The Road Home

The Road Home
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Thursday, June 18, 2020

What's Growin' In the Garden 4

Well folks, it truly is turning out to be a hot summer, isn't it? Frank has long thought the unraveling of our society would come to pass about this time. The uncertainty of life affects us all in many different ways, even the earth is unsettled and behaving quite different. Gardens and pastures in these parts are not growing anything like they usually do. Some things do okay, not great, but okay. Other standard crops are barely growing or doing anything. I have found ONE squash bug this summer. ONE. By now they are normally here by the hundreds and the plants are dead. Instead, we have had many fewer yellow squash, but the plants are happy.

Today we pulled the beets and planted grocery store red potatoes. Yes, it's very late to plant potatoes and it's a toss up whether they will grow in the heat of the summer here. We weren't going to grow any at all, but feel the need to grow more calories and nutrition.
Old beet patch, one new potato patch









More potatoes between the cabbage & sunflowers

                Here is a look at the rest of the garden.

Parsley in the front, carrots and yellow squash

Sweet potatoes on  stock panels are growing well.

Pinto beans, some are climbing and some are not....

Tomatoes are growing slowly with little production

Purple hull peas after 4 plantings

Okra, barely growing, and it's mid June

Sunflowers for chicken feed

There are a number of cabbages that survived the worms.

Small pepper plants

Planted Thelma Sanders winter squash by wooden stakes today.

Apple with curculio infestation

I was very hopeful of a good fruit crop this year. Our young plums were loaded with fruit, but each had this little brown mark on it. Every plum dropped and now the apples are slowly joining in. I pick up half a dozen or so every other day as they fall and feed them to the chickens. I found a beneficial nematode that is supposed to help control curculio and applied them below the trees a month or so ago. My research indicates curculios may produce up to two generations per year, so I hope the nematodes are established enough to affect the second generation this summer. I don't know if there will be any apples left to harvest or not, only time will tell.

Rather dismal outlook, isn't it? It is definitely a strange growing season. As the COVID19 outbreak grew more serious, we decided to grow more food this year instead of less like we had planned. But the way the garden is performing, we don't know how much food it will produce at all. If we were truly in dire straits and dependent upon this growing season for survival, it would be a very stressful situation indeed. Well. What if this is it? What if our life does depend upon this harvest?


Folks, we are in perilous times. Do everything in your power to have enough food for your family for the long term. It matters not if you grow one morsel, have food for your family. Do everything in your power to provide a safe environment for your loved ones. Between the virus, the economy, the riots, the anger and hatred, our country is a pressure cooker just waiting for the lid to blow. The tentacles of the enemy are long and well camouflaged. Distance is your friend.

Frank has been saying for many months that it is going to be a very hot summer. The summer is upon us with burning and death. There are a couple of videos at the end of this article that may give you pause. If nothing else, I hope they give you something to think about.

Food. You can't have too much & without it you are dead.

Until next time - Fern



21 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Curculios ruined our plum crop two years n a row until we began using Neem Oil. Joe sprayed it all over and under the branches and leaves. The next year we got plums again. Best to you both...Mary

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  3. Thanks for sharing-your garden looks great. I've never thought about training sweet potatoes to a trellis before. I know you've mentioned this before, but do you have any kind of fencing protecting your garden? I have both deer and rabbits.

    On curculio: I haven't had problems at my new place yet, but got good results with Surround (kaolin clay) sprayed at the rate of 1 cup of powder per gallon. Three treatments did a pretty good job of deterring them, repeated occasionally. Most say to spray foliage and fruit, but I targeted the fruit. One of my peaches would lose a lot of leaves if sprayed with the clay. It dropped my attack rate from as high as 80% to as low as about 5%.

    My peaches would grow to maturity even if they had curculio larvae in them; I just cut out the bad parts. I hope the nematodes work; they are a very difficult pest to deal with and eradicate.

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    1. North GA, we have field fence around the yard and pastures. The garden is very close to the house and we haven't had any deer problems. We thin the rabbit population every year during gardening season. We see it as our food, not theirs.

      I am hoping the nematodes work for the curculios, we have never sprayed our trees. I'll let you know if any of the apples make it.

      Thanks, Fern

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  4. Late freezes got all of our fruit trees this year but my garden is cranking out veggies. I picked a bucket of ripe tomatoes today. I am giving about 3 or 4 Walmart sacks of squash, zucchini, banana peppers, cucumbers, green beans and new potatoes away to people who need it. I've already canned a bunch of green beans. Instead of buying garden plants, I started a lot of plants this year. They have done well. I have a zucchini plant that is probably 6' diameter and above my waist. No bugs yet. The Bermuda grass is just now starting to grow in the pastures- been very slow. Your garden pics look good. I hope it picks up for you soon. I think we will need everything we can get.

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    1. Nano, sounds like your garden is doing great. Good for you!

      Fern

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  5. Your gardens look good, I hope they end up producing well. We downsized last year and moved to a small lot. I miss our large gardens but am creating vegetable gardens where ever I can. We tore up a large section of grass and put in a vegetable garden that is doing quite well. Who needs lawn! Appreciate your blog, keep up the good work.

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    1. Thanks, Thrifty. You can't eat a lawn......

      Fern

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  6. Hi deepsuothhomestead spoke of the aluminum raining down from chem trails. They had soil tested and added nutrients the aluminum makes it impossible for plants to take up nutrients

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  7. Hi Fern,
    Sorry for all your garden problems. It can be discouraging sometimes. Considering the food shortages and rationing that we are seeing I feel we don't have a lot of choice but to garden as much as we possibly can. Hopefully your garden still produces enough for your needs this year.
    Our biggest problem this year has been gophers. They ate most all of our bush beans, 1/3 of our tomato plants and some pole bean plants. We have since built a screen bottom pole bean box , replanted everything that was eaten and began a diet of Omega granules to our underground freinds . The granules disappeared (eaten) and things seem to have gotten quiet. You said it well, food, without it you are dead.
    We feel we are in for a long hot summer on into November and beyond. TPTB are in control of things , or so it appears. Interesting indeed . Thanks again for your garden update .
    Bluesman

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    1. I didn't know gophers would eat a garden, Bluesman, but we've never lived in gopher country. Thanks for the opportunity to learn.

      You're right about November and beyond. Either way the election goes, I think it will be a time of grave uncertainty. We'll see.

      Fern

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  8. Fruit trees with 3 late frosts were a total loss, we got a handful of cherries and that was it. Even grapes did not do well. Otherwise things look good so far, onions, potatoes, rhubarb, strawberries, asparagus, beans, lettuce, spinach, peas, squash, tomatoes, zucchini, all chuggin’ along so far. Thanks for the videos, we were watching Tucker Carlson that night he gave that monologue and it is an eye opener. Scary times. Glad we live far away from the cities. All the best, God Bless.

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  9. Hi Fern & Frank, life is complicated, we need more than just food to maintain living. Energy and water are two essentials as well but when looking at the daily needs the list is long. If the world as we know it stop, it will be hard to maintain today's comfort.
    This spring the fruit trees where all so beautiful with healthy levees and flowers now suddenly one apple tree and one plum tree are dead, odd, just have to plant new ones. I didn't sow potatoes this year and now I regret, but to my surprise some potato plants have come up buy themselves, great! The rest is more or less as normal. God bless.

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    1. There is so much to daily life that will be impacted if the world stops, and no way we can think of or prepare for all of it. Do the best you can and hold on tight. It will be a bumpy ride.

      Fern

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  10. Out here in the Wild, Wild West, leaf curl got the nectarine crop. It started on the plums as well, but we got to them in time. I used copper sulfate to knock the fungus down, saving the plums and peaches. Powdery mildew showed its head on the grapes, but neem oil took care of it. Both neem oil and copper sulfate can be used on organic crops, and can be used up until time of harvest. Give 'em a shot!

    Stand by for heavy rolls as the ship comes about!

    Good luck and God bless!

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  11. Morning Fern! Love the garden porn!! Been a strange one here as well. Late frosts pretty well decimated both the peach and plum crops. Gooseberries are loaded not so much the blueberries. Grapes looking pretty good. People down below in the valley are complaining about Japanese beetles with a vengeance and I haven't seen a one. Wouldn't it be nice if they lost the way to my house. On the other hand I am fighting a battle with potato bugs. Ducks love them! My fat little quackers are loving the potato patch. Like you we have a crop stuck in every little nook and cranny. Scary times.. Hugs and God Bless CQ

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    1. Hmmm, garden porn? CQ, I am not familiar with the term. Porn to me has always been a nasty thing that we don't look at. Gardens? I like looking at them. You need to come pull the million weeds in mine so it will look more like yours!

      Fern

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  12. We have squash bugs and cannot get rid of them. What can we do? Thanks
    J in East Texas

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  13. We have squash bugs and cannot get rid of them. What can we do? Appreciate someone tell me. Thanks!
    J in East Texas

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    1. J, I have found squash bugs to be formidable when they arrive in numbers. I have only been able to keep them partially at bay by hand picking bugs and eggs. Make sure you check both on top of and under the leaves. I don't use chemicals in the garden, only beneficial insects and nematodes which take a season or two to become established and have an effect.

      Some folks use Sevin dust on their plants for squash bugs. I don't know how effective it is, though. Just make sure to scrub your produce well if you choose to use it.

      Best of luck, Fern

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  14. N. GA here. Our red potatoes have taken over. Corn, squash and green beans are ok, peppers are ok-ish, but the tomatoes are struggling with all of the rain. The peach tree is disappointing as always.

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