Re: Mid-summer garden

beans are just about ready to pick here. Got my first tomato of the
season yesterday. I am shocked!... All the others won't be ready for
weeks which is the norm here.

   
We are finally into the hot season. Yuck, 90 something for the next few
days. I am actually watering today. What a difference it makes where you
live in this country.

   
  Donna- where the weeds are thriving....
   
  

james singer <islandjim1@comcast.net> wrote:
  We're a ways behind you up here. Can't reliably plant green beans here 
until the first of June, so we're now in the vining/bushing stages. 
Most of the vegetables are just showing an interest in growing, 
although we've harvested one crop of bok choy and about half of the 
potatoes.

Mostly we spent the weekend installing/adjusting the micro-irrigation 
system, mulching some of the foundation beds, and top dressing a 
rainbow pea-gravel walkway. The irrigation installation is taking a 
bit longer than I anticipated, mostly because I'm not too happy with 
HD or Lowe's selection of parts and fittings and so have been ordering 
them from Peaceful Valley, which takes a couple of days for delivery. 
But it's coming along. I'd guess we're 1/3 ot 1/2 finished at this 
point.

A week or so ago, we filled a plastic tub with water then threw a 
bunch of ajuga cuttings in it. They have mostly rooted, so we planted 
a bunch of them as an edging or border on some of the main beds. Our 
strategy is to use plants, mulch, and gravel to minimize mud mobility 
during the rainy season--otherwise much of it ends up in the house. 
One alternative, of course, is to teach the dog to wipe her feet.

We did get to the county fair on Sunday. Something of a disappointment 
for gardeners. It is mostly a showcase for 4-H/FFA kids' livestock. 
That's okay; I enjoyed it, especially the sheep judging and exhibits. 
But I miss the domestic stuff--the quilting, canning, flower 
arranging. One of the exhibits that I thought was a bit sad was a 
judging of natural-colored fleeces. Beautiful whole fleeces in colors 
from dark grey to reddish-brown. But not a single exhibit [let alone 
judging] of carding those fleeces, spinning the wool, or knitting the 
yarn. Made me kind of sad.


On Jul 14, 2008, at 3:08 PM, Johnson, Cyndi D Civ USAF AFMC 95 CG/ 
SCSRT wrote:

> I forgot to mention last week I started picking the first tomatoes. 
> I labeled
> all the plants, but the supposedly weatherproof writing has worn off 
> so I'm
> not even sure what I planted this year, although I think I wrote 
> down the
> varieties somewhere. At least the Yellow Pear is easy to recognize. 
> Guess it
> doesn't really matter.
> Anyway so we have a few tomatoes, the green beans are tailing off, the
> zucchini of course is exploding, and it looks like the cucumbers are 
> fruiting
> at last. I have a lot more basil than I expected, so I should pick 
> and freeze
> it soon...I should do that, but I don't know if I'll get around to 
> it or not.
> We spent the weekend at home so I got a lot of chores done. Even 
> made a start
> at clearing the weeds out of the front garden; I took 4 wheelbarrows 
> full of
> grass out. It's barely a dent but you have to start somewhere. 
> There's not
> much blooming out there now - just a few daylilies, some coreopsis,
> gaillardia, Shasta daisies and a few roses. I saw one lonely liatris 
> stalk
> too. I used to have two beautiful clumps of them but gophers ate 
> them over the
> winter.
> We reset all the automatic sprinklers to come on less often, trying 
> to save
> water, and I suspect that (and the weeds) are why there's no 
> flowers. I also
> cut back on the veggie garden as I've mentioned, so we are using 
> about half
> the water we did last summer. It hasn't been quite as hot this year 
> but you
> can tell the front is dry. Well...I know it's necessary...and I had 
> too much
> garden to take care of anyway...but I'm still doing a little bit of 
> mourning
> for all the flowers.
> Husband and I both agree that this winter we'll cough up whatever is 
> necessary
> to have the good tree people trim our front sycamores. I am so 
> unhappy with
> what happened to the back trees. They'll recover eventually but 
> sheesh. The
> front ones are so big now that they overhang all the walkways, which I
> wouldn't mind except every bird in the neighborhood is living there. 
> That
> would be fine too if they didn't poop so much. It's almost as bad as 
> the
> chicken coop.
> Lots of folks around us, especially to the east, got big 
> thunderstorms and
> rain (almost < inch!) over the weekend. We got nothing. I see big 
> clouds out
> there right now so I'm hoping, hoping, please let it rain on me!
>
> Cyndi
>
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Island Jim
Willamette Valley
44.99 N 123.04 W
Elevation 148'
Hardiness Zone 8/9
Heat Zone 5
Sunset Zone 6
Minimum 0 F [-15 C]
Maximum 86 F [30 C]

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