Here's the latest up date .... Photos were just taken last night
Yes the sun went down fast and the last half of the photos had to be taken by spotlight ...
That's my youngest on the iPad piano - her timing is off .. Well here and there ... But I think it makes it sounds very nice - it doesn't sound anything like the original composition ... I like my daughter's better!
It's getting close to thinning time - as you can see from the tomato trays - but that's a tough time for me ... Not just because I have to "play god" with these plants but mostly because I wasting those plants which were growing so well but are only being destroyed to make more room for the others
There has to be a way to save/transplant these others - I did save a few from certain death last year though
Showing posts with label pumpkin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pumpkin. Show all posts
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Greenhouse Update
This is aq bit late - I was having some issues with my app that uploads vids to youtube ... but I've got it worked out now and I can use this video as a template each update
Forgive any ads - for some reason YT claims that Vivaldi isn't public domain when it should be ...
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Forgive any ads - for some reason YT claims that Vivaldi isn't public domain when it should be ...
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Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Greenhouse 2012 Update
wanted to give an update of how things are going in the greenhouse this year - we are having a bumper crop so far of squash and cabbages.
Here is a long shot of the greenhouse from the security camera ... even though it is only 60F outside, it is 85F in the green house - thats low, when the sun pops out from behind those clouds you can see the pointer on the thermometer go up to 120F
Here is a long shot of the greenhouse from the security camera ... even though it is only 60F outside, it is 85F in the green house - thats low, when the sun pops out from behind those clouds you can see the pointer on the thermometer go up to 120F
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Harvesting Time
Well the crows have said the end of the growing season is here - they are ravaging the dried corn field and daily cover the ground and the powerlines near our home.
From the powerlines they see us head towards the fields where they squawk their warnings - not just to their own but to the racoons & deer which have come to join them on their feast.
The deer are really getting on my short list though ... we had one wonderful pumpkin grow - it was going to be HUGE, maybe 10 lbs ... actually I can exaggerate all I want since the deer have taken their toll on it
UHHHGGG!!!!
the kids aren't too pleased with it right now either
they were looking forward to not only decorating it for halloween but putting it up afterwards to make the Thanksgiving pumpkin pie.
some of the summer squash plants were still alive and kicking even through the cold spells we were experiencing ... so I thought I'd give them a little more time to grow - after all it wasn't going to hurt the garden any really.
my daughter found a hitchhiker on one of the harvest sacks ... but we don't quite know what it means:
I know they say you can tell the winter by the thickness of the band on the back of the teddy-bear catapillar ... but what the heck does it mean when it doesn't have a stripe????
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Yippee Another One
lookie Lookie!
I have squash starting to come in too ...
Only thing is hubby didn't pay attention to how things got planted so I don't know which type it is ...
Guess I will have to wait and find out.
It looks too big to be a yellow summer squash ... It's too cylindrical to be a patty pan (which looks like a UFO) ... I'm thinking it's a Queen Anne ...
The wind keeps blowing off my netting exposing the fruits of my plants ... This could mean real trouble for them when the deer and other critters take notice ... Of I'm lucky the mere presence of the material will scare them off ... I guess it all depends on how strong the instinct to eat them is.
I forgot to mention ... For those who wonder how quick pumpkin grow ... The vines/tendrils that I moved yesterday of the pumpkins (see yesterday's post) already put down roots into the ground when I moved them a little farther into the garden ... They aren't deep roots but they are there ...
And prickly! If you don't know pumpkin, you might want to wear gloves if you have to handle the vines T all - at least until you know of you are going to have a reaction to the prickles and their juices.
I have squash starting to come in too ...
 |
| From Ginger's Farm Photos |
Guess I will have to wait and find out.
It looks too big to be a yellow summer squash ... It's too cylindrical to be a patty pan (which looks like a UFO) ... I'm thinking it's a Queen Anne ...
The wind keeps blowing off my netting exposing the fruits of my plants ... This could mean real trouble for them when the deer and other critters take notice ... Of I'm lucky the mere presence of the material will scare them off ... I guess it all depends on how strong the instinct to eat them is.
I forgot to mention ... For those who wonder how quick pumpkin grow ... The vines/tendrils that I moved yesterday of the pumpkins (see yesterday's post) already put down roots into the ground when I moved them a little farther into the garden ... They aren't deep roots but they are there ...
And prickly! If you don't know pumpkin, you might want to wear gloves if you have to handle the vines T all - at least until you know of you are going to have a reaction to the prickles and their juices.
Growing Wild
Well it's been a while since I've posted but I wanted to share some photos of my garden
As you can see the crows have been having a blast eating the corn ... All those bare spots are where they snipped off the shoots to get to the kernel underneath.
The fields just started to sprout weeds this week after a good 3/4 inches of rain this weekend. ... And boy are they making up for lost time.
I did however come up with a pretty good way to keep the deer off my pumpkin & squash ....
I used nylon netting - such as you would use on a wedding dress or a ballet tutu - and covered the top of the squash garden.
I have to keep going out to stretch it over the ropes, and it has gotten rips, but the thing that amazed me is that the pumpkin keeps trundling into it - it grips into it like peas to a trellis and they keep sending their runners underneath to try to climb the hill... but this would mean they will get mowed over which would be very bad for the plant, so I have to gently pull them up and send them back the other way into the garden ...
I had worried that having them under the mesh would prevent the bee from pollinating the flowers ... But today I found this:
Look! Look! There is swelling starting behind the flower! Sweet!
Now to figure out a way to keep the raccoons, birds, and deer from eating it until it's ready for picking!
Meanwhile in the green house ...
I finally have baby carrots ... They are all orange instead of the red, yellow or white I was expecting. I didn't think carrots "mated" but perhaps I'm wrong ... if so I would suspect that they would revert to the original type they were originally crossed with ... kind of like hybrid corn - some is so unstable that if they get pollen from another type of corn, they become field corn.
Speaking of corn .... what little crop we get will be coming in very late this year. I suspect somewhere around mid-September early October ... depending on the weather.
Bright side:
we will have sellable crop after the stores run out
The days will be cooler while I prepare it for freezing
It should tassel after the worse part of summer so it doesn't tassel too early
Dark side:
the kids will only be able to sell on the weekends or after school.
Those pesky animals will be trying to steal my corn for their winter stocks the same time I'm doing it.
We run the risk of the corn not tasseling at all because of the day light/warmth issues that come with the fall.
Personally I'm hoping to avoid schmutz ... it's a black fungus that occurs and can cause unusual growth of the cobs. The infected plant needs to be rep Ed completely and disposed of in such a way as not to infect the soul .... so no putting it in the compost bin or just tossing it to the side of the field ... I think of it a corn-cancer, but I've heard it's a delicacy in Japanese cooking.
Well have to go ... Didn't realize how late it was.
 |
| From Ginger's Farm Photos |
The fields just started to sprout weeds this week after a good 3/4 inches of rain this weekend. ... And boy are they making up for lost time.
I did however come up with a pretty good way to keep the deer off my pumpkin & squash ....
 |
| From Ginger's Farm Photos |
I have to keep going out to stretch it over the ropes, and it has gotten rips, but the thing that amazed me is that the pumpkin keeps trundling into it - it grips into it like peas to a trellis and they keep sending their runners underneath to try to climb the hill... but this would mean they will get mowed over which would be very bad for the plant, so I have to gently pull them up and send them back the other way into the garden ...
I had worried that having them under the mesh would prevent the bee from pollinating the flowers ... But today I found this:
 |
| From Ginger's Farm Photos |
Now to figure out a way to keep the raccoons, birds, and deer from eating it until it's ready for picking!
Meanwhile in the green house ...
 |
| From Ginger's Farm Photos |
Speaking of corn .... what little crop we get will be coming in very late this year. I suspect somewhere around mid-September early October ... depending on the weather.
Bright side:
we will have sellable crop after the stores run out
The days will be cooler while I prepare it for freezing
It should tassel after the worse part of summer so it doesn't tassel too early
Dark side:
the kids will only be able to sell on the weekends or after school.
Those pesky animals will be trying to steal my corn for their winter stocks the same time I'm doing it.
We run the risk of the corn not tasseling at all because of the day light/warmth issues that come with the fall.
Personally I'm hoping to avoid schmutz ... it's a black fungus that occurs and can cause unusual growth of the cobs. The infected plant needs to be rep Ed completely and disposed of in such a way as not to infect the soul .... so no putting it in the compost bin or just tossing it to the side of the field ... I think of it a corn-cancer, but I've heard it's a delicacy in Japanese cooking.
Well have to go ... Didn't realize how late it was.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Damn Deer
Like everyone else I can appreciate the beauty of these creTures ... As long as they are not EATING my garden!
We went on vacation for 10days (figuring the weeds could play for a bit) but my hubby had to come back in town for a dr appt ... He came back to the vacation spot with the great news that the corn had grown to about 4 inches tall! Yeah, even though it's just 6 rows it was exciting to know the con was growing so well after so many years of poor yields.
We got home on Sunday to find that all but ONE row was snipped off at the base!
No this wasn't deer - but I'll get there in a bit .... Patience
Around the place where each ear had sat there was a perfect divot .... so we figure it was either pheasants or wild turkey (daughter saw one of this sitting on our steps while we were out of town ... we had the dog) ... deer would have (a)atenolol the tops not just leave them by the wayside and (b)they would have left clear hoof prints down the row like they did when they munched the tops off my peas and beans last year ....
Checked m pumpkin and squash ... Oh what lovely flowers I had ... They were growing so well ... Yes thTs a were ... But wait.
That Tuesday after vacation just south of us was put under a tornado warning and radar showed that the storm they were concerned about would be coming straight our way - now last time I planted out my starters in the main garden we got over 1 inch deep in hail the next week and killd them all (yes I cried) ....
So the kids and I were out in the pole barn this time trying to brain storm some storm shelter for the plants ... My oldest daughter was all for letting nature do what it will ... Youngest son as for just covering them with a tarp, straight down to smother and smuch them ...
We found ne tarp and two saw horses .... And were able to cover 5 out of 20 plants .... I chose the pumpkin to save - after all the fruit can be sold come fall and we can recover some of the seed cost.
The twister/cyclonic clouds passed just to our west shifting it's path at the last few minutes .... thank you fairies for moving that and for keeping that funnel up for us ... not even any hail bt the temps did drop and the air did thin out. (the saw horses fell over but the plants beneath were still good)
So yezterday hubby decided that instead of having just one row of corn to feed the family, he was going to use his fixed tractor (another story) to plant half the larger field keeping the other half in clover ... green manure ... and then while he was at it, he might as well do the part that was eaten up too.
Kids and I went to look at my plants - I figured I should have had some closed flowers starting to swell behind ... but I certainly wasn't expecting to find what I did ...
HOOVE PRINTS IN THE PLASIC MULCH!
They left evidence behind ...
Actually the first thing I noticed was the lack of bright color ... No biggie, I was expecting them to be starting squash/pumpkin remember? ... then I saw the prints and got on my knees to figure out way some of them looked so beaten up ... And there it was ...
Nipped off tops! Flowers laying on the mulch! Slems split from the deer putting their foot/hoof on them to pull off the tops! DANG!
Now I have no issues with animals acting like animals ... and I understand that this is just what deer do ... but there is a wildlife center over here which REFUSES to put fencing around their land to keep their critters in ... they even refuse to spray the area to control deer ticks/Lyme disease ... in fact they won't even allow the DNR to treat for mosquitoes which get so many people sick in our area ...
I buried the cracked stems in the soil - with the theory/hope they will put out roots the way tomato plants will when you pull off the stems and bury the stem to cover (try it, you will get a better plant) ... I don't know if I will be getting much in the way of squash ... since they already had buds they took the majority of the punishment ... but the pumpkin APPEARED untouched ...
Decided to use the 10yards of mosquito netting I had to surround the garden like deer fencing ... Oh how nice that would have been had I enough ... I had enough to cover just on side and two ends leaving the other side open like a deer-salad-bar ... UUUUUUGGGHHHHH
But I opened up the netting and stretched it across the top and even though the sides where open it was better than it was before ... The netting is old - well over 5 years so it was brittle and soon the fencing stakes managed to rip through but that was actually an advantage because the first plan was to run a string around the stakes to give the netting some support so now the netting is resting on the string and hanging down the sides like a tablecloth ... with a few rocks and some packed dirt I was able to get the sides to stretch towards the ground and give it a more enclosed feel.
It's not pretty but it's in code/ordinance and -this morning at least - should do the trick
I just hope the bees will be able to find their way in for pollinizing - they should there's more an enough space.
I am concerned that a deer might find itself tangled if it tries to put it's head under but my son thinks the deer will probably break through it and my hubby thinks that the first good wind will blow it away! We will see ...
We went on vacation for 10days (figuring the weeds could play for a bit) but my hubby had to come back in town for a dr appt ... He came back to the vacation spot with the great news that the corn had grown to about 4 inches tall! Yeah, even though it's just 6 rows it was exciting to know the con was growing so well after so many years of poor yields.
We got home on Sunday to find that all but ONE row was snipped off at the base!
No this wasn't deer - but I'll get there in a bit .... Patience
Around the place where each ear had sat there was a perfect divot .... so we figure it was either pheasants or wild turkey (daughter saw one of this sitting on our steps while we were out of town ... we had the dog) ... deer would have (a)atenolol the tops not just leave them by the wayside and (b)they would have left clear hoof prints down the row like they did when they munched the tops off my peas and beans last year ....
Checked m pumpkin and squash ... Oh what lovely flowers I had ... They were growing so well ... Yes thTs a were ... But wait.
That Tuesday after vacation just south of us was put under a tornado warning and radar showed that the storm they were concerned about would be coming straight our way - now last time I planted out my starters in the main garden we got over 1 inch deep in hail the next week and killd them all (yes I cried) ....
So the kids and I were out in the pole barn this time trying to brain storm some storm shelter for the plants ... My oldest daughter was all for letting nature do what it will ... Youngest son as for just covering them with a tarp, straight down to smother and smuch them ...
We found ne tarp and two saw horses .... And were able to cover 5 out of 20 plants .... I chose the pumpkin to save - after all the fruit can be sold come fall and we can recover some of the seed cost.
The twister/cyclonic clouds passed just to our west shifting it's path at the last few minutes .... thank you fairies for moving that and for keeping that funnel up for us ... not even any hail bt the temps did drop and the air did thin out. (the saw horses fell over but the plants beneath were still good)
So yezterday hubby decided that instead of having just one row of corn to feed the family, he was going to use his fixed tractor (another story) to plant half the larger field keeping the other half in clover ... green manure ... and then while he was at it, he might as well do the part that was eaten up too.
Kids and I went to look at my plants - I figured I should have had some closed flowers starting to swell behind ... but I certainly wasn't expecting to find what I did ...
HOOVE PRINTS IN THE PLASIC MULCH!
They left evidence behind ...
Actually the first thing I noticed was the lack of bright color ... No biggie, I was expecting them to be starting squash/pumpkin remember? ... then I saw the prints and got on my knees to figure out way some of them looked so beaten up ... And there it was ...
Nipped off tops! Flowers laying on the mulch! Slems split from the deer putting their foot/hoof on them to pull off the tops! DANG!
Now I have no issues with animals acting like animals ... and I understand that this is just what deer do ... but there is a wildlife center over here which REFUSES to put fencing around their land to keep their critters in ... they even refuse to spray the area to control deer ticks/Lyme disease ... in fact they won't even allow the DNR to treat for mosquitoes which get so many people sick in our area ...
I buried the cracked stems in the soil - with the theory/hope they will put out roots the way tomato plants will when you pull off the stems and bury the stem to cover (try it, you will get a better plant) ... I don't know if I will be getting much in the way of squash ... since they already had buds they took the majority of the punishment ... but the pumpkin APPEARED untouched ...
Decided to use the 10yards of mosquito netting I had to surround the garden like deer fencing ... Oh how nice that would have been had I enough ... I had enough to cover just on side and two ends leaving the other side open like a deer-salad-bar ... UUUUUUGGGHHHHH
But I opened up the netting and stretched it across the top and even though the sides where open it was better than it was before ... The netting is old - well over 5 years so it was brittle and soon the fencing stakes managed to rip through but that was actually an advantage because the first plan was to run a string around the stakes to give the netting some support so now the netting is resting on the string and hanging down the sides like a tablecloth ... with a few rocks and some packed dirt I was able to get the sides to stretch towards the ground and give it a more enclosed feel.
It's not pretty but it's in code/ordinance and -this morning at least - should do the trick
I just hope the bees will be able to find their way in for pollinizing - they should there's more an enough space.
I am concerned that a deer might find itself tangled if it tries to put it's head under but my son thinks the deer will probably break through it and my hubby thinks that the first good wind will blow it away! We will see ...
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