While I can't grow as much as I want, I think I'm probably PAST what I should be growing, with the space constraints I have! Big 16" pots are double deep, so getting to the back ones involves moving the heavy front ones! That being said, with the 6+ inches of rain in July, and plenty of warm sunny weather in between, the "crops" are growing like crazy! My only screw up was NOT noticing that the bucket I used for my purple bell peppers was one that I'd plugged the drilled drain holes in, so when I went to check on everything today, it had standing water ABOVE the soil line! Some quick work with my pruning tool punched 5 of those holes back open again, and I'm hoping that plant will recover. Remember, roots need water AND the ability to breathe! Tomatoes. OMG, TONS of tomatoes!! I really should separate the pots, but there's just no place to do it. Really hoping I don't get a case of blight, or the whole bunch will get wiped out! Smaller (later) tomatoes, pretty much inundated by zucchini plants. There's some melons in there, somewhere, too! Far right side, cukes, slowly climbing the triangle trellis that's likely going to be way inadequate for them! Cukes in the back, jalapeno and habanero peppers, and the nearly drowned purple bell peppers far left, in the back. Oh, and a spinach plant that's bolting, that I hope to collect seeds from! Proof of cukes! First one I've spotted. They're an heirloom pickling cucumber, so I'm hoping to save some seeds this year. TONS of blooms, from the zucchini plants. With some marigolds mixed in, to hopefully help prevent BAD bugs from munching on my plants! Speaking of zucchinis.... One of two that I spotted, already growing. Center left, with the blossom stuck to the right end of it. Was really hoping I was going to have enough pollinators to NOT have to resort to pollinating them myself....and it looks like the bees are doing their job!
INDOORS, I've got some baby tomato plants (grown from some store-bought grape tomatoes) and banana pepper seedlings started (stupid big box stores stop stocking plants in July! WTH??). Oh, and some sweet potato slips, that will be going into soil this week. My plan is to let them grow outside until just before the first frost, then see if I can wrestle them upstairs!
Our zukes have all but died - too cool for too long. We did the potatoes in two sets. One in the open and one set in containers in front of the shed. The shed taters are over 2x as tall, the reflected heat seems to have made a difference. I have to say the DILLIGAS Globull(shit) warming works have missed the boat, it is getting cooler, not warmer.
keep an eye open for some uncontaminated large poly drums - cut those in half (make a tub - not a trough) with drainage holes for growing your deep rooters like tomatoes - they also allow for attaching growing trellis framing - arrangement like that is good for climbing beans and even cukes ....
NASA report on water vapor, which more significant than CO2 The current heat wave is being relentlessly blamed on increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but there is a much more plausible explanation, one that is virtually endorsed by two of the world’s leading scientific organizations. It turns out that levels of water vapor in the atmosphere have dramatically increased over the last year-and-a-half, and water vapor is well recognized as a greenhouse gas, whose heightened presence leads to higher temperatures, a mechanism that dwarfs any effect CO2 may have. So, why has atmospheric water vapor increased so dramatically? Because of a historic, gigantic volcanic eruption last year near Tonga that you -- had never heard of. The mass media ignored it because it took place 490 feet underwater in the South Pacific. Don’t take it from me, take it from NASA (and please do follow the link to see time lapse satellite imagery of the underwater eruption and subsequent plume of gasses and water injected into the atmosphere): This single eruption increased water vapor in the air by 10% - yes, 10%.
North of Buffalo, NY, sir. Currently renting, and downstairs neighbors (who share yard) have dogs....so I've been reluctant in putting anything in the fenced yard, for fear of uncontrollable digging. Thus, the containers, in a small area available outside the fenced yard, and without blocking the driveway. Though I did sneak my horseradish planter on the edge of the yard!
Spotted a couple cukes this morning, while I was watering prior to leaving for work, and made a mental note to harvest them when I got home. Cutting the 2nd one off, something told me to poke around a bit, and see if there were any hidden gems.... .....and I found the mother lode! Cukes (like peppers) start out green. Leave them on the vine long enough, they'll fade to yellow. This one's about halfway there, so I'm glad I caught it when I did. 15 inches long!! Guess I'll be making some refrigerator pickles, sometime very soon!
Today's haul. 2 zucchini, 2 cukes. Been getting a good amount of rain, so everything's grown like crazy! The longer cuke is ~12" long.
I geeked out on some math and chemistry several years ago doing personal research on the rising ocean levels theory. My position was rising ocean levels may be the result of the creation of reaction water by burning fossil fuels. For example, burning 1 pound of natural gas creates 2 pounds of water vapor. I figured we were reclaiming water locked in those hydrocarbons for beaucoup millennia. The amount of water created annually roughly equals the volume of Lake Superior. That sounds like a lot but is only about a liter per square kilometer of the earth's surface. Cooling towers and irrigation produce about the same amount of water vapor annually, most of it falling as rain within a few hundred miles downwind of the generation point.
So , this Tonga eruption is what them climitards were talking about when they were saying the oceans were boiling !!
Thanks! Nice to hear from you, @Alanaana ! I know some of us were worried about whether you were affected by the recent storm/fire, in Maui? Glad you're well, and still with us!
@natshare Thank you. That means a lot to me . I'm very thankful to be safe. I live in the tropical rainforest part of the island so the rain keeps things from drying out, but there is a lot of foliage in this area and only 1 access road in and out. There were some wildfires in the Kohala district at the top of this island and near the resorts. Thankfully they were able to contain them. It's heartbreaking what happened in Maui. I have a feeling that flooding and wildfires are only going to get worse at the rate things are going. The weather is all out of whack. I hope that you're doing well. Thank you for sharing your garden updates! I'm trying to grow peppers and herbs. They seem to like this climate. There is a problem with leaf miners and ants so I'm trying to get that under control.
Thank you for sharing this resource. It's very helpful. I'm looking forward to getting those miners under control!
