showmethesnow

Couple things you can do here to help keep weeds down. First off, you really need to keep on top of the weeds throughout the summer. Never let them grow long enough where they flower otherwise they are just going to drop seeds for the coming year. You also want to throw the weeds in the trash and not just throw the pulled weeds back onto the ground in the garden. Just doing this and nothing else and you should see a noticeable reduction year over year. Second, at the end of the summer clear the garden but don't roto-tiller yet. Put down black tarp or plastic for several weeks as to where hopefully the sun will create enough heat on the surface of the soil to kill any seeds that have been deposited over the summer. If you roto-tiller before hand all you do is push these seeds deeper into the soil where not enough heat can be generated. Now if you are dealing with an invasive weed that spreads (Such as I have been dealing with a Morning Glory ivy ever since we bought the house) you need to actually spray that with a weed killer instead of pulling it. Spraying it will help kill the root system from which more plants will spring up even after you pull the original weed. I have used this method the last 3 years and it has just about been eradicated after years of it taking over a decent portion of the garden. One benefit to rotoing in the leafs in the fall is that they will compost quicker in the soil then on the surface. They will also tend to help keep the soil from packing as much over the winter as the leaves will create air pockets as they decompose.

Worst thing about a vacation is the trip home. On the last leg with a little over an hour to go. Maine is gorgeous though and the long drive was well worth it. Mohegan Sun poconos casino made out like bandits from our 2 day stop over on the way home. Now I have my fingers crossed that my garden hasn't had any issues from not being tended for 11 days.

Beaver dam,that brings back memories. Used to go swimming there as a teenager.

@frd speaking of ocean, I am up at southport, an island off the Maine coast, and the difference between high and low tide is astounding. Unlike down through our region where we see roughly a 2ft? difference, up here they average 9-10 ft with occasional 11 ft. When I get back in a few days I will post some pics.

We came close to stopping there for a day on the way up to our maine vacation. Decided not to bother because it wasn't winter and didn't feel that one day would do the area justice.

That sucks. Wondering myself what I will have when I get back from vacation next sun/mon. Hopefully it's just a bunch of weeds. That's the only drawback to a summer vacation, wondering if your garden survived without your pampering.

Had the same problem. But not only did I see growth under the feeder we were also seeing plants shooting up 10-15 feet away as the squirrels were stealing the seeds and taking them elsewhere to eat. The other problem with the feeder was the fact that my dogs considered their own personal buffet with the animals it attracted. Finally took it down after a year's trial.

Happy b-day!

Having our first tomato tonight for dinner with BLT's.

If the GEFS has its say we will be seeing changes leading into mid-month. Below we have the latest day 1-5 500 mbs means map. As you can see ridging is centered in the mid section of the CONUS and dominates a good majority of it. Only off the NE coast and in the west do we see troughing. By mid-month (days 12-16) we see the ridging retrograding westward and troughing setting up shop in the east. Below we see the changes that this would mean for temps in the CONUS. As you can see here (day 1-5) with the ridging being the dominate feature for most of the CONUS we are seeing +temp anomalies for a good portion of the central and eastern US. Only in the west do we see predominate -temp anomalies from the influence of the trough draped down the West coast. So basically, Cool West and Warm East. But now look at the day 12-16 means map. With the ridging retrograding westward we see the +temp anomalies migrating westward as well and we see a cool down in the central/eastern US as we are now seeing troughing. So we are seeing a Cooler East and a Warmer West. Now will we see this flip occur? The GEFS has been pretty steadfast for awhile now and I happen to concur. We have seen a tendency for troughing in the east/NE to be the predominate feature the last few months and I expect that to continue for the near future. Only late Summer into Fall do I expect to see a flip to where ridging sets up in the East and with it the chances for the possibility of noteworthy heat for the seasonal norms. As far as precip through mid-month. The GEFS has been consistently showing 2-3+ inches through the east in the upcoming 2+ week period. This is not what I would call a drought as some believe we are headed to but neither is it a deluge. It is just pretty typical of what we would expect at this time of year. Now one thing I will point out is the uniform look it has with the precip totals which is misleading. What we will more then likely see are small regions of jackpots (4-5+ inches) and small regions of minimal rainfall (under an inch) and this is due to the nature of how we will see the majority of the precip. Most of the rain we will see will come from popup thunderstorms through this period. And as most are aware these are somewhat localized events and you can see huge discrepancies in just small distances. Now where these will occur throughout the period is anyone's guess as for the most part they will be highly dependent on day to day smaller scale features that will initiate them. Now there is one period of time that we may actually see a somewhat organized system with more uniform rains and that is centered roughly around day 10/11 as the trough begins to set up in the East. ***Now some may be curious why we are seeing a more uniform look to the precip instead of a more splotchy look with small scale rainfall jackpots and small regions of minimal rainfall areas. There are probably two key reasons for this. One is the fact we are dealing with a global model that has less resolution then meso model so it has a tendency to not pick up as well on smaller scale features and will tend to spread out the precip into adjacent regions that in fact actually see no rain. And two, we are dealing with an ensemble of 15 different runs and with that we will see smoothing occur. So if the GEFS is somewhat right for the upcoming 2+ week period what would that mean for our region (mid-Atlantic)? Well we can expect seasonable heat but nothing earth shattering for the next week/week and a half with localized thunder on any given day. We will have some in here complaining about drought while others just 10-20 miles away will be complaining about too much rain. We would then transition to seasonable cool towards the end of the period as the long wave pattern reshuffles. One period to keep an eye on is around day 10/11 as we have the potential for region wide severe/rain as we see a trough dropping in with the potential of an organized system impacting the region.

Was a big time Orioles fan growing up and in baseball in general. I even remember watching the early playoff/world series games between the Orioles/A's/Reds/Pirates in the early 70's when I got hooked on it. Brooks was my hero and I would wear his number 5 throughout the years in little league. I feel sorry for the kids now that will never experience their hero staying with the same team throughout their career as when I was young. Started losing interest though when the players started holding out/striking for more money and moving from team to team hunting for a payday. Reggie Jackson comes to mind on when the money started becoming an issue. Then of course Angelos bought the team and the Orioles were never the same afterwards (cheap bastard) Then you had the Yankees that were allowed to buy their yearly playoff/world series appearance which irked me no end. The 1995 player strike I think is what really ended it for me. Found I watched very little afterwards and it dawned on me how little I cared when the Orioles made the 96 playoffs and I watched maybe 10 minutes of a game and that was it. Haven't intentionally watched a game since.

That is where my wife and I are considering moving to in 2 1/2 years (Inland Maine is a consideration as well). Some of the higher elevations avg. 150+ inches a year with a season 5 or 6 years ago where they had over 300 inches.

What are you talking about? I thought you were jackpot city 3 out of the last 4 years. Nice landscape and pit by the way.

Tropical storm ramifications?

I would say that all the heat is on the other side of the globe. Pretty remarkable neg temp anomalies for CONUS when taken as a whole.

Entertainment? That's what you call it? Interesting.

We have a senior community a couple of blocks away so often times I will drop some produce off there. Might look into the local food bank this year as well. Of course neighbors and co-workers get their share as well. Splitting at the forks? First I have ever heard of that. If the tomatoes are struggling you might want to try some calcium nitrate on them. Of course you probably already know that.

Yeah, way too early to be overly concerned about the ENSO forecast. One thing I do see is that it looks as if roughly a third of the members are a neutral (+.5 to -.5) with only one member flirting with a Nina. I can deal with a neutral just don't want to see members start moving towards a Nina.

Best time of the year when the garden first starts producing. After a month or so though it becomes, 'Who can I foist this stuff off to so it doesn't go to waste'' as you get burned out eating veggies every day. Probably have some cucumbers (3 plants) to harvest in the next 7-10 days. Pepper plants (1 red, 1 green) are looking healthy. My tomato plants (3 plants, 1 grape tomato) are going gang busters and they are the best they have looked in years. Probably have some tomatoes to pick in about 2-3 weeks. Yellow squash look sickly and yellowish. First I had thought it was because it was to wet but the last week or two it has dried up a good deal so I am probably looking at a fungus in the soil. Overall I am happy with the garden, it looks the best it has in the last 3 years.

The usual. The sun rises in the east. Sets in the west. Rivers catch on fire. And the Browns still suck.

Guess I have my answer to all that caterwauling I was hearing to my south last night. Thought the apocalypse was incoming.

In the old days farmers would catch Snipes and release them into the fields to control moths and other garden pests. They are somewhat elusive so they would send their young and agile children to catch these critters. If anyone is interested I can PM you the specific directions on how best to catch them. Another method employed was to try to attract them into the fields. Snipes love candy corn, so quite often farmers would strew it liberally throughout the fields. But this method had its drawbacks as it attracted another pest, the neighborhood children.

Don't you just hate phoney weather patterns.

That would come in handy for my winter snowfall predictions. Of course knowing my luck I would pick up a Ryan Leaf type pick.

@PrinceFrederickWx Did I win yet? If so PM me and I will give you my address for where you can send my prize. New car, wasn't it?