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Post by philagardener on Jun 10, 2018 6:07:51 GMT -5
Tough winter out East as well; sorry to hear of all the losses. I had perennials that have been with me for years that didn't come back, or sent up a few shoots and withered. Not a single sage came through, but garlic and elephant garlic were fine.
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Post by reed on Jun 10, 2018 17:20:19 GMT -5
Yep, I much prefer the wild method and going back to it exclusively. Never feared losing my garlic till I started cultivating it. Seems to me big individual plants are much more fragile than clumps growing in weeds.
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My best looking beds through winter and early spring were RHH. Lake Monroe and German Brown. They were huge at least by my standards. They weren't bothered by the -15 F spells during winter and took off like crazy in spring. Then it turned awful hot and dry and they look terrible. Looks like most aren't even gonna give me much in the way of bulbils. They are in a hot part of the garden and not the best soil so I'm sure that is partly responsible. I'm preparing a permanent wild spot for them now with lots of grass clippings and the like. I'm gonna transplant them there in later summer or early fall and leave them be from then on. Feral clumps of RHH here and there have much smaller bulbs I'm sure but look fine.
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Post by RpR on Jul 8, 2018 1:32:36 GMT -5
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Post by reed on Jul 12, 2018 4:59:21 GMT -5
I also love Concord grapes, I have an old vine planted when I first moved here. Had about given up on it due to the diseases that always destroy the crop but it is absolutely loaded this year and showing very little of the diseases that usually ruin the fruit. A silver lining to the hot dry weather we have had this year I suppose. All my other vines I put in a couple years ago also doing very well. Got a great harvest early on from some tame red raspberries but all the black berries are a bust this year.
Have a great looking volunteer tomato just starting to bloom good. Thick strong stalk, about two feet tall. I'm pretty sure it's descended from Minnesota Stumpy.
Sorry to hear you didn't get your popcorn in, I was looking forward to seeing how that turned out, o'well maybe next year.
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Post by steev on Jul 12, 2018 19:20:49 GMT -5
When it first gets hot, there're some gnat-sized insects that desiccate my Tokay leaves; they don't seem to much bother my other grapes; I think they just do it to piss me off, since it's the Tokays that provide hammock-shade, or not. Robins are as tasty as doves. I think it's ten or twenty years since I've seen our once semi-annual flocks of Turdus migratorius.
I use red cedar spray to ward off the insects; it's not offensive to me. I also still have ~one pint of "jungle juice" (100% DEET) from when I worked at Cutter Labs, but I've not dipped into that for decades; saving that for when radiation mutates the skeets to the size of sparrows.
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