Gardens 2021

[user 7704]

Anyone have any uses for old flour. Can it be used to dust plants to smother bugs or will it clog the leaves etc? I have 20 lbs that I hate to just toss.

 

[Dracos]

Old flour is great for growing mushrooms. Just like pizza. If you forget to put mushrooms on when you cook it don't worry, in a few weeks they will appear all by themselves. Ha Ha.

 

[dirtdiva]

I grew 4 watermelons this year the size of soccer balls. Never ripened up, just white inside. Out in the orchard The pears did really well so did the apples and plums. Gave away hundreds of pounds to friends and family. I planted full size fruit starting about 40 years ago. If I had it to do over again I would plant dwarf or simi dwarf. Most are just too big to harvest all the fruit. Funny how short our lives are. Make just 1 mistake 40 years ago and its too late to start over. Oh well, I have grandchildren. I planted 2 garlics with every tomato. That does a really good job of keeping the bugs off. I never fertilize garlic. They just taste stronger if they are never coddled. I planted mint last spring. They thrived. My son says to watch out for mint. Its like chives and will take over the world if you let them.

Draco while semi dwarf and dwarf are a good option they also tend to not live as long so not necessarily a mistake. Have you tried the fruit picker with the telescopic pole . They work pretty good. Mine has a 10 foot pole.
Cost about $50 at Lowes.

 

[Amish Heart]

Old flour, old cornmeal....if you have chickens: add a few eggs, crush the shells fine, a little baking powder and cook it up for the chickens. I'd cook up anything buggy or anything that went "flat" for them.

 

[Dracos]

Draco while semi dwarf and dwarf are a good option they also tend to not live as long so not necessarily a mistake. Have you tried the fruit picker with the telescopic pole . They work pretty good. Mine has a 10 foot pole.
Cost about $50 at Lowes.

Wow that is inflation! I bought mine 30 years ago for about $10.00 Now I need the pole and a 12 foot ladder and still can't get a quarter of the fruit on the big cherry and pears. Thank you for the information.

 

[user 7704]

Old flour is great for growing mushrooms. Just like pizza. If you forget to put mushrooms on when you cook it don't worry, in a few weeks they will appear all by themselves. Ha Ha.

Thanks I'll look that us.

 

[dirtdiva]

Wow that is inflation! I bought mine 30 years ago for about $10.00 Now I need the pole and a 12 foot ladder and still can't get a quarter of the fruit on the big cherry and pears. Thank you for the information.

Wow how tall are your trees?

 

[Amish Heart]

We just stick a grandkid in the tractor bucket and raise it up. Picked our pears that way. Painted the pitch of our add on that way.

 

[EastenerWesterner]

We just stick a grandkid in the tractor bucket and raise it up. Picked our pears that way. Painted the pitch of our add on that way.

I put the pallet forks on and lift the wife up on a pallet to trim the Wisteria over the barn doors a couple times a year.

 

[user 7704]

I'm dehydrating banana chips and had temp on 135°. Somehow the dehydrator got really hot and warped the plastic trays. Obviously, the thermostat or whatever it's called on a dehydrator, stopped monitoring the temp and got hot enough to warp plastic.

This is not a good time for me to buy a new one, but I will.

 

[GaRp58]

Anyone have any uses for old flour.

you can still bake with old flour, just use no salt and a bit more yeast, make small cakes or biscuits and feed the animals.
You can also surprise the children with paper-machet things like clown heads, volcanos for school or such.
don't forget to mix it with a bit of oatmeal and make fishbait for catching catfish and carp, even if you do not eat the carp you can sell or trade with it.

 

[GaRp58]

Now I need the pole and a 12 foot ladder and still can't get a quarter of the fruit on the big cherry and pears.

It is time to trim the trees back to a PICKABLE height Dracos...before you climb and take the chances of falling...trim them back to a pickable height, cap the middle trunk and paint it white to keep the bugs and rain from getting into the bark and getting the trees sick tho.

 

[user 7704]

you can still bake with old flour, just use no salt and a bit more yeast, make small cakes or biscuits and feed the animals.
You can also surprise the children with paper-machet things like clown heads, volcanos for school or such.
don't forget to mix it with a bit of oatmeal and make fishbait for catching catfish and carp, even if you do not eat the carp you can sell or trade with it.

Gary, I'm talking 8 years expired. Lol. I did a search and I'm going to save to dust plants. When bugs eat it then drink water, they die. I just don't want to kill my bees. I'll have to remember not to dust blooms.

 

[GaRp58]

Gary, I'm talking 8 years expired

OK, accepted...either you have tooooo much flour or you bake too slow sister. My flour is used or given away to the poor nearby before it gets bad. I have used many things which were as much a five years old and they were always still good, frozen butter, six years old, peanut butter five years old, ok, cookies and corn oil, three years old, not rancid. Jelly, five years old from when I canned it, still good. Canned apples and plums, six years old and good, pumpkin, four years old and still good. Not everything goes bad just because it is older than the "recommended" use date.

 

[GaRp58]

Spent part of the day picking wild grapes, running them thru my antique squeezer, then into the press and putting the juice into a container for about five gallons of red wine, with a bit of white to make maybe a light rosè...

 

[user 7704]

Went to garden to pull some more dead plants and found 2 squash and about 50 of the small yellow tomatoes. There are still tons of these that are still green. If it doesn't freeze, I'll have tomatoes into November. The squash has started blooming again so I might get a few more. I still have some okra too.

 

[user 7704]

OK, accepted...either you have tooooo much flour or you bake too slow sister. My flour is used or given away to the poor nearby before it gets bad. I have used many things which were as much a five years old and they were always still good, frozen butter, six years old, peanut butter five years old, ok, cookies and corn oil, three years old, not rancid. Jelly, five years old from when I canned it, still good. Canned apples and plums, six years old and good, pumpkin, four years old and still good. Not everything goes bad just because it is older than the "recommended" use date.

My neighbor moved 8 years ago and I took the flour for mom to make homemade bread. She didn't. I had forgotten about it until I was cleaning the laundry room closet. It was really hidden.

 

[GaRp58]

I had forgotten about it until I was cleaning the laundry room closet. It was really hidden.

TOO BAD IT WAS FLOUR AND NOT DOLLARS!!!!

 

[Brent S]

I’ve started picking grapes here and will do cuttings of my favorite vines for potting in the next couple days. I’ve got several days of pruning, some transplanting to thin out the blueberries and then will spray down all the fruit trees. I got behind on taking care of all the plants here when I was working long hours over the last couple years. Hopefully I will have everything in good shape come spring.

 

[dirtdiva]

I’ve started picking grapes here and will do cuttings of my favorite vines for potting in the next couple days. I’ve got several days of pruning, some transplanting to thin out the blueberries and then will spray down all the fruit trees. I got behind on taking care of all the plants here when I was working long hours over the last couple years. Hopefully I will have everything in good shape come spring.

What do you use for your fall spraying?

 

[Brent S]

What do you use for your fall spraying?

I have a copper solution, a neem oil solution and another off the shelf product for fruit trees. Do I know which ones work best? Honestly no. I have always tried to use minimal amounts of any chemicals but the trees have paid for it. The highly productive fruit trees have been bred to produce but aren’t very disease resistant.

 

[GaRp58]

Brighteon.com/221346a8-c83d-4278-b3e9-d213e13504a7
Brighteon.com/161971aa-a0a5-4715-a483-e847e801724f

 

[user 7704]

I went to bring in the tomato pots I have in garden and had to halt because I still have so many green tomatoes.

Must be all the rain we have had. Mine are usually dried out by October. I'll still be harvesting into November if the Temps hold. Oh, I still have a few baby squash on the vine too.

 

[user 7704]

Got my only carrot today. Biggest one ever. About 7 inches. Turned around and Leon stole it and was chewing away.

 

[GaRp58]

I went to bring in the tomato pots I have in garden and had to halt because I still have so many green tomatoes.

Just pulled the last of the red and green tomatos and we are canning tomatos, cabbage, onions, bell peppers and garlic into large glass jars today. Just bottled the half of our moonshine with cranberries, apricots, plums and cherries to get a beautiful color and flavor from the fruits....Gary

 

[user 7704]

Breaking down the gardens today. Is it just me or does it take longer and get harder each year?

 

[dirtdiva]

Right now I am just trying to stay ahead of the leaves. Lots of compost piles and shredded leaves as mulch. Finally got all the hickory nuts up and gone. Acorn crop does not look that heavy this year. Hickory nuts made up for it though.

Yesterday I churned 17 pounds of butter. Today I made ghee, buttermilk blueberry pancakes to freeze and buttermilk cornbread for my Thanksgiving stuffing. I like to make it ahead of time and freeze.

 

[user 7704]

I put my leaves on the garden and till them when I'm not too lazy. Sometimes it's winter, sometimes it's spring when I get to it.

 

[user 7704]

My son and I put about 10 loads of leaves on the lower garden today. It has terrible soil, mostly clay and sloped at the edge.

I am still really far behind on my garden cleanup. Still have cages and string to put away, plants to pull, etc. It is beautiful and warm for this time of year so maybe I'll get some chores checked off my list.

 

[Amish Heart]

It does get harder every year, not just you! I had to divide the baby guinea fowl today. Had 13 in two tubs with heat lamps, needs to scrub out the tubs, and divide them further because they are getting too big. So now 4 large tubs with heat lamps. And screens on the top. Being proactive. New to me washer delivered today. Call in to the amish guy for a solar wringer washer set up in the garage. Would like a solar spinner, too.