Squash on SALE.

Too much of a good thing......too many delicious squash! Selling for 1/2 price at the farm site. Stop by, get want you want and just pay 1/2 price. I have buttercup, butternut & tons of acorn. I didn't used to like acorn, it was always stringy and tasteless. But the variety I grow is awesome, not stringy and very sweet like buttercup. Blindfolded you wouldn't know the difference! What variety is it? I seem to have forgotten! Would Campbells soup give up their recipes? Precisely.

Evaluation time

Working on evaluating this year crops. What to scratch from the list because it wasn't tall enough (sorry short people, I'm with ya). What didn't bloom when needed, like a type of celosia just starting to look good, what the? Descriptions in catalogs are one thing...field performance, another. Some plants that are great, I didn't have enough of like Purple Majesty Millet. Some plants "I" love like orange cosmos but they don't always do so well in the vase. My guidelines for selection are: cutable stem length of 15-18" min, limited if any thorns, plant has a flowering period of at least a month, limited disease/virus/insect issues, vase life of 1 week, can be used within 24 hrs of picking (some fall & take 2 days to recover) flower/foliage has to be useable w/lots of others (you know get along w/everyone.) I have a dianthus that flowers red-pink-white on the same flower head. I can't design it w/anything but itself. Just a big bunch of that!
My work has a certain look, and some things I just can't use! So a perennial like that dianthus is destined for containers and headed to your garden! =)

Gorgeous weather!

Wow. What great weather. I have been spraying, YES, using chemicals in my field!!!! If you can give me an organic product or method to control thousands of thistle and dandelions, let me know. Fortunately, the weed problem in my iris and daylilies are 'broadleaf weeds.' So I can safely use an herbicide intended to kill just those plants, like you would use on your turf. Since iris, bulb plants and dayliles are also 'monocots,' (grass plants) they are not harmed. Last year I used an 'organic' product called Horticulture Vinegar. It was just vinegar with a higher acid level. It had very fast knockdown, almost before your eyes. Problem is, it doesn't kill the root of perennial weeds, and they just grow back with 2 weeks. I never tried it strictly on annual broadleaf weeds like nightshade. I did however try it against regular vinegar, and found that to be just as effective. The Hort vinegar sells for a lot more money, like $20 a gallon. The acid in the vinegar dissolves the leafs protective coating, and when exposed directly to the sun it croaks. Music to my eyes watching it.....