Mystery Seedlings

[surviort_wwdnet]

I shelled the black soybean pods. While it doesn't look like a lot of beans, this is the end product of the two seed beans I planted. These will be next year's seeds. If all goes well, I should have enough to last for a year or so.



I made split pea and ham soup - a big Dutch oven full. After we eat this for a couple days, the rest will go into the canner. I have pinto beans, lima beans, kidney beans, black-eyed peas, and black beans waiting to be canned, and another pound of split peas waiting for the next pot of soup (to be canned).

[surviort_wwdnet]

No gardening today, but the canner is chugging along filled with split pea soup, kidney beans, and lima beans. I have lots of dry beans in storage but decided to can some so I could just open the jar, season up the beans, cook some rice, and call it dinner.

[surviort_wwdnet]

The outer bands of Idalia are wreaking havoc on my garden shade structure. I keep putting it back where it belongs but it's a lost cause until this storm is 100% past us.

[surviort_wwdnet]

Shade structure didn't make it through the storm, so I'll need to rebuild it. Of course, no shade cloth means my garden plants are wilting in the 100^o+ heat🙄

[surviort_wwdnet]

I have temporary shade up over the remaining garden plants. Shade cloth + green garden stakes + garden twine + binder clips = a pretty flimsy shade structure, but it should work until the next high winds come through. All that's left in the garden is 3 bean plants, 10 bell and jalapeno peppers, and 6 or 7 grow bags of herbs (and an eggplant that needs to be cut down). My plan is to have some fence posts installed between the shed and the containers, then add some hammock clips and run my shade cloth between the outer fence posts and inner posts across the garden. Our yard guy offered to build me a super-duper shade structure for a mere $1500, at which I almost choked😂 I keep looking at what I put up today, and analyzing how I could optimize the fence post setup. I need something easy to set up and dismantle/rearrange. The old PVC structure worked well until Idalia. Any suggestions? Keep in mind that I'll likely need to build this myself.

[prc-104]

$1500 Holy cow.
No clue on your dimensions but betting it's not totally huge.
Friend in MI did this which I'll inadequately describe..

PVC 40 pipe to make an arch.
Tent stake on each side and bow the pipe so the ends stick over the tent stakes.
use as many as you need`, some 3 feet apart.
Picturing this then you run a center tee or cross from pipe to pipe to pipe.
run one centered for the top and then some on the sides, all horizontal lengthwise.
He started with shade cloth over the top.
later on, he got used pvc roof stuff, think it's 3feet by 8 feet and screwed that to the pvc pipes with metal screws.

Made the darned thing winterproof .
Wish I had a pic of it but I don't.
Hope my poor description gave you some ideas.

[surviort_wwdnet]

prc-104: The garden is about 20x20. The problem with bowed pipes is that I need to walk through the garden frequently to water, and the walkway space is only about 3' and irregularly shaped. The draped-above-the-containers old system worked very well, as it was about 6' above ground level and I'm only 5' tall. It provided enough shade to keep the plants from wilting in the FL heat, but made it easy for me to drag the hose through the garden to water everything. Similar to the photo below?

[prc-104]

That pic is darned nice.
:-)

[surviort_wwdnet]

That pic is darned nice.
:-)

Yes it is but that won't work for me right now.

[surviort_wwdnet]

Update just to let you know I didn't disappear: I can't get to the garden. The new side door the contractors put in won't stay closed unless it's lock-bolted (it wasn't installed square to the framing). The back door is being replaced today so I can't go out there either. Fortunately, the sprinklers will run tonight so the garden will get watered. Renovations suck when the general contractor hires the cheapest subs he can find...

Update: I was able to get to the back yard (because the contractors left the gate unlocked). The garden is watered and inspected. I have more jalapenos to pick, maybe tomorrow.

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

Been MIA for a bit...lots going on here and I was out of CONUS for a bit. I had to get neighbors to "clean up" my yard before Idalia, and then we only got a bit of rain and hardly no wind according to their reports. My garden is done and now waiting on fall...but when will that be? Usually sometime in Sept/Oct here but temps are still in upper 90's with feel like temps 100+ some days. Until I start seeing cooler temps in the morning and evening, I will wait on anything for the fall garden. And if temps stay like this, maybe another spring garden planted in fall...LOL

[surviort_wwdnet]

Still upper 90's to low 100's here every day also, so I'm just hanging out waiting for "fall" to get here! We are under serious construction with doorways being widened and doors being changed out/repaired. We had one heck of a storm over the weekend, but otherwise just a couple of showers that only lasted a matter of minutes. Too much heat and too little rain, but apparently that's exactly what jalapenos like because they're growing like crazy. The Bell peppers are still flowering and producing. Beans are done and need to be pulled out, but I have contractors working inside the house and I'm not leaving my husband alone while they're here, because if they have any questions, I'm the go-to person.