Well not bad for May 23 in the hills of NYS. Lettuce gets cut to night. All weeded and dusted for slugs. D. E. Dust and slug traps out. Need to get ant traps up as well but out of Borax. Slugs and snails everywhere. Which goes to toads, frogs and brown snaks are as well
Man that red lettuce is good. I planted another 6 tomatoes, 3 hills of watermelon 5 hills of musk , 8 Okra starts and a row of sunflowers seeds. Tomorrow I have to get the hot peppers and eggplant in the ground and the summer squash seed in the ground The tomatoes I have planted already have flower buds
Man the DE is doing a great job . I killed at least a hundred slugs, I set up cover for. Those and the shiney hard shell centipedes. Uncoved a dozen toads and frogs, they eat slugs.
Very breezy with thunderstorms due in a bit. I was able to get 14 eggplant , 14 hot peppers and 2 more hills of water melon in. I transplanted 3 mystery squash out of the compost to the garden. Put down a good layer of DE to do its job last night, before todays rains. All the wet cool weather has the slugs out of control so ALL fabrics come up to get rid of hiding places. Which means a lot of weeding in mornings this year. All my potatoes popped and I've hilled them . Still holding off on Swt. Potatoes we have 45 night predicted a couple of nights this week with 60 day time. Finish my coffee and off to plant more eggplant. Daughter isn't a gardener, I asked for eggplant for Moms day due to not having room to plant my seed. GOD bless her, she bought me an entire flat...lol over 3 dozen. Everyone will recieve veggies this year. My cherokee cherry tomato starts are popping in the garden, need to transplant those. I bury a bunch of them each fall to replenish my supply in spring. I believe I'll be doing that with my winter squashes this fall in my compost piles. They are growing squash and tomatoes along with more worms than I've everseen. I'm lining one side of garden with raised beds to compost chicken, garden, kitchen and landscape litter. Then It's onto seeds too much rain coming in this week for that. I have such a wild head start on everything ,I'm not concerned.
Today was a major ocha pick (wild spinach ) . Weeding and then I DR'd a big spot then deep tilled to plant corn tomorrow. I covered the strawberries to save from birds and bugs
12 33rows of corn in and more hot peppers and eggplant. I checked the pumpkin seed I saved from last year. First ime ever every canisters was bad .. picked first ripe strawberry ..so good!
So the string line and ribbon with pie tins are strung over the corn plot. Yah, a mob of robins were in there first thing this morning. Another 10 tomato and 6 peppers went in. Every watermelon start died so 5 hills of seed went in. The musk seedlings are still growing. I planted more lettuce starts and weeded some, then planted a row of pole beans, in for lunch HOW ARE YOUR GARDENS, AND WHATS GROWING?
Planted 4 sweet pepper plants, 3 cucumber and 1 zucchini plant. Also put in a punch of snap peas, bush beans, carrots, beets and 4 brocoli plants. All are doing great. Just need some sun and heat to really get them going.
I have to laugh..swore I was going to have a smaller garden this year...half again bigger than last. Trump has to get elected I'm getting too old for this. Canning and freezing will be off the hook this year. All told I'll have nearly 100 tomato plants in the ground. I gave away over 50. No, did not buy seed. Used up old commercia made plants from store bought fruit (experiment) and transplants from garden and compost seed drop from last years. Sweet peppers all old and store fruit (those are sweetest I've ever grown. Unfortunately lost a bunch of saved seed. I did buy pumpkin seed on sale last year so I have back up. Lost the acorn too. That was best acorn I'd ever grown...bummer. have to see if I have any seed paks of that around. Some of my starts are going in to the green house for late harvest.
Man just looked back at pics..my garden soil looks like crap! ...lol It's not and is ammended yearly. When tilled up it's nice and dark, though admittedly feeling a tad sandier than I like..I,ll need to get a good layer of leaf litter and clippings on it this fall. Once all raised beds are completely filled the chicken litter can start going on it for winter. Slugs/snails are so bad this year any growing season mulch is out of the question. Chickens are free ranging now so that is a help with green around perimiter where they can hide.
Getting eaten alive by deer flies drove me from the garden. So at 8pm last night I was able to get an area I'd DR'd clovers ,weeds and birdsfoot tilled under. It then rained last night and this morning. Cukes are up as well as sun flowers and peppers have blossoms. Raining hard now and I was soaked to skin,but got some weeding done. Good day to iron afer making egg custard and chicken 0arm for dinner
Worked until dark trying to beat the deer flies and to kill slugs. SOooooo many slugs! I actually made 3 loops around the garden and would end up finding more slugs where I had started the loop. It's been too wet for my DE dust. Tators are growing great, hoping corn does well. Will retill the new spot again later. Still need to get more squashes, beets,carrot,and chard in. Harvest the rest of Ocha and till that area..
Pulled a few peppers, couple of tomatoes, and half a sandwich-sized ziploc bag of blueberries. The black berry bush have berries for the first time this year and the stupid birds got them all before the berries were ripe.
Get some of the mesh you see in my garden, it's a game changer. My strawberries are now getting really started and I need to cover my blueberries. I use my blueberry mesh on new plants to save them from scorch right after planting when they are stressed. It's also great against cabbage moths and vine borer. It lasts for years.. way better than row cover material. Today another 21 tomatoe went in and pole beans planted between them. Weeding ,more slugs killed and retilled new spot. Then out of no where I had thunder crack right over my head as I was surrounded by metal poles and panels. Looked up to see a " battleship " cloud hanging over me. That's when it opened up and drenched me before I could get to the gator. There will be anotherbumper crop of berries this year.
We had mesh on everything except the blackberries. There wasn’t much there, only 10 or so, it is still a small bush. Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
After being in the garden 10-5 without a break yesterday the weather has given me a break. Rained all Night and pouring still with fog rolling in. Not so good as for temps though. Low 60's and then high 40's tonight. With this years garden being a salsa and sauce one, temps this low are not good. So much rain isn't as well. Stunts growth and causes disease. Though with a hundred tomato plants alone, there is no way I'm not going to get a decent harvest. Getting a handle on slugs , now have a rodent problem. They are digging up my seed. Lost 2 rows of beans and my summer squash. I think they are hitting the corn as well. Give me a break with the chicken scratch and literally acres of maturing rye seed you'd think they could leave the garden Alone!
High winds due so all plants got secured. While doing so found many many baby tomatoes. Also found more sed dug up. I have mice AND rat bate stations set out. Chipmonks can fit in stations. Dogs no longer allowed near the area. I'm done playing!
I give up,might get summer squash by September...I just planted a bunch of seed in house. Went to amish to find some starts and seriously! 2.75 for 4 starts I bought 8 tiny marigolds and 2 rubarb starts 11+dollars. Their other starts were way too small. Zucchini, water and musk melons planted. I am going to do a flat of pole bean. Everything was dug up again. 12 rows of corn and only 4 made it. Will be back out planting again. Still looking for my butternut to spout..hhhmmm.
