Weekly Garden Thread - August 6-12, 2022 [All The Onions Edition]

August 6, 2022 | Diana in WI/Greeneyes in Memoriam

[Diana in Wisconsin]

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.

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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! Send a Private Message to Diana in Wisconsin if you'd like to be added to our New & Improved Ping List.

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[Augie]

Also up to my butt in Peaches, so I’m slicing and freezing them for later use.

Most of my peach trees are loaded right now. They're still not quite ripe enough to suit me, but I know they're getting close. The birds have started to work on them so I need to get off my biscuits and pick some before they're all wrecked.

I have one low-growing peach tree out by the pond that produces fantastic peaches, but I rarely get any from that tree. It's far enough from the house for the deer to feel comfortable stealing and this time they flat cleaned it. I'll get my paybacks for that when deer season opens up in November. hehe

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“I’ll get my paybacks for that when deer season opens up in November. hehe “

Say no more! I’ve seen two STUNNING 8-pointers hanging around on the edges of the farm this season a number of times as well as a lot of fat does.

I hope this is a good year for us, too! We haven’t had one in a while.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Nice sliced tomatoes Eric!

9:11 on 8/8 — Looks like you are getting a lot of rain right now!

[Eric in the Ozarks]

We water our raised beds out of the lake.
Sliced ‘matos are my specialty...

[Pollard]

Some years the first freeze in the fall comes in September. Some years it doesn't freeze until next year.

This morning I woke up from a dream that the low for tonight was going to be 17 degrees. In the dream, I was only mildly surprised.

---

Baker Creek posted about Little Gem Lettuce saying it was very heat tolerant and would be good to start now and into Fall. It's 30-50, 40-50 or 50 days, depending on who you listen to and how mature you want them. They're small romaine type but are supposed to be more buttery textured. They're one of those trendy veggies right now and wapo even had an article about it a few months ago. I'm going to get some and also start a few more leaf lettuce plants while I'm still getting tomatoes. I should keep getting cherry tomatoes right up to the first frost.

Looking at pics, they could be used as leaf lettuce which is probably the 30 days. 50 for formed heads.

Hey, lettuce goes with those red onions that are good in salads so I'm sort of on topic.:)

Little Gem is supposed to be small enough for 1 or 2 salads from each head/plant.

Little Gem lettuce looks like small-size romaine. Although it is full grown, this specialty romaine variety is about half the size of regular romaine boasting succulent, vibrant green leaves that measure about five inches in length and about three inches in width. Little Gem has a pale, green heart and a crisp center and sweeter taste than common lettuce, Little Gem lettuce never develops a bitter flavor.

[Augie]

Little Gem lettuce never develops a bitter flavor.

I've had generally poor results with seed that I bought from Baker Creek, but I would love to hear from someone who has grown this Little Gem lettuce.

When I see a claim that a lettuce never becomes bitter it makes me suspicious that it's just another variety that bolts to seed on the first warm day. lol

[Pollard]

I’ve had nothing but real close to 100% germination from Baker Creek seeds. I don’t do that drop three seeds and thin them later no matter how small the seeds are. I do one per hole. Were your poor results germination or something else?

Heat tolerant lettuce - no such thing really. That description was from here; https://specialtyproduce.com/produce/Little_Gem_Lettuce_13502.php and now that I look at the site more, it’s kind of weird. A San Diego outfit that has every produce known to man kind listed.

[Qiviut]

I asked for cucumber recommendations & you both gave me your favorites. Ellendra liked Dragon Eggs & from the list DiW gave me, I picked Divas. Here's the update on them:

My first & probably next-to-last Dragon Egg cucumber. I have one more on the vine that is going to make it to a size that is 'pickable'. The vines are dying like crazy ... don't think the rest of the itty bitties will be able to grow large enough to be of any use. The one so far was very tasty. I will try to grow them again next year.

The Diva cukes were also very tasty. I probably have about 20 so far with a few small ones on the also-dying vines, but the die-off isn't as bad as the Dragon Eggs.

Working through the die-off issue. The vines are in a "fresh" bed that has not grown cukes before. Unfortunately, they are a 'late summer' cuke crop rather than 'spring' cukes & that is an issue ... heat, humidity, water, etc. I could not plant early because of The Knee ... next year, I should have an earlier cuke planting. The other thing is that they're too crowded .... live and learn. Sigh.

Anyway, the folks have enough cukes for their salad for now & I have extra that will be going to the fire station. I eat a few cukes in season ... a little Gurkensalat like my Granny used to make ... so good! :-)

[Augie]

Yes, germination problems. Could have been just bad luck combined with bad weather, but it wasn’t isolated to one variety of seed or even one planting season.

Two springs ago I bought Blue Lake pole bean seed from Jung’s. First planting maybe 20-30% germination, about the same rate replanting the gaps, and then had to do it a third time to fill gaps that didn’t get filled by the 2nd planting.

I had some of that seed left over from last year so I decided to stick it in the dirt this spring - close to 100% germination. So I expect that the poor results I got from the BC seed was more a weather problem than a seed problem.

The folks at BC are super nice and I’m not mad at them. I’d be willing to give them another try if there was a particular variety of seed that couldn’t be found elsewhere.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

‘Diva’ is a keeper! I’ve grown that many times. This season was ‘Sweeter Yet’ and ‘Summer Dance’ both highly recommended. Long, slender, low amount of seeds.

Making Bread & Butter pickles today! ;)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

[Qiviut]

We do like Diva ... much better than the seed packet brands I was buying at the hardware store ... Muncher was one, Market Maker or something like that was another. I have a bunch of Diva seeds left, hopefully, they’ll still be good for next year.

I love pickles - made tons of ‘freezer’ pickles one year. My only issue with Bread & Butter is the sugar. I’d love someone to do an experiment with something like Swerve & see if it will ‘can’ ... maybe it’s out there already, I just haven’t had time to really look.

My Granny, in addition to her Gurkensalat (never been able to get it quite like hers!) also had The Best pickles. Makes my mouth water just thinking about them.

Severe weather due in after 2 pm today ... then ‘cooler’ temps (mid 80’s maybe?). Yesterday was horrible outside - two 45 minute sessions at the garden, with a break in the middle (AC, fan, electrolytes, etc.) & the result was borderline heat exhaustion - I’ve had it before so I know the warning signs. Garden work is not happening today - waiting for the ‘cooler’ stuff ... hopefully there will be a LOT LESS humidity. I’m also dog/chicken sitting Saturday night through the following Saturday .... going to be tough if the heat is bad.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Beau took me down to the creek the other morning to show me some pretty flowers he had seen on his way home from pasture mowing. Sweet Joe Pye Weed and Cattails on a foggy morning. Both are edible if you're hungry enough!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

[Pollard]

I never did make that balsamic glaze stuff but it must be getting popular because the local grocery store carries it now. They had some brand name and also Best Choice cheapo brand. Product of Italy though. I grabbed a bottle of BC brand just to get an idea of what it tastes like. Pretty good stuff. I’m not big on sweet sauces but the this stuff wasn’t too sweet and the balsamic tanginess offsets it well.

I’ll have to figure out the cost difference of making it compared to ready made. Just looked at the label to see what is was sweetened with. No sugar or corn syrup or anything else I recognized as a sweetener but it listed Grape Mist. Did a web search and grape mist a popular paint color. Searched Grape Mist Food Ingredient and found Q&A section of amazon for a bottle of balsamic glaze and then found this article, https://www.melissasmith.pro/blog/nutrition/the-60-names-of-sugar-in-disguise/

No explanation as to what grape mist actually is and I can’t find it anywhere else. I hate searching the web anymore. Instead of just searching for the words I input, the search engines seem like they try to guess what I’m really looking for. Oh well. Sugars are sugars for the most part, except for HFCS. I even try to stay away from regular corn syrup.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I usually make it from scratch using Ree’s recipe. Good stuff! Vinegar, sugar, a pinch of salt.

https://www.thepioneerwoman.com/food-cooking/recipes/a78226/how-to-make-balsamic-glaze/

[Pollard]

Good stuff!

Evidently. Never seen it in the store, then you mentioned weeks back and now it's suddenly in stores. You got clout lady. ;)

[Pollard]

Home gardens rise in popularity amid high inflation

When Beth Brown needs groceries, she often does her shopping in her own backyard.

Brown estimates she's saving $400 per month on groceries by growing vegetables like lettuce, squash, tomatoes and cantaloupe. The nurse and single mom of two boys said she's trying to save everywhere she can as prices skyrocket.

"The prices of food have really gone up just everywhere," Brown told CBS News. "So I have been growing a lot more vegetables to kind of keep up with that."

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4085138/posts

[Pollard]

Well the summer garden is done. The goats, that I’m trying to sell, figured out they could mash down the field fence that’s around the garden and get in there. They also figured out they like green tomatoes. Looks like they ate the tops off of a few plants and nightshade is poisonous to goats so I ripped out the plants. Hard to sell dead goats.

They also ate the unhealthy shisito plant and a somewhat unhealthy kalugerista pepper plant but left the two healthy pumpkin spice jalapeno plants alone which I thought was interesting, as is the fact that all pepper plants got treated the same but jalapeno were the only healthy ones. Could have been the 96-100 for weeks on end, could be soil acidity, could be nitrogen.
Shisito/Japan - Kalugerista/Macedonia - Jalapeno/Mexico. All different climates and continents for that matter.

Ate the flowers off the marigolds but left the plants alone aside from stomping on one.

I saved the top off of one Rosella tomato plant and stuck it in water. It has a flower cluster on it so I might be able to get roots growing and put it in soil and still get a few maters because those things are good. Those and the brandywine, which I only got one of due to the heat and goats, were my favorites out of six varieties. Yellow Pear cherry were pretty good too and held up to the heat pretty well. Barry’s Crazy cherry held up to the heat even better but don’t have a lot of flavor. Very productive though with 20-30 per cluster and plenty of clusters.

Hopefully the mischievous little SOBs will be gone soon so I can have a Fall garden. Got a couple of people interested. I’ve lowered the price and will be taking a loss but I’m done with goats. If I lower it any more, I might as well eat them.

Might get some sheep someday so that the $3500.00 fence isn’t going to waste. They’re easier to fence and their appetite doesn’t include pretty much everything. Need to cut more trees and get more pasture growing. The goats were far from running out of things to eat. They just like a variety, like to roam/browse and are one of the most resistant animals to electric shock. Way more so than cattle.

My two LGDs are going to be bored to death but hell, the goats haven’t been in with them much anyway. Maybe their boredom will lead to puppies I can sell.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Trader Joe's Agrodolce White Wine vinegar

Agrodolce comes from the Italian words agro, meaning sour, and dolce, meaning sweet. Trader Joe’s Agrodolce Vinegar is made with only two ingredients—pleasantly sour White Wine Vinegar and sweet Grape Must concentrate—yet offers palate-pleasing complexity that belies its simple construction.

Grape Must; Italy....Sophia or Angelina would hike up her skirt and stomp the grapes in bare feet to press the grapes to make must. The must would be drained off and fermented to make wine! (Sometimes called Mist)

I have only purchased it once, never heard about it before that. Its good in salad dressings and for cooking; I like it. I had fun doing this post! Hope you did too!