Tonight's Bounty

[assateague]

Been dry, but no complaints.
The youngest helped with the green beans, although she was eating them as fast as she could pick them.

[Flightstopper]

Man that looks good Assa. My grandpa lost his old garden to new houses being built years ago and would have fresh veggies for months. Now it's a 15x15 plot in his backyard and no more sweet corn! It's all ate up for the year as well

[assateague]

My gardens have kind of sucked the last couple years. This year is better, but some rain would be nice- the drought has slowed things down. It did rain almost all day today, so hopefully it'll be a good next few days. The watermelons seemed to like it.

[Redbeard]

I'm seriously jealous AT. I wish I had a more garden friendly property. Anything you can recommend that doesn't require a tremendous amount of sunlight? Stupid question?

[assateague]

Beans and squash. Cucumbers. They all tend to burn up quick when the sun gets hot. And pole beans and cucumbers can be trained easily to climb on a fence. Makes them grow better, too. If I had only a small place for a garden where you live, I'd have cucumbers and pole beans planted at the base of, and climbing, anything I could find.

I'm no expert by any means, but that's just what I've found. You could let the cucumbers get a good start climbing, then plant bush Lima beans all around the bottom of the cucumber plants. If you like Lima beans- I happen to love them. I just planted my third round of Lima beans, and haven't harvested any yet. They'll pretty much grow and produce up to the first frost- lots of bang for the buck and space.

[capt1972]

I'm seriously jealous AT. I wish I had a more garden friendly property. Anything you can recommend that doesn't require a tremendous amount of sunlight? Stupid question?

Bats?

[assateague]

Oh, and garlic. Get a few bulbs from the grocery store, break them apart, and plant them after thanksgiving. Should grow out there no problem.

[duckkillerclyde]

why don't you just irrigate your garden?

[assateague]

I half ass do. We have a shallow well and an old well pump, though. I don't like tempting fate.

[3legged_lab]

Had a few strawberries starting to look like actual strawberries, and when I came home from work today the fricken birds got 'em. My corn is about a foot tall, it'll be a miracle if I have corn by October.

[assateague]

Crap, our strawberries are done first part of June. I don't plant them, but we miss them every year.

My sweet corn is fairly tall, but has just started tasseling. Again, I'm going to blame it on the dry hot weather. Corn usually tassels when it says it's time, so I really have no real reason for it being so late.

[vincentpa]

Most of my tomater flowers didn't develop tomatoes. I had the same problem with zucchini and tomaters last year. We don't have any honey bees around anymore!

We're looking for a new house. I want a yard big enough for at least a small garden (bigger than the one I already have.) If my yard is big enough, I might even start my own little beehive. Beehives are all the rage these days in the city, along with live chickens and Mexican maids.

[Flightstopper]

I'd focus my sights on a good maid. Never can have the house too clean with young kids around ya know

[assateague]

Most of my tomater flowers didn't develop tomatoes. I had the same problem with zucchini and tomaters last year. We don't have any honey bees around anymore!

We're looking for a new house. I want a yard big enough for at least a small garden (bigger than the one I already have.) If my yard is big enough, I might even start my own little beehive. Beehives are all the rage these days in the city, along with live chickens and Mexican maids.

You can do it yourself with a feather duster. I'm being serious. It's not as good as the bees, but it does the job better than nothing.

[vincentpa]

Most of my tomater flowers didn't develop tomatoes. I had the same problem with zucchini and tomaters last year. We don't have any honey bees around anymore!

We're looking for a new house. I want a yard big enough for at least a small garden (bigger than the one I already have.) If my yard is big enough, I might even start my own little beehive. Beehives are all the rage these days in the city, along with live chickens and Mexican maids.

You can do it yourself with a feather duster. I'm being serious. It's not as good as the bees, but it does the job better than nothing.

You just feather dust the flowers?

[assateague]

Yep. I use one of those fuzzy ones, not the actual feathers. I do it to the lima beans as well. Sort of lightly swat at the blossoms rather than "dust", though. I try to sort of tap them. Seems to work. We have considerably more bees than we used to, since my neighbor just added more hives at the end of last year. He has 11 or 12 now, I forget, but they've helped my garden. But I still do the duster trick. I also go out and shake my sweet corn around, to help a little bit. The bees are good, but when it gets as humid as it's been, you need a lot of bees to do a good job, because the pollen is stickier than usual, and wind doesn't do the trick like it normally would, especially on the corn.

A tip if you ever plant corn in your garden (and this applies to other stuff as well, but not as much as with corn). Plant the rows close together (mine are 12" apart), and plant in a "block" rather than long rows. Most times, you'll see corn in a garden planted in long rows, maybe three or four of them. This doesn't help the corn pollinate as well as it should, and the ears will show that lack of pollination. It's much, much better to plant 10 10' rows in a close square than 2 50' long rows. Allows the breeze to blow the tassels around closer together and pollinate the corn much more efficiently. Next year I'm going to try the Indian approach, the "3 Sisters" they call it. Corn is planted in a small "pile", about 5 kernels in a 6" circle. Then beans are planted around that, and then squash around that. It needs to be timed right, though. The corn grows in the center, and provides something to support the beans. The squash then shades the ground for the beans and the corn. Additionally, the beans add nitrogen to the soil, helping the squash and corn grow.

Another benefit to this is that it helps with the pests. Bugs are fairly "species specific" when it come to tearing up vegetables. Planting the vegetables mixed like this helps minimize damage. This works for quite a few things, actually. Planting spinach in between broccoli or potatoes helps control the worms which eat the broccoli and the potato bugs on the potatoes. They can't just go from plant to plant, as they would if you have lots of the same plants jammed together. This isn't practical for commercial farming, obviously, but works great in the garden. There are very few, if any, pests which will eat all vegetables. Potato bugs, for example, will only eat potato, tomato, or eggplant plants. Cabbage loopers will only eat broccoli or cabbage, not beans, spinach, or peppers. Japanese beetles will only eat beans or greens, not corn, squash, or tomatoes. By mixing up the plants, you confuse them a little bit, and it helps keep your garden from being overrun with certain pests.

[vincentpa]

Yep. I use one of those fuzzy ones, not the actual feathers. I do it to the lima beans as well. Sort of lightly swat at the blossoms rather than "dust", though. I try to sort of tap them. Seems to work. We have considerably more bees than we used to, since my neighbor just added more hives at the end of last year. He has 11 or 12 now, I forget, but they've helped my garden. But I still do the duster trick. I also go out and shake my sweet corn around, to help a little bit. The bees are good, but when it gets as humid as it's been, you need a lot of bees to do a good job, because the pollen is stickier than usual, and wind doesn't do the trick like it normally would, especially on the corn.

A tip if you ever plant corn in your garden (and this applies to other stuff as well, but not as much as with corn). Plant the rows close together (mine are 12" apart), and plant in a "block" rather than long rows. Most times, you'll see corn in a garden planted in long rows, maybe three or four of them. This doesn't help the corn pollinate as well as it should, and the ears will show that lack of pollination. It's much, much better to plant 10 10' rows in a close square than 2 50' long rows. Allows the breeze to blow the tassels around closer together and pollinate the corn much more efficiently. Next year I'm going to try the Indian approach, the "3 Sisters" they call it. Corn is planted in a small "pile", about 5 kernels in a 6" circle. Then beans are planted around that, and then squash around that. It needs to be timed right, though. The corn grows in the center, and provides something to support the beans. The squash then shades the ground for the beans and the corn. Additionally, the beans add nitrogen to the soil, helping the squash and corn grow.

Another benefit to this is that it helps with the pests. Bugs are fairly "species specific" when it come to tearing up vegetables. Planting the vegetables mixed like this helps minimize damage. This works for quite a few things, actually. Planting spinach in between broccoli or potatoes helps control the worms which eat the broccoli and the potato bugs on the potatoes. They can't just go from plant to plant, as they would if you have lots of the same plants jammed together. This isn't practical for commercial farming, obviously, but works great in the garden. There are very few, if any, pests which will eat all vegetables. Potato bugs, for example, will only eat potato, tomato, or eggplant plants. Cabbage loopers will only eat broccoli or cabbage, not beans, spinach, or peppers. Japanese beetles will only eat beans or greens, not corn, squash, or tomatoes. By mixing up the plants, you confuse them a little bit, and it helps keep your garden from being overrun with certain pests.

Fuzzy duster? How hard of a tap? I've never heard of do this.

Do you have problems with stink bugs? I do.

[assateague]

Yes, the stink bugs just started here bad last year. There really isn't anything which will effectively kill them yet. Technically, I don't think they're stink bugs. The gray ones? If you crush them, they don't stink. They've already gotten one of my giant pumpkin plants and one zucchini. If you can stay ahead of them, that's your best bet. But when you already see the adult bugs, it's best to just shitcan that plant. Their eggs are small brown clusters, usually on the underside of the leaves. They don't crush, you have to physically tear off parts of the leaf to get rid of them. That's what I was doing for a while, but it's too late, now. They suck.

As for the feather duster, I use something like this:



Just walk around acting like you're trying to quickly blot water off the blossoms. Don't rotate it, use the same side all the time. Don't make me make a YouTube of this. Please. I think I learned this one way back when in high school, when we were talking about Gregor Mendel's peas or something like that. I don't know how much it works, but I know it does work, especially if you have a shortage of bees.

[vincentpa]

Yes, the stink bugs just started here bad last year. There really isn't anything which will effectively kill them yet. Technically, I don't think they're stink bugs. The gray ones? If you crush them, they don't stink. They've already gotten one of my giant pumpkin plants and one zucchini. If you can stay ahead of them, that's your best bet. But when you already see the adult bugs, it's best to just shitcan that plant. Their eggs are small brown clusters, usually on the underside of the leaves. They don't crush, you have to physically tear off parts of the leaf to get rid of them. That's what I was doing for a while, but it's too late, now. They suck.

As for the feather duster, I use something like this:



Just walk around acting like you're trying to quickly blot water off the blossoms. Don't rotate it, use the same side all the time. Don't make me make a YouTube of this. Please. I think I learned this one way back when in high school, when we were talking about Gregor Mendel's peas or something like that. I don't know how much it works, but I know it does work, especially if you have a shortage of bees.

I'm thinking a YouTube might be in order.

[3legged_lab]

The tripod is going to end up being a bipod if he doesnt quit eating the tops of my corn plants.

[assateague]

A buddy of mine had a Rottweiler many years back. Ironically enough, Rufus lost his right rear leg to cancer, and lived many years afterward. Anyway, he got into some corn husks in the trash can. Yours is only the second dog I've heard of eating corn greenery. And he has three legs, too. Hmmmm....


The best part of the story is that my buddy had to follow his dog around for two days, while he crapped. He then had to put on a rubber glove and pull the husks the rest of the way out, so his dog didn't get stuck in a squat for hours trying to finish. In his words: "every time I pulled the husks out, it was like pull starting an outboard, and that sonofabitch took off like he was shot out of a cannon, 3 legs or not". It still cracks me up to this day.

That story is rivaled only by the time my same buddy rented a two man augur to put a fence in behind his house outside Baltimore. Said augur got hung up on a rock, and Steve let go. But his 55 year old dad didn't. He was being flung/dragged/bounced around in a circle, screaming "STEVE, TURN THIS MOTHER****** OFF- SHUT IT OFF", whole my buddy is yelling back "JUST LET GO OF THE DAMN THING" over and over. I laughed until I thought I broke a rib.

[Flightstopper]

sweet Jesus that. Is. Hilarious!!!

[3legged_lab]

I think the best part is that the dog was named Rufus.

[whisperin' duck]

Both stories would have been great to see happen!

Sent via my pretentious BlackBerry using Tapatalk while on the crapper

[Westie25]

[vincentpa]

Those were two funny stories!