Plan B Forum

...and they say that my (italics) sense of humor is juvenile....

sorry joe..., I meant our (italics) sense of humor....

That's better....

fresh snow peas stir fried with chicken tonight. really good peas and pods. will have to start blanching and freezing them in a few days....

...and the neighbors like radishes , so they are finding a good home too. I m hoping to have plenty of tomatoes in a month or so to take to the church food give aways on Saturdays I took some in last year and they got used , so I planted a crap load of cherry tomatoes from last years seed, the kids seem to like to munch on them...

holly puts a hurtin' on the heirlooms, they are soooo much better than the chain store crap from green houses, picked green and built to last. the heirlooms are fragile but delicious!

the mulberry munching has commenced!!!!!

2 or three weeks of munching pleasure!!!!!

yay mulberries!!!

every place ive ever lived has had at least one little mulberry bush or tree around somewhere close, even in MA.

yay god!!! thanks!

I am happy to announce that my efforts to channel the natural drainage of the property , and the run off from the house, into my garden were successful...


...in other news....


...after two days of rain, with no let up in sight, I am sad to announce that my garden is flooded and waterlogged.....

ok, that darn corn needs to be planted soon or we won t have it.

plan b...., harvest the rest of the peapods and plant the corn there, saving me the trouble of breaking new ground..., I ll get right on that, tomorrow....

in other garden news, peppers and tomatoes soon....
a few strawberries here and there....
raspberries are spreading well and I should get a few berries this year...

well, the old plum tree is not well. the Japanese beetles have pretty much destroyed it.

all the small plums withered earlier in the year. I believe that when I channeled the yard and house drainage into my garden I also cut off its major source of water. that probably weakened it enough to let the beetles have their way with it.

about a week ago I was hanging something on the old dead branch that left to hang my lantern on and noticed some bugs flying when I jarred it. so I shook the tree and was showered with beetles. I then noticed that about half the leaves were lacy where they had been mostly eaten. I continued shaking it to disturb the beetle. I did this repeatedly over a few days to no real effect.

the tree s leaves are pretty much all destroyed now. the beetles are still there.

I am unwilling to spray poison in my yard.

the gypsy moths are having a good chuckle.

The lure traps work vey well. Got a bag full of the buggers in 3 days.

maybe next year....

at least they are leaving my garden alone. they started on the raspberries, but the plum tree lured them all way

tomatoes are about done. still some green ones that will ripen.

didn t put up any sauce, like we always want to. we ve just been giving the toms away like candy. they are very popular.

I ve been a little chincier with the green peppers. I just put three quarts in the freezer yesterday and should get one more good harvest.

I ll put some plastic over them in a week or so and extend the season a bit.

I planted some indian corn/horse corn and some holiday gourds and some spaghetti squash, really late, about aug. 1st

I may get some gourds, but I don t think they corn will mature, and I have one lonely spaghetti squash that should mature.

all is well in the garden. hopefully the plum tree will recover from it various infestations. maybe the stress will make it produce a big crop next year.

wrapped the pepper plants in polyethylene.... almost done for the year.

tomatoe plants are yanked, no indian corn..., may still get a gourd or two, 1 squash to pick, a few late green beans to pick.

morning glories are all mostly ripped out too.

I usually leave a few to grow thru out the tomatoe plants, they help hold them together. the garden was really beautiful in the mornings for the last few weeks.

it would have made a geat picture with the blue flowers like a blanket upon the plants...

'Morning Glorious' was what I thought as I looked at them

I put in some june bearing strawberry plants this spring, and they have spread nicely.

the funny thing is that I now have two flowers that are turning into strawberries NOW, in the fall......,

only two flowers, together, on the same plant I think are forming berries...

now if they mature and I save the seeds...

"introducing the new..., WW fallberry plants!!!"

Hen has hundreds of strawberry plans on the go. She will be trusting them to Hatch's care while we are in the UK.

Still getting tomatoes. They're delicious and lovely; heart-shaped, and gold to orange to red (at which point they're so soft they're only good for sauce. I'm giving away lots, as the freezer is pretty well full up of tomato sauce.

And then there are the persimmons. Hundreds of them. I don't have clue what to do with them.

never eat an unripe persimmon....

Kristina, I think that I grew the same variety. I had trouble convincing the people I gave them to that you couldn t wait until they were red.

they were de-licious, I saved some seed....

Gob wrote:Here you go Kristina.

Thanks, Gob; that's good for the first dozen or so. Any thoughts for the rest of 'em?

ETA: A friend says she has a recipe for a delicious persimmon pudding. that should take care of another dozen or so (one batch for Thanksgiving, one for Christmas). I wonder if the sheep on the ranch where I live like persimmons...