The Dawg Patch

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GoDawgs
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Re: The Dawg Patch

#521

Post: # 50164Unread post GoDawgs
Fri Jul 09, 2021 3:53 pm

We got just 1/10" of rain from Elsa as she passes southeast of us. That meant watering the garden the next day. Sigh. But PJ, I'm glad you're OK! That was too close.

Yesterday I cut all the mildewed leaves off the summer squash plants in the garden. The yellow squash is pretty limbed up but the producing part of the vine is still alive, well and growing. The zucchini next to it got a haircut too but not as much as it was less affected. There are two side-by-side 14" plants next to it (obscured by the zuke) and two just-germinated plants behind those. This year I've actually gotten around to succession planting squash.

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I decided to succession plant pole beans, weeded one side and put in half a row of KY Wonders in that bed I cleaned up. I planted half a row of Provider beans and half a row of Strike beans on the right. Then, instead of finishing the left side with more KY Wonders, I planted five hills of Beit Alpha cukes with some new-to-me free seed I had gotten with a seed order.

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From what I've read from various sources, Beit Alpha has lots of good points; OP, all female flowers ( gynoecious), self pollinating (parthenocarpic), heat tolerant (developed in Israel), disease resistant, burpless and very thin skin that doesn't need peeling. Supposedly somewhat sweet tasting. We'll see. There's got to be an evil spirit lurking around somewhere. LOL!

And finally the Zinnia bed next to the popcorn bed is finally blooming enough to starting to attract butterflies.

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PlainJane
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Re: The Dawg Patch

#522

Post: # 50186Unread post PlainJane
Fri Jul 09, 2021 7:51 pm

The garden is really hitting stride and looking fantastic!
I can’t believe you didn’t get rain from Elsa; it looked like most of GA was in the path. Today was the first day without rain here in weeks and the mosquitoes are carrying off anything with a drop of blood.
“Never try to outstubborn a cat.”
- Robert A. Heinlein

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Re: The Dawg Patch

#523

Post: # 50364Unread post GoDawgs
Mon Jul 12, 2021 4:43 pm

The garden is changing already. The cuke plants were pulled out five days ago and the Contender beans were done and gone two days ago. The Silver Queen corn stalks were pulled out and tossed this morning. The Blue Lake beans probably got their last pound of beans picked this morning and Wednesday I'll pick the last stragglers and pull the plants as I go.

But as some things end, others begin. At the end of the week I'll plant Red Ripper field peas where the corn was and more summer squash in the squash bed. Three days ago more cukes were planted to a section of trellis and more beans went into that same bed. 8' of pole beans were also planted there a little over two weeks ago. They're already almost 10" tall.

We're in the Circle Game. Apologies to Joni Mitchell:

And the seasons they go round and round
And the trellises go up and down.
We're planting all our vegetables in time.
Weeds sprout and we pull them out
And plant more just the same
And go round and round and round
In the garden game.

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Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch Changes

#524

Post: # 50485Unread post GoDawgs
Wed Jul 14, 2021 5:39 pm

Today I pulled out the Blue Lake bean plants and found the last half pound of beans along the way. Enough to go with a meal for two! Then, since we've had afternoon showers the past few days, I figured the t-posts that were in the corn bed might be easy to pull out. They sure weren't the other day in dry soil! Sure enough, they wiggled around just fine and came right out.

Eight days ago:

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Today:

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Now you can see the okra bed. There are two Heavy Hitters on the left and two Choppee on the right. The one on the far right is a lot smaller than the other three. Both varieties just put out their first pod this week. Behind them are the Tahitian Melon squash (one of this year's toys) and the spaghetti squash. Five spaghetti squash have been picked and it looks like that's going to be it with the vines all yellowed out. And the one small Tahitian squash has split with the rain. That whole mess will hit the road tomorrow. Guessing I might find nematode damage on the roots. We'll see.

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The little Kaho Watermelon on the trellis is putting out little melons! Baker Creek describes it: "salmon-orange flesh that is delicious right up to the super thin rind... It was also one of the best we’ve tasted. Elongated fruit weighs about 2-4 pounds and is perfect for 2 servings....This rare heirloom was originally brought to Japan from China around the year 1912."

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Now... I wonder how I will know it's ripe. It's not laying on the ground so there will be no creamy yellow spot to look for. Maybe the old thump test? Or maybe the pigtail above the stem.

Last but not least is one of Pickles' Sunspot Dwarf Sunflowers with a busy bee on it. These only get 4.5' tall and are pretty without being a massive mess to clean up.

Next time maybe y'all can help me figure out what's munching on green tomatoes!

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Re: The Dawg Patch

#525

Post: # 50511Unread post PlainJane
Thu Jul 15, 2021 6:23 am

Those little melons are the bomb!
“Never try to outstubborn a cat.”
- Robert A. Heinlein

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It Wasn't The Coons In The Popcorn...

#526

Post: # 50704Unread post GoDawgs
Sat Jul 17, 2021 11:10 pm

Well, there's no need for the after dark shotgun vigil near the popcorn bed. It wasn't the raccoons! Inspection of the popcorn bed confirmed Pickles' report of devastation. But there seemed to be an absence of pulled over stalks and lots of ears were still on the stalks but husks totally peeled off and cobs mostly totally stripped.

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As I approached the bed yesterday afternoon to take pics I heard rustling among the stalks. Locating the source of the sound, I finally saw a squirrel, busily stripping narrow pieces of husk off a cob! He looked at me, I looked at him and he went back to work. Then I caught sight of another one emerging from the other side of the bed with a piece of corncob in his mouth. At that point I hollered, the squirrel dropped the piece of cob and they both beat feet for the nearby pecan tree.

That explains the couple of empty corn cobs I saw at the base of that tree two days ago. It seemed strange but I just blew it off and went about my business. So after chasing off the squirrels I went to that same tree and found more stripped cobs, including some freshly shredded husks.

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Then when I went to the house and told Pickles about it, she said, "Well, since this morning all the green tomatoes on the four plants in the Annex are gone. There's not a green tomato on them. And when I got near the plants a squirrel ran away from the plants." There are three groups of tomatoes here. One at the bottom of the garden, one beside the house and four plants we call the "tomato annex", extras that were just stuck in the ground on the other side of the house.

Tomato mystery solved too! In thirty years of gardening I've never run into this before. Never. So the question is... why?

We got to thinking about it and this year there's been one change. Pickles feeds the birds black sunflower seeds because they don't like mixed bird seed. The squirrels also love the sunflower seeds and gorge on them. A while ago Pickles quit refilling the feeders so that the birds would go back to eating the insects that are now abundant. Well, I guess the squirrel population got hungry and decided to go after whatever was easy pickin's!

This morning Pickles put back up the regular feeder behind the house and added one in the vicinity of the four plant Tomato Annex. So far there have been no more tomatoes lost in the group that is growing beside the house. And there have never been any lost in the group at the bottom of the garden. Hey, why eat those tomatoes when you can gorge on corn?

If restoring the sunflower seed doesn't work I might get out the .22 for some furry target practice and thinning the herd which has gotten way too large, too bold, fat and happy. Time to change all that. I've always wondered what squirrel stew tastes like.

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Re: The Dawg Patch

#527

Post: # 50708Unread post bower
Sun Jul 18, 2021 6:55 am

Sorry to see such a wicked attack on your corn! If there's one thing I've learned about critters, they expect a "share" and they will get access to the vegetable garden if they're not kept busy and happy with something else. Very interesting about the sunflower seeds...
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Re: The Dawg Patch

#528

Post: # 50712Unread post goodloe
Sun Jul 18, 2021 8:35 am

Squirrels; yep, they're cute, but deep down, they are nothing but nasty tree rats. They'll eat anything they can get to, including baby birds in the nest. I don't have a squirrel problem thanks to my dogs and cats, but they are on the "shoot-on sight" list just as a matter of general principle...
I have 2 seasons: Tomato and pepper season, and BAMA Football season!

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Re: The Dawg Patch

#529

Post: # 50771Unread post JRinPA
Sun Jul 18, 2021 11:35 pm

That squirrel damaged corn brings back some bad memories...hopefully this year will be fine. Is that popcorn fairly sweet smelling? The trouble I had was with a Supersweet (sh2), but so far no issue with (SE) corn. The worse is when they move to the next blocks that are weeks from ready, ruining them early.

I ruined a few Tposts this spring, pulling them from dry clay after 2 or 3 seasons. Bent right above the flat by the time they were out.

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Re: The Dawg Patch

#530

Post: # 50781Unread post PlainJane
Mon Jul 19, 2021 5:56 am

Squirrels in our area have learned the hard way to keep out of my garden. Spencer is tireless on cat patrol.
“Never try to outstubborn a cat.”
- Robert A. Heinlein

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The Dawg Patch

#531

Post: # 50847Unread post GoDawgs
Tue Jul 20, 2021 12:32 pm

I picked the first little Kaho watermelon today. This pic was taken six days ago and since then it had almost doubled in size with the rain we'cve had. Since it was hanging and not on the ground, there was no yellow spot on the bottom but it thumped right and the pigtail was brown. It weighed 3 lb 9 oz and when cut open it was a light orangy pink inside, just as it was described by Baker Creek.

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The flesh was somewhat sweet but the danged thing was slap full of seeds. There were at least six columns of seeds running the length of the melon and those appeared to be two seeds deep. By the time you got all the seeds out there was very little flesh left to eat. It now resides on the compost pile where the possums will enjoy it tonight. Another disappointment from Baker Creek.

We've had some showers every afternoon or evening for the past four or five days and I've given up any kind of spraying for the time being. More rain this morning. However I was able to get a little work done yesterday morning by running stakes and baling twine along the outside edge of the Big Red Ripper field peas. That will hold them for now but eventually I'll have to run another line higher up.

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With the rain comes germination. Yesterday the Stickless Wonder yard long beans popped up. It's another toy. Supposedly it grows 18" long beans on a bush plant instead of on a trellis. We'll see. And the second bed of Red Rippers popped up last night.

Edited to add this pic of one of the tomatoes down at the bottom of the garden. One of the little furry bastiges boldly left it sitting on the wood strips that connect the cages together.

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Time to go collect more micro tomato seeds for saving. At least I can get that done.

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Re: The Dawg Patch

#532

Post: # 50852Unread post Shule
Tue Jul 20, 2021 2:11 pm

You might try Santo Domingo Winter from nativeseeds.org. I don't tend to get many seeds from it when I'm saving seeds.
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Re: The Dawg Patch

#533

Post: # 50854Unread post PlainJane
Tue Jul 20, 2021 2:53 pm

Too bad about the watermelon!
“Never try to outstubborn a cat.”
- Robert A. Heinlein

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Sometimes You Win One...

#534

Post: # 51164Unread post GoDawgs
Sun Jul 25, 2021 4:41 pm

For better or worse, I'm a gardener who hates to admit defeat. If I try growing something and the effort fails I'll try it again the next year, sometimes giving it the proverbial third strike before banning it forever from the garden roster. In between seasons I will do a lot of online research trying to figure out what happened.

I was pondering the bad luck I've had with lima beans except for Alabama Blackeyed Butterbean, a pole variety with small beans. Better than nothing but it too had some problems. It's been many years since an unsuccessful effort with King Of The Garden pole limas but hey, it's been a long time and I've learned a lot along the way so why not try it one more time? Here's the trellis:

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And there are actually a lot of pods on it but as usual they didn't seem to be filling out.

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But I guess KOTG is slow to fill and I'll admit my patience sometimes is lacking. But they're finally filling! Yesterday I picked one side of the trellis with the sun at my back. First picking! And I got the other side this morning. About 17 oz so far between the two pickings.

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And here's what's in the pods; some smaller and some really huge!

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Still, some kind of rust or funk started up at the bottom of the vines a few weeks ago.

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But I've been spraying some Serenade on the unaffected foliage and added some neem oil to the treatment regimen two days ago and so far the funk hasn't spread upwards any farther. I need to cut that funky foliage off. We'll see.

I'm really happy to see success with limas as this was absolutely the last effort. Now we'll see if I can get some seed for next year from pods left to dry out. Too many times the bugs ruin them!

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Re: The Dawg Patch

#535

Post: # 51183Unread post GoDawgs
Mon Jul 26, 2021 6:37 am

Just nine days ago I ran twine down the outside of the Red Ripper field pea bed.

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Now with all the rain I’m going to have to add that second run of twine up near the top of the side stakes! At least there’s no sign of aphids yet. They love field peas so I do periodic checks of the bottoms of the plant stems.

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Speaking of field peas, Pickles used those small Lady Finger peas as a groundcover/underplanting for the sunflowers she planted. The Lady Fingers are rather small and thus somewhat a pain to shell out but they’re really good. On the other hand, because the plants are smaller they haven’t climbed up and taken down the sunflowers! The seeds were from a friend’s garden and given to me but I planted what was left and now I’m out so I'll will let just about all of these dry for collection.

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Meanwhile the four okra plants (one hiding behind old scallions) are starting to put out more than one pod a day. The side branches are developing, each with new bud clusters. The ”force multiplier” effect! There should be an increase in production soon. Four plants will make all we want and more. In front of the okra is a newly planted second bed of Red Ripper field peas.

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When the riding mower is in the shop and there are a lot of splash and dash showers, it’s time for the push mower to make paths to well traveled areas (like the garden and parked vehicles) to keep the feet dry in the mornings. This is just two weeks since the last mowing. Hopefully the mower (broken transmission drive belt) will be ready today.

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Today I’ll be starting the scallion and leek seeds.

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Re: The Dawg Patch

#536

Post: # 51184Unread post PlainJane
Mon Jul 26, 2021 7:03 am

Interesting … starting leeks now. Maybe I will too!
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Re: The Dawg Patch

#537

Post: # 51202Unread post GoDawgs
Mon Jul 26, 2021 4:20 pm

PlainJane wrote: Mon Jul 26, 2021 7:03 am Interesting … starting leeks now. Maybe I will too!
These will be for starting seedlings that will be planted out Sep 23-24 as the moon is right. I have parts of several articles on growing leeks I copied from stuff I found on line. I do that because, like this one, you go back a lot later and the page isn't there anymore. They mention planting early enough that the leeks get some good growth on them before "winter" sets in. The first two sentences of this particular passage had me scratching my head a bit. Author Joyce Gemmelle says:

"Exposure to cold temperatures when plants are large enough causes leeks to form a seed stalk. This usually occurs in spring; however, bolting (the premature flowering of plants before they reach mature size) is a common problem when leeks are planted later in fall. Late planting results in plants that are small entering winter which then grow slowly due to cold temperatures and bolt in spring before reaching mature size. Planting earlier (in August) allows enough time for leeks to mature before cold winter temperatures arrive."

How large is large enough? When is "later in the fall"? And any overwintered leek will be exposed to cold temperatures at sometime during the winter. I'm leaning toward her last sentence about planting in August. However, she's in San Diego and is talking about sowing seed in the ground. Later on she does address using transplants but gives no indication of when she starts the seed or sets out the transplants.

So.... I'm starting half of the scallions and leeks a bit earlier than I usually do for earlier than usual transplant and then start the other half four weeks later and set out in October. We'll see what happens!

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Re: The Dawg Patch

#538

Post: # 51203Unread post PlainJane
Mon Jul 26, 2021 4:26 pm

Very interesting … I think I’ll start some as well since I have a ton of seed just sitting there.
“Never try to outstubborn a cat.”
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Re: The Dawg Patch

#539

Post: # 51204Unread post GoDawgs
Mon Jul 26, 2021 4:32 pm

Maybe we'll luck up and bracket a good starting/transplanting time! :)

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Re: The Dawg Patch

#540

Post: # 51233Unread post GoDawgs
Tue Jul 27, 2021 12:49 pm

I pulled those giant scallion plants in the okra pic above. They had been left to make seeds and since those have been collected and stored away, the plants' job is done. According to Kitazawa's catalog this variety, Shimonita, is supposedly has a "wonderful sweet flavor when cooked" when they get this big. I've trimmed the roots and tops and peeled off the top several tough layers and they're now in the refrigerator until I can figure out what to make with them. Any suggestions?

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The watermelon patch continues to creep along. The bees are loving all the flowers. There's one hill each of Black Diamond and Charleston Gray.

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Last night I counted five Charlestons coming along but couldn't spy any Black Diamonds. Maybe with that darker rind they're hard to spot in the shadows. Or maybe those vigorous Charleston vines have overpowered the Diamond vines. This one is about 10" long.

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As they approach maturity I'll have to protect them from those thieving coyotes. I found that putting a tomato cage over each one and tying the cages to stakes driven into the ground will work. You do what you gotta do!

Meanwhile the tomatoes in the garden are suffering from various funks but the ones up here at the house are doing better. I need to get some photos of those.

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