Sweetiepie's Garden 2015

[applestar]

I posted pics of our birdscares elsewhere, too. They are protecting the berries -- first strawberries, then raspberries, currants, and now blueberries. -- so far so good:

I have also heard that thin string or wire -- thinner than they can perch on, strung in random pattern above what is being protected is effective. As thin as mono filament fishing line. Doesn't have to be so close as to exclude them -- NOT netting, just obscure barricade that can snag their wings and damage them.

I have heard and seen this method is used above open air restaurants and food courtyards.

[sweetiepie]

Very neat idea, what are they hanging from? A tree or do you have posts? I love the faces. I can't wait for next year now to try again with a better company to get my raspberries. I will give the fishing line thing a thought, maybe I can use stakes to tie it to.

[applestar]

I go cheap -- most are tied to sticks and branches, sometimes stuck in/out/in through wire fencing holes to raise them to suitable level. Ones with curve or side branch to hang the birdscare free works well.

It helps if the aluminum pan bangs on the stick sometimes. Blueberry ones are hanging from the arch trellises and nylon cord tied between front and back trellises which are used to support bird netting if I use it.

Draw the giant eyes on both sides -- most of these were made by my DDs.

[sweetiepie]

So the morning dove was back this morning and was now munching on a pepper plant. Odd, I think with so much else to eat. Of course I didn't expect to see it, for some reason. So I didn't have a gun with me.

But my husband saw a striped gopher hanging out my the netting where my peas were this evening, twice and each time he didn't have a gun with him. So it could be anything eating my peas. But he set some traps for him by the grape arbor where he ran to. I don't have to worry about cats or dogs getting in there so it should be ok.

[Igotworms]

I have a morning dove that has a nest on my front porch. It's on it's second batch of baby birds. luckily they don't bother my garden.

[sweetiepie]

I have given up on having peas this year due to the critters. Good news though I caught the morning dove and 5 baby gophers so hopefully my garden will be a little safer. So I like to try new things and I got some seeds from someone that said they were Indian Amaranth and of course I planted it. As it's been growing I am thinking this sure looks like pigsweed and wouldn't you know it is a version of pigsweed. Haha, I pull that weed out of my garden all the time. Oh well, I will try to cut it as a flower before it dumps it's seeds. The hot peppers need some sun and heat, kind of going slow. Our temps have been down and the sun has been hidden for over a week. We are getting the smoke haze from the Canadian fires and it's like looking through dirty windows all day. Yuck! Hoping they get the fires out soon.



The corn is chest high and already started to tassel, sort of surprised. Usually it gets taller but our weather has been weird for ND. The pumpkins have gone crazy the last two days, we finally got in the 80's and they loved it.



We got some wind and rain and my dill sort of layed over but it should bounce back. Potatoes are blooming. You can sort of see the smoke haze in this picture when you look towards the stock trailer.

[applestar]

Looking good!

[digitS']

My garden was under an ugly brown cloud of smoke yesterday afternoon, sweetie'. There is a forest fire of 2,000 acres about 15 miles away and another of 800 acres about 30 miles. The larger fire has destroyed 6 homes and the news describes it as "0% contained." Today, the air is hazy but not too bad.

My pea season was abysmal. One bed was already cleared and some more cucumber plants went there and I pulled out the other pea bed this morning and bean seed will go in. I even took out the sweet peas. The heat had just blasted them. There was not enough recovery for them to even bloom. The edible peas did give us several servings to enjoy. I was just a little late sowing seed but anticipating "normal" was the most serious mistake.

Began harvesting ripe tomatoes earlier than ever and had a first-of-the-season cucumber with lunch .

Steve

[lexusnexus]

Wow sweetiepie! Where to begin. Beautiful garden. I'm green with envy. Here in the DC area that amount of property for a garden of that size is a fantasy (unless you're independently wealthy). We didn't have frost as late as you but, for our area, we had a very cold winter. We lost several plants to the extreme cold for long periods of time. Hey, I moved from Michigan so I didn't miss that! And your soil. People here would sell their souls for that soil. I've broken many garden implements working in our clay. WOW! What a huge number of plants. Where did you start your seeds? Do you use open pollinated or hybrids? Crowded planting? Never heard of it! About the only thing I won't crowd are my tomatoes. I tried that a few times and was always disappointed with the results. So this year each has 3 feet in all directions to the next one. And the results so far have been incredible. Just wish they'd start ripening. It seems like they get large in June but don't ripen until October. Except for the grape tomatoes, which have been ripening for the past week.

I hope you post regularly as I love looking at that garden...

[sweetiepie]

We had a severe thunderstorm last night. Quarter size hail, 60 mph winds, 1.2 inches rain in 45 minutes. Very glad my garden fared as well as it did. The corn is leaning but I expected it to be layed over.

Here is a little better picture of the leaning corn.


So we were in a tornado warning and where are we? In the attic, emptying buckets. We knew the roof had a little leak, and we have the stuff bought to roof it, but they keep forecasting rain on every weekend. We lost some more shingles, so now husband is going to have to just take a week off work, which we can't really afford and just get it done.

Loving the garden, though.

[sweetiepie]

We had another severe thunderstorm last night but the wind blew from the opposite direction at 70mph and we had lots of thunder and lightening but we only got .20. So now the corn is leaning both directions. About 10 miles further east of us, they got 2.5 inches of rain in an hour and we didn't really need that since we got enough last night.

[sweetiepie]

Update on the redneck orchard. So the first sweet potatoes I got didn't make it. So I planted corn that is for corn meal the middle of June. It is now tasseling. Still am hoping it will not cross pollinate with the corn in the garden. Two tires are not ideal conditions for corn in ND with all the wind but not too bad considering we had 60 to 70 mph winds last several days during the thunderstorms and driving rain. I could not let the space go to waste right. Being crazy, like I am, I broke down and got more sweet potatoes because supposedly they still grow well planted so late here. So I am going to give it a try. I ordered them from Sandhill Preservation. Thank you quys for introducing me to them. They were beautiful looking. Hoping for Indian Summer now.

This is the pallets I threw down and planted my extra plants. I do have some leaf curl on the tomatoes that won't go away but it is on the Martino Roma variety that is having curl in the garden also.

[sweetiepie]

I think harvest and canning season is right around the corner.

Green Beans.

I think these are beef master tomatoes, the marker is lost in the forest.

Paprika Pepper. Please ignore the dirt from the driving rains.

This is Alma Paprika Pepper. I just love how cute it is.

Zucchini and summer squash.

I put less fertilizer on this year than last year and they still have lots of greenery. But are fruiting. I swear there is a tomato cage in there some where. I have pruned some on the bottom but may need to do more. But the May flys are terrible. Like thick clouds of them hiding, from the wind and get blown off Mud Lake. Close your mouth and head phones for the ears.

Cayenne Peppers

Hungarian Yellow Wax Peppers

[applestar]

They look GREAT @sweetiepie!

I thought I had Alma paprika growing for the White Sauce Garden, but I don't remember planting it. I may have lost the seedling at some point.

[sweetiepie]

applestar, I can't wait to see the bounty from your white sauce garden. This is the first year I planted paprika, so excited.