ZONES 8-9 FALL/WINTER 2010

Linda-That sounds like me, you CAN'T have my garden.

1Lisac,
You mean about wanting to take my raised beds with me?

Thank you guys for the tip about the corn, I picked 3 ears yesterday and had it today for luch and they were delicious. Funny thing my DH was not sure about me planting corn, I think it is because you can get it from the store in the summer for very cheap, I know Walmart sells it for about 10 cents a piece. Anyways he really likes it.

I think your plan sounds like an excellent one Linda! What a blessing to your nephew and his family that will be!

Congrats on the corn Carmen!

MICROWAVE CORN:

Depending on the size of your ears (sm, med, large), nuke the corn IN THE HUSKS in your microwave on high for approximately:
2 minutes (sm),
2.5 minutes (med) or
3 minutes (large)

After it "dings" let the corn rest in the husk for 1 additional minute. Using a paper towel in each hand, hold the corn in one hand (careful, it will be really, really, HOTTT!!!), and use the other hand to peel back the husks. Using a downward, twisting motion, wipe away the entire husk PLUS the silks in one smooth motion!

Now (trust me on this one). Take a bite of your corn, with NOTHING added. No salt, butter, nothing.

Thank me later...

Yes, Linda that's what I mean. "fine, take YOUR house but its MY garden".
Lisa

Good luck, Linda! You sound so cheerful, but you must be torn up inside. It must be a relief to leave him, but not the house. That is the hard part.

You make me count my blessings!

~ Evelyn

It does not even look like he would know what to do with it anyways for what you are telling us, so yes you go girl, take your hard work with you, even if it means leaving a bare ugly patch.

Boy I have been terrible lately, keep telling myself that it is too hot to even step outside to tend my garden, well my lack of discipline paid off today, 4 beautiful green pepper plants planted in one of my raise beds 3 days ago completely eaten bare to the ground, the nice looking armenian cucumbers that I planted out almost all of them gone exccept for 3, bugs and critters everywhere, tomatoes looking O.K but not great, some bug damage as well. Worst part is when the weather finnaly cools down enough the mosquitoes start comming out, sometimes I wonder if I can win the battle.

Had to spray all my plants with neem oil, will probably keep spraying once a week just as a preventative. By the way will neem oil keep in the bottle once is mixed with the water for at least a week or do I have to keep mixing new every week?
Also anybody tried a shop vac to get critters with? I have leaf footed bugs that fly and are very hard to catch but I am wondering if sucking them with the vac might work.



This message was edited Jul 19, 2010 7:24 PM

C, I think we'd be better off if we pull the plant material that's on it's way out, to rob the buggies of free meals that will keep them around. As long as there are maters around the stinkbugs will be, too.

I know what you mean, I had to also take out my really nice Tromboncino squash vines out about a week ago because they were just too destroyd by the bugs plus they just loved to place their eggs underneath the leaves, and I was not very diligent killing them before they hatched. Still I can't complain I am still getting veggies here and there, some with some bug damage some with none but still better tasting than the store ones. 2 of the corn cobs that I had eaten had the pesky worm on top of the silk and were eating their way to the kernels on top but I just took a knife and cut the damaged part and the rest was fine.

Carmin- Neem oil does not keep very long in a spray bottle. No more than 24hrs I believe.

Thanks John that is what I thought. Do you dispose of it by dumping it in the grass? I had a little bit after spraying all my plants with it.

I find a nice ant hill. They love it.

Okay guys, between the horrid heat, the leaf-footed bug infestation, and the acquisition of this little Tumbleweed, I've totally gotten sidetracked in my gardening endeavor. Hope to get back in the swing of things soon!

Meet Tumbleweed everyone!

Now there's trouble...

DEFINITELY, trouble! Are you training him to attack snakes?

On tomatoes doing an encore in the fall...

I'm assuming that just applies to vine tomatoes, not the bush ones -- right? I'm thinking a couple of my tomatoes are just plain done.

Ok, ya'll. I found this cool site for laying out the garden. Here's my layout plan, and I need ya'lls eyes to know-how to tell me if I've got stuff in a logical place. The raised bed will be on a south fenceline.

Also available for planting are:
two 20-gallon SmPots for my potato layering experiment,
three washing machine tubs.
4 patented Earthboxes for my mustards and collards

Please tell me if I could make better use of the configuration by changing up the planting locations, e.g., growing the lettuce/spinach in a EB and using the RB space for something else like carrots (forgot the carrots!!!)

Thanks!

Raised Bed #1 (4 x 10')
http://www.gardeners.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-Gardeners-Site/default/Page-KitchenGardenDesigner?gn=Gymgirl%27s%20Fall-Wtr%202010%20RB&rows=4&cols=10&cropstoplant=Beets-3%2cBeets-3%2cTurnips-51%2cTurnips-51%2cCabbage-6%2cCabbage-6%2cCabbage-6%2cBroccoli-4%2cBroccoli-4%2cBroccoli-4%2cBeets-3%2cBeets-3%2cTurnips-51%2cTurnips-51%2cCabbage-6%2cCabbage-6%2cCabbage-6%2cBroccoli-4%2cBroccoli-4%2cBroccoli-4%2cLeaf%20Lettuce-14%2cLeaf%20Lettuce-14%2cSpinach-23%2cSpinach-23%2cCabbage-6%2cCabbage-6%2cCabbage-6%2cBroccoli-4%2cBroccoli-4%2cBroccoli-4%2cLeaf%20Lettuce-14%2cLeaf%20Lettuce-14%2cSpinach-23%2cSpinach-23%2cCabbage-6%2cCabbage-6%2cCabbage-6%2cBroccoli-4%2cBroccoli-4%2cBroccoli-4%2c

Raised Bed #2 (4 x 8')
http://www.gardeners.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-Gardeners-Site/default/Page-KitchenGardenDesigner?gn=F%2fWtr%20%2710%20RB&rows=4&cols=8&cropstoplant=Garlic-29%2cGarlic-29%2cOnions-17%2cOnions-17%2cCauliflower-8%2cTomatoes-26%2cBasil-1%2cTomatoes-26%2cCarrots-7%2cCarrots-7%2cOnions-17%2cOnions-17%2cCauliflower-8%2cBasil-1%2cTomatoes-26%2cBasil-1%2cCarrots-7%2cCarrots-7%2cOnions-17%2cOnions-17%2cCauliflower-8%2cTomatoes-26%2cSage-45%2cTomatoes-26%2cCarrots-7%2cCarrots-7%2cOnions-17%2cOnions-17%2cCauliflower-8%2cSage-45%2cTomatoes-26%2cSage-45%2c

This message was edited Jul 27, 2010 11:23 AM

This message was edited Jul 27, 2010 11:26 AM

The layout grid is really EZ and a nice enhancement to our site. I've make a sticky for it at the top of our thread!

Ya'll get started, soon. August is just around the corner!

This message was edited Jul 20, 2010 4:04 PM

Houston, we have a problem...

Remember all those spuds I ordered from Ronniger's?

Well....

My little Tumblebug is not trouble...yet! LOL And no, I'm not training him to tackle snakes.

I don't see the problem with the taters.

Gymgirl there is nothing wrong with your potatoes. Those are the eyes you cut those off with a piece of the potato on it let it scab over a day or two and plant.

Linda those are some nice looking taters! I think the heat makes them sprout a little sooner, they will be O.K though, I would probably place them in a box and take them out of the mesh bag so the sprouts don't get caught on the mesh and break when it is time to plant.

Deanna8,
Them sprouting is not what's wrong! The problem is they're sprouting waaaaaaay too fast for me. I've still got to move out of my home, and also move my entire (portable) garden to another location.

The saving grace is that I'm going to grow the spuds in the 20-gallon SmPts again, and have the same soil/leaves already "boxed" up in the buckets. So, I can set them up for planting right away.

BTW, ya'll, I'm reusing my same potting mix and leaf mold to grow my spuds in. I didn't have any fungicide or disease issues last time.

Well, ya know it takes about 2 weeks for them to poke their heads out once planted, so you could plant them and then move them and they'd be okay. Unless of course, they spilled or something.

Thanks, Steph!

I have a question: Please look at this diagram and tell me how I designate the two RBs (raised beds) I'm going to construct in my new location. Do I refer to them as South and West facing beds? Or, are they North and East facing beds? The back of the house is on the East side...

I've been out of the loop a bit myself... It's so dang hot and miserable here this time of year that I always ask myself "Self, what were you thinking growing all this stuff in the summer?" LOL... What is surviving is going gangbusters and I hope to have some time in the garden this weekend early before the sun comes up - lol.

Lise - if any of your tomatoes are determinate types they are probably done. Indeterminates can, with a little babying, make it through the summer and encore in the fall...

Stephie - love the new addition to the family - he's a cutie!

Linda - if they will get direct sun from the S and W then I would say they are S and W facing beds;o)

Thanks, Kell.

I know southern exposures are supposed to be "to die" for, but the only experience I've had growing on the south side is the tomatoes in the EBs. And, they seem to get a LOT of morning and noon sunshine and then less full sun after 3 pm or so. So, that would be a good thing, huh?

That would be the perfect sun scenario in the summer - pm shade is ideal in your climate, a must in mine - lol.

Is anyone actually starting any new tomatoes this time of year? Will there be enough time to get a decent crop?

My garden is our south facing backyard. It really faces southwest, but that's another story. Everything reaches for the western sun, so grows like this: / LOL!

I've been starting a few more in my greens garden, direct seeded them, which is in a protected area. I don't know if they will have time to produce each year is different we will see. I can always root a sucker and stick it in a pot.

I've got 15 seedlings in 16 oz cups under 4 side x side fluorescent lights I run from evening to morning. They've been growing really well and should be ready for plantout by August 14th. Seeds were from a Pruden's Purple I grew this spring.

Also got cabbage seedlings but think I started them too soon and its too hot still. Will probably start again next weekend for Sept 15 plantout.

Linda

You have those at work??

^_^

Thanks, locakelly, on the tomato advice.

evelyn_in_the_garden, I haven't started any from seed. I just put in 3 young tomato plants I picked up at the nursery this week (about 10" high), and I have a few suckers/branches I'm trying to grow into new plants, as well as the older plants I'm hoping will perk back up.

Linda, does that mean I should plant more cabbages later as well? I think I started mine around the same time that you started yours, will they be to big for transplant? I also started the broccoli and white Kolrabi around the same time frame.

Evelyn, my tomato seedlings are at home. The cabbages are in my arctic cold office. But they needed much more light before they got leggy, now they're a stringy mess.

Which is why I want to start some more cabbage seeds.

Check out the new links above...

C and Melissa,
Ya'll might be particularly interested in the interlocking raised beds with the hoop pins. SUPER EZ to make and quite attractive, too!

Ok. Who's checked out the garden layout design I posted for your review? Comments are requested on my proposed fall/winter layout.

Qinx has an interesting design. Mine are built by screwing the wood planks into a 4"x4" post at each corner. Good, strong, and sturdy. I can add hoops by screwing in some U shaped brackets on each side of the bed to the board.