Maud Araminta

LOL. I would divorce my husband on the spot if he did something like that.

WEBlue

Now that I've got the gardening back to myself and the full summer weather is upon us, I thought I'd report.

Vegetables are coming along. For some reason I can always grow lettuce, and it's certainly nice to stop buying the overpriced stuff in the supermarket and just go out and break off some leaves whenever we need salad.... Sadly, after almost a month of great lettuce yield, I woke up one morning to find some creature (probably a deer) had carefully stripped all my romaine plants of every single leaf but thoughtfully spared my green and purple oakleaf plants. (Not to his/her taste?) Really annoying!!

Even though it's been a cool summer so far, the tomatoes are doing decently. The big tomatoes have lots of flowers (no fruit yet) but the cherry tomatoes are forming little green globes.

Of the herbs, only lemon balm, mint, parsley, onions & garlic are really thriving. (I plant a lot of the last two because that's supposed to deter rabbits & deer--but sure didn't work in the lettuce bed.) The basil is tiny & stunted (maybe too cool for it), sage is very small but pickable, tarragon is sparse & not very flavourful (oddly blah) ....

So a mixed bag so far, but hoping for better yield next month (peppers, tomatoes, etc.)....

lizzyq

French tarragon is the one with the best flavour and AFAIK cannot be grown from seed, Russian tarragon does grow from seed but has a greatly inferior flavour.

Nutmegger

And across the state, I am having an all time show stopper basil harvest! We are enjoying lots of pesto and caprese salads; we cut the leaves carefully and it grows back in no time. The lemon balm got so crazy I had to rip a lot out as it was taking over. My lettuce is finished, but it always bolts early here.

Pulaski

No vegetables this year, but today I finally got a big sheet of 6mil black plastic out and covered a 10' x 35" of the vegetable patch. If I move it every 2 weeks, and maybe even double back in September, (it covers about 1/4 of the vegetable patch) I should be able to "cook" all the weeds and seeds by the end of summer.

WEBlue

I have NO idea what kind of tarragon mine is! I bought it three summers ago (in a pot) at our local farmer's market, and it lives in a giant dark pot beside the garage. It has either wintered over or (possibly?) self-seeded each of the two summers since then.

Maybe it's Russian...? It's pretty scentless & tasteless anyway. Do you know so-called Mexican tarragon? Suddenly this summer I see it at the local garden centres.

My lettuce (especially the stripped romaines) is trying hard to bolt, but I keep pinching off the little flower-heads & have kept them more-or-less leafing. It's weird, even the poor stripped Romaine stumps are producing small leaves.... I think our cooler weather than yours is to their liking.

I'm so glad someone is producing good basil!! I think your weather there to the west of us is warm enough for it. Come to think of it, I grew some decent basil when we bunked with relatives in Fairfield County on our arrival.

Only one neighbor of ours has decent basil. He amends his herb garden soil to a great depth, plus the garden backs up to his house foundation so is very protected from the cool winds. Next summer I'm going to try both ideas. I miss pesto!!

Bob

Family of rabbits have done their best to rid us of lettuce and watermelon.

Cucumbers are appearing along with a lot of tomatoes. Courgettes are doing fantastic. It's just a shame I didn't plant any and no one likes them.

Peppers and chillies have done nothing, along with the corn, peas, beans and everything I've planted.

Nutmegger

I grow most of my herbs and chilies in pots on a sunny area of the deck, as otherwise they get bitten to pieces by bugs or trampled on by dogs!

Pulaski

I set out to mow part of Pulaski Manor, only to find my path blocked by a large fallen part of a hornbeam tree. The tree had been bent over in an ice storm several years ago, and never fully straightened, but a recent storm snapped off the top of the main trunk and about two thirds of the branches, as well as peeling off a very large ribbon of bark down the remaining part of the trunk. So that took an hour or so with a bow saw to cut up and tidy away, pending a garden fire when the temperatures are lower and the undergrowth more damp. The remainder of the tree is badly damaged, and will be attractive to fungus and insects, so that is going to have to be felled next winter.

Having cleared my way past the fallen hornbeam, I set about mowing, only to notice that a mature 80ft pine tree, surrounded by the grass, has died. So that is another thing to add to my project list for cooler days in the autumn or winter. Luckily the dead tree is remote enough to not threaten any buildings, but it only died recently and so isn't in imminent danger of toppling.

scrubbedexpat099

Always looking for wood, or sheep, you can borrow my chainsaw.

Pulaski

I could use a hand, if you'd care to help out when you're in my neck of the woods. ..... You can take all the dead or fallen timber you can find back with you.

I have a serious pro-grade Husqvarna 272xp chainsaw (a replacement would run $900 incl tax), but I used an arborist's bow saw because it is razor sharp and therefore as quick as a chainsaw and no more tiring than wielding a chainsaw. In any case most of the branches I need to cut were no thicker than a drainpipe, many barely thicker than a broom handle.

scrubbedexpat099

I will take that chain saw off your hands as you are not using it.

Pulaski

I need it for the above-mentioned pine tree, and several other trees this winter.

scrubbedexpat099

Afterwards?

Pulaski

Whatever 2016 does to my trees.

I am not short of trees, and lose an average of approximately one pine per acre per year, and hardwoods at about half that rate.

Mother nature is replenishing them, though I try to weed out all the pine saplings.