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Shanghaisky
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Joined: Thu Mar 02, 2017 3:31 pm
Location: Upstate NY/ Zone 5a/b

Re: Shanghaisky's 2017 Garden

Went out and planted the tomato cages today. So many rocks I couldn't get them all the way down.. ugh! So I got them as far as I could go, and found a few sticks to "help" the branches up a little bit until they are larger. Already the maters on my one plant are getting huge! As long as my thumb and probably twice as thick. The other plant is slowly putting out fruit but they are small.

My squash seems to be making a come back despite one losing all of it's leaves. Shooting out new growth, so it looks like there's hope yet. I see the vines coming out now winding their way up the leaf stalks (I don't know technical phrasing here...), so I'm hopeful!

The tomato cages came with these big wrapped labels on them, and when I took them off I saw the back was shiny, and they wanted to flap really well in the wind. So I anchored one to each end of the garden on one side, to hopefully flap and scare any critters interested in dashing my gardening dreams again... lol.

Nothing much else to report except the tick population is disgusting this year. Neighbor said she has lived here 6 years and never had so many out in the grass. She's gotten two bites just recently and I got one last week. My first ever actually and I didn't even know it except that I happened to see it on my foot on my way to bed. So we're doing tick checks all around here now. I guess it's a part of the territory.. ugh.

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Shanghaisky
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Joined: Thu Mar 02, 2017 3:31 pm
Location: Upstate NY/ Zone 5a/b

Nothing new going on except continued growth.. and a huge buzzard perched atop the nearby telephone pole who watched us very intently for a while.. buzzards in upstate NY! Who'da thunk?? Also the cucumber beetles took a hike and the one squash that looked toast from the leaves being eaten is smaller but definitely fine.
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Crazy huge buzzard!
Crazy huge buzzard!
Squash
Squash
Maters getting bigger
Maters getting bigger

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Shanghaisky
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Joined: Thu Mar 02, 2017 3:31 pm
Location: Upstate NY/ Zone 5a/b

We have had a crazy busy weekend. The Patronal feast for the Monastery where we go to Church was Saturday, so we had services Friday night, Saturday (and feasting all day), and then usual Sunday service with meal after. We have been so busy preparing and traveling and festive-ing, that we haven't been out to the garden in days! Well... a 50/50 report...

Something came and ate all the greens again. Except the basil and the one survivor sunflower. So we have gobs of basil and all the chard, romaine, and spinach are gone. Come to think of it I think it ate the beet greens too. Grr. Oh well. Surviving are about 90865 marigolds (just the leaves so far, no flowers.. though at this point I'm not sure they will put any out...?)... and it so happens that the carrots are surrounded by them, and remain untouched.. so whatever came in must not like the marigolds. Also thriving are the squashes.. getting huge and starting to latch onto nearby grasses and weeds. Finally, we have lots of huge Romas! 6 large ones and several smaller ones coming up with a ton of new blooms. At least we will get tomatoes! They look healthy too - no more leaf discoloring or curling, everything looks happy.

So since we gave up on the greens we girls spent a good while digging weeds around the perimeter and mulching it with nasty old rotten straw to try to smother it all. At the end of the season hopefully we can till it in to the bed itself. Some thistles have been trying to pop up, so I decapitated them all and smothered them with mulch.

Also of note is that my Roman Chamomile in a pot on the porch was doing nothing and actually died off after a scorching day. Well after this weekend I noticed a bunch of new sprouts all over the pot. Maybe the weather is getting warm enough for it now? We will see what happens!

The neighbor has a beautiful flower bed all around the house and the lillies are all in bloom... so beautiful! I'm not sure what the orange and yellow flowers are but they are also pretty!
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Flower bed
Flower bed

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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

I think the orange and yellow might be calendulas. I should grow them again even though I might be allergic....

So sorry to hear about your greens being eaten up. Pesky pests!

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Shanghaisky
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Joined: Thu Mar 02, 2017 3:31 pm
Location: Upstate NY/ Zone 5a/b

Well, it's been a while! Everything eventually died off except my romas. Today I pulled one out, despite having several fruits on it, as it was very diseased looking and starting to spread to my other, much larger, better producing plant. We've had a handful of ripe romas in salad so far, but mainly bunnies have found a way past the rabbit fence to sneak annoying little bites off of the mostly ripe ones, and I toss them because I don't need rabies or whatever... lol. We have a lot of green tomatoes waiting for frying - they were touching the ground ans I didn't want them going to waste, so we plucked them. Probably about 20 more nice BIG green tomatoes waiting to ripen still.

I pulled my giant marigolds out that never flowered. They were about 3' tall and shading out the tomatoes! Maybe that's what's letting the bunnies in now, too.

We haven't been doing any weeding because I'm now 5 months pregnant and the humidity + heat has been too much for me. Today was manageable so we went out early and I did as much maintenance as I could. Planning to get some greens in (with a better rabbit fence!) and peas shortly. Will check the planting schedule and see what else could go in. Mid October is first frost I think, so they'll have to be shortish crops at this rate. It's been 80's and humid so short of excessive watering, things may have to wait a tiny while to be sown. I could also start and transplant..... hmmm.

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Shanghaisky
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Joined: Thu Mar 02, 2017 3:31 pm
Location: Upstate NY/ Zone 5a/b

Sigh! The saga continues! Bunnies had been munching, so we have been picking before ripe to try to keep as many as possible.... now, these little boogers! Angry hornworms that attacked my stick that I tried to remove them with. Will have to go back down later without kids and put em in a bucket of soapy water. That’s the last thing I need is my remaining plants getting devoured.
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