Gardening Journal - Post your gardening updates here

I'm guessing it's the sheep manure that's really doing the trick. Tried it several years ago at another place and it really greened everything up.

It's a bad year for tomatoes with temperatures up and down. Today it's near 90. In a couple days it's going to be only 73. Lots of scattered storms. Just not a good year for my garden.

I've just got basil this year.


Even my crabapple is suffering and has developed some type of fungus. Hope I don't lose it.

Some lines I wrote up for Summer Solstice back in 2009 to Lisa Gerrard's Now We Are Free. I had posted them on the net in June of that year for anyone to use and it started to cause something of a controversy, some saying they weren't the real lines. Well, of course they aren't the 'real' lines, but they are my lines, at least how I hear them.

As I've watched this little verbal seed grow since 09, I've been secretly touched by the lives these words have been able to touch. And it does me some good to know that Christ can take a word that passed through me and bless others with it.

But as I look once again around solstice season, I find now that it has even entered the Arabian world and been rendered into Arabic.

How's your soil? Have enough sand at the bottom?

Yeah, you're right, too much rain and ruin a tomato. Tomatoes like their water, but they also like a bit of sand in their soil. They do not well tolerate standing water.

Tomato is in the Solanaceae family, so it likes to grow like a Nightshade.

The drought this year is causing all kinds of temperature variations. Water is the balancing element of summer. In some places there is too much, in some places too little at this time.

Great chaos in the elements. The water & fire must be balanced.

Zechariah 14

And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark: 7But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening twilight time shall come forth a light. 8And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall burst forth from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former abyss, and half of them toward the hinder abyss: at summer and at winter shall they come. 9And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be Achad-IHVH, and his name the One.

Axl tried to warn everybody a long time ago. Typically, nothing changed.

finally got around to planting my heirloom beans yesterday:

Tried lettuce seed tape this year. Usually do regular seeds and bought them by mistake. Nothing came up.

Strawberries were looking good-I thought- until I noticed they were mock strawberries. Ripped them out. I could see how they could easily be mistaken for actual strawberries, especially when the plants are very young. Bought them from a display at TSC. Bummer but oh well.

Trying my hand at some Jack o lantern pumpkins this year.

Any chance you have experience with jaboticaba?

Mine seems to have died back badly...

You might enjoy this other forum I read... growing fruit dot org

(remove the spaces)

here's an update on those beans i planted five days ago:



they've already germinated, incredible!
(skip to 3:13 if all you care about is the beans part)

Last Edited by OpenHeartMonk on 06/26/2021 03:58 PM

Northern US here

We weeded some wood sorrel which will go into salad tonite for a nice little zing, along with the ever present lambs quarters.

https://imgur.com/yzGr10L

My red and black currants are both doing well..these are the black. The white ones are still with us but struggling.

https://imgur.com/rbdPrb9

As a side note, my elderberry was out of hand, and I had a huge harvest last year so we still have plenty of elderberry syrup. I cut it flush with the ground and gave all the branches out to friends to make new starts but it has already grown taller than me and looks to be another plentiful harvest this year unless we decide to do something with the elderflowers instead this week.

Lastly, my youngest aggressively weeded this spring and took out most of my raspberries that I had planted all around the inside of our fence (16' locust 4x4's with 8 ft. deer netting and 2 ft of chicken wire at the bottom buried 6 inches deep) I have found 2 that she missed and hoping to continue to propagate them into a natural fence along all but the northwest corner which is hazelnut bushes.

https://imgur.com/fmPY2zd

Oh and it looks like a boatload of grapes this year!

https://imgur.com/R6jTOhG

I replanted the little garden. I wasn't expecting a lot because I figured the greenhouse top would get too hot and there wasn't enough air circulation, plus late June? But I figured it was worth a try, so I zipped it up on both sides with the exception of about a 6 inch slit on each zipper. It's going crazy in just a week. I am totally shocked by how much it's grown. OK, so permanent greenhouse top it is. What that deer can't get to is my gain. LOL!

Whatever doubts I may have had that this was a true monsoon season maize that required no watering have been put to rest.

The only thing I've done since planting on the night of June 20th is put some urine on it. The rain is doing the rest. They weren't lying. This really is 60 day corn.

Corn Growth 7-7-21

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We've had well over 9 inches of rain out here since summer monsoon kicked off on June 21. We have more on way today. I'm not really even having to water anything right now. Thank God for these showers. We may just break out if this drought over here if this keeps up.

Planted three 50 foot rows of sweet corn to be harvested July 4th. Went to pick it on the second of July to find it had been eaten. deer tracks, young deer had eaten the whole patch the night before. They ate my three 50 foot rows of green beans as well that night. All that was left of the beans was sticks waving in the air. leaves, flowers and beans eaten like the corn. My garden is easier to take care of now, got more to mow though now.

Oh, man. That is terrible. Sorry to hear it.

They absolutely will eat everything you have, those deer.

I'm telling you...

They are merciless and systematic. lol

Well it's about time to go ahead and get the amaranth. And what a glorious lady she turned out to be. The word amaranth is from the Greek and means unfading and it's even used and the Epistle of St Peter to describe the unfading crown. Amaranth usually steals the show and the garden because it's such a big and bold plant. And it requires very little water.

Amaranth 7-7-21

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The Datura is finally starting to come along. It's a bit more desert hardy than some of your other baneful herbs. In fact, Sonora Desert Datura that grows in the Texas Sonora Desert is a native American variety and is a true xeric plant.

As with any other Solonaceae (Deadly Nightshade, Silverleaf Nightshade, Black Nightshade, Henbane, Mexican Thistle, Mandrake, etc) be very careful in you medicinal use of these plants. Do not dose them as remedies unless you know exactly what you're doing.

And for reference on exactly what you're doing, I refer you to Dr Scudder (1893) and Dr Fife (1909) - two eclectic herbal doctors who actually did know exactly what they were doing. Datura is not a nice plant. It's a baneful herb that can be very beneficial as a medicinal remedy if used in the right proportion. Use it wrong, and you will be going to see Jesus.

Datura 7-11-21

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Just an added note on Datura: If you are searching around in Scudder or Fife for Datura, you'll have better luck searching for Stramonium (Jamestown Weed). You've heard it called Jimson Weed, and this itself is a misnomer and 'slanging' of Jamestown Weed. It has been used medicinally since at least the colonial American days and especially during the revolutionary war and civil war. It's main use? As a remedy to acute PTSD, or what used to be called shellshock in wore torn soldiers. Under high stress situations (including societal collapses) sometimes people experience episodes of enraged mania. It is also useful for epilepsy itself and was the main antidote until modern times. But in extreme survival situations, or where there is no access to morphine in injury situations, you'll going to want to add some Datura tincture to your go back apothecary.

The simplest tincture is 8 oz of 95% Everclear to 8 volume ounces of the fresh potent leaves and flowering tops. Set for a few or two and dose in 5 to 10 drops per 4 fluid ounces of water taking 1 teaspoon per hour as needed. That dosage proportion works out to fractions of a drop per dose, and that's what you're aiming for with Datura.

Time was when you could carry a little poppy opium in a medicinal bag and no one would care. However, the laws being what they are, we simply do not have access to opium to make a medicinal morphine like people could in the old days. It may be better too as the stuff is highly addictive, or can be.

In fact, Dr Scudder liked Datura better in so many ways, and even in the 1870s he was fully aware of the damaging side effects morphia could have. It led to many people ending up at the dope smoke lounges blowing their brains out on poppies.

Instead, Scudder points to Datura as being a better alternative in many such cases.

So how is the Hopi Indian corn doing?

Better than I ever could have imagined.

I did have a little ear worm attack about 4 days ago that tore into the corn but I think I'm going to get it under control with a baking soda pesticide.

Other than that I see no reason why it shouldn't be done sometime a little after mid-august.

Hopi Corn 8-3-21

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The Datura is in full bloom now.

I can make quite a bit of medicinal tincture with this.

I'll let it go to seed and harvest it about mid-september.

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The Cherokee pumpkins are doing great. In fact I had to prune them and take one plant out because they're growing so quickly and all over each other.

Cherokee pumpkins aren't real big like a carving pumpkin, but they do make a great pumpkin for a pie or a casserole.

Should be ready around the first week of October.

I didn't know how they would do out here but they seem to be doing pretty well actually.

Cherokee pumpkins

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I found myself fantasizing about fresh roasted pumpkin pie in the late autumn after checking the garden at lunch time.

This is a great recipe I'll try.

But actually, just having some pumpkin puree in stock that you took from the garden isn't a bad survival option. This can be mixed with the squash in casseroles.

Went ahead and harvested the Amaranth. You can let the grain dry on the plant itself, but these were leaning, which tells you the plant is ready to harvest.

Will let dry over the weekend and then thresh out.

Can be used for porrage or even as a bread dow.

Our natural desert native species grows all over the place out here in copious amounts. Not quite as big as this red Amaranth, but the same plant. I wonder how many people realize they have a highly nutritious natural grain growing all around them. It's not a weed. That's daily bread. And the leaves can be eaten as greens.

Amaranth Harvest 2021

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Another natural grain is Wild Curly Dock. It grows all over the southwest and even up into Colorado. The leaves are mildly toxic, but the seeds, when dried, make a good grain source.

I didn't have it in the garden, but I took a picture of it in a dirt lot when I saw it driving by. It just looks like an ugly weed, but in a real fallout situation, that ugly weed turns into sustenance.


[imgur] [link to imgur.com (secure)]

If you're just wanting a basic Amaranth bread similar to cornbread with your beens or stew, it's really easy to do.

Asclepius is one of Dr Scudder's top ten medicinal herbs. But which variety could conceivably be cultivated out here in a semi-xeric environment.

Well, I finally found our native desert variety not far from the house.

Will be harvesting for tinctures and seeds to plant next season. A true desert hardy xeric variety requiring no watering and a medicinal herb.

Narrow Leaf Milkweed (Asclepius)

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Dr Scudder carried a tincture preparation of Asclepius 1:1 parts with 76% grain spirits.

Used as a diaphoretic in fevers, he successfully employed it to "boil" (sweat out) fevers in the 1800s.

It seems counter-intuitive that you would want a diaphoretic agent such as Asclepius in such cases as scarlet fever, but it works. In some cases it was the only successful way to "break" a fever.