When I shared the best planting days for June we had been having ample rain. A month later that is no longer the case.
Brasstown is very dry. We did get a little rain towards the end of last week but it wasn’t near enough to make up for what we’ve lost over the last few weeks.
I’m hoping the weather pattern changes to something more normal for us soon. Typically we get rain a couple of times a week during the summer in the form of evening thunder storms.
Even with the dry weather the garden is doing pretty good. Our corn is continuing to reach towards the sky. I can’t wait to see it tasseling and hear the bees working it.
The beans are just now beginning to come in. We will do our first major bean picking by the end of the week.
So far the pepper spray I’ve been using on our squash and cucumbers seems to be keeping the squash bugs at bay. Cucumbers are really coming in. I can barely keep them picked. I hope to make some pickles soon.
We’ve grabbled out a few new potatoes to eat here and there but haven’t harvested all of them yet although the potato plants from our first planting have mostly died back.
No ripe slicing tomatoes yet but we have had a handful or so of tommy-toes and oh my are they good!
I would like to plant a succession planting of a couple of things, but with the dry weather I’m not sure any of it would make so I likely won’t do it, at least not until the weather changes.
Granny’s garden is looking pretty good except for her tomatoes. Paul has been watering it about everyday. Since its so small it doesn’t take long.
Today I noticed her peas are looking better than they ever have. It took me a minute to realize why. The trees we cut to allow more sunshine to reach the big garden were also shading Granny’s garden of an evening. Now the area gets full late day sunshine.
Here’s the best planting days for July.
Taurus: good for all root crops and above ground crops 1, 27, 28
Cancer: best for planting above ground and root crops 4, 5, 31
Scorpio: best for flowers and above ground crops 14, 15
Pisces: good for planting and transplanting above ground crops, trees and shrubbery 23, 24
Tipper
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Yall gotta get your bean seeds from the man himself, bill best. None better! Link below… also his books are great resources. sending good vibes from Kentucky! Keep doing what you’re doing Tipper we love you!
https://www.heirlooms.org/store/c1/www.heirlooms.org/store/c1/Featured_Products.html
Last year I planted tommy toes, and they were orange and called Sun Sugar. The were so good and sweet. We loved them. This year we planted them again, and we are already picking them. We eat them right from the vine, and like Matt we call them yard snacks. We are really dry here in SW Ohio, and we have to water our garden to keep it going. I hope we get some much needed rain.
I am canning my third and final run of bread and butter pickles. The cucumbers and squash have done well, but the drought is now taking it’s toll and I pulled the vines up yesterday morning; even with watering them, the cukes were starting to get bitter and most of the vines have stopped blooming. I fear for my tomatoes. Tipper, would that pepper spray work on Mexican bean beetles? Those yellow spawns of Satan are ruining my beans and I don’t want to resort to Sevin dust if at all possible.
Catherine-I plan to use it when they find my beans this year 🙂 Here’s the post where I learned about it: https://diynatural.com/hot-pepper-homemade-garden-bug-spray/
Thank you for sharing this!
They’re predicting a dry July here in eastern Tennessee……..sigh….
Good mornin’
May I ask what pepper spray you use for your plants? I’m starting to have some squash bugs all around my squash plants. Thank you for everything you post and sharing our Appalachian ways! I saw you speak at Pipestem in WV yearssss ago and was so enthralled by what you shared.
God bless and have a good day!
Brooke Ann – WV
Brooke-this is the spray I made except I used dried peppers: https://diynatural.com/hot-pepper-homemade-garden-bug-spray/
Last year I planted some tommy toes called “Sun Sugar” and they were out of this world good. They were orange in color and the sweetest tommy toes I have ever eaten. This year I planted them again, and we have been getting them already. They are soo good. We like to eat them right from the vine, as Matt calls them “Yard Snacks”.
Gaylia, I saw a man wearing one of those new fangled hats you mentioned, I don’t know how well it worked. I was born in 1954 and grew up in the hot south seeing my Granddaddy and other neighborhood men farming (some still using mules). Almost every one would wear straw hats and light colored (kaki) long sleeve cotton work shirts, some gave up overalls for light kaki colored cotton work pants. I heard of one man wearing an unlined overall jacket when he was using a cradle to cut his wheat. The idea was these shirts would soon get soaking wet with sweat and keep them cooler. I liked to run around without a shirt and my Granddaddy would tell me he was cooler than I was, it took me awhile to understand how this could be.
OH NO.. your server sent me an error code, posting problem. Everything I typed is gone. Shucks!
I should have copied it first:) oh well, we are getting enough rain for everything so far.
I watched the Pressley Girls in the creek and loved it all. You are so blessed to have that beautiful little creek. I played with my cousins in my grandparents creeks in NE MS. I thought at the time they were the best with sandy bottoms that you could clearly see. So pretty!!
In our retirement years, my husband and I went out West and stopped in Arizona where I had fun looking for rocks. I didn’t have a clue as to whether there was a gem among them, but that didn’t matter as I thought they were stunning.
Good morning everyone. Here in NE Arkansas I have to say we are on the hot damp side. But not good deep soakings that I am used to. Plus my vegetable are in raised beds. Since it’s just me and one of my sons who is working a lot. I decided not to plant much this year. I have 3 beds of volunteer tomatoes, some herbs. I have many large trees, but I went crazy and planted many more trees in areas that needed privacy from the occasional car going by. So I have to water. Between the rabbits and heat I am hoping to get just a few tomatoes this year. I am always afraid of our crazy weather here so I plant a little late. Luckily for me I can let the tomatoes grow into November. I do feel sorry for the farmers and families who rely on their crops. I only have 1 1/4 acres and can barely manage that. I can’t imagine what they go through.
We had severe weather with downpours on Memorial Day weekend as I worried about the rainy pattern that would keep me from tilling and hoeing. I didn’t have to worry very long, as that was the last significant rain this area has had. My cousin and I talked about how our parents would have survived if they had our weather and animal issues to deal with when gardening. A critter got inside my fence and ate every leaf of lettuce and most of the green beans and peas.
I planted my sweet corn back in early May. The ground was damp when it was planted and it rained heavy that same day. I thought if it will dry up a little this will bring about a high rate of germination. But it didn’t dry up. It rained enough in the following two weeks to keep the ground soupy. A few of the seeds came up within a week and that was it. The rain stopped and the ground dried up enough to till it all up again. I dug it all under and started over.
The second planting went well. I don’t remember the day or date all I know is late May or early June. Again it started raining just as I finished planting. That was the last of the appreciable rain since. Most of my corn came up but still had missing spaces. I decided to replant just the missing corn this time. Also this time the ground had dried to the point that puffs of dust blew away with every stroke of my hoe, so I turned on my sprinkler afterward. Some of the rereplanting came up but will probably not do anything except maybe prop up the bigger plants in case of high winds from a thunderstorm.
Something I have noticed about my corn this year is that most of the plants have side shoots. I have seen such occasionally but this year it is the majority. The internet tells me conflicting things. Some say the plants have had been injured while others say that corn does that when growing conditions are perfect. I tend not to believe either. Maybe someone here can enlighten me.
I’ve got a good well, so if it rains, fine. If it don’t, fine, I’ll use water from the ground. From the sky or from the ground it all comes from God anyways!
I haven’t heard “of an evening” (and yes, I hear what you write in your voice) since my Mamaw Nettie passed in 2004. Thank you.
We finally got a good heavy rain this past Sunday! Close to two inches. Today is the coolest temperature we’ve had on our side of NC since the middle of June. This morning it was 59 degrees and as I write this comment at 9:18am, it’s a wonderful 65 degrees, with a high today of 86-88 degrees. Our windows are open enjoying the coolness of the day! Sadly, it won’t last long. They are predicting 98 degrees returning on Thursday July 4 with a extreme heat index of way over 100. If you’re having a break from the heat of summer like we are, enjoy it! Because summer ain’t over yet y’all.
I am in the summer desert it seems I get all too often here. It has been something like 25 days since we had an effective rain here per ‘official’ station which I feel pretty sure is really better than we have gotten. By effective I mean enough to raise soil moisture in the root zone, say top 8-10″ or so. I can’t have much enthusiasm to plant even though I pulled up most all of the corn yesterday to get ahead of the plagued squirrel so I now have room. I wouldn’t do plants now because I’d have to water them for them to even survive. And seed would just lie there and bake. I know of reports of rain to the south, north and east; some close by. Guess I could grow prickly pear and eat the fruits and the pads. The pads are reported to taste kinda like green beans. Don’t mind me, I’m being aggravated. But I do still have tomatoes, field peas and watermelons growing; not over yet.
Every time I read a post about gardens and crops that have failed, I am reminded of what someone observed: “Legalize gambling. Why should farmers have all the fun?”
What is the pepper spray you use? Would love to know! Thanks.
Yvette-this is the one I made except I used dried peppers: https://diynatural.com/hot-pepper-homemade-garden-bug-spray/
Hoping and praying everyone gets the rain they need.
We sure need rain here in Central Eastern WV. We got a little thunderstorm one night this past weekend, but the creeks are still low and the grass is dry. Our tomatoes are loaded this year though. No ripe ones yet, but we will have plenty for tomato sandwiches and canning very soon. My pepper plants aren’t doing as well as last year, but considering how dry it’s been, they are doing pretty good. Our soft-neck garlic is about ready to harvest…maybe another week. Hubby carefully digs it up with a spade and I carry it all up to our covered patio. There, I lay it out on tables and let it dry completely. When it’s dry, I braid the garlic with its dry tops, and we hang them in our basement where it lasts all year. I keep one braid hanging in my kitchen because I pretty much cook with garlic every day. We have had two cool mornings in a row with temps in the 50’s, and a nice heavy dew—every little bit of water helps.
I lost everything I planted this year in my small garden and raised beds due to deer and dry/hot weather. Everything was looking good until the month of June. I have 5 tomato plants and have been eating tomatoes for several weeks. I have cages around them made from cement reinforcement wire and have been watering them. I may get a few ears of corn from two short rows of corn, it has tasseled and has some ears of corn on the stalks but ants are getting into it, I guess the ants are looking for moisture. I am very thankful, we had two thunderstorms Sunday that gave me 2 inches of rain.
I live in the country-15 miles to the nearest small country town. There are a several farmers around me that have hundreds of acres of corn and soybeans planted along with some cattle or dairy farmers that depend on these crops or cattle for their livelihood. I passed by some large corn fields yesterday that have been lost, the corn has tasseled but no ears on the stalks and the stalks are now turning yellow and the pastures are turning brown. My friend planted around 25,000 sweet potato plants at the beginning of June and also grows some other produce to sell. For most of us a garden is more of a hobby, for these men it is their living. I also think about my family along with many other families that depended so much on large gardens for their year long food supply when I was growing up in the50 and 60’s and think about the hardship today’s weather would have caused our families. The deer would not have been tolerated, I suspect many deer would have been added to our supply of meat throughout the year.
It will be 3-4 weeks before rattlesnake beans are ready. I may get my first tomato this week but the tommy toes have been plentiful. Yesterday my friend gave me cabbage and a box of tomatoes so I made “granny’s” kraut and today I’ll be canning tomatoes! So thankful for good friends! Let’s all pray for rain.
If the drought continues, maybe get a few soaker hoses going across your beds. I can’t imagine losing your food gardens after all that work. You might be able to get a few irrigation hose lines going from the creek near to the corn crop if needed.
I also though of suggesting irritating the corn from the creek that runs beside of the corn field. The cost of an irrigation pump, hose, and sprinklers would make this costly. I know soaker hoses do not use much water, but if you get your water from a well, you have to be careful of using extra water from it during these times of drought unless it is a very strong well (strong vein of water.)
here in oklahoma many people have been getting wonderful tomatoes for a couple of weeks and thankfully my brother in law has brought me some a couple of times…they sure are wonderful this year, better than they have been for the last couple of years…I tried grow bags this year thinking I could have luck with a few things but between my health and the heat I have not been able to keep things watered so my tomato plants my english pea plants have died as have a few bean plants leaving me with one surviving plant–my potatoes I cant even go dig, last time I went out to do something with them I had a bad fall and have (out of fear mainly) not been back to those grow bags–hopefully I can overcome and find a cool enough day soon where I can go dig around in those bags and possibly harvest a few taters–I guess I will just live vicariously (sp?) through you and your garden lol. I made some kraut last year per your video–it was so easy and was wonderful, made me wish my German grandma and my mama were still with us so I could have shared with them (grandma use to make it by the big crock fulls and mama use to tell me how as a little girl would go down to the basement (which you got to from behind the house–and it was pretty spooky and snakey) and get her handfuls of the deliciousness out of the crocks to eat..she never said if grandma ever caught her at it I am sure she know–grandma had a way of knowing everything lol has Mat tried any of those floppy hats (on amazon) with the built in fans–might not keep him cooler than his wet bandana but I heard on man say it sure kept gnats and bees out of his face as they didnt care for the breeze from the fans
Gaylia-love the story of your mama 🙂 He hasn’t tried one of those but likely wouldn’t like it because of the noise 🙂
I wear a broad brim Huk straw hat when I’m out in the noonday sun. It’s lightweight and keeps the sun off my head and shoulders. Missy bought it for me and I left the tag on it. You know, like Minnie Pearl did, if you’re old enough to remember.
Buying batteries for a hat might be expensive.