Thursday, April 23, 2009

Behind The Scenes.

I know not everybody who reads this blog is a full time church goer, but for those of you who are you will relate to my past week, as I had one of THOSE church weeks. The one where all your responsibilities converge at the same time.

To start, my wife and kids are headed to Nicaragua this summer on a mission trip and one of the ways they raised money for the trip was working on a very large church yard sale. One that takes up a whole gym and lasts for 3 days. A lot goes into one of these kind of yard sales, you must set a hundred or so tables out, fill them up with millions of pounds of stuff (organized of course), put sticker prices on all the stuff and then sell the stuff. The good news is they raised over $6,000........the bad news is it has to be split 25 ways. lol. On top of that I wear a few hats at my church like Christian Ed Director, Sunday School teacher, Tenor in the choir, Advisory board member and finally Mission board member. Throw in Plumbing Contractor, Dad, Husband, and my wife and I getting sucked into watching the past 5 LOST seasons to catch up with our friends who watch & talk about it regularly, and it's been an exhausting week. Barely enough time for the garden......but I'm back!

I'd like to thank Margaret at http://life-at-thistlegarden.blogspot.com/ for waking me up to the easy solution to my squash problem. She told me to just take the male squash stamen and rub it on the female flower (or is flour Margaret?). I know it sounds dirty, but as you can see below in just one weeks time I've got some squash! I feel like a dummy!
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Above: Magda squash.
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Above left: Sweet Lightning, Above right: Spaghetti squash.
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Above: Crooked Neck.
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Above: The Squash Patch.

In the middle of my busy week I had a disaster in the garden as well........20 pepper plants chopped down like the Amazon Rain Forest by some Cutworms. It's totally my fault. I stubbornly didn't listen to the advise I got to collar the stems of the plants. I guess I though I was Super Conservative Gardener and cutworms wouldn't dare continue to mess with me. I had read somewhere where an old farmer would put nails next to his plants and the cutworms wouldn't hurt the plants because the nails would bother them. Well......take a look:
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The above pick shows where there used to be about 15 plants, the rest in the pic are now gone as well. I've got a bunch more under the lights getting ready to come out to the garden. Next time......I've got some Dixie cups going around them. (And yes, that is an eggplant that I mistakenly planted with the peppers)

And of course no blog would be complete without an update on my favorites........the Tomatoes.
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I'm excited about the tomatoes.....they look strong! The cutworms did get about 5 tomato plants, but I had some ready to take their place. (btw- you can click on any picture and it will bring you to my Flickr page where you can enlarge the pic if you want. Just don't go browsing around my Flickr invading my privacy......lol, just kidding)


Well that's quick update, I'll see if I can do my next post without letting a whole week go by!

32 comments:

  1. The plants look great except the peppers of course. I wonder if we have cut worms here, I didn't experience this last year. I better look into it before planting!

    Your seeds came today, Thanks you very much. The fuzzy tomato sounds interesting, I will start them tonight. I don't have a red cherry growing yet so it will fit in great. Just let me know if you would like anything in return, I have lots of stamps in the office.

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  2. Nice to have you back, Dennis. The garden looks good (you're so ahead of me!).

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  3. Dan- Wow...10 days for the mail. I know you live in a different country and all but.....it's Canada! We're like twin brothers! Just seems like a long time to me.

    Unlike you, I'm starting to get to where if I don't plant it now it won't make it. I've basically have to be done harvesting by the end of June or the weather & bugs will just kill it. Except maybe Eggplant or Okra. I doubt you have any Okra living that far north, so if you have any Eggplant that'd be great. I'm a little short on Eggplant anyway. If not just surprise me and I'll plant it in Sept.

    Proper- I must admit.....I take some satisfaction in being ahead. It's a man thing. lol.

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  4. Dennis, awesome, I absolutely love these updates and your humor! Yeah, I'm hard headed too! I hope I can get my tomatoes in the ground this weekend. I need to do some preparations so I may not get them in the ground til next weekend! We have had some incredibly bad weather in Atlanta this evening, big hail storms, over and over! Keep up the great work! I'll be praying for a safe missions trip, remind us when they ship off! When it rains, it pours, tons of opportunities to work! LOL VN8

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  5. Oh yeah, Church activities can be very time consuming, well worth it in the end though. Blessing will abound! Your gardens look great despite the pesky cutworms.....did not know that about the Squash or the nails!!

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  6. Be forwarned..hundreds of squash are coming your way..I'm still eating some from last year.

    Margaret

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  7. Nice looking tomatoes. I hand pollinate my squash early in the season too, when the bees are not doing their job well enough.

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  8. VN8- Will do!

    Darla- I new you'd no what I was talking about.

    Margaret- Again, thanks.

    Daphne- If only I had known last year I might have beat the pickleworms to the punch. Even though this is my 3rd time growing squash, it's the first time I ever had any fruit....because the pickleworms got to them first. If I had figured out that I could pollinated myself............

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  9. The mail system was probably back logged from Easter. Letters usually get here in a few days. I have two different eggplant varieties that I can send. I'll throw in a couple fall things too and send it off next week.

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  10. Welcome back. Sounds like you were quite busy. Your veggies look great! The ones that didn't get chomped that is. Pretty soon you will so much to harvest, you'll need a way to eat, save and give it away. I can't imagine having that much space and produce. Totally awesome!

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  11. Cutworms are so frustrating! I've had good luck making little collars from the cardboard toilet paper rollers. You can get about 4 from each one--just cut into 4 circles. If plant is small enough, slide over and down to ground. If it's too big and leafy, cut up the side of the circle and use a piece of tape to put it back together. They last a few rains--enough to save the plants from the evil cutworm! :-)

    Things are looking good in your corner of the world. They are coming along here, too, though I only have peas and spinach planted in the garden so far. Still has to warm up before moving the peppers and tomatoes out.

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  12. The cutworms got ahold of my pepper plants too. Finally I think I have gotten them in check.

    Your tomatoes look wonderful! I like your garden -- very organized and neat.

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  13. Dennis, you must be as busy as the rest of us! Bought 10 tomato plants, need to get them in the ground this weekend! I'll take some photos! VN8

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  14. I don't about the other stuff, but catching up on LOST is totally worth it. Best show on TV by far, just don't get too hung up on understanding it all. Sit back and enjoy the ride.

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