2009 Garden Vlog 11, Pruning Cucumber Vines, Compost, Beans

[jerrydff7]

do cucumber seed look like watrmelon seeds in a way?

[Blinkazoid]

@jerrydff7 Not too much really. Cucumber seeds are beige colored and pretty small. Watermellon seeds are much darker and several times bigger.

[jlhappytoes]

running the mower through your garden waste will help decompost a lot faster.

[007chey]

very nice!

[oahuguy]

lol did he just call the mexican beetle a "beanie". absotively gr8 & informative videos tyvm ALOHA

[jihadacadien]

Man so much growth!!!

[elimcpheron]

nice video

[dorotwhy]

Don't you find watering the garden somewhat therapeutic? From what I remember... I'd get a peaceful feeling while I watered :O)

[Blinkazoid]

It might be therapeutic for about 5 minutes. Then I start thinking of the 10,000 things I'd rather be doing. Just hanging out in the garden and petting my cats and not doing anything in particular is far more therapeutic:)))

[dorotwhy]

It CAN be a problem when your cucumbers overwhelm your melons!

I guess that is the view that my neighbors see of me when they pass by.

[Blinkazoid]

Thankfully my neighbors aren't very close by so they aren't treated to views of me:) However I do seem to occasionally moon a low flying plane or helecoptor, LOL.

[dorotwhy]

I'm thinking about buying a small plane... let me know your gardening schedule ;O)

[Blinkazoid]

I usually garden at dusk so as to prevent butt burn, LOL.

[dorotwhy]

OMG! I have an awesome tan between the bottom of my shirt and the top of my pants. LOL I have been too lazy to wear overalls lately. Dusk is too buggy here. We have had too much rain! You sent it my way a few months ago but I'm ready to share :O)

[Blinkazoid]

Actually it's pretty buggy here too. I'm sure I get bitten by several mosquitoes most summer days. So far I've not gotten any dread diseases from them so I must have a pretty good immune system. The county where I live does occasionally have a case of encephalitis which is spread by mosquitoes.

And I want my rain back!!! I spent 2 solid hours watering stuff yesterday, GRRRR. On those rare days when I do get rain it's seldom more than a quarter inch or so. The ground is like concrete.

[dorotwhy]

I'd gladly share this rain with you! It poured SO hard last night I felt as though I was living under a waterfall. I have hung my laundry on the line so many times just to find myself scurrying to bring it all inside. I just hang it on racks now so I can move it without the need to rehang. I haven't been able to mulch my lawn because if there is a break in the rain to mow it's too long. I start digging an irrigation system to your garden so your soil will soften. :O)

[Praxxus55712]

I have no idea what that weed is that's growing around your beans, but I have tons of it growing in my garden too. I let it grow because it doesn't seem too invasive and doesn't strangle anything out. You're right that it keeps other weeds down a bit too. You're gonna have a whole hell of alot of beans. holy crap! lol

[Blinkazoid]

That weed has really spread a lot alongside my okra row. I'm still leaving it though. One good thing about it is if I ever decide to tear any of it out it's easy to remove because even though it spreads it doesn't re-root itself very often. I could tear out a large amount in minutes with minimal effort.

The beans are really a wild card. Even I don't know how much I'll get. The 30 foot row I replanted is SUPER healthy looking and I've been working hard at picking bugs off it, Cont.

[Blinkazoid]

but the beans I have planted in the corn are having to fend for themselves on the bug front. It's just too labor intensive to debug them. Those are getting eat on quite a bit but I still think I'll get quite a few beans off of them.

[MyLittleGreenThumb]

I was wondering if you could answer this question for me, are your video files avi and if so how do you edit them, I cannot edit with windows movie maker because my camcorder has AVI files...do you have any idea??

[Blinkazoid]

I edit with Adobe Premiere Elements which handles most file formats including AVI. Actually Windows Movie Maker does handle some forms of AVI. I guess there's subtle differences in AVI's and it can't handle all of them. Continued

[Blinkazoid]

At one point in time I did use Movie Maker and I had to use a file converter to convert my files to .Wmv files.

Cont.

[Blinkazoid]

Movavi's video file converter is very good and you can buy that as a stand alone program. They also have a video editor. I never could get that to work very well for me though. However they've done a couple of upgrades since I've tried it. Maybe it's better now but I don't really know, so I can only recommend their converter and not either their editor or their "Suite* which is a combination of several of their programs including the editor and file converter. Just Google Movavi.

[odin422]

Ask the Green Dean at Eat The Weeds and he'll tell ya what that stuff is

[Blinkazoid]

Thanks for the heads up on Eat The Weeds. I just now checked out his channel and subbed. He seems to know his stuff so he probably would know what it is, although I don't really know whether it's an edible weed or not.

[odin422]

High-Speed Gardening!!!

I could use a High-Speed Gardener

[Blinkazoid]

Hi-speed is the only way to go!!! It saves tons of time. It's pretty exhausting though:)

[BasicModelling]

Cucumbers and melons?? This should be X-rated.. Good to see that you rotate your compost! Compost rotating is an art!! The fact that it doesn't smell shows you're doing exactly right.. Oh, I just remembered I have to water the tomatoes.. they're doing well, and I don't want to lose my little crop, what's on the go out there.. :)

[Blinkazoid]

I eagerly await your tomato harvest video!!! Actually those cucumbers are now starting to turn a little brown but they'll still keep producing for a couple more weeks and then I have a secondary crop aleady up and about a foot long which will take over:)

Cont.

[Blinkazoid]

I should have started composting years ago. I don't know what took me so long. There's kinda a psychologically rewarding thing about throwing crap on a pile and having it ultimately turn into somenting good:) All things in life should work in a similiar fashion, LOL.

[MyLittleGreenThumb]

I love it!  Extreemly quotable...you could market that.

[Blinkazoid]

Thanks MLGThumb! Unfortunately in most things other than compost piles when you keep tossing crap on a pile you wind up with a pile of crap, LOL.

[jackbook88]

Great video and i like the sped up pruning and by the way have you done any videos about tomatoes i'm trying to start a plant and it has a lot of tomatoes on it but it seems like they are taking forever to ripen

[Blinkazoid]

Thanks John! I've done quite a few tomato videos, although I certainly don't consider myself any sort of expert on them and have my share of problems growing them. Mine tend to get late blight and die out pretty quickly. They've got a touch of blight right now. I'll still get a fair number of tomoes off of them though. And yep, it' always seems like they take forever to ripen. That's pretty normal. I'm sure they'll get there eventually as long as your plants stay healthy looking.

[abzdeman3]

i wish i knew how to farm

[Blinkazoid]

Heck, anyone who has a place to plant stuff can farm abz. You just gotta get a spading fork and a few seeds and spend tons of time working on it and you're in business:)))

[iNetherstorm]

Wow amazing presentation ;) well done blink

[Blinkazoid]

Thanks iNetherstorm!!!

[thizizliz]

kudzu cukes? Your compost heap is on the way! Yeah, you gotta keep it wet - that's where I fall down with mine - it's soooo dry here. The beans are doing beautifully - good choice on the hill and the miracle grow.

[Blinkazoid]

Those cucumber vines just don't know when to stop! They're climbing one of my tomato cages now, LOL.

I was surprised that the Miracle Grow did the trick on my beans. In years past once they started turning yellow they just kept on getting yellower and yellower and I'm sure they would have this year too, were it not for the Miracle Grow.

I'm looking forward to utilizing all that compost next year. I'll have bunches of it:)))

[Dlorezzz]

I love watching your garden vlogs. Feels like I am there but I don't have to sweat..

[Blinkazoid]

Thanks Dolores!!! Yeah, virtual veggie gardens are always much easier. No bugs either:) It's just that they of course don't taste quite as good, LOL. I actually do debate a little every year about whether I should plant one or not. Certainly there's times I'd rather be doing other things. I keep telling myself that not only is the food good for me but the sweat is too:) It's kinda like a forced method of exercising.

[debbiez112]

I love that you are making a compost pile. I always wanted one when I was gardening but never did make one. My neighbor had one and she had the richest black soil to add every year.

You garden is looking great!

[Blinkazoid]

Thanks Debbie!!! This is my first year doing a compost pile. Really I should have started doing that years ago. I'm thinking it's going to really make a big difference next year when I have that nice rich soil to supplement my garden.

[novmoon]

great garden! yummy veggies

[Blinkazoid]

Thanks novmoon! I spent part of the day today putting up corn. I didn't film it though. Tomorrow's another corn day though. I'll probably do some filming of that and post it in a few days.

[ironhead41]

gardens lookin great. nice hat.

[Blinkazoid]

Thanks Ironhead! When the sun's shining and I'm outside around the yard for any length of time I'm in my straw hat:)))

[cooksterz]

Hi Blink. oh man serious beauty in that patch of melons and cucs! Wow, the gardeners heart inside melive vicariously thru your field! Those are kind of neat lil companions near the beans. The mulch looks healthy already!

[Blinkazoid]

For some odd reason I've never grown watermelon before and only grown cantaloupes a couple of times. It's kinda wierd because I love both of them. Even this year it was an afterthought and I barely had room to wedge them in. I'm going to give them a lot more room next year.

I don't know what kind of weed that is but it's pretty cool. Some of it was getting too close to my okra today and it was sooo easy to just rip a few inches of it out. I'll show more of it later. Cont.

[3CoolKats]

Hmm, YouTube is being a bitch about letting my post at the moment, except maybe this short one. We'll see.

[3CoolKats]

Yep, a short one is all that'll stick. GRRRR. Oh well I talk too much anyway, LOL.

[Blinkazoid]

Hehehe, I had to Google Farmtown and something came up about it being a Facebook thing. So I guess it's a vitual farm that you cultivate on Facebook? Sounds like a winner to me. No pesky bugs to deal with. Well, no real life ones anyway:) May your Farmtown Farm live long and prosper Billy!

[thornekatt]

Blink, I think I've mentioned it before,but I know virtually nothing about gardening. What exactly do you put in the compost? Mostly veg and fruit peelings? And do you sell any of your stuff? You could make a killing!! I'm already waiting for another vid!

=D Hugs, Sheri~

Damn...I need to get my butt over to the farmers market today!

[Blinkazoid]

Basically you can pretty much put any vegetable matter you want in the compost pile. This particular one has all manner of household veggie peelings, coffee grounds, grass clippings and grass roots. Eggshells, cucumber vines, Lots of whole cucumbers and squash which grew too big, and some cut up cardboard. Anyhow there's tons of things you can put in a compost pile. On guy here named Praxxus puts chicken manure in his which seems to work out really well and speed up the decomposition of things.

[Blinkazoid]

And nope, I've never sold a single vegetable in my life. What I don't eat of this goes to family and neighbors. Believe it or not there was one year where I had about twice the amount of okra I did last year. That was the year I should have sold some okra for sure:)))

[thornekatt]

WOW!!! That's alot of okra! You had A BUNCH last year, and even did a vid on frying it, didn't you? I definitely remember you frying/cooking the zucchini!

[Blinkazoid]

Yep, I did cooking vids last year for both okra and squash. And I did an okra contest thing.

This is a fair amount of okra but still nowhere near as much as I had last year. Last year I had almost 100 plants and this year I'm down to 39 because 100 plants worked me to death!!! I've still got frozen okra I've not eaten yet.

[steen1973]

I'm usually not so forward, but nice melons! The garden is looking really great. I've got one cucumber plant and almost enough cukes to make pickles already, so I can't imagine the truckloads you're going to get.

[Blinkazoid]

Thanks steen! I just checked out a couple of your vids and your melons are looking nice too, LOL. I've been getting 15-30 cucumbers a day for the last 2 weeks. I wind up giving a lot of them away since I'm not a very big pickle eater. I'm actually looking more forward to eating the cantalouples and watermelons. I've never planted watermelons before. I wish I'd given them more room.

[spiralisedcat]

everything can breath again now youve tamed the forest! rob what is squash,and what can you do with it? is it a vegetable.

[Blinkazoid]

Squash is a vegtable. Which I of course have in my garden:) I've shown it in a past video or two. If you'll check my past vids for one called "oven fried squash" you'll see me cooking it last year.

[MotherReiver]

You'll probably have a mellon chuke or two! Create a boutique hybrid! It looks awesome - Love those chukes!!! Pickles anyone??

[Blinkazoid]

Thos cukes better not have pulled any funny business with my melons, LOL. I'm a little tired of the cukes right now and I want some 100% melons!!!

I certainly have enough cukes to pickle them but I really don't eat all that many pickles so it's something I've never done.

[DizzyGee]

Great update--thanks!

[Blinkazoid]

Thanks Dizzy!!!

[Bocist]

Anything but dry here Interesting like always

[Blinkazoid]

Thanks Bocist!!!

[bugsinrug]

You should have asked me Robert ! I would have gladly sent you some of our rain.  Boy, you've got a wonderful garden. hugs, Chris

[Blinkazoid]

Thanks Chris!!! I could certainly use all that rain you've been getting. We've gotten a tenth of an inch here and there but that's not really enough to even get the ground wet. (((Hugs)))

[MsGirlee]

Mmmmmm I love cucumbers. In fact, I had some for a snack. I love cantaloupes, and watermelon, too... hmmm. I have some watermelon .... maybe I will go eat some. Your garden looks great, so full, so lush. Cool

[Blinkazoid]

Thanks Mari!!! Overall it's been a good year for my garden. I can't wait to see how the watermelon tastes. It's the first year I've planted it. I was just reading the other day that watermelon is VERY good for you.

[NaturalTwentyFilms]

Cucumbers and melons, it's like the Yankees and Red Sox rivalry. The Jets and the Sharks!

I don't know how you get me to watch 13 minutes of composte and gardening, but you do. At least I learned that some people can put weeds to good use.

[Blinkazoid]

Next year I'll equip my melons with switchblades and chains. That'll show those pushy cucumbers!!!

[dicom]

Well I glad to see that the beans seem to be doing well now. You didn't mention anything about the okra. Has the scarecrow continued to work?

[Blinkazoid]

My okra is growing slower than usual this year. It's about 10 inches tall but is very healthy looking. It should start shooting up very soon now. Ebb is still doing his job very well. I've still not lost a single plant since he went on duty.... well, except for one I dragged a water hose over, LOL.

[GreatGig1]

Nice garden! BIG!! I can see how it can work you to death! As you were cutting away the cucumer vines...I kept thinking, give 'em to me...I'll save them...hahaha!

[Blinkazoid]

The weather has been so dry after our wet spring that it wouldn't surprise me if I've spent more time watering than I've spent doing everything else combined. I'll be making changes next year including drip hoses for the corn at the very least.

Yep, it's too bad I couldn't have magically transported those vines to you along with some magic roots on them, LOL.

[robertpina99]

Inside the garden of Blinkazoid

you'll find no single plant steroid.

Things just grow in leaps and bounds

from those green leaf garden grounds.

[Blinkazoid]

You're right, I think someone has been slipping a multitude of steroids to my cucumbers!!!

[dorotwhy]

robertpina99...AAHHH Poetry AND gardening... two of my favorite things :O)