Stoppy, I am so sorry that you lost all those tomatoes. I'd be sick. We planted about 50 of them and it was a lot of work covering them all up. Most we covered with old milk jugs we cut the bottom out of. I save all my water and milk jugs. I usually use them to water or mix fertilizer in but can't do that now that the bottoms are gone. I'm saving them in case this happens again in future years. We covered with everything from cardboard boxes to old clay flower pots turned upside down. We uncovered everything when the sun came up and put the sprinkler on everything. Almost everything survived. I think there are a few pepper plants and a few squash plants that look kind of "iffy" but I planted a lot of them anyway.
Last night after listening to the news carefully and checking all the online weather predictions we chose not to cover anything and at 5:30 a.m. I went out and put the sprinkler on the veggie garden for an hour. Everything looks OK. Whew! Not sure what it got down to last night. It did look like there was a light frost here and there on the ground in the fields. It's supposed to warm up now and maybe rain tomorrow. They're saying the rain will go north to the upper third of Michigan. Not sure if we're in that third or not. Sure hope so. It's so dry. We'll have to get out and hand water I'm afraid or we'll lose a lot of new trees and bushes.
Not the best growing season so far. :(
Stoppy, it is not too late to replant those tomatoes. Good luck with that endeavor.
Brenda
Hows everybody doing with the freezing nights?
Lets all do a rain dance. It is pretty dry for sure.
It was 35 here this morning. I'm so sick of it! If we dance for rain right now we'll probably get snow.
My tomatoes and peppers are still in my kitchen and I can't move around for all the plants.
I plant that many tomatoes for Plant-A-Row. It sure was a bummer looking at all those brown babies. Thanks for all the kind thoughts.
The fresh food pantries in the Tri-County of Saginaw, Bay and Midland counties love fresh tomatoes. Hidden Harvest in Saginaw which distributes them serves over 140 agencies in those counties. Nothing given them goes to waste which makes the work worthwhile.
I usually grow them from seeds but this year they were supplemented by 2 flats from Abele's Greenhouse here in Saginaw. Stopped at Abele's today to see if I could purchase enough to replace the ones lost wholesale, they said no, but followed that with, "How many flats do you need?" and replaced all that had been lost to the frost free gratis. When I told the lady at Hidden Harvest she said, "See Jim, there is a God."
That is wonderful that Abele's Greenhouse just gave you those tomatoes. I've seen their advertising on TV and if I lived closer would love to shop there.
Let's pray we don't get any more weird cold fronts move in.
Brenda
I went there one time along time ago would love to go again it was a fun road trip 3 girls and a truck thank goodness we had a truck lol
gloria
That is wonderful. Great story.
Much needed rain coming down right now!
Yea...........it's raining here too. We need it sooooooooooo bad. So far it is a nice slow steady rain. I wish it would keep up all day. Perfect!! I went around with hubby last evening hand watering all the containers. I figured if I watered it would rain. :) The plants and new trees can use all they can get. I am going to mix up some Messenger and another new fertilizer I read about on Daves and spray all my plants with it. After a rain is a great time to fertilize. Hopefully, the plants will all bounce back from these late freezes and start putting on some blossoms.
I see a couple iris buds today. First ones.
i sent a boquette to the secretary at school today with dayme-its his lasdt day at that school and we just luv Ms Cheryl
She called to thank me and say how much she will miss dayme and how beautiful the iris are and smell great-everyone keeps commenting when they come in her office!
I have several blooming-so pretty :)
Rainy morning here-kinda warm!
Hope we dont get the severe weather!!!
60 miles south of me and a full 2 weeks ahead in flowers.
I always get to enjoy the snow longer. hahahahaha. BTW last of the ice melted in the swamp only 2 weeks ago. I swear we have one foot in Alaska.
Cparts your getting close I have Iris blooming well 2 of them are LOL
Gloria
I think iris come in early blooming, mid blooming and late blooming so it depend on the variety you have as to when they bloom. I have some rebloomers that just started blooming. I was worried that freeze the other night would have warped the buds but I guess not. Iris are pretty tough.
It's been a late spring for all of us. I just hope we make up for it on the other end and get a late start on winter. Wouldn't it be nice if the ground didn't freeze till December? I'm ready for one of those El nino winters we used to get. :)
well the minis iris are all done and then there are the next size up=there done too~ lol
the bearded ones are blooming and will get pics tomorrow hopefully all the lupines are blooming too and foamflowers and tree peony's and painted daisy and......lots!
I have 2 Iris 6 globes 3 bleeding heart 2 fome flowers and 2 roses all the other roses have tinny buds lots of iris buds and some lilie buds so things are comming along a couple of the hosta got a touch of frost early so there not as nice as they can be but I'm happy to see them all the same
Gloria
I'm not sure what kind of iris I have, but I have quite a few (deer tend to leave them alone) Some do bloom early and some later. I may have all three kinds.
Gloria you are about 30 miles south, so that is maybe a week earlier? LOL I just know we are late here in blooming for everything. The wildflowers are even a bit late this year.
Got a thunderstorm for 5 minutes last night.
Hubby and I went out today and bought some replacement plants for those that got hit with the freeze. At first I thought they would be OK but it's been five days now and some were struggling. I don't want to keep waiting and then not get a good crop of tomatoes and peppers so we just bought more. I think we bought ten tomatoes and ten pepper plants and have them in the ground now with the water on them. The squash made it fine and the cabbage, broccoli, brussel sprouts etc. look great. Some of my marigolds look sad but I have other things planted around them and seeds coming up so they'll have to make do. I am not spending any more money. I hit everyone with a mixture of Messenger and some of Bills fertilizer so things should perk up. I planted two roses and am fixing to plant one of those Forever and Ever hydrangeas. Then I am DONE. Totally. It's a job keeping everything watered and fertilized. Good thing I have hubby to help with the garden chores now that he's retired.
Sure was a pretty day out today. Perfect!!
Brenda
Well, the replacement tomatoes are all (200) in. Hope it doesn't freeze now til late October or even later. I'm tired and sore. Nice long shower coming up.
Jim
Loon tell me about your forever hydranges I got one for mothers day no tags
Stoppy so happy for you good luck
Gloria
Hi Gloria, I just bought it and the tag for it is outside. I'll find it and post what it says on the tag if it will help. I do know it is the hardiest of the hydrangeas and that's why I bought it. The other ones never seem to get much of a chance to bloom with so much winter die back.
cool thanks I need to know about sun shade water that kind of stuff so I can plant it see you tomarrow after work
Gloria
The weather is great!
Hopefully everything will be ok now. Stuff is perking up after our rain.
Sounds like everyone is doing well. Nice projects and lots of work.
I am tired of dragging hoses around to refill my little pond (that seems to have a small leak dispite the patch job I did) and to water plants.
The hoses are under the deck and need to be dragged up hill and over catching rocks and stuff. DD got the idea to bury some old hose to where we want it to go. He buried hose from the lake to the house with a "t" on the end, sticking up from the ground under the deck.
I figured there was no time like the present. I got some old hose and started. I ran a hose to my pond. The spout comes out in the back, thru the foliage and just comes to the edge. Buried the whole thing. Now all I have to do is turn on the lake water pump and flip the "t" on and it fills the pond.
Then I took the other hose and brought it out by the lake side of the house. Here I attached a hose with a "rain" sprayer, so I can just water the stuff there. (used the hand pump before, with a water can)
The whole project took about an hour. I was excited. This was a great project. Why didn't we do it before?
How smart are you? That was a great idea. I hear you on the watering business. We have many containers spread all over the place with flowers in them. I have an RTV that I fill up with old watering cans and water bottles and drive up to the side of the house and fill them all up with water. I then drive around and water the containers. It's a pain but it works. For the big vegetable garden I bought really heavy duty commercial type hosing and ran enough from the house, across the driveway and several hundred feet out to the garden, thru the fence and it's attached to a sprinkler. I just leave it there all summer. I do break the hose over the driveway so we're not driving over it and just reconnect it when we water. The pressure is acutally decent considering it has so far to go. It makes a world of difference in how the plants do to get regular water. I make sure I don't mow over it and it's black so it blends in with the landscape. Hubby put a "Y" at the spout so we can run another set of hoses to water the flowers around the house. You just have to turn a little lever to open whichever hose you want to open up. My son is a plumber and he put another spigot on the other side of the house and I have a hose and reel over there to water stuff on that side of the house. :) We have a fortune tied up in hosing. When it comes time to fertilize I like to mix stuff up in old milk jugs and hand water. I used Messenger and Bills fertilizer in spray bottles yesterday and sprayed everything.
Gardening is a lot of work. :) I need to weed out my perennial garden out front now that the veggie garden is taken care of. I have some grass in there that is a pain to get rid of. I hate walking around in there because I'm afraid I'll step on flowers. Still waiting for the daffodil and tulip foliage to die down.
We're supposed to get a lot of rain this week. I hope we get it. Saves on watering. :)
Brenda
I have to get a "T" for my hoses I had one last year but I'll be darned if I can find it this year I was sure I left it on the hose !!!!oh well I got every thing waterd to night little mister waters the back yard HES the "new grass man" I do the flowers works for me have a great night
Gloria