Weekly Garden Thread - September 7th-15th, 2019

September 7, 2019 | Diana in Wisconsin/Greeneyes

[Diana in Wisconsin]

So YOU’RE the one we can blame it all on? LOL!

[daniel1212]

We joke about getting a cow. In a city of about 20,000 per sq. mile.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Garden Bounty. 9-7-19. Due to this wacky weather season, there is still SO MUCH MORE out there to harvest! This is going to be a good year for Fried Green Tomatoes, Green Tomato Pie and Chutney.)

"Just when I thought I was OUT, they pull me back IN!"~ Michael Corleone (The Godfather)

The bottom of that lovely basket is full of Roma tomatoes that went into the Dehydrator, today. Bella Rosa and Chef's Orange tomatoes on the left, the green peppers are your basic California Wonder and the reddish peppers are Margaret's. Solid performers, all!

And here is my disaster of a Greenhouse. Please feel free to SHAMING ME into cleaning it out and getting ready to move plant material in to see how long I can keep it thriving. (It is unheated.) Mom has been dumping off so much stuff on me as she cleans out her shed and garage to get ready for Condo Living. Also, PUPPIES have been doing some scattering and chewing in here. I blame myself. Bad Dog Mom! Bad, Bad! ;)

[SaveFerris]

I used to have 2 SUV’s!! And 2 Jeeps!

I also rebuilt a couple of V-8’s!!

When they ask “paper or plastic” I say “Let’s get rid of a tree”. LOL

Others are saving them, some of us have to keep the circle of tree life going!

[SaveFerris]

Puppies are a gift from God.

I’m convinced!

(well, the mess....)

[daniel1212]

Ralph Waldo Emerson: “There are only 10 minutes in the life of a pear when it is perfect to eat.”

Years ago while working out of a van on a missions trip around Fort Lauderdale FL., we saw a lot of large grapefruit just laying on the ground under the tree near we were parked, looking as if they had been sitting there for some time, and so we asked the owner about them, and she said top take what you want. We thanked here and picked a few, but which were so soft that we thought they were overripe.

However, instead they were really juicy (pink), sweet thin-skinned and not at all decaying! Being from MA where you do not grow them, and the grapefruit were thick-skinned and rather bitter, these were a welcome difference.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

They breed pretty Mini-Jersey cows! Not much bigger than a Great Dane:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJoBvQgHvO4

[daniel1212]

They breed pretty Mini-Jersey cows! Not much bigger than a Great Dane:

Well, for health reasons cities around here do not allow such.

[Black Agnes]

Your posts always make me hungry.

[SaveFerris]

I’m in Zone 6 - do I still have time to plant lettuce and/or spinach? I’ve got a little room in one garden. Thanks.

[Califreak]

I had some cucumber plants that I planted in a rusty garlic bec and most of them died from the wilt.

Three out of a dozen survived and the plants are gorgeous they just wilt in hot weather but they’ve been there for three months and there’s flowers but no sign at all of fruit so I think I’m going to cut my losses and plant some kind of fall thingie like spinach or collards and see what happens.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Yes, you do! Lettuces, spinach, (baby) chard, (baby) kale, you could probably squeak out some snap peas?

Count back from your first hard freeze date (Mine is usually 10/15 in Zone 4/5) and plant accordingly.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

[Sacajaweau]

Yes....Lettuce, spinach and radishes are still a go.

I planted Buttercrunch lettuce...not for the head...just for the outer leaves as it progresses.

[MomwithHope]

Hi Brother! Paper bags are great, especially for homemade popcorn.

[MomwithHope]

That doesn’t look bad! Are you going to start some lettuce pots in there?

[MomwithHope]

“awe” is so right. One of the reasons I like to water by hand.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Yep. Potted up some lettuces, today. Moved a potted Dahlia in there, and in the near future I’m going to dig up a few peppers and those beautiful ‘Christmas Basil’ plants to see how long I can keep them going into the Fall. I have two potted Rosemary plants and another that I’m going to dig up. Of all the herbs, I use Rosemary the most - and I like it fresh, not dried, so I try to keep at least one plant going through the winter, under lights, indoors.

In all honesty, I get kind of burned out on gardening after all the canning/freezing/dehydrating is close to being done. ;)

Mainly I wanted the greenhouse to give me a jump on the Spring season and to speed along all of the plants I start from seed. It’s unheated, so it gives me a small window on either end of my 4/5 season to play with. By mid to late May it’s too bloody HOT in there already to keep anything but Cactus in there all Summer.

I made a little dent in cleaning it out, today. Yay, Me!

[MomwithHope]

Jugs full of water will hold the heat in during the cool nights. I have a friend who has a greenhouse and it made a big difference for her. Her greenhouse is full of orchids - in Michigan.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Tested our new Dehydrator this week, the Presto Dehydro. (Electric, Fan, Temp Control such LUXURY!) We bought one for my BFF's Daughters wedding shower and I liked it so much, I upgraded ours from the old one we had. I have done six trays of thickly (3/4") sliced Roma tomatoes in her, 2x over this week. They took about 14 hours total at 125 degrees. I re-arranged the tomatoes (and took out the 'done' ones) two times during the process. It has a fan and that makes it kind of NOISY, so I set it up in the laundry room to do its thing. Clean up is easy, too, but you need a scrub brush of some kind to get into all of the spaces. 🍅🍅🍅 VERY happy with my purchase (under $70) and I can use it for making Jerky, too.