Weekly Gardening Thread
Posted on 08/19/2011 5:01:37 AM PDT by Red_Devil 232
Weekly Gardening Thread
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The garden has yielded so little this summer I have been canning one quart jar of tomatoes at a time. What a hassle.
Same with the dill pickles but I must do it or my adult children will be disappointed. They even drink the pickle juice when all the goodies inside are gone!
My huge watermelon split on the vine - irregular watering and maybe too much on my part - still have 5 more growing though.
Lots of green bean blossoms so hoping for the best.
I will be putting in my fall broccoli this afternoon.
Still and all it has been fun - my flower beds are still producing bounteous lettuces - I share a lot with my chickens. :)
NEW ZEALAND SPINACH!!!!!!
Try it, try it, try it!
If I water it, it grows even faster.
If I don’t water it, it still grows!
Took a while to really get going here near Seattle, but should grow in all continental US regions no problem.
We actually got 1-1/2 inches of rain last week. It was absolutely amazing what that did for my garden. It had been watering heavily, but I think it was the cooler temps and the humidity.
It was too late for some of my young trees, but the okra and squash in my garden really got a boost.
At our farm we got 1.9 inches of rain and that was a real blessing.
I Thank God for the rain.
The 105+ temps are back and I have had to be careful about watering frequently again.
Good Morning. Plenty of zucchini and tomatoes. I cannot seem to catch the zukes before they are giant, but I’ve managed to find homes for them all. I harvested one watermelon, but I haven’t tasted it yet. I also have lots of cucumbers, but after the first bitter one I’m afraid to taste them. They may all be a loss.
Good morning, Red Devil and all my gardening FReepers! We are still getting some nice tomatoes but I am wondering how long it will last! There is a certain “Fall smell” in the air in the morning. I am beginning to wonder if Fall won’t be early this year?!
I have gotten a ton of compliments and two neighbors have stopped their cars to ask about the lilies in my front yard. I guess a lot of people have never seen “Fairy lilies” or as some call them... “Resurrection Lilies”. Either name is fine with me and the kids seems to love them. I guess they are sort of magical in their own way!
Over cuked here! LOL! It’s going to be pickle city here this weekend... More rain last night with more on the way here in northern mid West. The tomato leaves are getting a bit yellow in the lower end rows, but the rest of the garden doing great.
“... after the first bitter one, I’m afraid to taste them”.
My Mom used an old trick on large eggplant that was bitter. She would peel them, slice them and load salt on them. You leave it like that for a good twenty to thirty minutes. The salt “draws” out the bitterness. She would then rinse them very well and make whatever dish she had planned. I am thinking perhaps you could try this on the cucumbers (if you are planning on using them for salads etc). The crazy thing is if you taste the liquid that is expelled by the salt.. you taste pure bitterness. Just a thought!
My lower tomato leaves are also yellowing. Is that bad? I find that the yellowing leaves allow me to find the tomato tags to identify the varieties.
I'll have plenty of seeds so if anyone wants to start their own crop next season send me a PM
I’m going to try that. Everybody else says that there is nothing you can do.
Good morning. Lovely day in eastern Virginia, although we do have air quality warnings out. There is a huge wildfire in the Great Dismal Swamp, which straddles the VA/NC border. Even 150 miles (or so ) north of it, we are aware of the smoke.
There’s no crime in trying (LOL!). I find it a shame after all the hard work that you can’t enjoy the “fruit” of your labor. Be very liberal with the salt... really put it on and see if the bitter juice doesn’t expel itself. I am keeping my fingers crossed for you!
We had some soaking rain this week and the garden is beginning to tail off. Next year, we will be more prepared.
We had our strangely-shaped lot surveyed a few weeks ago and our neighbors to the north are interested in a swap to take the 33' strip across their back lot line in exchange for an equal area between us. That would give us a nice stretch for new fruit trees and a large asparagus bed. Hopefully, we can make it happen.
All my herbs are flourishing.
I harvest a few at a time and dry them on the kitchen counter. I have lots of old bottles for them when they are ready.
I have
parsley
sage
rosemary
thyme
chives
Thai Basil
Sweet Italian basil
cilantro.
In the spring I expect the mangoes, bananas, avocados, oranges, limes, lemons, figs, and muscadat grapes.
All on a postage stamp of land. LOL!
my tomatoes are starting to ripen in larger numbers...picked 7 last night before work...:)
They look beautiful. What are you going to do with them?
Those yellow leaves are from too much water! I need to build that area of the garden up a foot or so for the next years crop. That row of maters are the beefsteak, yellow lower leaves or not, they are LOADED with fruit!
Some of them get put in sandwich bags and frozen until we want some chopped pepper but most will be dried out then crushed into a powder with a mortar and pestle. We store the powder in little jars (we keep sample jars we find during the year, clean them out and take off the labels) then use the powder in anything we want to spice up. We do this with Ghost Chiles, Habaneros and Tabasco Peppers. When I have an abundant supply and am feeling frisky I'll do something wild like throw a few peppers into a bottle of Vodka and let it sit for a few months (gives a whole new twist on a flaming shot) or pickle them with cloves of garlic and cherry tomatoes.
My next project is to try and find some Datil Pepper seeds so if anyone in Florida grows them and would like to donate or trade send me a PM
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