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From commentor Marvel, in mid-June:
We harvested a hundred-plus heads of garlic last week (a bit early for hereabouts) and the tomatoes are just now blossoming (6 mil plastic bed-covers for the first month works wonders in the Willamette Valley). The early lettuce is bolting (a fair trade for finally seeing a few hot days) and the soil is warm enough for our corn to go in. Here’s a snapshot of my flute amongst some bush peas — part of a little art project for our local symphony:
All told, the garden’s having a SWELL time of it so far.
What’s going on in your gardens this week?
Raven
The big parcel of butterbeans yielded ONE cup! Maters are good, we got enough okra to make a big batch of stewed okra, tomato’s and corn. Yesterday I made a corn, tomato and basil salad with all raw ingredients.
It’s 80 degrees at 5am and we have had no rain in three weeks and less than a 50% chance in the next week.
greenergood
Mom forwarded me a great harvesting tip last night – regarding fruit, esp. berries. After you pick/buy them, rinse in a solution of 1 part vinegar to 10 parts cold water. Then put in fridge. Solution kills off molds, etc. that make berries goes fuzzy so quickly.
Hope all you BJuicers on the other side of the Pond are okay. Your weather (along with everything else) has been giving the Rapture Ready people some excitable thoughts recently
JPL
The pictures of the garden are beautiful. I’m so envious because I hoped to plant a vegetable garden this but other landscaping chores took priority. As soon as the temperatures moderate, I do plan on doing some tilling and prepare for some fall crops.
@Raven: This is the time of day, I normally open the windows and doors and enjoy the cool breeze..huh!
Raven
@JPL: I’m headed out with the pups for a bit but not for long!
chopper
i harvested buckets of snap peas this year. only yesterday i cut the whole plant down. never had a year where i was bringing in bags of string beans and snap peas at the same time.
tomatoes are ripening, but as always the first of the year do so excruciatingly slow. potatoes are acting like they’re already ready to go but they’ve been in for some time. zucchini is going like gangbusters as long as i can keep squash bugs away (i actually caught one of the moths last week scoping out my plants).
doing a self-watering container workshop for the city this year, and maybe a compost demonstration and a clay-pot watering system demo. gonna be busy teaching this year.
JPL
@chopper: The clay-pot watering system is interesting. I just read about someone trying to plug holes of inexpensive pots with silicone. You’d have to cover the pots but it would not cost as much to get started. Do you think that is possible?
The Ancient Randonneur
I’ve seen this little ditty floating around in comment sections in the blogosphere:
Have a great Sunday.
Schlemizel
In Denver this morning, will be leaving shortly for Winter Park where our daughter lives. Saw smoke from a fire way North of town last night but fires, even the big ones near Colorado Springs didn’t rate much of a mention on the local news.
Denver seems to be the same dusty passing-through-on-the-way-west town I remember from my earlier stops. Except for the huge number of dope dealers I have seen. Don’t know if any BJ’ers are from Denver but I have 2 questions – have you seen any numbers on how much economic activity “medical” marijuana is generating and Have you seen or read about any side affects, good or bad?
SiubhanDuinne
I want to wish all my Canadian friends, and Friends of Canada, a happy and safe 145th birthday. In case you’ve missed these, here are a couple of fun videos for your Canada Day viewing pleasure:
Canadian National Canthem
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBI68Il4Zsc&feature=share
The Canada is Spreading
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpietW7xQDg
chopper
@JPL:
that’s basically what I did. the pots together hold 4+ gallons. really works well.
beltane
The raised beds have been a disaster. We have four cats and their reaction to the beds has been “OMG these litter boxes are the shiznit!” It has been enough to make me give up on gardening altogether.
tamiedjr
@beltane: Try chili powder.
cathyx
@beltane: Put a plastic fence netting over it. I did that for the same reason. As the plants grow, raise the netting with inverted pots, or cut the netting to fit in the open spaces.
Xenos
Warm, dry weather in much of Europe. Peaches, Apricots, and Nectarines are sweet, plentiful, and cheap. Cherry tree in back yard is ripening a bit slowly compared to last year, which was terribly hot in May. We just put a couple of fig trees in pots, and will make an attempt at keeping them alive for the winter in a sun room.
Quite a sunny yet mild summer so far. And the Italian and Spanish neighbors are about to go bonkers.
Patricia Kayden
Broke down the garden this year since I have two dogs who probably would mess with it anyways. Will figure out how to keep them out of it next year (maybe portable fencing).
Marvel’s garden is booming!
tybee
all the “winter” crops have long bolted and given up the ghost.
we’re being overrun with tomatoes and the wood rats are enjoying them, too. it’s now a declared war.
first crop of purple hulls are picked, shelled and mostly et.
we’ll finish those off this eve with some smoked fresh ham (mmmmm), jalopeno corn bread, maters and a salad.
planted okra this morn. cannot grow corn fer nuttin.
squash is producing and the first cuke is almost big enough to pick.
butterbeans go in next along with the next round of purplehulls.
i love summer. :)
currants
@beltane: Love raised beds–you’ll come up with a solution. I’m away most of the summer (classes in another state), and left mine planted, with row covers and a low-level drip irrigation system with a timer. Back for the first time in a month, and everything looks great. The raised beds–especially after the first year or two, REALLY cut down on weeding, in my experience. Plus are easier to manage all around (especially with mulch down between them). Good luck!
Percysowner
@beltane: I don’t know how many raised beds you have, but we surrounded ours with Chicken wire held up by stakes to fence them off. Made it about 2-2.5 feet high and that seems to have discouraged the cats. The other suggestion I’ve heard is plastic forks with the tines pointing up. Put them close enough together and the cats won’t have room to squat.
This is our first year with raised beds. We got some things in a little late, but the herbs are doing great, the tomatoes are coming out, the butter lettuce is thriving and we have red, yellow, orange bell peppers and Hungarian mild yellow peppers which starting nicely. We got the zucchini in really late, but we’re finally seeing blossoms and I suspect once they really get going, they will do find. We’re crossing our fingers on butternut squash and cantaloupe because they are in, but no fruit left. If everything comes in, we are going to be in for some great fresh produce. All this is in 2 raised beds and a couple of pots for herbs, since we just have a small backyard behind a townhouse. Wish us luck.
currants
@Xenos: Oh, I’m so envious. When we lived in France the apricots were … unlike anything I thought apricots could be. Heavenly. I’m still searching for some like them here (New England, hah), but every time, DISAPPOINTED! (Think Kevin Cline in A Fish Called Wanda.) (Well no, not really THAT bad, but close.)
Southern Beale
Here’s what’s happening in my garden.
We are desperately trying to keep everything alive as the temperatures have reached Phoenix-Arizona levels. But, climate change is a myth because it snowed somewhere last winter.
red dog
Here in the Bay Area, too much squash of all varieties, Nice cukes but big tomatoes are slow with the cool weather. We put the garden in front this year so it gets a lot more sun and comments from dog walkers and garden chatters.
currants
For any weather geeks, here are two links. The first, if you scroll down a bit (or maybe go to yesterday or the day before’s post), talks about the heatwave. The map is striking. The page that’s up right now is a discussion of the storms that took out Cole’s power (and only his, amirite?)
The second tracks New England electricity loads (it’ll refresh automatically every 5 min), on the off chance you’re interested in…well, the fossil fuel cost of this weather.
Linda Featheringill
@currants:
Ah, a fellow weather geek! I’ll check out your links. Thanks.
Comrade Mary
My tomato plants are being passive-aggressive. Just before I planted them in well-drained containers out front, where there’s lots of light, a bad rainstorm blew off all their flowers. But I replanted anyway, expecting the flowers to come back.
Nope.
The determinate plant has somehow grown a single tomato near its base, and about 5 flowers have appeared, but the indeterminate plant is about 2.5 feet tall with NO flowers.
Should I just trash it and put in a nursery plant with flowers? It’s July, I know, but given Toronto weather these days, my growing season goes into November.
jnfr
@Schlemizel:
I live outside Denver and haven’t heard of any particular problems but I don’t think anyone knows exactly what the economic impact is yet. Not all towns allow MMJ outlets, so it’s uneven. Seems pretty low-key to me, and well-regulated for the most part.
I have baby tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants growing. The shallots are up, but the squash and beans from seed are refusing to germinate and I’m not sure why. It’s possible they baked in the extra-hot temps we had for a while there.
cathyx
@Comrade Mary: Tomatoes don’t just flower once and are done. Keep them in and they will reflower over and over giving you tomatoes all summer.
currants
@Linda Featheringill: Well, in that case, you might also find this cool/interesting/beautiful! (Wind map, which also refreshes/is refreshable.)
Linda Featheringill
@currants:
The wind map is cool.
What I’m not finding on the internets are discussions of the significant heat wave we’re having and how it foreshadows an overall hotter planet. Silence. Hmmm.
quannlace
Aaarrgh. I LOVE sugar snap peas, but I’ve just about given up trying to grow them, I’vw got about 30 vines and gotten about 5 pea pods. They just grow and grow and….don’t do a damn thing.Maybe it’s gotten too hot for them, but I thought they’re supposed to be a quick, spring time crop. These guys have been in the ground forever.
danielx
@Linda Featheringill:
Linda,
There’s considerable discussion in these parts, since the farmers are getting burned (pun intended) about every other year. You’d probably have to look to agricultural discussion groups, although there may be some info/discussion on the USDA web site.
Greg Koos
My first year for raised beds – 24″ high. Good black McLean County soil works wonders. Spring lettuce bolted a week ago and is now composting. Beets have come into their own. Steady production of Swiss Chard and Red Russian Kale. Tomato plants are huge will carry a big load. My first attempt at cabbage looks good. I can’t seem to get parsnips to germinate. Planted them twice.
Jay in Oregon
@Southern Beale:
I saw an article where someone was acknowledging that climate change may be occurring, but it’s not as severe as is being claimed.
So we’re entering stage 3 of Conservative Climate Change Denial:
1) Climate change is a myth
2) Climate change may be happening, but it’s not caused by humans
2) Climate change may be caused by humans but it’s not as bad as they say
4) Climate change is pretty bad but there’s not much we can do about it now
5) We could have done something about climate change but liberals wouldn’t let us
currants
@Linda Featheringill:
At the end of the article are links to climate change blogs.
You might also google “ICA global water security” (on one of the consequences of climate change plus our current use of resources) for a look at what’s up for the immediate future (i.e. the next 10 yrs)
ETA: you want the .pdf document that comes up–it’s not long (less than 30 pp including covers ToC and graphs)
currants
Also (not to go on, and on, and on…but I digress!):
The freethought blogs discuss it (from different perspectives than farmers, not surprisingly)
and the PLoS blogs (Wonderland is the one I usually read, but there’s plenty of interesting stuff elsewhere in that collection.)
Comrade Mary
@cathyx: Yeah, I know to expect continual flowing, but the indeterminate plant has been sulking for a whole month without producing a thing.
smintheus
Neighbor heaped up a brush pile across the road, and now we have rabbits everywhere. They keep attacking my broccoli, corn, and melons and have now wiped out my entire fennel crop…again. I wish they’d just go after the lettuce, which we have ten times as much as we need. May have to put a fence up. Critters, ugh.
smintheus
@Xenos: I envy you. The early heat and late freezes here in PA made me lose my entire cherry, pear, apple, apricot, and peach crops. Also lost all my pawpaws to a hailstorm. All we have left this year are the figs, grapes, and berries.
Kristine
@Patricia Kayden: I erected chained link fence panels around my raised bed, complete with gate. It’s not the prettiest thing in the world–the only truly sunny spot in my backyard can be seen from the street–but it’s the only way to keep out curious pups.
As for my progress report, most of the tomatoes have chickpea-size greenies. The Black Cherry is lagging in that regard, although it does have buds a’plenty. Basil is doing very well–this sweet variety from Seeds From Italy seems to have a stronger flavor than domestic, but maybe the heat has something to do with flavor molecule production or something. In any case, good stuff.
It’s rained twice in the last two weeks here in NE Illinois, and temps are 90+, grazing 100F. Lawns are brown.
Patricia Kayden
@SiubhanDuinne: Thanks for the videos. Although I am a Canadian (now US citizen), it’s a shame to say that I do not know the entirety of the first verse of the Canadian anthem. Whenever I sing it, I get stumped in the middle. SHAME!
Happy Canada Day to my family up north.
stinger
@Kristine: Kristine, I’d been wondering if/hoping that you’d gotten some rain. We got about a half inch last week — not enough, but refreshing.
Thanks for the Seeds from Italy tip — I’ve bookmarked them for next year!
Kristine
@stinger: We got a little, but not nearly enough. You can watch the storms on radar dissipate as they move east.
I think we’re normally supposed to get around an inch a week. That hasn’t happened for a while.
I heard about Seeds From Italy from another BJer, so I’m glad I could pass along the link. I’m looking forward to comparing the varieties I planted–Saint Pierre, San Marzano, Red Pear Sel. Franchi–with the domestic Arkansas Traveler and Black Cherry.
As an aside, for anyone who’s interested in why exactly supermarket tomatoes taste so bland and whether there’s anything that can be done to change that, there’s an article over at the Discover magazine blog by Ed Yong, one of my favorite science writers. Turns out that appearance and flavor are inversely linked, so that if you breed to improve the former, the latter goes downhill fast.
Schlemizel
@Jay in Oregon: I think you missed one stage – “Global warming will be a good thing!” – but other than that you hit the nail, look at that same progression for tobacco staring in the early 60s
@jnfr: Interesting – in fairness I should have added I was driving down Colfax so its probably not fair to judge the city let alone the state by that. Still looked like Mary Jane was on every corner 8-{D
Hope things are not burning where you are.
Schlemizel
@Kristine: Was driving through Fla when I lived there & saw this huge truck carrying a load of bright green baseballs – it was so over filled some would fly out but they didn’t seem to smash when they hit the highway. Turned out they were tomatoes, in a week or two they would be washed, boxed, gassed until red and delivered to yuor local Piggly Wiggly. That may have something to do with they taste as good as the box they came in.
Kristine
@Schlemizel: What gets me is that some of the heirloom varieties are starting to lose flavor as well. I have a bs hypothesis that as soon as you see an heirloom tomato variety in a grocery store, it will have already gone downhill in flavor because the larger scale farmers will start to breed for travel/appearance, those seeds will get into circulation, and then there goes the neighborhood.
I love growing my own tomatoes, but in all honesty they can’t touch tomatoes of 35-40 years ago. I am hoping the Italian varieties I planted have better flavor.
Don Beal
No heat, just rain here in Portland Or. My green beans are doing well. I planted nothing but early girl tomatoes because we have had two years in a row that the heirlooms just didn’t get enough sun to ripen well. Here’s hoping all my winter squash comes through. Gave up on the fancy stuff and going for what was developed for our climate….and hoping we get enough of “our climate”to succeed.