Weekly Gardening Thread
Posted on 09/18/2009 4:05:37 AM PDT by Red_Devil 232
Good morning to all of you gardeners. For most of us this summer’s gardening season is almost over and some of you have started fall/winter gardens. I thought it would be interesting to find out what you have planted in your winter gardens and also what you are doing now to prepare for next springs garden.
If you have a favorite recipe for the foods you have grown or just a recipe you would like to share please feel free to post it.
Weekly Gardening Thread
I hope all of you will stop by.
This is typically a low volume ping list. Once a week for the thread and every once in a while for other FR threads posted that might be of interest.
If you would like to be added to or removed from the list please let me know by FreepMail or by posting to me.
Pole beans, tomatoes, collards, cucumbers, green onions, jalapenos and if there is any room left a few peas.
I'm banking on the pole beans for canning.
Everything getting ready for crocus, tulips and daffodils for early spring.
There’s just something about the crocus poking through the snow mid-march that gives me a great start to my day as I’m walking out to get in the car in the morning. I’m from CA and live in the Rochester, NY area now. I used to hate late winter/early spring because the cold hangs on so late here, but the early spring garden makes it one of my favorite times of the year now!
Add me to the ping list please.
I have always had a love of wild things. I particularly love to eat them. I highly recommend bacon tomatoe and wood sorrel sandwiches. Look online for wood sorrel pictures. It looks like a shamrock and probably grows in your yard. It tastes like grapefruit to me.
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I graze on wood sorrel all summer.
hi red- please add me to your list:) cant contribute much though, this year my northeast garden was a disaster—
Morning!
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Good Morning RD, I echo the fact of no sun in over a week, rain gauge I quit reading, will mark a sunny day when and if it happens, few tomatoes and peppers left here also, and late squash are producing (bugs drowned ).. thankfully have late Brittle Blue Blueberries and Huckleberries to pick in the rain.
and it’s Sweet ‘tater time:
Sweet Potato Snack Cake
Category: Cake
Serves/Makes: 8 | Difficulty Level: 3 | Ready In: 2-5 hrs
Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 1/2 cup cooked mashed sweet potato
2 egg whites
2 tablespoons skim milk
2 tablespoons confectioners sugar (optional)
Directions:
Combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and spices, and stir to mix well. Add the remaining ingredients, and stir to mix
well.
Coat an 8-inch square pan with nonstick cooking spray. Spread the batter evenly in the pan, and bake at 325 degrees for 40 to
45 minutes, or just until tester inserted comes out clean.
Cool the cake to room temperature. Sift the confectioners sugar over the cake if desired, cut into squares, and serve.
I added some manure to my garden and tilled it in after the rain. The dirt was really hard from the drought, but the rain really helped.
I also planted radishes, turnips, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, fall squash, leaf and head lettuce. Some are already coming up. My shallots are about six inches tall already.
I planted a dead woodchuck in mine yesterday afternoon. He was munching away and never knew what hit him. Apparently he’d been at it a while he was the size of three cats.
Good morning RD. My tomatoes were doing fabulously.... and died, with all remaining fruit... almost over night. I found a few plum tomatoes that weren’t ugly, but the rest are done. I didn’t even get any for fried tomatoes!
My friend said he was surprised they made it as long as they did. We have a fungus that took most things out this year. So, my garden is completely done now. Don’t know if we should try to do any winter crops, of just let it go, and get it ready for spring. I am thinking the later.
Have also talked to Mr G about expanding it for next year. I would like to do pole beans, and more tomatoes. I am thinking another 2 or 3 boxes should be good.
Here is the recipe for the zucchini appetizer that my son-in-law now serves in his restaurant in L.A. [Backstory: my daughter and I grew some giant zuccini in the garden and he took it to show the chef, who promptly created this recipe. The customers love it.]
1. Zucchini cut into julienne strips (ala large french fries)
2. Pat dry with paper towel to make sure there is no water on the strips
3. Dip in very well beaten/whipped egg yolk
4. Sift some flour until fine (or use old-fashioned cake flour, or cut your sifted flour with a touch of Bisquick)
Toss the flour with sea salt and oregano and a touch of rosemary
5. Dredge the egg-covered zucchini strips with the flour mixture
6. Deep fry very quickly in fresh, hot vegetable oil until golden on the outside but still firm on the inside; make sure not to let the zucchini go limp.
7.Serve immediately with extra course ground sea salt on the side
Daughter and I got the water bill for our beautiful garden and almost fell over. That’s the downside to growing veges in the desert; high water charges.
Oh well, the veges have been delicious!
We have three pumpkins coming along nicely and hopefully will be fun to carve as jack-o-lanterns.
We planted beets, broccoli, spinach, lettuces, chard, radishes, and a couple of others that I can’t remember, for our fall/winter garden. We have two or three nice acorn squash coming along.
Discovered an infestation of sow bugs in the rose garden so we are working on that. Planted flowers in the front garden for winter bloom, and next week will pull out the zinnias and plant the pansies and snap dragons for winter color.
Many years ago, my first spouse and I “posted” to Rochester right after we finished college. That one winter did us in and we moved to CA. Now, in the middle of all this traffic and cement I fondly remember autumn in Rochester and all the wonderful apples and veges available at farm stands in the country.
I dont know just how you are watering, if you are using a hose to spray your garden, I would suggest that you look into a drip irrigation system. Red Devil has a good setup on his homepage, along with links to some good video. Also, I use products from Berryhill Irrigation in N.C. It reduced my water bill to nearly nothing because there is no wasted water like hose watering.
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 teaspoons ketchup
2 tablespoons cream-style horseradish
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon dried oregano
Dash ground black pepper
Dash cayenne pepper
Berryhill irrigation:
http://www.berryhilldrip.com/index.htm
Thank you for the suggestion. I am definitely going to research that!
I put in a rather Rube Goldberg type soaker hose system with battery-operated timers, and I think I got carried away with how often and how long the water should come on.
How do I get to Red Devil’s homepage? Sorry, I’m still new to this. Thank you.
Scroll up to one of his post, like # 13 and click on his name at the bottom of his post. That will open his page.
As I remember( and memory is my weakest feature) soaker hoses pass a lot of water. A drip system is controled amounts. The Berryhill system that I use drip each outlet at 1/2 gal. per hour. Our entire system is on a timer that waters for 15 minutes twice per day. Also, Dripworks sells drip products too, but have not used them. Ive been with my Berryhill stuff for several years.
My husband thought this one was too funny, and drew the face on it. Tomato with a mohawk! 
And last but not least... me and my dog, Sodo: 
Do you use a fert injector with your system?
Originally, my wife liked to hand water with a hose sprayer. Well that became time consuming, and then when she saw that the water bill went crazy, she asked me to expand the drip system to include the new areas. Also, another plus, we can travel a bit without worrying about the flowers and veggies while we are gone.
I envy your ripened corn. I am not an experienced gardener, and the corn I planted this year did not grow, “as high as an elephant’s eye,” but only about 3 feet high with a couple of tiny cobs. What should I do when planting corn? I live in NW Florida where the soil is sandy.
No, I haven’t used an injector, but, I am going to expand my veggie gardening next year and am considering that option. We used a pellet type food that disperses when it gets wet, over a period of about 3 months. I am not sure that this is as good as the garden center claims it is, so we are looking at other options for next year.
FYI: I really appreciate this thread each week. It has inspired me to get more serious about gardening, I have learned a lot, and it enables me to hear what others are doing and to ask questions of other gardeners, and to see pictures of their gardens. Thanks
The winter here does take some getting used to but autumn is absolutely gorgeous. I never realized such beauty in changing seasons until I moved here and I think I’d miss it if I ever went back to CA.
Wife and I were talking the other night about taking a mini vaction into the northeast soon. When is a good time to see the beauty of the area?
vaction=vacation
A good time to see the fall colors around Rochester is between the 1st to 3rd week of October. Most of the leaves are done falling by Halloween.
Thanks, that is just perfect for us.
Yep! I enjoy posting this thread.
Forcast for Sunday-Tuesday up here at 8,500 ft in Colorado Rockies is SNOW! The forcast low is only 30F so I will cover as much of the beans, tomatos and squash as possible with plastic. I will pick beans as much as possible ahead of the freeze. I have one tomato turning color so I will pick on Saturday and finish ripening indoors. I got in four varieties of garlic to plant around mid October so I still have some gardening left this fall. The compost bin is working well and I will be expanding my planting area for next year. I have eggplant and a Cherokee Purple tomato I dug up and put in containers so I can bring indoors in cold weather. I have many south and west facing windows for winter sunlight. I may dig up some other tomatos too. Will this thread continue through winter?
Yes I plan to keep posting the thread through the winter. I expect the responses will slow down quite a bit. Maybe FReepers will post more recipes.
Thank you for doing it! :)
LOTS of gardening going on here, which is why I’ve been AWOL so much! I have planted and planted and planted and sowed and sowed and sowed and transplanted and transplanted until my fingers are about to fall off! Not a bad thing for a garden center, but I am still out of some plants and dangerously low on others.
Happy gardening! Check in later if I get time!
I have 2 heirloom tomatoe plants putting out blooms. They did squat this summer...guess it was too hot. They are huge. I’m waiting to see what happens now. Gardening is proving velly interesting.
SNOW?
Blecch!
Glad it’s you and not me! If I had my way and control of the thermostat, it would be 75 year round! LOL
What state are you planting these veggies in?
Welcome to the club,,,my spring/summer garden was a disaster, my corn dried on the pant, the okra is NOW coming on, my tomatoes, with the exception of 2 heirlooms did noting, OH, I did get 2 red tomatoes. It was HOT in central Texas.
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