Harvest Monday; July 24, 2017

Happy Harvest Monday!

It has been overwhelmingly hot here the last few weeks. So much so that the plants have been taking a beating. Tomatoes are so to ripen and some of the plants are not looking too good, peppers are doing so-so, but cucumbers are doing great. Go figure. I know I haven't been on here for a few weeks so I got a lot to catch up on.

Picture of a harvest.

What a mess.

Weed mess. I didn't get out to the garden last week and it shows. 

Morning glories. 

Volunteer sunflower.

Cuke got squeezed in the fence.

Amy took some pictures of our helpers. 

Green peppers abound but not big enough to pick.

Planted some green beans in the beds, hoping nothing eats them. We want to try to can some more.

Watermelon doing great. Hope we get to eat it within the next few weeks.

Hope all is well with everyone. Sorry so short but work comes calling. Harvest Monday is hosted at Our Happy Acres. 

Harvest Monday; August 22, 2016

Yes, back on Harvest Monday. See Dave at Our Happy Acres!

Garden- wise, beyond peppers and watermelon, everything is pretty much had it. I know this is a repeat of every week but this simmer has been brutal for us gardeners (another repeat.) As I mentioned in the previous post, we took a small trip to the mountains and I just reviewed the garden when we got back Sunday. I also caught up my spreadsheet, here.

As I said I did a quick tour Sunday evening. 

Hope you can see four watermelon. That's whats there. 

Hot peppers and banana peppers seem to love this weather. My bell peppers all have bad areas on them. 

Marigolds. I have touched on them previously. I have done nothing to these. Maybe that's what I have to do with everything. 

Overall. Pretty sad. Got my work cut out for me next weekend. 

Our vacation wasn't a full week but a nice break from everything that seems to go in our daily lives. We are always busy with something. My oldest said such as much until he bought his house. Now I think he understands. Anyway we had a nice time and in looking at the pictures I see a few more upcoming posts so stay tuned. I will leave a few here. 

The house we stayed at had hummingbird feeders and I counted 10-12 at one time, fighting each other to eat. And boy do they eat. And very territorial. Actually kinda mean.

Biltmore. About 179,000 square foot. You want to clean it? 

70'-0" tall banquet room with organ. Note the carvings on the balcony. Everything in this home is hand- carved. Everything.

Atrium. Now that's a greenhouse. 

Part of the gardens. There's 30 acres of them. Needless to say this was at the end of our day at Biltmore and we were tired of walking. 

View from the top of Craggy Gardens in black and white. Sometimes I like to see black and white photos as I think they lend a different perspective. 

I took this from the deck of the house Sunday morning before leaving for home. We stayed in Little Switzerland. Notice the fog in the valleys. Yes, we hit a little of that heading home. 

That's it for now but as I said I have some great information for posts. Stay tuned. 

Death

Not your common way to start a post but I believe I have found a way to kill those #!*&%! squash bugs! Went out to the garden Thursday evening as it was not raining (insert joke here) and found that they had consumed my watermelon, a lot of the tomatoes, and were starting on the cantaloupe and Eggplant. Went inside and came back out with a spray bottle of Dawn and water mixture and proceeded to spray everything and every bug I saw. Went back out Saturday to see what is salvageable from this summer's garden and not one bug in sight. Gone. Dead. They r u n n o f t. I don't remember the scent of Dawn I used but it was about 1/3 Dawn and 2/3 water. Worked like a charm. Next year it will be floating covers and a lot more attention paid to the crops.
I am actually surprised at some of the plants. The tomatoes look like they had been through war with no stems on the bottom parts but the tops have blooms on them. Go figure. And fruit is still setting! I did lose five plants and replaced three with some Early Girl's and need to run to Home Depot to see if they have anymore. Images of the devastation.

 

What else can be said. With the rain we've had I am surprised I've done as well as I have. And guess what? Rain is no less than a 40% chance until next Tuesday. I did mow though. :) Off to the store. and more this evening.