Three days of dry weather after a rain is the Goldilock's time before tilling, at least with the kinds of soil I am dealing with.
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| A woodchuck got in and had her way with the green beans and cucumbers and lettuce. |
I tilled Southern Belle's garden today. It looks a lot better after running the tiller between the rows and touching up with the hoe.
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| This apple tree was buried in the hawthorn and honeysuckle. The gentleman who Southern Belle hired to clear out the brush agreed to leave this tree. |
And about that pear tree I grafted...
Everything about that tree screamed "PEAR!". The twigs. The tree form. How it suckered. Everything.
So I grafted Concorde and an early pear on to it.
Two months later...something seemed off...so I looked at it more closely. It is an apple tree. The Concorde pear is doing very well on it while the early pear is not thriving. Yes, I make mistakes just like everybody else.
I am not holding my breath. Incompatibility is often delayed. It will probably reject the Concorde grafts, too.
After finishing up at Southern Belle's, I tilled the home garden but I didn't pull weeds or touch-up with the hoe. I will do that tomorrow.
If any of you have suggestions for plants I can "plug in the holes" where several plants died then I am all ears. For example, I have some very spotty rows of field corn. Maybe black oiler sunflowers? I am racing against the clock.
Red Pop
The Shekel has a post up about Faygo Red Pop.
Growing up in Michigan, Faygo commercials were a regular feature of local TV programming. They really pushed Red Pop, maybe because the national producers didn't occupy that niche.
The season rushes on. Late last week we picked the first of our goosegogs. Gooseberry Fool: what a treat. Today lunch was our first (globe) artichokes. We really could do with some rain, though. In its driest years East Anglia almost qualifies as "semi-arid".
ReplyDeleteWe're seeing tomatoes come in gangbusters, along with ground fruits right now with the excess rain.
ReplyDeleteNot too late for squash? Those little delicata ones grow like a cucumber vine and store well. My Kids liked em, too.
ReplyDeleteIt probably is. Growth slows down in the cooler, shorter days after mid-September. So even if a warm-season vege claims to ripen in 90 days, it won't.
DeleteI am leaning toward Daikon radish or something similar. It has to have some height to it to get sun and the leaves on Daikon get hoisted up in the air.
I have an annual fight in my garden with a very persistent weed called purslane , I usually like you mention lightly till between rows and rake and hoe to tidy up . I have had much success controlling the purslane by using wheat straw around plants , the straw also holds water and the moisture around the plant , and as it breaks down provides some nutrients I suppose . At the end of season , I turn the soil with the old straw to add some decomposing organic material to over winter in the soil. My straw guy didn't have straw this year , so kinda suckin on that , may find some maybe not . The farm store straw bales still have grain on them and I start growing wheat in my garden , no bueno. Interestingly enough , purslane is edible and is eaten in the Meditteranean , mexico and south and central america ,and goes by different names , I don't eat it or need it in my garden .
ReplyDeletePurslane is a very drought tolerant weed!
DeleteIt also has an ornamental cousin called Portulaca or Moss Roses. Unfortunately, the leave of the ornamental species are very bitter...or so the internet says.
I usually start a second crop of dwarf snow peas around the first of August, they yield in early October. Don’t know if that would work around the corn you have. The second crop is not as productive as the spring planting, but we do get some. I use Burpee snowbird, they are an heirloom so I can save the peas for next year.
ReplyDeleteSouthern NH
Which way did he go? He went for Faygo!
ReplyDelete