Yellow Pear, still doing ok. I stopped feeding these too. Ive had enough. This bale is still in great condition, dont know why. Actually, this one, and the others I places strings up, have held their shape better than the strings down bales.
Back in New Zealand, some pictures of my garden
Peppers and Tomatoes
Amazing garden you have!! Thanks for sharing, Lena.
Ive tried to upload this picture 4 times now. Why wont it work? Hopefully it did now
And a look the other way. There has been rain all week so everything is looking nice and green again, but really most plants are on their way out.
Some Peppers I picked last week. From top left clockwise: Thai Super, Cayenne, Habanero Red (centre Habanero white. but they look yellow to me), Thai Hot, and two unknown varieties that I grew from seed I collected myself somewhere. Does anyone recognise them? Oh and Hungarian Yellow Wax in between them all.
Lena: fantastic pics! Have you made a believer out of all your neighbors? :-)
Kent
Kent: Not my neighbours, but a friend recently saw pics on my online blog and asked for info. He seems genuinely interested in giving it a try. I sent him what info I could, as well as a link to DG :-)
Lena
Absolutly; that is fantastic.
Russ
Great pictures Lena. Great garden you had this year. Those peppers on the bottom left I think you said you aren't sure of? Could they be ripe jalapenos? Also, try resizing your pictures down to half size before you load them. That might make it easier. Try to resend one doing that.
Kent, look at her picture of the yellow pears. It looks like she has the bales turned with the strings to the side.
Jeanette
Jeanette; I remember she had some one way and others the other.
Last year I had all of mine with the strings on the side.
This year they are all going to be string down. I only have nine so far. They don't go all the way along the one edge of my garden. I just feel like they should. I took a few more pictures today. However I'm still pushing to get everything done before Friday. I watered them down, no nitrogen or anything just plain water. When I get back I'll get some blood meal and start watering that in. Planted 10 more asparagus roots today, ran the tiller there to loosen the soil. But to get the holes deep enough, I used the post hole digger. Lets face it I wear out too easy, digging by hand. I put a piece of vinyl house siding on one edge of the row, to keep the brome grass from creeping into their root zone. That makes a nice deep edger for them.
Well my young helper came by tonight to help put the topper on the pickup, so now that is ready to haul the plants. Just have today, tomorrow and a little time Friday, to be ready to go.
Have onions, radish and spinach coming up. Looks good to be able to see the rows of green.
Best get busy. more later.
Russ
How long a drive is it Russ? Sounds like you are leaving Friday afternoon?
About that digging Russ, I am going to either use the post hole digger or Bob is. LOL, ain't it hell to get old?
Jeanette
Yeah we get all the advantages of arthritis and a more humble attitude.
Russ
Jeannette: I think Jalapenos are quite thick walled and fleshy. These are thin walled like a cayenne. They do look simelar though dont they. I have some Jalapeno seeds for next season. I will know for sure then.
Lena
Maybe you just need to take a bite. Can you tell the difference?
Jeanette
Jeanette; I see I skipped part of your question.
Cedar Rapids is around a 3 to 3 an a half hour trip. But We are stopping at the Amana colonies to visit Larry's garden and Give him my trade there, so he can set them inside and the SPs won't suffer much of a shock.
Leana I don't recognize those peppers either. But if they were yellow I would think They were a sweet banana. That is if I'm thinking of the right ones.
Russ
I havent had a fresh Jalapeno before, only the pickled ones. So I wouldnt know. The Jalapenos I have seen in pictures look a bit different too.Darker and bigger. These are yellowish when unripe. How big do the plants get, do you know? These plants are short and sprawly.
Lena
Those don't sound like Jalapenoes. I have tried to spell that every way and my spellcheck does not like it at all. Maybe it doesn't like the capital. Think those Jallys (lol) plants are more like the bells.
Jeanette
Lena; I'm not real sure, but they look a lot like my sweet banana.
I will try find a pic.
I don't think so Russ. Hers look shorter. Not that that makes as lot of difference in some. Maybe she should take a bite of one and see if they are sweet or hot. LOL
Lena, have you tried that?
Jeanette
Russ, I forgot to tell you to drive careful and have a good time. By the time you read this you will have been there and back and probably done both.
Jeanette
Jeanette: Yeah I have, they are hot! A short red chilli pepper. I have named them "short red" for my own identification purposes.
Russ: thanks for the picture. Your sweet bananas look simelar to my hungarian Yellows, which are slightly hot though, not sweet. The pepper we are trying to identify is the little red one in the bottom left corner. And the other red ones to the right of them, they came out of a mix packet of seeds. Enjoy your trip :-)
Lena
That's good Lena. Now we all know which ones you are talking about.
Wow Lena, you are brave, buying a mixed bag of pepper seed. I might do that with flowers but peppers is something pretty different. I hope those are small bites.
Jeanette
Yes Jeanette we had a great time. I had a second helping at the BBQ Friday evening. That didn't help my sleep any afterwards. Too much food and a little heartburn.
Then a big picnic lunch on Saturday. Wow, Good thing it was slightly on the cool side and windy. That helped to burn some of those calories.
Then a bunch of us met for supper . Barb & I just had a salad, that we neither one could finish. The main thing of course is we got together and had a great time.
There were enough door prizes, that everybody got their name drawn 3 times. Then for the plant swap, The went by tables. I know each table was called about the same number of times. that was to chose 1 plant. before they just turned everybody loose, to pick plants untill they were all gone. We brought home about as many as we took for trade.
But I did get a nice Autumn Clematis, a couple tropical Hibiscus, a Kalanchoe, high bush cranberry, about 8 different lilies, 8 ever-bearing raspberries, bell flowers. and much more. Now I have to plant most of it. Several of course are not hardy and will have to be in containers.
When we went out we went down to the interstate and across as we wanted to stop in the Amana Colonies, to visit a garden there and to complete a trade that had been agreed upon already. So that was 294 miles going and when we came home we only went down to highway 30 which saved 40 miles off the trip.
Now that we are home and the pickup is unloaded, we are feeling more like taking a nap. We didn't get much rain out of all those storms this weekend, so I suppose I should set up the soak-er hose on some of the garden. I will water the bales first, as I do want to get them started.
2 days on the other garden sure made a difference. Looks like some of the stuff grew 1" to 2".
Was sure glad I didn't leave any plants in the GH as when I opened the door the heat just about floored me. The thermometer could only read 120 F and that is where the mercury was. Right at the top of the glass.
Oh well it was great to get away, and visit other DG friends. Even though it was still a little to cool for everything to be in bloom. We all had a wonderful time. Even though I forgot one persons Trade. But I will mail that to her, so all will be well and good.
RUSS
Boy Russ, sounds like you guys had a great time. Wonderful. How many were there? Isn't it fun to meet people you have been talking to all this time? Wish I could go. I think they had one over on the coast last year. Across the water from Seattle. Doubt I would go that far.
Someone said there were 55 members plus their spouses.
Some body will post the correct count very soon. and I'll let you know for sure.
Russ
That is a very nice turnout. Very good. Bet it was fun.
Jeanette
I was wrong The total was 55, so I am told. But that was still a very good turn out for as cold as it was. We all wore coats. Was wishing I had my long Johns too. I did not see the temp Barb said it was 59 but I don't think it reached that untill we were starting to leave and the wind died down a bit.
Russ
That is a good turnout Russ. And to have that many hot dishes was good. I used to find at the ;potlucks at work that nobody wanted to bother with the hot stuff but just a few of us so we always got stuck. Not bad with the crock pots they have out now.
Jeanette
I was willing to bring something hot but those, keeping a list of who was bringing what assured me that a sheet cake would be sufficent.
I really believe that the organizers of this RU Really done a great job, and I know it wasn't cheap they had to have used up a quite a bit of gas, to gather all the door prizes. Some were donated, some were bought. A lot of miles in gathering them, from all the different places.
Every one seemed to go out of their way to make this a GREAT gettogether.
Russ
That is good that the ones close by probably did more. Probably with your and others from a distance traveling so far it must have evened out. It is nice of you to let them know you appreciate it.
Jeanette
*BUMP*
So that was two years ago that I started my first bale garden. Last spring I could not get more than one overpriced bale (which I needed for mulching) because of the hot dry previous summer and the draughts that came with it. There was a nation wide shortage of hay and straw, animals were hungry and prices went through the roof.
This year I managed to get 8 barley straw bales @$6 each, 3 have already disappeared in the garden as mulch, I plan to plant into a few of them. Here are three that I have set out in the yard, they serve as a day care centre for my seedling at the moment, but I will start wetting them down soon to have them ready for planting in late October. A few eggplants, peppers and cucumbers will take up residence in here. Tulips have just opened.
Lena
As my garden peters out, your pics will carry me/us through until our Spring!!! :-)
Going to be a big change for you Lena. Better enlarge some of those pictures and hang them on the wall so you remember how it used to be.
Find something else to do during canning season.
How is school going?
Jeanette