Gardening

[pilferk]

Peppers and tomatoes are done.  They're out of here. 

It's nice to clean up some of this mess.  I throw everything out in the yard and then mulch it up with the mower.

Heh heh.....I took in another 5 or 6 pounds of full sized and 2 more colanders of cherries last night.  We're still pumping out.

Our pepper plants, too, still going. 

Different zone, for sure, and our temps are hanging in the upper 70s right now, so everything is happier.

I am now trying to figure out what to do with about 50 ears of corn....after already pulling about 30 out about 10 days ago.

Cukes are ALMOST done.  Probably a dozen more on the vines, but they're starting to die back.

Harvested our last sphaghetti squash Tuesday and we pulled the vines out yesterday afternoon.

Bush beans are up and starting to get big...spinach and some lettuces coming up quick.  The fall garden is taking shape!

[cineater]

Wow, you are really getting a lot out of the garden.  Did you just get that started in the last year?

[pilferk]

Wow, you are really getting a lot out of the garden.  Did you just get that started in the last year?

So, not really.

We've done ornamentals back there for years.  We did a few veggies (peppers and tomatoes) and herbs mixed in, too.  In 2019, we started doing more veggies. In 2020, we swapped to mostly veggies.  Then, this year (aka after November 2020), we did some hardcore infrastructure upgrades (cattle panel arches, a greenhouse for starts, etc) and have gone hard this year.  Even with all the rain, we've generated a ton of food! 

[cineater]

We're up to 2000 pounds of produce sent to the food pantry.  Tomatoes were shit this year. 

I'm tired!  Probably just the heat but somebody asked me when fall clean up was scheduled and my immediate thought was, fuck off, quit pushing me.     Lots left to do.  We don't wrap it up until November.

[cineater]

We're having a lively discussion on lawns.  Yeah I know everything says do it in September but it's still getting into the 90's.  We've had no rain and none coming.  Leave the fucking grass alone.  Besides we decided all that fertilizer is not good for the environment.  Lack of weeks in your grass makes it a desert for native bugs; we need those.  You want to do something, find some native clover seed and get ready to throw some of that in there.  And stop mowing that.    

We need a whole different attitude to what a good lawn is.  People wonder why kids don't play outside any more.  There's nothing of interest out there.  Try to find a 4 leaf clover or a bug to torture.  You can't even find them on your windshield any more.

[cineater]

One of our members from Vietnam says they put lemon grass around squash to keep away the squash bug.  We're trying it out.

[pilferk]

One of our members from Vietnam says they put lemon grass around squash to keep away the squash bug.  We're trying it out.

We're having issues with something boring into our peppers.  Not the spicy stuff (jalepenos and serranos), but our green and reds have bore holes in them...and then they rot on the plant before they're mature.

Trying to figure out what is getting in there, and how to organically stop them.

[cineater]

One of our members from Vietnam says they put lemon grass around squash to keep away the squash bug.  We're trying it out.

We're having issues with something boring into our peppers.  Not the spicy stuff (jalepenos and serranos), but our green and reds have bore holes in them...and then they rot on the plant before they're mature.

Trying to figure out what is getting in there, and how to organically stop them.

Google that question and put in your state.  That helps you scale it down to what bugs it might be in your area.  Look at the images of the damage to the plants.  I use soap and water a lot as a spray for bugs.  Hit the plant hard with the hose first to knock them off and spray the ground around the plant too with the soapy water.  Dawn has a million uses. 

[cineater]

Geez, it's the end of September and we are still in the 90's.  No rain either.

[cineater]

Got one!  Catching monarchs in a net is not as easy or graceful as it looks.       Took me 3 tries.  They kept escaping from the net before I could give it a little spin.  We were tagging monarchs on their way to Mexico.  They get a little piece of tape attached to their wing with a number.  They will let us know if the butterfly is found down there.

[cineater]

We have a Bald Eagle!  We have lots of birds that visit our gardens.  Last year for the first time, we had a fly over by a Bald Eagle.  We've spotted one several times this week landing in the trees along our creek.  Good fishing there.  There is an eagle's nest within range of us.  I guess with all the construction in the fields east of us the eagle has moved its territory west to the field's by us.  Cool, I kind of like having an eagle over my head.

[cineater]

We're getting ready to winterize the greenhouse next weekend.  Everything not permanently attached has to come out, get cleaned and sanitized before it goes back.  The inside gets sprayed down with bleach water.  We even vacuum up any soil spills.  Working on the little shit this week so we can get it bagged.  Hate closing up the greenhouse, growing season coming to an end.

We tried where you close it up and get the temp in the greenhouse up to 130 degrees for three days.  During the day, no problem but even running the heater at night, we couldn't keep the temperature up there.

[cineater]

Makes me sad to drive by the medicine woman's house.  Some folks call it the witch's house.  I can see that from the look of the main house.  It looks like where a witch would live, a good witch.

I never met the medicine woman.  Her body gave out before I came along.  Micha had learned herbs from her in the vast herb gardens on the property.  What was left for me was the house and the greenhouses I would see on my way to and from work.  Slowly time took it over and it turned back into fields with crumbling greenhouses except for a new barn that looked out of place.  I stopped in once to help them sandbag during one of our major floods.  The little log cabin was still filled with her dried herbs and various things made from plants where she use to sell that stuff.  She was still alive but confined to the house at that time. 

The property got sold a while back.  They've been tearing the field's up since with trucks parked every where.  I'm not sure what business is going in there but when I drove by today, the cabin was gone.  I'm wondering what they did with the log cabin, one room school house.  It had been brought it to the property from some where west of here.  It was very old.   I hope they save it and moved it somewhere else.

[cineater]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YxehIqY-t0  Really good presentation on Oaks by Doug Tallamy.  Never knew there were caterpillars living in trees in the dead of winter and birds were living off them.

[cineater]

https://mkskimgmodrykonik.vshcdn.net/DhLPBEGsUU1_s720x720.jpg

Check this woman made out of plant material out.  I'm learning how to make these.

[cineater]

That's it.  Lows go into the 40's tonight.  I'm busy bringing my house plants in.  It's not over yet.  I still have the plants I'll winter over that don't come in until we get to the killer frost coming.  I'm getting claustrophobic already.   

[cineater]

https://mkskimgmodrykonik.vshcdn.net/DhLPBEGsUU1_s720x720.jpg

Check this woman made out of plant material out.  I'm learning how to make these.

Ours came out way more unprofessional then that.     I've got the basics down.  We are building another one at the gardens.  I'll have a little bit more control over the design there but when you let everyone play, it comes out how the group does it.  I'm thinking more fairy then person.  A creature of the plant world.  A little more practice and I'll build one by myself next year.  I've invited a couple more garden groups to come watch us and how it's done.  Hopefully, people start building them around town.

[cineater]

I made a comment about California being out of water in another thread.  I've been thinking for a while if I was a Napa valley wine family I would be sending the new generation to where I am to develop a new wine farm.  Close up operations out there and move the family business out here over the next generation.  This area use to be big in wine production but then it moved out to California.  Apparently I'm not the only one thinking that.  California people are already here and there's a big developer putting a lot of money into developing the tour business based on the wineries.  Give it 10 years, Augusta Missouri is going to be a wine tourist trap just like Branson took off.

[cineater]

The garden is getting front page in the Community News.  Joe got us the interview.  The guy was impressed and wants to come back and do a story in the spring.

[cineater]

Our Mother Nature in the garden came out really well.  There has to be a name for these but I can't find it.  Call it garden art for the moment.  I'd say it was some form of a topiary but it's plant parts and not living so that doesn't fit.  Apparently these are big in Europe.  I did send the picture to the TV station.  Maybe they will show it during the news.