Posted on 08/26/2016 3:57:46 PM PDT by greeneyes
The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. This thread is non-political, although you will find that most here are conservative folks.
No matter what, you won’t be flamed and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack the Weekly Gardening Thread. Planting, Harvest to Table(recipes)preserving, good living - there is no telling where it will go and... that is part of the fun and interest. Jump in and join us!
NOTE: This is a once a week ping list. We do post to the thread during the week. Links to related articles and discussions which might be of interest are welcomed, so feel free to post them at any time.
I probably have 54 green pepper plants WAY too close to one another. And another 54 or so growing off organic seeds. Weather could easily hold for late October or November harvest.
Midwest finally got to mid-80’s and peppers are beginning to sprout. Got a free Basil plant at the grocery store to replace another (they upgraded me no charge to a potted one which was very nice - Sprout’s). Already dried another harvest of Sweet Basil and the new Basil plant. Crushed and put into shakers.
Tomatoes looking good - about 17-21 growing out there — several good sized. Sweet Snacking Pepper has a few - 2 good-sized and a baby.
Carrots are going to be JAM-PACKED - too many seeds - well we’ll see in about 8 weeks what I got - at least I split them between 2 pretty large and deep pots.
Even my Better Boy has finally, finally, FINALLY started to put out 1 tomato -— he does not like the heat to produce. The plant is strong - heat-resistant there, at least.
I love gravenstein apples, but cannot find them in Texas. My uncle had a couple of trees, they were sooo good.
We had a mostly rain-free week here in Central Missouri. First one in quite awhile. I can actually see the bottom of my pond. If it stays dry for another week I’ll be able to get in there and remove some dirt.
The broccoli that I seeded last weekend is starting to come up. This is the first time I’ve tried it as a fall crop. Hopefully I planted in time to get a crop. I used two varieties that mature around 60 days, and two that mature around 90 days. So we will see.
After work yesterday I tore down the trellis mesh the cukes were growing on. I’ll get that all cleaned up and pull the posts later today. The broccoli, when it’s big enough to transplant, is going in where the cukes were growing. The Roma tomatoes are pretty much done. Hope to get some of those pulled and hauled off this weekend. Nephew and I cleaned up a bushel or so of them yesterday to make one last batch of tomato sauce and juice.
Mrs. Augie picked the first batch of okra yesterday and we fried some of that up to go with our BLTs for supper. I need to harvest basil and hang it up to dry for later use. Butternut squash is getting close to ready. Green beans are going nuts. Second planting sweet corn is starting to tassel.
Grass needs to be mowed again. Ugh...
HELP, my strawberry plants are under attack by mushrooms or toad stools coming up and killing off my plants! We’ve had to much rain. Even the grass is seeing them.
Moles killed off my 300 plant in ground bed last year, so this is a new one in big plastic swimming pools on tables off the ground. Can’t put down poison for the moles as our dogs have free run of the back yard. This year they’ve gone back to the farm field behind us.
We’ve harvested only one tomato to date. It’s been too cold here at night.
Nice pics!
Beautiful!
Excellent!
I have a question for the avid gardeners. Has anyone seen a worm like the ones in this story about a McDonald’s in Kentucky? Two different customers claimed to find worms in their burgers, at two different McDonald’s restaurants.
Here’s one of the threads. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3463542/posts?page=21 .
Here’s a link to a local story about it, with pictures and video. http://www.wpsdlocal6.com/story/32844922/worms-found-in-burgers-at-two-local-mcdonalds .
There are countless FReepers claiming this is a hoax, because the worms could not have survived being frozen and then cooked. I don’t think anyone claimed they were cooked inside the meat. Only that they fell out of the sandwiches.
Have any of you gardeners seen a worm like this on your lettuce? What are the chances of these worms being in the lettuce, and winding up on the burger?
WEEKLY COOKING THREAD by Jamestown1630
Initial subject: Squash (also includes discussion on garlic, salt and iodine throughout)
Post #1
Summer Squash with Feta Cheese
Fried Zucchini Blossoms
Mustard Sauce for Steamed Zucchini (Low Fat, but you can add butter :-)
Post #9
Roasted Eggplant with Tahini Dressing
Post #13
A Bounty of Summer Squash (c/o NY times)
Post #15
butternut squast with goat cheese (c/o food network)
Post #22
Trillian’s Zucchini and Potato soup
Post #24
STUFFED ZUCCHINI
Post #30
lizma2 Homeade Fish Tartar sause
Post #32
Grilled Straight Neck Squash
Poat #47
Sauteed Zucchini with mint, basil and walnuts
Post #53
fried “Round Zucchini” (3 inch at least)
Post #59
‘refrigerator’ type pickled garlic
Post#63
Miso-pickled garlic
post #64
Japanese Garlic Salad..with tangerine slices
Post#67
Easy Dinner (6 Various) Recipies on youbure videos
Post #69
Savory Zucchini Ricotta Cheesecake
Just trying to present useful ideas for gardeners that are already here at FreeRepublic.
Also, some thought provoking ideas for innovative ways to use your garden produce...
This is our first year growing San Marzanos. Just love them, low acid lots of flavor and not too many seeds or water. We’re getting a lot. Oven dried a cookie sheet full the other day. Cut them in half, scooped out what little seed there was, rubbed with olive oil and dried Italian mix spices. I have a dehydrator but didn’t feel like dragging it out or cleaning it afterwards. Put them in the oven at 200 for several hours, flipped them once. Let cool in the fridge overnight. Had some with chunk of fresh mozzarella, they were positively sweet. Years ago I got half a bushel from a friend and dried many this way. Some I put in vacuum bags with my foodsaver and froze. They were great out of the freezer. Used to bake a flat round bread covered with chunks of the tomatoes, sautéed peppers I had frozen too, and some parmesan cheese. Yummy focaccia type bread.
There are two possible answers to the worm issue.
They may have come in on the baggged, unwashed lettuce from the grower, or they came in from outside storage of the buns where they landed on the plastic bags in a rack.
Typically, fresh buns are delivered in early AM, stored outside in plasitc bags in a plastic rack near the back door ,until the store opens later in the morning.
At least one of the worms looks like an "inch worm" which is transported by the wind on a silken thread; the thread is thin and small, similar to a spider web thread.
While they can travel many miles on this thread, I would look to see which plants are surrounding the parking lot as the likely culprit. A careless prep cook might have just brought them into the store via the stored buns bags; you don't sell billions of burgers by being meticulous, especially at lunch time.
Seeds, in the wild, NEED ‘scarification; which IS that series of freezing and thawing that breaks down the outer, tough membrane and allows the seeds to germinate come spring. (Think: Poppy Seed, Morning Glory, Cone Flower, or any other self-seeding flower of the field.) Food crops that are perennials are generally, ‘root’ crops - Asparagus, Rhubarb, Raspberries, Jerusalem Artichoke, etc.) and don’t reproduce via seed, anyway.
Veggie seeds that are Annuals, versus Perennials, which are the majority of food crops we gardeners grow, aren’t built that way. They need to stay ‘whole’ until it’s time to germinate under warm, sunny conditions once we make another trip around the Sun and it’s Springtime, again. :)
However, I have no explanation for, ‘volunteer’ lettuce seed and tomato seed that show up just about anywhere they want to when I haven’t cleaned up my garden in the Fall. ;)
And I planted ONE Borage plant about 25 years ago - and I STILL have Borage all over the place, unless it’s pulled. The bees like it, though, so it can stay. :)
“Tomatoes and squash are both notorious for that.”
I’ve grown a lot of usable potatoes in the compost pile, too. You’d think nothing good would come of mushy or sprouting taters, but if they had their way, they would be our new Overlords.
Well, behind Overlord Zucchini, of course, LOL!
The tomato seeds were supposed to produce patio sized plants. Only 2 1/2 feet tall. The seeds must not have gotten the message because they have grown of almost 6 feet! They keep falling over in the too small planter. Many branches have broken and I think I’m done with those two plants. I still have three tomato plants which are of the size stated on the seed packet. They are loaded with green fruit of various sizes and I’m still hoping for red tomatoes before the growing season is over. That will be when it gets cold enough for frost. All the herbs are doing well, the caladiums have been outstanding and the other flowers have bloomed well. Roses are flowering again. I’m very happy how things have turned out this summer.
First, I will say - too much wine, and now I type.
I'm just now (in my life) attempting to play around with seeds, mostly to see how the hydroponic setup works rather than actually growing something. One day I see the only thing sprouting is garlic in the fridge, and doing so with a vengeance in a short time, so I broke up the garlic sections and stuck them into the 5.5 acid dirt. I have 6 or 8 sprouts (I forget how many) blasting to the sky. Every day that I go out to feed the feral barn cats, the garlic must be .5" taller than the day before. Exciting!
All were planted at the same time. The other two double-bucket systems are doing (almost) nothing. One with Hollyhock seeds (weeks gone by, no sprout), and the other with carrot seeds (weeks gone by, finally on 8-28-16 tiny little hair-like sprouts! Are those carrots?) Poor timing, bad seeds,...? Anyway, the fridge garlic is growing quite well; I will watch those tiny little (carrot?) hair-like sprouts with great interest. With clean dirt, they can only be the carrot seeds I planted weeks ago. Whatever they are, it's Something!
I read about 'bolting' with garlic and onions - what does this mean?
My elevation is around 6000' in zone 5a (?) a tiny little unreadable finger of narrowness in NM zone map just 12 miles east of ABQ, so small I can't see my own self on the map.
Regardless of what 'bolt' means, I am enjoying the sight of growth of new leaves each day taller! If it grows garlic one day, is it good to put into spaghetti? ;-)
I love the pictures of your gardens!
I used to plant wave petunias every year. I became disappointed in them and tried begonias a few years ago. Now that’s all I put in for annuals in my flower boxes and down at the barn. Lots of mass color. The hummingbirds are all over them right now.
This is the thread for gardening questions.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.