Groupings, Personal Space, Garden Art, and Color forum: Down on the Farm, 2019
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Yesterday I planted 4 more beefy type tomato plants and 4 cabbages, plus more green beans than I can possibly use. I'll have beans to share with my neighbors. Today it's back to the endless battle with the weeds and for variety I still have annuals to plant somewhere. Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most. More ramblings at http://thegatheringplacehome.myfastforum.org/forum54.php |
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This week I found more cabbages and kohlrabi on a sale rack so now they are planted and I am done! Really done! We have had unsettled weather all week with a few thundershowers. Some of it fell as hail but was not large enough to do much damage. We also had some hard wind coming from the west. I thought it would flatten the corn but it didn't. A long piece of metal roofing on the hay shed was flapping and banging wildly in the wind but didn't tear off. Ron fixed it. This morning I sprayed several small wasp nests and one that was probably a bald faced hornet's. A couple of weeks ago I happened to be standing near the back door when a dark insect flew past me and entered on a golf ball sized nest I had not noticed before. I quickly got the can of Raid and sprayed right into the entrance. The hornet tried to exit but didn't quite make it. Later I took the nest down and cut it open. It was a new nest, no eggs yet, and no other hornets. ![]() Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most. More ramblings at http://thegatheringplacehome.myfastforum.org/forum54.php |
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I love kohlrabi - Yum - hornets are terrifying. ![]() NATIONAL GARDENING ASSOCIATION Purslane & Portulaca ~ Garden Art |
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The corn is knee high, pole beans are trying to climb and will need a bit of help getting started on the trellis. The bush beans didn't have good germination (somebody said Jade was a poor germinator so I am glad now that we planted so many). Some are just coming up. Weeding there has to be done very carefully. Mostly it is bindweed, easily pulled out but the roots break off to regrow.. I picked a few raspberries yesterday. The garlic has not started to die back yet so it was watered again. I noticed a blossom on one of the zucchini plants yesterday. We will be having partly cloudy days in the mid to upper 80's for the rest of the week. Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most. More ramblings at http://thegatheringplacehome.myfastforum.org/forum54.php |
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Your garden is growing ![]() ![]() NATIONAL GARDENING ASSOCIATION Purslane & Portulaca ~ Garden Art |
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It's garlic digging time so that is what I have been doing every morning while it is cool, then hanging it to dry in the shed. I have a small fan going in there day and night and keep the door open during the day. So far I have the Chinese Pink, the Persian Star and the Elephant garlic all dug and hanging to dry and a start on the Turkish Giant. By this time next week I should have it all done. Summer has finally convinced me that it is here. Yesterday it was 95 and will be about the same today. Night before last there was a small brush fire about a mile from us. I woke smelling smoke, couldn't see any glow and decided it must be coming from much farther away. A picture on facebook which we saw in the morning showed the flames, and info at the time just said that our local rural fire department had it out. We drove by and saw that it had apparently started near the road so we assumed somebody had tossed a lighted cigarette. Later info said it was caused by fireworks. There are no houses nearby, it's just cattle pasture with a lot of sagebrush and dry grass. Fire danger is now officially high and probably in the next few days will be rated as extreme. Meanwhile, the ranchers all around us are making hay. It's prefect haying weather. There may be some dry thunderstorms but not much rain will reach the ground with the air being so dry. My corn has lots of tassels and small ears forming. We are very hungry for corn on the cob! Our raspberries are ripe. So far not many have made it to the house. Snacking on berries is a gardener's reward! I need to put in posts and wires to support the canes. Meanwhile I use fiberglass electric fence posts and tie baling twine around it. I got a good amount of grass clippings over a few big sheets of cardboard between the rows to be a weed barrier. The grapes have a lot of clusters which are still small. I'll need to put bird netting over them before long. The row of strawberry plants has once again disappeared in the weeds. I need a lot more grass clippings. This morning I harvested about 14# of rhubarb and delivered it to the buyer. I have found it more convenient to deliver products than to wait for someone to come after them. Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most. More ramblings at http://thegatheringplacehome.myfastforum.org/forum54.php |
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I don't think I've every heard the term "dry thunderstorms" but I think I know what you mean. All the things you're harvesting make my mouth water. ![]() NATIONAL GARDENING ASSOCIATION Purslane & Portulaca ~ Garden Art |
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The last of the garlic was dug and hung in the shed this morning. About 2-3 weeks from now I can start taking some of it down and getting it cleaned up for sale. Buyers are waiting! We have a surprise sunflower that apparently grew from a seed that was in the pot with the maple tree we bought this spring. It is a different type from the birdseed volunteers. This seems to be the type that only produces one huge flower. We have seen big fields of them in past years in the area where we bought the maple tree. The bud was 3 inches in diameter a week ago and now has started to open and measures 9 inches. It is only partially open and the seed part of it is still small. It's going to be one of those dinner plate sized ones! The plant was 52 inches high a week ago, today is 58 inches! It's fun to watch it grow. The stem on the thing has a circumference of 4 1/4 inches at the base. That is larger than the maple tree! You can bet I will save some seeds from this plant! Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most. More ramblings at http://thegatheringplacehome.myfastforum.org/forum54.php |
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What a "fruitful" bounty ![]() ![]() NATIONAL GARDENING ASSOCIATION Purslane & Portulaca ~ Garden Art |
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The hot days have really accelerated the corn growth and maturity. I'm looking into the tassels at eye level when I walk past the rows and there are ears several inches long on the stalks. We are eating yellow summer squash now. The cucumbers have blossoms but so far nothing to eat. I've been removing wheelbarrows full of dry weeds that were dug up along with the garlic. They have seeds that I would rather not have sprouting in the garden. I will need to rototill soon but first I need to run sprinklers to soften the ground enough to do that. I hope to get that done this week. Last year a friend brought us trailer loads of grass clippings. So far this year he has only brought one. I could use several loads of them. The one load he brought had been in the trailer for a while, it was dry and moldy. I had some big sheets of cardboard that I put between the raspberry rows, then carefully put the clippings on them so that I wasn't inhaling the mold, and watered it right away to settle the whole mess. I took my outer clothes off outside the back door and shook them good before bringing them inside to wash. That's one of the advantages of living in the country! Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most. More ramblings at http://thegatheringplacehome.myfastforum.org/forum54.php |
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So many advantages to living in the country - I wouldn't know how to behave if I had neighbors ![]() NATIONAL GARDENING ASSOCIATION Purslane & Portulaca ~ Garden Art |
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Giggle. I agree, nice thing about living in the country. Smart move too! |
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The porch thermometer says 101, it might get a couple of degrees higher before it starts to cool off. I was just hanging out laundry and saw a helicopter carrying a water bucket on a long cable going to a fire. Not sure where but I do know there is at least one big one northwest of us, the direction it was going. Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most. More ramblings at http://thegatheringplacehome.myfastforum.org/forum54.php |
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Oh I hate to hear that. Can you see the smoke? NATIONAL GARDENING ASSOCIATION Purslane & Portulaca ~ Garden Art |
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Yes, a big column of smoke is rising from behind one of the higher mountains. The mountains in that area are mostly around 9,000 ft. Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most. More ramblings at http://thegatheringplacehome.myfastforum.org/forum54.php |
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And I was just thinking you were not having any fires so far this year. I can't remember the time frame for the worst ones, summer? Fall? |
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Arlene, now until probably around the first of October. October is one of our "wet" months, we might get an inch through the month but it will snow in the mountains. Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most. More ramblings at http://thegatheringplacehome.myfastforum.org/forum54.php |
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Thanks. |
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Some of the corn MIGHT be ready. I'll pull off a couple of fat looking ears to test later today. We've had a few green cucumbers. Yellow cukes might have produced something while we were gone for a few days. We like them better than the green ones because they don't get bitter. I didn't look this morning before turning on the sprinkler. Now I am trying to catch up with the watering. I removed a wheelbarrow load of dry Scotch thistles I chopped down last week. The next few days will be 90-95 again after a welcome cooler interval between the hot ones. The rototilling hasn't been done yet but our son put a new roof on the shop while we were away last week. The old roof had been patched before we moved here and has had a lot of black tar added in the 25 years since without totally solving the problems. The flower head on the big sunflower now measures 12 inches which includes the green rays around the edge of the 10 inch seed head. I've been measuring it every week. Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most. More ramblings at http://thegatheringplacehome.myfastforum.org/forum54.php |
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Yum on the corn Mary. Oh how wonderful on the new roof. I hope you post a photo of the sunflower ![]() NATIONAL GARDENING ASSOCIATION Purslane & Portulaca ~ Garden Art |
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