We just spent a long day in the garden today. Heat was much more tolerable thanks to the lower humidity. We dug yukon and purple potatoes and planted a couple of cantaloupe, sweet potatoes & more okra.

I don't plant many cantaloupes these days due to the fungal/pest problems the last several years. The Beit Alpha cukes are making pickles for us and hopefully won't suffer the same fate.

Squash is relentless right now until the borers kill them off, and the sweet corn have silks already. We've found army worms, so that will be something to keep an eye on with BT/spinosad at the ready. I usually alternate.

Tomatoes seem to be growing well. Beefsteaks right around 4.5 - 5 ft tall. Fruit set was good on everything, but i'm sure next round will slow with the heat.

Top of soil definitely starting to dry out, so we set up overhead irrigation to get out in front of it. I see no rain in sight.

Killed 4 baby snakes in potato straw while harvesting...yikes. How did Momma get in there without my knowing? Hmmmm...who knows how many times i've walked right by her. Sure makes you think.

Rick, thanks for starting the thread.

My garden is not much to talk about. I did get a good onion harvest. I still have some red and yellow onions lying on the porch drying, I need to hang them on the porch on my shed with the other onions and garlic. I did get a good stand of okra, finally, but the flood has a good bit of it lying down, but I think it will produce. The deer set my sweet potatoes back two times when they are the leaves off. My tomatoes are late, we have picked four, but the first two were damaged by worms. My daughter and grand daughter just left, and took a took a large bunch of beets with then, this makes two bunches they have taken, to pickle. Madge wants to pickle a few pint, the rest I guess I will give away. While daughter and grand daughter were here we went to the wildlife garden, they found a bunch of banana peppers they wanted. I really have the wildlife garden looking nice, there are 6 small gardens over there, with the 7th. one started. The 7th garden will be the smallest, it will be 1000+ sq ft. I have roads ( trails ) in between them so I can drive my RTV, or tractor to each garden without tracking up the other gardens, it looks nice but takes a lot of work to keep it looking that way.

I need to go out and do some work, but I am so tired and sleepy. Keeping up a place is so exhausting, especially when your health starts failing.

Hazel, glad you reminded me about bagworms. These little suckers are all over the young trees. They're small, but the numbers are suprisingly large for being this early.

I've got a rising sun redbud that attracts leaf folders. I'll have to give that tree a look to see if those guys are in force yet.

I noticed the bag worms today, I had backed my truck up under a bald cypress, and when my wife got out and shut her door a small limb got caught, I noticed the small bag worms on that limb today. I have not checked to see how bad that are on the 3 bald cypress trees I have, but I feel sure I need to spray them, but I am not sure how far the worms will get up into a tree, or how far my sprayer will shoot.

Larry, once they make the bags, they are hard to wipe out with spray. Mark your calendar for next year, about 4 weeks earlier to spray your evergreens and the ground below them.

Moni, the ones I saw were still making their bag, I have killed them at that stage in the past. It appears that they bite off part of the leaf and weave it into their cocoon, I assume that is when the poison kills them. I have still not checked the trees. I seldom spray unless the worms are really high in number.

I finished mowing the lawn, mowed the bar ditch for the neighbor, mowed more in the wildlife garden, took compost and mulch to the south garden ( still have a lot of flood repair to do there), turned the compost pile and took Madge out to lunch. I have had a pretty busy day. I still need to go till the neighbors potato patch, and get it ready to replant.

Happy summer solstice to all !

The sun swings the other way and the daylight will start getting shorter after today.

Just something fundamental to take note of.

Fundamentalllllllll!!!!!!!!

May peace be upon thee.

Rick

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Happy summer solstice to you too!

Slow day today, hardly got out of the house.

Summer Solitice did it... my daughter made an offer on a house in northern Oklahoma. It was accepted this morning.

Quiet and my way is returning to my house. LOL

Moni

Don't look now, but I see a cool off coming. We may have to go through a bit of triple digit hell to get there, but it looks like it will be really nice starting on Sunday. Who knows, maybe we'll even get a drink sometime next week.

I have a blackberry patch that's starting to produce. Only 3-4 a day right now, but today I got 5. It's also overgrown with poison ivy & Virginia creeper, so this winter's project is to get it cleaned up.

Planted some squash seed today. Maybe I'm late enough that the squash bugs won't find them?

And still staring at those Abe Lincoln tomatoes, waiting for them to break color. I swear, the longest month is the one between the tomato reaching full size & when it finally starts to change color. Come on already!

Jen, that sounds great, my black berries are about finished. They produced well, but not much size to them. I never got more than a hand full at a time, but it seemed that the birds really liked them.

I bought Kiowa blackberries about 3 years ago, most died in the hot summer, they were first planted in the wildlife garden, all of those died ( no water over there ). I saved three to plant in the north garden where I could take care of them, they lived and did pretty well but the berries just did not get as large as they should have. I would like to try a different berry, but I don't know what to get.

I need to go till up a spot for some squash, we have plenty over on the neighbors place, but that is 1/4 mile away, and I think he is selling all he can produce. The produce is just now starting to produce, but it is so late and dry the expenses are eating up the profit. I have never taken any money the stuff I have grown, but neighbor sinks so much time and money into the garden, he feels that he needs a little return.

HI Everybody. Just glanced through the posts and will come back later to re-read.

Jen, my first Abe Lincoln was almost fully ripe. I wanted it to ripen on the vine....because it's the first and...I just wanted to.

I got distracted yesterday and didn't realize Maizey was out. Well, Maizey enjoyed that first Abe Lincoln. ERRRR!

Her butt is in the secured little coop today.

Well I got some much needed spraying done today, but much more needed.

I also did a little tilling, but really too dry for that. I will also go out and water an area to till for squash. I have a breathing problem and don't handle dust very well.

I check the watermelons today and found 8 watermelons, but it is so dry we wont get any melons if we don't get some rain. There is just no way we can keep everything watered.

Hard to believe, but we are getting a little rain, it looks like just a passing shower, but I am happy for every drop.

What edibles can I plant now?
I have seeds for squash, cucumbers, okra, melons

I believe you can plant all those. I recently planted okra (soaked the seeds first) and cucumbers. My squirrels, well, not mine... but the ones hanging out here, and eating here love melons and squash. Thus, I am not growing it.

Moni

Yep , plant them all.

Last shot before fall plantings.

Rick

I think we are planting more peas, neighbor says he now has 35 bushels sold and our peas are not even a foot tall yet. We sure are late this year. Neighbor is buying produce to stock to draw in customers to sell his produce, he says produce is hard for him to find, still having to buy stuff shipped in from out of state. Squash, zucchini, cucumbers, and peppers are producing well, but buying most everything else.

We talked about starting turnips in between our rows just to use for a cover/ mulch, that may also sell later, he sold turnips and turnip greens till late last year. When the market got slow we just tilled the turnips in.

Another hot one today, just figured i'd be a porch monkey until the sun faded. My rabbits must really like okra. They tear those poor plants up, and they seem to favor the heavy hitter variety.

The forecast is looking good for the first part of next week. We may be able to get some more tomatoes on. One thing I noticed is that the potted romas on the deck started blossom end rot on the newer tomatoes, coinciding perfectly with the heat.

Seems like we've been waiting a long time for that first ripe tom, but it just hasn't happened yet.

Just some random garden pics and drying onions:

Hwy20, looks like you are doing a great job, the plants look very nice. None of mine look that good, nor that clean.

I went to the wildlife garden and got all of it tilled that I could till + tilled the the new spot that I am trying to get ready, its a small spot approx. 25' x 65'. I will have to work on the area much more, it is an area I am trying to reclaim. I had some large stumps dug out last year and I am still trying to rip the roots out and smooth the area, may stick some peas there, its good enough for that, then rework again for turnips.

While tilling I saw a bunch of squash bugs on some of the squash. which means that I will mix up some kind of spray and go bug hunting. While the bugs are small and still in clusters I can do a better job of fighting them.

I have not done well on the tomato harvest either, I have had 4 ripe tomatoes so far, and noticed another in the wildlife garden.

I notices a lot of blossom end rot on the banana peppers, I need to check on that farther. We only have 2 or 3 doz plants, and it looks to be on all of them.

So far, we missed the 100-degree day. Everyone around us was sitting at 100, but we're still at 99.

I will be going outdoors in about an hour to water.

This morning I did get out and spread some cottonseed hull around the flowerbeds.

The chickens are surviving. They have fans in their coop overnight. It's still hot in the coop, but it does give them a little relief.

There's a young guy (21 and actually graduated with Ethan) who owns a house in our neighborhood. He is on his second round of chickens. His dog killed the first ones. I'm afraid that the heat took his second flock. I almost called him to suggest that he put tarps or something on his pen. I have 2 broody hens still in one of the little pens (I think their broodiness is broken and they will be going back to the main coop tonight) and the "bad hen" coop normally houses Maizey during part of the day. they both have tarps and roofs. The heat is harder on them than the cold.

As far as the garden goes, it always looks rough with this type of heat, which you all know.

Maybe we'll get some more fruit set on the tomatoes in the next few days after the "cold front" comes through.

Rick and I shucked our second batch of corn. I just blanched my share and put it in the freezer. I did the first batch yesterday, I think. And cleaned up some carrots and got those ready to use. They won't last long--people like carrots around here. The Persian cukes are doing so well. I highly recommend them. The harlequin bugs have moved to them, so handpicking has become a daily chore.

The tomatoes are slowly coming in. I'll edit this with a picture. I'm collecting the Jets to do a batch of diced tomatoes. I'll do small batches as they come in. I've been picking them when their color breaks. The Kitchen Aid is about to go to the shop to make room for the tomatoes. I won't be baking until October anyways.

There's a second batch of kraut going now. And as soon as I collect a few more of the Persian cukes, I'll start a batch of fermented pickles in the crock.

Has anyone used Pickle Pipes? They're very easy to use, but the top of the kraut is browning a bit. Not mold at all....just browning. I did overfill the jars and once the cabbage started fermenting, the jars overflowed. I dumped out a bit of the juice, so I wonder if that is what the issue is. They have glass weights on top.

Next, I want to try some fermented peppers.

After watering, there's a bit of a harvest to do. Then we'll probably walk Josi at twilight.

Blue Wild Indigo. I bought one of those at the pollinator event on Solstice. It will be planted behind the shop hopefully tomorrow.

I'm noticing bite marks out of our okra plants. Maybe it's the bunnies.

Time to gear up (hat, Farmer's Defense sleeves, proper shoes) and go water.

I only had 4 carrots, actually 5, but did not find the 5th one till I tilled the ground. I gave the 4 carrots to my great grand son, they were from a multi colored pack, I have no idea how they tasted.

I need to go out and pull some beets for Madge to pickle. I have got to look up a recipe, it has been so long since we pickled beets we don't even remember how.

I notices later yesterday when I was pulling weeds and watering that I needed to pick a few tomatoes, they may be damaged, I have a lot of bug problems.