Gardening 2019...

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I throw most everything back into the compost. Always trying to burn up the weed seeds, but actually I've just learned to live with them.

My garden on is surrounded by pastures. On top of the seeds that don't get killed in my compost, the pastures load my garden with weed seeds everytime the wind blows.

 

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Little more burn...

 

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It's Reaper time...

 

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[Leadeye]

Pumpkins already? Wow!

 

[Leadeye]

What's on the plate?

 

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Those are cheesecake pumpkin tarts, made from the pumpkin.

The pumpkins were volunteers from the compost, that overran my mellon patch. Last years Fresh Thyme pie pumpkins on sale.

 

[Phase2]

Price alert!

If you use coconut coir for soil-less plant starts, rooting, moisture retention in potting soil, as a replacement for sphagnum peat moss, etc. than Walmart has a deal for you. I bought a brick at Walmart today and had a pleasant surprise. It displays on their web site for $8/8.25lbs ($0.97/lb), but when I went to check out, it was $5 ($0.61/lb). On Amazon, the best I saw for about the same size was $16/11lbs ($1.45/lb). I'll be going back for another couple of bricks tomorrow.

A friend found this at a second Walmart and noticed that they apparently vary noticeably in volume. Look for the thickest bricks.

Your mileage may vary. Verify the price before checkout.

 

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An excellent natural source of magnesium and zinc.

 

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Busy harvest season this year...

 

[boosteds13cc]

Zucchini has stopped 3 weeks ago. Cucumbers are finally kickin butt. Corn sucked this year. Pumpkins are slowly getting that white mold on the leaves. Jalapenos, coolpenos, hot banana peppers are growing faster than i have ever seen. My bell peppers have yet to produce anything decent.

 

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I'm hoping for a decent fall garden. Hoping for the global warming to push the frost date back a month or so???


Anyone have a proven home canning salsa recipe?

 

[spencer rifle]

The cabbage white caterpillars have basically stripped the broccoli, Brussels sprouts and cabbage of leaves and are getting into the parts we want. But they have nearly made up for all the problems by consuming the kale.
Eggplants going well, Roma tomatoes about done, okra doing poorly (YES!). Go a lot of beans after we covered then with bird netting to keep the deer away.
It appears we planted the cucumbers, pumpkins, and several kinds of squash too close to each other - we have all kinds of strange hybrids, some of which are't too bad.

 

[Phase2]

The cabbage white caterpillars have basically stripped the broccoli, Brussels sprouts and cabbage of leaves and are getting into the parts we want. But they have nearly made up for all the problems by consuming the kale.

Those plants are all in the brassica family. Check into Bacillus Thuringiensis (BT) spray. It is a very good organic solution that isn't poisonous and won't hurt pollinators.

 

[snorko]

The cabbage white caterpillars have basically stripped the broccoli, Brussels sprouts and cabbage of leaves and are getting into the parts we want. But they have nearly made up for all the problems by consuming the kale.

My kale and collard greens were great early on but are now nothing but lace thanks to the bugs. Japanese eggplant was not good this year. Very hot and dry and I was too busy to water as I should have. The tomatoes took a long time to start but when they hit they were some of the best tasting I have ever grown. Same for the cherry tomatoes of which my one plant gave me about a quart a week at peak.

 

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I'm headed out now to dust with diatomaceous earth for plant eaters of various sort. Beans, horseradish, cabbage, broccoli all being eaten.

 

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Livin' on salsa time...

 

[Phase2]

Very nice. What's that fern in the bottom picture- asparagus?

 

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Yes, finally got asparagus seeds to germinate. No idea if they will live through the winter in the ground?

 

[Phase2]

Doubtful. That size should go into the ground in the May-June time frame. They need to put roots about a foot down into the ground to survive the winter. Looks like you've started too late for that. I'd let them grow for the rest of the season and replant into larger containers. Then after first frost and they get the signal for the greens to die off, put them into a protected environment (attached garage?) to overwinter. Here is a good asparagus video. If you aren't already, you should check out his channel.

[video=youtube;hTfjxm8-WKI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTfjxm8-WKI[/video]