Independence Day Panorama
Sorry, my new garden blog has not rendered me sufficiently rich and famous to spring for the WordPress $59 “Video Press” upgrade that would allow for this short slide show to run embedded on this page.
So, here’s the deal.
You can send me $59 (I’ll promise to upgrade if you do) or you can settle this link to the Photobucket Flash version.
What you will see is the July 3 panorama of pretty much everything behind cohutt’s fence, progressing from southeast to to northwest from above the boxwood garden (currently under renovation).
Dead borers, live plants :)
I posted about the horrid squash vine borer discovery and emergency field surgery here then provided a cautiously optimistic 48 hour status here.
Two weeks later I’m happy to report that by all appearances, 2 of the 3 plants made it.
Compare the yellow squash plant’s condition this evening to 12 days ago:
Today:
12 days ago:
Actually I can’t really believe it – from everything I have read, if the plant is wilting badly by the time the borers are discover the chances of saving it are pretty slim. To make it even more unlikely, it has been blistering hot here for 3 weeks.
The fix was emergency field surgery- I sliced the vines completely open lengthwise a good 4 inches or more, physically removed the grubs then covered the whole stem with a shovel full of compost.
Both plants are back in the blossoming/fruiting cycle and these two little yellow squash are on the plant that looked to be “flat lining” 12 days ago:
Who knew. 😉
Napoleon Sweet
One of the peppers I added this year is “Napoleon Sweet”
Per the Seed Savers Exchange page I ordered the seeds from:
Listed in 1923 by L. L. Olds Seed Company and described as: “Possibly the most productive of all the large peppers, bears consistently until frost. Mild as an apple. Fruit about 8″ long and 4″ in circumference, standing upright until they get so heavy they sometimes droop. Remarkably early for a large fruited pepper.” Good flavor when green, sweeter when red. 70-90 days from transplant. Heat •0•
One of the plants I started from seed has been ahead of the rest from the day it sprouted and is currently laden with a few shiny green peppers. They look like they are unfolding as well as growing; the valleys between the lobes have been very deep, giving the young peppers the same look as a Shar Pei puppy
As the peppers have grown they have stretched out a bit but still appear to have a ways to go.
In the background behind this cluster of pepper cleavage, you will note the garden supervisor is doing basically what supervisors do best…..
I’ve read that these peppers get much sweeter as if allowed to stay on the plant and further ripen into a bright red color. Unfortunately , I discovered today that I have a pepper pecker in resident as I busted the loitering mockingbird perched in another plant enjoying an almost fully ripened red Sheepnose pimento.
Now I’m hesitant to let the Napoleons stay on the plants until red. Their current inconspicuous wrinkled green state has allowed them to escape detection by the loud pepper pecker, but for how long?
Don’t bother me please
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(Seriously now, get out of my face)
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Things were so tidy this spring
Funny how much things can change over time even when you can’t really tell much difference from day to day….
April 13th- planting day
May 8th from the other direction:
Last week of June, the tomato canyon:
Little things of note
2 little bees
Little tendrils coiled tightly, waiting for the impending gourd load
Little spider, sentry over the Brandywines (ok maybe there is no such thing as a little spider….)
Bush beans
A friend and I were talking about our gardens after work today and we eventually got around to bush beans. (Yes, yes, I know I DO live an exciting life…)
My friend lives in Atlanta on either Nancy or Peachtree Creek and has experienced epic garden disasters this year, the type that would have broken my will; I doubt I could start over after having 4 feet of flood water uproot my garden.
Anyway, we had to cut the conversation short so I told him I’d post about my experience with “bush” type beans.
My quick and simple comparison between bush and pole beans:
Bush=
Compact, 2 ft tall maybe, no trellis needed
Fairly heavy yield in a relatively short (2-3 week) period.
Shorter time seed to harvest
Clusters of flowers (and pods) towards the top of the bush-vine.
Pole=
Vines, need a trellis or fence or poles for the beans to train onto, 8, 9 10 ft ?
Lighter yield but spread of entire season
Slightly longer time seed to harvest
Flowers and pods spread more evenly along the length of the vines and side shoots that branch out over the season.
Last year I planted Henderson Lima and Roma snap beans, both bush varieties. I followed the SFG advice of Mel Bartholomew and packed them in 9 per square foot, or 4″ apart. Right after sprouting, they looked nice and orderly:
It was productive for me last year so this year I again kept to a tight grid. After thinking about it (danger) i think this work well in this application since a- beans are legumes and fix nitrogen from the air vs the soil and b- the tight spacing completely shades and retains moisture in the soil.
I resisted the temptation to apply any sort of fertilizer to the legumes after reading of problems this creates- they don’t need the nitrogen so don’t give it to them….
SO what do the bush beans look like in the grid once they’ve reached full size? They look like one big tangled bean plant and seem perfectly content to be almost conjoined.
Last year’s crop nearing harvest time:
This year i followed the same game plan and planted some Hendersons in one of the new beds. (Note I didn’t go 3 deep in squares, only 2. Reaching over 2 squares to harvest from the third isn’t fun once the novelty wears off.)
I soak beans for a couple or 3 hours before i plant them; this supposedly improves germination time and % but I have nothing to compare it to. However, I will say the beans seem to sprout before i even get back to the house after poking them into the soil.
This year I soaked a few more Hendersons than I had allocated space. I couldn’t just toss them out so I raked back the wood much from the winter tree removal to expose the ground where one of my old compost piles had been. It was getting late (OK, it was dark) so I tossed them down, snapped this picture then covered them loosely.
So how are they doing?
Pretty dang well thank you; this is the mini plot in the old compost spot:
They are covered with pods and I should be shelling baby limas within a couple of weeks max. I’ll post about my pole bean experiences but I have to actually experience them first as this is my first go with them.
So, my Atlanta friend, I hope this helps. Pack those bush beans in tight like a Guatemalan jungle bus, they will thrive. 😉
Cicadas and the killers
The cicadas are officially out in north Georgia; there are so many of them in the pecan tree over my yard that my funny little dog has twice freaked out and attempted to bark down the incredibly loud chorus.
If I needed any additional proof, lately I am finding a lot of the shed cicada nymphal skins around the garden; this one was on the stem of a sunflower along the fence.
When you see these, consider that the Cicada nymph has spent 13 or 17 years underground, surviving by sucking on plant roots. The adults looks a similar to a giant often colorful horsefly with over sized clear wings; these wings are what make the noise we are all so familiar with. With the cicadas background music just now cranking up, now is a good time to be a nature nerd and learn something new by at least skimming over this “written for regular people” cicada page. (It has pretty pictures too.)
So what about the killers?
For years, my side yard (and more recently the back patio area) has hosted an expanding colony of Cicada Killer wasps, which are the largest hornet looking wasps you will ever see. The colonies spread out along the alley side of my house every year, each female digging their solitary burrow surrounded by a small pile of excavated red clay.
They are quick to try and back anything down that approaches and while very intimidating to those unfamiliar, they are all bark and no bite.
Personally, I like them hanging around. They are harmless and they are better than watchdogs to keep people from snooping around the side of my house this time of year.
nature nerd mode (ON)
The really cool thing though- they go catch and subdue cicadas but the sting doesn’t kill them. Instead, paralysis sets in and the live cicada is hauled down to a chamber in the burrow and tucked in next to a freshly laid egg.
The live host is then…. well you get the picture.
nature nerd mode (OFF)
They should be here any day now.
My tomato has a…….
As the title says, my tomato has a…er..uh….um….?
NO! Not that………
(Get your mind out of the gutter; this is a family blog.)
Mr Tomato head has a proboscis, a NOSE.
At least I think it is a nose.
Behind cohutt's fence 
