The Third Hibiscus, and Other Garden Observations

 

This is the hibiscus Gary got me for Mother's Day.  I love the deep pink color, which doesn't show up properly in the picture, of course.  I hope I can keep these new hibiscus going over winter.  I am going to cover with straw or hay or something to try and insulate the roots.

My Betty Hibiscus has yet to bloom!  It is about 4 feet tall by now.  I have to keep metal stakes by it to keep it propped up, otherwise it would fall over and break, or be sprawled all over the walkway, like it was last year.

********
 

Most of all spring and summer, up until about 3 days ago, I have been fighting squash bugs on all of my vining plants; the cukes, squash and gourds.  I take a glass of soapy water and just hand pick the bugs and dunk in the water.  They die within a minute.  I'd get at least a dozen of the little horrors a day sometimes.  But the past 3 days or so I haven't seen a one.  I can only pray their season is over with and they won't be back.  I spent quite a bit of time squashing the eggs, too, so I am hoping there won't be a second generation come on.  

I think the vine borers are going to take over from where the squash bugs have left off.  I have already had one vine die:


 

 I am not sure what to do about the vine borers.  I saw on YouTube where one guy sprays some sort of clay on his squash vines to discourage pests.  I'd never heard of that method.

*******

Another aggravation is that something keeps breaking off my sunflowers:


What is doing this is beyond me.  All I can think is some sort of large bird keeps trying to land on them and breaks them off.  These sunflowers here in the garden bed are all volunteer and it's sad that they spent all these months getting so big, just to get broken off right when they are set to bloom.  I will leave the stalks so the lower offshoots will get a chance to bloom, maybe.

OK.

That's enough complaining for now.  All else is going well.  I already have close to 35 or more quarts of green beans in the pantry, as it were, from October.  So this week I picked most of my green beans and Gary and I snapped them for Gail, whose bean plants didn't bear much at all for her.  Mostly all she had were vines with no beans....I mean bush bean, supposedly, that vined out instead of blooming.  

I have 11 pint jars of pickled beets.  Those are easy to make and fills the house with spicy smells. 

Comments

Donna. W said…
I have a couple of my Hibiscus blooming now. And we are getting rain like you did a while back.
July 4, 2024 at 12:41 PM
Calfkeeper said…
I love the Hibiscus; they are so pretty. I think this is going to be a wetter summer all the way around, from the past few summers we have had.
July 6, 2024 at 5:45 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Oyster

It isn't even halfway through the month yet and I have run out of lists or anything amusing to tell you about the dairy. So here is a poem I picked up on a homesteading forum. It does deal with ag issues, just of a different sort... Enjoy! The Oyster Baxter Black The sign upon the café wall said OYSTERS: fifty cents. "How quaint," the blue-eyed sweetheart said with some bewildermence, "I didn't know they served such fare out here upon the plain." "Oh, sure," her cowboy date replied, "We're really quite urbane." "I would guess they're Chesapeake or Blue Point, don't you think?" "No ma'am, they're mostly Hereford cross . . . and usually they're pink But I've been cold, so cold myself, what you say could be true And if a man looked close enough, their points could sure be blue!" She said, "I gather them myself out on the bay alone. I pluck them from the murky depths and smash them with a
Read more

Like Cats A'Fightin'

Image
That's a local saying when it's snowing hard. Snowing like cats a'fightin'. You can look out and see the fur flying. Ellen had never been outside while it was actually snowing. She was enchanted. She had to have a bucket of it to carry around. It was in the mid-20s but we took a bit of a walk before coming back in for a nap. The snow is still too dry to be able to make a snowman, it is really powdery. So far we have somewhere between 3 and 4 inches, I would suspect.
Read more

The Blind Calf Story

Image
This happened last month. I thought it was an interesting case. Wed Aug 15th 2007 8:30 AM: Went out and brought new heifer calf and cow in from field. Not too sure how old calf was; umbilical cord sort of dried up, but calf still seemed damp. Left her with cow all morning ‘til maybe early afternoon, then separated them. Beautiful, normal calf. 6 PM Fed calf bottle. She slugged back the whole thing. Thurs Aug 16th5:15 AM (approx) Calf comatose. Or as near as I could tell. She was on her side, non-responsive, drooling, head on ground, eyes closed or just barely opened. I tried to feed her bottle but she only swallowed convulsively once or twice, then milk just drained from her mouth. 5:30 AM. Husband went out and looked at her. Drug her out of pen and out of the way to be taken to boneyard later after chores were all done. She was barely breathing and as I said, totally non-responsive.This was a real grief as the cow she came from is a great milker and to get a heifer from her was a joy.
Read more