Mary, do you grow/like beets? They make a good fall crop (and if the beets don't get all that big you can use the beet greens...). Or you can take a more direct approach and grow chard, basically beet greens without the "beet". Or corn salad/mache is an interesting cold-tolerant "green" -- makes rosettes of leaves that you cut off at ground level and add to salads, I just tried this for the first time last year and it was very mild and slightly "nutty" tasting.

Our elec. bill always seems to be higher than other people that we know, too... I think the solar panels sound like a great idea! Might take a while to pay for themselves, but it would be kind of satisfying to pay the electric company less even so !

chelle said:I'm actually enjoying the wet weather. Sure, I'd like a few drier days in between rain events, but it's nice to have a summer where I can actually get away and trek in the state parks with my son...without frying myself, or stressing over how many plants are going to fry while I'm away. They're growing just fine (with nothing more than rainfall) when I'm gone, and I do like that!

LOL, this afternoon I commented that it was looking like another year where our lawn stays green for the whole summer, unless something drastically changes with the weather!

Still, trekking in the parks... with a lot of bug spray? I'm just happy that I no longer (for many, many years now) react to mosquito bites!

I finally found a peach orchard in troup tx. , was supposed to take 50 minutes to get there and buy a box of peaches for pies, ice cream, cobblers, dehydrated, and fresh.




Only, it took 75 minutes to get there. Didn't want to go every year, so I bought 2 boxes
.





So, now I have weeks of work ahead. Peach pie is one of my favorites. Only surpassed by boysenberries.

LOL -- so we won't be seeing much of you here for a while, TK ??

Those peaches look really tasty!!

You wish! But most of the dehydrating time, I have free.

Weedwhacker said:

...Still, trekking in the parks... with a lot of bug spray?

We've been going to the highest elevation parks and trails (in our state), so while we're there, we're actually escaping the mosquitoes!


I just made up a batch of the brown sugar and yeast mosquito attractant/catcher, so it'll be interesting to soon see the results firsthand. I do hope that the hummingbirds aren't attracted to it.

Been busy the past couple of days putting a layer of composted re-ground wood mulch on my garden, I need one more load of this to finish the back corner of my garden before I cover that with wood chips/mulch.
As I was spreading this onto my garden there were huge worms all in it..a good sign for sure.




Lord willing, I will have some nice organic tomatoes before long.

texaskitty111 said:You wish! But most of the dehydrating time, I have free.

Good!! (because I would miss you !)

Looks fantastic, GoatDriver!

Talking about mosquitoes. Does anyone have a natural concoction that they use on themselves to keep the darn things away. With all this rain, we are just overrun with the nasty things this year. I am so sensitive to chemicals that if I spray anything on myself, I get terrible headaches and upset stomach. You can't go near the gardens without being covered with them, so it is a real dilemma!!

Karen, it certainly SEEMS like there must be something, doesn't it? I'd love to find something like that, too -- just on the basis of I'd rather not be soaking chemicals into my skin... This would definitely be a good year to test the effectiveness of any suggestions

I'd love something natural instead of spraying poison on my skin. We haven't had many mosquitoes but they have been biting through my tee shirts, on both shoulders, and I don't wear sleeveless tee shirts.

The only thing I've found to help control the mosquitoes around my house is to broadcast BT crumbles maybe twice a month in areas that retain water after a storm. I add BT to my rain barrels and keep a couple other smaller buckets around for the same purpose. It's not perfect but I'll say this...leaving BT in buckets around the yard has done more to control my mosquitoes than all the smelly fly traps, DE, and constant maintenance does to control the flies around my chicken coop.

We know some folks who have an anti-mosquito misting system that runs on a timer. If I understand correctly, their system uses pyrethrin (sp?) as a repellent. That stuff is an all natural repellent derived from the chrysanthemum.

The bean seeds that I planted yesterday sure did get watered in as it poured overnight. Still raining lightly now and the garden is just sloppy soggy.

Here's my own Rita, with lots of flowers. It is wet out there and so nice to take a day off with hair curled, makeup on and clean clothes. I feel like I'm on vacation.

Looking good, fruit should set soon.

Views of my tomatoes!


front area


porch tomatoes


patio tomatoes in pots


loaded with fruit

Cookies - I've heard that leaves with a citrus scent like lemon verbena help repel mosquitoes when rubbed on the skin. Haven't tried it but it might be worth the experiment.
Sandy - I saw a "Gardening Australia" segment showing corn salad planted in the fall. The description sounded enticing. Is there a good variety to try?

Our botanical garden has mosquito repellant for visitors. I heard them say it was organic and wasn't greasy or oily. When I go in Monday I will ask about it.

I have some kale growing (from seed) and it is doing well. Not as well as the spinach. I will have to look up how to blanch and freeze it as D can't eat all the lettuce and that too. The seeds of green beans that I planted have caught up with the ones started in the garage so no more starting beans in the garage. Yahoo. Squash is a little slower but I planted it later, like June 7. Carrots continue to grow nicely. For once I thinned them out and planted seed sparingly so they should grow nice shaped carrots. Can hardly wait.

I need to fertilize to day. I am wayyy behind on that. especially my sole tomato plant. I am really excited that it is doing well in it's little round greenhouse pot. The cage I built is about 36" tall so it should be okay for the rest of the summer. I can almost taste the tomato, cheese, lettuce sandwich with salt and pepper.