Garden 2023 on 5-31-23.

Hello everyone! I hope this post finds you well. I don’t know about you, but it seems summer is officially here in Missouri. I do like the way it cools off in the evening, though.

I am very thankful the riding mower didn’t break down like it did in 2022 before I was able to get the garden mowed off. That’s why there was no garden in 2022. If it is as dry all summer as it has been, the yard won’t get mowed that often this year.

I planted 4 double of ‘Incredible’ and 4 double rows of ‘Ambrosia’ on May 3. The rows are 25′ or so long and there is a 4′ space between the varieties. Well, let’s just say the space is not exactly straight for some weird reason. This is the first year I was able to get the garden all ready to plant in April. In fact, I think I tilled it twice in April when it is usually too wet until May. Since I use dad’s old rear tine Troy Built, the garden gets nice and fluffy and you have to wait a few days before it gets planted. Anyway, dad always said the ground needs to settle a little before planting, so I always thought it was best. A nice rain would have done the trick, but that didn’t happen. I went ahead and planted the corn on the 3rd with the old Garden Way seeder. I always complained about the way it planted corn… Sometimes the seed wouldn’t get in a hole and I would have to wait until it started coming up to know where to replant. In 2021 I decided the heck with the seeder and planted it by hand. Well, I still had to replant A LOT even though I put 2-4 seeds every 8″ apart. It was because the seed rotted for some reason… SO, this year I went back to the seeder, and if I noticed no seed was in the hole of the plate, I would put 2-3 in the hole. You also have to tilt the seeder somewhat. The soil was still so fluffy the wheels on the seeder left a kind of a trench. I didn’t water because rain was in the forecast…

As I mentioned in the last post, my sister and niece came to go plant shopping. Besides going to all three greenhouses here, we went to Clinton. Actually, I talked them into going because I needed green bean seed and I also wanted to buy seed for white sweet corn. Unfortunately, there was a crop failure of ‘Top Crop’ Green Beans so I had to settle for an alternate route… Normally, I would have brought home a pound of ‘Top Crop’ but I settled for 1/2# of ‘Contender’, ‘Provider’, and ‘Tendergreen’. Hmmm… I planted either ‘Contender’ or ‘Provider’ when I was in Mississippi because of crop failure, but I can’t remember which one. I could look back in the old photos to find out for sure, but what the heck. So, I bought all three varieties because that’s what they had that wasn’t white-seeded. So, I planted 2 double rows of ‘Contender’ and 2 double rows of ‘Tendergreen’ on May 8… The seed works wonderfully with the seeder. I decided I would wait to plant the ‘Provider’ until later so I wouldn’t have so many beans to pick all at once. The other reason was because I wasn’t so sure where I was going to plant them… I also bought a 1/2# ‘Silver Queen’ Sweet Corn…

Some of the corn had come up by the time I planted the beans, but most of it had just grown roots but seemed to be waiting for moisture.

I decided to give up on the weather, so on May 10 I watered down the rows of the sweet corn and green beans. The trenches made by the seeder worked great when I watered. I didn’t want to water the whole garden with the sprinkler, so I just drug the hose between the first two rows and watered the rows on each side. When I was finished with the first  2 rows, I drug the hose out, skipped a row, and repeated the process. The next afternoon, the rest of the corn was up! It was like a miracle!

Once the beans started popping up, I watered again and they were all up the next afternoon. I can honestly say, I have the best crop of corn and beans I have ever had without replanting.

I planted 4 double rows of the ‘Silver Queen’ Sweet Corn and 2 double rows of ‘Provider’ Green Beans on May 23. ‘Silver Queen’ is an SU variety so the seed is much larger than ‘Incredible’ and ‘Ambrosia’ which are SE varieties. It was a little more tricky to plant, so I had to make sure seed was in the hole of the seeder plate. The ‘Provider’ seed was also larger than the other two varieties. That night we were blessed with 9/10″ of rain.

On the 30th, I planted a few hills of  ‘Sugar Baby’ Watermelon. I checked, and the last planting of sweet corn and green beans was starting to come up. I watered again, and the next afternoon they were out of the ground. I planted ‘Sugar Baby’ Watermelon so I won’t be going through the ordeal I did with the ‘Black Diamond’ a few years ago. No getting excited about how big they are getting and screwing up to see when they are ripe. A friend of mine told me his neighbor grew these and they were great, so I thought I would give them a shot… It’s about a month late planting them, but I didn’t plan on growing any until I noticed a bare spot in the garden. 🙂

Of course, I have tomatoes. Four each of ‘Celebrity’, ‘German Johnson’, and ‘Goliath’. All I need is a few plants, but I always bring home too many. I can’t help myself! I also planted a couple of eggplants.

OH, I almost forgot to mention the new mole repellers… A few years ago, a rep from a pest repellant company in China sent me a couple of mole repellers if I would write a review for them. I agreed so he sent me two… After a few weeks, one quit working but the other one continued to work until last fall. There are A LOT of listing on Ebay, so I decided to buy a box of 4… I put 3 in the garden and one in the corner bed next to the house. One of the 3 in the garden works great and would get a 10 out of 10 rating (for now). One of the others in the garden gets a 3 out of 10, and the other one in the garden gets a 1 out of 10. The one in the corner bed gets a 0. There is a new mole run right next to it because it is so quiet! I checked it again yesterday and I think it has completely quit.  The old mole repeller came on at different intervals and stayed on at different intervals. The company said it was so the rodents wouldn’t get used to it. Well, now that theory has gone out the door. All the listings on Ebay and their website say they come on every 20 seconds and stay on for only a few seconds. Some of the reviews have a similar experience, especially if they buy more than one…

Ummm… Several weeks ago, well maybe earlier than that (like in April), I found Stouffer’s Eggplant Parmesan in the frozen section at the store. It was just enough for one meal and it was delicious. The next time I went, and every time thereafter, they didn’t have it. I even checked at Walmart… So, I decided to buy a couple of eggplants (actual plants) on May 5. I haven’t grown any since I lived in Mississippi, so it will be an experiment. I know they produce A LOT!

I already made my own Eggplant Parmesan… Despite I bought “an” eggplant before I found a recipe that called for three and didn’t buy another one for a week. I opted to make the recipe smaller, then wound up using 2 zucchini to replace the missing eggplant, had to go to the store to buy another jar of spaghetti sauce and another package of mozzarella cheese. It turned out YUMMYLICIOUS! I found out zucchini wasn’t a good substitute when baking with eggplant… The eggplant cooks MUCH FASTER than zucchini which stayed a little crunchy even after baking an additional 20 minutes. This recipe was quite a process and I took photos for a post along the way. I wrote a post and decided I better wait until I don’t use zucchini… The recipe is supposed to have a “crunch” to it, but not because of the half-done zucchini… You know what they say, FAIL means FIRST ATTEMPT IN LEARNING. 🙂 🙂 🙂

Before I wind up this post, I have to show a photo of the Strawflower…

Xerochrysum bracteatum ‘Mohave™ Apricot’ (Strawflower) on 5-31-23.

I should have brought home more of these. I have always wanted to try Strawflower and have bought seeds in the past they didn’t come up. When I was at Wagler’s Greenhouse on May 15 (to buy more plants for Kevin’s Planters), I found a few and brought one home. The tag says ‘Mohave™ Apricot’ Bracteantha. Hmmm… It is actually Xerochrysum bracteatum ‘Mohave™ Apricot’. This plant needs more water than the African Daisy next to it, but its flowers are a big hit! The colors are amazing and very bright and the flowers actually feel like paper. They really do feel like the dreaded fake “strawflowers” glued to cacti at garden centers only these are real. It is kind of late, but I need to go see if Wagler’s has more. They are GREAT!

Until next time, be safe and stay positive, always be thankful and GET DIRTY!