Ducks Ragtag 2019 gardening

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Ducks the hijacker, has reconsidered doing this. Now that I have my own thread, here is today's Rant!!!
I LOVE my Pocket camera. I don't worry about losing my phone when I take a picture, and I don't need to set the focus to take any pictures. I took about 500 last week on vacation. I always get some stinkers, but a get a few spectacular pictures, too. If you compare the cat pictures on the humor thread, the first was taken by DD with her Galaxy Note PHONE, the 2nd, with my NIKON pocket camera. There IS a difference. I have to reduce them to email them, or the email won't send.
If you HAVE a pocket camera, get a battery charger, a 2nd battery, a case, and a new memory stick. Most laptops have a slot to unload your camera. Every cruise I see these phones out ready to fall overboard bc somebody wanted a "grab shot". Sorry for the rant, but if you have a digital camera, consider using it outside inSTEAD of your phone.

 

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Got lots to do today. Forgot to wash my gardening clothes, so I took the camera out this morning. Here is a tour, meant to encourage those of you whose gardens aren't picture perfect. My gardens are healthy, but I have crabgrass growing in the okra, and I pull other weeds that will get big and hard to get out later and feed them to my chickens. Here is your July 4th tour:
First, HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!!!! 7 years to the Sestercentennial!!

https://media.giphy.com/media/gFQJ3JHKEgQO6PmJvU/giphy.gif
West side of the house the corn is short but starking to silk. You can see the bright lights Swiss Chard, Hubbard Squash, and beans starting to flower here.

 

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My Sweet corn and pumpkins around the cistern (S side of the house) are doing nicely. I have to finish the gardening beds before I attack

the N side of the garage beds, where the geraniums are going to be planted. Geraniums are by FAR the TOUGHEST flowers!!! Drought, too much water, too much sun, too much shade---THEY LITERALLY DON'T CARE!!! They will flower for you ANYWAY, in deep soil, or shallow. I recommend them, and I prefer the red ones, like on Betsy Ross's Flag!!

I bought 6 packs of tomatoes 2 weeks ago, ,94 cents/6 pack and here is where they are recovering from "severe potbound." Hoping to get them into the ground today.

 

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Gotta do general yardwork, too. On the south side of my yard there used to be cattle fencing, 1/2 of which is gone, and the previous owner planted forty $1 pine trees in the early 90's, which are now 15-30' tall. A few years ago I "raised the crown" on these, laid down mulch, and it looked great unTIL the weeds moved in. Just remowed it, removed the old saplings that had been drying there to the burn pile and I will be using 2-4D all over bc there was a LOT of burdock there, now removed. Gotta pull the old fencing and put back new this summer. I have the greatest neighbor, but you Know what they say about good fences.

 

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I am so proud of my flag AND my soon to be tomatos!! The 16mo kittens made it ALmost impossible to start ANYTHING inside this year, but I managed to get tomatoes ALL started from seed into this bed.

1/2 of the bed has been weeded, laid down Preen, laid down cardboard and laid down mulch on top. The outside has tomatoes, cucumbers and nasturtiums (not really pictured here, but you will see them later, bc they are up, too.)

Tomatoes are starting to flower and the cucumbers are starting to climb.

 

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This picture shows you the mulch. I did this 2 years ago around my sweet and hot peppers and hardly had a single weed. I put down 3-4 thick. I have prepped a used spray bottle with herbicide if somehow some weed seeds have made it into the mulch. Here is the row next to the garage, where I have given my tomatoes multicolored corn, sunflowers, cosmos, okra and beans for company. I still have to plant more blue dent corn, but I have a patch on the west side of the garage. It has really helped me to grow it to learn HOW to grow corn. I was successful saving the seeds from the 2018 blue dent corn crop, and I hope to save the seeds from THIS corn crop, as well. I specifically overplanted extra flowers and vegetables here to keep down the weeds. I remembered that the last time I grew cosmos and sunflowers they fell over. Hoping the fencing will prevent this. DH is STILL skeptical that my sweet corn will produce even one meal, but I planted over 200 seeds around the cistern, so I am ever hopeful.

 

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My cherry harvest was pretty much a bust, being out of town, and busy, and exTREMELY hot 2 weeks. ALways next year! Every year I get a good grape harvest.

 

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It was pointed out to me that nearly 6K black colonists fought in the Revolutionary War.
http://www.seacoastnh.com/history/history-matters/black-man-with-washington-crossing-the-delaware/
"Look carefully at the most famous painting in American history. In "Washington Crossing the Delaware", just beside General Washington’s right knee, is one African American soldier among a sea of white faces. He is wearing a large hat and red shirt and rowing frantically in the icy river from Valley Forge towards Washington’s critical victory against the British at Trenton."

The maximum average depth of the Delaware River is 39'. Many of the weeds in my main bed were 6 ft tall...by comparison...and my little mulching mower, with it's bag and Honda motor mowed them ALL down this week.

I HOPE to get the tomatoes in the tank of holding into the south part of this bed today. We'll see, since I have to make 2 pies for the potluck fireworks party tonight. My neighbors/friends have FB invited 1/2 the town!! I bought 2 flag folding chairs on sale in May. Perfect place to use them! Btw, those Juniper and Arber Vitae will only supposed to stay there until I could move them. Life intervened, DH really likes them, bagworms discovered them, yesterday I chopped limbs (although I have been pulling bagworm bags for a couple of months, now) and burned them. This weekend I will treat them with NEEM oil. Eva's birthday was July 2nd, so she is Really a Patriot!!

 

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Sunflowers, flowering in my potato bed. AGAIN, if anybody has harvested the seeds, Please let me know how to do it!! $2/package/15 seeds is way too expensive!!

 

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