Posted on 07/04/2014 12:43:46 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. 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'm fairly sure I'll survive.
I'm thinking seriously about resting up for a nap later.
/johnny
I took a nap earlier. Naps are always good. :)
Keep us updated!
Wow! Beautiful!
I will! Thanks, miss marmelstein.
You’re a farmer! Well! Those are absolutely gorgeous photos. My eggplants and peppers are just pathetic.
Thanks! I manage to find time to put in a garden about every 2nd or 3rd year. I was determined to get one in this year. As retirement nears I may get the chance to do it more often.
I hope to see more pictures of your garden as the season continues!
You make me sooooooooooo jealous! I did get 20 strawberries this year.
Anyone have advice about strawberry runners? I have them running amok. I don’t know which ones to pull out and which ones to keep.
Zone 7 (I think) here in East Tennessee.
It’s been a while since we grew strawberries, but if I recall correctly, I think that the key thing is to keep a little bit of distance between the plants. We had them planted on a little hillside that sloped down to the street. They did well there. The runners can be transplanted. (this was back in our old house, prior to our move here in 10/2002).
I finally got a section of my shade cloth up over my tomato garden last week. My wife was on vacation and was a very big help. I have two other sections of 6’X 15’ to put up. I can tell it helps with the temps and the searing sun during the afternoons. I just hope it survives any windy T-Storms that brew up the rest of this summer.
The temps here in East Central Mississippi have been wonderful today, 64 early morning and 85 as a high, so far, this afternoon with very clear blue skies.
Seems like my San Marzano’s are going to be my best producers this year. I wish I had planted 10 or more of them!
I hope y’all have had a great Fourth. Nothing special happening for us this year just relaxing and enjoying the beautiful weather.
We had one San Marzano tomato plant. It developed a disease and we had to dispose of it. Oy.
C’est la vie. Ya never know how life will go. Catch some of that rain if you can to use another day.
I did strawberries once. I decided to go with the black plastic approach to cut down on (some but not all of) the weeding. The problem with that was, when you get runners, you have to cut new holes in the plastic to root them. Each new hole also managed to be a springboard for new weeds.
After that adventure I decided that I prefer going to the grocery store for strawberries. I may try them again next year, but only in small numbers.
Hmmm...the upside for me is that this year I found little sweet strawberries under my rose bushes. So, how can I give them up? If the leaves were attractive I wouldn’t mind but they are ugly and deeply invasive. Now that strawberry season is over and the heat is oncoming, they are going nuts.
Have had to pay for help, can do a little, still hacking through the mess from letting everything go from last year.
Here are my Bristol black raspberries I grew from wintersowing some seed. It is a real briar patch, very thick so weeds can't get thru (yet), need to prune out some old canes. Fruit on second year canes.
I sorted, washed and put a little sugar and got two small bags to freeze, about a quart total. Am planning to make a black raspberry meringue pie I found a recipe for on the net (you cook, strain out the seeds, make a curd like lemon meringue pie). The recipe calls for more lemon juice than I want in it so I'll just use a little and dilute with water. The raspberries should be robust enough in flavor, always got tasty pies if I had quality ones to work with.
I so wish I had the strength to grow more but with no help except paid, just can't do it.
I ate my first tomato of the season this week. It was a Cherokee Purple. There is a long time span between good tomatoes. I will be having an Azoychka and a Coustralee today.
Glad to hear it. We have only had 3 1/2 cukes. The first one was a little one kinda misshapen, so I count it as a half. Then we had a big one that was hidden, so it was too big, but ok for cukes and onion fresh pickles. The next one was just right, and then we another kinda big one.
I wound up using one of those big klauson pickle containers, put in a lot of onion and red onion and pickling mixture. I let the mixture cool down so that the veggies wouldn’t wilt. Already almost half gone.
I am hoping for some zukes! Last year’s discovery was a sweet and spicy zuke pickle that I like better than cukes. It was more cruncy than any pickles I have ever made. I made them in spears, and shaved all the middle mushy seed area off and left the rind on. Thanks for the encouragement.
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.