Gardening: berries, root veggies, flowers, trees - 2020!

[I Think]

A RAT STORY:
In our motor home some years ago, we stopped for the night at a harbor in Louisiana (I think), parked next to a big fishing boat.
A few days later, I saw a damned rat, which scooted into the bathroom and was gone, set a trap for it in the pantry, & was aroused after we had fallen asleep by a screaming rat, while I was looking for my gloves the damned thing escaped.
We began closing off every entry that we could and after a week or so got it so that the rat was living in the storage basement and not able to come into the living quarters, it was chewing on heavy plastic crates, but would not touch the rat trap again.
Frustration mounted, after a month I began feeding it warfarin in a dish, and it seemed to thrive on the stuff. Got so fed up with the rat, and with being in Texas (that is another story) that I drove 900 miles across Texas to the ElPaso, parked and topped up the warfarin dish and put out a small dish of antifreeze, we were absolutely frustrated by this damned rat, which we had managed to cut off from every place but the engine compartment. In the morning the antifreeze was gone and we never saw the rat again. For the next month every time we smelled something odd, we worried about the rat decomposing in some nook we could not reach.
I do not treat the idea of poison lightly, but in the situation we were in, I would definitely do it again.
Note: Our property does not get any herbicides as we try to be responsible in our stewardship.

[Lady tehMa]

I heard a rustling outside of my basement window. Neighbourhood cats do try to use my garden beds as potties so I got up, scratched on the screen in the window and said: "Shoo! Begone!". Scratching noise of an odd sort happened. I went out to the front porch and saw a black squirrel on the stucco of my house. So I yelled at it "G'wan, git, shoo!" It stared at me. I waved my arms. It stomped its back feet (quite the feat while clinging to a vertical surface). Finally, I combined the yelling and arm-waving with a forward motion as though I were going to step in my garden. That was what it took to make that walnut-planter get out of my yard. I am FOREVER pulling up the ruddy walnuts that sprouted. At least it wasn't a rat? The black squirrels aren't a lot better though

I am picking plums - Italian prune plums. And grapes. Lots and lots of grapes.

[alanjh595]

I bet that was quite the show to watch.

Do it too often and the neighbours will give you a nickname.

[Catsumi]

Luckily I’ve seen no evidence of RATS where I have my garden. A couple of spuds had gnaw marks that I figure had to be moles dining as the surrounding field is loaded with them. They give the old fellah hours of pleasure setting, checking and emptying of traps. He buries the corpses in his iris garden, giving blossoms that special well fed appearance.

Moleskin gloves were so popular not that long ago? Maybe time to bring them back into vogue.

[alanjh595]

Moleskin is not actually "Mole skin".

Moleskin is a heavy cotton fabric, woven and then sheared to create a short, soft pile on one side. The feel and appearance of its nap is similar to felt or chamois, but less plush than velour.

Do you know how many Moles it would take to make a pair of gloves? I would think that it would take 4 per finger.
That would be 40 for a pair of gloves, now add in the hands and we are well over 100 dead critters.

That's one hell-of an infestation to have smelly hands.

[alanjh595]

I just came across this, and thought my fellow gardeners might enjoy it. (It was just posted 20 minutes ago).

[Catsumi]

You’d think that with record setting seed and plant sales across North America this past spring, the manufacturers of canning lids might have taken notice and figured it’d be smart to beef up production.

But....nope...

[Lady tehMa]

Yeah, found that too.

I potted up my son's hot peppers. They are now on a shelf in his room, in front of the south-facing window and we just replaced the bulbs in his light fixture with daylight spectrum LEDs. Now to see if they survive.

[oneh2obabe]

You’d think that with record setting seed and plant sales across North America this past spring, the manufacturers of canning lids might have taken notice and figured it’d be smart to beef up production.

But....nope...

Manfacturers may have ramped up production and shipped product to stores during the gardening/canning season but there is a cycle for products and once a certain timeline is reached, that product will be replaced by upcoming seasonal products.

Some stores will inventory the product in their back warehouse, some stores will ship back to a central warehouse until next year. If you don't see them in the store, ask the store manager. If the item is listed in the store's central warehouse, the manager can order it in for you.

I special ordered 3 cases of larger sized jars - received 2 as that was all the warehouse had. Asked if they could reorder the 1 outstanding and was told product couldn't be ordered until April/May 2021.

[Catsumi]

Both of you are pillars of knowledge so I am humble in gratitude that you don’t trash my pitiful input.

[Babba_not_Gump]

I'm already for winter. Well not me personally , but my yard and garden is.

I cut the front lawn for hopefully the last time, though I suspect it will need it one or two more times.

The garden is completely done. Rototilled, raked and fall rye seeds scattered on it. I raked the seeds in best I could and today spread some grass clippings to deter those damn doves from picking away at the seeds. So far it's successful.

We had such a successful year with garlic that my wife insisted on more, so one large garden box is planted with something like 90 cloves of Russian and Music.

Tomatoes! Oh my gawd, we have a dozen large Ziploc bags of frozen, cut up tomatoes in the freezer and ended up throwing away several pounds of green tomatoes. Such a waste but we're tomatoed out.

And we made several jars of grape juice from our grape vines. Also a couple of jars of grape syrup. Nope, no wine. It's too easy to buy.

A dozen or more red kuri squash have been stored in the garage along with a few blue Hubbard squash. The soup from these is incredible.

And of course a half dozen pumpkins for us and the local grandkids.

This was definitely our most productive garden ever.

[oneh2obabe]

ended up throwing away several pounds of green tomatoes. Such a waste but we're tomatoed out.

Tsk, tsk, tsk ... green tomato enchilada sauce, green tomato pickles, green tomato pie, green tomato chutney, green tomato cake (similar to carrot cake and you can't taste the tomatoes), green tomato relish and much more. And some people swear by fried green tomatoes.

[Queen K]

We make the green tomato cake. It's very good.

I know what you mean by "tomatoed out". We are right now. The problem is less than one week after bringing them all in, using what you can, saucing out the rest, you CRAVE a fresh tomato again. And looking at the ones in the store is so sad.

[just popping in]

Queen, why are you thinking about green tomato cake / tomatoes at 2:08 a.m.?

[Queen K]

Couldn't sleep, was reading the green tomato recipe list. Speaking of, I have to check the gardens.