01 Aug 2021

Last call for the blueberry harvest

As August approaches, the 2021 blueberry harvest will soon be over. You still have enough time to visit a field near you. It takes time to harvest a gallon of blueberries, but in reality, it takes more patience than time. Even if you don’t have time to pick blueberries, you can buy them by the gallon already picked for a fraction more per gallon. Call ahead and most fields will have them ready for pickup.

Zinnia bed has visitors in the form of colorful butterflies

A real highlight of summer is when the zinnia bed is covered in green foliage and a rainbow of zinnia flowers – large, small, medium – adorned with lush green foliage. Daily visit of yellow and black tiger swallowtails and majestic monarch butterflies as well as a variety of small butterflies also visit. To keep zinnias in bloom for a long season, use a water lance to water only the base of the zinnias instead of spraying all the foliage. In doing so, it will prevent powdery mildew and fungi from infecting the leaves. As the season progresses, this process will pay off when the finches come to harvest the zinnias for food.

Ferns of summer – a spectacle of beauty and greenery

Asparagus and panda fern spread over the walls of their containers and respond to Plant-Tone organic plant food as well as a daily glass of water. They have a semi sunny location behind the deck away from direct sunlight. We prune them every month to encourage new growth and also prepare them for winter in the sunny confines of the living room in a semi-sunny location. These ferns are now beginning their seventh year of growth.

Grilling bacon for a BLT treat

In last week’s garden plot, we mentioned a BLT with bits of McCormick bacon. Today we’re discussing the old-fashioned grilled bacon sandwich, lettuce and tomatoes with slices of melting bacon (not crunchy, but golden). To make a great bacon for a sandwich, start with a great brand of bacon. You can pay more for a great brand of bacon, but you also get something that makes a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich extra special. Remember, you always get what you pay for. Use an oven pan sprayed with Pam cooking spray. Separate the bacon into strips and spread it out on the grill rack, broil on low heat until golden brown, flip and grill the other side. Place a quart of water on the bottom of the broiler pan before beginning the broiling process. When both sides of the bacon are golden brown, not crunchy, but stiff. There won’t be a lot of fat on the bacon, but remove it and place it on a paper towel for about a minute, then assemble the sandwich. Use a layer of mayonnaise on both sides of the bread or mayonnaise on one side and Thousand Island dressing on the other.

Bigger green peppers

The best attribute of green peppers is that you can have a plentiful supply and harvest them until frost. Another of their attributes is that they are easy to freeze in pint or quart plastic containers. All you need to do is wash them, cut off the top, remove the seeds and cut the peppers into quarter-inch pieces, place them in containers and freeze them. In winter and year round, keep a pint or liter on hand for recipes like meatloaf, spaghetti sauce, chili and salads. To use it in a meatloaf, place half a cup of frozen green peppers in the blender and put it on “Grate” mode for a few seconds. Mix the grated peppers with the other meatloaf ingredients. You can enjoy larger peppers with this simple procedure. When you see the first white blossoms on the pepper plants, mix in three tablespoons of Epsom salts, which can be found in Walmart’s medical department and most drugstores. Combine the Epsom salts in a sprinkler and pour around the base of the pepper plants. Repeat the process every ten days. The result will be bigger peppers. This solution also works well on jalapeño, red cayenne pepper, and banana peppers.

Another use of Epsom salts

Epsom salts can also be used as a preventative to prevent rabbits and groundhogs from eating the foliage and vines of your green beans. Mix two tablespoons of Epsom salts in half a gallon of water and fill a spray bottle (like window spray). Spray a fine mist on the foliage and stems on a sunny, warm afternoon. sprinkle a few mothballs around the perimeter of the garden where any bean crop is planted and the rabbits and groundhogs throw up! Last year we had a groundhog under our barn. We threw a handful of mothballs under the barn, the pig found another place to wallow all day.

Keep birdbaths filled twice a day

The scorching afternoons and the heat of August to come quickly heat the water in the birdbaths. Baths need cool, cool water in the morning and again in the late afternoon. Much of the use of waterfowl is for bathing as well as for drinking and also a place to cool off with a plunge that splashes a lot of water.

Four hours in show

The four o’clock looks like a “Christmas in July and August” centerpiece. Their dark green foliage forms a perfect background for red, white, pink, yellow, vinous, speckled, and mottled flowers that look like Christmas decorations. With daylight saving time in effect, they could be named five o’clock. Several times during the summer, it’s almost dusk when they finally open, and their flowers will take their place tomorrow night.

Promote new foliage on coleus or Josephs mantle

The beautiful red, cream, yellow, white, wine, mint green and purple leaves of the coleus or Josephs mantle can be extended all summer by pinching the purple seed flowers as they form. Keep them pinched and new foliage will continue to form. Feed coleus once a month with Flower-Tone Organic Medium. Water the coleus twice a week until the water runs out of the container.

Keep hanging baskets cool

Not only does the dog’s day sun dry out the potting soil in the hanging baskets, it also heats the baskets. Not only does the earth from the hanging baskets need a glass of water, but the basket itself needs to be cooled. Every evening as the sun sets, use the water lance or sprinkler and apply plenty of cool water to cool the basket and run through the holes in the bottom of the baskets. Use Flower-Tone organic flower food for hanging baskets, zinnia beds, annual containers and flower beds. It is a completely organic product that comes in four pound zippered plastic bags. apply a handful to each container or basket and stir it in the potting soil, then give the flower a glass of water. Feed the flowers once a month.

A fresh tomato heated by the dog in the afternoon

Nothing like a fresh red tomato from the garden heated in the sun. Bring a knife and salt shaker to the garden plot. Remove a fresh tomato from the vine, wipe it dry with a paper towel, cut out the heart and enjoy the ruby ​​from the garden. At Grandma’s Northampton County Garden, we remember taking her huge homemade cookies out into the garden, coated in Duke’s mayonnaise, salt, pepper and chunky slices fresh from her garden. Nothing like a freshly harvested tomato.

Hoe hoe hoe

“Tale of the worm and the snail.” An earthworm and a snail decided to go on a trip. when they arrived at the airport, there were only two seats left, one on an airplane and one on a helicopter. “You take the plane,” said the snail, “and I’ll go by helicopter. “Absolutely not,” said the earthworm. “I don’t see what a difference it makes,” said the snail. “A lot” said the earthworm. “The whirlwind still has the worm.”

“Where’s the pickpocket?” “Kangaroo father,” Damn! Where’s the baby? “Mother kangaroo,” Oh no! My pocket has been picked up! “

The August Almanac

There will be a new moon on the evening of Sunday August 8th. The moon reaches its first quarter on Sunday August 15. There will be a new moon on the night of Sunday August 22. The name of this moon will be “Sturgeon Full Moon. The moon reaches its last quarter on Monday August 30th.