The long weekend

Friday 29th August.

Rising at 7-00am.

The day starts with tea drinking, crosswording, reading and generally lounging around as my long weekend stretches out ahead. I've decided to set myself a couple of small tasks each day and when they are done I shall take time out to relax and catch up on computing, e-flurrying and reading.

Todays task is........................................

..............mowing the bloody grass. I've finally got the whole garden cut down to an acceptable level. It's taken a few weeks but now the sprawling front of the property looks like the 7th hole at St Andrews Golf Course. Well, ok I exaggerate slightly. Even the kids all came out............

.....to admire my handywork. They stay out of the way when Dad is racing around on the mower making lots of noise. Now ALL I have to do is go round with the weedeater but that's not on the schedule for today. I finish the day with a bit of "pottering" around and whilst doing so noticed that one of the Flowering Dogwood saplings......................................

............has got a flower. The other sapling has a bud forming on the top too.

That was all the work done for Friday. Time for feet up and a read.

Saturday 30th August

Rising at 8-00am.

The sound of Alvin calling at the bedroom window starts my day. After a light breakfast of toast, cheese, tomato from the garden and some low fat milk I'm off out for a trip to the lumber yard here in town to purchase water pipe insulation, wood, wall plugs, screws and a masonary drill bit.

Todays task is...............................

.........fixing the front garden tap, or faucet to you American folks.

The first really severe winter we were here I was very naughty and left both front and rear garden hosepipes attached. These were both "frost resistant" outlets, or so I thought. The following spring I discovered that both had split and were leaking. So, I replaced them. Last winter I was a good boy and removed both hosepipes before the heavy freeze arrived. The front outlet STILL split. Aggghhhh!!

OK, I'm neither a plumber or a carpenter but I replaced it again, lagged the pipe through the house wall and on the inside too.

Then I mounted the whole lot onto a wood base so hopefully it should keep the frost out. I will, of course, still be removing the hosepipe before any freezing occures. The whole thing went as planned and when I turned the water back on there were NO leaks.

Completing this one task alone gained me 2 Gold Stars and 4 Brownie points from my wife.
Now, all I have to do is paint it............................mutter, mutter.

I was a little hot and bothered after my plumbing/carpentry chore so decided that no more work outside would be started. I had planned on re staking the willow tree but it can wait until tomorrow. Instead, I checked and water the veggie seedlings which are growing indoors.

Cabbage and Kohlrabi are romping along. I may have to repot the cabbage again soon.

Catnip (left) and brussel Sprouts look good too.

OK, that's me done for today. In the fridge I have a couple of very cold beers, with my name on, awaiting my immediate attention.

Sunday 31st August

Rising at 8-00am.

Todays task is................................

Re-stake the Willow Tree.

This tree was badly affected by the last ice storm and I've been gradually pulling it back into shape. At the start it looked..................

...................like this. Then with a bit of work...........

.......like this. And now.......................

.....this. So it's coming back to shape, slowly.

A look around the tomato plants shows that plenty of fruit is still available......

and I harvest around 3 lbs.

The volunteer plants seem happy enough..................

.......and one plant has it's first tomato.
Home grown peppers, onions and herbs were added to some of the ripe fruit I harvested to become.......

...more gloop for freezing.
Monday 1st September

Rising at 4-00am. Yes, thats 4-00am.

Couldn't get back to sleep so got up and read until 7-00am then went back to bed until almost 10-00am.

Todays task is..............

Repot all the seedlings. This I decided while laying awake early this morning. I did the lot......

Here we see Cabbage in the foreground, Kohlrabi at the back........

....and here Brussel Sprouts in the foreground and Catnip at the back.

I then did a bit of touching up on the house paintwork and dug up.......

....a few potatoes. Well, 6lb to be precise. I only have one more potato plant to harvest now and that works out great because then Plot 5 will be available to start the fall planting in a couple of weeks.

So now my long weekend is drawing to a close and I'm happy that I got at least some of the things I'd planned to do, along with plenty of of R&R.

Time for.......................................

...............dinner.

The short weekend.

Sunday 24th August.

Sunday morning.
Rising at 8-30am and breakfasting............

..............on eggs, toast, fresh peach and low fat milk. The peaches are from the garden of a co worker and they are absolutely delicious.

Breakfast reading.......

The cats are getting an upgrade in their eatables and are being switched from a totally dry diet of kibble to a mixture of wet and dry. The aim being to get them onto more wet than dry as it's much healthier for them. My cats are like willful children and it will be an uphill battle.

OK, back to gardening.

Here's the good news.
Next weekend will be a longer than usual break as I'm taking Friday off as a vacation to go with Labor Day.
Here's the bad news.
I had to work some of this weekend to make up for it. Oh hum.
So, the Happy Gardener's Adventures in Oklahomegrownvegland were slightly curtailed. Even the blog got left until Monday.

Herbies new belt arrived mid week and I fitted it late Saturday afternoon so he was ready for action. We had rain during the week but fortunately it managed to dry out enough by Sunday (my one day of rest this week) for me to attack the long overdue delights of mowing.
It was a BIG job and pretty much ate up the majority of my day. But it's done, again..........


And once done is a delight to behold.

Tomatoes are still ripening on a regular basis.

All three varieties are still producing.

My volunteers are now all in place and I've started pruning off the suckers as they sprout.

I've no idea if these plants will produce anything but Plot 4 isn't doing anything at the moment so it may as well be put to use with this little experiment. The only other thing in there is this............


.......rather fried looking Birdseed Sunflower. I've left him in situ as there's still quite a number of seeds to be had if the birds want them.

One of this seasons heros, the Yolo Bell Peppers.

Still producing at an amazing rate and supplying plenty of red and green peppers. My wife's Stuffed Peppers are on the menu for sometime this week.

And, finally the seedlings. Some Brussel Sprout seeds went in late last weekend and I purchased a replacement overhead lamp as one of the old ones decided to go on the blink. Some of the larger seedlings were transplanted into bigger pots.
Everything is now germinating.

One week old Brussel Sprouts, These are ready for thinning down to one plant per pot.

Repotted Cabbage.

More Catnip seeds have germinated but the seedlings are still small so I've left them in their little fibre pots.

Repotted Cauliflower.

Repotted Kohlrabi.

Bit of a rush this weekend. I'm looking forward to a, hopefully, more relaxing weekend next.

Slow down.

Thursday Evening 14th August

The weather is unsettled, forecasts of thunderstorms for this weekend prompted me to do some mowing Wednesday and Thursday evening after work. The grass is so long down by the creek that Herbie almost choked. I kept waiting for the drive belt to break but he made it through the first rough cut. This isn't mowing, it's brush hogging !!! I plan to re cut the whole lot down to finished length on Saturday afternoon.

Saturday morning 16th August

After a pleasant lunch at Montana Mike's in Miami, my wife and I head into town for the full retail experience, returning home around 3-30pm.

Black clouds are forming, I'm into my gardening gear and out there as quickly as possible.

30 minutes into the mowing and there's an almighty "Snap".

The drive belt has broken..........................

..........and Herbie is returned to his stable.

I order a new belt on line. It will be here by next Friday. sigh.

So, this bit of the garden...........................

......looks tidy. But the rest of it................

......looks like a "Crows nest" (All shit and twigs).

Sunday 17th August.

Rising at 8-15am.

Alvin is calling at the bedroom window.
Check and water the seedlings.....................

Cabbage are looking good. Some of everything had germinated except the catnip.
I decided that I was not giving them enough water and so instead of using the spray bottle they got a little from the jug.
And, guess what....................................

.....by Saturday morning I had 3 Catnip seedlings sprouted. Very tiny, but seedlings none the less.
I'm still harvesting, using and selling tomatoes but they are starting to slow down now.

The very hot spell we had a week or so ago was followed by an extremely wet period.
Such fluctuations in moisture levels result in this.................

The most common cause of tomato fruit splitting is uneven watering of the plants. If the plants become a little dry and are then watered or subjected to heavy rain over a prolonged period, the plants take up a large amount of water all at once. This is transported into the developing fruit and the fruit cells expand faster than the skin can stretch and it splits open.
I've been having fruit split for a week now. Some are not as bad as the one shown in the picture and are still edible. I check each evening and pick the fruit before it gets too bad.
My companion plants continue to bloom and add some nice colours to the plots.

All the marigolds are still thriving.
I'm amazed that the Yolo Bell Peppers are still going strong despite some of them getting a heavy attack from the Blister Beetles

Most of the peppers are now turning red.
I think that these..........................

........will be my last two cucumbers of the season.
A few plants are now showing signs of having had better days. The Pole Beans are done and the plants need pulling soon. I'm onto my last few carrots, they have performed well.
The Swiss Chard harvest was a disappointment, made worse by the fact that the little we did get was so tasty. That's definitely one to work on.
I have three potato plants to harvest yet. Then I'll have to decide what I'm going to do with Plot 5.

Finally, our little Red bud tree, destroyed in the ice storm of January, is refusing to die.

A close inspection at the bottom of the stump shows a high degree of rot so sadly it will have to go.

Cool break

Sunday 10th August.

Rising at 8-30am
It's cooler at last, around 70F this morning.
We have had a couple of days of heavy rain falling on and off so the badly overdue mowing chore is once more put on hold.

I also had to work all day Saturday so my time in the garden has been limited.


First job this morning is to go check on the Blister Beetle damage. The Flour and Lime mixture seems to frighten them off but they are soon back chomping merrily away.......

.............as you can see by this shot taken this morning of the Yolo Bell Pepper plants in Plot 3.


Foliage damage is severe and this in turn means the peppers themselves lose the protection from the sun. The shot below shows sunscald........................

So I have resorted to the tried and tested way of getting rid of these little walking disasters.............


The rubber gloves and bucket of soapy water!
Hand pick the beetles from the plant, toss into bucket of soapy water, end of story.
Three evenings this week I've stood out there in boiling temperatures picking the little buggers off my plants and it's not fun, believe me.
Each day the population is reducing but it's slow progress. But, progress it is!
They have just about finished off Plot 5, look at this.........................

Here's all that remains of my once healthy looking potato plants after the weather and the bugs had done. Oh well (deep breath). I weeded the plot, pulled and threw out most of the damaged plants then dug up under one of them to see what was left.
Hmmmm, not bad. Certainly not Wal Mart standard in shape and size..................

........but chemical free.

The volunteer tomato plant I put into Plot 4 a couple of weeks ago is still looking good. As the temperatures are down today I decided to transplant three others which I'd had in post at the front of the house.....................

.........and then mulched the whole row.

I'm still pulling tomatoes almost daily.

Big Red

Old Virginia
Good feedback from workmates who received the plants from me. Most are pulling good crops from their plants and are delighted with the fruit produced.

Seedlings are coming along nicely.................

Kohlrabi.


Cabbage.

No sign of the Catnip so I've started some more along with some Cauliflower seed and put the on top of the fridge. This time I've put the clear plastic lid over them to see if it helps germination.