Whiteflies? White Flies? A Neglected Garden

I hit the August wall. Life stuff over took my garden. Good stuff, but still time was taken away from my ability to tend the garden. It happens every August. A combination of this and that. My garden is over-grown. I began taking it back yesterday. I am still getting great produce but it is out of control. I have been posting about a Fall garden. Now is the time to take it back and plan for the Fall.

What did I miss?

1. Never got my beans in to the extent I wanted.
2. My third wave tomatoes aren't growing and needed some love.
3. The weeds are happy. I never pulled the August wave.
4. The vegetables never got a round of liquid fertilizer.
5. The white-flies became a Nation.

I have been fighting white-flies for weeks. They have INFESTED my kales and kohlrabi. I picked the kohlrabi and bagged the leaves. My 2 kales, Dwarf Curled and Russian Red, I cut ALL THE LEAVES off. There must of been 1000 white-flies. I was covered in them. I basically destroyed their main habitat.

The kale stems will survive and I plan to leave them in the ground. New leaves will come and they will be part of my Fall crops.

The lady bugs never came to eat the white-flies. I am unleashing a week of fury to recapture my garden. I plant to have pictures up this week.

Things to Have for College

Thanks for the post from Sylvester Campbell

Moving off to college can exciting. But you don't want to get there and realize that there were a few things you should have considered before loading the car. Here are a few of the most important.


Have A Plan.


College is going to be the best four years of your life. There are tons of people to meet and fun to be had. But if you have not considered things like "What kind of job can I get in my major?" and "Are my goals realistic?", then you many be wasting your time.


Know What You Need.


If you are moving away to college your new dorm, or apartment, is you home away from home. You may need to consider what you will need to make you live in your new home easier. For instance, you will need a highspeed wimax internet packages. Make sure you know what your school provides and what you will need to purchase on your own.


How Are You Going to Make a Living?


Beyond paying you tuition, room and board, and books, you will need money for other thing too. Like food when the cafeteria is not open, pizza during late night study sessions, and other toiletries that you will run out of. Do some searching. Look for jobs on and around campus.

Lettuces and Greens for the Fall

Lettuce, Kale and other greens love cool weather. Bolting is the issue of planting lettuce in June and July. When it is hot, the lettuces send out a flower stalk to produce seed and cut leaf production. Plus the leaves get bitter. If you break a leaf of bolted lettuce you notice a white substance seaping. It's bitter. We obviously want the leaves.

Now that it is August, you can plant lettuce. Lots of it. It is frost tolerent to a degree and some varieties can take a good frost.

Kale is great to plant now. It may not mature in time to eat in the Fall but it does over winter very well. I plant Kale now and 50% survives the winter. I can pick Kale in March! from my Fall plantings.

Other greens... mustard greens and other Asain greens can go in too. Here are some ideas. Most seeds need to be purchased at a nursery this time of year. Home Depot and such might also have some and they are probably on sale!. Lettuce and green seeds last for years.

Organized With Paying Bills Online

Guest post written by my buddy Aldo Mays

I was skeptical at first about paying bills online and I am probably not the only one. I worried about the security of it all. Would my information be safe? Would I have to worry about my debit card number being stolen and used by someone else?

I have been paying bills online for several years now and have not had any problems. Paying bills online has made paying bills so much easier. I am a stickler for organization, so this method of bill pay helps keep me and my life more organized.

There is no rushing out to buy stamps at the post office anymore and it is easier than writing a check for each bill. It is as simple as getting online with my satellite internet and logging on to all the places I need to pay bills. Practically every bill I have I can pay online.

All my utilities for my home are paid online, which includes my phone, internet, water, gas, electric, and cable. The credit card I have also allows me to pay the balance online. I even go as far as paying my car insurance online because of the added convenience. If you want a great internet service so you can pay your bills online, then click for more info.

The Varieties of Cold Tolerent Tomatoes I am Growing

Original Blog Entry With Pictures and Seed Starting.

Maybe tomato seeds don't germinate in 100 degree heat. My plan is to plant cold weather tolerant tomatoes in July and tend them through to the first hard frost. I know my May tomatoes will be disease beaten or sun beaten come mid August and pretty much can be pulled by months end. Some of the cherry tomatoes survive every year into September. This year I figured, I would plant a third wave of cold tolerant tomatoes.

I ordered and planted the following varieties:


Sub Arctic Max: 62 day determinate. Bred for extremely cold climates. Dwarf vines of 2 1/2 oz fruits.

Oregon Spring V: 58 day determinate. Develop by Oregon University for short season gardeners. Medium to large fruit.

Silvery Fir Tree: 58 day indeterminate. Delicate lacy leaves with a silver sheen. 3 inch fruit from Russia.

Polar Baby: 60 day determinate. Very small plant that bear large harvest of 2 inch fruits. Developed in Alaska for cold weather.

Glacier: 58 day determinate. Sets fruit well in cold weather. Comes loaded with 2 -3 oz fruit. Potato leaf foliage.

Now I have a Russian Heirloom, a few bred specifics for cold, 2 unique foliages, both determinates & indeterminates and a variety of tomato sizes. I figure that was the easy part.