Posted on 05/25/2018 7:09:34 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.
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Wow, your strawbs look great! My kids each have three pots of strawberry plants on the patio. Separate pots because so many fights last year over them. They’ve been producing a berry or so a day for each.
That is a genius idea. Next year I will do peas. They are so pretty and so delicious but need to be done by July here.
This is the first time I’ve grown San marzanos. They do have groups of large grape like green matoes hanging down.
I also start them indoors by soaking the seeds in water.
When they start to show the roots, then I put them in the ground.
That way the soil temperature does not slow germination.
Peas do great in the cool weather once they are started but sometimes getting them started is slow.
Before I put the tomato cages in and the chicken wire on, this year I took a couple old under the bed boxes and put them over the peas.
Nice portable, lightweight cold frames.
When the first peas started poking through, then the tomato cage and chicken wire went up.
They did terrifically at my daughter’s school this year, big bushy beautiful plants, early early. But to start them in mid spring, they’d be horrible and cut short in summer. I think I’d start them in February. We are in a very arid corner of SoCal, not desert but not for climate wise from high desert, not coastal.
Congrats! Are you moving to that town where you inherited property? - ;)
More onion plants have popped up from the bulbs. If the count of 100 is accurate, then I have 70 or 70+ of the 75 onion bulbs I planted, sprouting. I have about 25 really small ones left in the bag. Don’t know when I’ll harvest them.
They survived 2 snows and at least 3 freezing nights in the planters. I can’t believe it.
Good news - my 2 Sweet Basil pots from WM have 4 plants each so I’ve got 8 going. Added a little Miracle-Gro and eggshells for calcium (I have LOTS). I’m going to let them grow awhile so I can harvest a lot of leaves. The later leaves don’t seem to grow as well, mostly.
My RGYO bell pepper seeds, jalapeno, Serrano and Sweet Snacking pepper plants are doing good. Still protected from the Sun under a deck on the bench.
Same for the Cherry Tomato and Sweet Million Tomato plants - under a bench and doing well. Will transplant some but going to let them grow and get stronger.
Don’t know about my small bed garden. It appears all the tomato seeds and strawberry seeds (perhaps) that I threw down there (tomato slices) for compost may be getting their revenge. I planted 4 more Watermelon seeds since not much seems to be happening. There are 7 seeds down there (should be 15 more plants). We’ll see.
But there must be 150-200 plants coming up - all seemingly alike. Will they be tomatoes? Nothing in the yard nearby like them. I think I created a monster with constant lazy composting.
Well, I sowed them.......LOL
Personally, I say go for 454....lol
I’ve heard yellow indicates too much water. Seems to be true for me.
That would require digging up my entire backyard.
You going to help?
As soon as I win $400 million in Powerball, I’ll send up a few local workers!
LOL
Remember, a journey of 454 tomato plants begins with the first step......;)
I’ve never had any problems, and last order they sent me seed samples too!
I got mine yesterday - my free seeds are Carrot Cosmic Purple. Hard to grow carrots here due to the short season, but I usually try every year.
I do fairly small batches in the largest calphalon non stick skillet there is. Add fruit, usually blueberries, strawberries, peaches. Wash fruit first. Don’t need to dry it just put the skillet on low to medium and use the glass cover for about the first half hour. Stir or mash as you go along. Then the cover comes off for good and I start adding sugar maybe 1/3 cup at a time. Keep cooking and stirring on medium to medium high and every once in awhile check the sweetness. Add enough sugar to your taste. Some people add a little lemon juice. I do if I have it otherwise no. When it starts getting thicker in the skillet turn the heat down to medium - medium low. Stir often and check how it drips off your spoon. You want to cook it not quite as thick as you want it because it will thicken as it cools. When really I put in in half pints and process for 15-20 minutes. You could also freeze. It’s a good method especially if you have some fresh fruit that won’t last much longer. Even a small batch will keep in the fridge a couple of weeks although it won’t last long around here. I like preserves rather than jelly. I use it on ice cream, waffles, pancakes, english muffin.
It's HOT AS HECK and HUMID up here in 'Sconny for this Memorial Day Weekend, but I'm NOT going to complain, because it was still snowing on us in April! :)
We've had a few salads from the garden with greens I'm growing, and you can watch the Snap Peas growing, but mainly the benefit of the extremely WET Spring we've had is us harvesting GOBS of Golden Oyster Mushrooms:
I’m growing less San Marzanos because I found Walmart.com has the genuine Italian ones from the region for something like 3.98 a can. They are whole packed in sauce. I order most things from Walmart.com and if your order is over 35.00 there is free shipping so when I need to fill out an order I get a few cans. In the grocery store they are 6-7.00 a can. Sorry to sound like a commercial for Walmart but it has been great the past year or longer, I can get heavier things brought right to my door.
We use our own seeds too and this spring put down wood ash from our woodstove too! First time trying that.
Sorry for all the posts. I should have read all of yours first. My late Dad was the gardener and he always went to the local forest preserve and cut willow branches for his tomato stakes.
Sounds like they might be waterlogged as in too much clay not enough drainage. Maybe just in a bad spot. You could always try replacing some of the soil.
Yes, the town is only 3 thousand people - same size that I grew up in. Main difference is the consolidated school district takes in so many surrounding communities that the school is large - more kids in school than in the town.
My school had 600 people total. LOL Anyway, it is a designated poverty area, and not much industry, so population isn’t growing. The county itself doesn’t have a big population either.
It’s about 75 miles south of St. Louis. Many people drive to the city to work, but come home to the country at night.
If shtf, it’s still too close to the city, but at least we’ll have some time to fortify before the yutes come our way.
Since I know you are a chef too try roasting some of them, cut in half, take out any seeds and watery innards, rub with olive oil and season. I use salt, papper, granulated garlic oregano and basil. Put on a cookie sheet in the oven at 175 or so, or a dehydrator. In the dehydrator I leave for almost 24 hours, flipping once. They are done when they are like raisins, absolute yumminess.
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