Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Tuesday Ramblings

From looking around the blogosphere it seems that many of us are busy at the moment.  Lots of things to get done this time of year.  I got the second of the new rows planted this past weekend. I was surprised Mars "let" me plant what I wanted in it.  I suppose he just didn't want to hear me fuss about what all I didn't get a chance to plant. For some reason it's nagging on me, there seems to be things I should have planted but didn't.  Of course that doesn't mean flowers.

This year Mars pretty much has most of my three tiny flower beds spoken for. How I managed to let that happen I just don't know.  To be fair though, one of them has always had herbs in it anyway, and that didn't change.  Then there's the one that has garlic in it.  It should be ready to harvest sometime soon so maybe I can find something that is more of a summer/fall flower.  And then there's the nice bed he worked up for me a couple of years ago.  It's not very big but still much more roomy than either of the other two.  It's got 10 strawberry plants in the back. They aren't looking too good though.  They are starting to brown around the edges of some of the leaves.  I'm not sure what's going on with that.  I HAVE been pinching off the flowers as they come on though in hopes of a better show next year.  The rest of the space is filled with a mixed lettuce blend.  As a matter of fact we had our first green salad with our own lettuces night before last.

I don't think I mentioned it before but Mars has put in three new 100 ft rows this year with plans for one more when we can afford to get some fittings for the drip lines.  So that (along with the bottom garden) gives us a bit over 5000'.  I know it sounds like a lot, and it is, but I believe the reason behind it is solid. If you were watching the news this past week you might have seen the article about the increase in food costs for April was a whopping 2.6% and there is no end in sight for extreme prices to come down. 

Food storage is becoming more and more important as prices rise at an alarming rate.  Think of it as a tangible asset.  What you can put back now will only increase in value. You can't argue with that logic.

Mars has decided to try growing corn again this year with some of the seed my Dad sent.  We are "kind of" leaning toward the 3 Sisters method in the lower garden.  We've planted butter beans this past week and had the corn in about 3 weeks ago. We also transplanted some volunteer squash from last year.  The corn had a 99% germination rate. Pretty cool.  The corn has been in the family for many years so I think that's pretty awesome in and of itself!

We lost a few tomato plants and are down to 21 now.  I looked in Tiny Town for some 6-packs but all they have are the bigger ones at $3.59 per plant.  No way am I going to pay that much for a single plant!  I'll be starting some seeds today and hope for the best for some fall tomatoes.  We'll see how it goes.

All the rows are planted now.  I think I'm going to fill in spots where nothing came up with different herbs and see how that works.  It looks like I've only got 2-3 cilantro plants that came up and none of my dill came up.  I've said it over and over though, I cannot seem to grow herbs. *sigh*  OH, that reminds me I planted several lemon basil plants last year and they did really well.  I was out weeding and noticed there are bunches of volunteer's coming up.  Someone told me that planting basil with tomatoes will keep away the hornworms.  I'm going to see if it will work with the lemon basil.  No harm no foul right?  Another surprise in the garden this year is that the marigolds I planted with the tomatoes last year came back on their own!  I'll leave them where they are but did plant more marigolds in the tomato row this year again.  I don't know if it was just blind luck last year planting them together but I had no problems at all with bugs on the tomatoes.  We'll see...

Well I suppose I've rambled on long enough. Time to get back out there and pull some weeds.  I'm trying to weed one row a day with the hope that I'll be able to keep up with them. With 12 rows and the "flower beds" I'm not sure I'll be able to get to them all without bunches of weeds trying to beat me on this venture.
Have fun with your gardening and if it just gets to be "too much" work remember that you are growing tangible assets.
Ya'll take care!!
Sci

18 comments:

  1. All your flowers beds R belong to Mars....

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    1. LOL!!! And all your raised beds belong to the Misses!

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  2. SCI,

    You may want to try putting some straw around the base of your strawberries, and clipping some of the runners off. Remove any dried up leaves, this helps with my strawberries. In fact, over the winter I once and a while water the strawberry plants and they survived come spring. They even gave me a nice harvest. More berries are in the growing stage, and I can't wait to harvest them.

    I've tried planting corn 3 seasons now, each time I end up losing the entire crop.
    This will be the last time I try growing corn here in Oklahoma. I'm hoping for a nice harvest.

    Tell Mars "NO" on taking your flower beds,lol.........the flowers beds you had grew beautifully, and attracted big gorgeous butterflies.

    Sending hugs to you and Mars.
    Sandy

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    1. Sandy,
      Thanks for the tips on the strawberries. This is the first time I've even attempted to grow them so I'll take all the tips anyone can give me. I've got straw on the list of things to pick up come payday. It sounds like I'm going to have to nurse them along for a bit so I'll be trying to learn as much as I can. I overlooked a couple of strawberries on the plants but I'll definitely pay more attention to them now.

      Mars took the lower garden year before last and tried growing corn. It sure wasn't even worth the water used on them. That was the year we were over 100* for close to two weeks and it really stressed the plants out. We didn't have the dripline out there either that year. So for this time around it's looking good. So far anyway. I hope yours do well this year.

      As for the flower beds.... it's a bit late now to make a fuss about it. Good thing is that I've got volunteer zennia's popping up all over the place! I'm going to have to look and see if there are any flowers that will grow and actually bloom this year in the garlic bed/flower bed. It WAS pretty last year though wasn't it? I'm thinking I might start looking for some perennials. It should take care of him hijacking my small beds anyway!
      It's good to see you around in the blogosphere again. You are as bad as me sometimes what with not posting much for days at a time lol

      Hugs to you and yoursk
      Sci

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  3. okay...every one is planting strawberries but me...this must stop! lol
    you have given me some incredible ideas, I am going to try the basil with tomatoes as well, I mean it can't hurt right? One thing I had a problem with last summer was pickle worms attacking my cucumbers..so I read up on them, and are planting a couple of squash plants down wind of my Cukes in the hopes of attracting any pest away from my cukes. They can attack the squash all they want.

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    1. Glock Mom, I'll be honest here. I saw the strawberries on sale for around $3.00 for a six pack or I'd not have picked them up. Like I told Sandy, I've never grown them before so who knows what will happen to them. As for the basil in amongst the tomatoes, I don't have a clue if it will actually work or not but like you said, it can't hurt right?
      I've never heard of a pickle worm before. Does it attack the stems or the leaves? I'll have to look that one up. I've got a few mounds of cukes planted. As for using squash as bait I swear I'm having troubles of all kind keeping the bugs away from him since we first moved out here. We both love yellow squash around here. I tried a new safe pesticide last year and had pretty good luck with it. I'm sure it would work on your cucumbers too; It's made by Bonide and the main ingredient is made from chrysanthemums. It's called Eight. I found it at our local feed store after hearing it about it from the Saturday morning gardening show on the radio. You just have to make sure you don't get it on the flowers because it's not good for bees. No problem though, I just sprinkle it around the base of the plants. It seems to work really well. This will be year #2 for using it in the garden.

      I'm afraid its now too late to stop Mars from messing with my flower beds. Little does he know that I've got all sorts of volunteers coming up mixed in with the lettuce/strawberry bed. One way or another I'll get some flowers out there. lol
      Hugs to you and your clan,
      Sci

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  4. PS : Hugs to you and the family...and tell Mars to keep his hands off your gardens...lol

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  5. Fresh green salad - I am sooo jealous. I just got some at the store this evening:( I can't wait. Sounds like you'll have plenty. And yes, the price of groceries is crazy. My peanut butter (the one item I like a certain brand of) is over $10 a jar. Needless to say, cutting waaaay back on the pb. I'll write the date on the lid when I open it and try to make it last as long as I can. My spoon just seems to find it's way in there though:)
    Have a great rest of the week - on my way out to water.

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    1. Lady L,
      It was a wonderful salad! hehehe I can hardly wait for the tomatoes to come in so we can have a "proper" salad. I refuse to buy tomatoes from the store anymore.

      You bring up a sore spot for us when buying peanut butter. It's one of Mars favorite snacks in the afternoon with some crackers. I just about flipped out when he went in the kitchen to whip up some cookies and used almost a half a smallish jar of peanut butter. I need to get him on the same page about using peanut butter. Prices on a jar here have almost tripled in the past year. It's going to be out of our budget soon I'm afraid.

      I'm wishing you a happy garden week. And once again, thanks for stopping by and leaving a "howdy".
      Sci

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  6. Hi there, I'm just stopping by to say how delightful your blog is. Thanks so much for sharing. I have recently found your blog and am now following you, and will visit often. Please stop by my blog and perhaps you would like to follow me also. Have a wonderful day. Hugs, Chris

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    1. Hi Chris!
      I want to thank you for you kind words. And to thank you for following!
      There's coffee on the counter and cookies in the cookie jar. Kick off your shoes and sit a spell.

      Welcome!
      Sci

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  7. Good luck on the rest of the garden, my friend! I hope it does really well!

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    1. Thanks Jim! I'll take all the well wishes I can get. hehehe So far things are looking good, but you know how fickle the weather can be.
      I'm heading over to your place with some choc chip cookies. I know you'll have coffee going on!
      Sci

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  8. Here is a post I did last Summer about Mr. Pickle Worm....gross little bugger...

    http://talesfromtheclothesline.blogspot.com/2013/07/meet-mr-pickle-worm.html

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    1. Wow, that's nasty!! Thanks for showing it to me, I'll be on the look-out now. BTW Sevin Dust is a horrible thing to put on your garden. Back when it first came out it was the "end all be all" for gardeners. There's a new product on the market that is a much better choice. It's not been out long but it is made from Permethrin:, which in turn comes from chrysanthemums. You do have to be careful using it though as it's really really bad for bees. So you don't want to put it on your blooms, but can be used around the stem. I don't know if they carry it at The Evil Empire but I found it at our local feed store. I'm pretty impressed with it so far.
      Again thanks for making my day with a look at that nasty dang bug!!! lol

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  9. I know you are paying attention to the California drought. You've mentioned it several times. Here's a good article about it for perspective for your readers. In case they aren't paying attention to this problem. It's a rather scary read.
    http://www.weather.com/tv/tvshows/americas-morning-headquarters/california-drought-cracked-20140521

    And by the way, I live in South Alabama, near Florida, so things happening in Florida we pay attention to. Florida is worried about a problem with all citrus called "citrus greening". It completely destroys the crop. Even home gardeners have had trouble with it. Citrus growers have contemplated pulling their citrus trees and replanting to try to fix the problem, caused by some bug they can't control with pesticides.

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    1. Cristy,
      I can't get the link to work! I do know that beyond the water shortage there are lots of politics involved. It's a bad situation any way you look at it.
      I wasn't aware of the problems in Florida. That's pretty darn serious. Folks can look forward to higher citrus prices in the near future.
      Overall it has finally started being reported that food is on its way to a rise of 3x the price that it is now in the coming months. There is a storm on the horizon and many don't even know it's coming.
      Thanks for the info,
      Sci

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    2. I am sorry that the link won't work. I don't know how to fix it.

      There has been a little talk about orange juice, but nobody is mentioning that it really affects all citrus--lemons, limes, grapefruit, even satsumas (local things like orange and tangerine mix).

      The Auburn University extension here in South Alabama told me that there is no cure or even help for it right now. It's spreading, and he felt it was inevitable that it would come here.

      I saw one article that said that there won't be Florida grown oranges(at all) in a few years unless they fix the citrus greening.

      The home growers have said that the only answer is to grow their citrus trees inside. That's an okay solution for one lime, but you can't grow a grapefruit that way.

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