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Post by seminolewind on Jun 20, 2018 11:23:21 GMT -5
Our last 100 degrees was in the 1990's. The biggest annoying thing with the weather is those afternoons where there is no air movement at all.
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Post by Sylie on Jun 20, 2018 12:29:07 GMT -5
wow, we get 100 frequently here.
After the rain yesterday and this morning it's now 84 and HUMID! omg you can drink the air.
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Post by seminolewind on Jun 24, 2018 21:57:04 GMT -5
Now I remember why plants were not at the top of my list....they need water every day!
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Post by chickenqueen on Jul 1, 2018 12:27:03 GMT -5
I'm getting my first tomatoes and peppers.I can't wait for some fried green tomatoes!!!
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Post by Sylie on Jul 4, 2018 0:47:17 GMT -5
I have TONS of green tomatoes, cherry, roma and black. omg, so many. and zucchini, for crying out loud I am over loaded! I picked 5 very large ones today, I made 6 mini loaves and 2 regular sized loaves of zucchini bread today and only used 1 1/4 zucchini's! What am I going to do with it all?? I've tried freezing it in the past and it gets very wet and decreases in volume, if I put 1 cup of grated zucc in the freezer I end up with 3/4 cup (or less). I am going to be doing A LOT of baking in the next few weeks.
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Post by seminolewind on Jul 4, 2018 11:52:13 GMT -5
There is also using the extra veggies to make a sortof sauce or stock for what ever you normally use soup or gravy for. Grind them to mush and cook. Season.
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Post by seminolewind on Jul 4, 2018 11:55:49 GMT -5
Well my garden produced 1 meal of beans, one meal of yellow squash, hand eating the peas, eggplants are starting to grow, one pepper plant is still growing. The cherry tomatoes are turning red but look tough-ish. I'll have to cook them.
Got to try again. Will plant in a new area, with better planning.
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Post by Sylie on Jul 4, 2018 16:53:36 GMT -5
do you till in fertilizer in the fall? We are going to try that this fall, I'm saving up all of my chicken and duck poo, we will spread it all over the garden area and then till it all in before the snow falls
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Post by seminolewind on Jul 4, 2018 21:13:31 GMT -5
I haven't grown anything before-down here.
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Post by Sylie on Jul 5, 2018 6:51:28 GMT -5
aah, well, soil prep seems to be the key, at least up here in our all clay soil.
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Post by chickenqueen on Jul 5, 2018 8:34:11 GMT -5
This year,I plan on planting cover crops.Some replenish nutrients,some are for weed control and some break up the topsoil.In the spring,you mow it down and till in your beds.It also helps with soil erosion,some bloom early and attract the early pollinators and I figure the geese will probably like it,too.I'm planning on trying a mix of annual rye grass(weed control),hairy vetch and/or red clover(nitrogen and biomass)and buckwheat(breaks up top soil).I always keep the old straw and have 3 piles that I rotate so one is 6 mos or older and ready for the garden to ready it for planting,one will be ready by the end of the planting season after the first pile is gone and a third new pile that I'll quit adding to in Nov so I'll have 2 "cooked" piles for spring plantings.It's also a good source for earthworms and the old straw gets used instead of filling up landfills.It really made a difference in the garden.
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Post by seminolewind on Jul 6, 2018 0:41:49 GMT -5
Sounds good. I think my beach sand yard has no nutrition whatsoever. It may need more than nutrients to plant. So I'll be working on something more substantially nutritious.
The weeds are drowning me. Rain every day doesn't help with the weeds. I've also seen some planting in a travel show where they plant closer together. Makes sense not to have all this space between plants just growing weeds.
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Post by chickenqueen on Jul 6, 2018 10:04:58 GMT -5
I did that with the tomatoes but they're a little too close.Also,I no longer till a big plot but till individual rows with the grass in between so there is something to walk on but mud.One year,it rained so hard we couldn't harvest anything because you would sink down to the clay bed up to the knees.I literally had to crawl out and it sucked a boot off and it's still out there,buried.The crops were total failures but the following winter was worse.This was 2013-2014.We got heavy snows,ice storms and extreme lows with daytime temps below 0.At least the wildlife had those unharvested corn/soybean fields to eat that year or a lot would've starved.
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Post by seminolewind on Jul 6, 2018 11:00:55 GMT -5
It sounds like you're a candidate for raised beds. And sometimes straw helps on walkways. I used to use old wood planks of wood. You live in Ohio. You should be growing anything. Maybe you need some more sand. I used to get coarse sand for my horse paddock.
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Post by seminolewind on Jul 11, 2018 22:15:01 GMT -5
My plants have been surrounded by lots of tall weeds from all the rain.
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Post by Sylie on Aug 14, 2018 22:29:29 GMT -5
How is everyone's garden doing? Mine is overflowing, I have GALLONS of tomatoes, we can't eat them fast enough. (all cherry tomatoes, not candidates for sauce), zucchini...omg I have given away 20 so far, used 11 for breads, meals, soups, dip etc and I have 8 on my counter and at least 10 more coming. Literally I bring a minimum of 2 per day. I have only 3 acorn squash out there and I don't think they are going to make it, vine borers got them and the plants are dying off. Pumpkins, I have 4 on my counter and 4 more that will be ready this week and countless tiny, marble sized ones growing. One lonely watermelon lol, it still has a good month or more on it, I hope it grows fast so that I don't have to worry about frost getting it. The watermelon plant was a "volunteer". A bird must have dropped a seed in the garden so there is only one plant. It had a watermelon on it earlier in the season but it died, not sure why but this second one is doing great so far.
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Post by seminolewind on Aug 15, 2018 20:04:35 GMT -5
My post disappeared.
I'm jealous! I got squat. I guess I'll try again. Maybe not enough water?
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Post by Sylie on Aug 15, 2018 22:46:17 GMT -5
There could be any number of reasons, water is one, either too much or too little. Soil quality is sometimes a thing, fertilizer or lack thereof can play a part (I don't use fertilizer at all, I am going to till in some duck and chicken poo this fall but that will be the first time I've ever done that). Too much sun or too little sun. Companion plants help too. Oh and I always use a combination of crushed egg shell, used coffee grounds, diatomaceous earth, peat and peat moss. This year I didn't get either of the peats so they they just got eggshell and coffee grounds. A friend of mine swears by digging a hole and putting a whole fish in the bottom, cover with 2 inches of dirt, water well then plant your plant/seed on top. I've never done that but she has always done it and has a fantastic garden.
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Post by maryellen on Aug 16, 2018 5:49:16 GMT -5
Tooo much rain here. Both my gardens tanked:(
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Post by seminolewind on Aug 16, 2018 10:24:08 GMT -5
I'm thinking maybe too much sun or too hot. It is all day sun on the side of a shed. I had to remove a coop there because it was too hot for the chickens. The soil should have been fine. Mixed with aged horse manure. I'll try again. We have one more growing season left. I may leave the tomatoes for the experts at the farm stand.
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