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kimberly
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gc, you go tater woman!!! I am so jealous you have all those potatoes. What are you going to do with all those potatoes? My grandparents had a cellar under the pack house....maybe I posted all this before??... about how they preserved all the potatoes and onions and canning goods???

I never met a potato I didn't like. I don't care how many eyes it has!!!!

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WG, thanks and yes, it could be the same thing, but my potatoes are just fine. I'm hoping to have a new home for tomatoes for next year. My husband is planning on building a new long raised bed which will house the tomatoes. We'll see :)

gc

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hey Kimberly, I put all the potatoes in the shed to dry. It has rained too much to leave them out in the sun, and there has been no sun! We eat a lot of potatoes so none will go to waste. I have to say, they have a wonderful taste!

gc

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I am getting ready to have to hunker down for the fall garden. I have a new compost pile about to go in the gardens. The area for the green leafys (not related to anyone we know on this site..ha!!ha!!), collards, lettuce, cabbage will get added nitrogen.

I still have butterbeans falling off the vine. The stalks of corn are turning brown. Gonna be great for fall decorations along with some beautiful punkins.

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Ditto On hunkering down for fall. My tomatoes (The large ones) are almost done but my Roma's are just building up a head of steam.. WOO HOOOO Spagetti Sauce here I come.

and My Cukes are about spent and Cantaloupe just started being ripe.. and of course messes of green bush beans.

Sigh I love Summer!

For winter it is radishes/carrots/lettuce/beets/and I think I am gonna throw in some Broccoli in the boxes for tomatoes next year.. IT is a protection against wilt which we have in abundance here some years.

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Thanks Waysider, I love historical stuff like this. Mr. Livingston, hhhmmm. I wonder if he was related to another Mr. Livingston? When I pass by old farms I imagine the lives that were there.

Took a walk up the road yesterday. I was determined to ask the rose lady how does her garden grow. Low and behold she was out in the yard and I asked her, "What do you fertilize your roses with? Mine haven't done so well this year and yours are so beautiful." "Well come on in and I will show you." Alfalfa meal and a little bone meal "Here, let me give you some so you can try it. Use about a half a cup twice a year. Just work it into the soil around the roses." I left there with a gallon bag of the alfalfa meal.

She is a retired home economics teacher. We talked about gardening, cooking, sewing and sewing machines. We are going to exchange and cook together each other's grilled pizza recipes.

Spent most of the day in the garden preparing the soil for the fall goodies. I ran down to the seed store before they closed at noon to get alfalfa meal. I am now a believer in that stuff since I know that is what makes the roses so beautiful.

The recent rains have produced an onslaught of butterbeans. My other farming friends can't believe I still have butterbeans coming in. I managed to pick what I could. The bumble bees were a terror. The blooms are still that prolific!! Have at it I told them. Geez, I'll check back in a few days if that is o. k. with you. The daggum fire ants ate part of my right foot and hand. Came in the house, sliced open an onion and rubbed it on the bites. Instant relief. Works everytime.

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Wish I'd known about the onions and fire ants when we lived in SC! Seems Sprout when a lad new to the area thought it was fun to gather up fistfuls of dust and throw them up into the air. Unfortunately, he ripped the roof off a fire ant condo one time. No more dust bowls for that kid!

They were such a scourge in Charleston. Best remedy I heard there was to ram a broom handle down the middle of the hill, pour in gasoline, and throw a match as you hastened away. Allegedly if you did it frequently enough you could end up getting down to the queen and killing the colony. Or else just bug the daylights out of them until they moved lock, stock and barrel to the neighbor's yard.

WG

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WG, fire ant condo is correct. After heavy rains the hills can look like a palace. It was going around for a while to dig into the hill, pour grits in it, (naaahhh, not in the south!!!) cover it back up then pour water in the hill. Supposedly, the ants eat the grits, the grits expand and the ants blow up. Sounds like material for Jeff Foxworthy doesn't it?!!!?! This is too funny....

One method I read about and have found very effective is to dig deep into the hill, take the soil and ants and mix them in with another hill that is not near. Then I take soil from the second hill and put it in the first hill. They fight and kill like gladiators. They don't like boiling water either.

I had the most glorious day in the gardens. Amended, limed, fertilized, weeded and put in 18 collards. Still have 9 more to go and 18 cabbages. I have been very negligent in the back of the yard. The grassy weeds had nearly taken over in the walking path. I was tip-toing back there. It is shady and cool and didn't want to run up on a Copperhead. I did see SOBB, Son of Big Black. His daddy is the longest black snake I have ever seen in my life. I don't know where dad went but son lives in what used to be a rabbit den. Needless, to say, no bunny activity in the greens garden for a while. Awww...

Anyway, I weeded that area. Now I can see the Sedum from the kitchen window.

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I am so looking forward to next spring. In about a year I will really retire as we will be debt free. We had a good season here, but it could be even better if I didn't spend the precious morning hours in front of a monitor!

I had a foster kid once who was not afraid of fire ants and had very steady hands. He would get a few of them to crawl up his fingers, then walk carefully across the yard and toss them into the web of a giant "writing" spider that had made its home in our shrubbery. I asked him what he was doing, and he simply wanted to see whose poison was the strongest. (I think the spider won; it had the added advantage of spinning a cocoon around its prey). Shiver shiver!

I have five tomato plants in flower beds around the house. Three of them have made themselves into shrubs and have to be suckered a couple of times a week, but they are also making me a huge number of paste (Roma) tomatoes, which make the most awesome tomato sauce! It's cooler here now, and we have been taking them off the vine as soon as they become a little pink and letting them ripen in the sun on the south side of the porch. The house smells like tomatoes most of the time, even now!

WG

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My screen is kooky, I hope this comes out ok.

Rain, rain, rain. Thank goodness. No sun for over a week. Not complaining though about the rain. The collards and cabbage are holding their own. Greens love and need lots of water. Just need it to clear off and dry a bit to get out there and pick the butterbeans. They should fat as a junebug by now.

The boy left the lawn mower out. I am sure it is ruined by now. This time of year he should be able to find a mower at a really reduced price!!! If not, mom has good utility shears he can use!!!

The two pecan trees in the front yard are so full the branches almost touch the ground. I did a little fertilizing this past late winter/early spring. They are larger than the years before. Pecan pie here we come.

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Pecans! You got pecans!

We had a pecan tree in the backyard in NC. The squirrels would run up in the top of the tree and shake the nuts loose. We'd heard them hit the ground, and the dog was trained to chase the fellas back up in the tree while I collected them.

Not to worry, though, I'm sure they got their share!

WG

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OMG I love pecans

They are so yummy.

Summer garden winding down.. Peppers galore and Tomaters tomaters Home grown tomaters.

Sheesh!

LOL

I have not put in anything for winter as we are having our summer heat all rolled into two weeks and I want to do the LIME thing as advised by someone maybe Kimberly or Watered Garden I can not remember who now... to help release some of the minerals in our clay soil for my veggies.

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Leafy and WG, I'll trade ya'll some pecans for maters!!! As usual, I will have to fight the squirrels for them. I wished they preferred the acorns from the oak tree. Every year I scold them and tell them they should clean up the acorns from the patio and deck first.

I did leave one tomato plant, that, by some miracle, survived. The bush is lush but the gems are not much larger than a golf ball. I will take tomatoes any shape form or fashion I can get them. With all the rain we have had I expect them to explode any moment.

It has not rained since Monday and I will go to the garden early tomorrow morning and pick what I think is the last of the butterbeans. With all the rain and abundance of bumblebees I could be mistaken. The crowder peas should be ready to pick by the middle of next week. That should be the end of my summer garden. It seems hardly any time has passed since we all started talking about our summer gardens!!

I love summer so much and the gardening I get a little blusie when I think about it coming to an end.

I know ya'll have heard on the news about all the rain and flooding we have had here in the southeast. It had been dry for quite a spell. It was too much rain at one time for it to soak in. It is suppose to start raining again tomorrow.

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Kimberly, you need to sucker the tomato plants. Cut off most of the leaves that are not bearing. That will send the strength into making fruit.

I learned this from a woman who was a Baptist preacher. She told me that is how God succors us; gets rid of the unfruitful parts of our lives so we can bear more fruit for Him!

It works too!

WG

Mr. Garden and I are making jam today. Over 22 jars, mostly half-pints, of strawberry, and the black raspberry is next. We have a Victorio strainer with berry screen, and use Pomona's university pectin, which uses far less sugar than regular pectin. Very tasty, too, more like fruit with sugar than sugar with fruit.

Very very labor intensive, but we only do it once or twice a year. We put up quite a bit of tomato this year too. Been raining all day. My main patch of sweet basil is flourishing like crazy. I've used so much it hasn't had a chance to try to flower. Before that happens, I will cut it off, bring it in and dry it in the microwave or the food drier. Microwave is easier.

I planted cilantro seeds in the big pot on the front porch, and am thinking of growing some kale. I saw a recipe for Tuscan Kale that looks really interesting, on PBS.

WG

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Picked the butterbeans and got a gallon of shelled beans. Yum, yum come this winter. I know this doesn't sound like much but considering the pods produce only 3 beans!! And there are still flowers on the bush. The nights are cooler than usual for this time of year. Gonna hold out to see what produces.

WG, you go jam mama. I wish we had strawberries this late in the season. Doesn't happen here. Aaahhh, the joys of a stocked pantry. Yes, it is well worth it.

The wind blew the few tomatoes onto the ground and the Labs thought they were something to play with. Oh, well, there is always next summer. I will keep that info in mind about suckering them.

The collards and cabbage are so green and growing. They love the recent rains. The Sedum is laying on the ground having been beaten down by the rain.

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Actually, we pick strawberries in about early June and then I clean and freeze them to jam when convenient. This usually means after all the seasonal stuff is done. Also with black raspberries. We got a goodly number of each from our own plants, but picked at U-pick-it farms also. The goal is to have our own exclusively in a couple more years. Actually I tnink about 1/2 of the black razz were ours; it is absolutely the best we ever made.

We have a Victorio strainer with two screens, one for regular stuff and one for berries. We cook the berries down, Mr. Garden kindly strains them for me and I make the jam, using Pomona's Universal Pectin, which utilized far less sugar than the regular brands, making for jam that tastes like fruit and not fruit-flavored sugar. 4 cups berry stuff to 1/2 to 3/4 cup sugar.

You can look up the website, but either use PayPal or order by mail. $5.35 a box which will do about 8-12 quarts, depending on the fruit you're using. Well worth it.

WG

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Watered Garden, thanks for that info. Mr. Garden sure is a nice fella to do that for ya.

Hello, gc, where have you been?

Loving everybody else, too.

Oh, new compost pile don't fret. Your day is coming. Pitchfork does not work with ready for garden compost. Must use shovel. Beautiful. The natural working is beautiful.

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Alrighty you few that have dominated this thread with your fine gardening. I just closed on my new home - about 0.3 acres of back yard - ALLL of the grass is coming down and ALLL of it will be garden. Ya just cant eat grass as well as the other stuff you can grow...BTW - since it is in Louisiana (USA) I can compost 12 months per year - and indeed I can use a pitchfork with it. Get ready to be jealous oh loved gardening ones of GSC

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WG, what does HB mean?

Alrighty then, Rum, baby, bring it on!!!! You have met your composting match!!!! Ha! Ha!

Congratulations on your new home!

Composting can be done even in the coldest regions. The secret is the volume of the pile. 4'x4' will generate enough heat to break it down despite the enviromental temps and as long as the watering and turning is adhered to. If volunteers are growing in the pile then it is not hot enough. I have looked out the good ole kitchen window many a cold mornings to see the "steam" coming off the compost pile.

Get the pitchforks ready!!! :)

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