Mystery Seedlings

[surviort_wwdnet]

The irrigation system ran and the grass was wet, so I took out the leaf blower and cleaned off the front patio, sidewalk, and driveway, watered both gardens, baked some chocolate cake, and did laundry. Checked the plants in the container and in the bag garden and everything looks good. It's college football Saturday😁🏈 I did my part moving 80# of pool salt out of the garden cart and into the mower cart. Ugghh! I think we need a new mower battery so tomorrow we may run to the store to get one. Had to put it on the charger yesterday. Husband is out of some ice cream he likes, so I'll grab some of that too.

With a possible storm coming next week, I'm thinking what to do with the plants in the bag garden if it's predicted to get ugly here. I'll probably put them in the garden shed for safekeeping along with the untransplanted seedlings and the greenhouse rack. As for the container garden, I'll pray... I need to get some things cleaned up in my husband's workshop so we have clear access to the generator, and move the small generator to the front of the shed. All of the gas cans are full and after the beginning of the week, so will my car's tank be.

Zoo sounds like fun!

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

Yeah, we are watching the storm here as well. I have not seen the 8am report yet, but likely today will be picking up loose stuff in yard, and tomorrows report will tell me what else will need to be done. I have three sun shades over spa area that will need to come down for sure. I am not sure what to do with my grow bags that have plants in them. I am thinking of moving them all to the north side of my house or tiny home, group them close together and put my spare bags of top soil leaning up against them to steady them to try and protect them some from wind. My 5' tall vertical garden I will try and "tie down" to try and keep it from blowing and put a "insect bag" that is made for it over the top to protect our pepper plants we have in there. My genny's were tested about 3 weeks ago, and have many 5 gallon cans of fuel waiting to go. Tested chainsaw as well and its ready. As long as my solar panels stay attached to roof, we should have battery power to run things before we have to set up genny's...even if the panels get pulled off (hope not) we will have a full battery and when battery gets low we can recharge with one of the gennys.

Any other ideas on protecting the plants?

[surviort_wwdnet]

Got everything done I could with what was left of the day after taking the cat to the vet for an allergy shot🙄 All of my grow bags with plants in them are against the back of the shed, with large soil-filled grow bags in front of them (they're pretty heavy since I watered them). The compost tumbler is in front of the soil-filled bags, with a large grow bag on top of each leg. The tomato cages are nested, laying down, and anchored with paving blocks. All of the garden stakes were disinfected, banded according to size, and moved inside the garden shed. Garden and drip hoses are also in the garden shed. The sun shade is rolled up and securely tied to the shade structure at the far side of the garden. The shade structure is attached on 2 sides to the fence, on one side to the shed, and the 4th side supported by a notched 2x4. Wednesday morning (estimated based on current information) the seedlings will get watered well, and the seedlings and rack will get moved to the garden shed until the wind passes. The patio and deck chairs will get put away under the pool deck and in the garage. The pool noodle and rafts are secured under the strapped jacuzzi cover. The flag will come down to (hopefully) save the flagpole. No worries about the container garden, since the cabbage and onion transplants are still small enough to get cover from the back of the house and the sides of the containers. Only concern is the lima bean plant but it's also sheltered by the back of the house. If I have time tomorrow, I'll get the ladder out and check the screenporch gutter. Husband will need my help to move a ladder and the scaffold behind the motorhome. He said "You are one tough girl" - I take that as a compliment😊



Do you have frost covers? If not, a tarp will do. Put a large enough tomato cage or other item in the center of your garden to create height for the tarp to clear your plants, then just cover the plants and stake down the corners of the tarp. Unless we get horribly high winds, plants on a firmly set trellis will likely be ok, since wind should blow through the trellis openings.

I had 2 bags of granular yard chemicals sitting on the edge of the patio - I stashed them in an empty yard waste container. I did NOT dig out the small generator - it's against the back wall of the shed behind the wheelbarrow, pressure washer, edger, push mower, etc etc😂 If our neighbors need to borrow it, they can help me dig it out. By the time I got that far, I was too tired to move all of that...

Send a photo of the plants that you're trying to save from Ian's wrath and I could likely give you more specific ideas. The insect bag over the peppers is a great idea!

I hope those solar panels stay put! I think we've had strong storms this year with winds as high as we'll see with Ian, but not as sustained. Maybe the whole thing will shift far enough west to get rid of the hurricane watch for FL's east coast... I'll be touring the back yard tomorrow to see what else needs to be done.

Update: Ian shifted more east. Be ready.

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

yeah, been watching that shift. I am still on the right hand side of storm, uggh, but the middle of storm as they are predicting now at 5am is just to the west of me.

[surviort_wwdnet]

Heading out to finish up last-minute cleanup and moving things to sheltered locations - still have a few things to do. Then, when it's over, move everything back where it belongs...🙄

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

So...sorry for the lack of posts here...been busy..LOL

Anyway, lost the largest Crimson watermelon as it just split open...not sure why but it looked like something had hit the non vine end and it broke open. The leaves were battered by the wind, but seems to have held. Some were underwater, but ground water started to recede yesterday. I took the 5 melons that were sitting in water and raised them up on some broken concrete pieces to get them out of water. Our two Ali Baba melons seemed to have grown during the storm, although their leaves took a beating. My Red Kuri still has three fruit on them, but I am getting brown spots one them, not at the end like blossom rot but on the sides....Tomatoes and peppers I was able to move and they did good. Have 50 Romas, and 7 beefsteaks. Peppers, well they are a hardy bunch and wife picked about 30 yesterday. We have picked over 100 in last 5 days...probably closer to 120. This is off of 8 plants. We have given 70 away and have at least 30 or more sitting here...may give some of them to a new neighbor who was a sniper in the Army....

[surviort_wwdnet]

https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/grapevine/forum/on-the-plot/vegging-out/97076-small-uchiki-kuri-squashes-going-brown-soft-and-rotting

This article may provide some insight.

All in all, the damage was nothing compared to what it could have been. How did the solar panels hold up?

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

I had some left over top soil bags that I put on them...one bag that covered one edge of two panels next to each other. They held great. My neighbor that has his attached to his free standing carport did not do anything and his held fine as well. He told me I did not need to do anything, but i figured it would not hurt. Will check out that site...
we went and helped good friends with their water damage. He had 2" inside house for 8-10 hours and still has about 8-10" in yard and on roads. He was renting the house out and the tenants have a mercedes car that was totaled as it had 3" in the floorboard. They also had a Porche Cayanne that had airbags and they were able to raise that enough for the water to stay out of vehicle. Sad part is, oh there are many sad parts, they had changed insurance companies 6 months ago and he gave them the old companies policy and said I want the same thing. The company screwed up and forgot to add flood insurance to the new policy and my friend did not notice...so he is on the hook for repairs. His entire wood floor in the house is ruined. As you can tell from the cars the tenants had, this is not a cheep POS home. My friend had hernia repair a week ago so he cannot lift for 4-6 weeks, his wife took a spill yesterday and thought she had broken her hip and went to ER and luckily she has only a bad bone bruise....So we will be helping them a lot to get this place back up and running...My wife and I started pulling up the bamboo wood flooring yesterday and got about 1/8th done...going back today. Oh power is on, but outside AC unit had been under water so it is not working. My SIL is a HVAC guy so he is coming over today and see if he can get it back up.

[surviort_wwdnet]

So many people had so much damage, and so many have nothing to go back to. Water intrusion is difficult, since it gets into every nook and cranny along with the flood mud. You're a good friend to go help them, especially considering the physical issues they have right now. Can they get any financial help from FEMA to cover some of the damage (I did when I had hurricane damage from Charlie)? Keep us updated on the progress.

Great news about the solar panels👍

[surviort_wwdnet]

No gardening today. Instead, I spent the day making calls to the insurance company, the hospital billing office, my auto insurance agent, etc. Most of the 3-1/2 hours I spent on the phone was on hold, so while I waited I threw the dinner ingredients in the slow cooker, cleaned house and did laundry. Bluetooth is a wonderful thing! I can garden tomorrow, and I'm loving this cooler weather for working outside.

Our next door neighbor volunteered to take over my weed whacking duties, which I gratefully accepted, and then came over yesterday to repair our delivery gate. Good neighbors are a treasure.

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

They are already looking at the FEMA/FL assistance and see if they can get some financial help.

My tomatoes are hanging in there...blight is my enemy...I cannot seem to stop it...sprayed with fungicide the plant and soil...and nothing. I keep trimming leaves back in hope of keeping it at bay until the 40-50 fruit can be picked. The Ali Baba plant was on slightly higher ground, so it seems to be doing better then the Crimson. The Crimsons are in grow bags but the vines were underwater for the storm and still most of the day following. The vines look iffy to say the least. I have 6 melons growing so hoping for the best.

[surviort_wwdnet]

I hope your tomatoes can be saved or at least you can pick the biggest tomatoes and set them on a rack in the sun to finish ripening. Did you have a trellis for your melons?

I lost my fence and part of my roof during Charlie, and FEMA covered the roof, which was a big help. Fencing was cheap back then.

I got my last tomato plant into a grow bag and all the rest of the seedlings (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and one lone parsnip) into the container garden, and watered both gardens. Now I have 30 empty pots that are washed, dried, and ready for more seeds, and the plant markers are done: parsnips (10), carrots (10), broccoli (2), cauliflower (2), and onions (6). The empties are sitting on my office floor and will get filled up and planted tomorrow when I can get an early start (this morning jusband had a doctor's appointment). I still have 8 large empty pots in the garden shed so I will plant something in them - just haven't decided what yet. Did some laundry and called it good.

I had to go rescue my elderly neighbor who had gone down to the road to pick up a trash can that had fallen over, and he was sitting on his rollator in the road. He'd had a small seizure and was just out of it. I escorted him up the driveway and into the house, got him seated in his chair, played with their dog😀, picked up the trash can, and headed back home. His wife said he had gone out to take something to the car, and he just wandered off from there...they're both in their 80s and I worry about them.

[surviort_wwdnet]

I got the parsnip, carrot, cauliflower, broccoli, and onion seeds in. Made a mess, cleaned it up, made the bed, vacuumed, and dragged out a LOT of trash to the curb since our garbage pickup was cancelled last week due to Ian. Now I'm tired and don't want to cook dinner😂 (I cooked anyway but only because I had to)

[Patriotic Sheepdog]

Yes, the melons and squash has a trellis, but they grew up and down it and out into yard. The red kuri has a vine that is at least 8' long and several vines of the melons are 6'+
I am not sure how soon I can pick the tomatoes so I am leaving them on as long as I can and hoping for the best.

One good thing...found me a straight eight cuke that is 7" long so today it comes off the vine...no others and the plant looks horrible after the storm. Wife does not like the "messy" look of all the vines and wants to clean things out, but is willing to leave til the fruit matures..which I hope it does...

[surviort_wwdnet]

Nice cucumber! Understand about the trellis. My viny plants were on an 8-ft long trellis but they still wandered all over it. and I trimmed back the unruly runners. I have plans to do three 6-ft long trellis rows in the spring and confine my planting to whatever will fit within those confines. It will mostly be squash and I will watch them like a hawk! I don't want a repeat of last year's squash vine borer/aphid infestation/fungus fiasco. I also understand that messy garden look and for people who like things neat, it's hard to live with.

I still haven't moved my grow bag plants back to their original positions; I kind of like them lined up against the back wall of the shed, which makes watering them super easy. I watered my starters and am impatiently waiting for them to sprout. We're off to the commissary tomorrow so I won't get much done, but there's really not much that I need to do outside anyway. The cooler weather is great but I'll have the weekend to get some more seeds put in.