Harvest Monday; July 3, 2017

Happy Harvest Monday to everyone. Harvest Monday's are hosted by Dave at Our Happy Acres.

Well, this week has been somewhat of a slow one in the garden. My wife and I took a long weekend which has been nice but it seems I'm still not getting everything that I want to get done, done. As I sit here typing this on Sunday evening I am already planning tomorrow ans Tuesday, although I may go golfing or paintball Tuesday as well. Gotta half some fun, right?

As you can see it was slim picking this week. One thing I am kinda surprised about are the cucumbers. The past few years we haven't had good luck with them. Now it looks like pickle making tomorrow. Beyond that everything else is taking its time. Green beans are slowly dying off and I may get a few picked Monday but that's pretty much it for them. I did get the pole beans planted and they have come up. Reminding myself now to spread out the slug killer. I also have a few tomato plants that are struggling a bit, yellowing leaves at the base. One thing I have been particular about this year is weeding and fertilizing. Not sure what it is but I'm keeping my eye on it. I am trying a compost tea from the Blak Cow mix to see if it will help. Onward to other things.

Speaking of compost tea. Filled it with water and stir it once in a while. Pour it out Tuesday and a few plants.

Bee getting his/her thing on.

Pulled the garlic out of this bed and cleaned it up for fall crops.

Guess what? I have a squash plant.

Amazing cucumber bed.

If you look close enough you'll see some green peppers there. 

Second bed of cukes. 

Started cleaning out a few bush beans and got welcomed by some fire ants! Lovely little creatures. 

Weeded.

Tied up the tomatoes and weeded out between them. 

The bush beans are having their last picking soon. 

Garlic I picked. Idiot shadow too :)

Our volunteer onions. They were turning brown on the bottom parts so time to pull them.  

Got a few nice sized ones. 

My volunteer watermelons. 

Those pole beans.

Not sure why a took this crooked? 

Banana peppers starting to set too. 

Front daylilies finally have bloomed. These smell great!

Praying mantis cruising the inside of our umbrella by the pool.

Cabbage and broccoli starts are doing well. Probably transplant the broccoli tomorrow since it's growing so quickly. 

WOF of the Week. Must have fallen asleep reading her nook. 

That's it for this week. Happy gardening. 

HappY Mondays!

Hey everyone, happy Monday!
Finally did some work in the garden yesterday, setting everything up for spring plantings. I weeded out all of the beds except for the strawberry bed and 2 others where the wiregrass has literally taken over so much that nothing will be able to grow in them. I have a lot of work replacing those two plus rebuilding the rest as they are all starting to fall apart. Add that to the stuff my wife wants done. Anyway after meal prepping in the morning and a short nap, here's what I did.

This is the elephant garlic that I thought was a dud purchase from Amazon.

Weeded out the volunteer onion bed. Speaking of onions, I did start some from seed but they aren't doing too well. I must be the only gardener that can't grow onions. 

Overall view of a nice, sunny day. I'll be tilling up the ground right in front of me for tomatoes this year, giving the raised beds a year off from them and cucumber and peppers. 

As I said above I have started the onions and that's it. I believe I'll start the spinach and peppers next weekend. Tomatoes, etc will have to wait until first week of March. And with the new planting season, my son's girlfriend bought herself a good- sized greenhouse that we helped put up last weekend. I finally have someone near me that gardens too. 

On the exercise front everything is going good; haven't hurt myself in a while *crossing fingers, knocking on wood.* Still meal prep

And I have an awesome gym photo here for you.

Yes, that's my feet. As I said everything is going good but mid section being a little stubborn. 

Finally WOF of the Week. Until next time. 

May Showers

Yes we have had our fair share of rain this month although the past few days have been pleasant. Today we reached a high of 65 degrees which is welcomed around here, since summers seem brutal.
Seem to have most of the garden in now. I was going to say all but I just remembered that there are a few melon seeds that need planting. Tomatoes, peppers (need a few more bells), garlic, onion, squash, and green beans are set and growing. Did some weeding this weekend to, trying to stay ahead of them this year.

Banana peppers.

Garlic and onions. 

A few tomatoes and peppers.

Long bean bed. Blue Lake bush beans.

Planted three more rows of beans in the field.

Looking healthy now. Time to do some staking. 

Poor kitten locked out on the porch. She is a premadonna for sure. 

Other than that everything seems to be moving along. Looks like we'll hopefully get the pool open next weekend, which means I need to get off my butt and get the pump set up again. Poured a small pad for it and the filter yesterday so no more concrete patio blocks!

Stay cool.

Treatment

Milky Spore came in Thursday of last week so I spent Saturday afternoon using my homemade applicator spreading the stuff around. I ordered two of the 10 lb. packages but only needed one. This is good as I wanted to do another treatment later in the year. I watered in all of the spore around the garden beds but waited until the rain Sunday to soak the rest of the yard. One thing I do know now; I can't walk in a straight line. Anyway take a look.

The homemade milky spore spreader. A coffee can, two screws and a stick.

Drilled some holes in a tight grouping. 

Pre- drilled everything then used a stubby screwdriver to install the screws. 

I have to admit that I am please the way it worked. 

4'-0" apart in 4'-0" rows. I'm sure I looked like an idiot walking the whole yard hitting it with a stick. 

Garden- wise I haven't really done anything until I get these grubs under control. You can see the beans are up and I need to put a few more seeds in that bed and plant some more in the field. These did really well for us last year. Garlic is doing good and probably should be coming out within the next month or so. Have a couple volunteer onions mixed with the. I can't grow onions from seed but I can make them appear. 

Red onions are doing nicely. I got these from Renee's Garden this year as slips. 

That's about it for now, just a quick post from lunch at work. I am planning on getting everything planted out this coming weekend so fingers crossed!