What Did You Do In The Garden?

[digitS']

I put some more fertilizer on my sweet corn.

I've read that this should be done before tasseling or it doesn't serve its purpose. However, tasseling often occurs so sudden that I miss the deadline!

The dahlias are thoroughly weeded for a second time. With Asian greens and cilantro in with some of them, it wasn't easy to be thorough the first time. That's my excuse, anyway.

For a number of years, it's been the practice to set the tubers a little deeper below the soil line than necessary. That way, the plants are in a little bit of a depression and soil can be gathered around the stems after the first several weeks of their emergence. Of course, the weeds have to be pulled off that soil even if it can be used to bury small purslane plants and such, near the base of the dahlia.

I have become aware of the habits of those purslane weeds. If you limit your weeding by waiting until you see them beginning to flower and limit it to the early hours of the morning -- you won't realize that the flowers of those weeds don't open until nearly noon! Besides being able to flower when they have only made about 3/4" of growth, they are all-around sneaky about setting seeds!

Steve

 

[seedcorn]

90% of nitrogen is used by pollination. Still important to finish

 

[flowerbug]

@digitS' you ever eat some of that purslane? i have tried some here or there and it is ok...

 

[digitS']

Yes. But, it's overwhelmingly available.

The gardening environment and how everything plays out fosters the purslane growth. I can begin on new ground, maybe battling quack grass as the most difficult weed, and in a couple of years -- it's purslane. Not difficult to pull but there by the thousands.

Also, I once laid a purslane plant upside down on a concrete block in the middle of the garden. It had full sun but regularly watered along with everything else. In 3 weeks, that plant was still alive and it was blooming!

Steve

 

[secuono]

Added 7dust Saturday. The flea beetles are still munching away.
Maybe it slowly kills them as they kill my leaves...

 

[flowerbug]

Yes. But, it's overwhelmingly available.

The gardening environment and how everything plays out fosters the purslane growth. I can begin on new ground, maybe battling quack grass as the most difficult weed, and in a couple of years -- it's purslane. Not difficult to pull but there by the thousands.

Also, I once laid a purslane plant upside down on a concrete block in the middle of the garden. It had full sun but regularly watered along with everything else. In 3 weeks, that plant was still alive and it was blooming!

Steve

scrape 'em when they first start sprouting and then every few days i wander through again to get any i may have missed the first time around. once they get bigger they are much harder to pull here. i don't eat much of it either, but as emergency rations they would do.

lol about the plant on the rock... yeah, i can believe that as they seem pretty stubborn to kill completely. i used to let some of them get bigger and it would take a few weeks in the sun on the surface without any water to do them in. i don't have any chickens to pick at things i don't want to regrow.

 

[Zeedman]

Well, because it rained again today, I was forced to admit defeat, and destroyed all of the transplants intended for my rural garden. July 1st is my deadline for seed crops & anything harvested mature, since there are only about 90 days of growing season left by that point. No sweet corn again this year, and a major setback in renewing much of my aging seed collection. After losing all of last year due to foot surgery, losing the main garden for a second year in a row is really frustrating.

All that remains in the rural plot (other than weeds) is my garlic crop. The ground had dried out just enough last Saturday for me to mow the weeds on the rest of the plot without the tractor sinking in... but it has rained heavily several times since then, and the ground is again impassible. Can't get in to cut the garlic scapes unless I tramp through the muck, so the hard necks will suffer. Hard to believe the scapes are only now appearing, 2-3 weeks later than normal.

Once I realized that weather would prevent me from planting on time, I had started transplants for nearly everything, including beans, peas, and soybeans (yes, I even start some of those as transplants). I was able to transplant everything planned for the home plots except the soybeans, but have been unable to get back in since to weed & put up trellises for tomatoes, cucumbers, bitter melon, and all of the pole beans. I'm hopeful that it will dry out enough over the weekend for me to at least get poles up for the beans which already have runners. One of those beans is the Aeron Purple Star sent to me by @aftermidnight , it is really important that I get a good seed crop from those.

Although I can remember other summers that got off to a slow start, I can't remember a year where we have gone so long without a dry spell. As frustrating as it has been for me, it is doubly so for those who depend upon crops for their livelihood. Half of the farm fields around me remain unplanted, and many of the farmers have given up for the year. A good year for grass & not much else.

The silver lining, if there is one, will be orange. My tiger lilies have really thrived with all of the rainfall, and should look spectacular this year. They have spread to the point where DW & I need to thin them, and look like an impenetrable green hedge right now, just starting to bud.

 

[flowerbug]

@Zeedman i understand your frustration as we probably got the same rain storms that came through your area. very heavy rains and the roof leaked again (in yet another location)... i haven't been out to look at the gardens yet and wonder how many plants got beaten down. a few have rotted as they could not tolerate all this rain. i'm sure we're well over 40cm for the past month and we even had about four days off between rains this past week (at last). i was supposed to get some string up for some climbing beans yesterday but was rained out early and again later. a lot of the farmers around here have also not been able to plant and those that have already got seeds are talking with the state about being able to plant for cover crops (using the seeds they have) and still getting some kind of credit for it even if they won't get much of an actual seed harvest. some of the green corn can be used for sileage. and then with all the rains even the crop that looks pretty good (sugar beets) have potential fungal problems. one of those years...

here in the gardens the tomatoes are really looking good but i haven't yet looked at how many flowers have set fruits.

the hard neck garlic has got some scapes coming. i will be letting them get big and harvest them for giving away - they were popular at the seed swap. i hope i get at least a week of dry weather around when i have to lift the bulbs.

bunching onions look fantastic.

cucumbers should start having some ready in the next few days. not enough to make pickles yet.

hang in there and good luck with the APS!

 

[digitS']

Difficult weather, for sure ... but the following is all non garden-related but a part of my empathy for what people in the MidWest are experiencing!

Start: 40cm in a month is 16in of water. Okay, that would be just a little on the dry side here for ANNUAL precipitation and about half of that would fall as winter snow. In my gravely soil, a month with that much water and the ground would still be very wet.

Going back in time, the Northern California coast had lots of rain, which interfered with my gardening and mowing when I lived there ... what I mostly remember there, from where I could see the salt water of Humboldt Bay from my front yard, was the incessant wind!

Back further ... part of the Rogue River valley was said to have once been a lake between the Cascades and Coast range of mountains. The soil was flat and clayish but rainfall seldom made puddles in our pastures. My school bus stop was nearly a mile away by roads. Shorter was across the fields. I remember trying that once ...

I was okay until I climbed through the fence into the neighboring orchard. The ground had been tilled between the trees. By the time I made it to Orchard Home Drive, my shoes were over twice their size, encased in mud and I was exhausted from the slog! I never went that way again.

The Earth turns on its axis and revolves around the Sun. Other days, other seasons await you ...

Steve

 

[seedcorn]

Yesterday weeded more (I’m gaining) then took a tiller to one 20’ section. This AM planted 4 honeynut squash plants with fence posts that I’ll string when they come up. Crude trellis. Need to plant basil as tomatoes have green ones on them. My poor pepper plants look sad but are trying to put peppers on....
Have volunteer peppers from last year that I’m transplanting in bare spots. It will be interesting to see what they are.
Had to replant (for 3rd time) green beans as mole went right down the row.