Garden Diaries, 2020

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Killerbunny
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Re: Garden Diaries, 2020

Post by Killerbunny » Sun Jul 05, 2020 8:21 am

Picking tart cherries for the last few days. We pick the lower ones the birds get the rest. I always have my helpers with me and 87 bounces up to get them for the kids, hope they don't get sore tummies! I think this is the most we've ever had.
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:iheartpto:
Beltsville Small White turkeys.
Mutt chickens for eggs
RIP Stephen the BSW Tom and my coffee companion.
RIP Lucky the Very Brave Splash Wyandotte rooster.
RIP little Muppet the rescue cat.
:turkey:

:bat:

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Happy
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Re: Garden Diaries, 2020

Post by Happy » Sun Jul 05, 2020 8:49 am

We are experiencing well issues. My well is 50 years young. Long story short we aren't getting adequate water flow and are being advised to just drill a new one. Thats not going to happen immediately. There's enough water for what we need but not all at once so we need to time things like laundry, showers and watering the garden. Hubby is far more "techy" than I am. He found a gadget that attaches to the garden faucet and allows you to set watering times and durations. So we now water 4 times through the night for 15 minutes each time. It puts no strain on the well and doesn't cause us to avoid water use in waking hours. We will be able to reduce to every other evening once this heat spell is over. The garden is loving it. We installed rain barrels and the last rainfall filled them to the point that they overflowed. Now they are empty again after just a couple of waterings.
It's a very strange spring/summer here this year. I've lived in this house for 23 years and I've never seen so few bugs-including mosquitos and black flies. Not just now but even during peak mosquito season. Lots of deer flies and wasps but next to nothing of anything else. Flowers on my veggies are being pollinated so I guess there's bees around but i sure haven't seen them. I'm not going to complain about our lack of mosquitos (ever) but it really makes me wonder what's happened. The neighboring field is growing a type if black bean for the second year in a row. It's a test for a local crop farmer who typically rotates corn, soy, wheat. I've noticed quite a few dying trees at the perimeter of this field. Makes me seriously question what's been sprayed on it.
My first cucumbers are a couple of inches long. I really can't wait for sliced cucs and toasted tomato sandwiches for lunch every day. A lot of the extra tomato plants I started went to co-workers who caught the gardening bug and I get regular updates on their plant's progress 😄. I can't wait for them to taste their very first home grown tomatoes!
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Killerbunny
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Re: Garden Diaries, 2020

Post by Killerbunny » Sun Jul 05, 2020 9:29 am

Hardly any mosquitoes here either. WOrrying.
1
:iheartpto:
Beltsville Small White turkeys.
Mutt chickens for eggs
RIP Stephen the BSW Tom and my coffee companion.
RIP Lucky the Very Brave Splash Wyandotte rooster.
RIP little Muppet the rescue cat.
:turkey:

:bat:

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Kbr42
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Re: Garden Diaries, 2020

Post by Kbr42 » Sun Jul 05, 2020 1:55 pm

We don't have many mosquitos here either. I think we had 1 weekend of black flies and done!
I constantly worry about water. I'm shutting off our water softener. That's just a waste of 50 gallons...I'd rather flush with confidence :wave: just sayin' our well has not gone dry. However, we also haven't had rain...a nice long soaking rain ..... in over 6 weeks :rubbingchin: our garden is growing slowly in this heat.
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Farrier1987
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Re: Garden Diaries, 2020

Post by Farrier1987 » Mon Jul 06, 2020 9:55 am

Garden going wild with the heat and humidity.

I do like my raised beds, going to build a couple more by next year. 4x8, so I can sit on either side and pick weeds without having to reach too far or go in.. Much denser spacing for the plants and a lot higher yield per sq ft. I hand water with the watering can, they get all they need, warm water out of the barrel, and no wasted water.
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I have carrots planted in front of the peas in the one. Using the carrots and planting more to replace. Had beets there too, but they are gone, something has been eating them, (us) but thats ok, I have more coming.
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Farrier1987. South of Chatham on Lake Erie. Chickens, goats, horse, garden, dog, cat. Worked all over the world. Know a little bit about a lot of things. No incubator, broody hens.

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KimChick
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Re: Garden Diaries, 2020

Post by KimChick » Mon Jul 06, 2020 1:45 pm

Being a bit more on the ball this year, I thinned out the kale this morning. The addition of baby kale in a salad is yummy.
Picked more radishes; we had pan fried radishes and radish greens the other night. It was quite good!
Had a radish leaf salad last night with radishes, and tomato, black olives, feta, and cuke that were bought. I thought I was using other greens until I was eating it! But it was good.
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labradors
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Re: Garden Diaries, 2020

Post by labradors » Mon Jul 06, 2020 4:37 pm

I planted a ton of kale, only to have the new chickens turn up their beaks at it :(. I tried them on it again recently, and they decided it's not so bad, not as tasty as dandelions, but at least they're eating it.

Mustard greens were a bit of a waste of time because they immediately bolted so we only had two meals out of them. I ripped two of the plants out today and the chickens are enjoying those :).

We will have a meal with broad beans soon :).

Container (compact tomato varieties) are ripening well now. (Maglia Rosa and Taste Patio). They will be tasty in tonight's salad :).

Linda
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Ontario Chick
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Re: Garden Diaries, 2020

Post by Ontario Chick » Mon Jul 06, 2020 6:18 pm

Oh so jealous, had a 4,5 year old grandson visiting, was called on to explain why there were no apples and no tomatoes, the two things he remembered from previous visits.
all I had to offer was peas, he was not impressed ;)
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Happy
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Re: Garden Diaries, 2020

Post by Happy » Mon Jul 06, 2020 10:09 pm

We had stuffed round zucchinis last night for supper. Aside from lettuce and spinach it's the first meal from the garden. I actually quite like the round zucchinis. I envision nice large "puck" slices to grill. Very tender and tasty.
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spuddog59
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Re: Garden Diaries, 2020

Post by spuddog59 » Thu Jul 09, 2020 1:01 am

[

Anybody ever grow round zucchini?
I bought and started regular looking green zucchini seeds (just OSC brand) but its become obvious that they were mislabeled. Wondering if taste is similar. There's an abundance of flowers so I'm not concerned about low yield at least.
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[/quote]

Well that's me this year, but not really on purpose. When lockdown was making it hard to shop, I was picking up an online order at HHdware. Asked the clerk if they had seeds, could she grab me some zucchini seeds. She did, but they are round zukes. The bushes are massive, and make my tiny garden look very lush (too much N) but how do I know when the little things are ripe? The first time our family grew zukes in the '60's, we didn't know what they were and let them get the size of baseball bats! Are these the baseballs?
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