Spider Mites are hungry

The spider mites are wreaking havoc later than their usual time during the hot summer months here in Oklahoma.  I made up a high pressure sprayer to attack them from underneath the leaves.  Seven dust is just not doing it.  They seem to adapt to it quite readily.  My yard-long beans have been hit by both spider mites and aphids.  And so they are pretty much spent except for gathering seed for next year.   The tomato  plant seemed to respond well to the treatment and so did the Chinese cabbage.  My starts on the potting bench have also been hit hard, probably because I have not been repoting   them as they grow.  If they are allowed to remain in small pots they tend to dry out faster than I can keep them watered.  Also, despite the ad on the label, they needed fertilizing too.

I did set out the 2nd set of broccoli starts and they seem to be doing well.

Set out the pansies starts I bought from Lowe's in two patches on the front bed after preparing the soil with plenty of compost.  I use rough compost to mulch them.

Trimmed the potted moss rose and fertilized them and they are responding well and starting to bloom again.

Fall Plantings 2013

Planted in pots:
Japanese Cukes (Remained stunted and rife with mites) Sprayed and removed one pot.
Chinese Cabbage

Fall Plantings

Planted in raised bed:
Sparkler Radishes (did well)

Fall Garden 2013 cont.

My Chinese Cabbage starts have sprouted and about 2 inches high in their cups.  Only one Broccoli start took and is doing OK.  The Purple Top Turnips have really taken off during the unusual cool spell we've had for Aug.  Now that summer had returned with mid-upper 90 temps I've shaded them with sheer curtain fabric stapled onto old recycled storm windows.  The Early Girl Tomato plant is about 6 feet tall and putting out plenty of nice tomatoes.  The Chinese Foot-Long beans have been attacked by aphids and I've had to spray them with Seven to keep them under control.  Seven is about as powerful a chemical spray that I care to use.  I sowed another set of Broccoli starts a few days ago and put a plastic bag over the tray and boy what a difference that made.  I set them out for full sun and hope for the best.  Today I planted Winter Onions for cuttings this winter and bulbs in the spring.  We harvested about a half-bushel at the end of this spring and about to finish them off.  Boy, they are really good at making you cry.

Poem "The Spider"

The Spider

He drew a slender parachute


To climb upon a wind

Then drifted to my garden

Inviting himself in



His spot is near a thoroughfare

Where moth and fly commute

And there he waits for bandits

To crash into his net.



An acrobat on a filament

Invisible to prey

To have a living garden

You must keep the sprays away.



MG Morris

Gardening On Your Knees, & Raised Beds

Time to get back to gardening Stickfigure style.  I've been stove-up due to health problems and have basically let the garden go fallow all of last year.  Gardening is such good exercise that I just have to get back into it.  Because of my bad legs I cannot stand for very long periods of time.  About 5 years ago I built a carrier for my tools that is just the right height to let me rest my chest on it so that I could work the garden on my knees.  I use a pad on top of the carrier and wear knee pads that I bought at Home Depot.  I designed a set of hand tools especially for the task.  It saves a lot of back-breaking and leg-aching toil.

This year though, I have decided to start building raised beds so that I don't have to crawl around on my hands and knees so much.  I'm planning on making them 4 feet wide and about 12-13 inches high...a little under standard chair height.  The paths will be wide enough to accommodate a wheel chair that I use to cart things around and covered with wood chip mulch that will be used as humus each time it is recovered with fresh chips.  

Fall Garden Plantings

My granddaughter Sloanie Mae and I planted purple top turnips in one of the beds for the beginning of the fall garden this year.  She is only 18 months old and quite bright.  She planted by broadcasting. :)  I also started in styrofoam cups Broccoli, and Chinese Cabbage.  On the east side of the wood shop I  planted Oriental Foot-Long Beans.  Linda tried to start Pansies earlier but they didn't take.  She also started Zinnias but only one plant survived....but wow, it sure did put out a lot of blooms.  I dug up a lot of Iris to divide and move or cull out later this month.  I've had to pare down the size of my garden because I just can't take care of it all due to my health.

Zinnia, Profusion

Fall Garden of 2013 begins

2 AUG 2013

Planted brocolli in pots.

Fall Garden Log 2013

The first cold nights have appeared and the temps are now reaching into the upper 40s at night.

I've watched the butterfly and skipper dance that lasts all day.  The following are what I have seen so far.

1.  Large Yellow - love the hummingbird vine & honey suckle.
2.  Rusty orange large - like the orange zinnias that match their color.  They tend to come to the garden later and leave earlier.
3.  Cabbage moths - Love to lay eggs on just about anything but like to drink from the pink oxalis flowers.
4.  Brown skippers - visits the zinnias.

At Lowe's the other day the flowering plants were swarming with long-bodied honey bees.  There must have been a hive somewhere.  I thought of putting a hive or two on the flat roof of my shop.  One thing that worries me is that they spray the railroad right of way near here.  I haven't seen very many bees here since the black berries have been pulled up and the clover in the lawn has disappeared.  I guess I could plant some this fall  if I could find the seed.  My beekeeping friend said he has been loosing hives due to disease.  I sure do miss them.

Bridge across miniature stream

I took my granddaughter to Linnaeus Teaching Gardens at the Tulsa Garden Center. She just loved it. The coy ponds was her favorite.  One of the volunteers let her feed them and she squealed like a little piglet with joy.

Sloan feed coy

My favorite part of the garden was the cuke arbor and the Sickle Pod plant.  I took a botanical sample of the sickle pod to find out what it was.  I kept the seed and plan on sowing it in the spring. 7/21/2020 I did plant it the next year and it did real well.....maybe too well.  I decided that the Sickle Pod plant was a noxious weed and had to go.  As of this date I noticed a sickle pod seedling come up after 6 years of lying dormant.  Just shows the viability of this plant.  The flowers were not that showy also. 

cuke arbor

sickle pod

Sloanie and the scarecrow

They have an heirloom veggie section with raised beds and the beets looked great in pots.  Although its not a veggie they had cotton growing in a pot also.  I made sure I got some seeds. From one raised bed to another they installed a trellis connecting the two and grew cukes on it.  

In my own garden I just discovered a heavy infestation of aphids on my turnip plants.  I may have let them get too crowded.  

One Lone Tomato Plant

My next door neighbor brought over a lone tomato plant "Early Girl" to put in my garden.  It is the only thing I planted this spring.  The best I could do this spring is keep the weeds down and dream of getting back to gardening again once my health improves.

My in-laws brought over about 12-20 lb bags of chicken manure and I've began incorporating that into the composted weeds and grass clippings.  I try to be as organic as I can and manure is tops for fertilizer in my book.

We had quite a mild spring this year and the weeds sure have taken advantage of it.  I do plan on having a fall garden this year albeit a small one.

Early Girl tomatoe plant