What have you done today in the Garden?

@AAnightowl finally the trimmer working. I had the old style where running the string around the spool and then thru the eye to thread it , it was a pain. I like the spool type . You don’t need to be mechanically inclined to fix it.

It has been incredibly over the normal range for hot temps this season in your area. I wouldn’t last a minute out in the heat and humidity. Time to cool off and recharge your batteries.

Don’t know why the like button was not working normally. I wonder if you needed to refresh the page . Sometimes the strangest things can happen. I just have to close down a few open windows turn off the computer / restart and everything is back to normal.

 

DS made it home today, so he figured out putting new string in the trimmer. He had a hard time of it... He will have to show me a few times before I get the hang of it. I am used to a trimmer where you just pop in a spool of string and it is good to go.

I did trim work until the battery was about down. I came in to cool off.

I was trying to click "like" on one of y'all's posts above, and a page came up asking me if I was sure I wanted to like the post?????? How weird! Technology is totally weird sometimes.

It is 6 pm already, so guess I will try and do a bit more before dark...

 

DS made it home today, so he figured out putting new string in the trimmer. He had a hard time of it... He will have to show me a few times before I get the hang of it. I am used to a trimmer where you just pop in a spool of string and it is good to go.

I did trim work until the battery was about down. I came in to cool off.

I was trying to click "like" on one of y'all's posts above, and a page came up asking me if I was sure I wanted to like the post?????? How weird! Technology is totally weird sometimes.

It is 6 pm already, so guess I will try and do a bit more before dark...

 

I have trouble loading mine too. The one it replaced was really easy. Oh well.

Today I sprayed the tomatoes with a third dose of neem oil, for black flea beetles. The damage is almost entirely lower leaves, and the plants look quite vigorous. But I don't want them to ruin the crop, if I can help it. This is how they look on the cardboard mulch. They can really jump around, like fleas.



Probably about 1 mm in length. Here's some damage they caused.





The pellets are there because I thought the big damage might be slugs. I think it's really the flea beetles.

Most of the plants are still quite vigorous from a distance. They have the odd rugose leaves typical for dwarf tomato varieties, wrinkly, wide,
dark green, and corrugated.



I don't know. Maybe they will be OK regardless. I think if I still see a lot of the flea beetles in a few days, I'll add pyrethrin spray (I think that's organic?).

Three of the tomato plants didn't have cages until today. Now they do. I had to be gentle with the big leaves. I learned, when the cardboard mulch is in place a while, it's brittle. So the tomato cage wires can poke right through it. That makes it much easier.

There were some snow peas for the Ceasar salad today. Like Ceasar, I'd March a mile for them ). "I ate two, Brutus". Actually ate a dozen.






A little watering, especially the container geraniums. but most of the chores were indoors.

 

Replaced 2 potted blueberry plants that had died with 2 new ones, also replaced the ericacous compost with new, put the old on the other blueberries and weeded them first. Hubby weeded some of the patio and i did some as well. Cut the old flower stems off the lupins, have to water the blueberries later.

 

Daniel— that is some good work there with the cage placements.
That leaf damage is frightful. I find those beetles very disagreeable. Pyrrthrin is made from Chrysanthemums, sometimes you can buy it mixed with another chemical but then it loses it’s organic innocence.

I like those snow peas. Yummm. BTW— funny Caesar reference. Like Julius, I got the point.

Loggie—Good luck with those blueberries. I covered some of mine today.

 

I watered.

Anticipating the big hot spell, I started moving plants from the hotter sunnier south and west facing deck to the less sunny east facing back patio. Easier to water there, too.

The contractors working on the roof at the house in town, doing pre-sale repairs, put ladders into the cherry trees and stole the fruit. I sent a message to the realtor who referred them to me, that this was a disappointment, that those still belong to me, that it was unprofessional, and there are liability concerns if they fall off the ladder. I'll drop it at that. No sense in having a heart attack over it. Oh well...

I made a strawberry rhubarb crisp, replacing flour with almond flour and replacing sugar with stevia. It was OK.

 

My rhubarb is still iffy. It is trying to recover. Sometimes it looks much better, and sometimes worse. I made a rhubarb strawberry pie last summer from store bought rhubarb and strawberries. I used regular flour and sugar. Most of my strawberries are growing but no berries? I need to get them something?

I did FINALLY finish the fence on Horsey's new pen. I think she liked it, but did not stay in there very long. Maybe just because it is new?

I hope I can do my weekly mowing tomorrow. I also need to give my dogs baths tomorrow. I bought some new shampoo for them for a rash a couple have. The bottle says I must leave it on 10-15 minutes and not let them lick it???? I guess whoever wrote that never had any dogs. It sounds challenging.

Many of the new petunias that I bought this month--WAVE petunias-- are already dead. And some of my new strawberry plants did not make it either.

I did get out and plant some of the yard long beans and some of the bush beans last night.

I also harvested a bunch of elephant garlic, regular garlic, and onions this week. I have them on my drying table to dry out. That elephant garlic looks amazing.

 

@Daniel W that is terrible !!! As such bad practice and as wrong as it was ,as you say, it 's not worth causing yourself undue stress over.

 

Sjoerd thanks about my blueberries and i hope that yours will go well,hubby got some more compost for them so that i could weed the pots and top up with the compost and that's what i did.
Daniel shame about your cherries but there will be next year.

 

Nothing, been out for most of the day so now chilling with a cold drink on the patio in the sunshine.

 

Mowed pastures every other row every day and it takes 1 and 1/2 hours . And a half tank of gas am and 1/2 tank in the evening. It’s been a challenge to keep the gophers, deer , squirrels, chipmunks, mice, voles, moles away …and it really worked. No new signs of any invasion from the enemy. I was out last night at 9PM dusk mowing just to keep the deer guessing…

Lucky that the weapons of mass destruction worked .. “the rider mower and tractor mowers”, both had a huge workout every day for 4 months. Now that it is summer weather the pasture grass will shut down . And a much needed rest from the bucking bronco ride on the mowers over the bumpy pastures and hillside , no thanks to the gophers ….Good thing my horse riding experience prepared me to hold my steed steady against all odds.

Just finished string trimming.

 

Run for your lives! It's the swamp creature!

 

Loggie—Good luck with those blueberries. I covered some of mine today.

Holy Mackerel, Pac. Your stems are positively wooly green!