A Seed Saver's Garden

[Pulsegleaner]

FINALLY got a pic of the flowers on the cow pea with the second one (with the first, I forgot cow pea flowers open early in the morning and close again as the day progresses, so I waited too long to go out.

 

[heirloomgal]

Almost all the corn plants are dead, I checked tonight and was surprised that there was no life in them at all. Some of the husks had actually pulled away and were exposing the cobs. Given that we ate a fair bit, 50 plants gave me a respectable harvest, enough to grow as much as I want next time.

I really enjoyed this early corn. Will def grow again.


I noticed when I picked the drying cobs that a few of the later plants with cobs not ready to be pulled had more on them than the others. Most plants had only one or two, but this one had 6.

I found this miracle under the Schoenbruen ground cherries today. I have no idea how it survived unscathed, under the pumpkin vines and cherries, no added fert and mostly under watered. The 3 others that were in the row with it evaporated into thin air, nothing was left but perished nubs. Makes me wonder if they prefer shady conditions, and if the sun stresses them so also draws predators. Even the outer leaves are better than on my last one in direct sun.
.

The lacinato kale, in the same neglected garden, had no signs of bug damage at all. Seems to have a way higher resistance. Despite the drought conditions it was still tender and delicious in a stir fry with the first purple potatoes harvested this year.
.

First time growing the ‘Jory’ tomato. Very nice quality. A+

Outstanding cocktail tomato ‘Gnom’. Taste was excellent as was the yield. A real gem in the early tomato group.

There has been about 10 early tomatoes out of the roughly 75 types I grew which made into a top ten list, the ones that are stellar. These 2 are in that group for sure. I thought there was no way 0-33 could be good tasting, it’s just too early. But it tasted fantastic.

The reason my legs & feet have been sore for two days! Lots of rinsing will be happening in the upcoming week! Was a great tomato year.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Seen on a privet outside a grocery on Friday

Might be a different species that the normal one here, since it was a bit smaller than the standard Chinese Mantis (but still bigger than the American ones with the yellow and black dot on the inner leg), and seemed a little more delicate.

 

[flowerbug]

Seen on a privet outside a grocery on Friday

View attachment 68387

Might be a different species that the normal one here, since it was a bit smaller than the standard Chinese Mantis (but still bigger than the American ones with the yellow and black dot on the inner leg), and seemed a little more delicate.

might be a male as they are smaller.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

might be a male as they are smaller.

Could be, but it was probably males I was thinking of when I mentioned the even smaller ones.

Though all of those European Mantids I saw back in college could have been males, and this could be a male Chinese or American.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Notes

1. There are now three cucumbers developing, which is good as #2 (I count the one that got eaten as #1, so #2 is the first of the current ones) got caught in the support netting which is now stuck too far in to remove, so it might get into trouble later)

2. Took a trip to the Chinese grocery store yesterday, so am once again supplied with rice beans to try and grow (it's really annoying that so many get eaten by the critters and that so many never make flowers or pods, so I have to keep going back for more of the same stuff. I think I'll start doing the ones I care about in a pot, so at least the pest problem will be less.

This also means that, assuming anyone wants any next planting season (and I can keep them all from spilling all over the floor this time! I should have a supply of the "right" raw material (as in, the kind that might flower and fruit here, as opposed to the kind that absolutely won't) for the standard red kind to hand out.

3. While collecting another crabapple sample yesterday, I noticed (but did not stop) at another tree in the area that, based on comparisons to web pictures, I think is actually a Strawberry Tree (Arbutus unedo). I didn't know they could grow this far north.

I actually saw two other crab apple trees in addition to the one I collected from, but both are in no access areas (i.e. along pieces of highway where there would be no safe place to park) so those I'll have to pass on (ditto the pair I saw the Friday before last in more or less the same situation.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Notes

1. There are now three cucumbers developing, which is good as #2 (I count the one that got eaten as #1, so #2 is the first of the current ones) got caught in the support netting which is now stuck too far in to remove, so it might get into trouble later)

Correction, FIVE, I noticed two more beginning.

 

[heirloomgal]

Totally bummed out tonight over some peas, some special peas. The 'Monk' peas I was growing, which are super rare here, well, the vines got ravaged by.....something. I know birds were at them because there was some slashed and empty pods, and I saw them hopping around in the beds on and off. But most of the pods seem to just be gone, as though they were never there. The vines were loaded. I've never seen anything like that. Usually pods are just emptied out, not missing.

Argh.

Well, on the positive side I had several other pea varieties out there, all of which I got to before anyone else. The Monk peas were the only ones that got raided, the last one to be harvested; I waited too long. I did get a dozen greenish pods off the vines, so maybe there is hope IF they dry down properly from that earlier stage.

It tempts me to use mouse traps to stop them, but I've seen people use mouse traps on birds and the results are pretty ghastly, and not anywhere near instantaneous. I'm not sure it's worth doing that. I think I need to get to the vines before the peas are actually dried instead of wait like I did.

 

[Alasgun]

Up here we use the bird netting (1/2 in squares) to protect Strawberry plants from the Robins. In years before all of mine was inside chain link, it would also keep Moose off the berries as well!

 

[Pulsegleaner]

Yesterday I gave in and removed the cage from around the corn. I really don't LIKE leaving it open to the critters, but now that it's so broken, I suppose it's better than leaving it there while it crushes the stalks.

Not that there will necessarily BE anything to protect. I did a feel around of the developing ears after I took the cage off, and I'm not totally sure any of them have ANY developed kernels, I broke one off that seemed to be dead (it wasn't, just the shucks were, and, apart from one or two totally empty looking pericarps, all of the potential kernels were not fertilized. And none of the others feel all that much thicker than that one did. I know that the weather change has skewed corn development forward quite a bit in the year around here, but it's September, I'd expect to at least feel like they had gotten to milk stage by now if they were developing anything.