It was suppose to be sunny today. But stayed cloudy up until the afternoon where we got patches of sun. I would guess that we have gotten close to 5" or rain since Saturday night. The garden loves it, but was missing the sun that we have not had more than a few peaks at since Sunday. I am hopeful that tomorrow will bring a full day of sun.
We did not get to go strawberry picking because of all the rain. But we might go tomorrow. I really would like to get in some more strawberries. We could probably use 30 gallons to last us the whole year, but I will settle with 20 -/+.
I have learned of my fruit that we should be getting a cup or two of raspberries, a dozen or so of black raspberries, and a cup or so of black currants. All these were put in this year, which is very exciting. The strawberries did better this year, but with the deer the growth will be cut back once again. I would like to put in more strawberries this fall. Either next to the ones in the bed, or make a bed somewhere else, I haven't decided.
I would also like to plant some ginseng this fall. A crop which I am not at ease talking too freely about on the web, for reasons if you want details about I can email chat with you about.
The garden is doing quite well, most things seem to have benifited from the rain. My zucchini are doing fabulous. Every morning I get up and see if I need to pollinate any female flowers. It is fun, I have zucchini flowers blooming everyday, usually a few male and a few female. I think I have 4-5 pollinated zucchini forming. And I could probably harvest the biggest one this weekend, we might grill it. I have 6 big zucchini plants, 3 that are a little behind, and another 4-6 that are only 8 inches tall. So a total of about 14 plants! If each plant makes ONLY 6 that is 84 zucchini! So, I will probably start selling zucchini pretty soon. Within the next month. If we get loaded with a few zucchini bread is always a favorite among the kids!!!
At church I was given tomatoes from a fellow organic gardener. Her family does not have a very stable job and they have a HUGE garden. Enough to get them through most of the year! I am hoping to have their family over soon. She gave me around 35 tomatoes! All heirloom! So, I think we will have a lOT of tomatoes this year! I am planting them in every spot I have possible. I still have about 20 left to plant. I will be saving the seeds from each one and keeping them for next year. Next year I am doing all non-hybrids, unless something convinces me other wise.
My cousin gave me about 5-7 different varieites. Now I have another 15+different varieties! Quite fun.
My beans are all flowering, as are most of the peas.
I was reading up about corn. Some varieties can get up to 12ft tall! I would grow that just for the organic matter! :)
I was also doing some research on Monsanto. It is sick what they are doing. I might post a few websites that I posted on facebook.
English Vintner
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/beverly-bell/haitian-farmers-commit-to_b_578807.html
ReplyDeleteThe above link is a good one telling you a little bit about Monsanto.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCFnx2W6CvY
The above link is an episode showing you what Monsanto does when making the seeds and other stuff they produce.
Do your own research on it. It is sick. But you will probably get the most out of it by watching the episodes, where someone has already done most of the research.
We need to fight for ORGANIC!
We have recently been directed by our mother that we are no longer buying foods with high fructose corn syrup. Because it contains mercury in the process of making it. So, no more cereal (one type that we bought), most crackers, and other things we are now not buying.
ReplyDeleteI am glad that our family is more and more coming to realize what big companies are doing to our health, for money!
Do some research on 'high fructose corn syrup with mercury'.
I got some heirloom tomatoes at the Charlotte farmer's market, and I found them to be very disappointing taste wise. The magazines rave about them, but now I wonder. I seldom taste any thing as good as what my dad grew back on our farm. His plants were from the local Feed and Seed Store. What are your thoughts on how heirlooms taste?
ReplyDeleteBy the way, how many hours of sun does your garden get,especially the tomatoes? The trees around us limit mine to about seven hours and that's next to the road. I've little success with tomatoes, except volunteer cheery types. I'm so ashamed.
Marshall J.
Well, most of the ones I got this year were from a friend at church. She has a huge garden and grows tons of tomatoes. I figure, she knows a lot about gardening.
ReplyDeleteI have never really planted tomatoes on purpose. They usually sprouted out of the compost where I put it around plants.
This will be my first year with planting purposely a lot of tomatoes. So, I will have more thoughts on it later in the season.
Sun? I would say about the middle of the garden gets about 7-9 maybe 10 hours a day. Depending. But some of the tomatoes are in a more secluded spot, we will see how they do. I have them staked. I have tomatoes in about 4 different places. I would say 7 hours is about what I get for most of my garden.
If I remember I will try to tell you how I like heirloom tomatoes. One of the things that fascinates me about them is being able to save the seed from year to year.