Bad day in the Garden!

Some days it's best to stay in the house. I mean, it's not bad enough that I have an eary blight that's trying to take over quite a few tomato plants, but then I decided my bush beans were getting WAY carried away and should probably have a fence around them. (Read: Landscape helper + weed-whacker = trouble for overhanging plants.) So I went over to the pile of misc. fence pieces (ala dumpster diving!), and found a nice section that I thought would work well. Hmmmm - there she goes again, THNIKING!!! I got the fence up just fine, but the 2 bean plants that were particularly large and LOADED with flowers got snapped off at the base in the process. Guess they had as good of a chance with weed-whacker boy!

Then I went over to check out and water the container garden - found an errant branch on the Brandywine straying outside of the cage, and I thought, maybe I should just tuck this bad boy inside the cage. Bad idea -snapped it right off - along with the 5 very large and 3 smaller flowers! I could scream.

Then I went over to the square foot beds and look what I found! I'm shocked! It was just perfect yesterday...

This bed has only ever had beans and corn in it before, so it should have been perfect for this long awaited Armenian. I could cry!

And what's up with this? After breaking off the outer limb on the Brandywine, I noticed this on the inner limb. (Don't know if the photo will capture the discoloration, it doesn't do close-ups very well.)

Sequee, I'm so sorry. I've had more days like that than I care to admit :(. I have finally trained myself to quit trying to "tuck" anything in, it almost always turns to disaster. I now carry velcro tape with me, and if something really scream at me, I tie it up instead of tucking. Well, usually. Okay, mostly. Alright....sometimes.......:((

Yeah, I should know better,especially when they get to a certain size - like, duh!!! I tried scotch tape on the tomato, but it's just laughing at me. And I stuck the bean "cuttings" back in the ground. Nothing ventured...

On the upside...

Sequee, I broke a big branch off one of my black krims.. and I rooted it! Take the fruit and blooms off and it might root for you.

I'm sorry your having a day like that.. I know them all too well.

I hear ya., This morning I went out and I had some great squash growing in the EB. I went to move the plant out of the path and give it some support on another EB so the weight would not snap it. Doesnt matter. I snapped it. You just wanna croak. Just give me back that split second. I was and am SO mad at myself. Luckily I had some more seeds, have one plant that is full of buds, quess I will just have squash for a longer time if it can stand the heat.

Oh, I don't think it's woth the effort at this point. The reason I was annoyed about the B'wine was BECAUSE of the flowers and buds. The stem wasn't all that big, and unless that yellowing stem on the inner plant is a sign of imminent disaster, there should be lots more where that came from. I just hate it when I do something that stupid...and TWICE within 10 minutes. I mean, h-e-l-l-o!

And while I've got you...what do you think THIS is??? After weed-whacker boy chopped down my biggest squash plant last Monday, the landscaper replaced it with this. Aside from the fact that I don't think it's going to survive the transplant, it's the strangest thing I've ever seen. All of the fruit is covered with fur!

I feel for ya too. Bad year all round for me too. It's been bad enough with weather.Stickbugs on the maters,caterpillars in the corn,deer in the peas and disease killing my squash vines.Wild critters small and large but yesterday my blasted jack got into the garden and ate some of the few cantalopes that had manage to hang on before hub's found him out there. ARGH! Well,he at least left some "fertilizer" out there.

P

Oh, no!!! Like I said - sometimes it's best we just stay INSIDE!!!

PS - Farmerdill ID'd the above as Hairy Cucumber/Hairy Gourd. After doing a search I read that it is a "sweet and mild" squash, 15cms x 5 cms. Now my question is - ratio of cms to inches...anyone???

Sequee, that fruit covered with "fur" sure looks like a goner.......maybe squash vine borer?? Sorry, but we have those days too. Looking forward to the corn but not to the critters that like it too.

I'm still hoping it might be transplant shock. I did notice some new growth when I was out there before, so I will give it a few days to see how it does.

On the other hand, I think this Japanes Climbing Cucumber has dinner written all over it!

Some days you just need to go and read a book, because no electronic will work for you and anything you touch will go wrong; Murphy days. My DH had one of those days yesterday.

Hey! My name IS Murphy!!! What can I tell ya?

This just in...

lol... but do you enforce the law?

OMG - I LIVE the law! I could ya stories...

Sequee, sorry to hear about your run of bad luck, but I hope things are looking up. Such a lovely flower has to help!

And, if you're still looking for the conversion from inches to centimeters, 1 inch = 2.54 centimeters.

And I want to hear how that squash turns out... maybe it'll be your new favorite veggie! :)

I fought the (Murphy)law and it won!!!!!

Remember that guy with the cloud always over his head in the old Lil Abner comic strip? That'd be me...only female.

P

CONTAINERS, CONTAINERS, CONTAINERS thats how you should be growing everything from now on. LOL.

A container is what did my squash plant in. Hanging over the side was to much for it. Boy do I agree in general tho!!!!

don't them have bush type squash plants??

Forgot to post my dinner shot... Plenty of lettuce and chard out there, too, and maybe a sungold or two. HA! Like I'd waste them on a salad. Later in the season fer shur, but as they ripen in dribs and drabs, one must savor the moment.

Unfortunatly an EB isnt very big or wide. Those leaves and most importantly stems just got so big they snaped where they touched the box drooping over the side. Ive made 'arrangments' for the one plant I do have left.
Herbie, you have the best of both worlds, containers, and a deck, not grass or bug infested siol to set them on. And sun on the deck...a trifecta

Sequee! So sorry for your troubles. I guess we've all snapped off branches trying to "fix" them. Grrr.... At least you had a gorgeous cucumber for your dinner. Won't be long and you'll be inundated with all sorts of ripening veggies. Hang in.

Oh Sequee, have some chocolate with that lovely cuke! And a gorgeous flower (datura?) It will get better; pretty soon it will be harvest and canning/freezing time and you won't miss that one piece that broke off.

Maybe FarmerDill can take a look at my post on the Homesteading thread and ID my mysterious members of the squash family that I uncovered as I weeded our new garden patch. They aren't familiar to me.

Keep on keepin' on - it will get better!!

I just got a pineapple sage, yeah!, and when I was potting it I snapped one of the three stems off at the root, sigh.... I was trying to get it standing upright and I put too much pressure on the stem.

Here's what I snapped off...

...and here's what's left.

pineapple sage is super easy to root...just pull the leaves off the lower part and stick the stem in a pot of potting mix....or in the ground.

P

thanks for the tip, I hadn't even thought of that, though I have done that with geraniums.

Yup - I think we all have these days...myself more often then not. Months of all that hard work and then it only takes seconds (or a few hours if the critters get to it) to ruin it.
Hang in there!
Everything happens for a reason... right?

If you aren't killing plants, you aren't gardening! I have snapped off plenty of stuff--heck, I was just outside putting melon vines up on a trellis a bit late and snapping things left and right. I tried "helping" a tomato yesterday and heard that sound--krrra--and just let it drop. Maybe it will heal. It could happen. Usually when I am doing that sort of thing, I go find me some weeds. "Oh, let me help you, heh." Riiiiip!!

Edited to ask what that flower is.

This message was edited Jul 14, 2008 1:42 PM

I went out and put it in the pot right then. We'll see if it works, it was just laying there over night, but I'd happily accept two pineapple sages.

paracelsus - Which flower?

That big pinkish yellowish whitish sort of datura that Sequee is holding. I want that. Or is it a brugmansia?

Brugmansia Rosa Ubershuang (probably spelled wrong). She's a good girl and loves to be the first to flower - this is way early for us!

As you can see from this photo - I did it again! ~:-) T ried to flick of a JB and tore the bloom - grrr!

Oops - wrong shot. There's she's showing me her intentions!

Wow, those are beautiful flowers! Hey, how are you growing brugs in NY? Are you near the water?

Beautiful! I will be trying brugs again this coming spring. I didn't do well this past year, and I only have a few seeds from a generous DGer, so I don't want to waste them!

You are both welcome to cuttings in the fall if you remind me.

This one is especially early this year. I over-wintered them differently. Instead of cutting them way back and putting them in total dark, I trimmed them back and kept them in the main basement, where they get some light. By the time I was able to bring them back outside, they were already growing nicely. The only drawback to this is that I put the growlights in the same room and the brugs were nice enough to "share" those d*** aphids. Who knew those little buggers would be so partial to eggplant?!? They pretty much wiped me out. Next year they will go into the other room of the basement, where it's a bit brighter, and much colder. I can't be killing off the babies in the nursery!

Oh Sequee thank you! Now if I can remember it in the fall....LOL! The colors are just luminous....and delicate. I need a notebook divided into seasons...hmmmm. (rummages through boxes)

I hope my fennel/dill (tags got lost) makes it through this lovin' by likrish caterpillars! They surely have cute faces :)

So cute, but SO harmful!!!

Good luck! I grew fennel 2 years in a row to keep the cats occupied and off my tomatoes. Worked pretty well, too!