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UrbanHunter said:
The garden is now starting to do well, the screen I placed next to the pot holding the squash seems to have helped support the plant, I am also seen new blooms on the part of the plant that was damaged and I planted the broken off part (which is now in bloom). The second pair of cucumbers are now starting to show fruit, the first pair have been giving me about 2 cucumbers a day, so it will get interesting soon. The egg plants that I killed now have 4 purple fruits showing, 6 weeks ago they looked dead.... I have also had a couple of peppers bounce back to life now that it has gotten hot. Today, we ate the first of the celery, it is quite strong, but crisp. The green grapes have purple spots on them, don't know what it is but I think I am about to lose my crop......
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Black rot

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_rot_(grape_disease)
My seedless have it but my seeded are ok ... this year ... so far.

20210704_131724.jpg



Ben
 
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Hey @lilmissy, I have used a mixture of potting soil, yard dirt, and a few yards of delivered top soil. I had a truck load of manure from a horse farm but that turned out to be full of grass seeds... I am now to the point of recycling my soil and amending it each year with grass trimmings and tree leaves from mowing in late summer and early fall. Right after my last harvest, I dig half the bed about 6"s down and then add the mix about 2" deep cover it with soil and then do the other side, I let it sit over the winter like that, then mix it in the late winter just before I plant.

For my pathways I have black plastic down, I have tried mulch and then stone (not at the same time), over time both supported weeds. Now I just put down pressure treated 2Xs usually a pair of 2X10s, weeds don't grow in them but they are slippery when wet.

This morning I gave the wife a list of things that I can plant right now and asked her to choose 4 things that I should start, obviously she can't count.... They say variety is the spice of life, so I will do what she asks.

My rain barrels are all set up (still need to finish plumbing), I am going to put a platform (couple of 2X4 rails supported by 4X4s across the barrel tops) on top of them so I can place growing containers on top of my rain barrels (I use every sq foot). We have rain coming in a couple of days so I hope to have all the water collection plumbing done today, the distribution system is 75% complete but I will need to connect the pump (which is mounted below the barrels) to the zoning manifold.... I have 10 zones that are watered at different times to provide the needed water pressure to my drip irrigation emitters (each zone has about 40 emitters that need 20 psi). I will be so glad to have it all working again, dragging a hose is the pits....
 
lilmissy said:
What is everyone putting in their raised beds? Top soil from bags, dirt dug up from yard?

what is the best thing to out down on the paths in your garden? i lay cardboard down but looking for something to go on it .
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I use Special Mix from my landscape supply place.
It is mushroom manure and lear compost. I add mushroom manure occationally. Amazing results. I have seen a car stop and the driver points at the garden. Ten foot tall corn I can only guess.

Ben
 
Picked some more blackberries, a zucchini and a handful of cherry tomatoes this morning.

Have enough berries to make couple of batches of muffins ( yum)

No cucumbers at all. huge plants, loads of flowers but no fruit yet. Guess I need to play pollinator with them also? I have a new artist's brush I could use

Cantaloupe plant not growing at all. Plenty of sun, water and food. Have no idea why it won't grow. Hasn't grown an inch since I planted it

WV Ag calendar said I could seed some late season carrots so I did that this weekend. Hope they do something
 
Neb said:
I use Special Mix from my landscape supply place.
It is mushroom manure and lear compost. I add mushroom manure occasionally. Amazing results. I have seen a car stop and the driver points at the garden. Ten foot tall corn I can only guess.

Ben
Click to expand...
Am I understanding this right, someone is paid to craw around the Jungle with A pooper scooper, to pick up Lear poop!
What length some people will go to get ten foot corn!
 
joel said:
Am I understanding this right, someone is paid to craw around the Jungle with A pooper scooper, to pick up Lear poop!
What length some people will go to get ten foot corn!
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I had to read your reply 3 times before I noticed my typo. My bad.

I am dyslexic and bad spelling to part of the package called Ben.

Going forward...

Thank you in advance for reading what I meant and not what I wrote.

Ben
 
Today, at lunch I finished connecting all the water barrels to the collection manifold. Then around 4 PM it rained for about 5 minutes, enough to put about 6" in all the barrels, boy am I glad, I had 1 that had a drip, drip, drip leak. Because each barrel can be turned off from the manifold and because I included a drain valve on the manifold, I was able to shut off all the other barrels, drain the leaking barrel and remove it from the rack for repair.... sometimes I get lucky....
 
Last night after supper, we weeded in the tomato patch. The weeds were nearly as high as the tomatoes. I've been watering the heck out of them trying to keep them from burning but it's been too hot to work out in the yard. Evidently the weeds were appreciative. At least now the tomatoes have some air around them. Need to do more, but got the bulk.
@Amish Heart I would take a cuke too :) Mine burnt, not sure it can even be saved -will keep watering it, but won't hold my breath.
 
@Peanut garden fishing line report...still have 95% of young corn living. a neighbor 5 miles away always has a great garden. i noticed a giant tripod in garden and 2 dead crows hanging off it...i think crows are a problem this year and not so much in past for a long while.

it really still po's me see my stand of corn after 3 planting and having 3 heights of corn in it..crotch,knee and ankle...afraid its going to mess up good pollination by not having it all tassel at once. oh well...better than no corn...right! about out of time to do any replanting and have time enough to get a crop now...we are set sail now !

thanks for advice !!
 
Only few carrots came up in grand daughter's whiskey barrel garden patch.
So she planted pumpkin,cantalope in there with tomato plant in the center, marigold along one side.
I'm happy to say pumpkin, squash, cantalupe have come up in the whiskey barrel garden .
Peas are up, maybe cauliflower, green beans, eggplant.
Cucumbers have lots of blooms, inch half to 2 half in cucumbers on them.
Tomatoes have a few green ones on them as does the peppers has small peppers.
Golden yellow sweet potato still has bright green leaves, Yukon Orange sweet potato still has dark purple leaves.
First time to grow sweet potatoes, same with watermelon.
 
Have already planning for next years garden containers as I have several that will need to be replaced after this year.
Grand daughter's whiskey barrel garden is probably on it's last leg as the mowers have hit it and broken two of the steel bands on it.And the Strawberries need a bit more room to roam instead of being cramped in coal bucket.
So will be going to Tractor Supply to check stock tank options for small round stock tanks for her garden.
 
This afternoon we are expecting rain, so this morning I finished up some work around the raised beds. With the water barrels now on their stands and racks on top of them holding some plants, I was able to re-use the old raised bed frames that I replaced when making the tomato space. I cut 1 up for walking planks and then placed and leveled one where the barrels had been sitting, then I took planks and old boards to make a frame supporting a deck for a shallow frame (each of the raised beds I removed had 2 rows stacked. Now I have a shallow raised bed and I lined it with plastic only fastening 1 side, I figure the rain will fill it a little, pull the plastic tight and then I can finish attaching it to the frame (let the rain do my work). In the end setting up the rain barrels increased my growing space by about 30 sq feet.
 
elkhound said:
@Peanut garden fishing line report...still have 95% of young corn living. a neighbor 5 miles away always has a great garden. i noticed a giant tripod in garden and 2 dead crows hanging off it...

time enough to get a crop now...we are set sail now !

thanks for advice !!
Click to expand...

Great news! Fishing line works every time! I only protect little corn or other plants for the first 7 days. After that crows know the seed is no good and will leave plants alone. Dad learned the hard way one year to roll up the fishing line as soon as crow danger has passed. He was a bit slow, a small deer got hung in the line on night and dragged barrels all over the garden tearing up plants the whole time. Now we makes a point to roll it up asap.

Occasionally crows will start raiding my nest boxes in the chicken pen and eat eggs. I just hang a few loops of fishing line in front and they'll stop.

Hanging a dead crow is also a great deterrent. Crows are smart and get the message... They don't want to end up like "cousin george"! Same for a dead coyote, kill one and hang the carcass and the rest stay away for a few weeks.
 
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Peanut said:
Great news! Fishing line works every time! I only protect little corn or other plants for the first 7 days. After that crows know the seed is no good and will leave plants alone. Dad learned the hard way one year to roll up the fishing line as soon as crow danger has passed. He was a bit slow, a small deer got hung in the line on night and dragged barrels all over the garden tearing up plants the whole time. Now we makes a point to roll it up asap.

Occasionally crows will start raiding my nest boxes in the chicken pen and eating eggs. I just hang a few loops of fishing line in front and they'll stop.

Hanging a dead crow is also a great deterrent. Crows are smart and get the message... They don't want to end up like "cousin george"! Same for a dead coyote, kill one and hang the carcass and the rest stay away for a few weeks.
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This a example of great things that farmers have past down over time. I have used fishing line all my life & would never guessed that It would stop crows.
Pie pans on line for deer, but not crows.
 
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