Posted on 08/22/2014 12:34:40 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.
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Wrap some lights and garland around that ‘tree’ and have Christmas in August.
“The little dehydrator works well on the sliced peppers”
I dehydrated Habbies a few years ago. Gave them to friends in small jars with a “Caution! Radioactive Material” label.
For a spicy stirfry, Put some oil in your wok, get it hot, and add the dried peppers. Stirfry them until they turn black. Take them out, cool, then crumple, and add to your stir fry. Wonderful hot, smokey flavor! DO NOT INHALE ANY OF THE WOK SMOKE!
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I have had unusually good luck with the mini-roses. There have been a steady supply of them all summer. Basil has done really well. Time to make the Pesto! lol
After 16 or 17 years of “lurking” I decided to join FR to post on these garden thread.
Wow! What a year here in Atlanta.
I have already canned 75 quarts of tomatoes. Pretty confident I’ve pulled close to 100 flats (you know, those cardboard flats Costco sells peaches etc in) all from 30 Krims (they’ve succumbed from the wilt now) and the remaining 30 Better Boys (that are still producing fruit I pull twice per day).
Canned some 20 pints of sauce and about the same of iced, sweet, green tomatoes. Planted about 15 additional hybrids and 7 more Krims several weeks ago. They’re doing fine - producing fruit, flowering!
Green beans were non-stoppable. My single, 30 foot row of Roma green beans must have produced a dozen plastic grocery bags of beans. The regular green beans would get tough before I could give them away.
The Korean white (I planted 8 plants) cucumbers, well, let’s just say the neighbors were saying “no more”. First time I’ve planted this variety.. They are an excellent quality and excellent producer that produce fruit about every 4 inches of vine knot.
Okra is going to town, too. I’m pulling pods twice a day. I have one plant that’s 8 feet tall. Really!
My peppers (banana, bell, California Wonder) don’t start *really* producing until this time of the year. They’re right on schedule.
The squashes and zucchinis I pulled up before they were finished. I got tired of them. Just too much and wanted the real estate.
Fordhooks are going about the same - kinda slow as usual.
Several weeks ago I planted something for the first time - Alabama Blackeye Butter (a pole bean) Beans. They’re already
6 feet tall (but no fruit yet). Bloggers in this area say they’ll prolifically produce fruit through Thanksgiving.
I’m excited about the fall crops that I’ve already started.
Can you tell?
BTW - Have yet to find the first horn worm on my maters. The stink bugs are a different matter..!
Welcome to FR, and the garden thread. If you want on the ping list, just let me know.
You have certainly got a huge garden and produce amount compared to us. We keep adding garden plots, and experimenting, but we don’t go at it like we probably should.
Our green beans this year were outstanding producers. We have enough canned for 18 months to a year. Hubby got tired of picking them, and decided to just let them turn to dry beans. We had a mess of those the other day.
The tasted really good - almost like a pinto bean, only more subtle. He can’t remember what he planted. He just went to the local feed store and asked for some green bean seeds that could also be used for dried beans.
My little basil plant that I planted from seed in 2010, just keeps on going. I harvest it ever so often, and it grows some more.
I don’t use lots of basil, so I get more than enough from the one plant. I love mini roses. Mine all got some sort of disease after the drought and hard winter. Hubby said not to bother planting anymore in that bed, because they would probably just get infected too.
Nice trees to have. I’m thinking I have seen some sort of extension pole/picker to use on taller trees.
We just planted dwarf varieties, so that we wouldn’t have to worry about the treels being too tall.
That is what we’re hoping to do sooner than later. I want to be able to reach most of the tree. I’m pretty short so I should use my husband’s arm reach instead. LOL! These apples are not a sweet variety. They are very tart and sturdy. I’m working on my first batch of crockpot apple butter. Hope it turns out okay! I usually know what kind of apple I’m using but don’t have a clue about these things.
Hi everybody!
((((HUGS))))
Hi, Girlfriend! :)
Let’s see...Mr. Wonderful brought me 2 feed sacks of sweet corn this week, so I processed 20 quarts of that on Thursday. We planted four 50’ rows of sweet corn and also about 30’ of Hopi Blue corn (for grinding - an experiment!) and all is doing well. Gotta appreciate his ingenuity: he took a dog house down the hill to the Corn Patch and staked out one of the Coon Hounds to guard the crop. So far, Geronimo has not let one single raccoon into the perimeter. Good Dog! :)
Last night I picked NINETY FOUR Viva Italia (Roma) tomatoes (from 6 plants, with more to ripen!) that are going to become pasta & pizza sauce sometime this weekend.
I’ve been drying ‘Juliet’ tomatoes as fast as I can pick them - they are the BEST tomato for oven/sun drying. Simply awesome. Very flavorful. A little olive oil, a little garlic salt, Italian seasonings and a few days in a slow oven? HEAVEN!
More beans than ever - the freezer is full of both those that made the cut for meals, and then the ‘bigger’ beans are bagged and frozen for soups and stews this winter.
More zucchini than EVER from 2 plants - that are STILL producing. Chopped, shredded, hollowed out for later stuffing, etc. A bounty, as usual from that goofy plant!
A friend gave me a grocery bag of small ‘Wealthy’ apples. I made a crock pot full of Apple Butter. Made 8 pints, I think. Yum! My Wolf River and Bonnie Best apples are producing for the first time and the trees are loaded. They’re not pretty, because I didn’t spray this season, but they’ll make great pies and applesauce.
I’ve already put up 12 quarts of Salsa, and the Cukes have LOVED this cool growing season, so I have made (and ate!) more Bread & Butter and Dill pickles than I care to admit!
Cut a HUGE bouquet of flowers for the dining room table this evening. ‘Soroya’ Sunflowers and ‘Oklahoma’ Zinnia of all colors. Food for the Soul. :)
Best gardening season of the past three years, for sure. We’ve had two stormy, wet, too-cool springs, and a drought 3 years back, so it’s about time!
I now have 9 raised beds, thanks to Mr. Wonderful and I’ll be adding at least 3 more this fall and filling them with all sorts of yummy soil and worms and compost and stuff.
Late plantings of lettuce, spinach, radishes, etc. are going in soon and my pole beans refused to CLIMB this season (my fault - mixed up the packages) so those are composted and ‘Wando’ peas are going in this Sunday.
The only ‘bad’ crop this season has been sweet peppers. We did not have enough dry weather and hot sunny days to make them happy, though I have TWO peppers on the vine - and the Jalapenos performed well, as always. Those hot peppers always produce no matter what, it seems.
Life Is Good. :)
Our August “heat wave hit 100 one day; and mid 90s less than a week. Today, barely made it to 80, and is already back to 68.
So far, about 160 pounds of cleaned rye. At 175 pounds (finish filling the current bucket) we’ll quit. I’m thinking there’s about a total of 200-225 pounds, or about 4 bushels, total produced. What is still left on the stalks will get gathered with the straw, and the chickens can have at it when I use it for their bedding this winter.
Harvested the last of the garlic, and we’re really pleased with it. Also harvested the first of our onions; reds won the race
Last night for dinner we had hot pastrami sandwiches, using my homemade pastrami, and a loaf of rye bread I baked the night before; it also had some of our purple onions, sauteed with green pepper on it. No; not our pepper; they are a bust yet again.
The corn is looking really good, and is all short enough season that it should ripen, despite the cool weather.
Side note, while working in the rye patch today, two mommas brought their broods down to also forage; we were beginning to think we weren’t going to see any baby turkeys this year. Definitely remembered us feeding them, because they had no problem with bringing their young within 15-20 feet of us without exhibiting nervousness.
They had a really nasty time of it this past winter and so-called spring, to the point that the Black Hills turkey season has basically been cancelled.
Welcome Home OL… Sounds like you have this gardening thing figured out.
You need a fruit picker. Just buy the basket as you must have a pole in the garage or shed…
http://www.instructables.com/id/Two-Vastly-Improved-Fruit-Pickers/
That is very cool! I haven’t had a chance to see what our options are yet. Still getting boxes unpacked and locating missing items. I do have some apples in the crock tonight and have the juice from the scraps ready to make some jelly tomorrow. It is addicting. I can’t stand to see any of those apples go to waste!
While we have loads of green bell peppers, we don't have near as much success as you have. Too bad we don't live close enough to barter/trade.LOL
Now that idea about the doghouse and doggy guard is interesting. Our little Dog is only 20 lbs. She is a combo rat terrier and jack russell terrier. Fierce to the point of stupidity - she'll take on anything no matter how large.
I'm thinking we'd need a larger dog, because we have a critter that literally tore up a very strong live trap. A larger dog, and I'd really think about trying that.
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