Finally Fall Fell

Friday’s temperature dropped to a comfortable range. Everything in the fall garden has sprouted except for the spinach, carrots and beets. I thought the spinach had come up, but Saturday morning, it was nowhere to be found. It will have to be replanted next weekend. This weekend saw another bed renovated and planted with a follow up crop of radishes, beets and carrots.

Tomorrow there will be another trip to renfrow’s to purchase onion sets and mesclun seeds. That should round out the fall garden except for more follow ups on radishes and carrots. The beets will probably not have time to get a good start for first frost if they are planted any later.

The cucumbers and squash have some female blossoms now. There is a chance they will start producing before the tomatoes totally quit. The arugula is almost ready to pick, so we will have a complete garden salad with any luck at all. The lettuce may even be big enough to pick by then. Mesclun and spinach will probably not be.

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/

Squash Time

The squash is here big time. All three types of summer squash: yellow crookneck, patty-pan and zucchini are producing like crazy. Of the winter squash, only the butternut has bloomed. The winter squash is in a corner that does not get as much sun as the rest of the garden. We have been eating squash and giving it away for over a week now.

Ana made a fantastic lasagna with zucchini and kale. Her lasagna is always wonderful, but this may be the best yet. She has also grilled a lot of marinated patty-pan and made a lot of stir fries. Michael Swol said that he was going to make stuffed patty-pan with the ones I gave him. We put his recipe in the blog last year and it is in “THE INCOMPLETE GARDEN BOOK”, but I will try to get the “new and improved” version and publish it here soon.

The okra is waist high. The tomatoes are shoulder high. They are loaded with small tomatoes. The early girl variety started putting on little tomatoes 1st this year. Usually they are last. The cucumber vines are huge, but the largest cucumber is about 3’ long. That won’t be worth the trouble to pick. Straight 8 was the variety planted, but with members of the cucurbit family, one never knows what will actually appear.

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/

Hot Weekend

These 90 degree plus days are not really good for the garden. They cause the pollen on many plants to be deformed and cause the fruit not to set. They are also kind of hard on the gardener. In spite of the heat much of the backlog of projects was advanced. Mulching of the pathways has begun as well.

The squash is coming in well. We got the 1st 3 yellow squash on Friday. Yesterday a huge basket was half filled with yellow and patty-pan squash. The zucchinis are about 3” long but they still have blossoms so they were not picked. The cucumbers are loaded with blossoms but no cucumbers. The sugar peas are still producing well, but the vines are looking a little shabby. There are bunches of little tomatoes.

The stinky compost seems to have been defeated. It did not take rocket science. The smell was coming from the grass that had been collected from the road that was in bags. The method for defeating the smell will be addressed in the next post.

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/

Last Day of May

A visit from my son who lives in Virginia reinforced the blessing of our climate. His summer garden will go into the ground this week. Our Charlotte garden is ready to start producing. There are small yellow and zucchini squash on the plants. We may pick squash by the weekend. There are two tiny tomatoes. The cucumbers and some of the peppers have blossoms. The okra is over a foot tall.

The holiday weekend provided an opportunity to catch up much of the backlog of garden and yard work. The grass still needs cutting as it always does. There are a few plants in the garden that still need to be side-dressed with compost, but there is no more compost until next weekend. There was a huge pile of compost on a tarp. It seemed an impossibility that it would all be used, but it was. Even the compost that was finished this weekend was used.

There is also a problem with odor from the compost pile that was not present last year. A plan is in place to correct the problem, but it will be revealed when it is shown to be effective.

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/

Easter Rising

The zucchini and yellow crookneck squash are one thing that is rising. The cucumbers came up on Good Friday. The squash came up on rotten Saturday and the nasturtiums bloomed. Some beautiful lilies of some type with pretty blue flowers bloomed this morning. (Easter Sunday).

The plants that have been set out over the last week are doing well. 3 cherry peppers had to be replaced. Two of the early girl tomatoes have bitten the dust (out of 14). Those are the only casualties so far. The early girls will have to be replaced with something else. All of the early girl plants have already been planted or given away. Mick McNeely has promised some Rutgers tomatoes. That will be a good replacement.

The grass in the backyard was definitely deep enough for a good Easter egg hunt. That has been taken care of now and the accumulation bin of the compost system is full. The blueberries are being dosed with coffee grounds. The 1st 2 were done today. More grounds will need to be accumulated before the other 4 plants can be dosed.

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/

Cucumber Beetles Almost Defeated

The sulfur and BT have almost eliminated the spotted cucumber beetles. The rain keeps washing the spray off of the leaves, but I would rather spray than water. The problem is that the yellow squash and zucchini are pretty much destroyed. The yellow squash has been replanted and is almost ready to bloom.

The yellow patty-pan squash has little squash on the vines. They seem really small. I hope they don’t turn out to be the little medallion sized squash. Cucumbers and zucchini will need to be replanted. There may be time for a crop before first frost. The tomatoes are doing great and we are still getting mesclun. The mesclun is looking ratty but maybe it will last until the fall planting comes in.

The figs and hot peppers are the real stars of the garden right now. We are getting 3 to 5 pounds of figs a day. Yesterday Ana made preserves. We will probably have to make more tonight. The birds are eating a lot of them, but there is plenty for them and us. The tomatoes seem to have slowed down ripening a little in but there are still plenty on the vines. The upside-down tomatoes are growing rapidly and should be producing before frost. They are going to be heavy for the rafters in the greenhouse. They may need some special support structures.


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/

Garden Cleanup Continues

There is a lot of old biological material in the garden right now. Some of it comes off everyday and goes to the compost. This old material harbors a lot of the garden’s enemies. There is some type of bug that is shaped and colored like a lady bug but bigger that is gobbling cucurbit leaves. It was sprayed with BT yesterday with little immediate effect. The little rascals have not been identified yet. If they are still there today they will get a dose of sulfur. I will also catch a few and take them to Renfrow’s.

The old squash plants and kale need to go. Likewise, the cornstalks will head for the compost bin. The three sisters experiment was a big failure. We got a few ears of corn, but when the corn got knocked down something ate the rest of the ears and all of the green beans. The only survivors are the butternut squash which is ready to pick. It and the spaghetti squash will come off today or tomorrow.

The greenhouse is coming along well. Some little cabbage and broccoli plants that were planted Sunday have already sprouted. They will be misted instead of bottom watered now that they have sprouted.

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/

Mystery Squash

One has to wonder what type of misogyny goes on in the garden when no-one is looking. The squash seeds we got this year were really mixed up. The patty-pan was a light colored zucchini. The spaghetti squash was mostly true, except for one plant. This plant is producing something that looks like a small watermelon and taste like a cucumber. It is not particularly good.

The first tomato is almost ready to pick. We are keeping our fingers crossed that it will survive to turn red in the garden. There is a great temptation to pick it and put it on a window sill, but we are resisting the urge.

One day in the life of picking okra was skipped. The okra got 7” long. It was still tender however. The new planting of patty-pan squash is coming along well. The zucchini and the light zucchini are still producing strong, as is the yellow crookneck. The leaves on the yellow crookneck are looking sad. It does not look like the powdery mildew. It just looks tired and dry.

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/

Garden Record-Keeping

A good journal or record of the garden will help prevent making the same mistake over and over. It also is a guide to the micro-environment of the individual garden. Day before yesterday (6/15/10) Charlotte had a good drenching from a thunderstorm. My yard did not get a drop. I wasn’t home so how do I know that? I have a rain gauge. A little notebook in the greenhouse records the rainfall and the temperature and the day’s harvest.

It also records the activities done on that day. There is also a garden map that tells what is planted where. Whenever a bed is fallow, a ph grid is made. The ph in the beds changes some from season to season. If the garden plan will require a certain ph for the next thing to be planted in a particular spot, the soil modification can begin at once. Sometimes the map is needed to identify what was actually planted. The patty-pan squash this year turned out not to be patty-pan squash. The garden map assured me that I had planted patty-pan squash in that bed. Squash seeds are unreliable.

The garden journal also helps with crop rotation and measures the success of certain things in certain places . If problems occur with certain crops year after year, we may just have to accept that those crops should not be grown in our garden.

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/

Big Zucchini

The speed at which a zucchini grows is always amazing. There was a little zucchini on the vine Wednesday. It was no larger than my little finger. Last night the rain came pouring down so hard that I could not go to the garden. This morning that little zucchini was 15” long and huge. The pale zucchini on the bush that was supposed to be patty-pan squash grows much slower.

The same package of seeds that sprouted the spaghetti squash, is sprouting different types of squash. Of the three largest, one is the color of a melon and the others are pale green. The watermelon already has bunches of little melons on the vine. This year we want to do a better job of picking them at the right time (whenever that is). Last year they were good, but had too many seeds.

There is a tomato as big as my fist on the tomato vines. We are getting lots of cucumbers and the mesclun is still producing. Help me pray for that complete salad from the garden.



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/

Here Come the Squash

Friday night there were enough squash to make a big mess of squash & onions. We used green onions from the garden too. Sunday there were over2 pounds of squash. We had squash casserole. Mick McNeely taught me a new trick. Pick a handful of Sage leaves. Get some olive oil hot in a pan. Drop the sage leaves in and crisp them and pull them right back out. It takes 5 seconds or less. Be careful not to overdo it. After the squash dish is cooked garnish it with the sage leaves. They provide a wonderful surprise when bitten into.

Zucchini is coming in now as well. The variety is not exactly what I thought was planted, but they are tasty. That is what counts. The patty-pans are covered with blooms. They all seem to be males. No squash there. There are three little spaghetti squash and several “pregnant” blooms. I am having to spray with BT every couple of days because we are getting so much rain. The fence and the human hair seem to be working fairly well for the deer, so I haven’t bothered with pepper spray. I see small rabbits in the garden every morning; but the garden is well advanced enough that they don’t eat much.

The corn is tasseled and has little ears. The height of the cornstalks is all different because of it being smashed down several times. Who knows if there will be any kernels on the corn?


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/

First Across the Finish Line

Michael Swol sent an email this morning with a picture of a red tomato. I know it is true, because I saw the tomato in his garden when it was green. I am still green myself, with jealousy. I assume he took the picture yesterday, June 2. I don’t know of anyone who has picked a real tomato (not a cherry or grape tomato) yet, so I am assuming that this is the first in our circle of friends.

The rain gauge showed 1.4” of rain in the garden overnight. The corn was no worse off than before. No better either. The largest tomato is about the size of a ping pong ball now. The yellow squash picked yesterday was the largest yet; but still pretty small. The sugar peas and broccoli are still producing; but they look like they may be finishing their short but productive lives.

The little tomatoes that got started in the greenhouse Friday are poking their heads up. The basil has not. These will be for the upside down pots that can be brought into the greenhouse at the end of the season. Earthworm castings were harvested this weekend to make potting soil for them.


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/

(Sun)Flower Power

The sunflowers are 8’ tall and they still do not have flowers yet. Only a few have fallen over so far. The variety is “Mammoth Russian”. We have planted them before, but not since moving into the city. When fully mature the flowers should be at least 12” across. When dried they will be stacked in a plastic bag with the top open. They can be given to the birds one flower at a time. The birds and squirrels go crazy. The seeds are, of course, great roasted; but we are too lazy to shell them.

The corn is about 6’ tall; but laying down it is only about 1’ tall. The rain finally got the corn that was in the three sister’s bed as well. The rain helped everything else so much it doesn’t really matter. The corn is tassleing already, will this affect the pollination?

The squash is blooming and making yellow squash. The zucchini is coming slowly and the patty-pan has flowers, but no fruit. There are a couple of spaghetti squash on the vine, but no butternut squash yet. Tomatoes and cucumbers are growing slowly and the mesclun is holding out. We may get a complete salad yet.


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/