Hows everyone's Gardens doing?

[Marsha Cassada]

It always surprises me how the early settlers survived. Gardening is unpredictable.

Squirrels???!!

A gardener I know has gophers that tunnel under and cut the plant off below the ground. He goes out in the morning, and a plant that was perfect and loaded with tomatoes the night before, is wilted and sheared off.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

How are the gardens progressing?

We have sand plums that grow wild here. I was able to get enough for a batch of jelly. Between the birds and grasshoppers, it's hard to harvest them when they are ripe enough to use. Also got chiggers while wading through the thickets.

The stockings over my peaches appear to be working. I put stockings on my tomatoes, also, as I saw some grasshopper damage.

A pumpkin came up wild in the garden. It is getting some little pumpkins! That will be fun.

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

My peas are starting to pod up now, I have been harvesting broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce and onions from the garden and cucumbers from the greenhouse. I will have carrots, big enough to eat tho no where near the size they can grow to, about the same time the pea pods fatten enough to pick. My zucchinis are about 4 inches long so I'll be harvesting them soon too.

 

[lucky seven]

I only put in strawberries, most died and the rest have wet feet. Way too much rain.

 

[Ryan Johnson]

Its so wet & Cold here at the moment that NOTHING grows, hence I don't bother planting anything till early spring.

Just brought some seeds for a Tomato Tree. grows up and along a trellis. Have never seen one grow before. I am going to use this tree as shade for my cucumbers this year. My Garden beds are about 4m x 2.5m. I think that will be a good size to see if it works......

 

[Marsha Cassada]

Tomato Tree--That looks most unusual! Good luck with it.

One of my favorite garden viners in yard-long beans.

Picked our first peach yesterday, one I had covered in nylon stocking. Actually, it fell into my hand when I was checking it for ripeness. The stocking protected it perfectly; there wasn't a gnaw or spot on it. It was delicious!

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

I'd grow that! It would make a great conversation starter. I've never seen anything like it here. Very unique.

 

[Marty]

SOMEBODY HELP!

My pumpkin patch is full of flowers and so gorgeous but I only have 4 pumpkins! Lots of flowers but no pumpkins. What gives? We have had a ton of rain but I haven't seen the bees. We have only had a handful of horrible hot days and maybe that's it. I have tried to pollinate them with a q tip and that didn't seem to do anything. The patch is nice and healthy and I have vines like crazy so I don't get it. I'm going to hang myself.

 

[Riverrose28]

Marty, I think you need to wait, we just now have noticed little pumpkins starting on ours and the flowers are huge. Once they start you will probably have more then you can use.

I have made zuchinni bread till its coming out of my ears. I put 24 loaves in the feezer for winter and still have three in the fridge. We are having a family affair in Aug. so I'll make more then to take as I'm picking 5 or 6 a day. I took some to our local senior center cause I had way to much. We are finally starting to get some tomatoes. Dang squirrels like to take a few bites out of them then run. Cuaght one sitting on the fence post eating a whole red one, arrgg! I've dug a few potatoes and plucked a few onions that tasted great, in fact I think we need to get the onions out of the ground, dryed and put away in a cool place, they are starting to fall over. We have gotten a few green peppers and I froze them so when the hot ones are ready I can make salsa. I made homemade sauce last night for eggplant parm with all the veggies from our garden,yum. I plan on canning at least 40 quarts of tomatoes, I just need a bucket full to get started the vines are full of green ones. Green beans and corn have come up and hubby plans on planting some fall broccoli for the feezer. Fun, fun, fun.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

SOMEBODY HELP!

My pumpkin patch is full of flowers and so gorgeous but I only have 4 pumpkins! Lots of flowers but no pumpkins. What gives? We have had a ton of rain but I haven't seen the bees. We have only had a handful of horrible hot days and maybe that's it. I have tried to pollinate them with a q tip and that didn't seem to do anything. The patch is nice and healthy and I have vines like crazy so I don't get it. I'm going to hang myself.

2014 July 4 006.jpg

They are not being pollinated properly. You can take a paint brush and take pollen from the male flowers and brush it in the female flowers. The male flowers are on thin stalks and there are lots more of them than female flowers. The female flowers will have little fruit at the base of the flower.

This is also why squash and cucumbers don't bear like they should. The fruit begins, then shrivels up.

I'm having a terrible time with getting enough pollinators in my garden.

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

To encourage pollinators I always plant several brightly coloured flowers in and around my garden. Here I find marigolds and petunias work well. I plant marigolds in the pots next to my cucumbers and tomatoes in the green house and the bees seem to love the bright yellow and red flowers. When all else seems to fail (cold weather will slow down even our hardy local bumble bees) I will pick a male flower that has fully opened and physically touch the stamens to the centers of the female flowers to pollinate them. There are always plenty of male flowers so my picking them doesn't affect any natural pollination it just gives nature a bit of a helping hand.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

Cosmos was suggested to me as a flower to attract pollinators. I planted some in my veg gardens. A sunflower came up volunteer and it seems to have more pollinators, however.

I'm beginning to eye healthy insect predators with suspicion--is it preying on my precious pollinators??

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

Marsha, I doubt it. Most insect predators aren't too interested in a meal that stings. The usual diet of predators is insects that have a plant based diet. As far as flowers that attract pollinators, I think any of the old fashioned flowers help, bright colours, plenty of flowers and nectar types are all good. I see no reason why cosmos wouldn't work but it has definitely been my experience that they love the sunflowers, the older type tho, not the new no pollen ones. The one issue with sunflowers is that they tend to tower over the garden plants and sometimes if there are too many the bees don't seem to bother flying lower they just stay up high where the flowers they really like are. If you use sunflowers I would scatter them and not use too many. Maybe try one on each corner of the garden?

 

[Shari]

I am about to give up for the year.... something stole a whole cantaloupe! Sheesh.....

Between the hail storm, the heat, bugs and so on......

 

[Shari]

There is something else going on with my plants... and I could not pin it down.

We hayed our old place and never used anything on the fields... everything grew great in it.

But here, we have to buy hay and good hay is hard to find. We used our horse manure like we have done every where else.

Then I watched this show.... I think part of this problem is this....

http://www.growingagreenerworld.com/killer-compost-it-happened-to-us/

I am going to buy some commercial compost and top soil for one of my raised beds..... plant a couple of things and see what happens.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

That was most interesting, Shari! You had such a beautiful start to your garden this spring! I'm sorry it isn't working out as well as you hoped.

I've worried about bought hay, as it is too pretty and perfect to be true. Fields don't grow JUST GRASS all by themselves.

I had to buy some grass hay last year because of the drought. And some did end up in my compost, after going through the horses. But the only herbicide my animals range into is that coming in on the air, so hopefully our compost is not toxic.

We believe the biggest culprit around us is 24 D. With the new no-till method of farming, farmers put down Roundup to kill vegetation, instead of plowing. I don't have a problem with Roundup, but most farmers drop in a little 24 D just for good measure. It volatilizes, wafts away on the breeze, and does incredible damage to surrounding trees and plants. That pernicious product is sold on every garden shelf! People use it without even looking at the warning labels. I fault the chemical companies, as its restriction would cut into their pockets.

Reignmaker, according to organic gardening sites, a wheel bug is supposed to be a sign of a healthy garden. I saw one sucking the life out of a bee in my garden. I don't think predatious insects care about stings. The day I see a wheel bug with a grasshopper, that will be a day of delight!

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

Marsha, thats what happens when I offer my thoughts when I haven't taken into consideration that each area is different. Since I have no idea what is normal in your area my advice on what will work there is worth nothing. I don't even know what a wheel bug is, not something we contend with here. My biggest plant predator is a cut worm, a root nematode or aphids and insect predators here are things like ladybugs, parasitic wasps and ants. There are others of course but none that cause problems with my pollinator population. They are endangered more by my new from town neighbours who want their yards to look perfect and spray to kill every bug or weed they see. No balance at all and it sometimes spreads even to me over 1/2 mile away. Oh ... and does anything eat grasshoppers fast enough to thin the numbers? Fortunately ours never seem to bother the gardens, they stick to mostly the hay fields. I have to pick them, dry and flattened, out of the hay each year before I feed it to my horses.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

Marsha, thats what happens when I offer my thoughts when I haven't taken into consideration that each area is different. Since I have no idea what is normal in your area my advice on what will work there is worth nothing. I don't even know what a wheel bug is, not something we contend with here. My biggest plant predator is a cut worm, a root nematode or aphids and insect predators here are things like ladybugs, parasitic wasps and ants. There are others of course but none that cause problems with my pollinator population. They are endangered more by my new from town neighbours who want their yards to look perfect and spray to kill every bug or weed they see. No balance at all and it sometimes spreads even to me over 1/2 mile away. Oh ... and does anything eat grasshoppers fast enough to thin the numbers? Fortunately ours never seem to bother the gardens, they stick to mostly the hay fields. I have to pick them, dry and flattened, out of the hay each year before I feed it to my horses.

Gosh, aren't grasshoppers full of protein? They eat them in some countries. Maybe you should leave them in the hay!

A wheel bug is a true bug. He looks prehistoric. We had to look him up, as we were not sure if he was a good bug or a bad bug. The site said they will give a painful bite if they feel threatened.

I'm glad you mentioned about the sunflowers being tall and luring the pollinators away from lower plants. My cosmos are rather tall; I need to rethink them tomorrow.

This evening the paper wasps attacked my husband when he went out to check on the chickens. We were tolerating their nests around the garden, but about this time of year they become too agressive. So they will have to go. Last year they got me.

We had kabobs tonight for supper. Our potatoes, green beans, onions, squash, kale, and chard--feels good to feed one's family from the garden!

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

I love making a meal from food I have grown and raised myself. Nothing better than that meal of potatoes, peas and carrots, salad, all from my own plants and roast or fried chicken that we raised and processed ourselves. I know every bit of what is on the plants (or in them either) and what the chickens were fed, how they were processed- just every part of the meal (except the butter,spices and salt if its used) is mine. When I was a kid even the butter was from cream from our cow and churned by our own hand. Love to feel like I don't always need the supermarket to make a satisfying meal.

Your kabobs sound yummy.

 

[Debby - LB]

When I come here and see this topic name, in my mind I say...Working me to death!! LOL I'm so tired.