The Dawg Patch

[GoDawgs]

Yesterday the Stickless Wonder yardlong beans popped up. Three day germination!

Daylilies are now doing their thing. 'Sunday Gloves' was transplanted last year but seems to enjoy its new home.



And here's one whose name has been forgotten but I still love it.



Maintenance mode in the garden continues. Lots of things are getting fertilizer side dressing. I spied a bit of funk on several plants, including all three jalapeno plants. The peppers on either side of them had none. There's also something starting on two tomatoes and there might be a hint of angular leaf spot on a coupe of cuke leaves. They all got some copper spray last evening.

This morning I need to take the weedwhacker down between the beds before it becomes a jungle. That will happen soonest to take advantage of the cooler air. A "cold" front has brought 80's instead of 90's for a few days so I need to take advantage of that.

[GoDawgs]

I've been adding more leaf mulch to beds where the first layer is getting thin. Right now we're having a nice little spell of 80's before returning to 90's shortly. Still no rain so watering continues.

Last night Pickles noticed a big Luna moth plastered against one of the back door windows so I was able to get a pic of both upper and lower sides. Although the underside pic was taken through the glass it still came out pretty good. Interesting face on the moth!





After years of service the old garden hose finally got ratty enough that replacement was necessary. Lots of cracks in the covering with white fabric-type stuff showing through and several bulges threatening to burst, probably at a time of greatest inconvenience! The feed and seed had good Gilmour hose that wasn't much more expensive than the cheapie stuff at Walmart so I got a new 100' section. I've found Gilmour products to serve me well. This is the first time I've tried their hose. We'll see.

Then I found the connection between the old 100' and the 75' hose that runs to the well was frozen solid. Of course. It was old enough that it got replaced too. Both old hoses have decent sections long enough to warrant cutting the bad length off, putting on new connectors and adding them to the hoses at the house. Parts of the bad sections can be cut into 5" lengths and slit to serve as bucket handle cushions. Waste not, want not!

[GoDawgs]

It's June, almost half way through the year already. Time is being sucked into a black hole somewhere. Fall garden planning has begun already and some things actually started, like an extra eggplant and tomato that will put out until frost. The tomato popped up yesterday and the eggplants are still thinking about it.

The cukes are running. So far so good as far as the absence of any funk. I thought I spied something amiss on two leaves, promptly removed them and hit the bed with copper spray. The cukes are looking happy. I've been using National Pickling cukes for a good while now as it's been the most dependable in this garden. The bed behind the cukes has some Mexican Torch (Tithonia) in the middle flanked by three zinnias on each end. Pollinator stuff.





The Stickless Wonder yardlong beans have popped up. This is a bush type of yardlong bean I tried for the first time last year and they've done better for me than the long trellised type. They were sown right after I pulled the peas out and popped up in three days.They'll start putting out about the time the green beans have finished. Down in the lower left corner of the bed is the volunteer sweet potato that also popped up. It can stay.





Catalog description from Southern Exposure:

"54 days. A rare dwarf type - think of it as being like an edible-podded Southern pea! Early harvests of 12 in. light green pods (best harvested at 10 in. or less). Bushy 30 in. plants don’t require any sticks (i.e., trellises) for support, though they don’t bear as long as tall varieties."

And finally, this is a progress report on the Snake Beans. For supposedly being such a rampant plant these have been getting off to a slow start. They're healthy but just seem a lot slower than most climbing stuff I've grown. I just checked and they popped up 5/22 so I need to remind myself, "Patience, Weed, patience."



Y'all have a hassle-free day!

[GoDawgs]

Yesterday was cleanup day. The last of the brassicas (broccoli, cabbage, kohlrabi) were dug up and mostly disposed of. The Green Magic broccoli I'm trying for the first time didn't do well at all. They may have been planted too late. GM will get another chance in the fall. The only brassicas left growing are three kale plants.

There were four small (like softball sized) cabbages left that were still good so they're now in the refrigerator. One Stonehead looked different from any I've ever grown. That purple stripe reminds me of some other variety I've seen in catalogs so I'll have to go looking.



An update on the pigeon pea experiment. They're supposed to get about 6' tall and are perennial in the Caribbean, an annual here and rather drought tolerant. I finally found a bag of dried pigeon peas at a Caribbean grocery. They only had a 30% germination rate but I got two plants going. This one is about 28" tall now and doesn't look like any pea plant I've ever seen!



The Contender beans have the most flowers I think I've ever seen on them. Flowers and "toothpicks" (baby beans). Every plant is loaded from top to bottom all the way down the row. There will be an avalanche of beans within the week and canning season will have officially begun. The Provider row isn't far behind the Contenders but not as heavily flowered.



Meanwhile, the two rows of Blue Lakes (one row 10 days older than the other) are coming along. Hopefully this year succession planting will make a steady flow of beans

The fall-planted leeks did so well this spring that I want to try two more varieties of different days to maturity, one row of each. They should be more hefty than the slimmer King Sieg I grew. The seed came two days ago along with the Cucuzzi squash I read about and am going to try. It's actually a gourd but is supposed to be a good zucchini substitute when harvested at the 10-12" stage. A trellis plant and "vine borer resistant". We'll see. Last night I checked the DTM and 75 days means an August finish so there's plenty of time to try one now so I'll start one today.



Still no rain, just empty promises from the weatherman of "a chance for isolated showers". We have a heat wave coming for next week starting Monday with highs of 99 and heat index of 107. I hope he's as wrong about that as he is about the rain but I doubt it. Got to think about what plants (if any) I need to rig up some shade for.

[rdback]

Saw this photo and, for some reason, it made me think of you @GoDawgs .

[GoDawgs]

@rdback , that's so funny! Look at the belly on that sucker! Just fat and happy, kicked back and stuffing himself.

[GoDawgs]

Yesterday I bundled the Lorz Italian garlic and hung it up under the pole shed. There's been a good breeze through there. I checked both the Siberian and Russian Inferno garlic and they're ready to dig, probably tomorrow.



We have temps at 99 with 107 heat factor coming starting Monday and lasting at least through Thursday. The bush beans are just a day or two away from picking and the cukes have 1" little things so I'd like to protect them as best as I can. This morning I put up the hoops and Sunday evening I will get the shade cloth over them.





This is the north side of the garden with the second batch of bush beans in the foreground.



And this is the south side.



That corn in the foreground is the 'Incredible' corn that the squirrels got into. So far the netting has been keeping them out. Yesterday I noticed the first tassels emerging and today there were a few of the first ear shoots with the beginning of silks showing. Ears maturing will be the true test of how good the netting really is when that dinner bell rings! There is probably more shade on this bed than there should be. Not good but it was a test. Next year it will be full sun for this corn.

Good news! The watermelons have their first flowers!

[GoDawgs]

Well, yesterday when we dug the surviving row of potatoes we saw the results of that late April frost/freeze on the potatoes. The Red Pontiac row completely died not long after the event. From the surviving 11' of Yukon Golds there were just 7 lbs of of potatoes with about five decent sized ones and the rest about the size of an extra large egg or marbles. The small ones should be tasty boiled, maybe New York "salt potato" style. Love those things! The huge lesson is that certain things always need to be covered when the forecast is for "possible frost".



The rest of the garlic was dug too. Both the Russian Inferno and the Siberians were smaller than the Lorz, probably because I didn't have many larger cloves from the previous crop to plant. Still from a half row of each there were 24 bulbs of the Russian and 29 of the Siberian. Including the Lorz that makes a total of 88 bulbs for this year.

Those big old window screens I got for $1 each at an estate sale are handy for drying bulbs. This is the Russian Inferno:



The homemade hardware cloth bottom compost sifter turned upside down is drying the Siberians.



Today should be the first light picking of the Contender bush beans. The Providers on the other side of the bed still need a little time, maybe 7-10 days. After picking, Pickles and I will get the shade cloth over them and the cuke bed.

It's been so dry here, just 0.09" (enough to wet the porch steps) since May 27. The forecast for the foreseeable time remains basically at "possible scattered showers but probably not." It looks like Dances With Hoses will continue to do the two step through the garden.

[GoDawgs]

It was bean picking morning. So far it's been mostly Contenders but now the Providers on the other side of the bed are starting to make. However they have a lot fewer flowers than the Contenders and fewer than normal. I wonder if it's because being on the shady side of the bed they don't get as much sun as the Contenders. They wait until the sun is high in the sky and later to get theirs. I raised the shade on their side a little today just to see.

This is the lower end of the south side of the garden. The trellis has Cherokee Trail of Tears on the left half. Then there are some very slow poke Arkansas Little Leaf cukes and Dar cukes starting to climb the right side section. The two cukes were planted at the same time. Behind the trellis is the okra bed with scallions, the National Pickling cukes under shade and a flower bed behind those.



The cukes under the shade have a gazillion flowers and there are a lot of bees working them but not a lot of cukes forming. I did some reading on heat vs cuke pollen and despite the shade, it's most likely the heat we're having is doing a job on cuke production. I'm also worried that the temps are going to affect the Incredible corn pollination as they're fully tasseled out and dropping on the silks.

The first tomatoes! This is Pink Passion from a dwarf plant. It weighs 4 oz. The first few Honey Drop cherries were picked right after taking the pic. Both of these are new to me.





More progress on the snake bean front. After being slow pokes, all of a sudden they're starting to climb. These two came from the last two seeds I had left over and were just stuck under an empty trellis at the far end of the cuke bed. They started climbing first and then their friends on the full trellis of these guys decided they didn't want to be shown up so they started climbing too.



When it's 100 degrees out there it's time for afternoon indoor play. Yesterday afternoon I baked bread and this afternoon 5th Gear will can up some three bean salad using some of today's green bean pickings. Into the summer schedule we go.

[GoDawgs]

Another hot day in store but I don't think it will be as bad as yesterday. The garden got that hose down and watering yesterday afternoon but it will get watered again this morning, especially the big stuff, tomatoes, corn, squash plants and sunflowers,

This is the bottom half of the north side of the garden. Those corn-like plants in the foreground are grain sorghum, an experiment. The snake beans are on the long trellis and a test planting of Super Marconi pole bean on an end trellis. Behind that bed are yellow squash and corn.



Yesterday I bundled up the garlic and brought it inside to finish curing as it's just too darned hot to hang under the pole shed. There's a floor fan keeping the air circulating on them for the next several weeks.



The sweet potatoes are sprouting in their storage boxes. The bigs are in one and smalls in the other. Too bad it's not planting season with all those slips there!





I think it's time to pull the turnip plants. They were planted a little late and look like they're getting woody in the heat even though they're not sized up yet. Chances are they won't and since they're starting to get some funk it's time to un-ass them. More cuke seed will be started in pots today, an insurance policy in case those in the garden succumb to the heat.

[GoDawgs]

The Japanese beetles found the eggplant about ten days ago. Ever since they were removed and squished I haven't noticed any further damage.



That bed full of lush cucumber leaves has melted away over three days. Fast! There wasn't much funk at all on them. The day it hit 105 they looked decimated by afternoon despite heavy morning water in preparation for the heat. I'm thinking there might be nematodes at work as they restrict water uptake but I won't know until I pull one up. One edge of the bed is still trying to make it. This morning I will prep an empty bed and plant more. That new bed gets half a day of shade and so far hasn't had any nematode problems so we'll see.





Meanwhile the bed of Silver Queen is starting to show tassels and a few ear shoots are emerging. Maybe corn by the 4th?



Pickles' 'Beach' sunflowers are doing well. However the cucumbers she planted between the two rows to act as a living groundcover also melted in the heat. She pulled those up yesterday and yes, it looked like nematode damage on the roots.



The peppers and beans are also slow to be making this year. The heat has everything slowed down. We put the shade back over the beans last evening as we're heading into several more days of 100+. Thank goodness the usual high humidity isn't present or we'd all melt down. Yesterday afternoon it was an unheard of 19%!

[GoDawgs]

The drought continues and the deer keep munching anything green. This is a baby watermelon, about 4 or 5" long and the stems where there used to be leaves. There were a few more sweet potato leaves missing yesterday.



Last evening I found the first squirrel-munched tomato among the garden tomatoes and fortunately it was a baby green tomato. I had hoped they'd stay occupied with the peaches but apparently not. I need to get some new rat traps today to set among the tomato cages. The last two were cheapies that blew up on their first or second snap. This is the peach tree and it's proximity to the garden tomatoes.



Speaking of tomatoes, this is EM Champion I got in the MMMM swap this year. It's getting sizeable!



And finally here's Lester (ever the supervisor) inspecting the tomato pallets to make sure all is in order. That square patch of shaved fur back by his tail is filling in nicely although right now it looks all black, which it wasn't before.

[GoDawgs]

I pulled the old cuke plants yesterday and as suspected, the roots were all gnarled up with nematode damage. It's getting harder to keep a good rotation going when only certain kinds of plants are safe growing in nematoded beds.

The two pigeon pea plants are doing well. Sure different from any pea I've ever grown! I wonder when they'll start blooming.



More tomato seeds were collected two days ago and one of today's tasks will be to clean them and start the drying.



A big black walnut limb came down the other day. It got cut up and hauled back to Mt. Brushmore yesterday.



Pickles came back from town yesterday with six Victor rat traps, three for the garden tomatoes and three for those up here at the house....

The two staked yellow squash plants have been limbed up some more and they're getting ready to set another round of squash. I'm going to start two more.



Heat relief! This week we're to be in the upper 80's/low 90's. Scattered storms are forecasted for the area all week but as usual I'll believe it when I see it. Day 31 since the last rain.

[GoDawgs]

RAIN! Afternoon t-storms have graciously dumped 1.4" on us with a chance for a little more before dark. Even with that 0.9" two days ago I still had to water stuff in the garden yesterday as the rain was mostly sopped up by the mulch on top of the beds. Betcha I don't have to water tonight!

So it's rainy day activities today like playing with start dates for fall garden stuff and inventorying seeds. It looks like I pretty much have on hand what I need for fall. It's also time to sit down and make a list of the good, the bad and the ugly that happened in the spring garden while it's still fresh in my mind. I'm sure there will be stuff to add to the Lessons Learned and Don't Do Again sections!

The shelves on the light stand have shifted gears to uses other than starting plants. There's just a little of that going on, like two more summer squash and two more jalapeno plants I started the other day, a pack of scallions that still has more to time grow and two more eggplants for fall.. And a 6-pack of parsley. Several plants in the box out on the porch look like they want to bolt. That shouldn't happen until spring so to make sure I have parsley all winter long I'm starting more.



One shelf has plates of collected tomato seeds drying and tomatoes picked early so they can finish ripening before the squirrels tote them off. That big heart is the first EM Champion I picked yesterday. It's 10.5 oz. There's already a flat with twelve tomatoes that are ready for putting up maybe two pints. It's kind of a pain to do so few jars but when the main dump of tomatoes isn't ready yet, ya do what ya gotta do and not let them go to waste. I can eat just so many BLTs before it does go to waist.



More varieties of tomato seed and some onions from the garden that are pretty much finished drying. They were hanging under the pole shed but it got just too darned hot out there so in they came.



NEWS FLASH.... The Incredible corn bed is kaput. The squirrels took it ALL. More on varmints in the next episode....

[GoDawgs]

Every year I try something "different" just for the heck of it. I call them my garden toys. This year one of them is a grain sorghum called 'Ba Yi Qi' and was bred for grain production. It can be used for making a porridge so if it does well it will be handy to have the seed to grow emergency food.

https://greatlakesstapleseeds.com/colle ... in-sorghum

It's just starting to make heads. In the background is another toy, that snake bean on the trellis. I've been training it to climb vertically but have noticed that it kind of wants to grow horizontally so I'll let it do that once it gets about halfway up.



Yep, the squirrels got all the 'Incredible' corn.



Last night I found the first tiny bit of corn silk on the ground in the Silver Queen bed. Yesterday a live trap was procured and today it will get set up inside the netting surrounding the bed. I was hoping that the squirrels wouldn't like the netting because their little claws would get caught up in it if they climbed but it doesn't seem to bother them. The netting is very secure around the bottom so they're not getting in that way.

This is some deer protection I put over the new cuke seedlings. There's a floor fan cover over one hill and a small welded wire tunnel over the others.



On the other hand, in the "doing well" department there's the Costoluto Genovese tomato putting out a good bit. It's a first timer for me this year.




It's foggy out there this morning. We'll take it!

[PlainJane]

I hope you get some of the rain we had here in N. Florida last night. First good soaking in weeks.

[GoDawgs]

I hope you get some of the rain we had here in N. Florida last night. First good soaking in weeks.

Nope, not here. The forecast is the usual summer blah blah, " a classic summer weather pattern for the upcoming week with plenty of heat and humidity along with a few late-day thunderstorms each afternoon and evening." Hah! Fat chance!

[GoDawgs]

For the past two days there have been storms all around us and they dissolved before dropping any rain on us. And so it goes. Dances With Hoses continues her watering task.

I need to take some updated photos of the tomatoes because after all this IS Tomato Junction but until then I'll post more of the other goings on here in the garden.

Sometimes you come across some unexpected things in the garden. Yesterday Pickles asked, "Isn't that a carrot blooming?" Sure enough. One of the Danvers carrots IS blooming! I didn't think that was supposed to happen until next spring after they went through winter's cold. Strange.



I dug into this a bit and found that it could be due to a few "outlier" seeds that are maybe duds and blooming early or it could be warmer weather. Well, we sure have had that!

This is the Dragon Claw millet, another grain that is heat tolerant and needs no equipment for threshing. Another one of my toys this year. The plants farther back got thinned to proper spacing but I got distracted by something else and never got back to that task. Thus the crowding at the beginning of the row. I guess I'll see how they all do.



I think the Snake Bean might be starting to flower but I can't be sure because I've never done these before.




Descriptions of these say it's a night bloomer. That should be interesting.

https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=Chines ... 9fb714.png

[GoDawgs]

UPDATE! "Houston, we have bloomage."

Now that was a surprise when I passed by the snake bean trellis this morning and spied a bloom on the cluster in the photo in the last post!



So much for "night blooming." Actually, Pickles suggested we go out this evening and check it out and so we will. Where there's one confused bloom there may be more that do it right. LOL!

This bloom is just 5/8" wide. It's amazing how such a small flower will produce such a large fruit. This I gotta see.

[PlainJane]

Wow, that’s a crazy-looking thing!