dcarch

Interesting for this year. I have had basically 0 leaf eaters damages in my garden, and I don't do spraying. The only thing that I can think of is I have built a large bird feeder, which attracted a ton of birds of all kinds to my garden. I would assume many of these birds are not vegetarians. dcarch

I think for gas ovens, the only time you can light the gas inside the oven is the broiler, otherwise for baking the gas fire is under the oven, not inside the oven. dcarch

The big fight is about who invented kimchi. 🤣 dcarch

Not a beauty contest 😁 Just want to show you what I have been having from the garden for lunch and dinner everyday last week. ( I don't normally eat breakfast) dcarch

I think those are also called tomatillos. Some small ones are called ground cherries. I grow them in my garden. dcarch Today's harvest

What am I supposed to do with all these? BLT of course!!! dcarch (not sure why my pictures got so big)

Careful growing New Zealand spinach. A spinach with new zeal which will take over your land. It self-seeds every year, grows like crazy, that is one vegetable I never have to worry about weeds. It crowds out even crabgrass. dcarch

It's a very strange year here in NY for tomatoes: 1. Lots of rain, rain, rain, but not one single fruit has cracked. ( I have 85 plants) 2. Many fruits 1/2 ripe red and 1/2 green. (can't tell about GWR varieties 😉 ) 3. Excessive green shoulders. 4. You know those funny looking donut peaches? Many tomatoes, big and small came out flattened ?! Also, many varieties are coming out not true to the variety. I figure that's problems of supply chain issues of the past few years. I have a computerized labeling and tracking system. I don't think those are my mistakes. dcarch

Found this monster this morning. At first, I thought it was three or four tomatoes crowded together, then I was surprised. I was able to find only one stem. Just about three pounds. Picture shows next to a one-pounder. dcarch

Because bacon is a very nice seasoning for tomatoes 😁 dcarch

My ultimate tomato sandwich: 1, remove skin. 2. Remove seeds. 3. thick slices into dehydrator and dehydrate halfway to concentrate flavor and to remove some moisture so bacon and bread do not get soggy. 4. make sandwich and enjoy. dcarch

Actually it's this one, made with leftover electric conduits. Very effective to deal with heavy odd shaped objects. dcarch

Yes, two methods considered. Hammer drill holes deep enough for rock splitting wedges. It took a while to drill granite at 2.5" spacing, 7" deep . If that fails, I would drill (diamond core drill) 1.5" holes( 14" deep). Holes at 8" x 8", then fill holes with demolition expanding cement to crack the boulder. If the above two methods failed, I may go with what heidith had suggested dynamite!!! 😆 dcarch

Some politician may say you have small hands. 🤣🤣🤣 Is that your electric fence system? dcarch

Done! Cracked the boulder into 5 sections, made a tool so I could grab the heavy pieces out from the deep pit without breaking my back. Moved the dirt back into the pit and planted the fig tree. dcarch

That's bad news! I hope they don't visit NY. I built a large bird feeder. I am very happy that it is attracting a lot of birds. May be birds are not vegetarians. dcarch

When I first discovered the boulder, letting it stay option was considered. However, I have very poor muddy soil which does not drain well. I also want to plant decorative (may be edible) flowering plants under the fig tree. So I need to go really deep and re-mix the soil with lots of compost, sand and crashed charcoal from the fire pit. dcarch

That's a good spot visually in my garden, besides, it's not far from my electric fence system. I think squirrels like figs too. No explosives used. Those are Rock splitting wedges. dcarch

There is a spot in my garden where I feel will be perfect for a fig tree. So I started to dig for the fig. About 18" down, I found this huge boulder. I estimate it weights about 500 lbs. I really like this spot so I need to fig ure out how to get this monster out from the deep pit. I decided I need to split the boulder into many smaller pieces. Today, I managed to split it into two. It got too hot. I will try again tomorrow. dcarch

ScottyBoy, long time no see! dcarch

I was visiting my sister in Canada. I asked her, "Sister, are you wearing contacts?" " No, I don't have contacts." "And you are reading news paper without eyeglasses? What happened to your reading glasses?" "After I have been eating goji leaves and berries for a while, I discovered that I could read normally without eyeglasses." Still I don't consider that a proof. I eat goji because I like the taste, and it's free. 🙂 dcarch

"“Placebos are extraordinary drugs. They seem to have some effect on almost every symptom known to mankind, and work in at least a third of patients and sometimes in up to 60 percent." The Placebo effect works on me very well. 😆😆😆 dcarch

I get huge supplies from my garden. You can buy them from Chinese markets, but they are not cheap and they are too old and tough. Not like the ones from the garden. Gogi leaves and berries are supposed to be very healthy, medicinal. dcarch

I learned that I am stupid. I had not been able to find a sprayer that I like. I don't have a huge garden, but my garden is big enough that spraying on a hot summer day is not a pleasant task. Also, I need a sprayer with a long wand, and an adjustable spray head that can spray upside-down (bottom of leaves). So I made my own, very proud that a motorized sprayer which can do everything I want. I filled the 2 gallon sprayer with Daconil and gave all my (80?) tomato seedlings a thorough shower. Well, a day later, all the seedlings died. I didn't realize the sprayer had some weed killer solution leftover from last season. Good thing it was early enough. I was able to redo everything. dcarch

For the first time, they are available in NYC Chinatown. The big ones at $9.00 a lb. I bought a few to taste, pretty good. Not so good that I will pay $9.00 a lb. I am sure the price will come down. Interesting about these mangos, you can eat them even when they are not fully ripe. dcarch