Just be careful what you do in the garden....the potatoes have eyes, the corn has ears and the beanstalk.
Here, Here!!! And here I trap all sorts of critters and take them for a ride. Bare land is getting harder to find. I don't want them on my farm and pretty sure the neighbors don't want a critter dump on theirs. We have a large hilly cemetery that we go to now. There is a 'pet cemetery' too so the animals might enjoy it.
Yeah, you never know what kind of garden gossip will turnip and be difficult to squash. Did you know as a senior, if you garden in the nude, the neighbors will build you a new privacy fence at no cost to you? I am still unpleased that no one on here mentioned National Nude Gardening Day and I missed it.
As much loose skin as I have after losing some weight and being 'crepe-y', Nude gardening is out. Ticks, chiggers and black flies!!! I do have a mosquito suit I could wear, I suppose.
Not sure if the length of this will keep people watching but as we have the HOUSE ON the ROCK here is Wisconsin, I was fascinated by this house IN the rock down in Fresno. An Italian immigrant was overtaken by the 110 degree plus heat after buying some land with his savings, on which he had wanted to grow citrus trees. Under the three inches of top soil was hard pan! But, He eventually got his orchard.
Ugh, I'm bummed. Yesterday evening I noticed that my previously flourishing dill plant had been stripped bare. The culprits were two black/green striped caterpillars about the size of my little finger, so I yanked them off the plant and murdered them. Came inside and got on the internet, only to find that I had just killed two pupae of the black swallow-tailed butterfly. So now there will be two less beautiful butterflies in the world, thanks to me. (And a scrubby little dill plant, thanks to them.)
I have seen that some folks plant bronze fennel to feed those parsley worms. Apparently that is their favorite food and perhaps they will leave other crops alone.
Yes, I read all about them. Unfortunately my garden space is limited so I can't plant stuff to feed the worms. (Though apparently I end up feeding them anyhow.)
Welp, the outside garden is pretty much history. All the cukes and tomato plants that were planted in the raised beds have been pulled up. My Bush Goliath plants in pots are doing OK but struggling in the heat. The "goliath" tomatoes are anything but... they are about the size of golf balls and are beginning to ripen. Not sure I'll bother with those next year but I probably planted them too late and the pots are too small for them. So their lack of growth is likely user error; of course I have no idea what size the tomatoes are supposed to be. I've composted the beds and considering what I might plant there for the fall or if I'll just move to the air conditioned Aerogardens. I have several experiments in mind for those, and no sweating involved.
Well, I planted mine before yours and as plants and in bigger pots and so far they are a massive bush and loaded with tomatoes, all green. The biggest is about the size of a wiffle ball. I think mine will be about the size of a hardball when ripe. They are in the afternoon shade and still require about 1/2 gal of water per pot per day and it has been cool here. 80 today with the heat coming in the next few days. Doing extensive yard clean up and mowing today. This is the first day with no wind. So far the front is done, but it was the easiest. Now to finish blowing and mowing the back.
Have you tried the tomatoes bred for hot climates @Beth Gallagher ? Here is one I used to grow in Georgia. You still have to do something to keep the soil temp down. I used heavy mulch (like 12" of straw) and irrigation tape underneath it.
I'm not planting any more tomatoes this season except some dwarf varieties in the Aerogardens, Don. Those look interesting but I see they are "indeterminate" and I won't make that mistake again.
Yeah, indeterminates are bigger and grow the entire season. The determinates are "designed" to mostly bear all at once and stop. You just have to train indeterminates up a trellis, pole, or string.
Then there are tomato hybrids that defy both the characteristics of determinant and indeterminate. My plants stopped growing for height when they finished blooming, but continue to grow for diameter. Sagging branches continue to grow although they have slowed this week. The size of the tomatoes are varied from pea size to wiffle ball size indicating that I will have ripe tomato's by the second week in July until the middle of September. These Bush Goliath are considered determinate because they stop for height after the blooms transform into fruit. The only thing I would do different is use a bigger surface area pot, but I will always use the high pots. Not only do they keep me standing up, but they defy the crawlers that love tomatoes and are plentiful in this area. Those little bandits can't crawl up these pots with their slanted outward sides, small bottoms, and bigger tops. So far only one pest dared invade and he paid the ultimate price for his trespass. These beauties have withstood several weeks of constant wind with three days of gust up to 70. These girls bent slightly but spung back up and mocked the wind with, "Is that all you have old man." No support needed. I turn them daily so all sides get their chance to soak up the first rays of morning sun. These tomatoes are my kind of girls, they like me, love to get the early morning sun on their sagging fruit. Now let me ramble on and bore you all to tears concerning my watering method. I love the tall pots because I can keep most of the moisture about 8" down and this forces the roots to reach and make a stronger plant. Now with them bearing, I water every day. I use a composted lighter soil for the first 8" and a heavier denser soil below that. My other newly discovered secret is to have them in shade after about 1 PM. Once a week, when they are in the afternoon shade, I will mist the plants as long as it is warm. No problem with mold. On a hot day I will join them and mist myself.