Weekly Garden Thread - July 8-14, 2023 [The Rich History of Basil Edition]

July 8, 2023 | Diana in WI/Greeneyes in Memoriam

[Qiviut]

Here is a decent list of veggies deer eat & don’t eat. It’s not totally accurate - I have had them reach over a fence & munch the tops out of tomato plants & they ate on your tomatoes too. They haven’t eaten my basil (yet) but it’s in my herb garden in the middle of a lot of stuff they don’t like - actually, they’ve never eaten my basil in years past. They like radish tops a lot so I put a wire screen over the radishes & that keeps the deer off of them. I am a little surprised they haven’t chewed on some exposed spaghetti squash that grew outside of my fencing, especially when the squash were smaller.

I am growing dahlias this year & have them inside my garden fence - deer do eat them although they are not a favorite. I have never had them eat zinnias or marigolds. which I typically grow outside the fencing.

Deer Resistant Vegetables
https://wirelessdeerfence.com/deer-resistant-vegetables/

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Thanks, Pete!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Everything is so pretty! I love ‘Kelvin’ for his size and his silly name. ;)

Glad you’re enjoying the Canary Zinnia. They are the perfect yellow. The bees liked mine last season, too.

I just have some small yellow Dahlia blooming now - I wanted to really deep mahogany - and, of course, only ONE Of those germinated and is totally lagging behind.

But, you’ll get what you get and you’ll like it, LOL!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Looks like someone got his summer haircut! So cute. Your lilies are fantastic. :)

[Bon of Babble]

Thanks, Pete!

It’s amazing what I have rescued off of the dead table at Lowe’s - and Home Depot, where the lilies came from.

[CatDancer]

How neat, thank you! I just made my first pesto of the season today, finally had enough leaves on my plants that I hadn’t robbed for Italian dishes for a cup of packed ones. That’s my recipe, except I add parsley and use walnuts instead of pine nuts. Like them better. And cheaper.

[SisterK]

basil is my most favorite herb
cannot have summer without it

[SisterK]

in the winter, when I do not have fresh basil, I make pesto with parsley
I call it parsto

[Liz]

Yummy.....kale pesto.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Thanks! I will remember to do that.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I’ve learned that you can make a ‘pesto’ out of lots of different ingredients. However, I think it’s mainly the Parmesan Cheese that does it for me, LOL!

12 Pesto Recipes to Perk Up Any Dish - Add a Little Pesto to Your Life:

https://www.thespruceeats.com/pesto-recipes-5209234

Classic
Sun-Dried Tomato
Garlic Scape
Artichoke & Walnut
Mint
Nut-Free
Basil & Sunflower Seed
Ramp Pesto
Kale Pesto
Pumpkin Seed Pesto
Spinach & Cashew
Lemon-Dill Pesto

That Spinach & Cashew Pesto appeals to me! :)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I agree on the Walnuts vs. Pine Nuts for flavor, though I did find two packages of them (4 oz. total, 1/2 Cup) marked down at the grocery store, so I grabbed them. They’re usually ridiculously expensive!

[Pollard]

Spent a few hours yesterday sitting in and working on the garden. I should have pulled my three almost ripe tomatoes off the vines Fri when I got home because two of them have split from a bunch of rain we got Fri and Fri night.

They’re the Red Deuce I got from the Amish and it’s turned into quite the experiment. They’re determinate. All had flowers when I got them but were short plants and not really big enough to be producing.

This one plant I pulled the nearly ripe tomatoes off of has no more flowers or maters. It’s still short and kind of yellow. I think it’s done.

One plant I pulled the flowers off of right off the bat is now the biggest of the three, nice dark green, has 12 maters and at least a dozen flowers. I’ll probably get 25+ maters from it.

The third plant I pulled three maters off when they were mid sized and green. It grew and got nice color, made more flowers and has half a dozen baby maters and will probably give me 10 maters. It’s not near as big as the one I pulled flowers off of early.

Lesson learned; let those determinate mater plants get big before letting them make maters. I do plan on growing paste tomatoes at some point and those are pretty much all determinate and imho, determinate are preferred for paste maters.

One of my Chadwick Cherry vines is a good 8 foot long and has plenty of clusters. Another is right behind it and a couple of Tappy’s Heritage are also doing really good. Chadwick and Tappy’s is all I started from seed this year. Not too much though because I like my disease free nightshades.

I bought four tomato plants from Lowes that were on sale 4 for $12. Regular price for 4 inch pots was $7.99 and what they put on sale were small plants people passed over. They all took off pretty well.

One is a Black Cherry which I tried to grow from seed several years ago but didn’t have heat mats or grow lights so they didn’t do well. Maters are forming and I’m excited to be able to finally taste a Black Cherry.

Another one is a Cherokee Purple so likewise, excited to try.

One is Early Girl but definitely won’t be early. Just now getting a few flowers.

The fourth one, the plant marker seems to have disappeared and for the life of me, I don’t remember what it is so those will be a surprise. I’m thinking yellow maters. Hopefully Sungold.

Gave my neighbor one of the Red Deuce and two plants I started from seed, plus he bought some. He’s just about managed to kill most of them off and the rest aren’t doing well in his bare soil that’s never been amended. He relies on chemical powders and sprays and evidently his math was off when he mixed something this year. Most of his garden looks like he sprayed them with RoundUp or something. Luckily he didn’t put anything on the Chadwick and Tappy’s I gave him.

Couple of pole type beans are doing decent but the rest are tiny. I don’t think they like my 5-5.5 pH soil. The Dragon’s Tongue are the ones doing decent and have a few purple flowers.

Shisito plants look better than the ones I grew last year. Did them in a raised bed with store bought organic raised bed soil. Got some peppers that are almost ready to pick and more on the way. Hopefully I’ll get a lot because that soil was $45. I was thinking it was $7/bag or something but it was $11 and I got four of them.

We went from drought to having thunderstorms and heavy rain. Can’t wait to get under plastic. I had a lot of split maters last year from the same weather pattern. Definitely going to lime the big garden and high tunnel area.

[Pollard]

The little artsy, eclectic, touristy city near me is really bustling this year. Way more than pre-covid times. There are a couple of new places open for eating/drinking and one has live music. Guy with a big grill making plates up and doing a good amount of business. A road side stand selling watermelons and doing a good amount of business.

A lot of city people have bought land out here to spend their weekends at and probably as a shtf retreat. A few existing owners spent a lot of time here during covid because St Louis was locked down as far as restaurants and any other public venues for weekend enjoyment.

I still have my dream of selling surplus heirloom organically grown veggies and I think this little city is about viable for that. The only other option is a couple of Farmer’s Markets in a college town 50 miles away. I’d rather set my own schedule, pull into a parking lot and open up a Elliot Coleman style trailer.

[Augie]

It’s been unseasonably cool this past week here in Central Missouri. Couple sprinkles of rain but not enough to stop the watering.

I dug up three of the Yukon Gold spud plants yesterday and oh my goodness was I ever surprised - got close to ten pounds of really nice taters. These rarely get bigger than a baseball in my garden but this time they turned out some whoppers. If the rest of them yield similarly I’m going to be set for taters for a good while.

I noticed yesterday I’ve got slicing tomatoes almost ready to pick. Mrs. Augie picked a few cucumbers yesterday. Spaghetti squash are loaded with little 3” squashes. Cantaloupes are vining and starting to set fruit. Filled a two gallon bucket yesterday with the thinnings from one carrot bed. Sweet bell pepper plants are loaded with fruit. There’s one broccoli that’s going to get picked tomorrow morning and eaten for lunch not long after.

I’ve been having trouble with the watering bags on the chestnut trees not wanting to stay standing so yesterday I added another 5’ fiberglass tree stake to each grow tube. Hopefully that will be adequate support to prevent them tipping over and injuring the trees. Several of them are peeking out the top of the tube so it’s probably time to build proper cages for them. If I don’t cage them the dang deer will eat every leaf that they can reach.

But we’ve got a family reunion in town today that’s going to keep me from getting much done in the garden. I’ve got three slabs of baby back ribs cooking in the smoker now for my contribution to the pot luck, and Mrs. Augie is making another rhubarb/blackberry pie to share. Should be a good time seeing the weirdo side of the family. lol

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Yep. One of the hardest gardening chores is to pull those blooms off of not-big-enough tomato and pepper plants! Been there, done that many times.

I’m growing a good share of Determinate tomatoes this season...I go back and forth. I HAVE to have my ‘Chef’s Choice’ colorful tomatoes, though those plants turn into monsters by the end of the season - you need a machete to get in that row, LOL!

This upcoming week my tomatoes and peppers are getting a top dressing of bone meal, and their usual fertilization. Having that fresh compost tilled in is making a huge difference in QUALITY this season. I may do that every 2 years now, versus waiting 3 years. I find with the raised beds and all the straw mulch, my soil quality really keeps from year to year.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Check with the restaurants you mentioned - chefs are always looking for ‘fresh and local’ veggies.

We did a decent business in that when I worked for my in-laws and grew for market and for restaurants. Raspberries were our biggest seller.

It’s really quite satisfying. Herbs are easy and quick to grow, as are salad greens - and you could probably grow those under cover most of the winter down by you.

I did a quick search:

https://sweetfernorganics.com/top-30-profitable-crops/

https://hortzone.com/blog/high-value-vegetables/

https://grocycle.com/starting-a-market-garden/

Oh, no! I’m getting the ITCH again, LOL!

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Augie;

Potatoes, Good deal! Yukon gold is a good potato.

I Don't have much room so I grew potatoes in bags and buckets this year I need to see what I have in the ones whose foliage is dying back! (I tried "from seed" ...Clancy, and German Butterball seed potatoes and some unknown red potato from the store that started to root out.)

I had a lot of green tomatoes. As soon as we dropped back below 85 F (unseasonably cool!) they started produce lutein and began to color up and ripen. While it is "summer cool" I am also going around to the tomatoes and hand pollinating...shaking and brushing flowers and hoping they set fruit higher up on the plant before the real heat sets in. (Most of the crop is lower

Picture today of some of the harvested tomatoes: (Already ate the Black Krim and Annanas Noire!)

Chef's Choice Orange (center) Thorburns Terra Cotta (bottom five) Jaune Flame (upper left) and red tomatoes "42" (upper right)

The Annanas Noire ( Black Pineapple...no black that I can see and not pictured above) had an actual sugar taste. It was very low acid. (at least the ones grown in my garden!) A recommendation for future fresh eating tomato!

The Tomato "42" is a determinate early tomato that is already about finished for the year. Not a spectacular tomato, but definitely early. I will probably pick the remaining tomatoes and let them ripen inside. I have a volunteer tomato growing where I grew some Picus tomatoes last year and will move it to that spot next to the heat tolerant Homestead tomatoes.

Sorry about your cabbage and the loopers! (Caitlin?) Wonder if they could be grown under cover? Something like this might not be too expensive. (It might not be too late for a fall cabbage crop?)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09TDM1Z81?tag=bravesoftwa04-20&linkCode=osi&th=1&language=en_US

I have this type of covering, but this is pre cut and will work well on my rows . (Cucumbers...beit alpha type that do not need to be uncovered for insects to pollinate them to set fruit!)

Have a great day at your reunion!

[Pollard]

From your first link, We’re not going to let a little issue like having no customers stop us from starting a market farm. No siree!

Restaurants would be easier and less laborious and I'm not exactly a social butterfly. Would be more stress in growing and delivering consistently though.

Raspberries? Interesting. Would grow good here in the acid soil where wild blueberries and blackberries grow. Lot of grape growers up near where I work but they all grow for the wineries up there or are also a winery.

I tend to forget about small fruits because I rarely buy them because they're so expensive. Hmm, $20lb, for berries or filet mignon?

There's a pretty good ole farming book called Ten Acres Enough by Edmund Morris.(1864) -- A practical experience, showing how a very small farm may be made to keep a very large family https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/48753

Starts with little money, small acres and grows many things but specializes in bush fruits. Gathers leaves from everywhere they can to amend the soil and mulch with.

I say I tend to forget about them but I have thought more than a few times about what part of the property I would like to grow some on. Can't help think of it when you see them growing wild all around. I used to subsist off of blueberries when I was a kid spending my days in the woods in MA. Mostly the little ones but there was one place with tall plants and dime sized berries. Kind of a knoll so I called it Blueberry Hill.

No liming them. Fruit trees too. Goats would have to go. Not enough land to do everything I'd like to do.

I'm surrounded by a gazillion pounds of meat anyway, cattle. The ideal thing to do would be barter fruits and veggies for beef.

I watch a lot of market gardener videos, mostly no-till, which keeps me in the itch. How can ya not love this?

I lost an acre of land a couple of years ago. Was 8 acres but someone bought the property next to me and had it surveyed. According to the new survey, the survey from the 80s had the back line off by 40 foot. That back line is 1,100 foot long for me. 40 x 1,100 is 44,000 sq ft, just over an acre. It's the junkier side, slanted and loaded with rocks/boulders.

Of the 7 acres that remain, about half is flatish with good top soil and about 2 acres of it rock free. I could put a terrace or two on the South end where it drops to hill. Would make harvesting berries a lot easier on the back and that's where the wild blueberries grew before goats. Do a swale above that for fruit trees and to prevent the top terrace from being waterlogged from rain runoff. Let the swale run off the ends where the heavy rain event wet weather creeks are already.

Above that, row crops and high tunnels. Above that, the house and outbuildings. Most of the flat area will have a view of this ridge in the background once I clear enough trees. My truck is sitting in front of driveway and my flatish area goes from there down on the left side of the road and property ends about half way down the hill.

Little Bitty Acres

[Pollard]

I bought a pickup truck load of compost to use as mulch and replaced my seed tick infested lawn/leaf clippings mulch with it. So much nicer in their. Kind of a wasteful way to use compost but it’s so nice. Comfy to plop right down on the ground and brushes right off your clothes, unlike dirt. Keeps the UV rays and sun’s heat off the drip lines. Once the maters are done this year, I’ll gather it up and bring it down to the high tunnel area and till it in. Might not be much for nutrients but will improve tilth and I can scrape out the shop/barn and add the goat manure to the compost.

I finally found a place closer to me to get compost by the yard. They probably get it from St Louis Compost and just resell it but that works for me. It’s only a few dollars more and it’s 25-30 miles away instead of 65 miles. It’s also on the way back from Lowes, ALDI, a big Walmart and other shopping.

I’ll have to pull back the compost mulch and throw some bone meal down. Also got some egg shells I should make into water soluble calcium. What NPK fertilizer is good for fruit production time?