Gardening 2020

MoochNNoodles

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MoochNNoodles MoochNNoodles could you tell me what the tree guy said about forcing the issue of the neighbors tree was dying?
my neighbors have a 2 trucked pine tree and half of it is dead.Neighbor refuses to cut it down and if it falls it will most likely land on our house we rent.
He told me to send pictures to my insurance company and show them its a danger. Sending them to the county is also an option; but he said to go with the insurance company first. They give them something like 30 days to rectify it. When we reported the house next door it was condemned within a week; but not removed for many months; until after the property was seized and sold. I don’t know if they would handle a tree situation faster. I know they contract the work keeping trees near power lines trimmed.

I ordered 2 dozen ears of corn and some other veggies from the local orchard. They have a pickup day near me once a week. I missed the cut off for this week though. I’m also getting sourdough bread in it! :yummy:
 

Norachan

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Something has been eating my Hosta! I have dozens of hosta, all different kinds, but this is the only one that gets eaten. Any idea what could be doing this?
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The hydrangea is a lovely delicate colour when it first flowers, but gradually get's darker.
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This one was bought for half price last summer. The flowers were dark purple then, but they are blue this year. Is that because of the soil or could the cold winter have changed the colour that quickly?
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posiepurrs

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Sad day yesterday. I ripped out my tomato plants. They were dead or dying from blight despite heavy pruning. I don't know if it was the variety being exceptionally prone or just a bad location in the garden. The Abe Lincoln tomatoes were really good, but if I can get a different, less disease prone variety next year, I won't plant them again. I did however save seed in case there is a seed shortage again next year.After all some tomatoes are better than having none!
 

NY cat man

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Sad day yesterday. I ripped out my tomato plants. They were dead or dying from blight despite heavy pruning. I don't know if it was the variety being exceptionally prone or just a bad location in the garden. The Abe Lincoln tomatoes were really good, but if I can get a different, less disease prone variety next year, I won't plant them again. I did however save seed in case there is a seed shortage again next year.After all some tomatoes are better than having none!
I don't know what your situation is or was, but I read on a gardening site that to help prevent early blight, to keep all leaves at least a foot above the ground, as the spores that cause it can get on them from rain splash otherwise. I built my gridwork to be 16in. high and trimmed any leaves that hung down, and had no problems with blight, plus it allowed air to circulate underneath.
 
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posiepurrs

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I don't know what your situation is or was, but I read on a gardening site that to help prevent early blight, to keep all leaves at least a foot above the ground, as the spores that cause it can get on them from rain splash otherwise. I built my gridwork to be 16in. high and trimmed any leaves that hung down, and had no problems with blight, plus it allowed air to circulate underneath.
I did prune off the lower leaves up about 14-16 inches. I have never had an issue before.This has been a very strange year for gardening in my opinion. Peppers and cucumbers didn’t do very well, while last year they did very well. Everything received the same care this year as last.
 

Winchester

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Norachan Norachan , I love hydrangeas and yours are just lovely. Do you have slugs? If so, slugs love hosta. Put a dish of beer out in your garden and the slugs will go for the beer and drown.

posiepurrs posiepurrs I'm sorry about your tomato plants. Our tomato plants always suffered from blight. Pretty much every year. We finally found a blight-resistant kind this past spring and it seems to be doing well.

MoochNNoodles MoochNNoodles Are you going to use your sunflower seeds?

3 more quarts of stewed tomatoes and 3 more pints of sliced pepper strips for the freezer. The tomato skins are in the dehydrator now and I'll halve the grape tomatoes and put them in the dehydrator overnight; I'll make tomato powder tomorrow morning. Boy, we really do need rain! Rick has been deep-watering the tomato plants and the pepper plants, but the sun is stressing the plants out.

We're wasting nothing. The tomato and pepper stems and seeds go into Morris (our Mantis Composter) to help make compost. Everything I can possibly put in goes into Morris. Coffee grounds, tea bags, veggie peelings, egg shells, you name it, it goes in.

The first year we had a garden, my cucumbers did beautifully. I had enough cucumbers to make several kinds of pickles (I dearly love pickles). Ever since that first year, I can't grow cukes to save my life. I plant them and they literally disappear. Every last plant. They're just gone. I've been tempted to try them in pots on the deck to see if that would help; I could let them grow up a trellis along the side railing. For some reason, I can't grow acorn squash either. I get tiny squash....and then they're gone, too. Butternuts do beautifully; acorns do not.
 
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MoochNNoodles

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MoochNNoodles MoochNNoodles MoochNNoodles MoochNNoodles Are you going to use your sunflower seeds?
Nope the goldfinches are feasting and we are loving it! They are right at my kitchen window!

Heres my $15 worth of corn from the local orchard. It looks good! It’s not mine; but at least its local and will fill the freezer a bit.
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NY cat man

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Nope the goldfinches are feasting and we are loving it! They are right at my kitchen window!

Heres my $15 worth of corn from the local orchard. It looks good! It’s not mine; but at least its local and will fill the freezer a bit.
View attachment 348669
I hope your corn experience turns out better than ours. We bought 6 ears from a local farm market, and it was tasteless. Not tough, mind you, just tasteless.
 

NY cat man

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About a month ago, I took a cutting of one of my clematis to replace one that Michele's sister had that was chewed off by some animal or another. Imagine my surprise when just a few days ago it developed buds, and is now in flower.
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Also, after the phlox were done blossoming, I cut them back quite a bit, and now I'm getting a second round of blossoms on both of them.
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About a month ago, I took a cutting of one of my clematis to replace one that Michele's sister had that was chewed off by some animal or another. Imagine my surprise when just a few days ago it developed buds, and is now in flower.View attachment 348776 Also, after the phlox were done blossoming, I cut them back quite a bit, and now I'm getting a second round of blossoms on both of them.View attachment 348777
Wow! I didn’t think a Clematis would bloom when it was that small!
 

NY cat man

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Wow! I didn’t think a Clematis would bloom when it was that small!
That particular one is pretty prolific, and in a normal season I have to prune it back several times to keep it in check, but yeah, it is only about 3in high.
 

MoochNNoodles

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I ended up getting 6 bags of corn in the freezer from what I ordered from the orchard. We don’t eat a ton of corn; so that should be good for a while. I have been so busy with school; the gardens are getting neglected. My DD has been watering anything in a pot.
 

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Almost every one of our butternut squashes have split. We had little to no rain and the skin set. Then we got quite a bit of rain and the insides started to grow again, Split right through the skin. Some aren't too bad and I can salvage them, I think. We found three that weren't touched and a fourth where the split is healed. According to gardeners, as long as the split isn't too bad and it starts to close back up, you can still use the squash. Just cut the split area off and don't use that. Some of the squashes, though? They're really bad. I was sick about it. Since the plants are starting to die back and the stems are browning, we took four and put them in the basement for a few weeks to "cure". We'll see how they do. There are a couple younger squash up in the garden where their skins haven't set yet, so they're OK. So far.

The same thing happens to tomatoes. They go without rain and then they get inundated. The insides start to grow again and split through the skin. Some of our tomatoes are splitting, too. Rick did water as much as he could. But even deep watering doesn't do what a good, soaking rain can do for plants.

The bean plants are pretty much done. Not enough water. Pepper plants still doing OK; we have tons of baby peppers on the plants and lots of flowers yet. Tomatoes are still doing OK, too, as Rick was deep-watering as much as he could while weeding throughout. Corn is finished. We're still getting a few zucchini and yellow squashes, but I'm no longer freezing them. We saute them when we get them for dinner that night and one of our neighbors loves grilled yellow squash, so we're giving them extras.

The strawberry bed is doing OK. We're getting strawberries, but they're just wee little things. Rick wanted ever-bearers and they're bearing now. Not enough, unfortunately, but it's their first year. And they're running through the bed, so we have plenty of new plants.

That's the status of our garden right now. How are your gardens doing?
 
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