Tennessee 2018 Garden

[Gary350]

We have been picking corn every day for a week or so. All of a sudden all the corn is ripe and the local animals found it. After dinner I picked corn while wife put it in the freezer. I planted 400 corn seeds about 75 days ago. We lost about 30 ears to animals & my son took some corn home with him. We are stocked up for the winter. Not sure how much corn is in the freezer probably close to 300. Wife has about 40 ears in a large pot she plans to cook tomorrow morning then cut it off the cob to use for stew & soup this winter.

Dinner tonight was good, stir fly chicken with green beans, corn, tomatoes, potato salad, and blackberry cobbler with frozen yogurt ice cream.

[SQWIB]

Quite impressive.

[applestar]

Wow 30 ears is a lot, but 1/10 of your harvest. That sounds about right for wildlife loss as I have heard it. I’m glad for you that you harvested enough to satisfy.

Still, it’s devastating to find the ravaged garden. You must have been so mad.

Do you know what kind of animals?

[Gary350]

Wow 30 ears is a lot, but 1/10 of your harvest. That sounds about right for wildlife loss as I have heard it. I’m glad for you that you harvested enough to satisfy.

Still, it’s devastating to find the ravaged garden. You must have been so mad.

Do you know what kind of animals?

We have deer in the front yard every morning when the sun comes up but I never see them in the back yard & they never eat the garden. I know deer can hop over the 4 ft chain link fence like nothing. No deer foot prints in the garden soil either. We hear coyotes every night but never see or hear them near the house day or night, I don't think they eat corn. There might be raccoons in the forest across the road but they are night animals we have never seen a raccoon. We have 2 squirrel families with 4 babies each but every year after babies are born May, squirrels are gone never to be seen again until spring a year later. Garden was fine yesterday morning, we were gone for 2 hours 11 am to 1 pm. Dog will bark if it sees people but never barks at birds, deer, or squirrels. After dinner 6 pm I noticed several corn stalks were broken down and ears on the ground that were eaten on the top side. There was 1 deer in neighbors front yard a few days ago eating the flowers they have planted in the front yard about 1 pm. Judging by all the corn stalks broken down it appears to be a deer but no foot prints in the soil. Soil has not been tilled in 1 1/2 months so soil may be hard enough not to show deer tracks. I don't think squirrels can break corn down like that. I had a radio in the garden like James said but wife complained radio keeps her awake at night. It seems logical deer ate the corn. We had this same problem last year after I removed the radio so this year I planted a lot of extra corn. The radio really animals out of the garden.

[Gary350]

Early this morning I pulled up all the corn stalks. This evening after temperature cooled down a little I tilled the soil. Now the melons & sweet potatoes vines can move into this area. I might take the basket weave fence down soon. I scattered the corn stalks all over the place to dry out, I wish I had a way to chop corn stalks into tiny 1/2" pieces so I could till them into the soil.

[Gary350]

This is a potato experiment I started 1 month ago. I put a potato cutting in this flower pot and kept it at 70 degrees. After 2 weeks potato plant was 2" tall. A potato cutting in the garden takes 4 in colder weather to be 2" tall. 2 more weeks in the pot the potato plant is 12" tall but it should have been transplanted already. This might make potato growing possible for someone living where growing season is too short to grow potatoes. I was hoping it would be helpful for me to transplant potatoes in my garden after rain finally stops and the swamp finally dries up.

Here is another good harvest of tomatoes. We might can in quart jars this year.

[Gary350]

I harvested my potatoes this morning it was a disappointment. Russet seed potatoes 60 plants = 18 lbs of new potatoes. Russet organic grocery store potatoes 40 plants = 9 lbs of new potatoes. Harvest was 1 potato per eye. Most of my cuttings had 1 eye. I had several 2 eyes cuttings and a few 3 eye cuttings just to see the differences between 1, 2, & 3 eyes. The cuttings with 2 eyes produced 2 new potatoes, the cuttings with 3 eyes produced 3 new.potatoes. Harvest turned out nothing like Texas potato growers said online and nothing like what I use to grow in Illinois. The 40 plant crop average = .225 lbs of potatoes per plant. The 60 plant crop average = .3 lbs of potatoes per plant. I used no fertilizer, maybe I should have fertilized with 5-5-20. I had too much hope for such a large test crop this year, next time I will plant only 5 plants to see what I get before I ever plant 90 plants again. Oh well we have 28 lbs of organic potatoes to eat.

Both photos show seeds potatoes on the left & grocery store organic potatoes on the right, both are Russet potatoes.

Organic potatoes are closer to round shape, with very smooth light color skin.

Seed potato skins are ruff as 40 grit sand paper, long body slight brown color.

Volunteer potatoes from about 30 potato skins produced 2.5 lbs of potatoes much better crop than these other 2 crops. LOL.

I talked to 1 of the Farmers Market sellers about growing white potatoes he said that he makes cuttings with 2 & 3 eyes then plants 10 cuttings in the same hole 2" deep 2" apart about 22 eyes in each hole. His 18 plants produced 88 lbs of potatoes but his 18 plants are really 396 eyes = .222 lbs per eye very close to what I grew with my potato crop.

[Gary350]

More tomatoes. Time to put more tomatoes in mason jars.

[Gary350]

7:30 am Sunday morning, 78 degrees outside the humidity makes it feel like 95. The continuous rumble of thunder off in the distance sounds like a war zone. Weather man said 4" of rain expected. My son said they had a really big rain yesterday we are 7 miles from him & no rain here for more than a week.

[Gary350]

Wife made chicken vegetable soup with garden vegetables, corn, beans, potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, herbs, salt, pepper. Wife cooks a whole chicken all night in the crock pot then removed bones & skin this morning. Strain the broth put it back into crock pot with shredded chicken & vegetables & cook all day.

I picked a few tomatoes & blackberries before the big rain storm this morning. 6 kinds of peppers in the garden all grow at their own speed. Sweet bell peppers seem to grow the slowest. Hot chili peppers seem to grow fastest. There is 1 very large, very ripe looking cantaloupe in the garden that is not ripe yet, we can hardly wait to eat it. I would love to make salsa but I have no cilantro and grocery stores do not sell it in hot weather so maybe coriander will have to do, cilantro seeds smell exactly like cilantro. Cilantro seeds I planted have not germinated yet.

[Gary350]

I picked 87 tomatoes today. 68 of them were cherry tomatoes. 1 Big Beef tomato weighs 14.5 ounces it is interesting that it takes 97 cherry tomatoes to make 14.5 ounces. The 4 cherry tomato plants are loaded with tomatoes every day usually 30 to 60 tomatoes.

Our pantry is full of tomatoes in mason jars for the winter. I sliced a tomato and baked it on a garden pizza for today's dinner. I took 1/2 a 5 gallon bucket of tomatoes across the street to the neighbor lady to see if she wants some and she took them all. Tomorrow there will be more tomatoes to pick and we already have all we need except for 2 tomatoes every day on the kitchen table to eat. We were lucky this year, no evil bugs, no blight, no problems.

[Gary350]

I have 3 of these cute little plants growing in my garden I'm not sure what they are or where they came from, I think a bird did it. Its not any vegetable I know but if it makes berries or fruit we can eat that might be good. Anyone know what this is?

[Gary350]

I picked 14 more berries today from my tiny crop if blackberries finally enough Blackberries for 2 1/2 cups to make Blackberry Cobbler #3. The new CAN of Baking Powder made a BIG improvement best cobbler of the 3 so far. We ate it with whip cream tonight instead if frozen yogurt ice cream. These berries are amazing I don't recall ever finding more than 3 seeds in any of these blackberries. Cobbler Recipe, 1 cup all purpose flour, 1 cup sugar, 2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 cup warm milk, mix well put in 8"x8" baking dish. 2 1/2 cup berries sprinkled on top, push into the batter optional. Pour 1/2 cup melted butter over the top. Bake 350 degrees for 1 hour. My dish is 7x9 it works fine.

[applestar]

I have 3 of these cute little plants growing in my garden I'm not sure what they are or where they came from, I think a bird did it. Its not any vegetable I know but if it makes berries or fruit we can eat that might be good. Anyone know what this is?

Does it look like Robinia — maybe black locust?

In Permaculture, they are considered good Service/Nurse trees since they are nitrogen fixers like legumes and create deposits of nitrogen with rhizobium nodules at much deeper depths. They recommend allowing them to grow to desired size then cutting them down (use cut leaves and branches as mulch or compost or till in, or chipper/shred,) repeating the process through the season. Remove when no longer needed/wanted and before their roots become nuisance.

(A larger scale example — I read about/saw video of an orchard where they alternated fruit or maybe nut trees with aisle of locust trees — with plenty of spacing of course — they regularly mowed the locust down with heavy duty shrubbery mower and left the debris in the alleyway as mulch.)

‘Nurse’ trees — you plant one in the same hole as a tree you are intentionally planting to grow together, and the nurse tree is supposed to supply nitrogen and fall leaves/pruned leaves and branches for mulch to help the desired tree establish. Cut down the nurse tree a year or two later when no longer needed, before it begins to interfere with the desired tree’s growth.

[Gary350]

applestar you are right that is a black locus tree. Those are evil trees my grandfather had 1 next to his garden we use to cut off the lower limbs & thorns on the side of the tree then burn them to keep from being stabbed with those 3" long needles. If you step on a needle it will go through your shoe & foot like stepping on a nail.

I went to the garden this morning and noticed 1 of the 6" long hot chili peppers was full or holes and there was a 2.5" long grass hopper on the pepper. I know those grass hoppers will jump then fly and disappear somewhere in the garden if you get too close so I got my BB gun and shot it dead. It has been a very long time since I saw a grass hopper Illinois had lots of them.

It is interesting I pick all the ripe tomatoes in the evening then next morning there are ripe tomatoes again. I guess it makes no different tomatoes get ripe in the dark and during the day too.

[Gary350]

This is our first cantaloupe of the year. I cut it into random pieces then cut off the peal. Now it goes into the refrigerator for 2 days to get riper. I washed the seeds in a bucket of water then planted them in a small spot in the garden. Seeds will grow and become sprouts for salad in about 1 week.

[Gary350]

The Super Sweet 100 tomatoes have changed flavor again, I wonder if it is the hot dry weather. Bite into one of these tomatoes is like biting into a sour lemon it makes me pucker up, must be high acid. The name Super Sweet must be a marketing trick there is nothing sweet about them but they do have an ok tomato flavor not as good as Big Beef. It might be interesting to know if anyone else is growing Super Sweet 100 and what their flavor opinion is.

[Gary350]

2 rows of flat pod beans are coming up. Maybe I should have planted 3 rows what if we like them. Several people have said, purple hull beans are good but I have never had them. Maybe I should buy purple hull beans at Farmers Market to see if they are good. Dinner was good.

[Gary350]

This year we are experimenting with all these tomatoes we have.

1. Dip tomatoes in boiling water 20 seconds to remove the skins save in 1st bowl.

2. Cut the tomato into smaller pieces.

3. Squeeze out juice & push out seeds & vanes with your finger into a 2nd bowl.

4. Put the tomato pulp into 3rd bowl.

5. Pour juice off of bowl 1 & 3 into bowl 2.

6. Boil bowl 2 juice & seed about 10 minutes then pour through strainer to remove seeds to make tomato juice..

7. Boil bowl 3 pulp about 30 minutes to make tomato sauce.

8. Put skins in food processor high speed to make tomato paste.

It has been many many year since I have done this, now I remember why I don't do it anymore, too much work. WOW it sure makes very good flavor, tomato paste, tomato sauce & tomato juice.

Starting tomorrow we return to our old way of canning tomatoes, bring 3 gallons of cut tomatoes to a boil 30 minutes, puree seeds & skins into the juice with food processor, hot pack mason jars, water bath cook mason jars, pints 20 minutes, quarts 40 minutes. Cool naturally for several hours. Mark & date lids. Wife uses this to cook everything, soup, stew, chili, meatloaf, swiss steak, spaghetti sauce, vegetables, pizza, sauce, beans, more. February when it is cold, over cast & snowing clouds will be nice to see.

[Gary350]

I planted 2 more rows of Roma Flat Pod Beans. It is best to know NOW if we little these beans, if not I won't be growing them next year that will give me space of other things. If we like them we have 4 rows to harvest. There are too many trees in this yard only way to see the sky & sun is look straight up. 2 trees are getting cut down soon. The 40 trees around the yard border will have to stay for now. Next year garden will do better planted with East West rows with all the tallest plants to the north & progressively shorter to the south. We hope flat pod beans will be good in stir fly they will be much easier to grow that peas.

[Gary350]

Snake in garden, about 20" long, round head, black color body with 2 yellow stripes full body length. I hope it eats bugs. Cats found the snake & try to smell it and chase it around like it is a play toy. Sometimes cats will all vanish I find them sleeping under the sweet potato leaves. LOL. I guess snake can stay it seems harmless, I hope it does not eat the 2 toads that hide out in the garden.

I picked another cantaloupe today. There are 4 more cantaloupes that all look about ready to pick. Cantaloupes are growing faster than watermelons.

[Gary350]

I saw the first Red Velvet Ant 3 days ago the cats were trying to catch it and eat it, I killed it. Online says, red velvet ants can kill a cat and medium size dogs. Today I saw the first 4 wasps that kill red velvet ants. I was not expecting these 2 for another week or so. Now I have to be very careful crawling around in the garden.

I picked a few green beans for dinner, I fried them in the skillet 4 minutes. Stir fry green beans are good.

I picked 2 more ripe cantaloupe this evening wife said, refrigerator is full don't cut those cantaloupe until tomorrow maybe we can eat the rest of the cantaloupe in the refrigerator to make room for more.

Hot dry July weather is taking a toll on the tomatoes likes it always does. 2 plants are looking bad leaves are all yellow and wilted. Looks like these 2 plants are done for I will pull them up and plant seeds there tomorrow new plants should be making tomatoes by Oct.

Pepper plants are wilted in the hot sun every day leaves hanging down like wet rags but when sun goes down plants come alive like nothing was wrong. That is the way peppers do.

Cherry tomatoes that I planted from seeds a few months ago made their first 3 ripe tomatoes today. Cherry tomatoes are hot weather tomatoes so we will have tomatoes on the table for sure even if the other plant slow down or stop making tomatoes.

I picked a few peppers, the large long chili peppers taste like sweet bell peppers. This could be what I need to start growing instead of sweet bell peppers they seem to be easier to grow than sweet bell peppers. My sweet bell pepper plants have not peppers yet, no blossoms either. The long curly pepper are Fire Hot, my son gets all the hot peppers.

We have 7 more jars of tomato sauce in the pantry.

There is almost a full moon tonight. We are having cooler weather in the 60s every morning this would be a great time to go camping.

[Gary350]

Today's tomato harvest, 35 sweet 100s, 6 of the 1" cherry tomatoes, 1 larger tomato, a few medium size tomatoes. The larger tomatoes don't get very large in hot dry weather, the cherry tomatoes get regular size in hot dry weather. Hot & dry sure gives tomatoes the best possible good flavor. These 1" cherry tomatoes are so good I sure am glad I saved seeds from last year, I am saving more seeds for next year.

I ate too much cantaloupe yesterday it kept me up all night getting out of bed to use the bathroom. LOL. I slept 2 hrs late this morning and still felt like I needed a nap all day. Cantaloupe & watermelons sure are a treat once a year its hard not to go crazy and eat too much. I harvested 2 more cantaloupe my older Son said, I don't want any more cantaloupes I only want green beans. My other Son said, I don't want any more cantaloupes I only want the hot peppers. LOL. Tomorrow we have 2 more melons to cut up this time we cut them very small, this time we only keep the eating part, the skin goes back to the garden not in the refrigerator.

Tomatoes slowly pile up day after day filling more mason jars, 9 jars & the Canner is full & more jars for the pantry.

[Gary350]

Tonight we are making another batch of tomato sauce. Tomorrow morning after it cooks down we will learn how many jars it makes.

[Gary350]

April I planted onion seeds in a 10" diameter circle in the garden. When onions were about 7" tall I moved them to a glass of water in the kitchen window. Now some of these onions are 18" to 20" long. Cut 1 off, chop into small pieces it makes a good garnish for many things like, baked potato, soup, scrambled egg, etc..

[Gary350]

I finally harvested some Mexican Potato seeds today, also known as, Vietnam potatoes, Chinese potatoes, oriental potatoes. I ordered 25 seeds on Ebay and planted them about May. Weather was too hot the plants bolted. I have been watching an waiting finally today there was a few dry seed pods. I crumbled up all the pods to very small pieces then blew most of it away. The cats made this project more fun. Looks like there could be about 100 seeds. The other 90% of the seed pods will be dry enough to harvest soon. We bought a Mexican potato at the grocery store it made good, french fries, potato salad, hash browns, baked potato. It is hard to tell it is not a Russet potato. First week of Sept I will plant 100 seeds in a row then see what I have in Nov.

We have a few more jars of Tomato sauce ready for the pantry. We learned from experimenting best way to make tomato sauce is cut tomatoes in 4 pieces around the core to remove the core. Fill the food processor full with tomato pieces then run it on high about 1 minutes. Skin & seeds pretty much chop up to almost nothing. Start cooking in crock pot about 7 pm on high. Next morning 6 am put crock pot on low until 3 pm. Turn crock pot off let it cool then fill jars. Put jars in the refrigerator and wait until there are enough jars to fill the Canner. I don't have to use the pressure cooker but it holds 9 jars that is better than a smaller pot that only holds 5 jars. Skins add a special flavor the sauce needs to taste right & so does the seeds so we leave them in the sauce for best flavor. About 50% of the water evaporates off leaving a thick tomato sauce.

[Gary350]

We are still getting plenty of tomatoes & green beans from the garden. My son picked 3 baskets of green beans and took them home. We are getting plenty of hot peppers to give away but no sweet bell peppers yet. I am glad there are no more cantaloupe to pick we still have 2 containers of sliced cantaloupe in the refrigerator. We started another crock pot of tomato sauce this evening. Here is what could be the worlds smallest tomato. These 1" cherry tomatoes I planted from seeds are very good they taste like beef steak tomatoes, next year I am going to have 15 of these plants in the garden along with, 16 Big Beef & 4 Beef Master. This is the basket of tomatoes that we are cooking in the crock pot to make more tomato sauce minus 6 little 1" cherry tomatoes & 2 Big Beef tomatoes for dinner.

[Gary350]

Today we are Canning another batch of Pizza sauce. We are getting better at this, practice makes perfect. We puree the whole tomato with out the core, seeds & skin add extra flavor. Skins give the sauce tomato paste flavor. Cook tomato sauce in crock pot on high 1 hour with the lid on, then cook on low with the lid off until sauce is thick. This has reduced our cooking time about 50%.

Clean the jars then fill them with hot tomato sauce. Smash garlic cloves flat then remove skin. Put 1 garlic clove in each jar. Put 2 large Greek Oregano leaves in each jar, put 2 large Basil leaves in each jar. Make sure top edge of jar is clean then attach seals & rings. Mark & Date jars.

Put all the jars into a large pot with water 1/2" above lids. I am using the pressure cooker pot only because it happens to be the correct size for 8 pint jars. 9 jars will fit & maybe 10 jar might have fit into the pot. I put an empty quart jar in center to hold all the pint jars in place so they don't fall over. Since I am using the pressure cooker pot anyway I will use the lid too cook, time is only 20 minutes a little faster than water bath cooking.

Turn on the heat when water boils and steam pressure comes up cook 20 minutes then turn it off. Leave it set on stove to cool naturally about 2 hours. Remove lid let cool 2 more hours. Remove jars to cool on counter top then put them in the pantry.

Herb flavor is all trapped inside the jars nothing escapes during the cook. Jars get sterilized during the cook, jars do not need to be sterilized twice. Jars hold their flavor in the pantry very well for 5 years, we try to eat them all within 2 years.

[Gary350]

Tomato plants are loaded with green tomatoes if these all get ripe about the same time we will be busy. I count 61 tomatoes in these 8 pictures.

[SQWIB]

Wow, everything looks great!
Very jealous of your cantaloupes.

[Gary350]

Wow, everything looks great!
Very jealous of your cantaloupes.

Cantaloupes are easy to grow keep 2 vines growing in a circle, if vines get too long for your spot cut the ends off. Vines will make root in many places that adds water to the plant to make larger melons. Melons love hot weather and lots of sunlight. This year I have 2 plants 2' apart in a spot 8' diameter.

[Gary350]

I planted 2 more rows of Roma flat pod green beans they are slow coming up with no rain for several weeks. 2 nights ago it sprinkled a slow rain all night. First 2 rows are looking good second 2 rows are not completely up yet. The package says bush beans but the plants are all making runners like pole beans.

Garden dinner was good tonight, green beans, onions, sliced potatoes all cooked in the same skillet. Polish Sausage cooked on the grill. 3 sliced tomatoes & several cherry tomatoes. We have ignored most of the grocery store sausages for many years now we learn how good these are so we bought many different sausages to see which ones are best. This Port Polish Sausage tonight has a wonderful flavor, it is not spicy, we will buy more of this. We ate everything on the table but 2 pieces of sausage & some potatoes that we will have for breakfast tomorrow. We don't like beef an don't eat is often.

There is 1 little cloud passing over the garden, I have to look almost straight to see it between the trees. The sun has gotten low enough in the sky already the south 6 ft of the garden is shade most of the day. I may have made a mistake planting Flat Pod beans where I did soon south 1/2 of all 4 rows will be full shade.

[Gary350]

My grandfather showed me how he grows tomatoes when I was about 10 years old. When I was older I started planting my own garden. My grandfather always had wheel barrel loads of tomatoes, us grand kids were elected to push the wheel barrels to the house for grandmother to Can in Mason Jars. Back in those days I did not know much about tomatoes other than every spring we went to the feed store Grandmother always wanted Rutger & Early Girl tomatoes and they never staked their plants. When I started planting tomatoes 40+ years ago I did as I was showed because that is all I knew to do. My tomato plants sprawled all over the garden and soon were full of grass and weeds that were a nightmare full time job to pull weeds. I use to fight weeds 1 hour every day after work and 5 hours on weekends. I was telling a guy at work how much work the garden is, he said, you need to stake the tomatoes it is 100 times easier to keep out weeds & grass. My reply was, what does Stake Tomatoes mean? My grandparents an parents never did that I had no clue you could do that. I tired it and WOW that made growing tomatoes much easier. I had BER problems someone told me to use pellet lime so I did and BER was gone. Then I learned about organic material in the soil from Mother Earth News Magazine and tomatoes did much better. I tried lots of nitrogen and had giant plants that were a nightmare to stake and not many tomatoes. Then one night while I was asleep I dreamed about grandfather showing me how to plant tomatoes when I woke up I thought, I totally forgot he showed me how to plant tomatoes, I tried it and I had loads of tomatoes too. Growing tomatoes was a learning process for me to experiment to see what works best. I tried lots of different type tomatoes for flavor, size, best results, etc. I tried heirlooms too. I tried plants with suckers and without suckers. I experiments with plant spacing. I experimented with shade to prevent sun burn tomatoes. I tried a lot of different ways to stake tomatoes. Then I tried common sense stuff which was probably the best thing I did. What causes weeds = weed seeds. How do I get rid of all the weed seeds = till every day in nice weather or every other day make all the seeds germinate and die. How do I prevent BER = put down pellet lime before planting tomatoes. What about fertilizer = very little nitrogen & lots of K potash is potassium. What about soil = good soil not hard clay. Last winter seemed like it was 14 months long I could hardly wait for spring I was tired of TV and the Computer. We had 3 months of rain I got in a hurry and did not plant tomatoes the correct way I suck tomato plants in the mud then we got in the RV and went to Florida for a while. We have a lot of tomatoes this year but nothing like we usually have. OH well that is ok we don't need many tomatoes this year 50 jars in the pantry is plenty, in the past I had 120 jars in the pantry by July 20. Best way for me to plant tomatoes is, dig holes size of a 10" flower pots 18" apart in rows. Throw 1 hand full pellet lime in each hole, throw in 1 hand full 15-15-15 fertilizer, throw in 1 hand full wood ash, fill holes with water then return later when water has soaked into the soil. Put 2" of soil in bottom of holes then plant tomato plants deep. Cover plants so only the top sicks out of the soil, tomato plants have the ability to grow root anywhere soil touches the plant. Build a soil levee around each plant fill with water every day for 2 weeks then no more water. Plants turn into a giant wad of roots then it starts growing fast. When roots grow down below that 2" layer of soil that covers the fertilizer & lime plants suddenly turn very green and start growing about 8" taller every week. By July my 18 plants should be 6' tall and loaded with green tomatoes. Plants should produce about 12 lbs of tomatoes every day until 98 degree hot weather slows them down. Cherry tomatoes like hot weather they do not slow down. At the moment we are averaging about 12 lbs of tomatoes per week. We are having cool morn weather in the 60s the past 2 weeks now tomatoes plants are loaded with lots of green tomatoes. Wife thinks we are going to have an early winter.

The sky looks so wonderful today but I can not see it from my house so I drove out in the country looking for a place to take pictures. Click photos they get LARGER.

[Gary350]

Roma Flat Pod Bush Beans must be labeled wrong all the plants have runners looking for poles to climb. I am not looking forward to putting up poles. I planted these at my Sons request I will message him to come put up poles. LOL

[applestar]

Fence posts 4-6 feet apart with ziptied plastic fence with bottom of the panel a foot or so above ground and more higher up as needed (depending on height of fence and beans) might be easier. You can use the orange construction kind if you don’t mind the color, or get green or black for more subdued look.

On the other hand, using just poles, you can pull the whole thing up with bean vines on them and break off the vines after they are brittle — it’s a little more involved to clean up the plastic fence if you intend to reuse them.

[Gary350]

Today I decided to clean up and burn some stuff in the garden wood ask makes soil softer & adds lime and potash to the soil. I just got the fire started when dinner was ready. When I returned fire had burned down to charcoal. Tomorrow I start again early morning before it gets hot. I have, dead tree limbs, dry corn stalks, dry corn shucks, dry corn cobs, and used boards to burn. After every thing is burned I will rake it around the whole area then till it in. I hope temperature tomorrow morning is in the 60s again it will be a nice day to get a little work done.

[Gary350]

I already have 100s of wooden stakes 12' long so I decided to use what I have. It took 30 minutes to cut stakes to length and another 30 to put them up. I cut the main 4 poles for each TP shape 7' long then hammered them into the soil and tied the tops together. There are a few random length wood pieces between the main stakes for beans to climb up also. Interesting thing about runner if I touch the runner on the side where I want the runner to move runners move in that direction. Runners are touch sensitive.

[Gary350]

Today's tomato harvest, we ate most of them for dinner. More Mexican potato seeds too.

I have another cantaloupe seed salad. Put all the seeds from 1 cantaloupe in water then pour it in the garden and cover it up. In about 1 week plants are ready to cut for salad. Cantaloupe plants have a little bit of a nut flavor.

[Gary350]

This is today's bean harvest looks like about 2 meals for us. Wife said, I,m tired of beans its 4 meals for you. LOL. We had, corn on the cob, bake beans, tomatoes for dinner.

My poor little table is leaning west. I'm not sure if I can save it or if it needs to go into the next fire.

60% change of rain Wednesday but no lightning until Friday.

[Gary350]

Birds have stopped nesting so I moved a few bird houses to what is left of this 65 ft tall dead oak tree. I have a 10 ft tall tree stump for bird houses. I moved a few bird houses that were too close to the house birds should like them better now. Winter when it is very cold an windy I often see birds in the bird houses, them must be keeping warm inside there.