Southern gardens, wine and evil spirits...

Every garden needs a bottle tree.  Don't you agree?

Preferably a "haint blue" bottle tree. 

Apparently, as lore suggests from ancient times, spirits, ghosts, genies, imps and "haints" are attracted to and trapped in bottles in the night air, only to be destroyed by the morning light.  The wind rushing through the bottles makes an eerie sound that slightly resembles cries made by captured spirits. 

{Use your imagination here...!}

Ask any southerner if they have a blue bottle tree in their garden and they will quickly answer with, 

"I do declare, of course! How else will we keep those nasty evil things away from the house?"
{Please read the above statement again out loud, in your best southern drawl.  It sounds much more authentic that way...merci darlin'.}

Could it be?...that I just might have captured an "imp" in the picture below?

(Lucky for me, I have six vacancies on my tree.)  

...I do declare, I'm in the mood for Rieisling!

Mexican bean beetles beware... organic whole wheat flour is "The Terminator"...

Beans are impossible to grow here in SC when Mexican bean beetles devour everything when you aren't looking.  

It is what they do.  They are really good at it. 

Rats.

(I mean, "ratas".)

So, I resolved to never grow any. 

Amen to that.

Until, I came across a tip on Pinterest.  (It had nothing to do with better-than-sex chocolate cake, twenty-nine cheese and macaroni casserole or photobombed wedding poses .)

Hooray!!! 

Whole wheat saved the day!!

(...and Kosher, too!)

The Mexican bean beetles hate it! The tip was actually how it works well for hornworms on tomatoes...so I thought, why not give it a go for beans? I dust the plants after I water and it puts a lovely sticky thin film that dries a bit crusty on the leaves and is hard to wash off.  I use it on eggplants, too.  I believe it might just be a modern day miracle to outsmart pesty pests.  I'm trying it on squash plants.  (If it works for squash bugs, I am going to deliver a national statement to the President and be in the running for the Noble Peace Prize.)

(Yesterday, someone actually "informed" me that Sevin dust is edible and perfectly natural...and they were SERIOUS.) Go read the Sevin SL label and you'll never touch the stuff again.  Hopefully.

http://www.entomology.umn.edu/cues/cwlb/labels/SevinSL.pdf

So, thanks to Pinterest, I will be picking tender yellow wax beans and taking them to market this week.  

Olé!

Pruning update

Remember the pruning fiasco a few blogs back?

The "makeover on the farm" entry?

Well, here is an update.

I,

have never seen,

so many blackberries

in...my...life!

All this from a little pruning?

It has to be.  

I did not feed these monsters.  

They are quick to spread and love to take over the blueberries so I kept them a low priority for feeding.

  

Plus they are exceptionally hard to keep pests off. The Japanese beetles and June bugs devour them.  

I have to pick first thing in the morning to outsmart them or they have their way with them. 

And this is a real shame because these blackberries (Chickasaw and Apache) turn out to be 2" or even as large as 3" long.  

Not to mention, they are sweet and juicy.  

Maybe this year there will be enough for me and them?

And I thought I was going to be busy picking blueberries!  

Turns out, the pruning I did there may have reduced my yield slightly for this year...and I expected that because I cut out a lot of overly large old stalks. 

There are so many more young plants that have sprouted up as a result... (and I have fed these twice!)

Just wait for next year!

French pruning...oooh la la!

French pruning... a.k.a. Did you "destroy" that beautiful tomato plant on purpose?

French Pruned tomato plant. Ooh la la la1

This year I am trying something new.  I am French pruning my tomato plants.  And, I am learning how to do it best every step of the way.  I love hearing from another farmer that they experiment...you know, trying something new to see how it works for them.  It seems nothing is set in stone for those of us with a green thumb and a little imagination.

There was much more to my motive than just the "French" thing, trust me.  Still, there's just something a bit perfect about "Le Farm" having French pruned tomatoes...just saying!

Basically, you remove all suckers and side leaves so the plant is left with a leafy canopy.  From everything I have read, there are some great advantages to doing this:

• There is no chance of moisture to splash up on the plant that might cause mold, wilt or disease. 
• You can place them closer together.  
• The plant doesn't expend energy making leaves and concentrates on making fruit, instead. 
• Your yield increases and fruit is larger.
• You just might have outsmarted the notoriously hungry hornworm.  Yuck... x 2.  (This might be worth doing it for this very reason alone.  This ugly sucker could carry off your firstborn.)
  

There has not been a real downside from what I can tell so far.  It might render your tomatoes more vulnerable to the elements like sun.  Also, tomato plants must be treated gently. I have snapped off more than a side leaf from making this mistake.  It cannot be haphazardly done.  It takes thought, finesse and a carefully calculated snip.
Apart from the unconventional appearance and the OMG horrified gasp your friends will make when they see them, there is nothing else detrimental that I can come up with.

Believe it or not, there is a video link on-line that spends 45 minutes building up to someone's grandfather's super special secret to pruning tomatoes...but, this guy won't tell you until you buy his book.  Hello... I learned everything I needed to know during the build up. 

And then I Googled the rest of the story and put it all together.  Too bad!

The French are masters at unconventional creativity and disguise.  

(How do I know this? Half the genes in my DNA are French so in my mind, half of me is off somewhere being unconventionally creative and elusive, at any given time.  Believe me, it's true.) 

 I attest that my French pruned tomato plants are the perfect example of art and invention coming together in a very practical expression.
{Sort of like a French poodle parading around looking fabulous.  Oui?}  

Yes, I spend way too much time thinking up ideas useless to most of mankind but, maybe this will open your mind up to trying something new and if you like how it works, make it part of your routine or at the very least, an interesting experience that you can learn from.

"Vivre un peu!"

"Live a little!"

Owning a farm is like having a newborn...

Owning a farm is like having a newborn baby.

Don't believe it?...
Take a look at this:

Exhaustion is your only sure bet since the "baby" came into your life.

Your body hurts.

Constant attention is needed to keep your baby happy.

There's never enough time to spend on yourself.

You realize you are suddenly going broke from taking care of it.

In bed at midnight, up at 5 am.

You keep asking yourself, "Why did I do this, again?"

You thought you were busy before you had the "baby".

Your life is never going to be the same; you can't give this thing back.

Discipline builds character.  (Mainly in you, not the "baby").

It needs you to nourish, feed, cultivate and grow it up.

It has a mind of it's own.

Relatives never offer to help.

You don't have time to go to the bathroom.

Your work is never done.

You never see your friends anymore.  

You're lucky if you have time for a peanut butter sandwich.

All you want to do is take a nap.

It brings intense heartache, immense joy, and every extreme emotion in between.

It makes you cry.

Its the best thing you ever did.

You can't imagine your life without it.

And...
No one will date you because you have a "baby" and everyone knows you're really just looking for someone to help with the baby every... single... day... forever and ever.  Amen.

The whole world and your mother told you that having a "baby" was a lot of hard work, but you didn't listen, did you?

No, you didn't.