A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Banter Hall Coffee House 2653

Here is a new one for us.

Happy Father's Day !

Happy Father's Day James!

What Sunny said !!

Happy Father's Day, James. !!

I spent the day trying to finish the staining of the shed....of course I ran out of stain with just a couple rows of cedar shingles left to cover. Why is there never any left over??

About the only time I ever had any paint/stain left over was if I would not be able to keep it.

I don't suppose you could buy less than a gallon ? Or better yet got any other stain or paint left. If it is just a few shingles left to cover, then you could just cover them, and call it done.

Good Morning !

Happy Monday. I hope everyone had a Happy Father's Day !

Good morning. It was a quiet Father's Day here but there was plenty of cake.

We are under heat/storm warnings all this week...ugh.

Yay for cake !!

Good Morning !

Good morning.

We are under an extreme heat spell here....it is supposed to hit 115*F with the humidity today, that is just so wrong. Of course that is with a severe thunderstorm warning for the afternoon as well. Mother Nature must think it is August already.

I gave my garden an extra good soaking last night, I might have to shade a few things as well later.

Oh my 115*F. That is SO bad...I am so sorry. Heat us good, but that is too much !! Glad you are taking care of your garden.

My blackberries are starting to come in.

MMM blackberries.

It hit 117* at the hottest point of the day, they closed all places without air conditioning. Of course, the garage where my truck is had NO air conditioning.

Oh my, SO SORRY about the garage closing.

It is not that hot here...mind you it is hot (90's). But not that hot. Please stay cool.

It was a crazy two day heat wave....things have normalized now.

I don't think the weather is "normal" here...I think it is unbearably hot, but I am pretty sure all this heat and humidity we have had of late IS the norm here. Sad, right ??

Sad for sure, extreme heat does me in. Today I will do the first 'hilling' of my potatoes.

Yay for hilling potatoes. Mine did not get hilled this year.
It was raining so much that when it finally wasn't raining, my potatoes were far too tall to hill. I will turn this into an experiment so I can learn how large my harvest is w,o hilling them. Gotta make the best of a bad situation, right ?

Good Morning

Honestly I think hilling only helps the potatoes from turning green. My Uncle left a row unhilled one year to experiment...the only difference was less tiny potatoes at the top of the plant. The amount of larger ones were the same.

My gosh the 'deer flies' are terrible.

Thanks for the information. On another subject..we have 2 bunnies in our yard. One, or both ate off all the blooms from my potato plants ( the plants were hanging over the sides of my raised beds....I guess I should have tied them up, huh ?

Bunnies? You are lucky that you have anything left in your yard...at all.

Well, with the raised beds, I usually have no problem.. BUT with the rain my potatoes really grew, and so they hung over the side of the beds. and so all it took for the bunnies were to stretch up a bit. The bunnies must not like coreopsis or coneflowers. Although I will say that the cone flowers, have bites out of the ends of about half the petals. And hoave I saud ?? A squirrel thought to pull out my sweet potato vines from a large pot on my front porch. I managed to save a few cuttings that was left ob the porch. And guess what ?? They are growing roots ! I will plant them in pots in the back yard..here's hoping.

You have your hands full with Mother Nature's wildlife don't you?? I wonder if a wind chime hanging near your plants would help.

Apparently not ! I have a large one about 3-4 feet above where the squirrel destroyed my sweet potato vine plants on the front porch...It did not bother the squirrel one bit. BUT I guess I could try one in my back yard by the plants there.....I even have a bird seed pole I could put one on.

It's scorching hot here too with no rain in sight for at least 10 days. It hasn't rained since the beginning of the month. I'm not a fan of hot weather and this is the worst. I guess I won't get more tomatoes because they won't set buds in this type of heat and the squash is pretty much burned up because I planted early. I've gotten plenty of both but I've never been finished so early.

I have bunnies in the yard too but so far I haven't seen any damage BUT I suppose it was the deer that ate the blooms off some impatients.

I am so sorry for your Deer, Sheri. But more sorry for your heat. I am glad you did at least get to get some home grown veggies. Yay for you !!

I hope you get some rain Bestofour, it is feast or famine it seems.

Everything here is beyond soaked with yesterdays storms so today will be a clean and mop day. We even lost power last night for awhile from a lightning strike.

Sorry for the power loss Sunny. Glad it is back on.

Another hot day here today but from the forecast, we will have higher temps ( triple digits) tomorrow, so I guess I should be thankful for today's temps.

Good Morning!

Still no rain in sight.

You guys are not going to believe this.

Last week:
My youngest daughter is the CEO of the YMCA in her little town. She campaigned and the Y received a $5,000.00 donation so that a summertime camp at one of the lower economic schools could take swimming lessons at the Y pool. She happened to be passing by the pool area when the bus was unloading and noticed a boy, around 6 years old, standing with his bathing trucks and flip flops on and his beach towel over his arm. It looked to her as if he had a tracheostomy, so she mentioned it to one of the 3 adults with the children, who she later found out are the camp "teachers", and this person answered "I don't know anything about that. He has a consent from his mom." My daughter explained to her that the lessons include getting in the water (duh) and having your neck and head under the water (duh again) and she needed to be calling someone right away. Said teacher went to her folder and got moms phone number off the consent but mom didn't answer. So my daughter went inside and called the superintendent of the school district, told the person answering the phones the situation, and the superintendent called her back within a matter of minutes (which I think is impressive) and said it's being taken care of as we speak. My daughter is still thinking about whether she needs to inform DSS, not as a punitive measure, but as a safety measure because mother may decide to send this child with uncle joe to the lake for the day. The Y lawyer is deciding the next step.

Yesterday:
To swim at the Y, you either have to be a member and use a key fob to get to the pool area or you can pay $10.00 a day to swim and are given a generic key fob. For a child to left at the pool unattended, family has to be a member, said child must be at least 12 years old and go through a battery of tests proving he/she can swim well enough to be left alone, and if there is one behavioral infraction they can no longer come unattended. Parents sign a consent to emergency treat if needed and a liability waiver.

Yesterday, one of the lifeguards noticed a little boy dressed in shorts rather than swim trunks. Not wanting to upset the child about the dress code, the lifeguard watched him for a while to see which person was his parent or responsible adult. He never went towards anyone or played with any specific children in the pool. He joined a few groups of little kids but didn't seem part of any of the groups. The lifeguard eventually asked which person was his parent and he was pointed to a man, but when the lifeguard went to the man, he said he didn't know the child. End of story is the little boy was there with no shirt, no shoes, no drinking water, no towel. He knew he age, 7, his name and his mother's phone number ( amazing). None of the staff members recognized the little boys last name but the number was called, the person answering said she was his mother and that she had driven up in the circle and asked a man who was going into the Y with children if he would "watch" him for a while because she had to go somewhere and the man had said yes. Whether she really asked anyone remains to be seen. She came back to pick him up, refused to come into the Y to talk to anyone, and drove away when the little boy was brought to the car. Having only the phone number and the boys name my daughter called the police and DSS. Not sure we'll ever know the end result.

What is wrong with people?

Jeepers, it is a sad way of living but is becoming more of the 'norm' these days. I feel so bad for the kids growing up in situations where they are fending for themselves. It terrifies me to leave my 13 yr old daughter out of site in our small grocery store.

People are just selfish...and uncaring.

I agree with what Sunny said.

I do not hear those words very often.

Another rainy day here.

Yes, that "agreeing with what I said" does not happen here very often either. :?:

A rainy day here as well.

Good morning all, it has been raining here for days. The biting flies are having a field day.

Good morning! Sorry for the flies, Sunny.

It's flies or flurries....I get to complain all year.

Gotta look at the bright side, right ?

Good night

Good morning, it is a holiday here..Canada Day. We got some thunderstorms last night, everything is waterlogged outdoors....the poor plants need some dry weather for a few days.

Good morning all !!

Happy Canada Day, Sunny !!!

Finally got 1/2 inch of rain yesterday afternoon and that's the entire total for June.

Waiting to fly out to Ginger's in MS for the week. Flying always makes me nervous.

Well, I say, 1/2 inch of rain is better than no rain, so good for you !!!!

Oh wonderful !!! You are going out to see Ginger and family !! Have a great time !!!

I'm sending some rain to Bestofour....and some flies.

It is supposed to be a dry day today, I'll be outdoors mowing the lawn.

Oh my I did not post here yesterday.
I hope everyone had a great 4 th of July!!

Thanks for the rain. It's rained a little bit for the last several days.

Aw, Sunny, how nice of you.

I try.

Now would you like some temps over 100* and thunderstorms?? That's todays and tomorrows weather.

Same here but "only" in the 90's..LOL

It is not doing anything yet
.I think we are supposed to be ok rain/storm wise until late afternoon. Time will tell.

Rained all night long. Everything looks so fresh and green today and the humidity has my hair blown out like an afro

I am glad you are getting your share of the rain Bestofour.

I need a dry day here to get my yard mowed and trimmed, we are under a heat warning but the first dry day....I'm tackling it. The garden is loving this weather though.

Yes, my yard is loving it too. Today I got another gallon of blackberries, and there is more to come.
If somebody could come and clean my bathroom and scrub my kitchen floor, that would be great.

How did your garden fair out, Bestofour?

Yes, Sheri..very good question. I am now getting tomatoes, I still have lettuce and I next week I will be digging potatoes. Also I am still getting blackberries.

Goodnight all.

Good morning. I wish everyone a fantastic Sunday.

Happy Monday!!

Happy Tuesday, back at you.

And a happy Tuesday to you !

My garden ended up doing ok but it's about over. I got lots and lots of cucumbers, a nice amount of squash, and I can't complain about the tomato production. Okra is still coming in but has been slow.

That all sounds good, Bestofour. How do you prepare your okra ??

Mmmm fresh cucumbers, mine are only starting to flower now...my mouth waters just thinking of them.

I slice up the okra and oven fry it in olive oil. I love it.

Thanks..If I can find some, I will try that. Perhaps our "fancy" grocery store here will carry it.
Temp. & Time please.

I cannot wait for fresh bush beans. You can't even find okra here in a store, are you eating tomatoes yetJunie?

Yes, I am. Many nice tomatoes. The first ones were mushy tasting ( too much rain I guess) But these of late are delicious. We have had bacon-lettuce- & tomato sandwiches once and are again tonight. My only complaint is I am getting a lot of bigger cherry tomatoes and just occasionally larger sandwich sized ones. I think I have too many plants for my 6 ft. Beds. I should have bought the 8 ft. raised beds. But I didn't know that was an option until it was too late.

I got about 20-30 pounds of potatoes this year as well, ( I only planted like 6 hills) but they are slow to cook to the done stage. I wonder about that.

It is a cooler day today. It began in the 60's and is only in the 70's right now so Color me happy.

That is a great haul, my tomato plant in the large pot has blossom end rot. Every tomato is affected, thankfully all the plants in the ground are fine...knock on wood.

Well yes for the space I have, it is a good return
Nothing like what I used to plant but it is at least something

I too have a bit of blossom end rot, but not a lot. And the small ones are not affected at all. So yay.

I heard that crushing up Tums and adding it to the soil might work so we'll see if it does or not.

Can't we buy calcium to add to the soil ?? OR wouldn't bone meal add calcium to the soil ? And I have bone meal here.

Did you read how much to add ? & How often ?

Bone meal would work but I have none, it just said to add three crushed Tums to water and pour into the soil.

I put an egg shell in each hole before I plant a tomato to prevent blossom end rot. Let me know if the Tums works.

Yes let us all know. I collected egg shells for months, to add to the hole when I planted my tomatoes. Mind you the crushed up egg shells are still in a cabinet in my laundry area. I do have bone meal as well. I guess it works better if you actually add it to your soil, huh ??

Maybe if you just hold the egg shells up and show them to the plants.

I've not felt well for about a week; having trouble breathing; I'm getting tired of this.

IMO there seem to be a lot of new viruses going around these days.

Best go see the Dr., nurse lady.

I second that, I in fact am in the same boat. I ended up needing a prescription for a puffer and some Brochophan.

How are you doing, Sunny ??

I'm going to the doctor tomorrow. This is getting ridiculous.

Yes, p!ease do. Then be sure to let us know how you are doing as soon as you can. Good luck !!

Bronchitis. Got an antibiotic and prednisone so I'm on the mend. Only good thing is I lost weight which I'll immediately regain as soon as I'm better.

Walked out to the pear tree this afternoon. The tree was here 24 years ago when we bought this property, has never put out a person edible pear but the deer always strip it as high as they can reach. But today there were big, soft, sweet, beautiful pears on it (those which the deer hadn't eaten) so I brought them in and am trying to figure out what to do with them. It's not a whole bunch, remember the deer, but it's enough for me. Strange things happen around here

Carol, sent you a message through messenger.

Got the message thanks.
Make yourself a small 1-1/2 C. Pear crisp. Use a peach recipe and cut it down. You need no bottom crust and you can use a crumb mixture for the topping..yummy.

Glad that you got a DX and some meds. Take care my friend.

Good to hear you are on the mend Bestofour.

Good evening everyone !!

Back at ya!

I just got in from watering some of my garden....and I am so grateful for picking my first bowl of pickling cukes.