Wife and I have done very good on Squash, taters, cucumbers, and her tomatoes are looking fantastic… But I’ve been hit harder this year by deer than any other. I usually get 300-400 ears of sweet corn, if I get a dozen I’ll be surprised. They got all the ornamental squash and pumpkins, all my sunflowers, Beans, peas, Okra, even my zinnia’s. We put out perfume, cologne, and even bought some containers that hold moth balls. This on top of in a fenced in area with electric wire! Gotta go higher or kill many deer… Will have to go higher, wife says this is a “safe Haven” for the deer. Hard to believe I’m saying this, but I miss the dog hunters that used to hunt this area.
This is some onions and garlic. The garlic I’ve had growing for about 20 years running. Got if from a Plantation. They had a 1/2 acre of it and the caretaker said it was “old world” garlic that had been there since his dad worked the plantation. Some of it will clove/cluster while many are just one big clove. Not a super strong garlic but very good.
The purple taters are not quite ready yet.
Wife making pickles.
And an added plus, my daughter brought me a gator tail. They let her “wrangle” one at work. I think gator tail is about my dad’s favorite thing. I gave him the loin.
Mine is doing good after we finally got some rain Saturday.Just finished putting out some land plaster and soda.The squash slowed down on putting out for some reason but my younger plants are fixing to start up. I usually get sick of eating squash anyway.haha My yard dogs try to keep the deer away,only still hunting around here so the deer have become tame.
Yea I know what you mean, wife has some pretty cool recipes for squash, but after awhile you just get burned out. I’m not planting any more until fall. As for the dogs and deer, Mine ran down a little one and brought it up to the wife Yesterday. She cried for about an hour. Almost made me feel bad for the dogs killing it. Anyone hunting this fall that can’t get a deer must only be hunting for some kind of major trophy. I’m calling DNR this week and see if I can get a some more depredation permits.
Thank you. Thank goodness no. Only snake I’ve seen in the garden is a glass snake. I leave that one alone. Have dispatched many chicken snakes over the years here (i’d leave em alone, but I like my chickens and their eggs more), several copper heads, a couple of cotton mouths, and only one rattle snake that was in our dog pen.
You’re early…or I’m late! I know I’m late this year. Strawberries did ok this year, but are tapering off with this heat now. The squirrels wreaked havoc on the strawberries early on-solution was fake snakes in the garden. Keep moving the snakes around every few days and the squirrels tend to stay away. Broccoli did great up until maybe 2-3 weeks ago. Once the heat gets them shooting, I pull them out and plant new stuff in its place. I still have Brussel sprouts in the garden, but I’m not sure they are going to do anything; its my first year planting those.
My sunflowers look great, all flowering now, some up to 7’ tall. I did a mix of the red and yellow ones this year-Katie’s favorites are the red ones. They look like a sunset, beautiful and pretty easy to grow in good soil. Other than that, at the house I just have cherry tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes, and jalapenos, all looking good.
The fig tree is on point to have another incredible year. Free for the taking to anyone that wants them. I certainly can’t eat them all or give them away.
At the country, I’ve planted squash and zucchini, which are looking healthy at this point. Plus I did a row of celebration squash, pumpkins, and watermelons. The pumpkins and watermelon look good so far, but have only been in the ground for 3 weeks or so. The deer hammered my watermelons last year, so hopefully my new scarecrow does something!! We’ll see!
And I have four apple trees planted. One is seven years old this summer and has produced apples for the first time! There’s probably 10-12 little green apples on it now. I can’t tell you how excited I am to see those! They should be ripe in another month ish.
[i][b]"Another poon dream splintered on the rocks of
Sailfish, I tried a few years in a row on brussel sprouts. For me the time they start producing our summer heat kicks in. Gives them a funky bad taste. Kind of like collards get in the summer heat. Maybe if we plant them November?
Do you do anything special for your figs? I rooted some limbs off dad’s last year and the early frost hit em hard this spring. First time I’ve tried them. Do they like full sun or some shade, do they like it real wet? I threw a little 10/10/10 by them is all I’ve done.
That’s fantastic on your apples. I finally cut mine down. I was told we don’t get enough chill time from Columbia down to the coast.
The fig tree is the biggest one in the southeast and is probably 40 something years old. I do nothing to it and it produces like crazy every year. I have pretty average soil, but I’m on saltwater south of Charleston. I don’t know if that means much.
This was last year.
“Another poon dream splintered on the rocks of reality.” --Peepod 07-25-2017
Dude, I’ve seen many a fig tree, but never one that big!! Do you know what variety it is. That is amazing. In no way doubting you, but how do you know it’s the biggest? Clemson? You need to get with dnr and put it in their magazine!
I’m with you hillbilly.A little bit jealous also.How do you rate them trout as far as tablefare ,I’ve seen you posting about eating a lot of different fish?
Nothing eats like a black sea bass, wahoo sushi, or a fat cobia steak, but with that being said the trout are good fresh. They don’t freeze well at all and get mushy after a day,much like sea trout. They are milder than sea trout too. I don’t eat them much, mostly catch and release, but I do enjoy a few smoked or grilled with butter and garlic and fresh herbs. They were going on the grill tonight originally, but it got late and I got lazy.
I spoke with Clemson last year, but due to Coronavirus, they didn’t send anyone out. I figured I would call them again this summer and have someone come out and officially measure it. It’s considerably bigger than the one on their website though. Its a Common Fig tree and it attracts all sorts of wild life. Beyond the hundreds of birds that come to feed off of it, there’s currently about three bunnies living underneath it that come out morning and night. My wife happens to be a bird nut, just saw the first painted buntings around it this past week. Needless to say, it was an exciting moment!
Sunflowers:
Figs:
Maters:
And two for EF!
“Another poon dream splintered on the rocks of reality.” --Peepod 07-25-2017
Sadly we decided not to plant anything this spring. We spend more time trying to find ways to keep the deer out of our small patch we gave up. I’d love to grow some squash, peppers and maters. May try some tomatoes on the deck since they can’t get up there.
"Apathy is the Glove into Which Evil Slips It's Hand", but really, who cares?
I’ve never had them mess too much with my squash or tomatoes, but they do love the new growth on the pumpkins and watermelons. My only saving grace for this year is that the neighbor has planted about 190 acres of watermelons, so hopefully they’ll leave my little patch alone!
“Another poon dream splintered on the rocks of reality.” --Peepod 07-25-2017
No way; the lemon is as healthy as can be. That was my Dad’s lemon tree, so its probably 15+ years old, still in a big pot. It already has several baby lemons on it now. Usually ripe by late October/early November and averages between 25-30 baseball sized meyer lemons every year.
Had to get rid of the hummingbird feeders this season, because they beat up my lemons so bad last year.
“Another poon dream splintered on the rocks of reality.” --Peepod 07-25-2017
My wife dug up and brought home a small fig tree from her childhood home upstate. She and my son planted it a few days later and it was looking good…then the deer found it. They ate every leaf off of it. I built a cage with netting around it and it seems to be slowly coming back. I like deer but dang, might have to learn to bow hunt.
"Apathy is the Glove into Which Evil Slips It's Hand", but really, who cares?
Was talking with a DNR agent last week and he said it seems that many Does are now birthing close to houses and hanging out near them. He suspected that they feel safer from coyote threat. No proof, just speculation. They are just like a goat, they’ll eat most anything. I shut my dogs up at night but thinking of leaving them out. They brought a young one up to the house Sunday… Wife was not happy, tried to save it but no luck. I was pretty proud of my pup, just didn’t tell the wife that. My oldest Brother lives in an older subdivision in Charleston and his neighbor bow shot one. Dang thing went through a few yards and caused quite a stir with a few there. So be careful with the bow. maybe a crossbow with a night vision scope.
Hair in panty hose, pizzzing all over, Irish Spring soap Pie pans dangling together, moving vehicles in different spots, moth balls, perfume, cologne, electric fence, random gunshots at varying times,… They still sneak in. I’ve seen them on camera as early as 30 min after target practicing. Splurged this year and bought $400 bucks of varying wild flower seed that said were deer resistant… Yea right. Even put out some milorganite, It did keep them out for about 2 days.
maybe a crossbow with a night vision scope.