Posted on 07/06/2018 8:04:41 PM PDT by greeneyes
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I use the el cheapo paper cupcake liners and I pile the potting soil way over the cupcake liner top to make little mounds in each section of the drink cup holder thingie. Just make sure when you transplant you don’t leave any ‘cardboard’ exposed. Everything breaks down.
I also put this whole contraption in a plastic tray and water from the bottom until everything is dampish. Be careful when you transplant these as they can be kind of ‘soggy’. I leave them in the tray while I am planting and only cut off the one I need right then.
I set out 4 hills of winter squash (planted 3 or 4 seeds in each section) and 4 hills of snake gourds this way this year. Also cucumbers and cantaloupes but I used cardboard egg cartons for those.
Thank you! I thought they looked neat when I saw them in the SESE catalog. They’re very well adapted to the SE and if you let them ‘run’ and put down roots they’re fairly resistant to SVB’s.
my cucs don’t normally do very well But this year they seem to of taken off, lots of flowers and I harvested about seven small cucumbers this morning. At this rate I don’t want them to get too big Since I will have so many it looks like.
Any good recipes for pickling? I didn’t grow pickling cucumbers but I’m thinking if I use the small ones and I don’t can them, just refrigerate them, they might be OK?
Sorry Agnes, I don’t know about the pomegranate because I dug it as an offshoot from an old hedge of ‘em. My lemon is a Meyer like yours. I love those things and could eat ‘em by the bushel if I could afford them. Alas, I’ve only gotten 4 or 5 per year from my tree.
My lemon is in a container and they seem to do beautifully for everyone. I know greeneyes also has one and I’ve seen others here mention them too. Our unusual weather this year has given us many days of hot dry hard winds. When I’m home I bring my lemon tree in but there have been three days it was left out in that wind, it left my tree more than half leafless.
We have good weather for pomegranates tho and use them for privacy hedges. They are a great fruiting screen from our busybody neighbors.
Permethrin? Isn’t that used for texts? Just wondering because that’s what I use it for. Although I guess since it’s a pesticide it can be used for other things also.
I swear by ortho advance Tree and shrub pesticide. They also make a Garden version but all it is is weaker so you can use the tree and shrub version and just dilute it more. Unfortunately It will wipe out the bees. But if your tree is Past flowering then they would be OK. It also affects the fruits and vegetables so you have to look at their guidelines on when you can harvest after applying it.
I just noticed an invasion on my hazelnut trees. They are only three years old and about a third of the leaves were eaten. It takes quite a bit of that stuff to treat a tree, Especially if it is a good size. But I haven’t found anything that it hasn’t saved for me yet.
My Yorky has been sprayed six times! The vet thinks it is hopeless, that he won’t learn.
We use the concoction that they recommended on MythBusters. It works extremely well on his coat, although you’re not supposed to get it near the eyes. So I’m not sure what to use on his face, Which is where he usually gets sprayed.
It’s a quart of hydrogen peroxide 3%, 1/4 cup of baking soda, a couple drops of dawn dish soap. Mix it up and let it sit on them for about 10 minutes and then rinse off really well.
You would think after being sprayed in the face, having to sit in the cold tub for 10 minutes shivering, he would learn. lol, The last time I took him to the vet she said she had never seen a Yorky with that color fur, she was impressed that it was reddish. I had to tell her it was the hydrogen peroxide that made him that color. I had to tell on them again.
Are you wanting dill pickles or sweet pickles?
Very ingenious! I didn’t realize that you planted the cardboard drink holder also! I love innovative and inexpensive ideas, thank you
i meant ticks!
both!
Deal plus bread and butter, if you have it. I’m not sure if there’s another kind of sweet pickle?
I won’t count them since I don’t have real pickling cucumbers. I’ll just stick them in mason jars in the fridge.
My best pickle recipe is my dills. Its pretty simple but I must tell you, I was given the recipe 35 years ago by one of my Grama’s friends, a Mrs. Conrad. Grama had a beauty shop she opened in 1943. Her customers were all her age and older. Many of the little old ladies didn’t have much money and Grama worked and bartered for their fresh garden goods. Grama didn’t like to garden but she loved to cook. The most special thing to me was Mrs. Conrad’s pickles. I could eat the whole quart of pickles in one sitting. When I bought my first home, a farmhouse in the country on an acre, Mrs. Conrad gifted me with an afghan and her awesome pickle recipe. And it’s so simple I expect half the world uses it but still remains one of my favorite gifts. (and I still have the afghan)
Mrs. Conrad’s Pickles
Her instructions will make 14-16 qts depending on how tight you get your cukes packed. The recipe is easy to half, excess brine keeps well so when I don’t have enough cukes I refrigerate the brine for my next bunch of cukes
3 Qts. Water
1 Qt Apple Cider Vinegar
1 Cup Pickling Salt
16 sprigs of Dill gone to seed (when I’m out of fresh grown dill I use 1 Tbsp dill seed per jar)
16 cloves fresh garlic
16 hot peppers
Washed and dried cukes
Sterilize jars and lids.
Bring vinegar, water and salt to a boil.
While waiting for liquid to boil, fill jars with 1 large sprig of dill seed (or a tablespoon of seed), one clove garlic and one pepper, then pack the washed and dried cukes in the jar very tightly leaving 1” headspace.
Pour in the boiling vinegar salt water covering cukes completely.
Place hot lids on jars and water bath 5 minutes.
Let cool on a towel and store in a dark place for 6 weeks before opening.
I’ve had people tell me pickles don’t need a water bath and I’ve had others tell me 5 minutes was too short. I just do it like Mrs. Conrad said.
God bless her, Mrs. Conrad passed away 2-3 years later in 85-86. My Grama passed away in 03 and in 07 my husband and I moved into Grama’s old house for 2 years. People in that town still remembered Josie Conrad making the best pickles and lamented that she never gave anyone her recipe! ROFL. I have shared.
Tricksy thing I can’t prove. My pickles are great using her recipe but she swore that one must plant ASHLEY cukes (which I can’t find here) all mixed in with the dill and surrounded by the garlic. She said the cukes and dill growing together with the garlic right there gave them all extra flavor. Mrs. Conrad did not grow her peppers, traded for them. I dunno. I did it that way when I had the garden space but I don’t have the space now. I still can’t keep pickles from my kids and grandkids once they’re “done.”
I don’t have a “special” bread and butter recipe but I do have a couple I’ve used if nobody comes up with a special one. Hubby’s calling me to get to work and I do want my keyhole gardens. I’ll check back in a bit if u still need one.
We do our “gardening” off the back of our ground floor condo in a couple 5 gallon buckets and a very nice 28 cup hydroponic Tower Garden.
Always had problems with the biters chewing on our veggies/fruit. Tried quite a number of home remedies but it looks like our water spray bottle mix of plain water with some bottled Mint or Peppermint Extract (Walmart in 2 oz bottles) appears to work. (Just a splash into the water, not the full bottle).
We do a light spray in the morning and then in the evening. This is the first year we have had absolutely no bites. (And we can see the Fruit Rats running around at dark).
So based on this amazing discovery (?), the theory is that the smell of the Mint is something that either doesn’t register with the critters as friendly food, or it is disgusting to them and they stay away.
This has worked with planted Sunflower seeds and seedlings too.
We wonder if other “smelly” flavors might also do the trick.
We are growing Dill for our Swallowtail Butterflies here and it emits quite the odor when crushed. So, as a cheaper/home-grown anti-rat spray mix, we are going to try Dill in the blender, filtered for the clear liquid.
We will report in…
Lol. I was beginning to wonder about this OddBall.
These sons a bitches are eating everything in their path from soybeans, to trees, grapevines, roses, and fruit trees. I didn’t stop a single mole this year, because I knew they ate the nymphal stage of the jap beetles. This could be the 8th plague or maybe a gift made in Japan back in the days when they made junk.
I’ll put a small amount of mint on my shopping list.
Thanks !
Thank you! I will put up one jar tomorrow. Interesting that she puts hot peppers in them, I don’t think I’ve ever had pickles that way. Like a jalapeño? No hubby will like them because he likes everything with a kick.
I’ll do one of these and one bread and butter. I do have a nice bread and butter recipe that I will use. LOL, Now my refrigerator is full of Romaine lettuce and romano green beans so I’ll be lucky to be able to squeeze into mason jars. That’s the only problem with having a successful garden, having to deal with all the produce!
At my house necessity IS the mother of invention! I wanted to set out a bunch of stuff that needed peat pots (chinese cabbages, cauliflower, etc) and balked at the cost for the decent sized ones.
In what size container do you have the lemon tree? Just curious. I’ve got mine in those black container thingies that contain feed for cows/etc. They’re about 30gal. We move them in and out via movers dolly twice a year. I also make sure to water my tree until water is pouring out the drain holes every single day without fail. Twice a day if it’s been hot/dry/windy. I also use this:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Espoma-Organic-Citrus-tone-Plant-Food-27-lbs/106661356
My lemon trees aren’t very big right now but have 5 or 6 on them. I have 2 larger trees and one that I started from a cutting last year that’s about 1’ tall right now.
I use that fertilizer stirred into the top 1” or so of soil. Probably once a week, maybe 10d or 2w.
I have a lime tree that’s about 6’ tall right now and absolutely loaded. Probably 60+ limes on there. I water it twice a day regardless since it’s got so much fruit on there.
YMMV of course. I’m jonesing for a mandarin/tangerine tree and a grapefruit tree.
https://www.mrtakeoutbags.com/product/drink-cup-carriers/xfshuh20972.html
For clarity, this is the drink container thingie I use.
Hubby’s coworkers know he ‘collects’ them so they bring them to the office.
I made one batch this morning and combined a few recipes. Kroger use to sell spicy pickles that I liked so in a few jars I added black pepper corns and a dried hot pepper. Others I just used Dill and coriander. Then I made a batch with a garlic clove using the basic vinegar pickling recipe in all of them. I canned them ( knowing they will lose their crunch) because the shelf life is much longer than refrigerated pickles. The longest shelf life I have seen for refrigerated pickles is 3 months and there is no way I could eat all these pickles in 3 months.
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