August 2004 Gardening and Homesteading Journal

[A.T.Hagan]

It's a new month and time for a new gardening journal. What is everyone up to now?

My weekend was labor intensive but pretty simple for all that. Spent most of it raking, hauling and spreading mulch. Got the two row extensions for the blueberries mulched in, about twenty feet or so for the three plants. Twenty feet of row for the new blackberries. And about eighteen or twenty feet for the camellias - new mulch for the new ones and deepening the existing mulch for the two established ones. Still need to get the driveway flowerbed mulched in and finish mulching in the middle of the camellia row.

The citrus, blueberries, established camellias, and figs are showing excellent growth.

Got the new wheels on the small hen house and moved them out of my shop bay. Have already decided I've mounted them too far back but moving them further forward will have to wait. The idea of a rolling hen house delighted my daughter and she said, "the chickens are going for a ride!" as I was rolling it out.

Other than that it was pretty quiet. The rain chased me off several times Saturday and Sunday so while it was actually coming down I began the major chore of cleaning up and reorganizing the shop again. The place gathers clutter the way the undersides of beds gathers dust bunnies. I've found FOUR tape measures!

Next weekend looks like I'll be processing pears. Lots and lots of pears.

.....Alan.

 

[Gingergirl]

Hot weather has finally hit.

Spring carrots were a disaster, as the bunnies kept them mowed back. I've given up on them and begun pulling them and leaving them well outside the garden as an offering to the bunnies.

The cukes have just begun to produce, and I have started my first jar of dill pickles. The peaches have started to come in, and they are big and juicy, but not enough for more than fresh eating (OK by me.!) The first of the slicing tomatoes will be ready to pick tomorrow (I hope) and it is enormous. The herbs have slowed too.

The first of the fall crops (carrots, snap beans, and beets) are up. Still digging potaoes for table use. They get bigger each time. I hadn't expected much from the potatoes this year as the soil was too high a Ph. Sulfured the bed, but knew it wouldn't be enough. Skins are a bit scabby but the potatoes are turning out to be very good. Still too early to worry about the raspberries, apples, pears, grapes, freezer snap beans, and romas. But it should get real busy here in about 3 weeks.

 

[Sarrah]

My little vegetable garden is doing well.
The peppers are coming in good now and within a couple of weeks I'll have lots to dry. Eggplant, zuchinni, and straight neck squash are producing. Tomatoes are setting up and the winter squash are going wild. It is so tight out there getting in is an adventure in itself. I need to get in and fertilize again to keep them well fed. I haven't found a weed the plants are too strong to let a weed get a hold. I like it like that.
Looks like we are going to get a good store of butternut, acorn, and spagetti squash.
A small lizard has moved in and says it is his garden. He gets out of my way when he sees me coming but he holds his own. He is doing a good job, I don't see any bugs. I'm glad to have him on the payroll.

It is suppose to be a bit cooler this week. Hope the forcast is right somewhere in the 80's makes life liveable. I am planning on starting an area for spring to put my artichoke plants and plant an asparagus bed. DH and I are going to enclose it entirely in a hoop house design covered in netting. The netting has worked really well for us on the garden this year. Not lost anything yet to chickens, rabbit, deer, rat, birds nor mice. It is a pain in one way as it grabs you as you walk by. But it stands up well and we are actually getting the harvest.
So, I need to get out there and rake up all the straw and stuff growing then turn the soil with my little tiller. It is one of those 20 lb tillers and I can manage it fine.
I know when I start on it the chickens will show up to eat whatever goodies I expose. Then I can lay down cardboard and put the frame up for the cover. That is the next project. Of course anything can change at any time depending on what happens from day to day as we all know.
The only thing that didn't do well in my garden this year is the beans. Not enough good soil nor space for them. Hopefully we can get a bed done for them for next season.
The swiss chard is going strong. I still have some lettuce. Not a lot but enough. The brussel sprouts are growing and I had to hose one off hard for aphids a couple of days ago. Looking good for the fall/winter harvest. I have onions to deal with and some housekeeping to be done out there.
Life is good.

 

[Tadpole]

I harvested one of my small beds last week. I got armloads of tetratonia, a selection of red, red & white and yellow beets, lots of yellow, red and orange carrots (it truly is a toy garden! ) and purple and green scallions.

The cucumber vines have a few stragglers left on them, but they are almost done.

I planted winter squash for the first time this year. Since I had never grown them, I bought a seed assortment that had four different kinds in it, just to see what would do well down here. The butternut and turban squash are doing very well. Two nice fruits per plant--big, healthy, almost ready. The acorn squash only had one small fruit and was invaded by a worm. The other squash, which looks almost like a watermelon, is beautiful. I'm not sure it is ripe, but I had to harvest it as something has eaten the stem and the plant was dying.

Next year I will just grow hubbard squash, I think.

The dwarf okra plants that were supposed to be 18" but are as tall as I am are producing well. The romas are almost done. I bought the other indeterminate plant at Walmart. I can't remember the name... but it is producing big, juicy sandwich tomatoes. It had stopped putting on new fruit for a while, but now has lots of blossoms and more small tomatoes, so I am hoping it will go until frost.

My seven square feet of pole beans are producing all the beans hubby and I can eat. The vegetable soybeans, which I planted late just to see what they were like, are blooming.

Sweet basil, summer savory, rosemary, thyme and pineapple mint are thriving.

My raised beds are new this year and I don't have the soil just right yet. I need to get some leaf humus worked in this afternoon and test the soil so I can get my fall greens planted.

Ginger is not supposed to live over the winter here (zone 7a) but last year I left a piece of gingerroot out on the counter to see if it would sprout. It did!!! I planted it in a pot and put it out under shade trees. It made a pretty plant, but I didn't expect it to make it through the winter. I was really surprised to see it come back this year.

 

[booger]

Not much exciting happening here.

Tomatoes are still going crazy--good thing we're still eating them like crazy. I think I have finally snuck enough aside to make a big batch of salsa for the upcoming Tulsa TB2K meet.

Hot peppers in containers are also doing well. They're pretty small but are producing pretty well.

The squash is taking over its end of the garden!! I need to get out there this afternoon and check up on them.

Luffa gourds have climbed over much of the fence and what was the gate. I'm really hoping to have a lot of luffas but we'll see.

Onions are all dried and put up for now.

Herbs are still doing well. Once the new dehydrator is done, I plan on trying some of them (and tomatoes!) in it.

I'm still keeping an eye on the poke and maypops for seed harvesting and sharing. The poke is getting very, very close, I think.

The hogs are still being hogs. The chickens are still being chickens--still need to butcher some. Our three goats are now down to two. The littlest/youngest escaped the fence, as goats will do, and disappeared. It's not like him to wander off. While they do occasionally get out of the pen, they always stay very close by and come running up to us when they hear us. We're pretty sure coyotes got him. There's a bunch of them here. *sigh* He was such a sweetie, too.

On the house building: We're still waiting for it to dry out enough to get the backhoe in here to dig the footing. Stupid rain. At least it's not raining near as often anymore.

OT but I just have to tell you guys! We spent 12 hours yesterday driving all over Oklahoma and Arkansas looking for a "new" vehicle. Sheesh, my butt hurts! DH's work truck gets about 5 mpg. Ouch! At 10 or 11 last night, we finally found and bought him a better truck. Yay! It's a '93 Chevy S10, in great shape, and gets great mileage!! $900, talked down from $1200. They were at the casino and their son had the entire family out looking for them so we could buy it. This is going to save us hundreds of dollars each month.

 

[ioujc]

Sounds like ya'll are busy......

Me too. The garden is crankin' out eggplant as fast as I can pick 'em. Small this year, I bought the plants and I think the labels got switched, looks more like one of the slender Oriental types (Ichiban) rather than the big FAT black ones I like (Black Beauty).......but, oh well, what I get tired of messing with, the rabbits DEVOUR!!
Got 30 rabbits right now....19 babbies, all about 3 months old. Just about ready to be fried rabbit. This is the second time I have raised rabbits. Last time I couldn't bear to kill them......this time I have more experience and DH is going to help. Have done alot of experimenting on wild foods for them. They LOVE wild carrots, however I have researched this, and "suppossedly" wild carrots "can" cause infertility....did you know that?? According to sources too many carrots can even cause infertility in humans...interesting! I will let you know more when we re-breed next month. They also LOVE Indian wheat, grass. some broad leafed plant that has a leaf divided into five sections, wild parsnips (be careful with this too), and leaves and twigs from the sugar maples, fresh corn, wild grape vines, blackberry leaves, stems and berries, sassafrass leaves and twigs.......and of course the parings from apples, peaches, and the whole fruit, which they get if it's bruised or has bad spots on it. Also some ferns thinnings from the garden, of lettace, and such, and of course carrots.....
Have learned a great deal about foraging for foods for them. Beware of wild carrots and parsnips, they appear VERY similar to posion hemlock.....fascinating! They do NOT like poke or asparagus, which sort of surprized me, and they don't like zucchini thinnings, the plant I mean....of course you would NEVER feed them any part of any of the nightshade family, other than the fruit it's self...that's tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, etc.
Herbs were late getting planted but are coming along fine. Should have plenty to dry for use for several years!
It has been SOOOO hot this summer (except we did have about 5 days last week that were incredibly wonderfully cool!!) and even though everyone around us seems to be getting plenty of rain, we have missed alot of it in our liitle valley here. Have had to be careful with the water in the garden and rabbits, because the pump has lost prime and was sucking air twice already...which usually doesn't happen til THIS month. Have been dumping the rabbits "old" water into a barrel, which I use to water the garden, whenever I give them fresh water. Have also used some of our older water stores, after letting the clorine dissapate.....and then refilling with "fresh" treated water.
Got LOTS of peaches peeled and in the freezer, and the pear tree is LOADED again, as it is every year! It is an antique variety that we know is at least 55 years old. It is called a pear-apple, but is not at alllike the new Asian varieties. This one has brown fruit shaped like a pear, but more rounded, and does not ripen til late September or even October....It stores all winter long as it remains rather hard and crisp until setting out for about 4 days (or longer) at room temperature. It stores well in barrels packed in hay, in a cool environment. Plan to can some, make pear butter, and some cider. We lost ALL of last years crop that was frozen when vandels broke into our house ealier this summer, and unplugged the chest freezer.....lost about $1,000 of food, including venison!!!
We were having a good bit of trouble there for awile, sliting open feed sacks stored on the porch.....NOT animals.....letting the rabbits out of their cages, siphoning gas out of the car & truck....we put an end to it though. First we called the sherrif on three seperate occassions, and then, when we lost the freezer, I was waiting for them outside one night. DH was in the house and didn't know I was outside....he heard something around back (not me) and came out with his gun. I also had mine, and we ended up "drawing down" on each other....lucky neither of us is trigger happy and looks at the target before we shoot!! It was funny, because we went into the rabbit pen then, and about 5 minutes later, there was all kinds of stomping and running in the woods, and a truck pulled up and stopped about 1/4 mile down the road and we heard a door slam, and it ROARED outa there!!I guess they saw the "draw down", and figured out we weren't kidding...no problems since! Incidentally, that is NOT an ad for gun opposition, we are both very careful, and make sure we have a clear view of a target.....just as any sane person would before we even put our fingers inside the trigger guard.
Let's ee....what else....the garden is THRIVING on the rabbit poop.....I have enough to go ahead and enlarge it, like I've been wanting to do for a couple of years. Also got beans, cukes, zukes, and tomatoes comin' on.....got it planted late AGAIN this year, but if things get through August, there's a HUGE harvest in September! That's about it from here...oh yeah, and the deer were eating EVERYTHING till I put up a mesh fence around the majority of the garden...that's holding 'em off for now, or maybe it's the DRY summer and they moved closer to the river.....

 

[booger]

According to sources too many carrots can even cause infertility in humans...interesting! I will let you know more when we re-breed next month.

I know you didn't mean it that way but...

 

[Tadpole]

I got a nasty surprise when I tested my soil yesterday.

pH is at 7--apparently I got a little carried away with the lime this spring. Nitrogen doesn't even register. Phosphorous and potassium register low-med.

I added peat humus yesterday. Hubby is supposed to bring home compost today when he comes home along with something to acidify the soil a bit. Plus I have worked in a lot of long-acting fertilizer. I do wish I could afford to use blood meal and bone meal, but this retirement income demands watching pennies.

Hopefully I can replant before the end of the week.

I will use the compost in my compost bin this coming spring as the stuff on top isn't ready yet.

 

[Tadpole]

ioujc, I loved your account of the "drawdown!."

 

[ioujc]

ALRIGHT BOOGER!!!!

Why, you're just a...a....a....BOOGER!!!!
Thanks Tadpole....was something to get the ole adrenaline goin' for sure!

 

[Freeholdfarm]

I'm starting to watch for frosts at night -- will have to cover half the garden if it starts frosting before I'm able to purchase floating row cover.

I've been picking peas, mostly snow peas but there are snap peas ready now, too. The potatoes look great, first time in years that I've been able to grow potatoes without daily picking the Colorado Potato Beetles off them. I have nice rows of endive and kale that are waiting for first hard frost before I pick them. We'll see if we actually get any beans, tomatoes, peppers, squash, or corn this year (short growing season, and we were late getting things planted). Between keeping the garden watered and weeded, there is plenty to do.

The PVC chicken tractor is still holding up. We should start getting eggs in a few weeks, and I'll be thankful to be able to stop buying eggs. We use quite a few.

My new Kinder goats are doing great. I really like them. They are a manageable size, the milk is excellent (very rich), and the kids are growing well -- when we have surplus for meat, they look like they'll have good carcasses. These are all keepers, though. The milker doesn't give a lot (about two quarts a day), but since Grandma won't drink it (she drinks 2% from the store) there is enough for DD and me. Kinder milk does make nice thick yogurt, too, as their milk is higher in milk solids and milk fat than the larger breeds. It was actually thicker *without* added powdered milk than yogurt I've made before *with* powdered milk added! I've been taking them for walks, and plan to have them carry packs when we go hiking, so they will be triple purpose goats -- milk, meat, and draft. I ought to breed some cashmere in there and have fiber, too, .

Kathleen

 

[booger]

Why, you're just a...a....a....BOOGER!!!!

Why, yes, I am.

We just got home. There was a church concert kind of dealie at DH's work. (His boss is a member of the church and let them use his place.) So, I loaded up the kids and headed to town so we could check it out. Got there and DH was done with work but had a nice surprise. A huge load of metal beam (free) and 5 big, round bales of hay (free). So we loaded the trailer instead of enjoying the party. Just got home and unloaded.

A few days ago, we got a ton of free beam and sheet metal (used for walls and roofs of metal buildings) for free. It's starting to look like a scrapyard here--I think we're putting the hurt on China!

Oh, and we have 20-30 big, round bales of hay (also free) coming yet from the fella who keeps his cattle across the road from us. Hot diggety! Free bedding and munchies for the critters!

Oh again! Almost forgot. Neighbor up the road has an old travel trailer that's junk. We had three junk air conditioners. Made a trade! So now DH has a free trailer frame (still solid) with good axles and wheels to spiffy up for hauling. We already have a small one but needed a larger one. I love when we get stuff for free!

Not gardening related but homestead related.

 

[Tadpole]

Freeholdfarm, your goats sound so dear. I have thought of getting goats, but hesitate because I like the freedom of being able to go away for a week several times a year. I will think seriously about it again this winter.

Booger, I can't believe your luck. Amazing!

I got my fall salad garden planted this afternoon... mild mesclun mix, spicy mesclun mix, spinach, baby pak choy and radishes.

The okra is taking up too much room for the amount of food it produces, so I will pull it up tomorrow and get the mustard greens, turnip green and collards planted. They will be mostly for canning.

The only things really producing right now are the tomatoes and pole beans.

 

[A.T.Hagan]

8/04/04

Gave all of the citrus and deciduous fruit their last fertilizing of the year - blueberries, blackberries, figs, pears, plums, cattley guava, citrus, the lot. Mowed the grass around the pasture pear and pecan trees.

Picked half a wheelbarrow load of pears for putting up this weekend. Got them spread out on a table in the workshop to soften a bit first. This is the first time we've gotten fruit from all four trees and I can see now that they are of four different varieties. One I'm pretty sure is some sort of Asian pear. Great right off the tree! Another is some sort of soft pear, but is more pear shaped than apple shaped so I think it's probably not an Asian type. The remaining two are hard pears, but apparently not the same varieties.

Going to be busy in the kitchen getting that lot put up. I've got at least that many more on the trees still to pick.

When we bought the place three of the four were in such poor shape I figured I'd have to eliminate them, but I pruned them up good, fertilized them a bit and they came back to life in a big way! Of course, in the interim I'd already bought and planted three new pears. They're not fruiting yet, but in a couple of years we're going to have a problem...

.....Alan.

 

[Tadpole]

When we bought the place three of the four were in such poor shape I figured I'd have to eliminate them, but I pruned them up good, fertilized them a bit and they came back to life in a big way!

What a nice surprise that must have been!

Lets see... pear butter, pear sauce, pear cobbler....

 

[Charlie]

Here in Siberia....(Northern Wisconsin) we have been having an exceptionally cool (but nice) summer. My peas just finished up and all of the warm weather crops are waaaaaay behind schedule. Finally getting our first cucumbers and zucchini. The beans look great, but are very small yet. The pole beans should be great if we don't get an early frost. Everything is very much behind schedule. This year we did not even try for tomatoes as we only get them in an exceptionally warm summer. The root crops are doing fairly well, but again....late. We are hoping for an Indian Summer so we can get the stuff still in the blooming stage. The herb garden is in full swing and we are enjoying all kinds of them in our eats. My terragon patch has gotten nuts and I am drying some of that for later. The deer herd is huge again so we will be able to get all the venison we can stand (bow season starts in about 6 weeks) and with the cooler water the fish are biting like mad on our lake. Fish and meat will be no problem...but we will miss out on some of the warm weather crops. The local guy who hauls up corn from Central Wisconsin's product is EXCEPTIONAL THIS YEAR.....some of the best sweet corn I can remember. We are going to buy a bunch to freeze for winter. I just love his corn......the best anywhere. We are finally getting some of the good cantelope at the farm market too. Nothing on earth pleases me more than a half a vine ripened melon with a scoop of vanilla ice cream in it. Sluuuuuuuuurp!

 

[Tadpole]

Plentiful fish and venison in the freezer for winter. Sounds like prep heaven to me!

 

[TerriHaute]

The weather here has been cool and dry lately, feels like an early fall. Usually July/August in Indiana is hot and humid with plenty of 90+ degree days, but not this year. I think the temp has only hit 90 once this summer.

Everything is the garden is ripening now. We are inundated with beans, cucumbers, peppers, and tomatoes. The second batch of sweet corn is ready now too and we are fighting with the raccoons to get any. We have trapped and relocated three raccoons so far, using a hav-a-heart trap. We found a much better habitat for them about 10 miles away in a woodsy area with a creek along a little travelled country road. Much safer than in a busy suburb where we see dead raccoons that have been hit by cars almost daily.

I have been busy running both dehydrators to preserve some of the garden produce. And also have been picking and shelling soup beans which have been drying in the greenhouse. These make great "gift-in-a-jar" Christmas gifts.

Terri in Indiana

 

[Tweakette]

We're drowning in rain, green beans, and broccoli up here. The hot weather stuff is just sort of idling along, and my flowers are blooming but are all really short because they aren't getting enough sun. Plus it's all sand at my place so I think the nutrients are getting washed out of the soil.

I tried a new variety of early pole beans this year called "North Star" in addition to our favorite Blue Lake. Jeezum Crow, I've NEVER seen beans yield like this before. They're flat and a little wavy on the edges, like Italian Romano beans, but these suckers are about 12 - 18 inches long when ready to pick and there are TONS of them. Unfortunately DH doesn't like them as well as the others but in a SHTF situation I'd go with the yield so I'm going to keep some seeds for these on hand.

The tomato plants are huge but have hardly any tomatos on them and are all green.

Tweak

 

[Deena in GA]

It's been very, very hot here and, at least around our house, dry for the past few weeks. Seems like it rains all around us just not right here. The regular garden bed is very hard. Fortunately there's not too much still in that space. Just green peppers, sweet potatoes, cantaloupe, watermelon and the butter peas. The heat killed off the squash and tomatoes in record time, but we did get enough to eat and even can. Unfortunately we got so much rain earlier that most of the cantaloupes and watermelon I've been picking are rotten in the center.


We are STILL picking blueberries - seems like we've been picking them all summer. I'm not complaining, I'm thankful! The butterpeas are very slowly getting ready to pick. The grapes and raspberries are still getting established but seem to be doing well so far.

The raised beds are ready to be replanted for the fall. This weekend is supposed to be cooler with highs only in the high 80's so hopefully we can get them planted then.

The pear trees have been pretty loaded. I picked a bunch of them the other day and made pear "sauce" and used some in muffins. Picked a lot more this morning and will probably make more pear sauce and can it. Hope to do some pear preserves tomorrow.

I've been given a bunch of onions that I need to put up in some way. I can NOT grow onions. I've tried every year for the past five or six in all sorts of soil and places and at different depths. They just will not grow for me so one of my friends brought me a bunch, lol.

Btw, for those of you heating with wood or who want to heat with wood, here's a tip. My husband saw a crew cutting down some trees and stopped and talked with the guy in charge. He asked him if they were just going to haul the trees off to the dump and, sure enough, that's what they were doing. This, of course, costs the tree service money so my husband offered to take the wood off their hands. They agreed and now the guy calls my husband whenever he's cut some more and tells him where to come get it. So far we've gotten oak and pecan from him. We are thrilled!! It's free - just the cost of the gas to transport it. So hubby and the boys have been busy splitting and stacking wood. We have several years worth now.

 

[A.T.Hagan]

It was a busy weekend and this morning I am dragging.

The weather was cloudy all day Saturday and cool for August, but never rained at all. I've still got these six grape vines to plant so I got out and started doing the diagramming necessary to determine the exact placement of the trellises. I did the original orchard measurements over two years ago and in the interim some of my place markers have disappeared so I had to re-tape the entire thing to get my spacing the way I wanted it. Discovered I wandered a bit off the line when I planted the two persimmons trees, but not enough to matter. Got everything re-marked and settled on the trellis locations.

I had all but one of the posts that I needed and the wire, but needed four turnbuckles so I could keep the wire tensioned the way I want it. Each trellis is only sixty feet so turnbuckles may not be completely necessary, but I dislike sagging wire and it's tough to get 9 gauge wire tight without using a come-along so I went for the tighteners. Got a shock when I went to the Tractor Supply over to Chiefland and found out what they cost! I wanted four 1/2 x 16 galvanized turnbuckles and figured I'd pay about six to eight dollars apiece based on having bought similar hardware in the past. Ha! The doggone things were sixteen dollars and change - apiece! There's that China and the price of steel thing coming home again. What's more they only had two and I wanted four.

The rest of Saturday was pretty well taken up with finding two more turnbuckles, buying feed, the one post I needed, and shopping for a gift for my daughter's upcoming birthday. Bought a copy of <i>Botany for Gardeners</i> while I was at it, but haven't had time to even crack the cover.

I had intended to begin setting the posts on Sunday, but when I got up my back said that digging the holes for and setting six inch by eight foot posts was contraindicated so I trimmed low branches off of trees around the house, fertilized part of the yard, then mowed the orchard and part of the yard. Sunday was a bit sunnier than Saturday, but still fairly cool for August though the humidity was pretty well normal.

Knocked off at about three to gather up the soft pears I'd picked a couple of days ago from the workshop then picked about that many more again. I'm not 100% certain that one tree is an Asian pear but whatever it is I like those fruit! I ate three right off the tree as I was picking. The doggone coons are getting their share too. Couple of dozen fruit on the ground with two or three bites out of them, the rest left to rot. I need to get the trap out and do away with them.

Took about three-quarters of a bushel or thereabouts into the house which we peeled and cored then gently cooked to soften before I ran them all through the Victorio. Sure wish I'd have bought one of those things twenty years ago! Water bathed twelve pints of pear sauce last night. It would have been thirteen pints but one jar burst in the canner. It was a Ball jar, but I guess it had had one too many trips through the canner.

Plink, plink, plink. Doesn't seem to matter how much I can I still love to hear that sound.

The two new camellias as beginning to show some new growth so it looks like they're going to make it. The coleus that we've been rooting in water on the dining room table are about ready to transplant so I'll have to get the flowerbed prepped. This is going to be a father-daughter thing and the opening of my campaign to turn my children on to the joys of gardening. As long as I keep them bright and colorful I think this will hold her interest. Great way to teach patience - eventually!

.....Alan.

 

[Deena in GA]

I'm finishing up the pears today making more pear sauce. I should say finishing this type of pears. I have one more large tree that is a different type and won't be ready for at least a couple of weeks. The butter peas are coming in now and I'll be canning some of those today too. Also, chopping up and freezing green peppers and hopefully making a little more tomato sauce with the last of the tomatoes. I'd planned to start school today, but looks like there's too much garden stuff to do a full day of school so we'll probably just do some light schoolwork (which will still be more than my grandkids did in their first couple of days at public school).

 

[Dinghy]

I'm finally starting to get ripe tomatoes!!! The plants are almost dead and I was afraid we were going to lose everything. I went out today to look and there were about 6 tomatoes starting to turn red. I have one watermelon, about one inch long, and my corn cobs are still skinny. I have a renegade pumkin plant that has taken over a quarter of the garden. It has climbed up and over the 4 foot fence! It has many blossoms, but no pumpkins and no promise of any from the looks of things. I finally have a few tiny green peppers, and quite a few skinny hot peppers. I planted a Thai hot pepper plant and it has a lot of peppers that are starting to turn red. I'm going to try and bring that inside to grow over the winter since it's the only one I've ever seen around here. All in all the garden has been a big disappointment this year, but with the weather I'm not surprised. I planted Jerusalem artichokes for the first time and they still don't even have flowers on them. On the up side, my onions are doing good for the first time ever. They are about 3 inches around. Somebody told me to pull the dirt away from them so they can grow, and it's working. My potatoes are looking good. Lots of little ones on the old sprouted ones that I threw in the yard. I can't wait to dig them up and see how they did. The ones that I planted from real seed potatoes have beautiful plants, but I haven't dug in to see what they've grown yet. I want it to be a big surprise! I don't have the heart to eat any of them yet. I want to see how big they'll get! This is the first time in years that my impatients are doing good because they like all this water, and putting straw around them helped too.
It's so depressing to see the end of gardening season when we weren't even able to enjoy it. I so looked forward to it all winter, and then only got out to work in it a few times all summer. This is the first summer that we didn't have to water anything. The yard is still a swamp! I bought a rain barrel and haven't needed to use it at all. I keep filling the dogs water bowl from it, but haven't watered a single plant.
I love the fall, but we haven't really even had summer yet! I didn't even get a suntan, darn it all!!!!

 

[Gingergirl]

Tomatoes are NOT looking good. Everyone is complaining of LateBlight. Sprayed, but maybe too late. Wax beans have been the best ever...no rust or green fly. The burgundy beans have been blooming like crazy, but very few beans. Plenty of bees so what is the problem here? Peppers are doing well and should have a good crop. Cukes are happy. Potatoes are getting big. Raspberries are about to come on strong. So not every thing is a loss. Too early to tell how the Concord grapes will do.

Spent several hours prepping a bed for fall snap peas, and another for greens. The snap peas are an experiment as english peas do not usually do well as a fall crop. May just as well pull up the tomatoes and put in spinach, but not this weekend.

 

[Sarrah]

Not too much to report here. It is hot and has been in the upper 90's for a week now with next week predicting more of the same. I am about useless in the heat.
I was digging a hole. Three foot deep and about two feet round. It was suppose to be square but it ended up round. I finished it. I am proud. It may not seem like much of a hole but to me it was huge. I am now onto a shallow trench. I have to go about 30 feet and I am going to wait till it is cooler.

We are now eating small tomatoes from the garden. Pear and cherry. The big tomatoes are looking great but they are still green. The Romas are well fruited but green too. Cukes are slow but they are there. I doubt I'll get enough to can. We've eaten them as they grow. I may have to buy some at the farmers market. I'll wait a few weeks and see.
The peppers are going really well now. I tried a new Bell pepper this year, it is called Big Bertha and they really are big. I'm saving that seed for sure. They are twice the size of the California Wonder. Dh has been snacking on the jalapeno's right in the garden. Fine by me saves prep work.

The garden is ok everything that is growing is good to eat. The garden is just small. Hopefully next year we will have more area ready to plant.
My projects are kind of on hold in this heat. I can function at 80whatever. At 95 and up I'm toast.

 

[A.T.Hagan]

Well, Charley really discombobulated the homesteading activities here at DunHagan, but we did manage to get some small work done.

Last Sunday we tried to make the gingered pear preserves whose recipe was in the pear thread that went through here earlier. I say tried to make because I tried to make a double batch only to discover that it is one of those recipes that cannot easily be doubled. Too much juice to cook down before the fruit over cooks. So what I ended up with was three and a half quarts of gingered pear syrup. The flavor is good so we'll use it for syrup. Next time we'll do a single batch like the recipe calls for because I think it's a good recipe.

With the idea of working on them over the course of last week I picked about two bushels of pears. Some were hard pears picked earlier and the rest were soft pears that I picked on Monday or Tuesday (I think). Of course along came Charley to derail all of those plans so they just sat until Saturday morning after the storm had gone elsewhere and missed us entirely. I thought the hard pears were a bit soft for preserves by then so decided just to make sauce out of the lot as we had a lot to do and more pears still on the tree. Spent much of Saturday watching the <i>Frontier House</i> mini-series while paring and cooking down pears. About eight that night everything had been peeled and cooked down so we ran it all through the Victorio strainer (can't recommend those things highly enough!) to end up with seventeen quarts of pear sauce.

We'd had enough for that day so I put it all in gallon jars in the refrigerator to water bath can the next day. During the course of the day my wife made the cranberry-pear cake recipe that was also in the pear thread and it's quite good. Not really sweet, fairly light in texture, the cranberries adding a nice bit of acidity to complement the pears. We'll be making that one again. Sometime during this week we'll make the other pear cake recipe as well.

Never did get the sauce in the refrigerator canned yet. By ten the next morning (Sunday) I'd heard from or heard of my entire family in the hurricane stricken area except for my mother. Got worried and decided I'd better go down to St. Cloud to check on her. They came through with only minor damage though I don't believe they have their power back yet (Monday afternoon). Went by and checked on my wife's grandparents as well since they also live in St. Cloud, but we already knew they were OK so it was just a courtesy visit.

By the time I finally got home I was not in the mood to fool with the pears so I went out and wired poultry netting (chicken wire) to another sixteen foot livestock panel so I could give the birds a square shaped yard instead of the triangular shaped on they had then. Much more space now. They're really becoming quite aggressive foragers. Can't quite make out their gender yet, but in another ten to fourteen days I should be able to tell with reasonable accuracy how many hens and roosters I have. I'll grow the cocks out until they begin to feel their oats, keep the best one, and butcher out the rest.

That's pretty much it for the last week at DunHagan.

.....Alan.

 

[Gingergirl]

Planted a few short rows of carrots, beets, and turnips for this Fall. Also put in four different kinds of lettuce. Hope to plant the chard tomorrow. One more bed left and not sure what I'll plant there.

Still digging potatoes, picking cukes for pickles, wax beans, lettuce, raspberries, peppers, and tomatoes. I have been neglecting the herbs, Maybe tomorrow.

 

[A.T.Hagan]

Last post for the month.

Been kind of hard to get back into the homesteading swing of things since Charley knocked me off the rails, but this weekend I did what I could.

Spent most of the day with the chainsaw out in the low spot in the pasture cutting trees too big to bush hog and brush and stuff. It's Monday morning now and I am still beat from it and have scratches down both arms, but I got a lot done. I'll be able to get the tractor in there to mow now. Would have been able to get even more done if I hadn't had to spend so much time trying to find a simple pair of work suspenders. I've discovered if I don't use them that after about two hours the saw chaps begin to feel like they are cutting me in half at the waist. Only problem was that I couldn't find mine. No problem I figured, I'll just pick a pair up while I was running my Saturday morning errands.

Well, that was the theory. The reality was that the Super WalMart didn't have any. So I want across the street to the Tractor Supply. They were out too. Well, fine. Went up the highway to the local farm supply and they were out as well! Finally ended up at Scotty's which I normally avoid and bought the only pair they had. They still weren't exactly the type I wanted, but by that time I was ready to simply cut a piece of rope and use that!

Had my first real accident with the saw which makes me glad I let my wife bully me into using the chaps because I put a nice cut across the top front of my left thigh with the saw. That area was alive with vines of several different species and it made cutting a real chore at time. Tripped on a vine as I was backing up and whacked my thigh lightly with the saw. No damage to me, but it did make the hair on the back of my neck stand up. My wife still hasn't seen the cut on the chaps and I'm not going to point it out to her!

Sunday I was too done in for outside work so I just moved the hens to a new spot, picked the last of the sand pears, then spent much of the rest of the day making two batches of pear preserves. The first batch was the gingered pear preserves that have defeated me in the past, but this batch came out looking very nice. Good consistency, good color.

The second batch was supposed to be a spiced preserves using cinnamon, cloves, and allspice. The flavor is good, but the spices made them come out dark, dark, dark. I'm not happy with that. Probably end up using them for making spice muffins. Next time I'll just use a little cinnamon like my grandmother did.

That was pretty well the week for me.

.....Alan.

 

[TerriHaute]

The garden is really winding down now. The weather continues to be "fallish" which adds to the feeling that the growing season is nearly over. The tomato plants are mostly succumbing to septoria leaf spot now, though they are still producing a few tomatoes. There has been a lot of rain recently, so many of the tomatoes are splitting before they can be harvested. Where possible, I am using the split tomatoes for seed-saving, so at least they are not a total loss.

DH built 4 3x6 foot raised beds behind the greenhouse and I promptly seeded two of them with fall crops of lettuce and radishes. Usually the weather stays mild enough in this area to allow lettuce to grow well into November. With a raised bed, I am hoping to extend that by making the bed into a cold frame with plastic.

The heavenly blue morning glories are putting on a beautiful show every day now and on the overcast days, they stay open until evening. The zinnias and marigolds are also at their blooming peak and are frequent stopping places for the butterflies. The butterflies seem smaller in size this year...has any else noticed that? I have been trying to decide on which perennial flowers to plant in front of the greenhouse to have something always in bloom. So far I have chosen iris, coneflower, black-eyed Susan, Shasta daisy, coreopsis, and hibiscus.

It is a daily chore now to scour the overgrown mass of pole beans to pick the dry pods and the bush beans are going to seed as well. I usually see several praying mantises who think the bean patch is an excellent place to live and find food. I have been picking about half a dishpan full of dry beans each day. I lay them out on newspapers in the greenhouse to dry the hulls from the dew-dampness. They turn brittle-crisp pretty quickly. Once dry, some of them burst open with a POP and send their seeds flying. I pick bean seeds off the floor evey day when I come home from work.

DH has challenged me to have fresh produce from the greenhouse/garden on our Thanksgiving table this year. In trying to meet the challenge, I have decided to try and grow beans and tomatoes inside the greenhouse, and have lettuce and turnips from the raised beds outside. So this weekend, I planted bush string beans in a rectangular planter and tonight will move tomato seedlings into the EarthBox. Reminder to self: get a calendar notebook to record all this stuff!

Terri in Indiana