CANADIAN REGION: What are you doing in JULY 2017?

trolleydriver wrote:Calling SwampTroll ... Hello, are you there SwampTroll?

I sent you a PM a few days ago concerning the poppy seeds? If you would like some, I need your address.

TD - Poppy seeds? Bread poppies? If so, could I get some too??? Pretty please....

Ahoy fellow Canucks!

I've been a busy bee...literally. Hand-pollinating my eight cucumber plants daily. Got maybe 8 or more female flowers all pollinated and a couple of more emerging. Here's one of them:



In other news, my primary corn cobs (two of them) are maybe a week away from being harvested. Two more should follow a couple of weeks after. Another corn stalk has produced two silked ears but is not releasing pollen, although the anthers are hanging off the tassels. I'm worried that the heat and humidity has something to do with it. Not sure if I'll be able to hand pollinate those ears before the silks degrade. :-(

Three other stalks have just started showing tassels now, also.

A lot of my container tomato fruits have BER. I think they were too stressed in their pots. One of the tomatoes broke color so I picked it and it is ripening on the counter now, so hopefully the BER is not too deep on the inside when I slice it open and cut out the black area. The tomato plant in the bed seems to be producing healthy fruit with no noticeable BER.

Finally, since picking two eggplants last week, my plants have pushed out a few more fruits. Looking forward to whipping up more baba ganoush very soon!

All in all, it's been a good month. August will be the month of plentiful harvest for me though, can't wait!

Marie, I think TD's are California Poppies. ??

sanderson wrote:Marie,  I think TD's are California Poppies.  ??

Actually I think they are some kind of Oriental Poppy. As far as I can tell, the plants are perennials with large red petals and black centres. I don't think I would take a chance of eating the seeds.

Has anybody else experienced spontaneous peapods?

Literally one day I had nice pea flowers and no pods.  I check the next evening and BOOM!  4 pods.   Not full pods, yet, but 3 or 4" long.

Just hope they don't teach the cucumbers this trick.

SwampTroll wrote:
Just hope they don't teach the cucumbers this trick.

Too late, ST. I found 2 cukes this week that appeared overnight.

countrynaturals wrote:

SwampTroll wrote:
Just hope they don't teach the cucumbers this trick.

Too late, ST. I found 2 cukes this week that appeared overnight.

That probably means you'll need to check every 12 hr for new ones from now until the end of the season.

In northern regions with long days I can believe the fast growth.

SwampTroll ... here is what the poppy seeds look like. I'll try to harvest some more before I send them to you. Don't sneeze when you open the packet 'cause these things are really small.

Amazing how such large plants as poppies come from small seeds

Our weather forecast here is seven days of 100% sunshine and temperatures of above 35C every day.  I wish we could swap some of it for some decent rain.  

I have been walking my neighbour's dog in the evenings for several weeks now and always in dry weather.  We wait until nearly dark to walk.  I must admit only two nights have been uncomfortable as the temps drop to about 12C.

KJ, I know the walk is good for you. How is the dog doing. Does he seem to look forward to it now?

Yes, sanderson, the walk is good for me and I missed the four days he was away with his family at a wedding.

His owners tell me that he gets restless about the time I come to take him for our walk. The walk away from his home I allow him to sniff all the places that dogs like to sniff and read the messages then leaves his own.  On the way back he does not delay very much so we have a brisk walk that I enjoy.  He is very good with his families' little four-year old girl.  She loves him to bits and he puts up with all the pulling and hugging that she gives him, he just stands there and takes it.

He is a large dog and very mellow.  Takes no notice of small barking dogs or even large barking dogs. When we stand side by side my hand can rest on his neck. He is excellent on the lead and obeys my commands of sit, down,heel and no.  I do not allow him off the lead as I really do not know if he would take "come" or "stay" from me. Our walks last from 3/4 hour to one hour.

I have been clearing out my freezer and giving Guthrie the meat from turkey carcasses that I used to get for my Jazz and he loves it.  Lauren, his owner, is very happy to get this meat as at the moment they are a one income family and I am sure that money will not be plentiful for them at this time. It means that I can accept the carcasses knowing that I can make full use of them and save them from being disposed of in the landfill as so many people do not know how to get good value from them.

Talking about freezers: I am guilty about not labelling the items and although it is easy to identify some things like strawberries etc., the tomatoes I forgot to label the different kinds I had prepared.  Tomatoes can either be pure toms, toms prepared as sauce, and other prepared with other ingredients to make soup.  I must make an effort to label and date as the year flies by so quickly. I bet I am not the only one who has unidentifiable packets in their freezer.

I too am guilty of not labeling my freezer contents completely...my crock pot marinara took many forms last year; the original recipe with onions, no onions, just tomatoes, tomatoes and garlic and peppers...etc.

Scorpio Rising wrote:I too am guilty of not labeling my freezer contents completely...my crock pot marinara took many forms last year; the original recipe with onions, no onions, just tomatoes, tomatoes and garlic and peppers...etc.

+1 But, I am getting better.

Today on our B.C. Global News Channel there was a list of places where totals of rain had fallen.

Castlegar, where I live, has had 0.6mm of rain since June 20th. That must have been the small puddle I stepped in a couple of weeks ago.

Everywhere is so dry, any person who drops a lighted cigarette and causes a fire should be jailed.

So far in our little corner of Southern B.C. we have been lucky.  We have about eight people from Williams Lake staying here with their relatives and I think they will be staying  another few days in case they have to evacuate again.  I know one of the elders has breathing problems.

No rain is sight for the next week and the heat will increase to 38C/100F.  I admit I will be doing very little during the day, but early in the morning it is quite cool, 14C so I am sleeping well..

That is good sleeping weather and gives everything a break from the heat at least.  Seems like it is feast or famine with the rain.

SwampTroll ... I will be mailing your Poppy Seeds today.  See my PM for additional info.  

Pretty!