New England, July 2016

Yolos, a lot of us New England wash-a-shores are from Florida. I'm from Miami.

So I read this article this morning ...

http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/what-to-plant-now-july-maritime-canada-and-new-england-gardening-region.aspx

...and proceeded to plant potatoes and shallots.   I think the heat has shorted out the connection between the eyes and the brain.

Now that I've cooled down a bit I'm heading back out to put in some more bush beans and plant the cuke starts.

I just did the strangest thing. I was going through my two big containers of seeds and ended up with a pile of ones that I don't want anymore or won't do well for me.  Mostly corn, peas/beans and numerous squashes and melons. I mixed them all together in a big bowl, went out to the side of the house by the chimney where nothing ever grows, raked up most of the wood chips and the debris down to the dirt, then poured all the seeds all along about a 15-foot x 2- foot stretch, dumped a bunch of compost on top of them, raked the wood chips back on and watered. I'm calling it my seed graveyard and whatever sprouts will be the zombies.

The Seed Graveyard

CapeCoddess wrote:I just did the strangest thing. I was going through my two big containers of seeds and ended up with a pile of ones that I don't want anymore or won't do well for me.  Mostly corn, peas/beans and numerous squashes and melons. I mixed them all together in a big bowl, went out to the side of the house by the chimney where nothing ever grows, raked up most of the wood chips and the debris down to the dirt, then poured all the seeds all along about a 15-foot stretch, dumped a bunch of compost on top of them, raked the wood chips back on and watered. I'm calling it my seed graveyard and whatever sprouts will be the zombies.

The Seed Graveyard

I started a separate storage container inside where I am putting all the seeds that I know I wont plant again.  I intend to sow them all in one big batch like you did after I get some space freed up.  Just going to turn them under before the first frost to build up my soil - green manure type. If I really wanted any of the seeds, I would have planted them before now.  So just going to use them to enrich the soil.

yolos wrote:

CapeCoddess wrote:I just did the strangest thing. I was going through my two big containers of seeds and ended up with a pile of ones that I don't want anymore or won't do well for me.  Mostly corn, peas/beans and numerous squashes and melons. I mixed them all together in a big bowl, went out to the side of the house by the chimney where nothing ever grows, raked up most of the wood chips and the debris down to the dirt, then poured all the seeds all along about a 15-foot stretch, dumped a bunch of compost on top of them, raked the wood chips back on and watered. I'm calling it my seed graveyard and whatever sprouts will be the zombies.

The Seed Graveyard

I started a separate storage container inside where I am putting all the seeds that I know I wont plant again.  I intend to sow them all in one big batch like you did after I get some space freed up.  Just going to turn them under before the first frost to build up my soil - green manure type. If I really wanted any of the seeds, I would have planted them before now.  So just going to use them to enrich the soil.

 Kewl! I have old seeds like that. I think I'll plant a zombie garden, too, but I'm gonna wait until August. I think it's too hot here even for zombies right now.

Neat idea!

Great pest info in this one.

UMass Vegetable Notes:
http://extension.umass.edu/vegetable/publications/vegetable-notes-newsletter/archives

Late season Rattlesnake beans doing their thing. Got the trellis up this morning before the temperature gets oppressive. Stupid phone.

Here are my first vegies of the summer! I am doing fairly well in my gardens. I will have pics soon of them. Only one disappointment, some of the green beans I planted are not pole beans or are not climbing like I expected. Maybe they are bush beans. Oh well, I still have others that are pole beans.

Camp, great example of your homemade trellis "netting".

Rock, Looking forward to your photos. Those are nice looking yellow squash.

bigdogrock wrote:Here are my first vegies of the summer! I am doing fairly well in my gardens. I will have pics soon of them. Only one disappointment, some of the green beans I planted are not pole beans or are not climbing like I expected. Maybe they are bush beans. Oh well, I still have others that are pole beans.

How did you keep SVB from them??? Beautiful, btw...squash envy here.

Not sure about how I kept it from them, I did pick one that was looking like it had it, we'll see. It is the first time I have planted them in that garden. Maybe I got lucky and have a resistant type. Who knows.

Still harvesting lettuce if you can believe it.
Tonight's salad and this morning smoothie.
Lettuce, Pak choi and ornamental cabbage are in the cell packs surrounding the bowl.

I also started some Delicata squash seeds inside hoping that the SVB is finished by the time they go out into the garden.

They're everywhere! They're everywhere! The Zombie Garden is sprouting. So far I can see squash/melons and beans. I don't know what varieties they are but they seem pretty happy!

Meanwhile, SFG is looking pretty great from the lounge chair in the shade here.

Even though I have my handy-dandy gardening apron on, (containing soil thermometer, pruners, pen and plant markers, to do list on a clothes pin, timer and squeeze bottle of DE), I'm not moving anywhere from this chair. The humidity must be in the 80's!

YIKES! Did that foot escape from the Zombie Garden? Looks like it's sending out 5 new shoots.

sanderson wrote:Camp, great example of your homemade trellis "netting".

Rock, Looking forward to your photos.  Those are nice looking yellow squash.

Thanks!

countrynaturals wrote:YIKES! Did that foot escape from the Zombie Garden? Looks like it's sending out 5 new shoots.

Haha!  looks like it popped up out of the dirt, right? That's because I Garden barefoot.

I gotta go harvest the garlic before it's too late. Make me get up, Country...

Little by slow the 4th leaves from the tops are dying off, a few more every few hours.

Meanwhile, the clothesline in front of the fan in the dehumidified basement is filling up with hanging garlic..

What typical New England weather I just witnessed. I was in the garden on Japanese Beetle Patrol when I heard some thunder in the distance. Experience has taught me to pack up and get as soon as I hear it. I meandered  back to the barn and it started to rain as I got to it. I looked at my watch, it was 3:21 PM.
I sat down in my chair and watched as the show began. I had to pull the chair back in further into the barn because the rain was coming down so hard that it was splashing in on me. I sat back down and the hail started coming down. Not large amounts of hail, but some were good sized, I thought my garden was going to get pummeled. It stopped all at once and then started back up. Then it stopped at 3:28 PM. I took a pic of the hail, not real big thankfully.


In that 7 minutes, we rec'd a quarter of an inch of rain, according to the trusty rain gauge. Since that time it has started to rain again, no hail, but lots of rain and thunder, no real wind gusts, and I haven't seen any lightning.
What an entertaining way to water my garden

I just saw that on the 5 o'clock news weather report, Rock, a d thought of you, camp, and NHG.  Supposedly it's heading this way and should be here sometime this evening. Hope I get the rain that you got!  How are your squash leaves looking? Have you checked them yet?

Weird, and   

We get hail in the hot of summer, too.  Depends on size and duration, wind speed, etc. if any damage occurs.  It has been so hot, lots probably. Melted ASAP.

Some of my squash leaves are getting pale. Bummer

"

CapeCoddess wrote:They're everywhere! They're everywhere! The Zombie Garden is sprouting. So far I can see squash/melons and beans. I don't know what varieties they are but they seem pretty happy!

Meanwhile, SFG is looking pretty great from the lounge chair in the shade here.

Even though I have my handy-dandy gardening apron on, (containing soil thermometer, pruners, pen and plant markers,  to do list on a clothes pin, timer and squeeze bottle of DE), I'm not moving anywhere from this chair. The humidity must be in the 80's!

You look uber prepared!  I too spend most of summer either bare or flip flop footed.  A little jealous of your Wonder Belt!

bigdogrock wrote:Some of my squash leaves are getting pale. Bummer

But no hail holes?

I just checked the gardens, no hail damage. The tomato plants are soaked!

You lucked out, Rock. The only time we got hail here on the Cape, which was a year or two ago, all the leaves of any size were in tatters from being punched through and full of holes.

Perfect excellent exquisite day here today! After watering profusely because we got zero rain, I harvested red onions, snow pea seeds, more garlic and Bush beans.

After this little coffee break I'm going to compost the onion box and get it ready to plant Parris Island and Freckles romaines, Grand Rapids and Marvel lettuce starts. I'd like to see if I can get these lettuces to grow through August and on into the fall, covered of course.