Thursday July 18 Another day at the fair

     ​    Good morning, welcome to my Garden show, Gardening and you.  I am Becky Litterer from Becky’s Greenhouse in Dougherty.  This show is about more than just the different aspects of gardening, it’s about how we can help you with your gardening needs.
       So yesterday was an interesting day.  We had a storm go thru around 10:00 AM and it was a strong cold front against the warm front.  So we had wind, rain and more wind. I sat in our booth area and a couple of times wonder why I decided to do that.  I made sure that the things on the tables were staying put.  The tent stayed in place and just had a few pots of plants on the ground. BUT the popcorn people were watching what I was doing.  EMT's were watching and the church ladies were making sure I was ok.  So no worries I was in good hands.  We had a couple of more rain showers so the crowd was really slow during the day.  Tonight is was a nice evening so the fair goers came out.  I worked on getting things organized, deadheaded and rearranged.  So this was good. 
      Today there will be lots of judging of livestock, free shows, free beef burgers and Grandpa's Farm is to have their demonstration start with old time farming.  There is a whole page of things going on, so it should be a busy day at the Franklin Co Fair. 
 
Gardening advice from the Men's Garden club 1975
Epsom salts can help correct a magnesium deficiency in the soil, which is one of several reasons that can cause tomato blooms to drop.  Buy the course type found at drug stores.  Use about a  handful around plants, scratch not the surface.  Water after application. Some gardeners us Epsom salt in planting holes for tomatoes, peppers an eggplants, others mix a teaspoon with about a pint or so of Lukewarm water and spry it on foliage of pepper and other plants.  
 
Peas in a pillow case.  Shell peas fresh from the garden no blanching, cooking and place loose in a pillow case closed with a twister.  Plop pillowcase in the freezer. Pease freeze individually since they've dry.  When you're ready for some just dip in the pillow case with a measuring cup.  Use different colored pillow cases to separate varieties.  Harvest too punky for a pillow case.  Substitute a plastic bag.
 
In closing about green thumb, you can bet that if you have a green thumb you have a busy thumb as well as a callused palms. 
Till next time this is Becky Litterer, Becky's Greenhouse, Dougherty Iowa beckmall@netins.net