Not exactly what you are thinking!!!.... We have had continual hot weather for just too long around here. Some of our plantings are struggling to reproduce. Between the weather and the lack of pollinating insects, some plants just are not setting fruit/vegetables. So the early mornings find me out in the garden giving them a helping hand. For the tomatoes, I am using the feather from a Great Horned Owl to give the little blossoms a tickle to share the pollen. For the various summer and winter squashes, I am using q-tips. You need to be certain not to mix the pollen between the two seasonal squash varieties. You can probably get away with pollinating summer squash with winter squash pollen since the fruits are picked while immature. But the winter squash needs to be pollinated with it's own pollen as it needs to grow to maturity and be of storage quality. I am hoping it helps... I have also been feeding various plants with the coffee grounds left in our french press each morning, mixing them with water and pouring it around the drip line of each needy recipient. I have even been crushing egg shells, soaking them in water and then pouring the mix around the plants. Sure would be easier to just go to the store and shop....
Now for the weather - both Saturday and Sunday nights, we had tremendous thunder and lightning storms, lasting about three hours. Over three thousand strikes of lightning over the two evenings! Our power was out so many times that I finally went out to the breaker box and shut down the breakers to the large appliances hoping to avoid surge damage. We just sat in the dark and watched the show. We have some 16 windows that you can view through from the living room/kitchen/dining area/foyer. Lightning was visible through them all at the same time! Lots of cloud to cloud veins would flash between the cloud to ground strikes. Friends that live down below us and some ten miles away said that the lightning show up at our place was spectacular. The second storm had strong winds that wreaked havoc with things outside. It shredded the basil, toppled peppers and just about flattened the corn. A large potted aspen tree was knocked over on the deck. It also lifted up a metal shed we have and deposited it on top of our woodpile! With Tramp 2's back issues, we have asked friends to come over and help remove it! We are expecting more lighting storms in the next couple of days....
7 comments:
Having a successful garden certainly takes lots of work, especially with the weather we have been having. Once you start getting those ripened vegetables it will all be worth it.
Just keep on giving Mother Nature a hand...and you'll be rewarded, I'll bet!
Glad you are enjoying the show...next time, pop some corn!
Love to hear you are recycling all your kitchen waste onto the garden. We do it here too and are always rewarded with gorgeous crops.
Rae and Jim,
Finally, we have a zucchini ready to pick - worth the wait!
Molly,
Welcome to Tramp's Camp - we do recycle all our kitchen waste and I actually used to haul my plastic recycling 150 miles to another town on the other side of the Cascade mountains until this area finally caught up with the rest of the world!
I am trying to grow pumpkins for the first time. Before I left on my two week vacation to Newfoundland I lots of plants and blossoms, but nothing seemed to be setting. It appeared there were two types of blossoms, was I correct? Is one a male flower and one a female flower? Any tips you have would be great. - Margy
So sad to report that my only pumpkin that set has fallen off the vine in a mushy mess. Not sure if it was not enough water or too much water or something else. I have been trying your q-tip trick but haven't been successful in getting any more pollinated and growing. - Margy
Margy,
My squash have been dropping their fruit again, too. Am very glad I can shop at the store this winter!!!
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