Tag Archives: garden

Hole drilling with tractor augur 2026-07-12

Even the tractor augur took a while to dig that deep.


[Movie: Auguring (9.3M)]

Movie: Auguring (9.3M)

The drought means dry ground, hard to dig.
I never would have had the patience to dig that deep by hand.

The hole is for a six-foot 4×4, to which I then screwed the 2×6 you see lying there.
The 2×6 had ironically enough rotted off at the ground.
It’s a mast to hold the electric fence wire from the fence charger up above the drive path.

Here’s a video snippet.


https://www.facebook.com/reel/796414230160200/


https://youtu.be/Pyw62CiPFyM?si=wbvFs9zW1Silsl7k

-jsq

Sugar cane in bed and rows to plant it 2026-03-22

Update 2026-03-26: Sugarcane planted 2026-03-24.

With a little shovel and hoe work, we got the insulating dirt off the sugarcane bed.


[Anna's father, Bob Gronko, Anna Stange, Gretchen Quarterman, sugar cane]

Anna’s father, Bob Gronko, Anna Stange, Gretchen Quarterman, sugar cane

Inside, the cane is in good shape, much of it already sprouting.

So I used the tractor to make rows to plant it. Continue reading →

Banana plants after the freeze 2025-11-23

Banana plants do this when frozen.


[Gretchen with her banana plants]

Gretchen with her banana plants


Not to worry.
They’ll come back in the spring.

Meanwhile, Gretchen will lop their heads off with a machete.
She says that makes them grow back better.

We did get some bananas to eat with breakfast.

-jsq

Two kinds of persimmons 2025-10-09

Evidently we’ve been mis-identifying our persimmons.


[Two kinds of persimmons]

Two kinds of persimmons

The prolific persimmon tree has acorn-shaped fruit like the red one here.
Those are apparently Hachiya persimmons.

The younger tree with only a few fruit not yet ripe has flat-bottom persimmons
like this yellow one.
Those appear to be Fuyu persimmons.

See, for example, this GrubMarket blog post,

Fuyu vs. Hachiya: How to Use California Persimmons.

They’re both varieties of the Oriental persimmon, Diospyros kaki.

-jsq

Okra flower and vegetable 2025-07-01

Ants open the blooms, and bees pollinate them.

Then we get okra pods.


[Okra bloom and pods]

Okra bloom and pods

Then we pick them and eat them.

No, we don’t know why the yellow leaves.

Also, some blooms don’t open and fall off.

Many snails lately; maybe that’s the problem.

-jsq

Gulf fritillary in the garden 2025-05-25

Update 2025-06-02:
Maypops 2025-05-30.

This Gulf fritillary was frittering away in the garden.


[Gulf fritillary]

Gulf fritillary

A Dione vanillae, at about 3 inches wingspan, looks small beside the cucumber plants. Continue reading →