We use to have one on farm forum and it was neat. It gave everyone at real place to talk about whatever they were/are doing that day.
I have several hardy hibiscus to get planted today. Kyle dug them with the tractor yesterday and I need to get them moved to several different places before they die in this dry heat. It will be most of a day's work for me. But it will be worth it in the long run. And I could ask Holly for help if I need to. She and Kyle both are so good to help us. They are truely a blessing to have to close to us. For those who don't know, they live about a block or so away in the pasture near where an old house use to stand so they have a private driveway.
I also have so sift out the hundreds of tulip bulbs from the potting soil that I brought home from Powell Garden's on Monday so they won't just rot. Our daughter Kris keep a lot of them and Holly(our DIL)took quite a few too. I plan to plant a 5' X 26' bed of them for us. But I need to buy dozens of aqua baskets to plant them in to keep the voles out of them. It is the only way I can plant tulips safely. I've tried many other methods to no avail.
GOD bless and keep each of you. Hope to see an active thread here.
How about a daily journal on this forum?
Hello everyone. I'm in a mess here. My brother is helping me prepare the house for painting. He's using a pressure washer on it today. I've got flakes of paint *everywhere*. At least he said he'd cover the front flower beds with plastic but still... What a mess!! I don't guess it will do any good to try to clean it up until I finish the scraping and priming either.
I'm not so sure this was exactly a good idea right now either since my first green beans will be ready to pick this weekend but sometimes you have to do it when you can get help.
Vashur, I know what you mean about taking the help while it is available. Just do the beans and wait until he is finished to try cleaning much. Otherwise you will just be spinning your wheels so to speak. There is too much to do this time of the year to waste time and energy if you don't have too. Maybe he will even help with the cleanup.
As for green beans, our 8 plants are now about 3" tall. Just the 2 of us, no need to can much. I'll plant 8 or 10 more in a few weeks to keep fresh ones coming. We like the yard long beans. I used the soaker hose hooked to the Miracle Grow container on them this morning then switched it over to the main row of 8 tomato plants. I think there are about 4 tomato plants on the other end of the bean row. Both are on sides of the poultry yard and have 6' chainlink fencing to climb.
Thanks for posting. Hopefully we can keep this going. Maybe I'll make it a weekly thread like we have on Healthy Living forum, Weight Loss Challange week of - - - - - . At least until it gets more participation.
GOD bless and keep each of you.
There are only 4 of us now since my sisters boys are grown and gone but last year I canned almost 90 quarts of green beans. Luckily I have some left because the beans this year are not going to be very good I think. I have 22 tomato plants that are looking pretty good but they are just beginning to set on and it's getting so hot already I think they may also be affected by the heat this year.
I scraped half the front of the house yesterday. Today I'll do the other half and putty some repairs to the siding and do some recaulking. My time will start to be a little limited Monday when I go back to work. I only work half days in the summer though so it'll all get done eventually. :)
Been busy sence the round up this week has been cleaning barns and getting the cooling system set up for the summer I tilled half of the garden this morning will try to hoe tomorow morning before it gets to hot I'm in cooling off at the monent will go clean some more barn in a little while and check the rabbits we're kindeling today so hope i don't have to much stress in the barns Ya'll have a great weekend
Dave719
Oh DW likes the Daves Garden t shirt as she is also a member
Hi there everyone. Just jumped on this thread before church this morning. I have been watering and planting flowers last week but the heat and humidity was getting to me. Nice rain over night and it's about 62 degrees at about 8 a.m. Cooler weather now for a few days and I do like that! Talk to each of you again later...
cuckoo
Cuckoo, Jack loved the applesauce. Thank you for thinking of him. We are enjoying the fruit spreads too. Mostly me since he shouldn't have the sugar.
We got about 1/2" of lovely rain last night. It was all around us, mostly to the east and south until it got to us about midnight. We certainly needed it.
It is hot and muggy here. Not the best weather for working outside in the middle hours of the day. So I will rest for the afternoon. I'm pretty tired anyway for some reason.
God be with each of you.
I picked enough green beans last night for a mess of green beans and new tators for supper tonight. I have 200 feet planted but the majority will be two or three more weeks because I had to replant them after they didn't come up good during our monsoon weather at that time. Whether it will be cool enough for them to set on only the dear lord knows for sure. :)
I primed the front of the house yesterday and am painting it today. I figured to finish one side at a time then come back later for all the trim.
Hubby and I got home from St. Louis yesterday . We had been in the city to greet our new Grandson into this world. It's going to be hard to go back to my paying job after having a week off.
While we were gone a couple of our goats must have gotten into the yard.. They made a big mess. I'm hoping my new grape vines didn't mind being defoliated and come back .. I think they will. They did some really bad damage to my biggest damson plum though.
My daylilies have started to bloom here. I need more flowers that bloom between the iris bloom time and the daylily bloom time.
I picked a half gallon of wild raspberries in the woods last evening when I got home. The wild raspberries are the prettiest I have ever seen.. The rain the other night made them big and juicy.
I finished the book, " No One Gardens Alone" ... a biography about a famous Southern Gardner .
Congratulations for the new grandson, KathyJo. I understand that thrill. And it doesn't lessen as you get more. We have 9 grandchildren now and the latest was as thrilling as the earlier ones. Each is a blessing from heaven to be cherished for who that individual is destined to be and become.
It is still partly cloudy today and feels like it might rain again. We sure need it. I would call is gloomy if were another season and not so welcome. I have a half way headache like I sometimes get with barametric pressue changes. But I'll gladly live with whatever the sinus pressure meds don't take care of just to get the rain and relief from the heat. Crops were really suffering from the lack of rain.
Just had my ww toast with spray 'butter', a thin layer of p.b. and some of cuckoo's wonderful homemade fruit spread. I took a Phase 2 capsule to help my body not absorb all the carbs. Jack has used these for months were very good results. I think I'll order 2 bottles next time.
I have so much weeding to get done. So many of the weeds have gotten so tall and have seeds setting which I do not want to get loose. Some from the aweful milk thistle already have been loosed and are flying around, landing here and there in the yarden. That means a good crop of them again next year. But I have also prevented millions of them from developing by getting plants pulled and in burning barrels before the blooms set or developed seeds. Right now that is the weed giving us the most distress. The sticktights are in bloom now too and I need to get working on them. They are such pretty delicate looking plants that it took me years to realize that that is where sticktights come from. Thankfully I am able to pass my knowledge on to Holly and Kyle and help them to keep their area as well as ours more free of these dreaded pest plants. Of course we can't get rid of all of them, but each plant removed is thousands of seeds that don't develop. I also need to get out to the old barn area and the old chicken yard and cut off those wild parsnips because they are full of blooms that are maturing to the seed stage rapidly. I sprayed them with some really strong stuff and it didn't seem to phase them. Cutting them off will only make them come back and try to set seed at a shorter length but at least I'll know I won this round. We put all these seed heads in 55 gallon barrels and burn them over and over until all is just ashes which doesn't get dumped for years. Some of these barrels have up to 15 fires of in them before being emptied because they are too full to use anymore without being emptied. I may send some of this burned material off to dumps this year because I have access to a dumpster.
I need to try to convience Kyle and Holly to put up a sturdier fence for their tomato plants. He came up yesterday and got some fiberglass electric fence posts and they planned to use 36" - 42" chicken fencing but that just won't hold up against hard tornado type winds later in the summer. I keep telling them to use the panels and 7' metal T posts like I use to. Even those sometimes got leaned pretty badly in those strong winds but did hold in the end.
I need to get going and start on the day. GOD bless and keep each of you.
wonderful a new Baby , great news congratulatins Kathy and family..
I have since it some cloudy 4 iris's to plant could not take the 90's out side.. this yr. iris's did nothing nearly the weather hot cold hot, and only few daylillies so..thats total of flowers oh other lilies only 2 clumbs did it or plants rather not in clumbs.. asiatic's..so pretty barren.. Have gret day week all..
Twyla
Well you all keep busy. We do not have veggie's. We gat a garden tour starting in 50 minutes that is going to make it look like we grow people. should be around 100 coming though today.
Have a wonderful day, Ozarkian & wife. It was so nice to meet the 2 of you at the RU.
Boy, I wish I could raise hosta like you do. But we don't have enough shade for that anymore. But we can raise iris, daylilies, lilies, and lots of sun loving plants. We do have to water a lot in hot dry spells. Sometimes we have to turn off the water conditioner at the well and we have soaker hoses and sprinklers going for 3 - 5 days and nights.
I planted several plants that had been in pots of mud or just water since the last time I was a Powell Gardens nearly 10 days ago. Amazingly, most of them still looked pretty good. I really am eager for the 2 Delphinium to thrive. I have wanted them for years but never been able to get them going.Same with Larkspur. I've bought plants, sowed seeds, nothing. Most of the flower seeds I have sowed this year have not even germinated even tho they were new seeds that I paid good money for, did all the supposedly right things to get them to sprout and grow, etc. That aspect has been disapointing to me. Those areas will likely just be covered with newpapers and woodchips rather than me fighting the weeds and grasses that are coming back so quickly.
The 12 baby chicks are cheeping and wanting out into their pen so I need to get going.
GOD bless and keep all of you.
Hi Everyone,
Sure wish that I could get my hands dirty today. I'm out of town and my poor flowers are probably feeling the effects of needing watered, although it did come a good rain last Sunday.
I'm in Lincoln, Nebraska at my son's baseball tournament. We lost the first game, but won the 2 games today. I'll be home for 2 days, then off to Texas for about 4 days. It's a lot of running, but a lot of fun.
I'm missing all my blooms, but kids grow so fast and then they are gone - boohoo!!! He's 17 and we've begun the college search. I'm hoping he stays somewhat close to home.
Crystal
I just got to meet Lineace. I was sure I knew where she lived from dmails she had sent to me and her entry in the Introduction thread. We only live about 5 miles apart. She is so friendly and nice. I am looking forward to spending more time getting to know her.
I spent some time at the cafe' tomato beds this evening. They had already left and I didn't have quite enough newpapers so I looked around and found some cardboard boxes. Those worked fine when I broke them down. Just did have enough wood chips to go between the 2 rows. I won't try to put many if any in front of the front row. Not much space and too many marigolds and portulaca between the tomato plants. I put the soaker hose under the paper and chips and let it run for an hour or so. Then weeded some in the rock garden. Lots of volunteer potulaca in there! I'll take some low growing sedum over and see if it will take root and grow too. The soil over there looks terrible and has lots of gravel in it but boy can it ever grow good big plants.
GOD bless and keep each of you.
Crystal, visit Sunken Gardens since you're in Lincoln. They're quite lovely.
I worked most of the day in the garden. Hubby finally got me the truckload of black dirt he had been promising so naturally I had to see if I could go use it all up! The last time he got me a load of dirt I managed to move it all in one weekend. He asked me if I thought the pile of dirt would last a while and I just asked him (in an inoccent voice) what pile of dirt?? He told me that it probably weighed about a ton and a half, and could not believe it was all gone.............. LOL
I repotted some of the water plants into bigger containers. Some of them were close to breaking out of the pots. Bad, bad plant parent!! After finishing with that and upsetting the fish and tadpoles I put in all of the dirt for a new raised bed to put the poppies that I started from seed this year. Hopefully they will appreciate all the hard work and decide to grow so I will have a pretty bed by next year. And speaking of bed..... I think I will go lay down for a while so I can build up my strength to move the rest of the pile tomorrow.....hee hee
Hi everyone and how are you????? Is July 4th creeping up fast this year or what!!! I have been busy just watching my kids be busy this summer. So many activities for the kids crammed into a fast moving summer. Scout camps, mission trips, day trips, swimming, summer school driving, birthdays, etc. are keeping our gang busy this summer. I have'nt spent the time in my plant world outside as I would like but most of my plants are doing pretty well but I've had to water some. Talk again later.
cuckoo
Cuckoo, most of the blackberries I got from you at the RU are sending up new shoots and one or 2 never did die back much. I think I lost 2. Time will tell. The worst problem is that the paint stick I used to mark the labels washed off after about 3 weeks so I no longer know which one is which. The same paint stick that I used to mark another label is still very clear and easy to read. So frustrating to me. The iris are doing fine. I wish I had taken more of the pink/peach colored one but I thought they were already spoken for.
It is quite cool here this morning. Almost too cool to suit me. But a welcome relief from the heat we have been experiencing. The have had to water to for some time. Then we will get a bit of rain. We got about 3/4" a week or so ago.
Our grandson Shadoe has been here all this week. He has moved so many tractor bucket loads of wood chips to the blackberry rows for me that we should not have a weed problem over there for a LONG time. I will have to do some smoothing out but not a lot. In the meantime the tree trimming company brought us about 3 or 4 more truckloads of woodchips. I got to go out to thank the drivers for the blessing and they said that when we get too many just say so and they will try to find somewhere else to dump them. But for right now we are the only ones who will take very many. I told them I don't think we can get too many. If we don't get them used for a couple years we will have lovely soil from them. Shad found a couple scoops of that lovely soil while moveing some of the pile. It was part of the pile that was about 2 or 3 years old.
We have been hauling off lots of scrap metal from around here. It looks so much better now. We still have some to go but some of it will take a lot of cutting up to remove some of it. The place won't take barbed wire but I found a woman who does crafts and she wants what we have. Not a lot, but enough to make some of those awful looking wreaths that people hang on their walls.
That is the news from our neck of the woods. How about yours? GOD bless and keep all of you.
Put clear nail polish on your tags after the ink/ paint has dried. if it doesn't smear when you put it on then it should help protect the writing from the elements. As for our gardens, they are not looking too good. I quit watering the establised plants so our bill won't be so high and just water the veggies, cannas, new lilies, and pussy willows. I have to put epsom salt in my tomatoes cause they are rotting on the bottom and my grandma said that will take care of it. Will do that as soon as i get caught up on all the forums. Am almost there!!! Oh, and grandma said if possible label plants better because she wanted to know the name of some of the plants but there were no labels. I told her I would pass the word along but that you guys do what you can. She also said great job!! She was very impressed with the gardens. Have a great day and stay cool!
I tried the nail polish but the acetone in it melted the paint!
Well, so much for that idea!! LOL. Glue maybe? Or something like it? Superglue or Superman? I can send him down to you! I work with Superman!! LOL.
Hi Everyone,
Well, today I had plants trading places throughout the yard. Some weren't doing well in their locations, so we did a switch. Figured out that Brugs don't like to be in the shade all the time - to the sun they went.
I had planted a few canna in the shade and they also agreed that the sunny location by the fence would be better for them.
I sure got dirty today - wow, did it feeeeellll good! Something theraputic about digging in the ground and watering.
Have a nice evening.
Crystal
Leaflady This is primitive but it works.Take a clean wooden stake then use a brightly colored crayola to mark the stake with the name of your plant. Weather, heat, cold, etc. won't bother it. So glad your blackberries are growing and you will love them.
cuckoo
We worked in the yarden yesterday too. Maybe a little too much. But like Crystal, it sure felt good at the time. I did a lot of weeding, helped Jack with knowing where to use the weedeater(with steel brush blade), and Holly used the chain saw on a couple Redbud trees I hated to give up. But the trees were in one of my raised beds intended for food and getting big enough to give too much shade. I had put off their removal for about 4 years. Now I have to kill the stumps and roots to prevent them from coming back. She also removed a lot of silk tree sprouts that had really started growing this year. Last year I hardly noticed any but the weather this year must have been just right for them. She discovered that they spread from runner right under the ground so when she pulled on one she ended up removing a whole line of them! I'll just have to watch them from now on. That tree doesn't get very large-about the size of a Redbud- and since it seems to grow rapidly at least this year I think I may put one or two in some other places to get some fast shade close to the house.
A bit of tree history as much as I know of it. The silk tree we have is reported to be the tree the silk worms like. It was imported to this country long ago in an effort to develop a silk industry here. But the worms will not live here. The tree however thrived.
A long trip to Columbia today. Jack has an appointment with his podiatrist about that toe that he nearly lost last fall. Thanks to JESUS & the wonderful doctors taking care of him he never even lost a toenail. This will likely be his last visit as the toe is so completely healed. He also got started on VA providing him with proper diabetic shoes versus the hightop lace up boots he had worn since early adulthood. It has been a long journey, but it is now over and all is well.
Must go and get started on the day. I need to check on the water softener system and see if it got turned back on. I know I didn't get it done last night. I was so tired when I finally quit that I was barely able to get into the house, shower, and go to bed.
Cuckoo, thanks for the tip. I got one of those cattle tag markers and will try both methods. But now I don't know which blackberry is which of the ones I got from you. That really irratates me.
GOD bless and keep each of you.
Hello everyone,
I picked my first tomatoes on the 12th. Yummmm! Last year I didn't get them planted until late June and had a fine September harvest. We put up 35 quarts or more.
Does anyone else follow the almanac as to the best times to plant specific types of seeds? This is the first year I've followed their suggestions and it seems to be working. I have some bargain bin rose bushes I hope to get into the ground tonight. Also going to put out some pumpkin seeds so they will be ripe for carving this Holloween.
I am conducting a thistle war. At dusk I walk out and start clipping the purple blooms and put them into a feed sack that I'll tie up into a plastic bag to burn. Our farm had an outstanding crop of weeds on it when we moved in three years ago. Now we have grass in the pastures and a fine crop of soy beans growing.
Best wishes to all and KEEP COOL - I hear that a dose of watermellon helps - M
just came in to cool off it is muggy out there to say the least everything is going about the same shiped rabbits tus. night the garden is doing great got two canners full to do will pick again in the morning getting a few maters and peppers got zukes egg plant will be ready in another week I change some electrical around yesterday was blowing the main on the house had the little barn running off the house it had a entrance box that i'd never hooked up Kath Jo i'm going after my buck sun if nothing gets in the way and they did get our rabbit feed straighten out I know you asked on the farm form but know you read this too
Have a great weekend
Dave719
EvaMae, Did you HAVE to mention watermellon? I was doing just fine til you mentioned it. Now i want some!!! My mouth has actually gone dry at the thought of being refreshed by one! Thanks alot!! LOL
LA, so good to hear from you. I've been thinking of you lately. We drove past your house on the way to Columbia on Wednesday. I wanted to avoid the one lane highway all the way to Marshall Junction so we took J to I-70.
The thistles are perennials so just clipping the blossoms only postpones the seed setting. They will each produce at least one blossom to replace the one you removed. You need to dig the plants out by the roots or at least damage that crown badly with something to kill it. The kids and I used to use the heel of our Wellington boots to gouge out the crown and tear it up when the plants were very small. That usually killed it. Now your bet chance will be to cut it off and apply weed killer to any stem you have left standing. Or carry a shovel and dig them out. If you sever the crown just under the soil line you will likely have killed it. Just be sure to totally remove the crown from the roots or they may grow back together.
We've gotten a few little Sugar Snack tomatoes to ripen so far. I have a couple Ichaban eggplant I need to harvest. The green beans and one lone cuke are finally growning. There is hope for them yet. The tomatoes are loaded with little growing green ones.
I need to get to bed. GOD bless and keep each of you.