Random Acts of Living


Monday, August 25, 2008

Trying to Catch Up

Is it even possible? I've had so much going on lately, I think some things I'll just have to let go of. The weather has been absolutely wonderful for growing things, including the grass and weeds. I haven't needed to water my garden in several weeks and it's actually been too much water for watermelon.
I spend an hour and a half or two hours in the garden every morning. Half of that time is spent hunting down bad bugs and their eggs and squashing or torching them. I've also had a problem with a white powdery substance, especially on the zucchini plants. I thin out the worst ones and so far it's all still producing. The tomatoes are slowly starting to ripen. I don't remember the variety of the ones below, but they are your typical round red type...
...then there's the Roma which are taking their dear sweet time to ripen...
...and finally the Lemon Boy which are yellow. These are the first yellow tomatoes I've ever had and they have a wonderful flavor.
My cantaloupe are looking good, but the first one I picked was mushy and didn't have a very good flavor. I think it was due to too much water. Hopefully the next one will be better.
Just look at all the blooms on the spaghetti squash!
Here's the garden from the road view. Looking at the okra plants I'm reminded of a garden that I had years ago. It was two to three times larger than this one, putting it closer to the road. In this garden I planted the okra along the edge closest to the road...
...are you familiar with okra plants? The first leaves that come out are rather broad, nothing special. But...

...the later leaves thin out and are divided into five finger-like parts. I cannot tell you how many "city slickers" slowed down real slow as they drove past my garden, straining to see what it was that I was growing. I was even ASKED if I was growing marijuana in my garden. Uh, yea, I'm going to grow an illegal plant out for the world to see.
Here's what I've been busy with the past couple of days, yard work. Mowing and trimming, it had gotten quite unruly what with all the rain and the fact that my trimmer had bit the dust. Well, I've got a new trimmer and I back in business....
I got the walkway and driveway done, now all I need to do is the curb south...
...and north in front of the house.
When I get the yard work done I should be able to have time to try to catch everyone up with all I've been doing; AHSGR meeting, sister visiting, niece's birthday/jewelry party, etc....
So, STAY TUNED for MORE!

4 comments:

Peter said...

Hi! I just found this on the net for zucchini plants. I don't know how good it will work but it sounds very environmentally friendly to me. If you try it out, I'll be interested to know if it works.

"Dilute one part organic cows milk with between five to ten parts water. Stronger solutions can encourage other fungi, like sooty mould, to develop. Spray the solution during the cool of the morning to reduce the risk of foliage being burned in intense sunshine before it dries. Wet both sides of leaves and stems until it begins to drip off. Reapply after rain or irrigation, which rinses this non-persistent solution off. It is most effective when applied in the early stages of infection"

Happy gardening and remember to keep off the "Grass".

Take Care,
Peter

Moonshadow said...

Peter, seems like I've heard of that somewhere long ago. I don't have ready access of organic cows milk. What did it say that this would prevent or help with? I'll need to check into some other organic remedies for next year. I'd like to find out what spider or wasp is leaving the exoskeletons on the leaves in my garden. So far I've found a grasshopper and squash bug that had the life sucked out of it.

Peter said...

Hi! It's for powdery mildew on zucchini plants - Peter

Moonshadow said...

Sounds like what I might need for my current problem, but I don't think I'm going to go buy me a milk cow any time soon. : )