Larry’s sweet potatoes have escaped the raised bed and are making a break for the yard gate and freedom.

I had to top my tomatoes this weekend. I don’t normally do it, but I can’t tale care of 8 foot to,ato plants. I’m too short. And, the new tomatoes were trying to form at the very top. I had an 8 foot tall Bush Goliath. I have several new plants in for fall, and a couple old ones that are regrowing from the base. I think I’ll be ok.

I apparently can’t grow peppers. They’re close together and get watered and fed regularly. Just don’t bloom.

I may try some fall potatoes.

My okra isnt doing anythung useful. Just sitting there turning yellow.

Also got some bloom booster on everything, Hopefully I can take advantage of the upcoming cool front.

Rebecca, I've done fall potatoes, although it's been awhile. They didn't make as many as the spring ones, but they did pretty well.

2022 and 2023 were not great pepper years for me. Especially 2022. Other than the drought in 2022, I have no idea why. Some years are just like that.

My strawberries are a mystery to me. For years I had good production. Now, they just....die.

The ones in the Greenstalk are doing better, but not great either.

Larry, I'm looking forward to those cooler temperatures as I'm sure most people are. I have a couple of friends who love 100 degree weather.

Glenda, I feel the same when I try winter squash. Why am I doing this? The SVB get it. I just love winter squash and pumpkins SO much.

I'm glad the thread showed up. It was only 17 hours late, but at least it appeared. I keep waiting for the second one I made to show up too now.

Around here, it's all about the elderberries. I probably have a gallon so far. Throwing them on the drying rack still attached their stems to dry was NOT the best decision. So, I'm trying to spend about an hour a day, picking fresh clusters, removing the berries and putting them in the freezer.

I might just compost the messy dried ones. I don't have time to sort through all the stem debris. Some of them I was able to pull from the stems. The loose ones are just mingled into the stem debris and it's a pain. Compost.

I really want to preserve these. I've waited a long time to have such an abundance.

And why this year? It's always such a mystery.

These will mostly be syrup (I've saved elderberry syrup in the refrigerator for up to a year and it was fine). Next year, if I have such an abundance, I would like to try to make wine. I have no idea how to do that, tho. Tom says he has a general idea. We'll see.

I'm about to take some scraps to the chickens and get cleaned up to go to Edmond to see my daughter and little grandson. She wants to try to go out for lunch and to Target.

Tomorrow will be utility room clean-up. I'm sorta dreading it, but also looking forward to it. It's nice to have two days off in a row. I'm trying to enjoy that because in a couple of weeks it's going to get crazy.

Work has been weird and busy and I really should work more....but I'm not. I don't have to. I'll be doing that soon enough.

Rebecca, get your lawn mower out, sweet potatoes will run from a lawn mower. Both of my sweet potato beds are pretty well trimmed.

This is in the north garden, it is the youngest bed, also the one I tried the cowpea mulch in, although it was by accident, I tilled in what I thought was pea hulls from last summer, but they were peas that I had not gotten around to shelling. This is another project where I may have shot myself in the foot on, because the peas may out grow the sweet potatoes.

There is a row of sweet potatoes along the north edge of the garden, they are growing over a woodchip berm now. I keep turning the runners back toward the mother plant to try to keep the vines as compact as possible, but as the sweet potatoes reach the other side of the berm, they will come face to face with the lawn mower, and the mower has not lost a battle yet. Where you see the post driver and rebar on the ground at the bottom of the picture, will be the south boundary for the potatoes.

Many of my peppers are not producing much yet. I have around 40 plants to the right of the sweet potatoes, the plants are the same age, but some have been planted longer than the others, the ones that were planted later are much smaller.

Rebecca, I have an unruly tomato plant also, it got up to around 8 feet tall, and I have no support that high. The plant kept setting fruit and became so heavy that it broke, only one limb broke completely off, and the other limbs are still trying to grow, and keep sitting fruit.

This tomato plant has been a heavy producer, and the tomatoes are pretty, but they ane not the best tasting tomato I have eaten.

The okra to the right of the picture is my oldest okra by about 2 weeks, but both rows are starting to produce pretty well.

My cucumbers are done, and need to be removed. Zucchini is also done, and yellow squash is almost gone due to squash bugs.

My dwarf tomatoes are about gone. I have been a little disappointed in the dwarf plants, they seem to be lazy.

Jennifer, the computer lied to me, I thought we were going to get cooler weather, but it is already 94 degrees, and it is not even 11:00 yet.

Do any of y'all use habanero peppers, and how do you use them? I started a lot of plants this year, and gave many to friends and family. It appears that I should have started more jalapeno. This is the first year that I have grown habanero for my self. I use to grow them for a friend and neighbor to use in pepper sauce and insect spray, but I never kept any for myself. I think that I have more habaneros than I know what to do with, and need ideas on how to use them. I remember Dawn talking about habanero jelly, I have had jalapeno jelly and liked it, but I am afraid that the habanero jelly will be much hotter.

My min/max is sitting on 101 degrees, so much for the cool down.

Larry garden looks great. I was stuck on last week again. I don’t like peppers at all. Some people make peppers jelly with habanero.

Hey, Kim! Glad you found us. For some reason this thread took 17 hours to show up.

Larry, your garden looks good.

And that cool down might be coming your way. It's supposed to come to us tonight. It's still and muggy right now. Awful. A couple of my older hens are struggling. At least it's cloudy.

I like habanero peppers. I like all peppers except the super-hot ones like Ghost.

I make pepper sauce with habanero. I've made pepper jelly with them, too.

(Rick and I even made superhot jelly back in 2020 with Ghost Carolina Reaper and Scorpion peppers. We had a lot of extra time back then. That jelly was way too hot for me, tho. I gave it away to people who like super-hot things.)

Our friends and old neighbors grew quite a few when they lived here and used them to infuse tequila.

Pepper sauce is my favorite, tho. Oh, and I've used them to make BBQ sauce too.

I didn't do any garden things. I got home from Edmond, fed the animals., looked up my recipe, and cooked dinner. It's a really good recipe. Egg Roll in a Bowl. If anyone wants the recipe, let me know. It's another from scratch recipe that uses garden food.

When I come home from Pilates, I'm hoping to work on elderberries again. There's a few more out there that need to be pulled. I'm not going to water tonight, although I should. Maybe that would encourage it to rain. Maybe I'll wash my car and/or leave my windows down.

Larry I grow habaneros among others like Carolina Reaper and Scorpion and Ghost.

They're plenty hot , the lowest level of the superhots.

Me and Jennifer have made habanero jelly and she's about to make some hot sauce out of them now.

I like to eat one raw with a plate of food or pizza.

The others ,like the Reapers , need to be a little more careful with.

I ate a reaper and a scorpion with some pizza one time and had stomach cramps so bad

I had to tone it down with a glass of milk or call the fire department.

Rick

Rick, it that a picture of you after eating one of those hot peppers? I like a jalapeno, but I have to gut it first. I do like tossing a jalapeno in beans or soup, but I am not man enough to take one on in a fair match.

I do hope Madge and I can make a little jelly. We wont need much, because I will be the only one eating it.

Yep , so hot I grew horns.

Here's Jennifer holding up a jar of "Hell Jelly" we were making.

Rick

That stuff may be too stout for me.

I also like the lesser hot peppers like Cayenne and jalapeno .

Don't have to call 911 when I eat those.

Rick

Rick, I have jalapeno, habanero, hugarian wax, sweet banana, bell, and ash county pimento, would I be safe in mixing one of those with the habanero to make a milder jelly?

Well, we got a few sprinkles. That's about it. But, thankful for the cooler weather.

Larry, yes, mix sweeter peppers with the hot ones. Makes the jelly bearable. The pepper jelly is good on biscuits and toast. Also, people lose their minds when you pour it over a block of softened cream cheese and serve with crackers. If you keep it mild (er) everyone can enjoy.

Some of the trendy sandwich shops will put the jelly on sandwiches too.

Next year, I'm going to need to scale back on tomato plants. I can't eat them all. I've given them away and still have too many sitting on my counter. Making notes for next year. It's doubtful I'll need to can them next summer BUT will probably need to can them the year after.

I'm about to get up and start on the utility room. It's hard one to keep clean and tidy. It's sorta like a garage, sorta like a back porch, sorta like a laundry room, sorta like a mudroom. It is heated and cooled but it stays hotter in the summer and colder in the winter. The attic access is there as well. That could be a factor.

I'm going to start with the canning pantry and then the other cabinet that has cleaning supplies, my sewing machine, Tom's spices for BBQ. Then move everything out, knock down the cobwebs and dead crane flies that always seem to get caught in the cobwebs. They've been there for months.

Okay....here I go.

Larry , yeah you can mix sweet banana or bell with the habs to make a milder jelly.

Now when you cut up the habs ( or any of the hotter peppers) you need to wear gloves or you'll start feeling the heat through your fingers.

And be careful when you go to the bath room or you'll feel the heat "somewhere" else.

Rick

Thanks, Rick.

I just left TLC on Memorial in Edmond. They have all vegetables and herbs for 1/2 price. Went in after 2-3 plants and came out with 12. Many tomatoes and peppers are too big but if you look through there are some very nice about 12-15” tall and nice and stocky. I got patio and bush tomatoes because I can either carry in or cover in case of early frost, pepperocini and banana peppers, 2 more parsley plants.

And we got 1/2” of rain before we left home and its raining again! Today is a good day.

Wow! That's a good deal, Glenda. Good idea for patio sized tomatoes for the fall. It's irritating when we have a single frost night in October, then it's perfectly beautiful for 3 weeks after.

Have you grown pepperoncini before? I really like it. It's a first for me this year.

Somehow, I have zero parsley in the garden this year. Usually it's all over the place.

I feel like I need to explain the pictures that Rick posted.

One night back in 2020 we were canning pepper jelly. We made the super-hot jelly that particular night. Snapchat had a devil filter, so we took pictures because we had named the jelly "Hell Jelly". We had an entire series of different peppers made with different types of hot peppers---some hotter than other. I think we had Infereno Jelly. Dante's Jelly. I can't remember them all because it's been 4 years.

2020 was a weird time as we all remember. We spent many nights--Tom, Rick, our neighbor and me outside until after dark. Mostly canning and chatting. (And then, the summer was gone, and we all went back to work).

Anyway, I had a couple of questions regarding the pictures. That's all it was.

Can you believe that I still haven't finished the utility room and it's nearly 5. Leftovers for tonight.

Rain has missed us so far again. My friend calls this area the toilet bowl.

The utility room is finally done at 8 pm.

the canning pantry is organized and counted.

i will come back with a better picture.

That was a long day.

It was worth it.

It was good to count the jars to see what I still have. Obviously, I don't need to can much this year.

37 diced tomatoes

I probably used about 24 this past year.

77 brown beans

24 black beans

27 cowpeas

14 greens

10 corn

8 hominy

6 qt. potatoes 3 pt potatoes

15 qt green bean 3 pt green bean

15 qt veg. soup

Jelly: 5 roselle, 4 sand plum, 2 mixed berry, 2 strawberry, 3 blackberry, 5 pepper jelly

and pickles, relish, and other weird things.

anyway....it's good to see that and know where I'm at.

Hope everyone had a productive day and got some rain. Sorry it missed you busy1.

Ready for World War III.

Rick

Jennifer, your stash of food is impressive. I have some shelves a little like that built in a cellar over at my old house, but my health has gone down till I am unable to take care of the grounds over there. The old house is about a half a mile away, so it id hard to take tools and supplies over there to keep the lawn mowed and the buildings repaired. I just use the place as storage.

I hope to be able to work on my irrigation system today. I was able to do a little in the garden and mow most of the lawn yesterday, plus I had to have some work done on my truck. It really does not take much to keep my day full, I also spend a lot of time resting.

It's a good pantry for sure. A lot of the stuff that we can goes to Rick's house too.

Larry, I wish I had a cellar.

I'm working late today, so I'm not sure what sort of gardening I'll do this evening. We really need to mow.

It does feel good to get the utility room done, tho. The other pantry was a disaster.

Here's the thing. I can't save every jar. Obviously the canning jars will be saved, but sometimes there's really nice jars that store-bought food comes in. I cannot save them all. I can't. I'm generally not a hoarder, but jars are a weak spot of mine.

And moon water. Stop making moon water if there's not a purpose or intention for it. I found "almost full" moon water from Lughnasadh 2020. Full moon water from Christmas Eve 2015. Marked and unmarked moon waters in jars everywhere.

Maybe I'll continue with the elderberry harvest tonight.

Jennifer - your food pantry is impressive. In my younger years, many many years ago we had a cellar and I tried my best to fill up the shelves every summer, so I know and respect how much time and effort goes into each jar. I always felt good knowing I was feeding my family homegrown healthy food. Now I do well just keeping enough produce for us to eat and maybe share a little with family and friends.

Once in awhile I have a bit to freeze or make refrigerator pickles.

Larry, I’m certain the old people are the ones who appreciate your vegetables the most. Most don’t have access or funds to buy fresh produce or a place to grow it even if they are able. You are a very generous soul.

Jennifer, no I have never raised pepperonci peppers before, but have dear friends who love them so decided I would try some. Jars are a weakness of mine too - I have boxes of canning jars upstairs that haven’t seen light in 15 years, 1/2 gallon jars that we used to sell goat milk in and now hold food in my pantry, and way too many old blue jars with zinc lids or just pretty decorative jars that hold dried beans or crafting supplies. When we moved I gave jars to anyone who wanted them for whatever reason, even gave several boxes to a bride putting sand and candles in them to use as decorations for her wedding, with the promise she would wash and keep and learn to can. Later heard they were gathered up and trashed after the ceremony.

I too am curious about moonwater. I was born in Mena Arkansas and lived in SE Oklahoma - had relatives who made shine -but don’t know about moonwater.

Enjoying the cooler weather, hoping to get new tomatoes and peppers planted and clean out a garden space for late planting of okra or purple hull peas and some fall green beans.

Glenda, I've made one large jar of pickled pepperoncini peppers so far. They're really good. It is the pepper that is often on pizzas and sandwiches, etc. at restaurants.

The reason I'm not canning much this year is because with just the two of us, it's not necessary to can so much food. I don't can for the purpose of having the jars look pretty on the shelves, although they do. I can to eat. I've really changed how we eat more with the seasons too. Although, there are few exceptions. Lettuce for one. I buy it almost every week that it's not in the garden. Also, I'll buy a veggie from time to time in the store out of season, as well as some fruits.

Larry, moon water is not like moonshine at all. LOL. Making and using it more for spiritual reasons.

Glenda, Madge was born in Mena, Arkansas, also, well, she was born in a log cabin on the Ouachita river east of Board Camp, Arkansas. Madge went to school in Board Camp for a while, then to Old Dallas school, which was a one room school. Madge went to Mena high school which was about 8 miles west of Board Camp. Madge went her senior year at De Queen, Arkansas. I have had a much more boring life than Madge. I was born at my grand mothers house less than 5 miles from where I live now, I have never lived more than 25 miles of where I live now.

I have a bunch of jars that belonged to my grand mother. I hope to pass them down to my grand daughter. I have made pickles in some of the jars, but have never pressure canned, but I still hope to do some pressure canning. We have canned some tomatoes, but those were only water bath, Madge is a little afraid of pressure canning.

My min/max shows that it got down to 63 last night, that does not happen often around here.

Yesterday was my day to water, and I got mixed up about the dates. It is hard for me to keep my tomatoes from splitting if I cant keep the moisture somewhat even in the garden, yesterday was the first day that I picked split tomatoes, but I am going to blame the rains on that.

I hope to be able to place some mulch around some plants today, and feed my peppers a little, I don't feed my plants often, but some of them look a little hungry. Many of my tomatoes are too far gone to mess with, but I have some that were planted late, hoping for fall tomatoes, I may toss a little 13-13-13 around them, that is hotter than what I had rather use, other than a little liquid fish.

Larry, pressure canning is a bit scary! All the hissing and whatnot. I don't often pressure can inside on my stove, but do from time-to time. I mostly make jellies, diced tomatoes, pickles inside which don't require pressure canning. I've done small batches of beans inside, tho. None this year. I don't need more canned beans. LOL. Y'all saw the pantry.

We prefer green beans fresh or frozen.

It was crisp and nice this morning while doing the animal chores. I'm sitting here now trying to figure out what my morning and early afternoon should look like. I have a lot of little chores that need to be caught up.

The German Johnson seed is probably well fermented now, so I'll get those drying. I have laundry to fold and houseplants to water. Maybe up-pot the SunGold seedlings. I need to start cabbage and kale for fall soon. Might do that on Sunday.

I actually feel very rested this morning for the first time in a long time. I had a nagging headache yesterday so it's nice to not have that. I slept like a rock last night.

Larry, here is the first ripe Freds Tie Dye.

Jennifer, are your dwarf plants productive? My tie dye is producing better than the sweet sue but they are about through producing, and have a lot of disease. My Sonny Boy had a lot of disease also. The best looking plants that I have are the Giant Crimson from Kim, and that strange plant from some of Madge's seeds. Kim's plant is just now starting to produce a lot of tomatoes. I have been getting tomatoes from Kim's plant for a good while, but there are several on it now that need to be picked. But, when I talk about production, I have to place that strange plant of Madge's at the top of the list. Madge's plant grew up to about 7' (that is all the trellis it has) then broke over and is still growing and sitting fruit. I don't think the tomatoes are great, but it seem that the rest of the family does. I will have to say that I don't think I have picked a split tomato from that plant. If I can figure out what that plant is I will try to get more seed.

The hard part of pressure canning for me is lifting it. I have to fill it on the stove, not in the sink. You get more comfortable after you've done it a couple of times. Ron says it was common in New Jersey for the ladies to cook in them. (No, I don't know what.) This kinda makes me laugh, because New Jersey is the most noisy place I've been. Every house starts with a yapping dog, then a football game on TV, also a radio playing Christmas carols. Then, Jennifer imagine the hissing going on in the kitchen. In New Jersey, if someone wants to talk, they just talk louder than the person talking. So conversations are shouting matches. When I went to bed at night my ears ached.

I gave tomato plants to my daughter's daycare lady. She sent us tomatoes the other day. So I feel like I produced something.

We have been busy. Got the roof replaced, then new gutters. (With covers so the maple trees won't grow in them and I don't have to worry about my husband cleaning them on a ladder.) Yesterday we put up mini blinds and new curtains in the living room. I'm not thrilled with the curtains, but they're supposed to insulate from heat and cold. Since we put in the dog door, that means we leave the back door open so the dogs can go out and that let more heat IN. Not sure how it will work in winter.

Larry, I’m glad that tomato plant is working for you. I have only gotten a few. Amy, the electric digital canner by Presto is amazing. It does kind of small batches maybe five or 6 quart at a time but it absolutely works great for me.

Kim, I am looking for a tomato that will last all summer, and till frost, I have high hopes for your tomato doing that. I have used Early Girl in the past for my long lasting tomato, but I am hoping that your tomato, and a new one " me for", Early Treat, to add to the long lasting list. I hope to save seed from the strange tomato, I know that it is a hybrid so I have no Idea what it will reproduce next year. I also grow one that is just called "Large Cherry", which produces very well.

When I was young, mom had a Presto cooker that was about a 6 qt size that she cooked with, she liked it a lot, because it would cook fast and made things more tender, she used it on a gas stove.

Amy, I use to drive an 18 wheeler, I drove all the lower 48 states and part of Canada. I made a lot of runs to New Jersey, it was one of my least favorite places to go. The people sound like they were mad all the time, and the towns were impossible drive a long truck in, my trailer alone was 53' long.

Kim, Madge called me to eat, and I took a short break, and I told Madge that I wanted to go pick the tomatoes on your plant, and tie up a few limbs on other plants. Would you believe that I picked 50 tomatoes off of your plant? I though that was a pretty good haul. None of the tomatoes were large, but they were from large cherry size to small slicer size.

You and Ron have been productive, Amy.

New Jersey sounds the opposite of what my personality can handle. Loud talking alone and in general is enough to make me nervous after a few minutes. I would be exhausted just sitting around.

On the other hand. I was alone until 3:30 today and loved it. I got a lot of little things crossed off the list. Yes, I do talk to myself, but it is what it is. I like being quiet in the house alone. It's energizing.

Very sad. My last Seminole pumpkin has wilted. Not "sun" wilt, but SVB wilt.

I'll leave it for the night to see....just in case.

No winter squash for me yet again.

I'm trying to think of something I can do. I thought about trying butterbaby or honeynut in the Vego bed. Put them on a trellis and BT them every other day or so. Supposedly they are more compact.

Amy, I love pressure cookers. I haven’t used my canner in 15 years, but it was well used. Mine used a weighted guage and I felt it was safe. When I was a teenager my mother was canning chicken with an old guage cooker, pressure went too high and blew chicken, glass and everything all over the kitchen and ceiling. Luckily nobody was in there at the moment it blew. My brothers still will not allow a pressure cooker in their house. I also have a 2 qt and 5 qt size cooker I use often, the smaller one for peas, or small cuts of meat, the large one for roast or meals.

We worked several hours cleaning out the garden today and hope to plant new plants and seeds for fall before rain tomorrow night. Hope to get them started before the heat returns.

I got fall sweet corn coming up. 2 inches tall , best stand I've ever had for a fall planting.

Hope it gets a good rain this weekend.

Rick

I've had both the weighted and gauge style canners. I bought the gauge style in the early 1980s, it was recommended at the time. By the time I wanted to can again, weighted was most recommended. I also had a small pressure cooker. It was really too small for most things, but I think I made chicken broth in it...and whatever recipe that inspired me to buy it in the first place, lol.

New Joisy, what a place. They talk fast. Not as fast as new York city, I have a brother in law from New York I can't understand at all. They don't have left turn lanes. They have jug handles on the right side of the road. But food, they do have good food! Cheese steak, pizza, his hometown has a bakery that made rolls for the pope.

Hope you all get rain.

The older pressure cookers and canners have to be watched meticulously. They cannot be left unattended or the pressure can get too high. That happened to my mother and she sprayed spaghetti all over the house when she didn’t realize the pressure was too high. I really like my electric one because it doesn’t do that, it’s easy for me to handle. I got out and planted some summer squash, spaghetti, squash, honey nut squash, and some other stuff. It is ridiculously hot already so I came in to edit my video. Richard was thrilled. I came in and gave him some extra food andfreshened his bathwater he took a nice long bath and is probably sleeping now. I have a few more things to plant but the rest of my fall stuff. I’m going to wait until after the convention. It’s over August 3 so I will have plenty of time to get that stuff going.

Larry, I am so glad that your tomato plant is producing nicely. Mine is slow. I have gotten two tomatoes or three maybe I don’t know not many. But that’s a record.

We are getting rain!

I've had this thought lately.

I've heard two ways to water tomatoes for plant health and good fruit:

1. water deeply once or twice a week for healthy roots

2. consistent watering is important for healthy fruit.

Obviously, we can't control the rain, but which is it? Small watering sessions every day for consistency or deep watering once a week for roots?

Too much water splits the fruit. I might rethink my tomato watering schedule next year.

I've had a lot of sun scald even in the KG where it's shaded in the late afternoon/evening. I'm considering growing fewer tomato plants in that garden and having proper shade clothes over them.

I do love tomatoes, but don't need so many (other than when I need to can them). I feel that a smaller number of plants will help me keep them in better shape. There's 24 in the Kitchen Garden now. I could half that number.

I've toyed with the thought of buying a Greenstalk for the June bearing strawberries too. In a way, that seems wasteful. Using a Greenstalk for a crop that has a short season. BUT, I use other beds for the same purpose. I currently have a nice 4'x8' bed just for June bearers. All but two of the berry plants have died. Third season this has happened. I've wasted that bed that apparently can't grow berries. It's the oddest thing. Just a couple of feet over, I had a circular type of tiered bed for years that did great. It would be nice to use that bed to grow something instead of putting in strawberries there that are doomed to die.

Then there's the asparagus. Two beds of a crop that's only in season from April/May through June.

So maybe it's not such a dumb idea. IF the plants could survive being in a Greenstalk over the winter in the KG. The Greenstalk next to our house probably has a better shot in keeping plants alive over the winter.

That's the other thing.

Maybe move the entire thing to the shop during the winter?

It would be nice to put that June bearing berry bed to use in other ways. Maybe add it to the onion rotation.

Things to think about....

What all are you thinking about regarding your gardens?

Our health issues are getting in the way of about everything we do. I do much better when we are not on water restrictions. I can go out and water for a short period of time any day, but If we feel bad, and can only water with hand held device every other day there are times when my shallow soil gets too dry and the tomatoes split. We have a lot of doctor appointments and the garden has to take the back seat sometimes.

My wife and daughter tell me every year that I plant too much, maybe I should have been listening to them.

I finally got a pepper on my plant. I got the plants at the spring fling and they were both marked California wonder bell pepper. This little pepper that I got is not that. Which does not hurt my feelings because I don’t eat peppers. Them I am probably going to pull it Because I need the space for planting cabbages soon. I will get a picture of it later. It seems like a lot of peppers are coming out wrong this year again.

Kim, have you started cabbage yet? I think I'll start mine tomorrow evening.

So far all of my peppers have been true. I was worried about the lunchbox ones, but I had saved grocery store pepper seed. Even those have worked out. I do think I've seen that other people have had continuing issues with peppers, but maybe not as widespread.

I made the first bottle of elderberry syrup. It was with the ones that were dried. I only got about a cup of syrup. I ended up throwing a lot away. The ones that were half dried and left in a large stainless steel bowl. They started molding. Bummer.

But I have probably a gallon and a half of fresh ones in the refrigerator and freezer. And still more on the bushes.

Larry, I need to figure out dripline irrigation for my kitchen garden.

That remaining Seminole plant has some "healthy" leaves and vines and some that have wilted completely. I know that the vines root as they grow. We'll see.

I have little cucumbers forming.

Finally.

I have not started my cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, etc. yet. In fact, I just ordered from MI Gardner. He has 40% off sale. So I jumped on an ordered $20 worth of stuff because with $20. You get free shipping in addition to the 40%. I also ordered a lot of my onion seed that I want to grow this year following the old Alabama gardener recommendation planting style. I ordered six different types of onions at $1.20 a package for 250 to 300 seeds. I thought it was a pretty good bargain. I honestly can’t remember everything I ordered but it’s all in an email so I can keep up with it. I did do my last summer planting except for a few herbs. After the convention which is until August 3, I will plant my fall crops. Somebody recommended a hanger shop light in my loft and put my seed trays up there. I am still considering that, but it would require a lot of shuffling of junk. One loft holds all of my winter clothes and gardening stuff and side of the loft holds canning and kitchen stuff. I have two weeks to figure it out. I got my new video up sowing seeds and I planted my strawberry plants. I was gifted.

Kim, I think that I took some Calif. Wonder, and Ashe County pimento, I think I took other kinds also but the small bell pepper plants and the Ashe County look a lot alike. I think that I got some mixed plants, I just tried to start too many different kinds of plants, plus I set them out in the front yard and let people pick through them, and that also may have helped me mix my plants up.

My bells are producing better than the other peppers so far. I have been disappointed in my jalapenos this year. The Habanero look like they are going to produce well, but I don't know what to do with them.

Laken and Nick are coming to visit tomorrow, and are planning on taking the extra produce home with them to give away.

A lot of the seed companies have had a hard time the last few years getting the right seeds into the right packages. I am in a group on Facebook and last few years. It has been a joke and a guessing game. What kind of pepper is this?

Kim, we are getting some rain, very slow, and will do the gardens good, but we will still have to water in a few days.

I was messing around in the north garden this morning ( in the very light rain), I noticed a pepper that I did not remember, it looked about like a green turkey heart. I had a lot of seed that Nancy had sent and I was afraid that they would get to old, do I planted a lot of stuff that was new to me.

I have my north garden planted too thick, but I had plant that I needed to get rid of. I hope that I don't have it so thick that it harms production.

I think my insect problem is getting worse. I cant say that the grasshopper numbers are any greater, but they seem to be larger and eating more. The birds were really eating the young grasshoppers, but now I think the grasshoppers are eating the birds.

Watering tomatoes: I was a water every day person, but Dawn convinced me to water deep and not water again till they needed it. You can't do anything about rain, but how much rain do we NORMALLY get in summer? Anyway she said she had wood stakes cut to a point for each bed. She would stick that in the ground and pull it out to see where it got damp. Kind of like sticking your finger in a pot to see if it's wet enough. What we have been doing is water for an hour with the soaker hoses about every 3 or 4 days. Tomatoes have very deep roots. If you water shallowly every day they don't put their roots down to a depth where it's consistently moist. It is very hard to stop micro managing like I was, but it does make it easier on you. I have a broken piece of white PVC that I have used to check moisture sometimes.
I'm sorry about the Seminoles. I've never had the vines penetrated by SVB, but I have had them go into the leaves right at the joint. Supposedly moschatas are vigorous enough to tolerate this, but I've never gotten one to produce much. Now, the Korean hybrid summer squash want to take over the world, and THEY ignore SVB. I didn't find them good at later stages like winter squash.

My soil is hard and shallow, I have been working on the soil for around 20 years, and it is much better, but if you need to stick a stick down in the soil chances are I am going to need a hammer also to put the stick in.

This year I have been adding Top Notch potting soil and perlite to the soil and it is doing better, the plants seem to grow better and the water seems to soak in better, It is a little pricey, but too soon to really tell if it is worthwhile.

I have problems with squash bugs and vine bores every time I plant pumpkins or squash, I am too slow to catch and kill the squash bugs. If I plan on getting a good harvest, I moat often have use chemicals. I try to mix up a gallon of spray and just leave in on the back porch, and just spray a strip of the stem, and watch for the eggs to hatch and spray the cluster of the newly hatched squash bugs, I don't do this every year. I have not sprayed this year and have already lost my zucchini, and most of the yellow squash.

I have had a winter squash of some kind come up out in the edge of the pasture, and the squash bugs have almost killed it.