok
on some rain, but light rain and very scattered.
frosts still here or there. not much warmth but
perhaps that will change this week as we might
break into the 70sF.

Two or three cloudy, drizzly, "wintry" days gifted us with slightly
more than one inch; none since. Nighttime temps are mid-60's and
daytime in mid-high 80's. As I've mentioned in the past, "spring" down
here is about ten days in February or March.

sometimes ours seem that ways too.

i should not have spoken about scattered and
light rain as pretty much then things changed
and we've had plenty of rain. woken up again
from thunder/lightning.

for some reason i keep thinking the weather
forecasts are going to be reasonably right
several days in advance and then foolishly
make plans around that... good thing nothing
really depends upon me getting stuff done on
certain days.


The English peas are having a time of it: They indubitably do not
prefer these hot, sunny days. This year's late planting rotated into a
bed that gets early-day sun early in the year so they are adhering more
closely to their normal "dwarf" stature than is usual and are covered
with blossoms. Most years, the late peas are approaching the end of
productivity by mid-May but this year's weren't planted until
mid-March—almost a month later than in most springs.

two months seems like it should be enough
time.


Have blossoms on the transplanted "volunteer" tomato of unknown
lineage and noticed for the first time this morning a smattering of
blossoms on the snap beans ("Contender").

are these the new beans (i can't remember )
that you are testing out?


Spent some time yesterday evening transplanting okra into a
singular bed from a community bed (a "community" bed, not the
reactionary utopian misnomer). I always forget that okra is a slow
starter, especially when planted early, and often is outgrown
(overgrown) by its interplanted bedmates. Boy, does it compensate later
in the year when the heat turns up.

i wouldn't expect it to do much until it gets
warmer anyways. here the one time i planted it
it grew quickly enough in rock hard poor soil
that i'd hate to see what it does in fertile
soil. seemed to be an aphid magnet plant.


... those turnips....

the ones that survived the winter have surprised
me the past few days, it looks like they are going
to flower. i thought it would be sometime this
summer or even in the fall before they would flower.
learn something new all the time.

you ever eat the flowers or seed heads from
turnips?

Nah; ours never stay in the garden long enough to flower. Turnips
are biennials that do not thrive in warm weather so fall-planted turnips
are pretty punched out by March or April and any planted after about
Valentine's Day are basically just flea beetle fodder. Besides which,
turnip roots are best eaten young; the longer they remain, especially as
weather warms, the more likely the roots are to become fibrous or
"pithy". I don't know what triggers flowering.

i decided i wanted flowers/seeds and most of
them are in locations which isn't in the way of
anything else so they get to stay at least
until they get seeds.

the cabbage worm butterflies have been out
the past few days -- first butterflies of the
season.


i was also surprised by how the daikon radish
seeds were reasonable edible.

Those are untreated seeds of known origin, I assume.

oh yes, nothing on them, there were some other
daikon seeds that did have a pink coating which
i did not get. figured it was added filler to
get the seed up to size to be planted by a
soybean drill.


good luck with the carrots. i seem to recall
that like some other veggies that they seem to
get better after a bit of frost hits them.

I was surprised these even germinated. They were planted on 14
April. Two other varieties planted during the first half of April are
no-shows, although, fall and winter plantings all did well. If the
Nantes taste like anything, then they definitely are late-season
candidates for future gardens.


songbird

On 5/7/2014 1:21 PM, Derald wrote:
songbird wrote:

Derald wrote:
songbird wrote:

some people like the greens. (wonder how
Derald is doing down there in FL with all the
recent rains...?)

He's getting very little of the rain. None of it that caused the
recent flooding in the panhandle A whopping 0.4" overnight.

hope things have improved? we're doing ok
on some rain, but light rain and very scattered.
frosts still here or there. not much warmth but
perhaps that will change this week as we might
break into the 70sF.
Two or three cloudy, drizzly, "wintry" days gifted us with slightly
more than one inch; none since. Nighttime temps are mid-60's and
daytime in mid-high 80's. As I've mentioned in the past, "spring" down
here is about ten days in February or March.
The English peas are having a time of it: They indubitably do not
prefer these hot, sunny days. This year's late planting rotated into a
bed that gets early-day sun early in the year so they are adhering more
closely to their normal "dwarf" stature than is usual and are covered
with blossoms. Most years, the late peas are approaching the end of
productivity by mid-May but this year's weren't planted until
mid-March—almost a month later than in most springs.
Have blossoms on the transplanted "volunteer" tomato of unknown
lineage and noticed for the first time this morning a smattering of
blossoms on the snap beans ("Contender").
Spent some time yesterday evening transplanting okra into a
singular bed from a community bed (a "community" bed, not the
reactionary utopian misnomer). I always forget that okra is a slow
starter, especially when planted early, and often is outgrown
(overgrown) by its interplanted bedmates. Boy, does it compensate later
in the year when the heat turns up.


... those turnips....

the ones that survived the winter have surprised
me the past few days, it looks like they are going
to flower. i thought it would be sometime this
summer or even in the fall before they would flower.
learn something new all the time.

you ever eat the flowers or seed heads from
turnips?
Nah; ours never stay in the garden long enough to flower. Turnips
are biennials that do not thrive in warm weather so fall-planted turnips
are pretty punched out by March or April and any planted after about
Valentine's Day are basically just flea beetle fodder. Besides which,
turnip roots are best eaten young; the longer they remain, especially as
weather warms, the more likely the roots are to become fibrous or
"pithy". I don't know what triggers flowering.

i was also surprised by how the daikon radish
seeds were reasonable edible.
Those are untreated seeds of known origin, I assume.

good luck with the carrots. i seem to recall
that like some other veggies that they seem to
get better after a bit of frost hits them.
I was surprised these even germinated. They were planted on 14
April. Two other varieties planted during the first half of April are
no-shows, although, fall and winter plantings all did well. If the
Nantes taste like anything, then they definitely are late-season
candidates for future gardens.

Wife likes turnips but she's of German descent, I'm Native American and
English and I don't eat turnips. In my youth they were grown as animal
fodder. Wife planted spring carrots again, I know for a fact they will
not mature. Our temps here in Harris Cty, TX are already in the low to
mid eighties. We are getting a light rain drizzle right now and we badly
need it.

Last week I installed all new soaker hoses in the raised beds and they
seem to be working better than the rain we don't get.

Crowder peas are climbing the fence, Hopi red lima beans are climbing
their netting as are the cukes. We actually have little tomatoes and
cukes making and an eggplant is about ready to pick, the fruit is bigger
than the plant. Leeks need pulling and will most likely given away to
neighbors, they're way to strong for my taste.

The fig tree has baby figs and the blueberries have very few berries
coming on due to a late frost. Looks like we will go to a pick-your-own
farm this year for blueberries and blackberries, the native dewberries
and blackberries didn't get enough rain this year and are small and very
seedy. I am happy for the rain we are currently getting.

Derald wrote:
songbird wrote:
Derald wrote:

Most years, the late peas are approaching the end of
productivity by mid-May but this year's weren't planted until
mid-March—almost a month later than in most springs.

two months seems like it should be enough
time.

Oh, it is; it's just that, when they're planted later, the risk of
losing them to the sun or to something like powdery mildew just as
they're hitting their stride increases a whole bunch and they don't have
the sweetness one expects from fresh garden peas. Gonna find something
with which to shade these and see whether that helps. Of course, I've
probably tried doing so in years past but who remembers? Shading helps
with the herbs so why not peas?

as long as you aren't cutting down on air
flow it seems like it should help some.

i don't think the plants are daylight
sensitive in terms of shutting down as i can
plant peas any time here during the summer
and they will grow.


Have blossoms on the transplanted "volunteer" tomato of unknown
lineage and noticed for the first time this morning a smattering of
blossoms on the snap beans ("Contender").

are these the new beans (i can't remember )
that you are testing out?

Yes; one of two new (to me) varieties. The other is "slenderette".
They're three weeks behind the "contender" beans. Time and space
permitting, will add some "provider" and some "tenderette" beans later,
although, they may have to wait until fall.

good luck!


Spent some time yesterday evening transplanting okra into a
singular bed from a community bed....

i wouldn't expect it to do much until it gets
warmer anyways.

Yes; I habitually plant them early in the vain hope of having okra
by the time the first cowpeas come in. Boy, talk about repeating the
same action in hopes of a different result.... Cowpeas cooked in
combination with okra is/are a traditional "po' folks'" favorite in
parts of the US South.

hehehe...


here the one time i planted it
it grew quickly enough in rock hard poor soil
that i'd hate to see what it does in fertile
soil. seemed to be an aphid magnet plant.

By the end of the season, most years, I harvest from a stepladder.
Hadn't noticed any particular aphid affinity for okra.

i'm only basing it upon a very small sample
as the one time we did plant okra they had some
black aphids all over the pods. nothing else in
our yard had those aphids that season. we have
tons of lady bugs all over so i'm not sure
what happened with those particular plants.


the cabbage worm butterflies have been out
the past few days -- first butterflies of the
season.

Are those white with black stripes?

yes, i'd call them a medium sized butterfly.
the next butterfly that comes out is a small
pale blue one which i'm not sure comes from
what larva. some time when i'm more ambitious
i'll look it up.


Except for the coldest
periods, we have butterflies and moths (grasshoppers, too) year 'round.
I don't know enough about them to know whether they're full time
residents or migrant stragglers.

i don't think they migrate. we have several
flights of them during the warmer weather.


When the crawlies become pestiferous,
I hit the host plants, except for parsley, with Bt. When the parsley is
at risk, enough gets covered to supply the kitchen and the animals have
the balance. I will admit to relocating "caterpillars" that I know
(hell, or even suspect) to be those of "pretty" leps. Some sort of
orange thing, along withs a zebra swallowtail, was fluttering around in
the garden this morning. They came to the party for the Spanish needles
flowering just outside the garden.

we pick up crawlies a lot too and move
them to safe areas.


Have flowers on peas, beans, and mustard greens. Leaving the
mustard greens "just because". Nothing is eating them save a handful of
honeybees and a couple of familiar carpenter bees. Daytime temps are
approaching 90 (89 yesterday) so the honeybees are showing more interest
in water than in flower juice.

finally have been seeing more of the larger
bumblebees with the many thousand tulips and
daffodils out along with the hyacynths and
now the dandylions. not seeing too many
honey bees.

i'm not sure what you are calling a carpenter
bee? here they would be what i am calling the
large bumblebees as they can dig rather sizeable
holes into wood if they find the right site. a
few times i've had to caulk holes they've put in
the sides/eves of the house. they aren't singular
either as they do have rather large hives in the
ground.

looks like turnip flowers are yellow - so they
get to stay. the diakon radish seedlings are
rather cute (about three times the size of a
turnip sprout). think i may be approaching the
too late for planting on the pak choi but i'll
put a few seeds in and see how they do now and
hold some back for the fall/cooler weather and
perhaps those plants will over-winter like the
turnips.

also hope to get some of the beans and more
peas planted this week. never hurts to be an
optimist on the beans as i have plenty of extra
seeds to plant. like to have plenty to harvest
all at once when i want to put some up.

strawberries starting to bloom. that's two
years in a row they've started to bloom around
May 11. the wild strawberries started a few
weeks ago.

plenty to keep me busy if the weather
cooperates.


songbird

On 5/9/2014 12:02 PM, Derald wrote:
George Shirley wrote:

Wife likes turnips but she's of German descent, I'm Native American and
English and I don't eat turnips. In my youth they were grown as animal
fodder. Wife planted spring carrots again, I know for a fact they will
not mature. Our temps here in Harris Cty, TX are already in the low to
mid eighties. We are getting a light rain drizzle right now and we badly
need it.

Last week I installed all new soaker hoses in the raised beds and they
seem to be working better than the rain we don't get.
I used soaker hoses for a few years. They were those black things
constructed of shredded tires. I wish now that I'd put the money I
****ed away on them into drip irrigation, which I now use.

Crowder peas are climbing the fence
Two questions:

What variety of peas;
Can (and will) you provide a trusted source for certified seed?
Can't, we save seed every year and have for about fifty years. My family
used to grow black crowders developed by a great uncle of mine back in
the nineteen teens in Central Louisiana. My Mom tossed the frozen seeds
when she moved to a nursing home while I was working overseas. Lost that
strain so just bought some plain crowders at a farm store in Orange, TX,
been saving seed every since we came home from Saudi in 1986. I reckon
they're heirlooms now. G They were in a bulk bin at the store at about
ten cents a lb at the time. The pods get about six to eight inches long
and about as big around as a grown man's little finger with eight to
twelve peas in the pod. Easy to string and shuck and taste good. There
are some good heirloom seed places online though.

I'd be happy with most any heirloom variety of crowder or conch
peas. Any change from blackeyes and pinkeyes is welcome.

Last spring, a nostalgia attack induced the planting of "zipper
cream" crowders purchased from an organic seed exchange; mistake.
Resulted in a bad experience and three beds that "technically" should be
quarantined to legumes for three years. Looks like I'm back to more
resistant varieties until I can find a source for disease-free seeds;
bummer.

, Hopi red lima beans are climbing
their netting as are the cukes. We actually have little tomatoes and
cukes making and an eggplant is about ready to pick, the fruit is bigger
than the plant.
It'll be interesting to have a correspondent whose gardening year
more closely resembles mine than do those of the other participants in
the NG. Shoot: Where I am, even the Carolinas is "up north" ;-) I'm a
little south of you at a latitude closer to that of Corpus Christi so
the solar timetable is similar but with warmer winters. We only had one
frost this year, not unusual.
What's your USDA heat zone, we're probably much cooler than you as we
are in heat zone 8b. In SW Louisiana we were in 9b, edging into 10,
probably more like your area. In a normal year we plant in late
February, this year we had frost, hail, sleet, and snow into April. In
Louisiana our last frost day was generally February 18.
While them folks "up there" are anticipating finally being able to
spend some meaningful time outdoors, I'm anticipating picking the green
beans that are in full enflorescence. "Contender"; new to me. Planted
on 04 April, fully emergent by 10 April and covered with flowers today.
I think they and I might be friends.
We generally grow Contender but am not growing any green beans this
year. Had a giant crop last year and canned ninety percent of it, still
got tons in the pantry. Will be good up until about mid-2015 unless the
house burns.
My cukes will get a fence wire trellis later today. In containers,
I can grow eggplant as perrenials for a few years but winter eventually
takes them out. Haven't grown eggplant for a couple of years, though,
and it seems that I may have lost the touch: Having a hard time getting
any started this year. Seeing nascent yellow squash but, if these
follow the pattern of the past few years, those blossoms will be
sacrificial due to the absence of pollenizers.
We have cukes about two inches long now, I spent an hour putting the
tendrils of the limas and cukes up on the nylon netting so they will
continue climbing. We have four foot wide raised beds so the trellises
are needed. Much smaller backyard than our old house. oh yeah, we've
been eating yellow squash since very early May. Grandson is trying to
give some of his away he has so many.

Leeks need pulling and will most likely given away to
neighbors, they're way to strong for my taste.
No leeks. Only allium are onions, garlic, chives
About twenty years a friend gave me a bag full of bunching onions. Still
have them growing. Pull the bunch, take one out, cut off the top and
replant, two months later you've got another bunch. We did that a month
ago and the replants are already bunching.

The fig tree has baby figs and the blueberries have very few berries
coming on due to a late frost. Looks like we will go to a pick-your-own
farm this year for blueberries and blackberries, the native dewberries
and blackberries didn't get enough rain this year and are small and very
seedy. I am happy for the rain we are currently getting.
Dewberries and rabbiteyes never amounted to much in this part of
Florida but the advent of heat-tolerant highbush hybrids has instigated
commercial farming, even this far south, in pursuit of the very early,
primarily Asian, market. The commercial season is pretty well over by
late April, after which some growers open up to the handy homeowner
market. Most, though, just prune and be done with it.
Native blackberries have all but disappeared from these parts but
those little tiny seedy things that travel under a different name (which
I forget) persist, although, deforestation passing as "development" is
likely, eventually, to get them, too.

In my old age I've gotten clumsy so I no longer grow anything with
briars, I end up looking like the aftermath of a scary movie with blood
all over my arms and hands. We will go to one of the better pick-you-own
places a little later this month and pick a few gallons of blackberries
and blueberries. I will can them for later use in pies and cobblers,
they're one of the easiest things to can around here.

Derald wrote:
....
I'd be happy with most any heirloom variety of crowder or conch
peas. Any change from blackeyes and pinkeyes is welcome.

are you talking for fresh eating, shelling or
for dried use?


songbird