June Week 2 2023
I guess you could call it week 2.
Anyway , don't mean to dominate the forum but somebody needs to start it.
If anybody else wants to start it just go ahead.
I just did a first picking of green beans , about half a 5-gal bucket.
That's just the initial picking , the survey picking I call.
The main flush (or two) to come in the next week or two.
Yellow squash is starting to peak now. It's getting to bucket loads of it now (when you can't hardly give it away).
Started pulling some of the onions , the ones that have bent necks , didn't want to pull them all while rain is in the forecast.
Been getting a few green tomatoes along . Got them on the counter to ripen up.
Got the okra up and growing. ( and winter squash , cantalope , some more summer squash )
Next I 'll be pulling the rest of the onions and then have a start on digging the potatoes.
Don't have any current pics but here's last weeks pic where the green beans are at.
Only one row is the green beans , 3 rows to the left is shell beans , one row to the right is black beans.
Rick
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Comments (92)Nancy, Welcome home! How tragic that accident must have been. I'm glad you made it home safely and can just picture Titan going all out to welcome you home. I'm glad GDW, you, Tom and Jerry survived Titan's enthusiasm. I hope the animals will leave you alone and let you sleep tonight. They might not want to let you out of their sight. The combination of heat/humidity has been awful, especially up there in the northeastern quarter of the state. Jennifer, Winter's harshness can depend somewhat on whether El Nino develops or not, and they usually don't really know if it is truly going to develop until almost December even though they can see changes in the Sea Surface Temperatures months before that. The problem is that sometimes SST changes signal that an El Nino (or a La Nina) is going to develop, and then something happens and it never develops or it develops and is very weak or it just fizzles out before it really can develop. And, its impacts vary a lot and can range from minor to major and everything in between, so who can say, really? They cannot even get our forecast right a week in advance, so I don't put a whole lot of faith in long-term forecasts that have lots of moving parts. I think that we'll know by February 2019 if we're going to have a bad winter or not. (grin) Rebecca, Nice plants! Are the squirrels leaving things alone now? Jacob, Start it in flats indoors if that is how you prefer to start seeds. As soon as it sprouts, move it outdoors into the sun so you won't have to spend time hardening off plants raised indoors. Or, direct sow it into a prepared bed outdoors, cover with maybe 1/4" soil patted down gently on top of the seeds, water lightly. Keep an eye on it and water lightly every day just to keep the soil surface moist until it sprouts, which at the temperatures we're having now should take a week or less. I don't start basil indoors any more because it has reseeded all over my garden. This year I thought there were not many reseeding volunteers in the garden, but that was because they popped up late---in May and even in early June. Now I have basil growing in the middle of my Laura Bush petunias and my catnip, and they're all just slugging it out and fighting for control. Amy, I don't know how you get anything done with a grandkid climbing all over you. Nancy, Mortgage Lifter is a late variety, so it isn't a huge concern that it hasn't set much yet. In my garden, they tend to start late but set almost all summer even after other large-fruited tomatoes have stopped setting, so I consider their lateness a good thing---it keeps you in tomatoes late in the season. Jennifer, That is what I'd expect with a pumpkin plant. I think I was able to grow pumpkins and squash like crazy---more than a dozen varieties of each of them each year for the first 6 or 7 years we lived here. Then the squash bugs and SVBs found us and the squash and pumpkin party was over. I've never grown as many since, and mostly only C. moschatas because they can survive the SVBs and can outgrow the damage and diseases carried by squash bugs. In our climate, squash bugs and SVBs are just everywhere and are highly mobile and can travel long distances searching for food. It is just our cross to bear in this region, I guess. Jacob, And that is one of the reasons I've never even wanted to try the Florida Weave---I doubt I could keep up with it during the peak part of the growing season. I prefer cages because once I set them up and stake them, that's it, they're done and I don't have to worry about it for the rest of the season. So, y'all, today we had hornworms in our garden. Not tomato hornworms. Not tobacco hornworms. Nope. We had the hornworms of the White-lined Sphinx moth (probably the sphinx moth that is most abundant here in our area), which even is my favorite sphinx moth that I see flying around. I like them because they have a splash of pink on them. These were not the first White-lined Sphinx moth caterpillars we have had in the garden this year. There's been a couple before this. So, let's say that all this season, I've seen two of them in the garden and I relocated them outside the garden. Then, today, I looked across the garden and spotted a bat-faced cuphea plant that had been devoured. Just devoured. I walked across the garden to it and found 3 5th-instar hornworms on it. That was just the beginning. We found 13 hornworms on the cuphea plants, and Tim relocated them to the Back 40 behind the barn. Then tonight I found a 14th one. It was getting pretty dark so I relocated it to the ground beneath my shoe. Ooops. Were these creatures on the dozens of four o'clocks and daturas that we grow just for them? Nope. They were on one of my favorite little flowers that I raised indoors in flats under lights to ensure we'd have those flowers this summer. In all, we found seven of them on that first mutilated plant that I had noticed from the other side of the garden. I'll watch for more tomorrow. Y'all know I am usually very hornworm-tolerant, but I have to say that finding 14 in one day did not make me very happy. That's a lot of damage occurring at once. If the plants are too heavily devoured, they really lack the strength to bounce back. So, I'll be watching more closely for them now. I think they are a bit easier to spot than the tobacco and tomato hornworms because of the color of their spots, which stand out a bit more. Worried after finding those first 13 that there might be more, I tried to quickly check tomato plants for them. I didn't find any on them, but found a ton of stink bugs and leaf-footed bugs on the tomato plants, especially on the SunGolds. I guess I'll work on that problem tomorrow. Tim and I went to Spanish Fort, TX, today to the cemetery where my paternal great-grandparents, grandparents and my oldest uncle (I think he was the oldest) and his wife are buried. They all died before I was born but we used to go with my parents, aunts and uncles to visit their graves and tidy them up every June. So, today, Tim and I went back for the first time in a very long time and hardly recognized the place. It is a very old cemetery, and one that never had a perpetual care plan in place, so whatever care it gets is from folks who have family buried there. The grass has largely been replaced over time by Mother Nature with wildflowers. It is so much more beautiful with all the wildflowers than it ever was with just the grass. Someone has cut down all the tall, very old cedar trees, and I used those cedar trees in the past to find the family graves, so it was harder to find them this time. Luckily, as I eventually discovered, the lone cedar tree left in that cemetery still shades some of my relatives' final resting place. The oak trees that grow along the cemetery fencelines are twice as tall as I remember. Tim thinks it has been about 30 years since we last were there, but I think we went once about 15 years ago. Since the cemetery was full of wildflowers, it was full of bees. Tons and tons of bees. Spanish Fort is a virtual ghost town now, but the cemetery, the wildflowers and and the bees remain. It was a great reminder to me that Mother Nature does as she wishes and plants her flowers and other plants where she wants them, especially when there's no one around really fighting her wishes in that regard. And all those bees----while we gardeners may worry and fret about where all the bees have gone, I can tell you where thousands of them are....they are buzzing around the wildflowers in a tiny little old country cemetery that has been in use since at least the mid-1800s. Not many people have been buried in that cemetery in this century....most of the more recent burials are in the New Cemetery, established in 1939, but I didn't see many wildflowers and bees in that one, just a lot of short, clipped grass. If there is a shortage of bees anywhere in that county, it is just because there's not enough flowers elsewhere to lure them away from the old cemetery's wildflowers. I liked that cemetery with its flowers and bees. All cemeteries should be filled with wildflowers like that. It was just such a peaceful place, quiet except for the buzzing of the bees. Dawn...See MoreJune 2019, Week 2
Comments (22)Nancy, I love the painting that tells your life story and find it interesting your foretold your own happy golden years with Garry. I think deep in your soul you somehow knew that the golden years/decades would be blessed ones. Everyone I know who has retired finds themselves so much busier than they ever were when they worked---and it is the good, happy kind of busy because they're doing things they love to do. Megan, I thought of you when I heard hail was falling up there, and told Tim "I think Megan is going to beat our hail record". I was hoping I was wrong about that, and just hate that y'all got hailed upon yet again. I am glad the hail wasn't any bigger than it was. Is it NWS tweets that are slow to arrive? I've noticed their computerized systems are having a lot of trouble these last few months---I'm guessing they have massive issues. Back in May when we were having all those storms, the NWS webpage was so slow to update that often we weren't seeing warnings pop up on the webpage map until they were about to expire. I was seeing them more quickly on FB and Twitter though. Our local Emergency Mgmt officials still were getting them directly from the NWS quickly and posting them in our GroupMe pages (one for first responders and another for SkyWarn Spotter network personnel) so I would see them twice on my phone long before they ever showed up on the official NWS webpage, tweets and FB posts. I think I might have been incredibly frustrated on those severe weather days if it wasn't for my GroupMe groups though. Oh, and during that time, our NWS radio transmitter that serves southcentral OK was out of service on a couple of crucial days, so warnings couldn't come that way either. They got it fixed as quickly as they could though. I'm sorry you're ill and wish you a speedy recovery. Chris came down with something a couple of weeks ago and ran a persistent fever for a couple of days. The fever just wouldn't break and finally he went to the doctor, was tested (we all were guessing it would be bronchitis) and had Type A flu. He was so frustrated to be sick with the flu in late May/early June, but he is a firefighter and runs a lot of medical calls all day long when he works his 24-hr shift, so it would not be surprising that he caught the flu (despite having the flu shot). The CSA battle sounds crazy and I hate that you got dragged into it. Why do people have to make everything into such a battle nowadays? Why can't people just be nice and get along? Jennifer, His little bird, Sunny, which is one of the parrotlets, is fine. She had some sort of ear infection. They had a hard time getting to the vet....made it to north Texas and discovered all the power still was out, more than half the traffic lights weren't working, etc. The vet's office had no power and had sent out a FB notice saying so, but Chris and Jana never checked FB that morning on their way down, and hadn't called the office because they left here well before office hours began. Personnel were in the office, awaiting the return of power, and checked her and diagnosed her by flashlight. The vet is wonderful and has told them that when they have a sick bird, because of the long commute involved, they should just hop in the car and head down and they'll work them in any time, but usually Chris does call them and let them know they are coming---it was just that it was so early in the day he knew no one would be in the office yet. There are not many vets that specialize in tropical birds so this vet office seems to stay busy all the time, and I cannot imagine what bird owners would do if this vet retired without finding someone to replace her in her bird practice. Luckily, she's nowhere near retirement age. Sorry, I must have missed you said they were cutworms. If you have SlugGo or SlugGo Plus, just a sprinkle of it on the ground will take care of the cutworms. I never have used it specifically for them, but just learned that when I used it for pill bugs and sow bugs (which are having a massive population explosion at the present time) that I often saw no cutworm damage either. I have had LBPs pop up in unexpected spots. For several years I grew them in a bed beside the old garden shed, which is up by the house and greenhouse, not down here near the garden, and I'd find random bunches of LBPS in odd spots....in containers nowhere near their bed, in a separate garlic bed about 15' away from where I had planted them, in the driveway, etc. I am thinking maybe birds plant the seeds because some of my LBPs that volunteered were in places where I don't think the wind or rain runoff could have placed them. Have a safe trip and enjoy your vacation. It always is good to get away, though I do not like leaving during the growing season either. I worked hard in the garden yesterday, multitasking in each bed as I worked my way through the garden. So, I was simultaneously weeding, deadheading, harvesting and planting Magellan Ivory, White Profusion and Polar Bear zinnias in each bed as I worked my way through the garden beds. I got 2 and 1/2 flats of plants tucked into just 4 raised beds. I harvested more beds than that (beans, tomatoes, peppers, onions) but only got the weeding, deadheading and planting done in 4 beds. I also weeded each path as I worked on the adjacent beds. This rain is keeping new weeds popping up daily. It would drive me crazy if I thought about it for too long. I'm hoping to get another 4 beds done today, but awakened to rain that is expected to last through at least 10 a.m., so I won't be getting an early start. Today's flats include more zinnias (Benary's Giant white zinnia, Oklahoma white zinnia and one of the tall white cosmos, though I don't remember its name). I have three kinds of cosmos growing from seed in flats, and think the tall one is Double Click Snow Puff. When I decided in May to use flowers as succession plantings instead of succession planting veggies, I wanted easy stuff that would blend in with existing flowers and herbs already planted, so I ordered and sowed seeds of several kinds of white zinnias and white cosmos since white goes with everything. It also was sort of a strategic move based on the prospect of a cooler summer. Often, white zinnia flowers don't last as long in the heat of an OK summer as other colors of zinnias do, so I figured a cooler, wetter summer would be the ideal time to plant a lot of the white ones with a reasonable expectation that they'll be happier in our summer weather than they normally are. Time will tell. They'd better be happy because we're certainly going to have a lot of them. Our tomato plants are at peak production right now, and in sort of a stunning way. None of the plants really look good, except the ones in containers where I'm better able to control both moisture levels and soil splash, but they're all producing well anyway. I picked a 5-gallon bucket of tomatoes yesterday and I only harvested half of the plants. Today I will do the rest after the rain stops. I really am not ready to have to deal with processing tomatoes every night after working in the garden every day, but here we are.....it is that time. Once I get enough ziplock bags of frozen processed tomatoes for salsa, I am going to start yanking out plants right and left. I already have enough tomatoes in the freezer for at least 6 batches of salsa and 3 batches of either tomato sauce or soup, and enough tomatoes sitting in rows on the table to at least double that, so the tomato plant yanking will commence very, very soon. I told myself that I would not be a slave to canning and dehydrating this summer, and I meant it, so once my salsa and sauce goals are met, the plants can come out and go onto the compost pile. Even if I keep nothing except the 12 plants in pots (six in the garden, six up by the house), we'll still have more tomatoes than we ever could eat fresh, so I can use the excess ones at that point for making tomato sauce, etc. I love tomatoes but when you plant far too many of them on purpose as I do, the excess harvest gets old quickly. The upside is that when I have too many plants, I can get all the preservation done in a really compact time frame---certainly well before the end of June. By the time the heat arrives later in the summer, I won't be a slave to a hot, steamy kitchen because the tomato preserving will be done. Since our rain largely stopped here a couple of weeks ago and we've only had a couple of small rains since then (half an inch one day, 6/10s another, and only very light rain so far this morning), the flavor of the tomatoes is getting better. The early season tomatoes suffered too much from rain watering down the flavor, although even with watered-down flavor, home-grown tomatoes still are better than those from the grocery store. The heaviest producers in the garden so far are Early Girl, Bush Early Girl, Early Doll, Cherokee Purple, Cherokee Carbon, Compari OP, Heidi, Mule Team, Chef's Choice Orange, Sun Sugar, Barry's Crazy Cherry, Black Krim, Jetsetter, Juliet, Aldi Orange, and Stump of the World. You know how some people will utter that phrase "I regret nothing"? Well, that's not me this year. I regret planting such a huge number of tomatoes. I'll add that I always get this same almost-panicky feeling when the first huge harvest rolls in...like....what what I thinking and what am I going to do with all these tomatoes? Usually I get over it. This year, though, I am going to get over more quickly---not by killing myself trying to process them all for weeks and weeks on end but by yanking out the plants one by one after I've harvested as many tomatoes as I want from each variety. I'm very close to yanking out plants now. Actually, I pulled out one Bush Early Girl yesterday after I harvested its last two fruit. It was the first plant to produce a harvest and it produced a lot of tomatoes over the last 6 or 7 weeks, but it is done now and happily (I assume) decomposing on the compost pile. I could have left it and it would have bloomed (it already had begun another bloom cycle) and set more fruit, but I'm at the stage where I don't want more tomatoes. We have been eating them daily since the start of May and are starting to tire of eating them constantly. I love tomatoes but am starting to feel like I'm overdosing on them. More plants are likely to follow the Bush Early Girl to the compost pile today, assuming the rain moves on out of here and I can get out into the garden to work. Have a great day everyone. Dawn...See MoreJune 2020, Week 2
Comments (57)That was hilarious, Larry. That one's in our playbook, too. Nope, GDW and I weren't raptured. We were out on the fishing boat. Figures. I'm amazingly UN-frustrated with everything this year. I think our potatoes are going to be a bust. I don't care. Which means that NEXT year, if anyone here is planting potatoes, it won't be me. Bumper crop of garlic. Some are enormous. I can pick Contender beans in another couple days; otherwise, just waiting. Heidi--I've never seen so many tomatoes on one plant. Amy! What's Ron making the compost bin out of?? Pictures! Suzanne called yesterday--the milkweed plugs from Monarch Watch arrived. I'll go over this evening to plant them. Where I'm going to plant 32 plugs. . . . that'll be a good trick. lol. I haven't been there in a few days, so it will be fun to see what the plants have been up to. We had so much fun fishing yesterday. Previously we hadn't been finding hardly any shad--hard to catch fish when you don't have bait. Thursday we were out for a while, but we didn't get out early enough, so it was hot and not that much fun. We rectified the situation yesterday--got out earlier, saw shad EVERYWHERE, and we caught 13 perfect-sized catfish in 2.5 hours. First successful fishing trip in 2 years. Actually only one of about 4-5 fishing trips in 2 years. I am so lazy today! I look around and don't see anything that HAS to be done! lol Guess I'll go pick the rest of the garlic and harvest some kale, do a walk-around the rest of the yard....See MoreHey Houzz, how about it Feb week 2, 2023?
Comments (14)Glad that somebody mentioned the determinate vs indeterminate tomato thing. I was telling my wife about my "grand" plan the other day. I'm going to focus a lot more on determinates this year. Of course, with a few indeterminates as well. I can't resist huge beefsteaks. My reasoning is exactly what you were talking about. 30's and deluges can come late and 100F (and fungal plagues) can come really fast. It's a tight window. So, I'm looking to plant a majority of early determinate varieties this year. When they give me what they have, i'll yank em/can em and go right to another round of transplants and hope for a good 2nd haul. I'll just consider the indeterminates to be a bonus if the weather/disease is good to them and I get a decent amount....See More
HU-422368488
10 months agolast modified: 10 months agoHU-422368488
10 months agojlhart76
10 months agoHey HU! Welcome. Your garden isn't the only late one. We just moved to a new place and I'm starting over with lousy soil, so mine is very stunted and behind. But it's better this year than last, so I'm doing something right.
Speaking of, I do have something to update. First tomatoes of the season are here.
HU-422368488 thanked jlhart76slowpoke_gardener
10 months agoMy garden is certainly nothing to brag about, but the star of my garden this year is the Mrs. Maxwell tomato plant. I cant say that there is anything special about this tomato, other than a friend of a friend said that it was the best tomato he had eaten. I had never heard of it, but we got seeds and started plants.
I am trying to prune more this year, because I always have problems with blight. The Maxwell plant has a more open growing habit, and so far it seems to have a pretty good fruit set.
Mrs. Maxwell plant with 10 or 12 small tomatoes.
I am trying to clean up after some hail damage, also trying to trim and prune a little.
Note that I have moved my trellises out to near 10 feet apart to allow for one of my larger tractors to get between them. I will plant a row of something between just to make better use of the space.
One of the other joys I have, is my wife taking an interest in gardening. She has ordered, and started seeds that the seed company had written a glowing review on. My wife thinks she is buying something special, I tell her she is buying sweepings off the floor, it they were anything special they would not have a name like " medium Rare Hybrid", or, "Orange/Purple Hybrid". The seed companies know that gardeners are not the sharpest tool in the box and will pay 50 cents a seed to be the first to have the have the newest and the biggest.
Anyway, here is a picture of Madge's Babies, and I will care for them like they were my first born while she is away on vacation. ( I will do anything to get to stay home while she is away spending money).
HU-422368488 thanked slowpoke_gardener
Lynn Dollar
10 months agoBut leave it Oklahoma Mesonet to spoil all the fun
Mesonet says heat comes next week
Oklahoma Mesonet@okmesonet·54mUh oh! Well, you can't avoid summer in Oklahoma during, uhhhh, summer, for long! Next week, heat may be on the rise in Oklahoma. #okwx #okmesonet
HU-422368488 thanked Lynn DollarHU-422368488
10 months agolast modified: 10 months ago
hazelinok
10 months agolast modified: 10 months agoLynn, thank you for typing all that out. I think you've mentioned that product before. When we get back from Oregon, we're going to have to get serious about getting rid of them. They're so annoying.
We've had what I call the "regular" ants get in at our last house from time to time. It seemed mostly seasonal, and they were fairly easy to get rid of. But theses suckers are a pain...and so persistent.
They are very, very tiny. You almost don't notice them until they are all congregated around a crumb that someone didn't wipe up. You can't even see their features to identify--they are that small. I got a magnifying glass out and they look like Pharoah ants in appearance and also in behavior.
I am not a slob in the kitchen, but we do use our kitchen fully. All three of us. We mostly eat at home. Constantly washing dishes and wiping counters. They aren't interested in my compost bowl, which is mostly E's coffee grounds, veggie scraps, and toilet paper rolls. They are interested in the butter. Butter is too expensive to allow ants to get into it. We like to keep it on the counter. Rambling.
We got nice rain this morning. Super happy about that as it will save a lot of time watering the gardens.
I'm pleased with our gardens so far. I sure wish the aphids would leave us alone, tho. Other that squash pests, they are the biggest pest issue here. I would rather deal with hornworms than aphids. Hornworms are easy to remove and deal with as long as you're paying attention. Aphids are not. They destroy plants at our house, especially the green peas....and even southern peas and noodle beans. Ugh! I sure hope the ladybug and lacewing eggs hatch quickly and take care of them.
I'm always taking my phone out to the garden with me to identify things.
This is a woolly aphid.When we get back from Oregon, we'll have a lot of work to do. Potatoes, onions, and garlic will all be ready. Honestly, some of the onions are ready now. Same with garlic. I just don't have time to deal with it all right now. Also, Rick's green beans will need to be tended to. Tom and I prefer frozen green beans, but Rick might want to can a few too. We're getting some here, although there's fewer plants and they are bit later. I picked a quart ziplock bag of them last night. The plan is so push those off on one of my relatives as we won't have time to cook/eat them. There's still a refrigerator crisper drawer full of asparagus. It's limp but still tastes good. I'm going to try to push that off on family as well. We've been eating it a couple of times a week. Honestly, I've just let it go over the past few days. Had I harvested it better this past week, it could have easily gone a couple more weeks. But....there's only so many hours in the day.
As soon as all of those green tomatoes ripen up, those will need to be dealt with as well. We use quite a few diced tomatoes in our cooking, so we'll probably just can them again. Pretty sure Rick needs to restock his as well.
Peppers look good. So happy that I have 5 actual jalapeno plants! Our peppers did very little last year. What a strange year.
We have family coming for an early supper today to say goodbye to E. I've had so many other things on my mind, that forgot it's my BD until FB friends wished me HBD. And Tom gave me some little gold hoop earrings early this morning. Duh. It's my BD. lol.
We walked our neighbor around the house and property yesterday to show her how to care for the animals--I feel like we're nearly ready. It's such a big thing to leave so much stuff behind that needs cared for...including the garden. It doesn't help that I've made all of our animals spoiled brats. I own it. One needs this food bowl, another needs to drink out of a fountain waterer. And...I care too much about them all, including the chickens.
This house isn't going to clean itself. (wouldn't that be a dream!) Company is coming.
Hope everyone is getting some rain.
HU-422368488 thanked hazelinokLynn Dollar
10 months ago
Pam James