Mid-South in August: 2015

Morning, All!  It's that time again - What can be planted in the Mid-South region this month?

According to Gardenate.com, we can plant all sorts of stuff to get ready for fall:

Beans - climbing (also Pole beans, Runner beans, Scarlet Runners)	Plant in garden.
Beetroot (also Beets)	Plant in garden.
Broccoli	Plant in garden.
Cabbage	Plant in garden.
Carrot	Plant in garden.
Cauliflower	Plant in garden.
Chinese cabbage (also Wong bok, wong nga pak)	Plant in garden.
Chives (also Garden chives)	Start undercover in seed trays and plant out in 4-6 weeks.
Collards (also Collard greens, Borekale)	Plant in garden.
Cucumber	Plant in garden.
Kale (also Borecole)	Plant in garden.
Leeks	Plant in garden.
Lettuce	Start undercover in seed trays and plant out in 4-6 weeks.
Mustard greens (also gai choy)	Plant in garden.
Pak Choy (also Pak choi)	Plant in garden.
Rocket (also Arugula/Rucola)	Plant in garden.
Rutabaga (also Swedes)	Plant in garden.
Squash (also Crookneck, Pattypan, Summer squash)	Plant in garden.
Turnip	Plant in garden.

Now if the heat will just cooperate.... 

My goodness Marie, you are "on it."  Aug 1st, and you've posted ouf growing options already!  I see some seed planting in my future.  Trouble is, much of my space is occupied by tomatoes.  I have a few on death's door, so those might get disposed of.

Thanks for posting this!

Windmere wrote:Trouble is, much of my space is occupied by tomatoes.  I have a few on death's door, so those might get disposed of.

Thanks Marie. 
Windmere - My goal this weekend was to clean out all veggie and flower plants that are on death's door - and I have a lot of them.  But that may have to wait a while.  Trying to retire from work next Friday has created a lot of work I have been taking home to get cleaned up ready for my replacement.  Also, just harvesting and watering the veggies that are now coming in is taking up most of my gardening time.  (We finally got a real good rain last night so I won't have to water this weekend)  Almost every night after work I am blanching and freezing or dehydrating various veggies.  Corn, beans, pinkeye purple hull peas, tomatoes, basil, peppers, and I have not even started trying to figure out the best way to preserve some of these potatoes.

PS - I have been reading your SFG Fayetteville thread but haven't had time to respond.  Your garden looks like it did real well this year.  You have done a lot with the space available to you.

Congrats on your retirement, Yolos!

yolos wrote:

Windmere wrote:Trouble is, much of my space is occupied by tomatoes.  I have a few on death's door, so those might get disposed of.

Thanks Marie. 
Windmere - My goal this weekend was to clean out all veggie and flower plants that are on death's door - and I have a lot of them.  But that may have to wait a while.  Trying to retire from work next Friday has created a lot of work I have been taking home to get cleaned up ready for my replacement.  Also, just harvesting and watering the veggies that are now coming in is taking up most of my gardening time.  (We finally got a real good rain last night so I won't have to water this weekend)  Almost every night after work I am blanching and freezing or dehydrating various veggies.  Corn, beans, pinkeye purple hull peas, tomatoes, basil, peppers, and I have not even started trying to figure out the best way to preserve some of these potatoes.

PS - I have been reading your SFG Fayetteville thread but haven't had time to respond.  Your garden looks like it did real well this year.  You have done a lot with the space available to you.

Hey there yolos.  First... congrats on the day finally coming close!  My goodness, your labors indeed sound Herculean. 

I really need to watch the news on the rain.  Even then,  I've been fooled too many times by the weather reports.  A deluge is predicted and then all I see is a small dust devil followed by a tumbleweed. 

Anyway, shortly before last night's downpour, I had finished virtually flooding everything due to things being bone dry.  I had just finished applying some BT when I realized that it was getting a tad windy. After the downpour, I went out and applied some deer repellent and called it a night.  At least MM can be forgiving when watering is excessive.

Thanks for your kind words about my Fayetteville post.  I've had enough of some things to be able to share with friends.  My Floridade tomatoes are still green but are becoming impressively big.  I've never grown a tomato that large before, so I'm curious how things will turn out (and I'm excited too).   Even though I use deer repellent, I still use netting to keep out the other critters... yesterday I figured out that the Ultomato stakes in my 4x4's work great for draping netting over my precious young Floridades.

Our favorites, the Sungolds, are like having a gumball machine in the yard.

As you observed, SFG certainly does make it possible for a small operation like me to have some tangible benefits. 

Well, I hope the maelstrom of activity calms soon.  Be well.

At least you're getting rain!  Please send some up here...!

AtlantaMarie wrote:At least you're getting rain!  Please send some up here...!

One day of rain on Friday night I think it was.  But by Sunday night, some of my beds were bone dry again.  I have to figure this drying up before next year.

We FINALLY got a little rain last night...

It sputtered for a bit here (last night).  I did not water yesterday, so I hope the forecasts promising rain today actually come true (I'm not watering today either).

I'm hearing rumbles and it's very cloudy and actually cooler than it has been.  Getting windy too.  Here's hoping...!

AtlantaMarie wrote:I'm hearing rumbles and it's very cloudy and actually cooler than it has been.  Getting windy too.  Here's hoping...!

I think your hopes might come to pass.  We just had a very healthy downpour here.  And now...  the sun it shining brightly, like nothing ever happened.

Windmere wrote:

AtlantaMarie wrote:I'm hearing rumbles and it's very cloudy and actually cooler than it has been.  Getting windy too.  Here's hoping...!

I think your hopes might come to pass.  We just had a very healthy downpour here.  And now...  the sun it shining brightly, like nothing ever happened.

We got nothing so far.

The past week or so has been incredibly busy for me offline, but my little patch is doing reasonably well, except for my squash and a few cucumber plants.  Some of the squash are hanging on, so I remain hopeful.  I'm treating them with Garden Safe Fungicide to try to fight off Powdery Mildew as our conditions here have been perfect for it.  I was able to get several cucumbers, though.  Some of them are funnily shaped, but they're delicious.  

My cukes are like that too, Beckie, except I don't have as many. I ate one yesterday, 3 days after we got 2.5" on rain, and it was the best cuke I've ever put in my mouth! It all but dribbled down my chin, it was so juicy, crisp and sweet.

Did you ever try spraying with milk/water mix for powdery mildew? I use a very old box of powdered milk that's been hanging around here for about 10 yrs and will probably be here another 10 yrs at the rate I'm using it. Works great!

CC

Thanks, CC!  I'll try that if the fungicide doesn't do the trick.

Im thinking that all the rest of you are getting the rain I want here. As for your cucumbers issues I have done some research and it seems that its from un proper fertilization. Or not full fertilization. They way to fix it the problem is to hand pollinate or attract more pollinators. Good luck to you and your beautiful cucumbers mine all went caput.

The weather peeps are saying we'll get rain all this week.  The thunderstorms were harsh today.  The power went out twice and the rain was so heavy as to be almost fully opaque.  

While I'm thrilled we're finally at below 90F temps, I'm keeping fingers crossed that our house doesn't flood.

Fingers crossed for ya, Beckie

Our power went out just long enough to mess up the clocks & microwave...  But got some nice rain too.

I hope we get some more...  It seems like it goes all around us.