What would we do for entertainment / information on a Sunday morning, if not for the ever-reliable Ozark Hillbilly?
Nothing much, just a few summer harvest pics.
At top: Early Harvest: This was probably our first good morning’s pickings. L to R, French Gold and French Emerite beans from Renee’s Garden, Bumblebee and Yellow Pear from Baker Creek and cherry from the local MFA, A Wood’s Famous Brimmer and an Amana Orange tomatoes from Baker Creek, and some Dar and Miniature White Cucumbers also from Baker Creek.
The beans are always good producers, the FG especially so, and mighty tasty too. I have put up app 35 pints, plus we have some frozen and have given away maybe a dozen gallon bags stuffed full. All from 1 of each seed packets. The miniature Whites were by far the most productive of the 2 cukes and both were very sweet tasting even if they got excessively large.
Tomatoes of many colors: L to R in the basket, Bumblebee, cherry, Green Zebra, Amish Paste peaking through, Amana Orange. In front: Woods Famous Brimmer and Pink Brandywine. All from Baker Creek except for the Cherry.
The Bumblebee are some of my most reliable producers, more savory than sweet, very crack resistant and wilt tolerant. I will still be picking a few of them long after all the others are gone. For the 2nd year in a row my Green Zebras had problems with blossom end rot and the plants succumbed to the wilt early on.
The Amish Paste are always good producers with plenty of large, meaty, paste tomatoes perfect for salsa and sauce. Amana Oranges… sigh… BC is no longer carrying them and this might be the last year I grow the most beautiful tomato on the planet. I am going to try and save some seeds but cross pollination is unavoidable. The Woods Brimmers, What can I say? Wow. Talk about productive, 3 plants, maybe a hundred maters so far and they are no where near done yet. These are medium to large beefsteak types with lots of good meaty flavor.Eggplants: L to R: Diamond, Rosita, Mitoyo, and Rosa Bianca. I’ve been doing battle with the flea beetles and barely keeping up. the plants are stressed and I would say is the reason for lack of productiveness among my eggplants. With this harvest I made a killer Eggplant Parmesan that I am still feasting on a week later. I have more of each coming and with the next bunch I think I’ll just fry them like Mama did.
Sliced: This is a Mushroom Basket tomato from Baker Creek. Very beautiful and the flavor was good but the plant did not fare well at all, wilt and blossom end rot.
I fell behind with the wilt this year and was never able to catch up. Surprisingly, I have not picked a single horn worm and have had no HW damage. I don’t think that has ever happened to me before.
Day Glow Lily, just because it’s a nice pic.
***********
I think we got the very last daylily bloom of the season yesterday — if I remember my planting chart correctly, an Apricot Sparkles. (You can’t tell from the photos, but the flowers actually do ‘sparkle’ in sunlight, as though they’ve been dusted with the finest glitter.)
We’re getting a steady trickle of ripe tomatoes here, augmented now by occasional purchases from our favorite local farmstand. Most important for my future plans, with only 20 plants instead of 30+, I’ve been making progress on tearing up and redoing the various long-neglected raised planters and flower beds… Murphy the Trickster God willing, there will be something to look forward to next spring besides the endless cleanup! Already put in a bulb order for this fall, mostly for the little early ‘naturalizers’ — crocus, chionodoxa, muscari — to see how they do, tucked in among the existing daffodils and ‘naturalized’ in the semi-shaded side yard.
What’s going on in your garden(s), this week?
Gretchen
I thought cross-pollination wasn’t much of a problem with tomatoes – something about their flowers being more self-pollinated?
Waratah
Beautiful photos, I am limited because of space to Bush and cherry tomatoes that grow in pots. I was not able to start any of my seeds this year as a trip to Australia to see my family for a month in April. I tried a Roma in a large pot this year and used a fertilizer that had calcium added but still had problems with blossom rot.
I cannot believe that I have found only one of those green horned things on my cherry tomato and it was so fat from eating almost a branch before I spotted him. I am also having trouble with wilt.
Your eggplants are pretty. I like to grill and roast mine. The long thin Japanese ones I just split in two and the others I slice and I just brush all with olive oil.
Raven
Tomatoes are over here.
OzarkHillbilly
@Gretchen: I don’t know enough to say I am hopeful enough to try.
@Waratah: We grill a lot of eggplants too. I did an early pair of the Diamond like that and was disappointed in the results. Not sure why because it has always been a winner in the past.
@Raven: Mine aren’t far from done either, tho I will have some hanging on well into September. The wilt was just a killer with all the rain we’ve had.
Baud
Those are some fine looking vegetables.
OzarkHillbilly
@Gretchen: From Saving Tomato Seeds
If I had known, I could have easily done this. As is, I didn’t.
JPL
Tomato toast is a favorite of mine. Yum
@OzarkHillbilly: Enjoy your harvest.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone ???
rikyrah
What a delicious looking haul??
OzarkHillbilly
All is not lost. Back when I first realized that Baker Creek had dropped the Amana Orange, I did a google search and struck out, which really surprised me. I mean really? BC was the only place selling these seeds? I just did another search with different phrasing and found several outlets for them.
I really need to train up my google-fu.
@JPL: We have.
Mousebumples
Good morning all.
This is not garden related but I’m hoping a pet help post is never off topic here. (I’m more of a lurker than a regular commenter, I’ll admit)
I’ve got a friend in South Carolina that needs to rehome a mixed breed terrier. Beta has been in the home for a few years (was friend, husband, and an older child), but the addition to the household of younger children (2 years and a few months, I think) has not gone well for Beta.
They have her up on Adopt a Pet here: https://www.adoptapet.com/pet/26173656-summerville-south-carolina-terrier-unknown-type-medium
I had tried to email AL last week, but I may have had email fail on my part.
Last I heard the current plan was to have her humanely euthanized if they can’t find a new home for her, but I’m not sure if there are no kill shelters around to reach out to instead? Or rescue groups?
Ideas? Help? Resources I can point them towards?
(I’m 8 and a half months pregnant, and I’m in Wisconsin, so I can’t really do much to help directly, given the circumstances.)
Thanks!
Immanentize
That is a remarkable harvest that I know has a ton of hard work behind it. Bravo! Your eggplants are making me hungry.
I have started making non-traditional eggplant parm. I brine eggplant slices for an hour, then I flour/egg/bread them then I bake them on lightly greased sheets. When they are just getting golden and tender, I top each with fresh mozzarella, back into the oven for 5 then put a dollup of hot marinara on top as I serve.
My garden is herbs and two Rutgers plants. The Rutgers are putting out at a good constant rate for caprese when I want it. Also a volunteer sun gold. Yum. But my basil has not done well in pots this year. Luckily there is plenty at the stores and farmers markets.
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning ?!
@OzarkHillbilly: Good looking crops! I’ve been picking a steady couple of tomatoes per day. My big disappointment this year were my Orange Whoppers from Gurney, which so far have been slowly putting out average to small tomatos, but lots of green ones are still ripening so it may improve. The Black Krims had several that looked good but when picked have blossom rot on the underside, so the wildlife in the vacant lot next door have enjoyed those. My favorites this year are the Big Rainbows, which are doing great right in the same raised bed the Black Krims are struggling in. But all the heavy rains that have swept through Indiana have missed us, and it’s dry as a bone here. I have to water every day.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Lapassionara
This looks fantastic. What a garden! Thanks for sharing.
satby
@Mousebumples: It’s good of you to try to help, but a food agressive, dog aggressive, “nervous around small children” dog is a tragedy waiting to happen. She’s not really adoptable, and those of us who do rescue foster several dogs at a time. It’s not what they want to hear, but a loving goodbye at the vet will save everyone, including the dog, much trauma and misery.
I worked with a dog like that for almost five years, she was excellent with people so I thought worth it. My house became an unstable hell of rigidly adherence to multiple barriers and doors, the looming threat of dog fights as she attacked other animals unprovoked, and then the ultimate fight which caused mortal injury to her.
Tell your friends how sorry I am, but if they love her they should let her go humanely. She will behave worse when removed from the familiarity of her home. Not all of them can be saved.
satby
@satby: and I should note that I had her so long because no one, NO ONE, would take the risk of adopting her when they heard the precautions involved. She couldn’t go to the adoption days to be seen in person. And she was such a sweet loving girl, to me.
NotMax
Wanna see good actors in a real stinkeroo? Paris When It Sizzles showing on TCM at 2 a.m. Eastern time Monday. A scene with William Holden as a vampire menacing Audrey Hepburn? You betcha.
As a palliative, from 6 a.m. Monday through 6.a.m. Tuesday is all films with Buster Keaton. Tune in anytime. (Well, How to Stuff a Wild Bikini at 6 p.m. is eminently skippable.)
satby
@Mousebumples: by the way, in their desperation, they’re in great danger of taking the first likely adopter… And that’s highly likely to be a dog fighter looking for “bait” dogs to train fighting dogs with. A dog aggressive animal is perfect for those criminals. Please tell them that too. If a rescue won’t take her, and I can’t think of any that would, her life is in danger anyway, so a humane end at the vets is so much better than many of the alternatives I know a dog like that faces.
Mousebumples
@satby: fair enough. I appreciate the honest assessment, no matter how sad it makes me feel. You guys are the experts here with pet rescue here. Thanks.
satby
@Mousebumples: I hate to give them that news, but after some of the experiences our rescue has had trying to save dogs like that, we have to be honest. It’s a heartbreaking decision to euthanize a healthy young dog, but her future is very bleak if they try to kid themselves that anyone trustworthy would take her. And if someone well meaning takes her and a small child is bitten… If they love the dog, they’ll spare her the horrors that await her.
satby
Boy, I sure know how to keep the cheerful going in the morning garden thread, don’t I? Sorry peeps. Rescue isn’t always happy stories. The happy endings just keep us going through the other stuff.
zhena gogolia
@satby:
You’re giving good advice.
debbie
@JPL:
That’s been my dinner every day since the farmer’s market opened, on toasted sourdough with a leaf of basil.
Immanentize
@satby: I really appreciate your insights. It’s a side of rescue/adoption that isn’t well publicized, to say the least. At least I haven’t heard about this issue, but once you say it, it is so obvious. Thanks.
Stay Salty!
Kay
My daughter told me I have to get my vaccines updated before her baby is born- tdap and td- which I haven’t done yet. I’m going to see the newborn of a friend’s daughter Friday and that mother also asked me yesterday if I had boosters done. It’s fine – the boosters are recommended in general- and I will get them but I don’t remember people asking this before- I wonder if it’s heightened concern because of anti-vaccers.
debbie
@satby:
I hate to think what made her that way.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: Way to go Debbie Downer.
satby
@JPL: @debbie: well I have the tomatoes, fresh pesto, and mozzarella, so that’s probably going to be my dinner today. Yum!
@zhena gogolia: , @Immanentize: thanks.
And I used to make that eggplant dish but forgot about it. Now that I have an air fryer that doesn’t heat up the whole kitchen I’m going to make that tomorrow.
debbie
@Kay:
I used to be asked to wash my hands before touching a baby, but vaccines? I would think your daughter would know you hadn’t ever refused to get vaccinations.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: Our DiL has requested the same of us. We don’t remember this request being made before either.
satby
@debbie: maybe nothing. Dogs can become mentally ill too. We’re reluctant to admit that sometimes and believe love heals all, but love alone doesn’t heal dog mental illness any more than it can heal schizophrenia in a human. Aggression in the absence of a threat can be a sign.
satby
@Kay:
Yes. A little over concerned, but good on them for clearly not getting on the anti-vax bandwagon.
Kay
@debbie:
Well, she’s right. I was vaccinated but you’re supposed to get boosters and I never have. She’s in health care and she said they’re calling them “grandparents shots” :)
I just wondered if they are more concerned than they used to be because brand new infants haven’t had to the full set of shots yet and there are so many people who aren’t vaccinated now that they think the risk is higher. It’s so funny how one person tells you something and then the same day I get the same question from a completely unrelated person. This will force me to get it done this week and the health department (where we get immunizations) is right across from my office.
satby
@OzarkHillbilly: ?
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
THIS POST WAS SUPPOSED TO BE ABOUT VEGETABLES!!!
@debbie:
Wash your hands? How will the baby develop immunity if you sterilize everything?
JPL
@Kay: It’s the recommendation because babies are more susceptible since they haven’t been vaccinated. I was due for a tetanus shot anyway so I didn’t really mind. Locally there was a CVS clinic that I was able to get the shot at.
Kay
@debbie:
One of the boosters is tetanus. I remember being told as a child “you could step on a nail!” and thinking “oh, I could”- and have! The nail threat was always out there, lurking.
debbie
@Kay:
I was given a booster smallpox vaccine when I was in high school, but nothing else since then. I wonder if giving boosters to pregnant women would help boost newborns’ immunity?
JPL
@Baud: Even though the baby is now six months old, the son is still careful. The same son had no problem taking the baby out to restaurants at lunch time when he was only a month old.
snoey
@Kay: per my daughter the infectious diseases doc;
The pertussis vaccine is rather weak and tends to wear off, and thanks to the anti-vaxxers pertussis is out there, so standard of care now is to have adults who haven’t been vaccinated in a while to get a booster before contacting infants.
debbie
@Baud:
That was my thought, but I think she was just a nervous mom. On the other hand, my brother and sister-in-law saw one benefit of childcare to serve as immunity-builders.
satby
@Kay: you are often advised to get them before you travel to less developed countries too. Because of that and my klutziness, as well as my lax approach to keeping track I think I get the boosters about every six years instead of every 10.
Kay
@debbie:
I don’t know but health care workers have to get them, so she’s got all her boosters. I think they have to. Who knows now. There’s probably a “religious liberty” exception.
JPL
My DIL’s mom had just finished chemo and since her immune system was compromised she couldn’t get the booster. She wasn’t allowed to hold the baby initially but that only lasted a week. Telling a new grandma not to hold her new grandson doesn’t work.
oldgold
In the early pre-noon hours of August 16, I launched Operation Fecund determined to plant the Major Major Major Major hospice wing of West of Eden with the 2 scraggly tomato plants and out-of-date Belgian endive seeds I had secured months earlier from the Hope & Le$ Garden Center.
Jaw firmly set, sniper-eyed and with fire in my belly, I marched militaristically towards West of Eden. Then, shockingly, I saw a young girl picking and eating slugs off of my volunteer kale plants! Who says you can’t train a slug? A step closer, I recognized her as Minnie Tall, Noah and Neandra’s daughter.
OG: “Minnie! Stop eating my trained slugs!
Minnie: “No, they are tasty!”
OG: I had to ask: “Minnie, what do they taste like? ( Knowing slugs are snails with a housing problem, I was hoping the answer would be escargot.)
Minnie: “Like worms.”
Dorothy A. Winsor
@OzarkHillbilly: Huh. I wonder if pediatricians are giving that as advice. Maybe their professional organization suggests it.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie:
Short term maybe but I don’t think long term. My ex contracted chicken pox while pregnant with my 2nd son. The immediate problem was the overreaction of the doctors and he was born in isolation (which was really kind of nice). Blood testing showed he had antibodies at birth but follow up tests 6 months later were negative for their presence.
Kattails
Gorgeous veggies! What are you using for fertilizer? I’m not getting great yields, but then the garden really doesn’t get quite as much light as it needs and the lay of the land makes it hard to cut enough trees. It’s just forest soil, either ledge or dense clay stuff that I’ve spent years improving with manure. Seems to need nitrogen but if I put in blood meal, it being woodsy, I get critters digging around. You have got some happy plants there!
Anybody got any ideas/home remedies on how to deal with a sore, somewhat swollen thumb? I’ve been doing a lot of clearing of blackberry brambles. There are also some stinging nettles hiding here and there. Of course wearing gardening gloves, although maybe they weren’t thick enough. I dug out a couple of prickers. Can’t figure out whether something got broken off deeper, whether a nettle stinger got in there, or whether it just got sprained during all the hauling. It’s a bit warm, maybe better this AM, been alternating soaking it, tried a round of Epsom salts last night and peroxide. Not discolored or anything. Will have to break down and get it looked at if it doesn’t clear up in the next couple of days. Sigh.
Kay
@snoey:
Thanks for the info. I just thought it was interesting two asked me in one week. The friend’s grandchild spent a week in a NICU before he could go home so he’s a little more fragile than most.
OzarkHillbilly
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I don’t know. My son told my wife who told me so I haven’t been able to query her about it. She is a pharmacist so it may have originated with her own studies and medical readings.
NotMax
Can already tell today will be one of those “We demand to be taken notice of” days so far as the knees are concerned. Moderate but constant ouchies already. Gonna be a sedentary Sunday. Can hear them creaking when stand up. Usually a sign of a change in the weather in around 36 hours.
satby
@Kattails: keep an eye on it is the only advice I have. Sometimes I alternate peroxide with Neosporin and a bandaid even if I don’t see a wound just in case there’s a small one with infection starting. I don’t know if it always helps or if the times it seems to are just coincidence, but it has helped occasionally.
NotMax
Hey, gardeners. Because she made a passing comment that she liked it, bought Mom a nice potted lavender for her terrace when was there. Any insights on care and feeding? Come colder weather, trim back assiduously and hope for spring or bring it inside?
Patricia Kayden
I love eggplant parmigiana so I’m jealous of OH for being able to grow his own eggplants.
debbie
@satby:
I’m dealing with the same kind of thing. I stabbed a finger with the wired tie while unwrapping a loaf of bread yesterday. Pouring on the peroxide followed by (for me) Polysporin and bandaid usually does the trick. I’ll know it’s getting better when I stop poking at it constantly to gauge the pain level. :-/
NotMax
@satby
Yeah, If just swollen but not inflamed, that and time ought to suffice.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kattails: A couple things, To start with, when we first moved here the garden plot was just a concrete like compaction of clay and potosi dolomite/chert, so I started with lots of compost for the first 3 years, 3-4 inches each year. The soil there is now nice and loamy and I only add compost at the locations where I plant, mixing 1/2 a 5 gallon bucket for each plant (none at all for the beans). I will then mix in equal amount of blood meal and bone meal (organic from Jobe’s). The critters don’t care about the blood meal but will dig up bone meal every time so I only use it in the fenced in veggie garden. For stuff outside of the veggie garden I use a basic all in 1 organic fertilizer (again from Jobe’s because that is what Lowes sells). It seems to work well year after year with a few misses on some plants, usually due to my missing something else.
NotMax
@Patricia Kayden
One of the great food combos. Gotta remain vigilant when making it. Eggplant is the Shamwow of veggies when it come to soaking up oil.
rikyrah
@satby:
You are good people, satby.
Giving honest advice is part of that.
satby
@NotMax:I’ve only grown it in the ground, so here’s what teh Google offered: https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/herbs/lavender/growing-lavender-in-pots.htm
satby
@rikyrah: thanks rikyrah.
NeenerNeener
Oh crap, sometime between when I let the dog out at 6:30 this morning and 9 when I started hauling recyclables out to the garage I noticed a large ash tree in my yard had split at the base….and part of it is lying on the fence. I never heard a thing. And I just changed insurance companies 2 weeks ago to get lower rates. Arrrrggggghhh!
Kay
Ozark your vegetables look great. Around here they call those little white cucumbers “lemon” cucumbers – they’re the same, I think.
I have ripe tomatoes just last week. I don’t can anymore so I freeze some and eat some and give the rest away. My middle son stops here if he’s working in the area and picks what he wants himself. I used to plant potatoes just for him when he was little because he loves them but I can’t justify all that work and space for 30 potatoes anymore.
satby
Accuweather is now saying we’re under a severe weather / thunderstorm watch until 2 pm. Heavy rain is supposed to start in 20 minutes. I sure hope so, it’s so dry my grass went dormant. All the rain normally swings south and misses us and we really need it.
NotMax
@satby
Less frequent mowing not a Good Thing?
Glidwrith
@Kay: I have decided to no longer use the phrase “religious liberty” or “freedom” in reference to these wack jobs. They are a splinter sect of religious fanatics that endanger the rest of us. This is also true of the anti-LGBTQ and anti-birth control, anti-choice misogynists.
So, anyone have phrasing that rolls off the tongue well?
Ohio Mom
@Kay: Get your shots before you can see the new baby is definitely a new thing.
My cousin, suspicious by nature, asked us to get updated and then for good measure, wouldn’t let us meet the new granddaughter until she was five months old — and hence was old enough to have gotten her own shots.
The big day is next Sunday. It feels a bit anticlimactic, truthfully.
NotMax
@Glidwrith
Dogmatic zealots?
delk
@satby: Very loud thunder in Chicago at the moment. Thought of you when I saw this article
tybee
@NotMax: assholes
Glidwrith
@NotMax: @tybee: hmm, zealous assholes has a certain ring to it.
But is it too many syllables?
OzarkHillbilly
@Glidwrith: @NotMax: “Assholes”. If you feel the need for extra emphasis just add “fucking” before it.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
I don’t want to say our garden is a little neglected this year but we got a notice of a citation from the borough office for “lawn and weeds” and the lawn gets mowed pretty regularly. I have to pick up a certified letter from them tomorrow. I may be in homeowner garden jail by this time tomorrow.
Kay
@Ohio Mom:
Oh, that’s sad. My daughter told me in the context of “things we have to do” so I wasn’t offended – she’s right and I’m determined not to butt in and second guess her with this baby and the friend’s daughter was embarrassed to ask, I could tell, so I assured her it’s fine. Whooping cough is more of threat for them than it was for us.
My son’s gf has a just turned 4 year old and “the youngs” don’t use training wheels anymore. They use a smaller bike so littles can plant their feet flat and easily w/out stretching when they wobble and they learn to balance that way. They plant their feet less and less as their balance gets better. So smart! Why didn’t I think of that?
satby
@NotMax: if I could have that with well watered plants that would be a Very Good Thing! Alas…
It’s starting!!! Rain! More than a couple of drops, be still my heart ❤ ?
TomatoQueen
@Glidwrith: I’m liking ‘wack jobs’ or ‘nut jobs’ for variety.
Glidwrith
@OzarkHillbilly: I have to worry about the children.
After all when two assholes love each other very, very much….
How about “Splinters”?
Infectious, irritating, small but potentially life-threatening.
Too obscure?
satby
@delk: Chasten Buttigieg is probably appalled ?!
How’s the hip?
Miss Bianca
@Kay: I think it might be a new things because of anti-vaxxers. I know I had my boosters done a few years back because there was a surge of whooping cough cases in Colorado.
ETA: Also, I was taking a master gardener class, and the gardener doing the rose section told us that apparently you can get tetanus from being scratched by rose thorns! So I got the triple booster!
jeffreyw
@Glidwrith:
“Assholes”
Steeplejack (phone)
@OzarkHillbilly:
Easy for you to talk. You don’t have child-aggressive tomatoes.
satby
@jeffreyw: that works.
@Steeplejack (phone): nice ?
Decided to blow off making coffee for the UUs today. Sitting in the dim living room enjoying the sound of the rain. So beautiful.
Glidwrith
@jeffreyw: But we need flavoring:
Religious assholes
Fanatic assholes
Fucking assholes for generic one-size-fits-all (h/t Ozarkhillbilly)
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Works for me!
ETA: I try not to swear in the workplace, so I use “idiots” there.
eclare
@satby: Such good advice, hard as it is to hear. I once worked with someone who had to euthanize his dog because the dog started biting. Vet at UGA said the next bite could be a child’s face. Heartbreaking, but no option.
OzarkHillbilly
@Glidwrith:
I never worry about children. ;-)
Just call them “baby killers”, because they aren’t worried about children either.
eta
Miss Bianca
@delk: I can’t believe the man can actually look somewhat stylin’ while chowing down on a pork-chop-on-a-stick.
satby
@eclare: it’s a horribly hard decision so people avoid it at all costs. And so very often condemn the poor animal to much, much worse. I once drove a bait dog that had survived to rescue. She had been in intensive care for a month, in the vet hospital for two months, and still had like 27 stiches from her last major surgery. A miracle she had been saved, and only because law enforcement found her badly mauled but still alive when they busted up a fighting ring. Even nearly dead, she wagged her tail and licked a hand of the vet, so they pulled out all the stops to save her.
delk
@satby: Hip is doing great. Feels more sore than painful. Sleep schedule is a bit off, but I am sleeping soundly. Able to get around the house but haven’t gone outside yet. Overall I feel pretty good.
Kattails
@OzarkHillbilly: Thanks! And you’re right, it’s the bone meal they go for; but nothing’s fenced. Just need to get cracking on more compost. I can get horse manure from a neighbor and really should take the time to mix it in to the kitchen waste and clippings. I’ve improved the tilth quite a bit, same issue as you, the clay could hardly be broken up and smelled funky. Just not getting the yields you are. But I just put some duke muffins in the oven! Also, I’ve been looking for Emerites, they used to grow well for me but wherever I got them stopped carrying the seed. A really nice plant. Have made note of Renee’s.
@satby: thanks for the note, that’s about where I’m at. Agree with your advice about the dog, it’s sad but accurate. A neighbor has a large dog that’s extremely territorial. She keeps defending the dog, but it scared the crap out of me one day when I stopped in the road to talk to her in her yard. The dog rushed me. It later rushed and bit another neighbor and had it been anyone else, that dog would have been removed and put down. Their jaws are designed for crushing, and their mouths are filthy, and the whole area between the top and lower teeth marks got necrotic. It took a couple of months to heal. The woman who was bitten just told her friend that the dog had better never be seen outside without restraint.
satby
@Miss Bianca: he’s an adorable dork. I saw that slide clip, some little kid asked if Pete would go down the slide with him. The kid and his mom were next to Pete a lane or so over.
MomSense
Lovely veggies and lilies, OH. I need to do some more weeding and edging of one of my perennial beds. After the marathon cleaning session yesterday, I don’t really feel like doing it. It may be better to just rest today and find a good movie on the tube.
I’m watching the news and rage knitting. Our news media is not competent to cover this moment in our national politics. There are a few exceptions, of course, but for the most part they’ve learned nothing from their catastrophic failure in 2016.
satby
@delk: that’s great ?
debbie
@MomSense:
Wait, you’re already tired of all this “winning”?!? //////////
satby
@Kattails: your neighbor probably feels a bit safer with the dog if she lives alone. But she better be able to handle him and keep him on a leash. She’s lucky she didn’t get cited and sued.
Kay
@Miss Bianca:
A Rosarian! The sticklers of the garden world. My neighbor is a young man who just started gardening and his wife loves roses so he asked me about them- I was thinking “I’m sorry I cannot go there with you”. I told him “oh, just pick one of those ‘knockout’ varieties- it says easy, right?”
My father grew roses. In a special bed. Surrounded with barbed wire :) PERFECT for him.
Ohio Mom
@Kay: The thing is, we are all up to date on all our shots, with one exception, and that’s Ohio Dad and I have only had the old Shingles vaccine. As a young, Ohio Son has been vaccinated for some things I’m not sure what they are.
My cousin has been a thorn in my side my whole life. She’s in the category of People I Would Have Dropped From My Life Long Ago But She’s At Every Family Event.
So this ban on meeting the next generation has been restimulating, bringing back many grumpy old feelings. I’ll get over it.
Immanentize
@Ohio Mom:
My first thought when reading that was:
“That kid is doomed.”
satby
The heavy rain tapered off to a light drizzle already, but at least we had something of a soaker for the worked beds. I’m afraid a lot of it was runoff in the drier areas of the lawn and ground though.
schrodingers_cat
I love white cucumber. Didn’t know you could get it in the United States. I have never seen it in stores here.
Miss Bianca
@MomSense: “Rage knitting”? I’m sorry, but that was a LOL. I’m just picturing you muttering over your needles as they flash in…and out…in…and out…
Then, of course, I remember your literary predecessor, Madame DeFarge, and I stop.laughing.instantly.
@Kay: I love roses. But I am not a great gardener, so I do what I can to encourage the wild roses round my house!
debbie
@Kay:
My grandmother had a rose garden. One of each kind, no knockouts. She had great success with all of them, and there were so many bouquets on tables, her home smelled entirely of roses. A second cousin now owns the house (with a couple of owners in between). The rose bushes were ignored completely. One bush was more than six feet tall, no blooms or even leaves, nothing more than a thorny bramble. My grandmother would have wept. I suggested my cousin spray paint it gold and hang ornaments all over. Might as well be really tacky.
satby
@debbie: if she pruned them back to about 6-8 inches and fertilizes them a lot will grow back to their former glory, especially the shrub varieties.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Immanentize: I’m a childless, but I’m just thinking: are these parents going to run ahead of the kid at every playground and gymboree type place with a packet of wipes? take every ball out of those pits and sterilize them down one at a time? send them to a pre-school with Silkwood showers at drop-off and pick-up?
MomSense
@debbie:
Sooooo much winning it’s exhausting.
@Miss Bianca:
Madame Defarge was treated very unfairly, very unfairly. Fake News! //
satby
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I believe the cousin is grandma, not one of the parents. The parents may be perfectly sane.
Kattails
@satby: Her husband had to work away from home a lot at that time. But she’d had several instances of the dog rushing or nipping people. I guess my point was following your comments to Mousebumples, that people need to give equal defense and consideration to the humans (and other animals) who could very easily be hurt by the animal in question, and how serious dog bites can be. Good for you for doing rescue work. It can be tough and there are not always the happy endings that end up in heartwarming online videos.
Have a lovely day everyone. Thunderstorms due here, I’m unplugging and off to work heigh ho.
Yarrow
Gorgeous vegetables, Ozark! Thanks for the photos. My garden has been crap for everything this year except green beans, which were good. Tomatoes didn’t produce much at all and those that did produce were destroyed by stink bugs. I think I did something wrong. Also, I think my soil needs help. Your crop is so gorgeous and inspirational.
satby
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: I hate to publicly admit this, but my raised beds in the backyard have weed trees growing in them. Total disasters.
And I still have hostas and daylillies that I should have planted months ago, but between dithering on location and super dry conditions, I just put them in pots until a better time. Looks like that’s today.
satby
@Kattails:
Repeating for truth.
Yarrow
@Kattails: Don’t wait too long. A family member was digging out an area and got a small cut on a thumb or finger (can’t remember which now). First it just hurt, then got redder and swollen. By that time neosporin and ice were doing nothing. Ended up having to to to urgent care, got on antibiotics, which fortunately worked. If you can afford it, it’s good to get it checked out. There can be some dangerous things lurking in the soil.
Alternative before you go that far, have someone else take a look at it with a magnifying glass. Blackberries are notorious for breaking off and leaving a bit of a thorn in the skin. You might not be able to see it but someone else could. If they see something, try to get it out and then keep neosporin on it.
Miss Bianca
@MomSense: I happen to agree with you about Madame DeFarge. ; )
I tried to read Thomas Carlyle’s history of the French Revolution, which was apparently a huge influence on Dickens as well as others, and I could not get through it. Between the reactionary politics and the purple prose, I found it such hyperventilating nonsense that I couldn’t make it more than about a couple chapters. Fake News, indeed!
opiejeanne
Gorgeous veggies, especially the cukes and tomatoes. I’ve gotten two cukes so far, but it’s been a delightfully mild summer with glorious blue skies and light breezes. We’ve only broken the 80 degree mark a couple of times, and only by a few degrees. I think the hottest day it was 85 and there’s nothing that warm on the forecast for the next ten days.
We are getting tomatoes and the plants that we just propped up need to be propped up again a week later because of the weight of the green tomatoes. This year we only have one plant each of just five varieties: Super Fantastic, Brandywine, Early Girl, Yellow Pear, and Juliette. In the PNW, Super Fantastic is the most reliable producer of good tomatoes. No hornworms in the 9 years we’ve lived here, but we have a lot of other critters who damage almost everything except the tomatoes. Something chewed off one of the surviving corn stalks and I am not happy, and yet it looks like we might get quite a bit of sweet corn. We’ve been eating the potatoes since June but so has a small critter who hollows them out and just leaves the skin behind. The bunnies have not been a problem this year and we are starting to wonder where they are. Probably in the belly of a coyote, alas.
We saw a good-sized meadow vole race across the garden not 20 feet from us, and dive into a clump of cranesbill that is growing between the raised beds. I called to it to focus on the zucchini plant because we are swamped with the stuff and can’t give it away because everyone who wants it is also swamped with their own. I think I’m making zucchini bread today, some to freeze and some to give away.
oldgold
@satby:
Avocado trees?
Just playing the devil’s avocado.
Middlelee
@Glidwrith:
Republican?
opiejeanne
@oldgold: With us it’s some nut that looks like a walnut, sort of. The shell is longer and there is little meat inside, and we can’t figure out where they’re coming from, other than maybe crows.
And there’s also the cottonwood trees across the road. That stuff sprouts up and if you don’t get it out right away it gets tough to remove.
Glidwrith
@Middlelee: Needs moar epithet
opiejeanne
@Middlelee: There are Democrats who have succumbed to the anti-vaxxer nonsense too. As for the religious exemption, a lot of the people claiming it aren’t particularly religious, if at all. It’s just the easiest way to get out of vaccinating the kids. I think I read that California isn’t allowing it these days, and good for them. I’m all for religious freedom as long as no one outside the circle gets hurt, although the snake handling needs to be outlawed. The people doing it are idiots who don’t understand their beloved Bibles; what they’re doing is not an act of faith, they are “testing God”, but Mother Nature is in play and Mother Nature is a bitch.
bemused senior
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Anti-vax craziness means that herd immunity has been compromised. Vaccinations aren’t just to assuage overprotective parents.. those diseases can be devastating or deadly, especially to infants or the immune compromised.
zhena gogolia
@delk:
That is cute and nauseating at the same time.
Glidwrith
@opiejeanne:
And in a nutshell the whole god-damned fucking problem. That the rest of us must pay the price for their beliefs.
zhena gogolia
@Miss Bianca:
Blanche Yurka alert! (I wish they had her courtroom scene on YouTube)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDpdo3EIIWA
zhena gogolia
@Miss Bianca:
Did you see I acknowledged my mistake — I didn’t realize Scots were Anglo-Saxon. So I guess McConnell is a WASP.
oldgold
@opiejeanne:
Sounds like me!
zhena gogolia
@Miss Bianca:
I see you did answer me, and it’s only Lowlanders. Is McConnell a Lowlander?
I don’t know why I care!
Miss Bianca
@zhena gogolia: Ach, well as to that – you’re more right than wrong on that particular issue. *Lowland* Scots (“my folk”) would count as WASPs – Highlanders, who tended to be more Catholic and more, for lack of a better word, “Celtic” – not as much. There I was conflating Britishness with Englishness, which is *not* something any actual Brit of any stripe would condone! I can only plead in my defense that I was out logging for hours in the hot sun, and shouldn’t have been commenting in the absence of full brain engagement.
I hope we can both agree that McConnell still looks more like a rooster’s asshole than anything else. : )
debbie
@zhena gogolia:
Is a Lowlifer close enough?
mrmoshpotato
@Kay:
Little dude about 3 or 4 went speeding by me the other day while I was walking home from the grocery store. Bikes’ wheels were probably 6″ in diameter. Great balance.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Kay: We bought our granddaughter a bike for her 5th birthday. The guy in the bike store gave me the whole lecture on why you shouldn’t use training wheels, and you should start them out as toddlers. I agree it all made sense, but I bought the training wheels anyway. Which is what her Mom, our daughter wanted too.
/curmudgeon
mrmoshpotato
@debbie:
“Fucking idiots” is still swearing. ?
Mike J
@Glidwrith: Child abuse. People have always claimed their “religious” traditions have demanded child abuse. Refusing vaccines is just more of the same.
mrmoshpotato
@satby: It was a good soaker here in the city. My street is clean (but I still wouldn’t eat off it.)
Kay
@debbie:
I haven’t had any success with them but I do love them. My earliest rose memory is the smell of the fungicide my father used on them- the powder on the leaves. We’re different kinds of gardeners. I once brought cut lilacs into his house and he said “take them out- they smell like a gas leak”. Which is..true but so mean! Couldn’t he just wait till I leave and then throw them out? He likes PITA flowers. A lilac to him is not a real flower.
satby
@oldgold: ?
oldgold
Speaking of avocados, has anyone tried guacamole on a BLT?
The trendy restaurants are calling it an LGBT sandwich.
bemused
@satby:
We experienced this in the spring with a 7 year old cat we had since a kitten. This cat was not laid back like her litter mate, more nervous, scared of people she didn’t know but she would crawl into our laps and snuggle every day. It was a huge shock when she suddenly attacked my leg leaving teeth marks and bruises and then acted “normal” a half hour later. We decided right away that something was really off with her and we made an appointment to have her put to sleep two days later. Seeing her act like she was going to stalk me again two more times just reinforced that putting her to sleep was the only option. When our vet walked into exam room, the first thing he said to us was that in his experience (probably 40 years practice) dogs and cats can become mentally ill like humans.
david
Congratulations to John Cole. Twitter has lifted that warning page from his account.
satby
More rain rolling in is making me ?. I should feel bad for my market friends who do outside markets on Sunday, but we REALLY needed the rain. And since it mostly started before the markets did they probably never even set up.
There’s a cute young couple who started selling Bangladeshi cha (chai) and street food at several of the markets. He’s an American from Dayton, she’s from Bangladesh. They got married here but she really wants to go home and have a traditional wedding there. They call me their “market mom”, and I’ve been invited to go too and represent his family because that’s evidently too exotic for them. No idea when, we’re all way too broke to afford airfare.
Another Scott
@david: Yay! That page was hugely annoying, and reinforced my opinion that Twitter is run by RWNJs.
Grrr…
Cheers,
Scott.
Kay
@debbie:
They planted the landscape roses at the courthouse as a foundation planting and I pity them. They’re in a bed with rock mulch in full sun – I swear to god it’s like the surface of the sun in there. They’re baking- slowly and agonizingly. They may as well just turn on the hose and keep it running until October. I feel like people ask too much of flowers. Just put rocks there! Nothing wants to grow and nothing should grow there.
satby
@bemused: sorry for your loss, but take comfort that you gave her a loving home and you did right by her to the end.
germy
R.I.P. Kip Addotta, a great joke guy:
“An elderly couple is walking along when a pigeon flies over and drops one right on the old lady’s head. She says oh my god, get me some toilet paper. He says, what the hell for, he’s a half mile away by now!”
satby
@oldgold: aaaarrrgh!
Well played.
Glidwrith
@Mike J: Agreed, but the rest of us are being abused as well. The best I have come up with is, would it be OK if another religion was doing this?
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@rikyrah: Indeed satby is good people, and that piece of advice is given far too seldom. Some dogs are born with broken brains and it may not be patently obvious until there’s a big change.
Sad to say, but that family pup is going to be euthanized either way, and doing it instead of trying to adopt her out can be the kindest choice for everybody. If inexperienced folks try to take her, it could be a decision following a horrific injury to a person or pet. A loving d goodbye is the safest path.
As satby notes, rescues don’t all have happy endings. Thanks for getting that out there, satby. Jackals respect and value your subject matter expertise.
@david: HA! My congratulations as well.
bemused
@satby:
Yes, our vet, knowing her nervous personality and how much we worked with her on trusting us from the beginning said the same.
In June we adopted a kitten that is a purr machine, a cuddler and a total joy. Our vet told us we got lucky and glad we found such a laid back kitty.
Kay
@debbie:
My least favorite questions that came in on “ask a gardener” (which is what you volunteer in exchange for the training- you answer questions) – were like “I want to plant THIS here, but I know I’m not supposed to because it wants to be HERE” In….Florida, or in the shade, or in the sun, or in England.
Okay then how about… don’t? Because the plant is going to win this battle, or die trying. It needs what it needs. It doesn’t care what you want.
satby
@Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: Thanks and good to see you!
satby
@Kay:
Wise words that apply far beyond gardening.
debbie
@Kay:
I belong to a couple of FB gardening groups (I have no garden, but I love looking at the pictures), and you’d be surprised at how many people put their plants in exactly the wrong spot.
The courthouse should have chosen a tough annual like coreopsis. Those things live for the sheer pleasure of being tortured!
debbie
@Kay:
How would they like being plopped down somewhere they didn’t want to be???
I’d last less than five minutes answering phones…
opiejeanne
@Kay: My husband is a rosarian and he’s about ready to give up. It’s difficult to keep them alive here, with a few exceptions, and I know it’s probably a drainage problem that we already addressed. I’m having the same problem with the lavender at the perimeter of this semi-circle garden. Some of the really tough climbers are suddenly showing dead canes, which is probably something else.
Short of raising that entire garden bed, we may have to just use the area for growing pumpkins and tomatoes in the summer.
opiejeanne
@Kay: Also, when asked to look at a person’s roses to tell them why they’re not like ours were when we lived in a warmer climate, we’d always tell them the plants need more water and they’d always answer with, “They get enough water.”
narya
My back porch is north-facing, and doesn’t get a ton of direct sun, so I hunt for seeds for “shade-tolerant” flowers . . . and they’re blooming away now! Lots of nasturtiums too, and some basil. I don’t fuss over it much–just make sure it gets watered–and I get compost (I pay an organization to pick up my compostable waste, and every ten buckets I get a little bag of composted dirt to mix with my other dirt).
Re: vaccinations. I work at a health center, and they’ve been urging people to get MMR boosters . . . except I had rubella AND mumps as a kid! I’m wondering if I can just get a M. My docs are also good about re-upping me with dtap.
opiejeanne
@debbie: Well, I’m having a little difficulty with coreopsis lasting more than one season, but it’s probably that the rudbeckia is a bully.
In SoCal, people plant camellias in front of their picture windows. Uh, those things get up to 15 feet tall if they’re happy, They’re not going to stay small.
Steeplejack
@oldgold:
I have had avocado on a BLT, also replacing the L. Good both ways. Having a hard time thinking what avocado wouldn’t be good on. Maybe a PBJ.
opiejeanne
@narya: Flu shots are already available. I think that’s good, but I will wait until next week. We get them at Costco and they bill our insurance.
Steeplejack
@david:
Yeah, what was that about, anyway?
ETA: Maybe because he had some variation of fuck in his profile?
frosty
@mrmoshpotato:
But the creek downstream of your storm drains is now filthy.
//Water Resources pedant
Ruckus
@satby:
You’ve just described my last dog, cocker spaniel, ornery bastard, Bud. What worked in his favor was, no kids, single owner who set and controlled limits, and very limited interaction with others. He was a really great companion for one person, the one that fed him. Very loyal, protective. But there was a darkness there, a bitting machine hiding just below the surface. And that had to be watched for at all times when in the presence of others.
CarolPW
@opiejeanne: We had several camellias that we could admire from our bedroom window while lying in bed. The bedroom was on the second floor.
Kay
@opiejeanne:
I bet I didn’t water enough. I try not water because it seems wasteful – if we get “enough” rain. But you mentioned watering last time we talked and I thought about it since and bet that was it. We have hot summers and (mostly) dry August. I’ll water if they’re really suffering but mostly they have to be well-suited enough to make it w/out a lot of irrigation.
I just gave up on roses 20 years ago. I have peonies in June and pinks and sometimes sweet peas if spring is long and cool enough and they’re all fragrant and good for cutting so that has to do.
mrmoshpotato
@frosty: I believe all our sewers flow into the water reclamation plants. It would be no bueno to just dump them onto the Chicago River or Lake Michigan.
Kay
@opiejeanne:
I love southern California plants. It’s part of the reason I like going. Bougainvillea is just crazy to me. WTH with that pink? That is PINK. I love how everyone, everyone tells you oleander is poisonous, too. I feel like they love that- that it’s deadly :)
Ruckus
@OzarkHillbilly:
I would think that docs and pharmacists would always say this, what with the added unknown of how many anti-vaxers there are and how lax some are about bosters. The whole point of vaccinations of course is that the entire herd is protected, even those allergic to the vaccinations and can’t take them, because everyone around them is protected. Supposedly. But the anti-vaxers have a great effect because they can leave additional and large holes in the protection scheme, what with there not even normally being 100% coverage. Because once the coverage drops below some rather high percentage, mid 90s% if I remember correctly, the exposure risk can go up a lot.
Ruckus
@satby:
As a machinist I work around small, sharp, slivers of metal all day. Impossible not to get them occasionally. Gloves don’t help because the only ones to keep from the cuts and pokes are so thick that they radically restrict working. Like in the navy we often had to work on energized electronics, to find out what was wrong. Not so bad in a big, well lit, not moving workshop on land, on a jam packed, moving ship at sea, could be a major issue.
Back to the issue – tweezers/Neosporin or the like/band aids are your go to. And yes some get under the skin so one sometimes has to “search” for them. And like all little sharp things they can be in a slightly different area than the pain would indicate. And that’s when nerves are working properly. When you have mine……
Ruckus
@Glidwrith:
Assholes?
Pithy, honest, and true.
Ruckus
@Glidwrith:
I see I was roundly beaten with my suggestion – great minds think alike.
The kids?
Either they already know or are indoctrinated and need to hear it.
I’m often astounded that kids know swear words at a rather young age, because the parents use them around the kids but get pissed when others do.
Ruckus
@Ohio Mom:
Do yourselves a favor. Get the new singles shots.
If you’ve never had a shingles attack, lucky you guys. If you have you know that it is extremely painful. Neck and up the side of the face here. If I had actually screamed, which I thought I should have and would have been appropriate, you would have heard it. And I lived just north east of Columbus at the time. No one had to ask/tell me twice to get the new shots (2, 60 days apart) It is a nasty, nasty thing to experience. Save yourself. And of course when you have a shingles experience you are infectious for chickenpox, so you have to stay in to avoid possibly infecting others. Fun times.
Ruckus
@Middlelee:
Isn’t that what most of us responded with?
Republicans=assholes. It works both ways.
Ruckus
@opiejeanne:
QFT
If you are a god person you should understand that it was designed that way. For balance. If you aren’t a believer, Mother Nature still is as described. And she is bigger than all of us put together.
SWMBO
@Glidwrith: Jesus freak assholes is what we called them back in the day. I’m assuming it will make a comeback.
frosty
@mrmoshpotato: You have combined sewers (sanitary and storm? If so, that’s correct. Some places like Baltimore separated them. Some places like Chicago built a tunnel to store the overflow until the plant has capacity. Otherwise the overflow storm and sanitary both hit the creek.
I had to do a wet weather sample of one once. Ugh.
zhena gogolia
@Steeplejack:
It’s because several weeks ago a painting by Artemisia Gentileschi of Judith beheading Holofernes popped up in his feed because it was on a post here. They’re censoring fine art.
Dan B
@Kattails: Organic matter is the best for clay. Coarse is better than fine for improving aeration long term. We used medium bark with a slow release nitrogen fertilizer on landscape projects and don’t need to fertilize, as long as all the litter is allowed to remain. All gardens we installed have needed zero fertilizer for 20 years ir more. Vegetable gardens are different becayse cleanuo is necessary but we dump leaves from trees and shrubs on them. Another addition is using mycorhizae. Spread over a large area it helps transport nutrients and moisture to roots. In Seattle we get Perfect Blend fertilizer from Lowes. It’s made in WA state so probably limited distribution. Mycorhizae are readily available but maybe only by mail order.
Steeplejack (phone)
@zhena gogolia:
Oh, gimme a break! I don’t check his feed very often, but I could have sworn the warning screen was up for longer than a few weeks. But I could be wrong.
Ohio Mom
@Steeplejack (phone): It certainly felt like forever. I found the warning mildly amusing — if I wanted to be offended, just being here at the blog would probably suffice.
mrmoshpotato
@frosty: Some if not all are combined. The deep tunnel project and a giant reservoir which opened a year and a half ago handle the water from crazy storms. Not sure how storm waters are released. Totally not my area of expertise.
frosty
@mrmoshpotato: In Chi, combined sewers go to the TARP and eventually to the wastewater plant and get treated along with the separate sanitary sewer. Separate storm drains go straight to the creek/river/lake just like they do everywhere else in the country.
So when a hard rain washes the streets clean, all the sediment, dirt, and dog poo go into the creeks. Hence my first comment.
PS Cleaning up stormwater has been my area of expertise for about 30 years now.
mrmoshpotato
@frosty: Gotcha.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Ohio Mom:
Inorite.
smintheus
Flea beetles can be kept largely at bay with a full strength foliar spray made from boiling a few rhubarb leaves in a quart or so of water.
Kayla Rudbek
@Kay: that’s going back to the very first bicycles as invented by Karl Drais, so to this day the French word for hobby horse/balance bike is Draisienne. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dandy_horse https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balance_bicycle
And the even cuter thing is that one of the balance bike companies (Strider) also sells a rocking base that the balance bike can be bolted/locked into, which makes the whole thing act like a rocking horse.