What is going on today 2017?

Those look really nice…!! I would say thou that like many big box nectarines they look like peaches. Should be good either way.

6 Likes

They do look like peaches

3 Likes

Lol! With the red currants I only leave a week as I want a light flavor. I usually drink with tonic water as I need the quinine in it for cramping muscles which happens often to me due to damaged nerves in my back.

3 Likes

Interesting, does the quinine come from the tonic water or the currants?

1 Like

I picked about 2 quarts of wild blackberries today.

However, about 30 minutes into my picking I realized the whole patch was thick with poison ivy. (Dumb move as I usually look for it first.)

Oddly I could not find signs of SWD in them. I will have to check again before I make jam.

It was melting hot today. Especially in a tree line in the blackberry patch - sun and no wind. Yuck.

5 Likes

They are peaches. It was a mislabeled tree from lowes. Fruitnut broke the bad news to me in the spring when I asked if nectarines where ever furry

5 Likes

Sorry to hear that. It is disappointing to invest time and effort, then it turns out to be mislabeled.

1 Like

The rain has become infrequent and our hot humid days have started. Good news is the humidity will start dropping around September and college football games start.

3 Likes

A couple of days ago I pulled a couple of large breba figs off of a plant found growing on a plot of land which I purchased behind my home.

13 Likes

The tonic. The doc said ok to add a little vodka.

4 Likes

Today was a big-time squash vine borer egg laying party on my pumpkins.

I stood out in the yard watching the darn things lay eggs on my vines this morning. (Yay, vacation!)

I tried to spray down the stems with a Bt/spinosad mix. Hopefully it will do the trick, otherwise with all the eggs the plants are doomed. Now that I think about it, I should give everything a good spray with spinosad and Surround tomorrow. Maybe Surround could help.

1 Like

After giving the tomatoes and cukes some liquid fert this morning, I came in to cool off, get a snack and change clothes. It was very sticky today.

About 5 I thought it was cool enough (just under 90) to start with the bush hogging. I was able to get about 2/3 of the south pasture done, and then mowed the areas around both orchards and gardens, finishing about 7:30.

After that I worked in the tomato patch, staking up a few more plants. I’m surprised to see that I’m actually about to run out of tobacco stakes to prop the plants. So, I guess that I’ve used about 200 of them in the patch! Then the fishing line fence needed some repairs, finished that right at dusk.

Needless to say I was disgustingly filthy. I smelled of diesel, dirt, tomato plants, sweat and weeds. Even my dog made a face as I walked past him into the house. I had to clean up before I could even eat supper. Not feeling too bad after all that work, I think getting in bed before midnight, and having a good breakfast had something to do with it. Will probably sleep well tonight!

It’s supposed to the hottest day of the year tomorrow (95), so I wanted to get as much done today as possible. We’re under a heat advisory thru tomorrow evening.

BTW, this was the first real job for the tractor after the repairs were done on the radiator and water pump, and it did very well. It was running a bit past midway on the temp gauge, but it was hot this evening, and I was pulling a bush hog up and down and across some hilly terrain.

5 Likes

It’s hot here too, not as bad. 89 tomorrow. Two days ago I worked on my cottage roof, and when done, I and the dog went for a swim, and bath. I try to bathe in the river as much as possible. It’s like 85 out high humidity, the water temp is 70F. Not a soul in sight on land, a few boats out there. But just about as perfect as possible. Once in the water it could be 110F who cares? It’s like a massage, you’re so relaxed and clean. I too was just so filthy. I perspired so much my shorts were wet like I had an accident. Working on a black roof. working as much as possible from a sitting position pounding nails.I was dripping wet for a few hours.
I’m excited because my daughter might buy a lot on the island. It has a beautiful garden already and room for fruit trees. I’ll have to talk her into it, but she will let me.It has a tart cherry tree, and a peach tree already. I would like to plant a couple mulberries, a few paw paws, and some Romance series cherries. Low maintenance plants for here.

6 Likes

I put some shingles on the old house in late May. I only put down maybe twenty 2x3ft pieces. It wasn’t too warm that day, but man, my ankles, knees, and especially toes were hurting afterwards. All that squatting is hard on the lower body.

Heh, talk the daughter into buying a plot of land, so you can plant fruit trees on it! That’s one way of getting around yer limited 'burb space…

3 Likes

Hell yeah and she has a place for her boat, which is a bit of a problem now when she comes to the island. The lot has power and a jet pump with pipes to the garden. It has a dock, a boathouse, a total of 90 feet on the water. 200 feet deep. A great new shed, a real shed, which houses a John Deer lawn tractor that comes with it. The boat house has a hoist too. Steel breakwall.

4 Likes

That island soundslike paradise

1 Like

It can be, but has it’s faults too. My cottage is a true cottage, i wish it was a house. It’s like a small town so everybody has your back but the gossip is bad, and the politics worse. It’s great to have people drop by, and they do all the time, a very social place.
I have some gardener friends there too. Offered to let me grow on their property, but I would rather it be my own. Nice they offered though!
I always thought of it as a campground with indoor toilets, but some want it to be more like Hilton Head, so the attempt to gentrify the island is a sore spot between the rich and the middle class. A recent victory by the middle class drove a guy who owns an automotive dealership off the island. Works for me. He tried to take over part of a road by building his boathouse so big it was not just on the easement, but the road itself. Hired guns (lawyers) got the city to make him tear it down. He was so pissed he took his toys and went home.

3 Likes

Hey Levers,

I tried spraying the stems of my squash with BT because of the same problem. Every year all my acorn squash get wiped out because of vine borers. This year two of the three acorn squash died, but I still have one, which is an improvement. I also sprayed zucchini and yellow squash, along with spaghetti squash and they were all fine. I did not use spinosad. I had wrapped old panty hose around the vines when they were young, then sprayed that with BT also. Only one of the Acorn squash was wrapped and sprayed, and that was the first to go. For completeness, I kept the zucchini and yellow squash under row cover until they flowered. They still look great!

I tried cutting out the larva with an exacto knife, but I have yet to get that to work.

Butternut squash seem to be unaffected by the borer.

If anyone has any other organic suggestions, I’d love to hear them.

1 Like

My cukes are coming in like crazy. My tomato plants are doing nothing but looking beautiful. Not making tomatoes!

3 Likes

Besieged by humidity

1 Like