Monday, August 3, 2009 -

Pulled a few more weeds today, but summer has returned with a vengeance and this, some watering and putting a few more strings on the tomatoes are about all I care for today. Oh, the first 2 tomatoes are turning. I expect the first tomato in a couple 2 or 3 days.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009 -

The last planting of corn can be rowed and is coming up very evenly. Hot today, with temps in the mid 90's and humid.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009 -

Sunny and hot today. High is going to be in the low 90's. Storms have been dancing all around us the last 3 days, but not even a good sprinkle. The high tomorrow is predicted to be right around 100. The weather isn't really good and the moon signs aren't right, but the fall garden needs to be started now time wise.

I planted my turnips today along with beets, orange and purple carrots, pak-choy and brussel sprouts. The brussel sprouts and pak-choy are for later transplanting. I also planted some cucumbers under the trellis in bed #2. These were all fertilized, watered well and VERY lightly mulched.

I had a senior moment when I planted the last corn and forgot to fertilize it. So I did a semi-band fertilizing today by digging a trench down the center of the two rows about 2-3 inches deep, putting in some fertilizer and incorporating it. I then covered and watered well. I'll foliar feed it in a couple of weeks or so along with the rest of the corn.

I applied more mulch to the celery and added a lot of mulch around the drip basin and corner area while Lynn mowed. I also had these observances today:

• I expect to pick the first tomato tomorrow. It still has a little bit of green around the top.

• There are three of the "Volcano" peppers ready to pick any time.

• I tested one of the kohlrabi's for pithiness or strings, but they are still good. But they won't be for long. I need to pull them now.

• Enough of the beets are ready to have a small mess of fresh beets.

• The bush beans are starting to set pods.

• The squash are setting blooms.

Not to bad for an up and down summer with periods of extreme heat.

The covers I made for the patio furniture just are no working out as planned:

1. There is so much condensation coming up from the bricks that it is wet under the cover all of the time.

2. There needs to be some ventilation in the cover somehow.

3. It's such a hassle to cover and uncover, that the furniture still is not used.

Thursday, August 6, 2009 -

HOT today and dry. The temp. was in the mid 90's and even hotter predicted for the next few days. No rain predicted for at least a week. I've got a feeling that we're going to pay for all the rain we've had thus far, even though right here, we've not received more than a quarter of an inch at one time in over three weeks. All around us (as close as 10 miles) they've been getting drenched regularly. It's been rather weird watching the radar. You can actually watch the fronts part as they approach Bolivar!

I did get out this morning and repot the ferns that I potted up last year. I can't remember doing it, but there were two distinctly different varieties of ferns in the pot. I should have separated them, but I was getting pretty warm so I put them both back in the same pot (at least for now).

I showed the oldest granddaughter how to pull and clean the kohlrabi and beets as we pulled all that remained. She also cleaned up the onions for me. We cooked a big mess of the kohlrabi with potatoes and some of the "pearl" onions she cleaned. Mighty tasty! Momma boiled up the beets to freeze, but not before I got a couple for myself. I love beets right out of the pot with a little butter on them - Larapin!

I started digging out soil, compost and sand to mix to fill the barrels. But digging out and filling the wheelbarrow is about as far as I got. It's to hot to get very energetic.

Friday, August 7, 2009 -

It was a busy morning this morning. The day started with a beautiful view of a huge squash bloom glowing out from beneath the yellow crookneck squash plant. It greeted me from the back door. The crookneck and zucchini squash were both blooming, but it was the crookneck that was shining bright to greet my day. These are the first of the season and I love squash.

I've been wrestling with how to fix my compost sifter so that I could use it. Yes I have a large sifter, but it never got mounted because I never could decide how I wanted to mount it. A permanent mounting is something I don't think I want to do here at this place. Well, you know what they say "necessity is the mother of invention and I had another "Hillbilly brain fart".

I had a drying wrack that I've been meaning to rebuild but never got around to and was just sitting around in the way. I also had a large tarp that was big enough to cover everything. So, I spread the tarp out in an out of the way place, placed the frame on bricks on it so the leveling feet wouldn't punch holes in the tarp and placed the screen on top of it. It may be a td bit high, but it is tall enough to be able to sift a lot of compost without having to stop and move any.

I then placed all of the ingredients for my potting mix in a wheelbarrow in the right proportions all at once. These were then shoveled onto the screen and sifted. Between the shoveling and the sifting, it came out pretty much perfectly mixed and no lumps, trash, rocks or course material.

The potting mix was placed into one of the new short barrel planters. I then dug up some of the lime mint that is trying to die out and planted it in the planter. The granddaughters loved helping Papa play in the dirt. While we were at it, they spotted a Monarch butterfly visiting the butterfly weed growing in a nearby bed (that needs to be transplanted), which gave me an opportunity to teach them about Monarchs. We then looked for Monarch butterfly eggs under the leaves, but didn't find any.

While searching for eggs, we discovered a small bunch of bright red "Box elder Bug" juveniles feeding on some of the butterfly weeds. I've never seen these feeding on butterfly weed before, but we got the insecticidal soap out anyway and gave them a good spraying. I gave the oldest granddaughter a lesson in spraying and let her spray some.

We also sprayed the kohlrabi that were getting ate up by cabbage loopers where they discovered a looper on a leaf. It took a bit of doing to keep the youngest granddaughter from grabbing up the spray-drenched "green worm". I also sprayed the squash as a preventative and the bush beans.

The bush beans are setting pods pretty well and the squash have little squashes setting on. The turnips are starting to sprout and I let the oldest granddaughter pick the first tomato of the year. There will be second one tomorrow. Like I say, a busy morning and now Papa is feeling it, the weather is now getting hot and I'm done for the day.

Saturday, August 8, 2009 -

I spent the morning doing some maintenance items that needed done. I started out by watering. This time I remembered the gasping houseplants on the front porch. I really must move them out back where I do most of the work. On the front porch, I just plain don't remember they are there. There was a time when my houseplants took center stage. But now, I would probably do better without them. Any more, I kill more than I ever raise. Perhaps I'll transition to cactus and succulents that can survive me.

While watering, I noticed that cutworms had invaded the corn and cut several of them off. I also noticed that the Pak-choy, beets and cucumbers were sprouting. I mixed up 2 gallons of insecticidal soap with Bt and thoroughly sprayed around the base of all of the corn plants. I also sprayed the squash, kohlrabi, Pak-choy, beets and cucumbers as a precaution. Although, I am concerned that I may have been a little premature with the seedlings. We'll see.

While out, I cleaned up the dirt pile from the patio project by consolidating it a little and getting the extra plastic out and thrown away. I washed a little jag of rocks I had picked up and added them to the drip containment basin and added some bricks to the spillway to make a serpentine path for the water to flow down. This will slow the water and help prevent wash-out.

Sunday, August 9, 2009 -

Took today to do some catching up on my journal and worked on the website. But with so many bodies to share one computer, I didn't get much done.

Monday, August 10, 2009 -

I started out to finish what I wanted to get done yesterday and then I was going to get out and get busy. I started working on my journal, but by 7 am it was raining. I rained all day long and got quite cool. By 20:00 hrs (8:00 pm, cst) it was down to 65 degrees F. Thus far, it has rained about 1 7/8 inch of rain and most of it has been fairly slow. So, I'm not going to complain.

Looking at the radar, it appears we're going to get at least a little more before it's over. We did get enough wind that from the back door, it looks like I'm going to have to straighten and support some corn where it blew over. The broccoli is sprouting well.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009 -

Many of the beet seedlings were washed out or destroyed by the rain. I wonder if it would be better to cover newly planted areas in order to protect new seedings. This is not the first time this has happened. The cucumbers are nice and thick below the trellis. I'll thin them to about 5 or 6 plants. I'm finding all of the shade to be disgustingly aggravating. I'll never grow a really good garden like I've done in the past at this location.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009 -

I got out this morning and surveyed the gardens more closely. I found yellow crookneck squash and zucchini squash about ready to pick. Actually, they would be great to pick at this small size for tender, gourmet squash. But one of each would not go far.

The acorn squash have grown quite large and the leaves were down on the turnips. So I installed some stakes and strings to lift the leaves off of the turnip seedlings. Additionally, they are starting to bloom. As to the blown over (corn lodging) corn, my fastidious cleaning up of all of the sticks has left me with very little in the way of staking material to use to tie up the plants. I'll need to find something to use for staking so I can pull the corn back up and support it. While the corn is only about 3 feet high, I didn't feel it necessary to support it yet. But, with the weather we've had all year thus far, I should have know better and supported it earlier.

In building the patio, I tried to save on solid bricks by using a lot of bricks with holes in them. This was a mistake. At least it was a mistake if you are going to bed in sand in the traditional manner. The sand has stayed everywhere accept where I wanted it. It has been dislodged by every rain, the wind and activity and is all over the place. It is constantly being tracked into the house. I put an end to the renegade sand by blowing the daylights out of the bricks with the blower. I scoured out everything that was loose that I could and moved it off of the patio. In doing so, I found that all of the holes blew out to about 1/2 inch deep pretty consistently. I think that if I clean it off one more time and seal it again, it might be pretty well stabilized.

I removed the last piece of plastic sheeting from the sitting area and spread out on the yard to dry. The plastic sheeting seemed like a good idea at the time and it does keep the rain off. But, it also holds all of the moisture in and gets quite hot underneath it. This is a deadly combination for furniture and cushions in particular. The furniture needs to be covered, but only if it has ventilation as well. It appears that one 10x10 canopy and a 10x12 canopies with sides would do well. But, these would also make the patio somewhat crowded as well.

This might be a good trade-off though, because without shade, the patio has been unused for the most part this year. We haven't enjoyed one meal outdoors yet. But then, the mosquito issue is so bad at this place, I have doubts that we could enjoy the outdoors anyway, even with the candles and citronella lamps. It may be that we need to look at some forms of mosquito controls such as CO2 generator traps and perhaps bug zappers.

The bug zappers are probably not a good option though. They tend to attract and kill both good and bad bugs indiscriminately and the mosquitoes are small enough to pass through most bug zappers unharmed. The CO2 generator traps  may be the best option until the lot behind us is ever cleaned up. There are some bats in the area, but far to few to make a serious dent in the mosquito population. Perhaps, I would have good luck with a bat house. We have a good southern exposure on the house for them.

Friday, August 14, 2009 -

I noticed corn earworms attacking the corn today. I'll need to mix up some insecticidal soap with Bt. to spray them. Both, the orange and purple carrots are sprouting nicely. I noticed that even mixed with sand, they were somewhat clumpy. I believe this was due to the wet sand I used to mix them with. I probably should have used the dry sand in the garage. I'll make a note of this and keep dry sand on hand for mixing seeds.

Saturday, August 15, 2009 -

I picked more tomatoes today. They are getting smaller though. This would indicate to me that they are not getting enough nutrition and perhaps I need to water a little more. Their close spacing does make these things more critical. Instead of every 2 or 3 weeks, I'll start feeding them every week with fish emulsion and I'll get some slow-release tomato food for them to round it out. The watering will need to be upped to daily as well I think. I have been watering every other day, when it didn't rain. It hasn't been bad though because I haven't had any "blossom end rot" yet and I don't want any either. I have a lot of egg shells I've been saving for just this occasion. It's time to start grinding them with water and dosing all of the tomatoes and the pepper plant. This is a good justification for gardeners to have their own blender and food processor.

I picked the first squash today. One zucchini and one yellow crook neck. It felt good to have squash maturing despite the shade. I love squash, but momma rarely fixes them. She's not a big fan of squash, although she'll use the daylights out of zucchini in squash bread in the fall. Occasionally, she will fry some zucchini and eat summer squash raw in a salad, but that's about the extent of it. If I want squash other than that or in a different way, I have to fix them myself.

While shopping today, I was shocked to see fall cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli plants at the store. This is something new for them and at a good price. To top it off, they were growing in "9 packs" and individuals. Perhaps, this is not new for many folks, but it's a first here and since 9 is exactly what I wanted and the price was right, I went ahead and bought some, even though this goes against my instinct to start my own.

My youngest granddaughter, at 4 years old, is quite they trooper when it comes to outdoor things and bugs in particular. There isn't a bug around that isn't fair game to be caught and put in a jar. She has a keen interest in everything "outdoors" and I encourage this interest as much as you can with a 4 year old, in hopes that she won't have her interest "polluted" by her mother like the oldest one. The oldest granddaughter used to love worms of all kinds until her mother ruined her interest in bugs and now she "yucks" at everything crawly.

Today, I found a "wheel bug" (I was taught to call this an assassin bug - which it is in the same family of assassin bugs) in the basement. Now, for anyone who has never got close to a wheel bug (or any assassin bug), they are not aggressive or harmful. But they do have 2 nasty characteristics: 1) they have a piercing proboscis that can inflict quite a nasty bite (actually a puncture where they inject a nasty enzyme) and 2) they have scent glands that give off a powerful stink, much like a stink bug, but not quite as bad. Both of these, they use as defense mechanisms when threatened. These, along with a nasty, wicked appearance, make them a challenge for most folks to cotton up to.

When I spotted it, I both wanted to move it outside (they eat any other bug they can get hold of) and to show our youngest granddaughter. For these reasons, I carefully herded it onto my hand and showed our granddaughter. She immediately wanted to hold it (she even likes to let praying mantis crawl on her hand). So I carefully herded it onto her little hand and instructed her not to try to pick it up or hold it like a regular bug. But, guess what? When I turned away for a second, she tried to hold it and, you guessed it, she tried to pick it up like a regular bug and the wheel bug didn't like it. It stuck her in the thumb, which resulted in quite a blood-curdling scream. Well, after retrieving the bug and moving it outside (she was still intent n watching me place it on a plant), we doctored her bite with some "Prid" drawing salve to draw out the enzymes and put a band-aid on it. In a few days, she should be fine and while still very interested in them, won't be in a hurry to one again for a while.

Sunday, August 16, 2009 -

I got out and sprayed the kohlrabi, squash, marigolds and butterfly weeds with a mix of insecticidal soap and Bt. The kohlrabi is already riddled with cabbage loopers and the marigolds have been heavily infected with borers. I was hoping to stop a few of them before they got into any more of the marigolds. The squash was sprayed to try to head off any squash borers before they got into them. So far I haven't had any and I don't want them. They are difficult to get rid of once they invade. You can split the squash stems and dig out the borers, then mound soil over the cut, but it really sets the squash back for a long time and time is something I don't have right now.

I did find out, purely by trial, that if you split the marigolds and remove the borers, then stick the stems back in the ground and keep them well watered, that they root quite easily.

They butterfly weeds were covered with aphids and bugs I thought to be box elder bugs. I sprayed to get rid of them. But, in my haste, I misidentified the box elder bugs, which were actually milkweed assassin bugs. In the future, perhaps I'll just use a strong blast from a hose to rid the little buggers without hurting the assassin bugs.

The first planting of corn is starting to tassel. But corn earworms are getting into them pretty bad. That's why I sprayed them as well, particularly in and around the tassel shoots.

It's so humid today, that I'm dripping with sweat just standing, so I'm calling it a day. The temp got to around 90 degrees F. and we got about 1/8 inch of rain this evening.

Monday, August 17, 2009 -

Picked the first mess of green beans today and the first three peppers. The beans yielded about enough for a good mess for the three of us. In the future, I'll run the rows lengthwise and plant 2, 6 foot rows at a time instead of cross-ways. Two, 4 foot rows just isn't enough. The peppers are named "Volcano" and I'm assuming they are hot "banana type" peppers. I'll need to try one to find out. The reason I don't know more is that they are a trial variety and are not listed with the nursery yet. But they were free with my order, so I don't mind a little experimenting.

I had plans of planting some cabbages today. I got the ground broke up, good compost added and sand to the area. I mixed these a little, but before I could dig them in, storms rolled in with rain, wind and lightning.

It rained right at 3/8 inch with fairly high, gusty winds (of course). The corn is really flat now, the squash turned upside down and everything that was upright is now on the ground again. In a normal year, stakes would be no problem. But since the ice storm two years ago, natural staking has been somewhat hard to come by and I don't have any commercially made stakes right now. Oh well - Christmas list.

Tuesday, August 18, 2009 -

Rained again today (3/8 inch). So far, it has done little good to spray anything for bugs, etc., because rains have been so frequent and before I get to spray again, the bugs have moved back in. I've never needed to spray as much as I have this year that I can remember.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009 -

Rained showers off and on most of the day. In the evening and much of the night, we had strong storms with high winds, lightning and much rain (1 1/2 inch). But it is unclear exactly how much rain we actually received, because the heaviest rains came during the height of the winds. Third storm this year with 60MPH+ winds! No big limbs down this time, but the yard is littered with small stuff and a lot of stuff is blown around.

Never before have I needed as much staking as I've needed this year and practically none on hand this year. The corn is a shambles and I'm not sure that staking in the conventional manner would have worked. All of the normal ways of supported corn would have left it broken at the supports. I need to come up with a way of supporting corn that is hurricane resistant.

Thursday, August 20, 2009 -

Started this day with a lot of clean-up after last nights storms, There were even 2 or 3 tornado warnings. It took me about 2 hours of picking up this morning. Taller plants are laid over all over the place. No mater what I do, I never seem to have enough stakes!

Friday, August 21, 2009 -

Picked first white patty-pan squash today (2). These are one of my favorites of all the squash. But then, I'm a fanatic when it comes to squash. There are so many ways to fix them and so far no way I've tried them has been bad. I also picked more beans today.

I mixed up some fish emulsion and fed the tomatoes and all of the container plants. The Lemon Grass looks like it could use some extra nitrogen though.

The sweet corn was a mess after the last storm. Much of it was broken in two and all three plantings were blown flat after the 60 mph+ winds. I got out and pulled it up and tied it, but much of it is lost. I suppose that I should have staked it earlier, but such violent storms so late in the season are normally rare. What I'm afraid would have happened is that the wind would have broken off every stalk where it was tied. Since these storms seem to be getting more and more common, I suppose I'll need to see if I can come up with a practical way of supporting the corn. I have considered tying every plant to stakes, but that would be a lot of stakes and a lot of tying! One of the whole purposes of these gardens is to create less work - not more!

Corn is often supported because it has a bad habit of blowing over (called "lodging"). One common method of supporting corn is to drive posts every so often and then take twine and interweave it through the corn twice. The first string goes to the right of the first stalk and the left of the next stalk and so on. The second string follows the first, but passes on opposite sides of the stalks. A set of these strings is placed about every 12 to 18 inches as the corn grows. But in very high winds like we had, I'm afraid the stalks would have simply broke off at the first string. Something to think about.

Saturday, August 22, 2009 -

Planted cabbage today. Yes, I bought the cabbages instead of planting my own. In this case, I bought a "9-pack" of cabbages (Bonnie Hybrid) on sale for less than a package of seed was going to cost. I may have been wrong, but they are supposed to be locally grown and looked healthy, so we'll see. Unlike the previous planting, I set these plants 1 foot apart in all directions. This gave me 3 rows of 3 plants. Not many I realize, but one must remember that the purpose of these raised beds is to provide "fresh eating" vegetable and not a garden for canning and freezing like I grew up with.

I also thinned the turnips and will probably thin them again one more time. I gave up on the kohlrabi for this yea and pulled it. I was having to much trouble keeping ahead of the cabbage worms and it rained so often, that the worms were constantly getting started. I did mix up more insecticidal soap and Bt to spray the squash, tomatoes and other things with. The aphids have been horrendous this year. I've never seen them so thick as this year and seem surprisingly resistant to insecticidal soap and Bt. It takes several sprays to be very effective.

Sunday, August 23, 2009 -

Mowed and mulched some more today. One things for sure, the areas that have been cleaned, won't be growing any weeds for a while! Yes, perhaps I could have used the grass clippings a lot of places and perhaps I don't need to mulch so deeply, but it's not like it's going to go to waste. When I get ready to plant, I'll simply remove most of the mulch and move it elsewhere. In the meantime, it's not going to hurt anything where it is and between now and the time I get ready to plant where it is, at least some of it will have decomposed into the soil to help build it up.

Monday, August 24, 2009 -

Pulled more weeds and caught butterflies with my granddaughter. Sometimes, a grandpa just has to catch a few butterflies with a granddaughter! And now before I get any nasty emails about catching or harming butterflies, let me ask you this - "have you ever caught butterflies with a four year old little girl?"

1. Butterflies are seldom caught to begin with and heaven forbid that they should be hurt.

2. Caught butterflies seldom stay in a cage long before they get loose or are turned loose in favor of a different one, only to be caught again.

3. Have you ever seen the joy and excitement on their faces when they actually catch a butterfly?

4. Most of the "butterflies" caught are actually "cabbage moths" just waiting to lay eggs on all of your brassica's to hatch out into those little green worms that will devour them overnight.

5. Do you have any idea how important it is for a four year old to have her "Papa" catch butterflies with her?

If you can agree with any of these things, then you know why it is so important for grown-ups to take a little time now and then to catch a few butterflies. Besides, along the way you will have wonderful opportunities to teach the young ones a few things about bugs and nature, thereby instilling in them an appreciation for nature. Young people that grow up with an appreciation for nature and a respect for everything, are much less prone to get into trouble when they get older.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009 -

Picked more tomatoes today. That's about it in the garden. The bush beans need picked again. I'll try to get out tomorrow and do that. But for now, I'm way behind on my writing and the journal.

Thursday, August 27, 2009 -

Picked a third mess of beans today. It was admittedly a bit strange to me though because it was a large picking (considering the small planting) and new blooms were still coming on. The variety was "Bush Blue Lake 47". While I am somewhat familiar with the Blue Lake variety, it is not one I grew up with, nor have I grown it that I can recall. The standard growing up was always "Top Crop" because of the reliably large yields. But they only lasted a bout 2 good pickings and them dropped off fast. Additionally, you had to make sure to pick every couple of days or they got tough, woody and stringy. Growing up with a truck garden where beans were measured by the bushel and every bushel counted, these were important qualities. But, I've grown away from the truck garden now and old habits are hard to break.

This was not the case with the Bush Blue Lake 47's. They didn't have a massive picking each time, but they were pretty consistent and showed no sign of quitting. In fact, cooler weather was spurring new production. The other thing that was a very good quality was that they held on the plant really well. I didn't need to make sure I picked every other day. I could easily wait 3 or 4 days with no decline in quality.. The beans are not as large as the Top Crop, but were consistently tender, with a good green bean flavor and no strings, even when large. For fresh eating beans, I'm going to plant these again and highly recommend them to anyone looking for a fresh eating bean.

Unfortunately, I needed the space for my fall garden that is ready to transplant. So I said good-bye to the beans and pulled them. But you can bet I'll be planting more of the same next year and I'll be running the rows lengthwise of the bed instead of across. The Broccoli and Pak-Choy are ready to be transplanted into their permanent locations. So after pulling the beans, I added more sand to the area and aerated the soil to dry out a bit before adding more compost and digging. I won't be adding all of the sand next year because the compost is working pretty well to break up the building soil that was used to fill the beds. If it doesn't rain tonight (calling for a 60% chance tonight and 50% tomorrow) I'll transplant.

I picked another tomato that had a hole chewed in it. I've looked and looked, but I thus far have not found a culprit to blame. I did find out that earwigs will eat ripe tomatoes also though, as I did find them in some of the holes that had been chewed in some of the fruits. Perhaps continued spraying will cause the critter or critters to leave. While I haven't got any clear evidence yet, I'm almost suspecting slugs because of the dimpled holes and not seeing anything  during the day. Slugs are predominately active at night and hide during the day. I have a lot of slugs here, so maybe I'll set out some pans of beer and see what I get. Thus far, I haven't had a single hornworm or any aphids this year, even though the aphids are everywhere this year and I can't seem to be able to get ahead of them. I'm inclined to believe this is due to the marigolds planted beneath the tomatoes.

I pulled more weeds from yet another bed and am about ready to start moving some plants. A little at a time and we'll have the beds clean once again. At this point, I'm planning to move a lot of the taller plants along the house, but I'm also toying with the idea of using much of the area along the house for vegetables like tomatoes, squash, etc. Some of these areas get the most sun of any area at this place. The shade is making it a challenge for sure. If and when we do move, you can bet the place won't be "blessed" with this much shade.

the "Hillbilly Gardener"