I Am Holier than a Pin Cushion

The fall palm pruning is done, well 95% of it, and it should have been done in mid summer, too, but with all of those disclaimers out of way, the palms look great.  Or at least as great as they can look having endured back to back hurricanes year before last, and a 15 year low freeze last year.  Let's just say Louisiana life has been hard on the them.  Yet, more are looking fine.  And shame on me for not doing the palm pruning earlier, too.   A quick touch with the weedeater at some point this week will finish off matters for the year.   Soon our normal dry fall will come into play at which point summer weeds and grass will bid their adiue.   Of course it won't be long thereafter that winter rains and winter weeds will their debut, but somehow they are much easier to tolerate giving a little green against the brown of winter.  As for the palms, all we can do is to pray we make it out of hurricane season storm free, and that we have a mild winter.   If that happens, we should be fully recovered by the end of next summer.

Here is a picture of my newly pruned Canary Island Date Palm (CIDP)

The Vegetable Garden is Starting to Hit its Stride

The garden is starting to roll. The rains and overcast days are just what the young plants needed to get a break from recent low 90 degree temps.  We've got 4 to 6 inch long cucumbers all over the place.  Already, there is one Sun Jewel Melon already 6" long and 3" in diameter. The tomatoes plants are 2' tall and starting to flower heavily. We are up to 21 Potato plants are now showing above ground.  I saw at least 3 small Canteloupe about an inch in diameter starting to form.  The Yellow Squash seedling are now 1' x 1' and beautiful.  The newer seedlings are starting to put on new dark green leaves to replace those sickly light green "I was raising a greenhouse" leaves.  Its an exciting time in the garden.

Growing and Cooking

‎Potatoes have broken the surface, 18 in all. More additions to the veggie garden include some hardened off some Canteloupe seedlings from Shelton. I put them in the ground today. Recent heat and full sun days have been hard on seedlings of all sorts, but some rain is in the forecast soon, so, now I am hardening off 18 Georgia Collards and 6 Red Cabbage Seedlings to plant at the end of the week.

Tonight, I gently cooked down some Yellow Squash in a skillet with Olive Oil and Honey. In another pot I browned some pork in another pan along with Onion, Garlic, and my homemade Cayenne Hot Sauce.   Then I made a pot of rice and mixed it all together.  Cel and I ate it, and talk about good, cher.

Quote of the Day

“He who does not understand your silence will probably not understand your words.”


- Elbert Hubbard

The Garden Continues to Grow

I put the tomato cages up today, as the fall tomatos have topped the 2 foot mark.  Not sure what to do with the Cucumbers, I guess I'll just let them ramble around the garden.  The last few days have been very hot and dry.  My poor new seedlings were hanging on for life.  Just as I finished watering today, the clouds move in.   The rains were light, but hours of cloud cover were most appreciated by both the plants and me.

Quote of the Day

Faith can move mountains, but don’t be surprised if God hands you a shovel. - Anonymous

Lots To Do Today, But I Just Don't Feel Like Doing It.

I put some of the furniture back on the porch.  Fired up the pressure washer for just a few minutes to touch up the door mats for the front porch.  Got out the remaining empty 5g gas cans, went down the corner to fill them, and the boat up, with gas.  Not that I am going fishing, but the boat holds 24 gallons of gas.  All of the equipment will be filled and remain full, as well.  We are entering the prime time of hurricane season, so having some extra fuel around is always a good idea.  I always add fuel stabilizer, and then try to burn the fuel over the winter, so that all the cans are empty again by spring.   This insures no stale gas around, which can cause lots of chaos (and expense) in the spring.  Stabil costs a bit more to add to the already high price of fuel, but is worth every penny in the long run.

More Additions to the Vegetable Garden

Just planted those Acorn Squash seeds, and the Acorn Squash seedlings. Hedging my Acorn bets with seeds and seedlings.  I also planted some Butternut Squash, Bok Choi, Swiss Chard, and a couple of Artichokes, too.  I planted those Artichokes down on the end where all those shells were.   Thought it might help.

It Was a Great Day, For a Bug, But,,,,,,,,,,,

Its late summer in Louisiana, which is a fine time, if you're a bug, including the most despicable of all, the roach,   So I pulled everthing off the front and back porches and finished power washed the house. You know, I dreamed of having a pressure washer until the second time I power washed the house. The first time it was Tim the Toolman (manly grunt) cool. After the second time, the dream changed. Now I dream of hiring someone to pressure wash the house. Not really, grunt.

The only bad thing after a good fall cleaning, is you really don't want to put all of the stuff back on the porches.  You just want to appreciate the clean.   But, the cooler fall weather is coming.  It's prime outside time in Louisiana.  And I can't wait to sit out on the porches and feel the cool breeze hitting my face, or back, or side, or heck, anywhere, just cool the heck off weather, would you.

Who Says Acorns Aren't Good to Eat

Cooked some good Acorn Squash tonight. Is it too late to go plant the seeds for a little fall crop?  Feedback says go for it, but don't delay.

Almost Forgot, The Squash is No Longer Squashed, it is Squash Again

OK, I am not sure that made any sense at all.  So, the real news is the newly planted Squash is up.   Amazing the different fresh seeds makes.   Of course there is always the odd chance that one of those plants is one of the old seeds, but I doubt it.   Either way, I am hoping for a small Squash harvest before winter sets in.

Some of my new seedlings are Butternut and Acorn Squashes as well.  Funny, until a few days ago when I cooked that Butternut Squash, I never even knew I like Squash.   Life is funny that way.

A Long Weekend or Not Much of Anything?

Well, it is certainly starting out that way.   Seedlings are still sitting on the back deck of the boat.  The garden is still unwatered, and the grass still unmowed.   And NOBODY is complaining, not even the grass.   Its a beautiful day with full sun, high of only 89, and 50% humidity.  After this summer's record heat, this is almost like winter time. But don't worry, I'll get out in the garden sooner or later, probably later.  There is still lots on tap for the weekend, I think, lol.  In the meantime, where is that glass of wine.

Squashing the Squash

I have declared the old 2002 seedlot squash seeds a failure.  After digging around in the row, not only can I find no sprouting seeds, I can find no seeds at all.  I assume they quickly went to, or are rapidly going to rot.  I re-seeded the row with fresh Ferry-Morse, certified organic, Yellow Summer Crookneck Squash seeds.  

Just heard that this was an all-time record hot August, and with a prediction for a warm fall as well.   That's good for the late fall garden plantings, but maybe not so good for the winter garden, so I'll wait an extra couple of weeks before putting those seeds in the rows.

Rainy Days are "Relaxin, Maxin, All Cool" Days

It rained off and on several times today, with small bouts of sunshine in between long stretches of cloudy skies.   Good conditions for the garden, and especially for the small plants trying desperately to establish themselves in their struggle between life and death.

Still no sign from those 2002 seedlot Summer Squash, but I expected them to take a week or two, at best.  Still, if they don't show by the end of the week, I'll replant that section of row with fresh seeds, or even better with transplants if I can find them.  I am pushing slightly past the deadline on the fall stuff, but running slightly ahead on the winter stuff.  I'll pray for a cool fall, but with a late frost.  Hey, it never hurts to pray, right?

So, here is the overview.  The tomatoes look really good, save for one, which is not gonna make it, and won't be replaced.   Just for grins, I had a spot left over on the end of the row, so I put a few seeds in just to see what would happen.   The Cucumbers are going gangbusters.  The Melons look great, but better get a move on to beat the winter.   The potatoes should show in the next couple of weeks.  I planted the Celery too early, but I have lots of seeds to replant later.   The newer seedling, Cauliflower and Broccoli were pretty weak upon transplanting, and it was tough on them with sun and heat right after transplanting, but I think these moderating temperatures and rain now happening will allow them to get a grip.

Welcome Break From the Heat, and Some Good Hard Work to go With It.

This morning was overcast, breezy, and with some occaisional misting type rain.   Made for perfect conditions for me to get out and finish the new vegetable beds.  With my Mantis tiller in hand, which was running OK, but not great, I tilled the last 200 feet of vegetable rows and hand raked then into rows with a metal rake.   Can't say it was easy, but I kept telling myself this was the other half of the health benefits of my vegetables.  Benefit one being that they were mostly organic, but benefit two being the physical work I was doing to grow them.  Oh, and the three blisters on my hands will heal just fine.

Although a bit late, I will cram into the fall vegetable garden whatever seeds I have left, but the first real planting on these beds will be the winter garden.

"gretel, snowcrown, packman, and butterstick" No, It's Not 4 of the 7 Dwarves

More planting in the garden after work today. Seedlings included 2 Eggplant 'gretel' (white), 6 Broccoli 'packman', 6 Cauliflower 'snowcrown' were planted.

Another 15 feet of row was planted with Summer Squash 'butterstick hybrid' seeds.  These seeds were from a 2002 seedlot.  Storage was OK, but far from ideal, so it'll be interesting to see what becomes of them.  The seeds definitely looked old, but also looked like they were maybe still viable.  I love to experiment.  They'll be ample opportunity to replant the section with a nice winter crop if these fizzle.

Zoo Doo Gold

It all started a couple of weeks ago with an article on NOLA.com about Zoo Doo Gold from the Audubon Zoo.  "Created to be a mulch for top dressing existing garden beds or as a planting medium for new beds, ZooDoo Gold is made of tree chippings, plant trimmings, shredded cardboard boxes, Starbucks coffee grinds (with the appropriate acidic base), shredded Audubon office paper, grass clippings, and "contributions" from Audubon's ostrich, zebra and elephants." it read.   Well, just from the cool factor alone, I had to have some.  A friend was traveling that way to get some for himself and offered to grab me a couple of bags as well.  Even better, he was a member of the society and got a discount, which he passed along to me, too.

So, today I found my cabbage seedlings over at Chastant Bros.   I got a six pack of Dutch Flat, and another six pack of Rio Verde.  Down they went this evening, with a nice top and side dressing of Zoo Doo Gold.  I wonder if they'll taste different, like an elephant that's been drinking coffee, lol.  

One Potato, Two Potato, Three Potato, Four,,,

The potatoes went in the ground today (Sunday.)  I had 60 potatoes left from the spring crop, all Irish Potatoes except for 3 or 4 of the Yukon Purple Potatoes.  With even a modest 5 to 1 return, this should easily tide us over the winter, and provide another 60 potatoes to plant in the spring.  This has got to be one of the best (funnest, as my niece might say) crops.  Super easy to grow, fun to harvest, and a cinch to store.

When All Else Succeeds, Fertilize Anyway, But Organically Of Course

The seedlings are mostly looking great, but I know as they continue to put on growth, they will need more and more food.  Best to start early and gently.  I spread some Espoma Tomato Food, but wasn't particular.  I used the same food on the Tomatoes, Bell Peppers, Melons, and even on the unsprouted Celery.  Gee, I wonder if my Celery will taste like Tomatoes.   That wouldn't be too bad.

Look at Those Melons

Sun Jewel Melon, Mexican Melon, and Canteloupe seeds have now all sprouted except one pod of Canteloupe, which I am sure will pop up any day, too. We just might have a mellony fall indeed.

And it was so cool to see those seedlings coming up, that I went back in the house, pulled out the seeds, and pulled out the planting guide, just so I could go plant something else. It is still a little early for the winter items, but I did find "Tall Utah Celery" seeds that the guide said could go in now.  I've never tried to grow Celery before, so I only planted about 6 feet of row.
 
Its a shame I didn't get those rows raked up this weekend, because it is time to put in the Irish potatoes.  I saved enough potatoes from last years crop to plant a row or two of those.  Since it rained last night, I'll have to wait a few days before raking rows.  And I'll have to till again as well, to kill the weeds that have popped up.   One way or the other, going in the ground later this week or weekend will be the Irish Potatoes cause they're easy to grow, fun to harvest, and I have a young niece that I think is going to have a ball doing just that.