Family reunion, mole problems, and squash planting

Family reunion time

We went to the family reunion on Saturday.  Attendance was a bit sparse, but not bad.  It was a good time and plenty of good food!  We took the puppies in their cages.  They were well behaved, shock of shocks!  No barking (well, a little - but not bad) and no problems.  We were a bit concerned about the heat (was a hot day and no AC in the place) but we survived until after 4pm.  Then we decided to get the pups out of there since they weren't drinking or eating and Sugar seemed to be breathing shallow.  When we got back home though she perked up and all was well.

Corn still sparse.. why?  Moles!

While deweeding the brassicas I happened to look up and saw a mole chewing off a young corn plant! So many moles!  So few corn plants!  So we went shopping for mole "suppressants" at TSC.  All that I could find that looked promising was some poisonous "worms" and a solar powered sonic spike.

Mole suppressants

Three plantings and this is the only corn I have!  

OK - the first planting was with old seed and I don't think it germinated, but still!

So I placed the poison and the sonic spike and we will see what happens!  BTW, while planting the squash (see below) I discovered a dead mole  - but I don't know if it died from me stopping around or from the poison.

Tree protector replacement continues

I replaced the plastic tubes on all of the pecan trees and the rest of the paw-paws trees!  I bouhgt 2 100 foot rolls of fencing while at TSC and used a whole roll.  I have a few more trees to go so I will probably have a bit of fencing left.

Paw-paws are all caged now!

The pecans are actually looking pretty good!

All the pecans are caged now.  Good thing because there are SO many deer in this area!  In fact I chased a young fawn out of the weeds just next to these trees.

Deer safe?  For a while, maybe

"pond" spearmint is doing well

I trimmed around the pond spearmint - it looking good! I am hoping that this stuff takes off!

Orchard and vineyard care

I dusted the grape vines last weekend with sevin and sulfur.  Shortly afterward Connie warned me that Concord grapes were not safe to use sulfur on!  I looked it up and she was right.  I looked at the vines this weekend and think I did notice some damage (chlorosis - the leaves loose their greenness).  So this time I mixed up a batch of sevin and fungicide and oversprayed the vines, hopefully washing off the sulfur.

I finally got around to trimming off the base shoots around the trees.  While doing so  I noticed that I did indeed have a Japanese Beetle problem on some of the trees!  The Honey Crisp and one other variety seemed to be hit hard.  In fact, most of the trees didn't have any beetles - really just those tow varieties.  Weird.  I also notice some disease issues on some of the other trees though, so I sprayed the whole orchard with sevin and fungicide.  I also applied some more Roundup around the trees and various problem areas.

Fungicide, sevin spray on the trees  Trimmed the base shoots 

Roundup working - applied more where I missed

Good to see the smartweed dieing!

Hopefully this will help with the mole issues too since they wont be able to hide in the weeds!

Planted the Squash

I planted the winter squash in the corn patch and winter and summer squash in the tomato garden.  I just pulled back the plastic and planted several seeds in a hill.

All Winter squash here

Summer an winter squash here - I put the summer squash in the front.

Parrotia Tree

Tom and Julie brought a Parrotia Tree for me to plant.  The tree is supposed to have nice fall colors.  Its not a good time to plant, but not much else to do with it!  I hope it survives until the fall!

Rainy and hot couple of weeks

A review of the past couple weekends in pictures!

I'm sorry - some of these are out of order.

shell beans are pretty when they bloom!

Pumpkin going for a swim.  This rain is insane!

Bok-choi or Chinese Cabbage.  I really put this is way too late.  I am surprised it hasn't bolted yet.  I need to learn more about this veggie I guess.  Bugs are eating it like crazy - see the many holes in the leaves?

There is a sweet potatoes plant in there!

Cabbages?  Broccoli?  Its some kind of brasica!  Some of these are looking bad because they are sitting in water for weeks now!  I hope they don't all rot off.

Sweet-potatoes are hanging in there.    I think there are 4 of the original 10 that I ordered still alive.  I really 

A river runs through it!

My yard that is...

Really need to de-weed the sweet-potatoes, but its a mud pit!

more sweet-potatoes

Water is pooling in the paw-paw patch now.  Pooling means the ground is saturated!

Japanese Beetles on the Cherry Trees!  They are coming out like crazy now!

I bought 2 20lb bags of Milky Spore treatment and did the front lawn (cherry trees) and the grapes and orchard.  It takes time to work though.  

I am surprised to see these cherries.  I thought for sure the birds would have eaten them all by now!

These are the good ones.  There were quite a few that had bird damage.

Just a lawn shot.  Here you see the electric fence surrounding the cherries.

A view of the front patch from near the entrance to the shop.

I also bought 2 Japanese beetle traps and set them up.  This one is downwind of the cherries.

I keep having to put supports on the persimmons!  They are looking good though.

New portion of the front patch.  Weeds have pretty much taken over the potatoes and onions.  

The old portion of the front patch.  The corn is looking good.  Weeds are hitting the strawberries hard.  Garlic is holding its own.

These are the blackberries that I got from mom.  I think that there are still 23 of them alive and growing.

Blueberries - getting riper!

Another shot of the corn.

Look at all of these elderberries!

Green beans - planted from saved seed from 2013 (I think - maybe 2014)

Shell beans - I forget which ones - nearest the paw-paw side

Pumpkins are heading for the beans!  I can't get in there because of the water!  I would sink up to my knees in mud!

Green beans - they are blooming - just starting to bloom really.

Shell beans.  They are also blooming - white blooms don't show easy on the photo

Deer protection

The deer have been a real nuisance this year.  They have eaten and damaged my new elderberry plants and my apple trees.  The solar powered electric fence is partially to blame.  Its battery died and there was no indication.  The deer never learned that the fenced area was "dangerous" and therefore ignore the fence entirely now.  I switched out the fencer unit and re-baited the fence, but there continues to be new damage every week.  This weekend I tried to do the "double-fence " trick that I had read about somewhere.  I also put of cages around the new, more delicate, dwarf apple trees.

They are a dickens to mow around, but it may work.  Fingers crossed!

Grape Rust issues

I am very concerned about the "marquis" grapes, well, all of the grapes actually.  They have "rust".  I haven't been able to determine if its fungal (probably) or mite(less likely).  I have been trying to contain it thinking that it was powdery mildew, but grape rust seems more likely.  I looked it up and found that garden sulfur spray was recommend.  I couldn't find any of that at Zimmerman's, so I got the "copper" based fungicide.  I  applied it as directed and along with some sevin.   Unfortunately, it was only on the grapes for about 10 hours - rain came and probably washed most of it off!   It has been raining so often I don't know what to do.  I can't de-weed in the gardens and I can't spray in the orchards!  Ack!  I did spray, obviously, but I don't know how much good it is doing.  I hope the fungicide works, things are getting dire for the older grape vines!

See how small and damaged they are?  The vines directly blow this row don't seem to be as susceptible to the rust and are huge!  The top 3 rows were all planted at the same time.

The  top row.  It is showing some bad damage from rust as well.

These are the new vines, planted this year.  I have seen a couple of small spots of rust on them, but by and large they are rust free - currently.  I still need to put up the wire for them to sprawl on.

So wet!

This year has been so wet so far!  To think I was worried of a drought earlier this year! Hah!

These cabbages are starting to show signs of water damage - their leafs are rolling up!  Not to mention how small they are. I think next year I will make this portion of the patch more elderberry area!

"Lake Walipini" is usually dry or almost dry this time of year!  Its almost FULL now!

Miscellaneous Garden stuff

The "outside" the fence plants by the big garden are doing ok so far.  I think I saw one cucumber that may have succumbed to a SVB attack, but so far there has been no large scale damage.  SVBs don't like cucumbers, according to the literature.  Also, the castor beans are coming along.  Still kinda small.  I hope they kick into high gear soon.  They can be so pretty when they get big!

cucumbers - they are starting to bloom!  minimal SVB damage - so far

Castor beans!  I can hardly wait for them to get bigger.  I remember them being so pretty when mom and dad grew them.

Random Views from the Back 40!

Here are some current views from the edge of the forested area and back along the nut tree area.

With the mountain to the left, this is the view of the pecan trees.

With the mountain to the right, this is the view of the pecan trees.

With the mountain to my back, this is the view out toward the valley.

The English walnuts are doing great!  They are bout 6 feet tall now!  The butternuts seem healthy; they are in the tubes in back of the two English walnut trees.

I am trying to start a little "pine" forest here.  This is where I transplanted my spruce trees from the front lawn.  I have also been transplanting pine trees here as I find them around the property.

Looking up towards the mountain.  The tubes in the distance are the Pecans, Butternuts and English walnuts

Closer view of the nut trees