Always remember that peat pots need to be under the soil level. If not, they will wick water our of the soil and dry the plant out. I usually cut off the top of the pot to make sure it is below ground level. It is very important with peppers because you don't want to bury the plant too deep.
I did that. The pepper plant is doing well. It's the candy striped petunias that are dying on me. The last two are starting to die. The other ones are fine though. Maybe they had some disease or something. I don't know.
Besides planting my baby limas I am clearing out the garden for fall. I usually plant a smaller fall garden so a lot of it will be prepared for winter. My corn patch... the bid one...is covered with about three inches of horse manure. It will sit like that till spring. Still got peas and okra coming on and I am putting on more mulch. Still planning the fall garden.
All the candy striped petunias died. Something was definitely wrong with them. They were all in different pots and they all died. The other ones are getting really big and are doing really well.
Did you have other varieties with them that did not die? If so, it could be insects, but I am guessing they more likely came with verticillium wilt and your others are resistant to the funky fungi. Anyway. I picked about 2 gallons of hot peppers today and gave them away at work. I am sort of over them at the moment though when the frost is approaching I will be out there protecting them to get an extra few weeks LOL. I have pickled, dried, eaten, and given away so many of those things I am tired of it. What really pisses me off is that they have done well, but not my sweet peppers. Likewise my zuchinni did great, but not my yellow squash. Odd year in the garden that way. I also saw what has to be the world's fattest groundhog run up and hide in the storm drain pipe on my property about sunset yesterday. I haven't seen him in at least a year and it is huge. I use "run" liberally with it. It was more like it paddled really fast gliding along on its fat rolls. Going to try to get a photo of him. I was totally not expecting to see it again.
I do have others that are doing well. Only the candy striped ones (which are hybrids) died. They seemed to just rot. I think they just got too much water and drainage just wasn't enough. We have gotten a whole LOT of rain this year, and for a week we didn't even see the sun. I think that definitely played a role. No insects though. I would have definitely noticed that. My pepper plant flowered (those little pea shaped things turned out to be flowers). The flower petals have since fallen off, and I am hoping that they are going to turn into peppers soon. I love ground hogs and other critters even if some might consider them a nuisance. They are SO cute! I had one that lived in the woods out back of my house. Haven't seen him around this year though. I would like to see a photo of him. Good luck gardening!
We have sprayed out a spot with round up, I have about 3 hundred pounds of horse manure, about 500 pounds of top soil and 10 bales of pine straw plus with the mowing I am going to gather up the grass and weeds from that to use as mulch. How would you go about finishing this garden if you were doing it?
I pickled some tabasco peppers last year and when I opend a bottle this year it was like opening a bottle of Tabasco. We used it on some vegetable and it was wonderful. Would love to see a picture of your ground hog. We have moles here that tunnel up the land looking for worms to eat. Really aggravating little things.
Does anyone here know anything about mushrooms? Can anyone tell if this is a chanterelle? We have a lot of them growing under some oaks. Not quite brave enogh to give them a try.
My fatty ground hog is too fast to photo at this point. Very elusive. I don't mind moles like many people do.
I would first make sure the horse manure has no persistent herbicides in it. Then if you have old cardboard or newspaper lay that down. One sheet of cardboard or four layers of newspaper. Wet down the cardboard or newspaper when applying. Then put down the topsoil, then the grass clippings, manure and pine straw. Don't worry about mixing. Earthworms will mix your soil. Just place one on top of the other. Put your pine straw on last. Make the pine straw layer at least three inches thick. I always go thicker. I don't use newspaper or cardboard so my pine straw is applied very thick. I rake it out of the woods by the pickup load. I get a few sticks and pine cones and it isn't real pretty but it works. The pine straw locked together and let's rain pass through. If you are not planning a fall garden let everything sit till spring. Then just pull back the pine straw and plant.
Thank you so much for the links and information. I am ordering Ruth Stouts book from Amazon today. We have a ton of oak and pecan leaves and some are starting to fall alread . Some of the leaves from last year has the most interesting dark color where they have started composting. Definintely no problem gathering leaves and also have quite a bit of cardboard, not to mention all the shredded mail. A lot of the stuff was collected when I was interested in keyhole gardening. The idea of keyhole gardening hasn't died yet. The thought of asking or offering to buy hay that farmers have harvested but leaving in the fields has also interested me till the word herbicide was read. Geeez. One farmer I know uses a lot of herbicide on his hay. He thinks weed free hay is the way to go. No telling what the herbicide does to the animals. I used Round up to kill some weeds and grasses where I want the garden and that stuff was used with reservation. Not fond of anything so leathal even if it is just on weeds. That spot is laying open to air out and hopefull dissipate the round up. Still trying to convince the powers that be around here that goats would be the way to go.
This is a pick of my garden ready for winter. I may plant some broccoli at the end of this month. If so, I will just pull back the pine straw and plant. You may be able to see some of the beds.
This is my small corn field covered in horse manure. I will kill of the weeds and plant the corn right in the manure next spring. I will probably plant roundup ready corn. It is a lot less work. It is about 25 x 50 ft. If it grows like last year it should be more than enough.
Roundup can be a good tool. It is probably better for the soil than tilling. Vinegar can also be used as a weed killer. Best used when it is very hot and dry.
Wow. It doesn't take a very big garden to produce more than my family can eat. Will you be staggering the broccoli plantings? That little section above is about the size of my entire garden, and I grew a lot of different kinds of stuff this year.
Corn takes up a lot of space, also watermelon. I am wondering if I can grow enough for a couple of pigs next year. The broccoli will probably be in rows.