What Has Everyone Been Planting Today ?.

[Sewingcreations15]

Today we took cuttings off the English Lavender and rosemary and dipped them in honey instead of hormone powder. We put the rosemary cuttings in water and will wait for the cuttings to root before planting them and the Lavender cuttings are in soil with a plastic bag over them and have been watered in. Hopefully they all sprout and we will have additional plants to grow.

We are also having a look at 2 properties for sale in this area tomorrow at reasonable prices so we hope one of them suits us. With the drought a lot of the property prices have gone down in price. One of the properties is 2.4 acres and the other 17.45 acres both properties have 3 bedroom houses on them.

If we find one of them suits we will be starting our gardens all over again just when we got these ones looking wonderful and very productive.

 

[Meerkat]

Just about to transplants into permanent containers. Using containers this year because of weather problems.

 

[Terri9630]

Today we took cuttings off the English Lavender and rosemary and dipped them in honey instead of hormone powder. We put the rosemary cuttings in water and will wait for the cuttings to root before planting them and the Lavender cuttings are in soil with a plastic bag over them and have been watered in. Hopefully they all sprout and we will have additional plants to grow.

We are also having a look at 2 properties for sale in this area tomorrow at reasonable prices so we hope one of them suits us. With the drought a lot of the property prices have gone down in price. One of the properties is 2.4 acres and the other 17.45 acres both properties have 3 bedroom houses on them.

If we find one of them suits we will be starting our gardens all over again just when we got these ones looking wonderful and very productive.

But the new gardens will be on YOUR land. No more moving, land lords, inspections.......

 

[Sewingcreations15]

So agree @Terri9630 and we are looking forward to owning our own land and house and doing what the heck we want on it too. There comes a time especially when you haven't rented for an eon that rental inspections and asking permission to put a picture hook up gets old really quickly not to mention the tiny little house that we are in that is really starting to feel claustrophobic to me now.

 

[Amish Heart]

Happy for you, Sewing! I'm sure you'll find a great place!

 

[Sewingcreations15]

Thank you @Amish Heart and @Terri9630 .

 

[timmie]

Sewing ,my Grandmother always said "Good things come to those who wait." Hope this is yours.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

We live by that motto as well @timmie and we are awfully patient too and thank you for your encouragement. Think we saw the perfect bug out location house today but it will require some work if we can get it at the right price.

 

[timmie]

GOOD LUCK SEWING

We live by that motto as well @timmie and we are awfully patient too and thank you for your encouragement. Think we saw the perfect bug out location house today but it will require some work if we can get it at the right price.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

Today we planted 75 heirloom sweet corn seeds in the gardens and we hope we will be here long enough to harvest them. There is rain predicted for tomorrow so I hope it eventuates to water in the corn seeds really well.

While out in the gardens we trench composted the silverbeet and carrot scraps in one of the side gardens where we will plant some marigolds after we amend it further with some cow and horse manure.

 

[Meerkat]

We live by that motto as well @timmie and we are awfully patient too and thank you for your encouragement. Think we saw the perfect bug out location house today but it will require some work if we can get it at the right price.

Good luck and hope it works out for the best.

 

[timmie]

I planted some bottoms off of green onions that I bought at the store a few days ago. They came up. yes. Today I planted some onion, spinach, cabbage, carrots and tomato seed. I'm hoping to raise them in the green house if we get very much cold weather. Either way it's an experiment.

 

[timmie]

I also planted 3 hydrangea cuttings I got from my Mother's plant.

 

[MoBookworm1957]

Green beans are blooming, sweet potatoes are spreading out finally,
Brought the lone still alive tomato plant inside today. It's in a flower pot.
Herb garden has resprouted going strong.
Will be getting cuttings and starting some of those inside in mason jars and dirt.
Will be getting cuttings of English Thyme, Russian Sage,Rosemary,English Lavender.
Just to name a few, maybe Oregano too.

 

[timmie]

planted a package of beets.we'll see if thry have time to mature

 

[joel]

Green beans are blooming, sweet potatoes are spreading out finally,
Brought the lone still alive tomato plant inside today. It's in a flower pot.
Herb garden has resprouted going strong.
Will be getting cuttings and starting some of those inside in mason jars and dirt.
Will be getting cuttings of English Thyme, Russian Sage,Rosemary,English Lavender.
Just to name a few, maybe Oregano too.

A little late for sweet potatoes?
I am about to dig my purple SP.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

@timmie and @MoBookworm 1957 I hope everything you planted will grow big and strong and produce in abundance.

We have decided not to plant anything more in the gardens as we might well be moving into our home in December when our property settlement goes through. We are waiting to hear late next week if we have the bank loan first. In the meantime we will harvest what we can and save what plants we can pot up to take with us hopefully for our new home.

 

[Tank-Girl]

Today I grubbed out half of my spent KY1 tomatoes and refreshed and amended the beds and planted 12 poblano chilli plants and 14 jalapeno chilli plants.

Yesterday I restarted my hydroponic system and added my cherry tomatoes, lots of lemon basil, dill, thyme, oregano, spring onions and onion and garlic chives.

I also took a lot of cuttings off the spent KY1 tomatoes and put them in the hydroponic system to strike them.

I discovered Grey/ Mexican zucchini that is suppose to be very heat and mildew resistant.
I've planted 10 of them and I have a another 3 to go in the ground so it'll be a good test over
the killing heat of our summer.
I'm using some to eat but I mainly use zucchini to bulk out a very small amount of soaked grain.
It's becoming more and more obvious that I need to find grain alternatives to keep my birds fed.
Eggs that don't get eaten within a week get dry boiled in the solar oven and grated up, shell and all
and added to the ration to up the protein and calcium content of the shredded zucchini.

I planted new guinea bean with is a tropical gourd and not a bean.
This will be my fall back crop in case the Grey zucchini fail to produce.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

You are planting up a storm @Tank-Girl good on you and I hope you are rewarded with lots of lovely produce for meals. Hoping that the varieties you picked to cope with the summer heat work for you.

 

[Tank-Girl]

You are planting up a storm @Tank-Girl good on you and I hope you are rewarded with lots of lovely produce for meals. Hoping that the varieties you picked to cope with the summer heat work for you.

I hope so to SC.
I've brought plant varieties in the past with the assurance that they were tropical/ heat/ humidity/ pest proof only to be proved wrong.

It's the reason why I fired up the hydroponic system.
It's under 60% shade mesh and it's enough to keep the salad crops cool enough so they'll grow and not be bitter.
I'm going with tried and true varieties like butter and oak leaf lettuce that cope better with the heat.
I forgot to mention I've also planted some Asian water spinach/ Kang Kong to be a spinach substitute.
The hotter it gets the more the Kang Kong likes it grows grows rampantly.

I put in a very large seed order and I'll be trying the Indian kajari melons for the first time.

I've been planting home grown Jap pumpkin seeds from pumpkins I grew last year.
These pumpkins loved the heat and I seed saved from blemish free fruit that resisted the fruit fly and the
shield (stink) beetles.

I've got feral loofah vines sprouting under the trellis I had them growing over last year.
I'll let them grow because when they're young they're suppose to be eatable but if they aren't
tasty they'll be another thing to add to the chicken's menu.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

Biding our time till when we hear we have our loan so keeping busy.

In the gardens today after almost a total week of rain DH mowed our lawn and whipper snipped the 1/2 acre and then the neighbour came over and asked that his lawn be mowed so he did the 1/2 acre next door too and will pay DH $60 for doing it. While he was doing all that next door I weeded 5 garden beds in the front gardens and transplanted volunteer cherry tomato plants next to the drip irrigation systems.

I filled up a whole wheelie bin with weeds and we still have the sweet potato bed yet to weed so hopefully the weeds will shrink in the bin to fit those too. The lawns and gardens are now looking good and just after we finished it started raining again.

 

[Dutchs]

Biding our time till when we hear we have our loan so keeping busy.

In the gardens today after almost a total week of rain DH mowed our lawn and whipper snipped the 1/2 acre and then the neighbour came over and asked that his lawn be mowed so he did the 1/2 acre next door too and will pay DH $60 for doing it. While he was doing all that next door I weeded 5 garden beds in the front gardens and transplanted volunteer cherry tomato plants next to the drip irrigation systems.

I filled up a whole wheelie bin with weeds and we still have the sweet potato bed yet to weed so hopefully the weeds will shrink in the bin to fit those too. The lawns and gardens are now looking good and just after we finished it started raining again.

Must be your rainy season? I went through that all year. We had a very heavy bunch of spring rain. Much more than usual. Then summer is usually just afternoon rains but not this year. It rained all day or 2-3 times a day every day and hard as it could. Beginning of fall we thought it would give is a break and along came Hurricane Micheal. I spent last week harvesting what was left and the only things I have left is eggplant, green peppers, pumpkins, sorghum. The Amaranth is ready and picked to get the seed. Sweet potatoes are all up. Kidney beans were a busy busy and I got two second crop watermelon that we're actually quite good! Sunflower seeds are all soaked and dried. I've spent the better part of last weekend and will spend most of the coming weekend planting flowers bulbs. Asiatic lillies, grape Hyacinth, giant Hyacinth, daffodil, crocus, English Bluebells, 5 Bay trees, butterfly bushes, lantana, and a few I can't remember.

 

[Tank-Girl]

Today I planted more chilli seedlings and Burgundy okra seedlings.

I don't know if I like okra but I've read it likes hot humid conditions.
If it grows well I'll see if I like the taste but I'm not a fan of slimy foods.
Does pickling it cut down on the slime factor?

 

[NannyPatty]

Today I planted more chilli seedlings and Burgundy okra seedlings.

I don't know if I like okra but I've read it likes hot humid conditions.
If it grows well I'll see if I like the taste but I'm not a fan of slimy foods.
Does pickling it cut down on the slime factor?

Yes, pickling cuts down on the slime a bit. Don’t blanch it, it just makes goo! I cut mine into bite sized pieces and put it on a cookie sheet and freeze it. Once frozen put it into freezer bags. Since you don’t blanch it will be good not more than a year. If you fry it, use yellow cornmeal, salt and pepper. Fry in hot oil until golden brown. It’s a favorite in the southern states here.
I don’t mind the slime so I enjoy it boiled with salt and pepper. It can be eaten raw in salads as well.

 

[Dutchs]

Today I planted more chilli seedlings and Burgundy okra seedlings.

I don't know if I like okra but I've read it likes hot humid conditions.
If it grows well I'll see if I like the taste but I'm not a fan of slimy foods.
Does pickling it cut down on the slime factor?

I'm with NannyPatty. I eat it all ways but I love it picked or Fried. My wife fries it and it's better than anything fried I have ever eaten. Okra loves the heat. It will produce a LOT to. Once it starts getting little okra you want to harvest at 2-4 inches .They will get quite large but they aren't near as good as the little ones. Once you start picking you should pick every day. Plants can get 7-8 feet tall and 2-3 foot wide too so give them space. I prune all the bottom branches off and they seem to really like it and produce better. This is a cucumber pickling video but I use it for okra and I just love it. Makes them very unique.

 

[Tank-Girl]

I really appreciate the feed back on okra.

Wow..so they get big.

I might have to dig them up and put them in a different spot.
I've got them in a narrow bed between a path and a fence - about 1.5 feet wide.

Thank you.

 

[Sewingcreations15]

@Dutchs we have had 71.2 mm of rain this month to date and we are in Spring or approaching summer here which isn't bad for a drought declared area. We knew by the weather forecast yesterday that we had a break for most of the day without rain so we went on a full mowing and weeding session.

I am glad you were able to get most of your crops up despite the rain and the bulbs should all look wonderful in flower. We look forward to setting up our new gardens in our new home once we find out if we have the finance approved. I thought in the meantime since I had rogue volunteer tomato plants that I would plant them anyway and if we are moving I will just pull them up and transplant into pots temporarily.

This is why I like this forum is that so many people have different areas of knowledge in so many things and can help other forum members out so thank you @NannyPatty and @Dutchs for helping out @Tank-Girl with the knowledge on okra.

Today we are hoping to mulch all of the front garden beds now I have weeded them and DH will finish weeding the sweet potato bed and we can mulch that too. The potatoes I planted not so long ago from shop purchased sprouted ones are going great guns and the heirloom sweet corn has all sprouted and taking off like wildfire since we have had all this rain. We haven't turned on the garden drip irrigation water systems for over a week .

 

[Tank-Girl]

This morning at sun rise I planted Feverfew, Valerian and oak leaf lettuce mixes.

My Kang Kong seeds have sprouted so it's time to put them in the hydroponics system.

I've decided I'm planting comfrey in a very narrow strip between a concrete path and the house.
It's less than a foot wide and I think the comfrey will look nice edging the path.

 

[NannyPatty]

What is Kang Kong?

 

[Tank-Girl]

What is Kang Kong?

Asian water spinach.

It's an aquatic plant that floats on the surface.
It has narrow leaves and hollow stems that allows it to float
and it tastes exactly like spinach.
It's bomb proof in hot wet conditions and bugs leave it alone.