I came home this evening after being gone all day. It was dark. I got my high powered flashlight and visited all my veggies and flowers in the backyard! Good thing too because I caught 2 large tomato hornworms munching on my bell pepper leaves! Ok, and I also talk to my plants. I'm happy to say they don't talk back--yet. Just making sure I'm not the only crazy lady out there! Janet p.s. and isn't the weather GORGEOUS!
This time of year I get up extra early so I can walk through the garden before I go to work. And I lay in bed at night unable to sleep because I'm trying to figure out where I'm going to plant all those plants form the Master Gardeners plant sale. You are not alone, my sista!
There are few things better than getting up early enough to walk through the garden while sipping a cup of coffee as the sun rises.
I'm so happy to hear my DH and I are not the only ones who walk around the property early in the morning sipping our coffee, making plans, and oohing and awing about the pretty blooms or nice growth! I love spring in the garden.......course, I love summer and fall too!
Since my areas are separated by a fair distance, I tend to wander through my plants several times a day, each time a different area. I love this time of year for my vegetable garden. My DH, not so much. When I get done milking I step into the garden and check for bugs, new fruit, flowers, ripening tomatoes, and to ooh and ahhh. He stands there patiently waiting for me to get done so we can finish chores. Then there is the front yard walk about and the back yard walk about. As well as the front gate perusal. Just found a couple tiny prickly pear cactus' out by the pond that have lost their minds with blooms. Huge yellow blooms that totally hide the cactus.
Thanks, I feel better now!
Beautiful cactus, Joy! It's one thing that can flourish with just a bit of rain.
I also like to cruise the gardens looking for bugs--that's how I found the hornworms. And fungus. I REALLY need to do some preventive spraying after this rainfall on the cucs and cantaloupe. I have sweet peas growing right now and they are full of fungus. Those pics at the top are of the sweet pea flowers. They are so beautiful and have a lovely smell. I saw them growing on someone's white picket fence while taking a walk in New Orleans and had to try some. They'll be croaking when the hot weather hits but I enjoy them for now. Although I really need that trellis for some pickling cucs...
I know, I was late in getting a trellis for my lemon cukes and they are fighting me all the way now. They would still rather sprawl than climb. But the spaghetti squash on the other side is willing to go upward. We will see who wins!
well now Joy I also grow lemon cukes and spaghetti squash i had some lemons mutate a few years ago and had a really great time trying to find what went on with them ..After quite a while talking to Phds from all over finally got an answer it was as simple as a ressesive gene and is quit common in the lemon variety..Gonna try and find a couple of pix of the mutation .. Okay found them the condition is called fleciating which means the vines flatten out very wide
one pic didn't load so will send it by itself
Never seen that....how odd!
I check and recheck everything I grow and if nothing is wrong or new well, I'll just sit down with different ones for hours on end. When I arrived back from Uganda on March 7 all air sick, tired from time change, hungry, and a few other things. Got back home nearly two hours later after leaving the airport and as soon as I got out of the car I was headed to see all my plants and the affect of my month absence!
even odder is that I had a lilly do almost the same thing at the same time and I had not live here very long at the time so I was kinda worried .thinking maybe it was some kind of atomic accident LOL...The lilly flattened out and had 64 flower buds of which 32 opened at the same time ..My first thought was that I was rich LOl then all of the Phds said it would return to normal and could not be made to repeat..Maybe i will try and find the CD that it is on tomorrow ( it was before I got a digital))
Grits, there is a mexican hat 'Ratibida' that is doing exactly that same weird mutation - extra wide stalk with a seriously deformed flower forming up top.
That stalk looks just the same as my cukes did the lilly looked wide but not nearly as wide as the cukes but it had so many beautiful blooms I will do a search tomorrow for the hard copy of it ..the thing go so top heavy it broke over and I had to cut it a take into the house the one stalk made a impressive display ..If it could ever be duplicated I would be rich
This strong behavior affects many people including me, but I have yet to go out with a flashlight yet I won't be surprised when that happens:) When I get home after 6 pm, I change and go check on the garden...I found my first knuatia macedonia blooming; waited 2 yrs for her to bloom. What a pleasure to see new blooms every day; thanking the good Lord for creating each gorgeous bloom.
the best part of the days getting longer is I don't have to use the flashlight as much LOL
So, it's really a good thing to check your plants daily if not more. And now I know what a spotted cucumber beetle is!! I hate (bad) bugs! There are 3 less of them in the world now. I have cucs and cantaloupe sharing a trellis. They didn't seem to bother the melon. I will try planting some marigolds &/or other repellent plants. If anyone has a suggestion, send it. The thing I read most was to cover with row cover and uncover for a bit each morning. That isn't going to happen--too much for me to keep up with. And I use organic methods. And I found a few more worms eating tomato leaves. Oh well, c'est la vie!
We lost a red cabbage plant to worms, but the rest are doing OK. I automatically plant marigolds with tomatoes.......heard it helped. Who really knows.
I gave up growing squash and others due to that bug. I have no idea how to stop them.
C
The strange thing is that I grow cucs every year and they do very well, until the fungus gets too bad. They've never gotten any disease other than that, that I know of. But I'll just keep squishing the cuc beetles now that I know they are bad guys. :) It will be really cool if we actually make melons this year. It's my first try.
We grow up to 4 different kinds of cukes every year from seed. We prefer the longer english kind and you usually can't find those at the nursery.
Ok here is my flat weird plant. It is a cabbage that I planted for the butterflies last year. Since I don't harvest and it didn't die back, I let it go. This spring it flattened out (one on left largest), then they put out leaves along the flat stems and bloomed. I now have a multitude of seed pods.
Must be something in your soil, Shelia :-))
Maybe I will do better in TX than I did in MA..... here's hoping.
carrielamont - did you just move here?
Any day now .... I have one foot in both states at the moment. (I'm packing in Boston, hubby's paying rent in Dallas. Not an ideal system!) I'll be there at the end of May, then back here again for DD to graduate from high school, then move the packed stuff to the new place in Euless, TX.
Well, welcome to Texas. Always nice to have another gardener join our state.
I have to laugh, my DH and I just moved here from California 7 years ago. Would not go back. Much nicer here.
Those with the flattened stem and blooms, look here: http://www.coopext.colostate.edu/TRA/PLANTS/fascia.shtml
You know your a gardening nut when you recognize faciation growth :0)
Welcome to Texas, Carrie!
That is very interesting, Cocoa, thanks for sharing. I send that link to my daughter, who does stem cell research and also likes gardening :)
TX is lucky to have another DG published author! Good luck with your move, Carrie! Janet
Both Grits in OK and Careyana in Austin recently had plants which did the same thing.
Cocoa - that was interesting....thank you.....I love how intelligent the plants are....changing their cell structure to compensate for less than ideal conditions.
And people wonder why we all talk to our plants!!!
