Weekly Garden Thread - November 11-17, 2023 [Roasted Vegetable Recipes Edition]

November 11, 2023 | 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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[Pollard]

Waiting for water to soak into heavy soil.

Kind of like watching paint dry.

Ought to be able to dig a few more inches when I go back out there and then more water; repeat until 30” depth.

The wind is whipping but I have a nice sturdy first frame to brace to for this second one.

[FamiliarFace]

I finally planted my tulip bulbs yesterday. About 40 of them, so I hope it makes a nice little patch next spring. I haven’t planted tulips ever, so hope I did ok. I used a roto-shovel to loosen the soil first, then used my bulb planter for scooping out the needed depth. I only bought bulbs from Walmart so hope these will be good enough. The package said to water them after planting, so I did. Do I need to water them often or just let Mother Nature do her thing? I just hope that at least a dozen will come up.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Those Sabre tomatoes do look like winners! I’ll keep looking, too.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“Do I need to water them often or just let Mother Nature do her thing?”

Nope. Tulips are totally self-sufficient, as are most spring bulbs. The only time I’ve watered Tulips was a few Springs back when we were in the 90’s for a week in May - and even watering didn’t help. That was the year that even the Holland Michigan Tulip Festival was cancelled, and that’s never happened in my lifetime.

I have bulbs from both Walmart and Jung’s. Both have done just fine. :)

[FamiliarFace]

Thanks for the advice! I’ll let you know next Spring how they do!

[Pollard]

I’m wore out

I’ve been working every day off in between my 2-3 days of 12 hours shifts at my job for close to two weeks. Both are physical work and I’m not young anymore.

Got frame #2 sitting in it’s holes and will get it level and concreted in tomorrow. Need to do laundry, some shopping and do dishes tomorrow. Other than that, I shall be sitting on my butt as much as possible tomorrow which doesn’t sound like much.

Luckily, weekends are generally pretty easy at work and since they changed shift schedules due to things being slow, Sat and Sun will be just me and the maintenance shift supervisor for my shift. No office or production employees at all. We get along great so he’ll understand if I take it easy. He’s the one who’s a salad freak and who’s wife has been getting my biggest slicers.

Between normal days off, 23rd and 24th off for Thanksgiving and a day off for my birthday, I’ll be off from the 21st to 28th and I do have one more PTO day so if I took the 29th, I don’t work the 30th or 1st anyway, that would be 21st to 1st or 10 days off with all but the 24th paid so I might have to do that.

Should have no problem getting the rest of the frames in the ground and depending on funds, doing the cross bracing, end wall structures and maybe even drop down sides framed up. Depending on the weather too of course.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Pollard:

Consider tomato Picus. Determinate 3-4' tall. You get your harvest and move on. I canned these. (Did not make paste.)

https://seedsnsuch.com/products/picus-hybrid-tomato-seeds

Our only hybrid paste-type specifically bred to set well in hot temperatures. High yields of large, deep red, roma-shaped, blocky fruits that are firm, very flavorful and perfect for making sauces and pastes. Plant is medium large, vigorous and provides good foliage protection from sun scald. Suitable for home gardens, market growers and open-field production. Widely adapted.

Heirloom Amish Paste. Indeterminate. Large tomatos (at least mine were). It was one of my last tomatoes to die out if you are looking at a paste tomato you can string up in your high tunnel. Did not can these, just ate them!

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Pictures from the fall garden taken 11/15/2023.

Broccoli and lettuce growing under nylon insect netting. (I put gardening fabric over that if it goes below freezing and have some heating cable for pipes for a bit of protection.)

View up the tunnel. Maturity dates lengthen with decreasing winter sunlight. (Expected) I fertilized when these were planted and have been using a fish emulsion and kelp fertilizer every week, but I switched to Flower bloom Miracle Grow yesterday. (High P/K to induce flower head growth.)

Beds of garlic and multiplier onions and some shallots.. Chicken wire and 4" rabbit fencing laid on beds to discourage squirrels.

[Pollard]

I feel I would be accidentally stomping on a lot of plants in a garden like yours. Nice healthy looking plants though.

I've got some woven fence and need to make hoops like yours. I tried high tensile fence wire but it's droopy in between each wire hoop.

Just grabbed two different kinds of micro-sprinklers to try out.

Bowsmith Inverted Fan-jet - no moving parts - $1.55

Antelco Inverted Rotor Max Sprinkler - can be upright or inverted

Both do about a 17 foot circle so one of either will do the entire front yard garden but the Antelco comes in 5 packs($1.03 ea x 5).

Walked by my existing Denninger micro-sprinklers while they were running yesterday and 3 out of 5 weren't spinning. I have a 150 mesh filter but maybe I got dirt in the lines when assembling. Going to check the filter first. If it's clogged, it could be an overall lack of flow. If not, I'll have to pull the sprinklers off and check and clean them and also run the pump without them to flush the lines, then reinstall them.

Temperature's starting to drop so I guess I'll go do that and level tunnel frame #2 and concrete it in.

[Pollard]

Correction: I did not get the rotor max. I got the Antelco Inverted Rotor Spray Mini Sprinkler

Some of these micro-sprinklers like this one have #10/32 threads which will screw into the 1/4" OD drip line. Some come with 1/2" male pipe thread for screwing into threaded PVC fittings.

I'm thinking I could get creative with a tap drill and a #10/32 tap. Black iron or galvanized water pipe as tunnel frame bracing with #10/32 holes tapped along the length of it? Black iron is more weldable. Could hang mater plants from it too but use dripline to water in that case. Overhead is good for crowded baby salad greens seedlings though. Carrots too.

Even for PVC riser coming up from the ground, a pipe cap is cheaper than a threaded fitting. Drill and tap #10/32 threads in cap.

[Pollard]

Truss frame #2 is set in concrete. Didn’t get much of anything else done aside from messing with the micro-sprinklers. Determination: I need a bigger pump than the tiny tank sprayer pump made for a single spray nozzle. I think I have an old RV pump here somewhere.

Need to start window shopping for an actual tunnel pump. Might just get another like I got for the house. Rated at 3 GPM and nice and quiet.

[Pollard]

Note to self: Move temp/humidity sensor outside and add temperature as a condition to drip pump schedule. If it’s below 34 degrees, don’t run the pump schedule.

Just manually turned the schedule off because it’s 30 degrees and will probably go down to 28 before Sunrise. The water in the system is likely to be a slush puppy.

Now that I look at the NWS hourly weather graph, I’ll go ahead and turn all back on but the 9am watering session.

In reality, even 9am would probably be fine this morning(41 degrees) but I’m getting the kinks worked out before they become kinks.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

You have interesting solutions to raising your frames! Looking forward to pictures of your completed project!

My garden. I have limited space...about 22" x 26". I have 18" between rows, enough room is for a 5 gallon bucket.

The length of an arc between the two ends of the chord is longer than the chord....same with a mounded row in a garden. You can increase the surface area of your garden by mounding your rows into a curved surface, at least somewhat. The better solution is to just have a larger garden and larger plant spacing, but you work with the property you have.

Nylon insect barrier; I am growing broccoli; something like cabbage (Or chinese cabbage) is pretty inexpensive, but if I had room and wanted to grow it, I could protect them from Cabbage Loopers with some of the reusable nylon insect barrier and not even use hoops or a wire cage. Use a row cover much larger than the row and drape loosely over the growing plants. Throw some boards along the outside to keep out animals and prevent the wind from blowing the barrier off and adjust it as needed for more room while they grow.

High Tunnel; You are addressing the need to earn a living and do the watering at the same time, so I know why you are looking at the timed solutions. (I am retired so I just want to go out and turn on the hose and porous drip can work while I weed or plant !

If you are going to be spraying water in your high tunnel you will be creating a very humid environment that may result in more problems with fungus, insects, and molds. Drip hoses arranged in a pattern over the limited space might not be that expensive and would reduce the water needed (less evaporation). Could also automate and with a timer. (Which you already know.)

Off to do stuff!

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Festival! Click either picture to move to the new Gardening Thread!

[Pollard]

When I was in the sign business, if a sign had two poles, they would weld them together with braces and set them as one piece.

Me, I saw no way to set two poles and then try to hold the arch in place to weld it to them.

Didn’t want to drag my welder out there either so I made a crane.

Yes, spraying and sprinkling will be kept to a minimum in the tunnel. Will mainly be drip.

[Albion Wilde]

I don’t do a lot of roasting in my oven during the warmer summer months. We grill as much as possible then

Don't know how I ended up back on this thread today; but I wanted to point out that you can roast many veggies on the grill. I love to roast ears of corn, and also bell peppers. You can do the peppers whole, or cut in half or quarters top to bottom -- roast and turn them until the outer skin is blackened a bit, take them off and drizzle a little olive oil and Italian herbs over them -- mmmm!

[FamiliarFace]

We do grill a fair amount of our veggies in the summer months. We do more roasting in the winter months. They are delicious either way!