Today in the garden

[sawmill]

I told my wife that if we could get them to eat some spices we would have pre seasoned taco meat this fall.I just plant some radishes in a food plot last weekend. Last year they were about a foot tall with a root on some that was 2 foot long. Anyone ever see those anywhere. They taste like a regradish and the deer love them. I first saw them growing when we were in Germany a few years ago and then I found the seed over here. They are forage radishes

[reible]

Just to share some of my experiences in gardening: Blossom rot of a tomato, too much nitrogen or acid in the soil. To cure, as the tomatoes set on the vines, place some lime each week on the soil under the tomatoes.

A lot of soil is likely short on nitrogen as it is out of my compost bin and that tends to be deficient in that regard. Not going to be acid here either, soil here is never acid unless you really work at it. The major factor is the uneven moisture, weather has been out of control with a lot more rain days then normal. BTW we use egg shells in the tomato patch which normally works pretty well except for this year. The bigger tomato have not come in yet but they are looking pretty good. The smaller ones are something new to us this year called "Forth of July". They came in about a month later then their name would imply.

Vine borers, this applies to cucumbers, squashes and melons. I have excellent results with Sevrin Dust at the base of the plant. There is a beautiful little fly, multicolored, that bores in the bend of the vine and lays eggs. The larvae matures into a worm that eats the interior of the vine, killing it. If caught early enough, you can slice the vine lengthwise and extract the worm. Cover that part (the surgery) with mud to allow vine to heal.

We try to stay away for pesticides, while I have used Sevin we don't any more. One of the better ones but indiscriminate in what it kills. We have not had the vine problem for the last years so that was unexpected. There is a product from tanglefoot that works quite well. Just don't have any on hand now. I have taken worms out before, questionable if these squash will recover but I will try the mud idea, use to use masking tape so maybe that has been my issue.

Chain link fences will not keep out rabbits. Deer can jump over most fences. Rabbits love peas, beans, eggplant and other such softer vegetables. I had them destroy my last two, so I buy the unlabeled stuff at the grocery or go to the farmers market. Reminds me, I have some freshly frozen peaches I think I will enjoy. I hope this info is helpful.

Steve, the old swampgator

We have tried peach trees but they have all died out and always before we got any fruit. So now we get them at the store and wait for them to come in from MI at the farmer markets and or if our corn guy brings in a load. The peaches last year were mediocre at best, this year they have been good. Have two left and they will be gone tomorrow or so. We like white peaches the best but get what we can find.

Ed

[ERLover]

Ed, one market here in Milwaukee has been advertising there Peaches, and said are home grown here, dont thinks so in are climate, but have had them, to die for, sliced and some sugar on them with my home made bread for toast. Mom loves her fruit and veggies, she pigs out on them for brunch, and with Custard OMG, BUT they come out to a $1.00 a Peach, well worth it, dont eat cheap bad food just because of the lower price.

[ERLover]

Bro is in town from CA, lives in the food growing valley, we talking about veggies, Monsanto bought out all the seed crops except Heirlooms, did there Bio Engineering on them and made contracts with all the food raisers that they had to buy those seeds. He is putting mom to bed at the moment, the guys/Bro night, 2 men and a movie, 13 Hours, popcorn and Miller Lite.
If I missed anything on the veggies, I will put him on line to explain in detail.

[reible]

Had a second pepper today and not any where near as hot. We picked up some corn and I made a corn chili using the corn from 4 ears, one of the peppers, pound of ground turkey, 1/2 onion, a little salt and 2 T of chili powered. It could have had more of the pepper but wasn't sure how hot it would be. Simple to add some red pepper to taste on the plate.

Ed

[sawmill]

Our pickles and squash is coming on very slow this year,BUT I hit the jackpot today. I have about a 1/4 mile of road frontage in front of my woods that I brush hog down once a year. This spring I hauled about 20 dump trailers of horse manure in this area as fill. I f you know anything about horse manure it grows every weed known to man. But today I found ahalf dozen summer squash plants and a couple pickle plants growing. I pick 14 or 15 squash and a half dozen pickles from them These plants are just loaded. A few years ago I had my backhoe out there digging out stumps and small rush. I found several of these funny looking plants that some people would die to smoke up. They got buried in the brush

[Ed in Tampa]

Our pickles and squash is coming on very slow this year,BUT I hit the jackpot today. I have about a 1/4 mile of road frontage in front of my woods that I brush hog down once a year. This spring I hauled about 20 dump trailers of horse manure in this area as fill. I f you know anything about horse manure it grows every weed known to man. But today I found ahalf dozen summer squash plants and a couple pickle plants growing. I pick 14 or 15 squash and a half dozen pickles from them These plants are just loaded. A few years ago I had my backhoe out there digging out stumps and small rush. I found several of these funny looking plants that some people would die to smoke up. They got buried in the brush

Wow you are using manure as fill and I know people that pay $10 for a 20lb bag. You dumped a fortune there.

[sawmill]

They cannot give it away around here

[JPG]

Around here it is called "muck" a mixture of straw and unowhat(from the horse farms).

It is essentially composted at the local 'dump' and spread on commercial landscaping every spring.

Allegedly 'sanitized' by the heat from the composting 'process', never the less it is 'fragrant' when initially applied(great when walking into a restaurant).

Fortunately that only lasts for about a month.

And yes the plants apparently like it.