Summer slump
at Fig Tree Cottage. There’s not much going on in this well over 100* spell.
I get out early every morning & water the trees, berry patch & bushes (they seem to be liking the milk treatments & are thriving as much as anything can in this heat.)
I do feel grateful that I don’t live with any neighborhood lawn restriction other than keeping the grass under 3 inches, because it means I can forgo watering. Water is going to become an issue for us in CenTex , I think, since we have a population boom, limited aquifers & a trend toward hotter weather. So I’m all for letting my prairie grasses tough it out & if the St Augustine dies, I’ll plant a less wimpy cover crop where I must, or better yet: xeriscape with rocks & drought tolerant natives.
Other than my weekly venturing forth to the farmers market, I’m staying inside with my worm farm, plotting Fall tomatoes & reading gardening books.
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Garden Girl on July 29th, 2008 | File Under gardengirl | -
July 29th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
I seem to have missed your post about the milk treatment. Could you please direct me to it?
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A dilution of milk in water (1/4c- 1/2c milk to 2 gallons water is what I use) is a good foliar spray to get rid of or prevent powdery mildew & other fungal problems on plants like roses or crepe myrtle that are prone to such.
Pioneer folk in this country also claimed a rag soaked in milk & applied to a split stem on a growing pumpkin would make the pumpkin grow bigger.
I don’t think there’s much evidence for milk’s fertilizing ability, but there might be something in the increased microbial action…
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Thank you so much. I copied that tip and put it in my
files. I read someone put milk on their tomato plants
in hopes of the calcium preventing blossom end rot.
I don’t know if it is the correct form of calcium to
help with that. But, I took some powdered milk and
scattered it about. Will see what happens.
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July 30th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Did you have that eerie snap of coolness this morning? Today was the first day in forever that we could sit out on the back patio with a breeze. Fall will come, fall will come, fall will come…
All the Halloween bric-a-brac in the stores is a sure sign! LOL!
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Wasn’t was gorgeous? in the 70’s & breezy! Yesterday morning wasn’t half bad either, but by the time I got back from riding to the farmers market the thermometer on my shed (which is directly in the sun & so always hotter than reality) was reading over 110*
Fall cannot come soon enough for me– they could put out the Thanksgiving stuff in stores if it’d make Autumn come any quicker!
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July 30th, 2008 at 11:23 pm
I think we may see the day that it is required to have rain water collection systems on new houses. I have one and cant see why they aren’t more popular. I am a known water mizer and am glad you talk about the water problems. That and you talk the talk and walk the walk.
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Yes– we’re gonna have to start having some good water regulations or we’ll see more situation like what’s happening with Tecolote Farm (see here: http://homesweetfarm.blogspot.com/2008/06/water-runs-dry-on-austin-organic-farm.html>
Rain barrels are on my priority list of things to get by next Spring.
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