nicholaix's Journal, 25 July 2015

ooooo that sound yummy!! LOL about turning into gramma. I keep trying to grow rhubarb, so far it doesn't like my yard. I may try it in a raised bed next year. I love rhubarb.  

Sounds great to me, your Gram or Mom showed you how to be productive and resourceful. 

What's so wrong with turning into your Gramma? LOL. I would be so proud if somebody told me that I was like my Grandmother!  

You are such an industrious person!!!! Have a great weekend with your boys and enjoying your cooking/canning/baking abilities...(within reason, of course)...lol 

Want some of the green beans I picked this morning? Will snap, blanch an freeze them. Wasn't very thorough picking them as it's horribly humid... again. Got 10 lbs. Next picking will be me pulling up the vines, tossing them into the cart and park in the shade and pick the rest of them off. Wondering if I've got it in me to can peaches or make preserves. Such a temptation. Heat killed zucchini, squash and peppers. Tomatoes are doing okay. Would like to put them up but will play it by ear. Limas are blooming.  

LOL - that is funny! I did not have much grandma time as a kind - one was deceased before I was born and the other was quite old and didn't seem to like children. 

Lol CR mine need to be picked and pulled next as well as a pile of lettuce( I planted too much lol). I lucked out and it was cool and rainy here so everything is growing but very slow. its going to be a race for the tomatoes I fear. Though someone told me just pick them green if you have to and throw them in a box, they will natural ripen in your cellar. My Cukes rotted though because of the wet unfortunately but the farm stand usually has bushels up the road. I am thinking about planting some broccoli but I have never grown it before. I worry it will be a slug magnet. I usually do the bread and beans on Sunday but its a wet icky day again and I am putting the boys to work. God help me my kitchen looks like a flour bomb went off and they ate more strawberries than they hulled. They are still young enough that helping cook is still 'cool'. With all our food allergies we mostly eat just fresh whole food. Takes a wee bit of work but I think its worth it. Plus the kids know how to feed themselves without spending a small fortune. We got off the processed chemical food products train quite awhile ago.  

Nichol, terrific!! even if the kids are eating lots of the strawberries, they are good for them. My boys have been raiding the honey dew and strawberries, they think it's cool gramma always has fruit. Will pick up a watermelon today and introduce them to nectarines. Most of my garden wasn't planted, too wet, the tomatoes are still all green as it was too chilly for them to bloom for awhile. I need to get out and weed this week and process some of the herbs. Kathy, just pick the beans and they will continue producing. It's humid here also, last night was horrible outside.  

You're a great Mom..... you've got your boys on the right track for the rest of their lives when it comes to food. They'll thank you for it.  

My tomatoes are doing great, just started getting some off the vines this week. But rabbits and squirrels have destroyed everything else. Two peach trees and not even one peach left to ripen, damn squirrels. Thinking about framing in the raised beds with wire and netting the trees. 

Triple Envy!!! The squirrels ate everything including my garlic bulbs....I hope they get squirrelly indigestion! 

The bulk of my vegetable garden is in the boys old fenced in playground so I have been mostly lucky though the squirrels and chipmunks get brave sometimes. I planted a pile of berry bushes this year, I am sure I will be buying tons of net for them next year. I brought my strawberries inside to do hydroponically because the critters ate every last berry last year, little buggers. I've been poring over Pinterest for some ideas to repel the wildlife. 

Growing broc is easy Nich.... biggest problem are the bugs. If you can find something to keep them under control. Cauliflower is easy too, but it's necessary to keep the outer leaves folded across the head to prevent sun burn which will turn them yellow/greenish and tough. Had berry bushes, but a couple of feral kittens considered them their jungle gym so they're gone.  

I love to do that stuff nowadays, wish I had the time. 

Ah! for slugs: 1. for mild infestations, keep your egg shells and make a barrier of broken egg shells around the plants you want to protect - slugs don't like to get crawling over egg shells; 2. for heavier infestations, go get some PVC pipe from the home improvement store, then cut it in half in length, then cut in pieces long enough to form a square around the plant (or plant bed) you're trying to protect, cut part up. Then put some salt in the pipes you don't have to put a lot, just on the bottom, but make sure there's an uninterrupted line of salt. That's what I do in my garden. 

Ah yes, and for bugs, myself use praying mantises and assassin bugs. The only problem I had was two years ago, when a downpour started right when the mantises were hatching and washed almost all the babies away. You can start a healthy population of mantises in your yard if you buy two years in a row nests (I buy mine from Arbico organics, online). the only thing is that you need to keep an eye on the nests, and separate the babies as soon as they hatch otherwise they'll eat each other until you'll have only 2 or 3 left out of several hundreds 

Here, I even have photos with the babies hatching. they're adorable. http://s4.postimg.org/ilucxs1hp/nest.jpg 

I just started using eggshells with some success. They really seem to like my beans little buggers. I don't use chemicals but some days....... 

Mantis' will eat assassin bugs too.  

my mom plants asparagus to attract mantis' naturally and she had a ton of them last summer not sure about this year.