Test Two

I re-did the soil test, fearing we'd read the first test wrong.  Sure enough, we had.  Ph was okay, but the fertility was too low.   I did some research and concluded that my problem might also be fungal.  Or it could be too much rain. 

Not much I can do about the rain.

Got liquid copper fungicide AND neem oil at the store today.  Also bought some organic fertilizer that said I can soak it and make a tea to pour around the roots, and then I can spread the solids around the plants.  I've got some soaking already on the back porch.  It smells worse than a nasty butt.

Of course, it's going to rain for the next few days, which means I can't spray, yet.  I probably shouldn't pour the nasty butt water on the tomatoes, yet, but I'm going to do it, anyway.
 

Soil Test 6/29

I did a little weeding in the garden today, and found a ripening tomato deep within a vine.  I picked it and inspected it, and found that it had a squishy spot on it.  Look:

A friend suggested there might be a nutrient deficiency - calcium or potassium - in the soil.  I dug out the soil tester that I bought from a seed company and used it for the first time ever.  If the tester is to be believed, my soil is perfect, both in nutrients and Ph.

So.

Disease.  Looks like anthracnose. Or some other vile fungus.  I'll be shopping for copper fungicide tomorrow.

Birthday Month

June is birthday month in our families.  Tonight, we celebrated Nanny's birthday with a barbeque supper (with all the trimmings) and homemade strawberry shortcake.   Nanny had kids, grandkids, great-grandkids, nieces, and nephews show up to tell her "Happy Birthday!"  We had a big time.

I walked the garden with my granddaughters to see what was ripe.  We picked a batch of squash and three cucumbers.  We saw a thumb-sized purple eggplant and a bell pepper big enough to use.  Much to my consternation, the little rascals pulled up a couple of little carrots to see what was happening under the ground.  I thumped their heads for it.  ;)

But it was a joy to me to see their excitement.  They said, "Awwwww...!" when I showed them the baby cucumbers with their yellow blooms still attached.  They screamed when they grasped a cucumber to pick it and got poked by the little thorns, but they thought it was cool that the thorns just rubbed right off.  They ran to show the cucumbers to their uncle, who loves cucumbers.  He took out his pocket knife, peeled it, and ate it on the spot. 

The green beans aren't blooming yet, but they've climbed the fence and are reaching for the sky.  The tomato plants look good, but the crop has been disappointing so far.  We've had a lot of rain these past two weeks, and the fruit that was ripening when the rain started turned into yucky water bags.  Seems like I've had this problem before when it rained a lot.  I probably ought to look up tomato diseases.

We've picked a couple of batches of squash from the older plants, and they are loaded with blooms.  The younger batch of plants is growing well, but isn't blooming yet.

Purple hull peas are coming along.  The "skips" that I replanted came up fairly well and are growing. 

Something's eating the okra, but not too badly.  I'm going to leave it be, for now.

I saw a little wad of Japanese beetles on my green beans.  I'm not sure they were interested in eating, as they appeared to be mating.  In any case, I knocked them to the ground and stepped on them.  It was sort of gratifying. 

Garden Chores - June 17

Fertilized tomatoes, squash, cucumers, and peppers.

Put cages around tomatoes.

Saw the first squash bugs today.  Smashed (squashed?) the ones I could find and destroyed all the eggs I saw.  Sprayed liquid Sevin to get the ones I missed.

Watered everything but the peas.

Chopped grass.

Wore myself AND The Husband plumb out.

Two tomatoes are almost ripe.  I saw two cigar-sized zucchini and some little thumb-sized squash.  We'll be eating them before the week is out, I bet.

Supper Surprise

One of the most-served meals in my house is a dish called "Supper Surprise."  It earned its name thirty-some-odd years ago, when our oldest son, then a toddler, tore all of the labels off the canned goods in the cabinet.   Think we're having green beans for supper?  Surprise!  It's corn.

One makes do.

Over the years, Supper Surprise has evolved.  Sometimes it starts with a recipe (any old recipe will do, actually, because you're not going to make it like it says, anyway).   Eliminate all the things you don't like or don't have, and add what you do like/have.  Throw in a little bit of something you once had, and liked.  Top it with a whole bunch of grated cheese.  Sometimes, it turns out okay.

We've just come home from a camping trip.  We had breakfast at the campsite early this morning and then spent six hours on the road with only one stop to potty.  By the time we unloaded the camper and showered off the sweat, we were starving, but there were "slim pickin's" in the refrigerator.  I figured we'd go get a pizza later (when you live in the boonies, they don't bring the pizza to you); meanwhile, I sat down to catch up on e-mail and see what folks had been doing on Facebook.  Someone had posted this recipe: 

http://www.bunsinmyoven.com/2015/03/08/sloppy-joe-cornbread-bake/

Sloppy Joe Cornbread:

1 box of Jiffy cornbread mix
1/3 cup milk
1 egg
1 cup cheddar cheese, divided
1 can of cream style corn
I pound of ground beef
1 jar of sloppy joe sauce
Small diced onion
1 diced bell pepper
Green onion blades, chopped, for garnish

Man, that looked good to me. 

I read the ingredient list and figured I could come up with something close.  I knew I had eggs and milk.  Sure enough, there was a box of Jiffy cornbread mix in the pantry.  I figured I could come up with most everything else but the sloppy joe sauce - but, hey, there might even be an old can of Manwich way back in the cabinet.  I didn't have a bell pepper, but I wouldn't have put one in if I'd had it (though I might have used a jalapeno if there'd been one in the vegetable drawer).  I saved the recipe on my Kindle and headed for the kitchen.

Eggs, milk, Jiffy, onion - check. 

Got green onions in the flower bed - check.  (Garnish is a very important component of Supper Surprise.)

Cheese - hmm, no cheddar.  We had individually-wrapped American slices, a couple of pepper jack slices that were dried around the edges, 2 half blocks of Velveeta (what IS that stuff, anyway?) in both colors (yellow and white), a wedge of parmesan, and a little chunk of some crumbly, flavorful stuff called "MontAmore." 

No corn, cream style or otherwise. 
No ground beef, but a half of a roll of pork breakfast sausage. 
No sloppy joe sauce, no Manwich.  But, look!  A can of chili beans and a can of tomato sauce. 

Close enough. 

I dumped the Jiffy into a bowl, broke an egg in it, measured out the milk (sort of).  Grated the MontAmore into the bowl, and began to stir it all up.  There was a bug in the Jiffy.  I hesitated only an instant before I dug the bug out and kept stirring.  More bugs came to the top.  Now, two bugs is usually my limit (I would prefer one, for who knows what two bugs might have gotten up to in the box), but I was hungry, so I kept stirring and digging.  I called it quits at five bugs and some unidentified specks.  I knew I had corn meal mix in a canister.  I'd just start over. 

But I had already put in the good cheese.

I put the whole mixture into a collander and washed the Jiffy off the cheese.   Some of the cheese went down the drain with the Jiffy, but I stirred what was left into a fresh batch of bug-free cornbread batter.  Gave it a healthy squirt of honey to sweeten it.  Boom.  Done.

The recipe said to cook the cornbread a little bit, then put the meat/sauce mixture on top, but this thing was turning into a cornpone/chili casserole in which the chili goes under the bottom.  So I fried the sausage until it was thawed, added a chopped onion, and cooked it until the sausage wasn't pink anymore.  Added a can of chili beans and about a half a can of tomato sauce.  Sprinkled some chili powder and garlic in it.  A little salt, a little pepper, and into the casserole dish it went.  Since it was a little light on cheese, I laid some American cheese slices on top of it, and then topped it with the cornbread batter, which by that time had risen and was foamy and thick.  I smeared it on top of the meat mixture as best I could, and baked it in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes.  Lovingly added the green onion garnish after it had cooled a minute.

Looks good, huh?

I dug in.  The cornbread had soaked up almost every drop of the good juice.  I think there might've been a little too much cornbread, anyway, and it was too thick, and I think I should have baked it, first, and spooned the meat/sauce on top like the recipe suggested.  

Nevertheless, that Sloppy Joe Cornbread recipe is a keeper.  ;)

From the Piazza - June 9, 2017

Apparently, committing planned actions to print works in favor of planned actions getting done, for after my last post, I went to the garden and planted the tomatoes, did some weeding, and fertilized everything but the beans, like I said I ought to do.

Today, I'm going to say that I ought to get the purple hull peas re-planted (again) before the day is over (that was the one task on my previous list that did not get done), setting myself both a task and a time limit.

I do tend to put things off.  :-\



 

From the Piazza - June 7

The wrens that occupied the (supposedly) see-through bird house on my living room window have raised one crop of babies this year and are back (at least I assume it's the same ones) for Round 2.  I say "supposedly" because the see-through function doesn't work for wrens.  They build orb-shaped nests, with side entrances.  They have effectively built a privacy fence between them and my window, and I can't see what's going on inside the nest, dang it. 

I did not know that birds raise more than one set of babies per season, but there is new chirping going on in the bird house, multiple voices, though not as many as before.  Watching the two parents taking turns zooming in with bugs in their beaks, I wonder how they can keep straight which kids have been fed. 




I should be working in the garden instead of writing about it.  It is an absolutely gorgeous day - sunny, but not too hot and not too humid, and a nice breeze - perfect for gardening.  Also perfect for sitting on the piazza, drinking tea and blogging.  After supper, or maybe before, I'm going to make myself get up and plant the six tomato plants that have lived on my front porch for a week, if the ground is not too wet. 

The peas I re-planted on two weeks ago are up, but only half of each row sprouted.  The north end of the garden is low, and stands in water long after the rest of the garden has dried.  Leaving the middles unplowed seems to have sped up the drying time, but not enough to save the seeds from drowning.  I need about a dump-truck full of good dirt to level up that end of the garden, but it would probably wash away without a retainer wall to hold it.

If the ground is not too wet, I may replant the peas.  Again. 

The fertilizing I did on May 23 seems to have helped the tomatoes.  They look greener and less pissed-off.  They are beginning to bear (we could have a mess of fried green tomatoes for supper if I were willing to sacrifice a shorter wait for a home-grown tomato & mayonnaise sandwich).  I should probably fertilizer them again this evening. 

Dang, it appears that the longer I sit here, the more work I'll think up.  I should go, before my to-do list gets any longer!