Sunday, August 29, 2010

A Weekend at the Farm 08/26-27/2010



Got here late Friday night after Max's game. Saturday morning was in the 60s. Very nice for a change.

  • Spent a lot of time in the Vegetable garden. I cut down the tomato plants rather than pull them up to see if I can get a fall crop from the same plants. I turned the earth in several of the boxes and buried lots of orange peels in the boxes. I have quite a case of nematodes right now. I've tried growing winter squash two years in a row and the plants have died away. When I pull them up I see the knobby roots which is the sign of nematodes. I'm wondering now if squash is particularly susceptible to nematodes because my tomatoes did fine this year. About a month ago the Ichibahn eggplants took a turn for the worse and I knew they had a nematode problem. But I still got lots of eggplants, not as many as I think I would normally get - but more than I cared to eat! I'll have to google it. I pulled the eggplants up. I trimmed the asparagus where it was leaning out into the paths. Asparagus is unruly. My husband has built cages around the asparagus which helps reign it in quite a bit, but it still leans out in places. I raked the paths so it looks much neater. I'm ready to plant some fall veggies. Not sure what yet. I want to grow spring peas so I don't want to fill up the garden with fall and winter plants because they last too far into the spring. I think I will definitely grow beets, chard, lettuce, and dill. Other than that I'm not sure. We have been talking about expanding the Vegetable Garden. That way I don't have to make choices. I can grow anything I want. Good idea!

  • Cut back the bee balm in the Star Garden.

  • Watered some areas that are suffering. We haven't had any rain for weeks. It has been a very dry August.
  • Swam in the pool. The cooler weather made the pool feel very nice again. Drank beer and listened to Honky Tonk.
  • The armadillos have been so destructive. I keep forgetting to buy moth balls. And I'm going to start covering the ground in some places with chicken wire. That seems to work pretty well. I'm bringing some more with me next time I come.
  • We had the neighbors over for dinner. They just moved here permanently a few weeks ago. Lucky them. They own the property right next to ours. I fried green tomatoes that I picked off the plants when I cut them back. And we had a salad with the last of my cherry tomatoes with arugula from the garden.
  • I pickled some okra from the garden. Pickled okra is very good in a Bloody Mary. I also pickled some jalapenos.
  • Cleaned the house.
  • Made some suet for the birds: cup of bacon grease, cup of oatmeal, cup of peanut butter, 2 cups of corn meal and lots of old leftover nuts I had in the fridge - pecans, pine nuts, walnuts.
  • Thinned my zinnias.
  • Fertilized and watered the fruit trees. It's really too late to be fertilizing the fruit trees. But I skipped a lot of fertilizations this summer so I went for it.
  • Watered the shrubs around the Greenhouse.
  • Deadheaded the roses for a little while, but I really didn't spend much time in the Rose Garden.
  • Cleaned up the Star Garden. Weeded, cut back some plants that were getting out of hand.

No comments:

Post a Comment