It Worked

Yesterday the garden was sprayed with sulfur, water and soap. This morning there was a significant reduction in the white spots on the leaves. As a small side benefit, three ripe tomatoes and one cucumber were accidentally found while the garden was being sprayed. So far all of the tomatoes ripened are early girl.

As usually happens about this time of year, the grass growing between the beds and even in the beds is starting to become unmanageable. The leaves picked up by the road are being used for mulch. The fallow beds are being reworked and mulched. The bags are laid in the pathways and covered with mulch. The garden is about ½ done at this point. It is difficult to find bagged leaves this time of year.

Two days picking of okra yielded enough to furnish the okra for a large batch of jambalaya. Boy was it good. There should be enough to do something else tonight. The speckled limas are starting to fill out as well. They will probably start being ready in another week.

David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://davidsegrest.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/

The Lima Mystery

It has been mentioned several times in this blog that the Lima beans are making great vines and no beans. Two possible reasons have been discovered through internet research. The first is that Lima beans take a long time to set beans. Several articles have mentioned that lima beans are very late to produce. The second reason is that they are very intolerant of low soil PH. They like the soil PH at between 6 and 7. At the time they were planted the PH was 6.8 in the spot they were planted. The vines have been sprayed with sulfur to fight the cucumber beetles. This could have acidified the soil.

The cucumber beetles seem to have disappeared. There are no cucurbits left either except for 4 cucumber plants from the late planting. If they make cucumbers, seeds will definitely bee saved for next years planting. Cucurbit seeds are hard to save because they are so promiscuous. There are no other cucurbits around so these should be rather pure.

The greens had a fairly good germination despite the warm weather and the drought conditions. They have to be watered every day. The cabbage and broccoli plants will need to be replanted, but the weatherman is calling for continued high temperatures and no rain until next week. There is no reason to plant lettuce, spinach or onions until things cool down some.

David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://www.segrestrealty.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/

Fall Cleaning Progresses

The garden part of the weekend was dedicated to getting ready for fall planting and cleaning out the accumulated debris of the season. The accumulation bin of the compost system was pretty much filled with old squash plants, grass and old sunflower stalks. Some of the grass was so bad the lawnmower was used. That is in the section that will be tilled anyway. The fence-line between the neighbor and the grapevines was trimmed back as well; but that stuff went on the street.

The vacant beds (there are 5 of them) still need to be raked and refreshed. A new addition will be added to each one. They will get a permanent “corner post” in each corner just like an old four-poster bed. It will be either bamboo or fence post that can be used to attach trellises or other supports. The okra has mostly been beaten down by the rain. The corn suffered the same fate earlier. Maybe a few bamboo poles around the edge would have given enough support to stop this.

The lima bean vines have some little beans on them; but are still not ready to pick. They made beautiful vines really early, but took a long time to flower and to make beans. They do not seem to be very prolific. Everything has slowed down anyway except the weeds and the bugs.

David Segrest is an International REALTOR in Charlotte, NC. His email is david@segrestrealty.com , His webpage is http://www.segrestrealty.com , and his international real estate blog is http://dointernationalrealestate.blogspot.com/