Weekly Garden Thread - September 12-18, 2020

September 12, 2020 | Diana in Wisconsin/Greeneyes

[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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[greeneyes]

I hope your filters are working great. I have portable ones in several rooms, so if we had to, I guess we could put them all in one room and make it better.

We want to get a backup generator in case of electrical outages—our town is on the edge of the Mark Twain National forest. But we had unusually wet weather until mid August and we are about 75 miles from St. Louis so I don’t think we’ll have problems this year.

Keeping you all on my prayer list.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

You’ll have to wait for Greeneyes. I know nothing about canning meat. We usually vacuum seal and freeze...but I probably SHOULD learn to can it.

[metmom]

The advantage of pressure canning is that it frees up freezer space, it keeps for years, and is NOT dependent on the electricity.

Power goes out and you don’t have to worry about losing it.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Wow! Great to hear that! I have potatoes to dig, yet.

Five days of rain pretty much destroyed my Raspberries, though I see they still have blossoms, so we still have time.

Between too much rain this season and general dumb@ssery (it’s a word!) on my part, trying to switch to Determinate tomato varieties to save space, my tomato crop was down, but I did fine on peppers, zukes, cukes and salad greens.

Fall planting of salad greens in the works, as well as a few ‘experiments’ in the (unheated) greenhouse this Fall into Winter. ;)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Looks like you can freeze the gel!

https://food.ndtv.com/food-drinks/easy-peasy-tips-on-how-to-store-aloe-vera-gel-1856156

[Diana in Wisconsin]

That orange sky is just surreal! Glad you and Lady Bender are near the coast.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I know! Where one of us has too much, somewhere else has too little. :(

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Yep. Trying to convince Beau of that. ;)

[greeneyes]

It has advantages - no electricity needed. We have always had periodic outages in Mo. So it’s important. It also makes inventory simpler.

The cases are 12 jars. Choose 4 different types of meats. Chicken, Pork, Beef, turkey-whatever. That’s about 1 dish per week for a year. 2 cases gives you meat twice a week for about a year.

I do the same thing for fish which I buy already canned. Tuna, Salmon, Clams, Shrimp. Once a week for the year, but each week is a different recipe. More people means more veggies or noodles less meat per person, but nutritionally, you only need a little meat to go with beans/rice.

[greeneyes]

thanks.

[metmom]

One drawback at the present is the availability of canning jars.

They are simply not to be had for love or money.

Canning supplies everywhere have been nuked.

I’m so glad I had the presence of mind to stock up on lids and jars, in spite of mr. mm’s constant objections of *Do we really NEED more jars?* (and this from the family packrat and hoarder.) How ironic.

[Paul R.]

Well, we are definitely going to get some useful Opo production! That fruit that was maybe 6” long a couple days ago is now almost 12” long. There’s another ~7” long in a location I had not spotted even a fruit starting, until now. I’m not sure how that one got past me. Then there’s another 5” fruit, and several in the 3” and under range. There are very few new female flowers, at present, though, and lots of guys. Hmmm...

Still, even half a dozen of these fruits 2’-3’ long, if all goes well, will be a lot of “veggie” to work with. It appears that if they are growing fast, at under 3’ long the seeds will be soft enough to not have to remove, which is good because they imbed in the flesh much like a cucumber.

The 12” fruit I’ll “let go” to full maturity for seed, unless my wife’s friend who I think may also be growing some says she already has fruits for seed, or will shortly. The growth rate of the fruits is, by weight, about twice as fast, I’d say, as other squash we’ve grown before. “Me happy camper!”

I’ve tried adding that Opo fruit my wife’s friend gave us last week to a few recipes: My impression is that it can be used as a veggie filler in almost anything. So far it has worked well in scrambled eggs (sort of a scrambled omlet) with a little onion and tomato included, spaghetti sauce, Tuna Helper (actually with pressure cooked trout as the meat), and “stroganoff” Hamburger Helper.

The chicken guard (dog) is apparently gone for good. He seemed very loyal, so I’m pretty sure he’d have come back unless so badly injured he couldn’t. Maybe someone will find his nametag. I just hope whatever happened, he did not suffer. (I barely suppose he could have been “dognapped”, but it seems very unlikely.) Dang! I think I’ll try to remember to check the message boards at local spots that have such: Both for “Lucky” (slim hope), but more hopefully someone will have a non-registered (to keep cost down) pup to give away...

I’ve been looking at You Tube vids and conclude that while it’ll be a bit of work, my smartest solution to the chicken watering “problem” will be to use a large central container (maybe even 10 gallon) to feed tubing or piping to the 3 coops that are closest together. In the long run (pun not intended) that’d be a big time saver. The 2-story chicks’ house / coop is some distance away from the others and presents some special challenges, so, that’ll likely be “independent for now, tho’ I may run some 1/2” PVC over there in the trench the new underground power feed is going in to as well. (The trench is 1/3 complete - I have a few serious tree roots to deal with there — the worst from a big hickory tree that died & we downed 4(?) years back. The roots are very slow to rot. Such fun with only hand tools.) This (water distribution) will have to be emptied and not used during freezing weather - a serious consideration. Coops #3 & #4 will not be isolated in winter as hopefully we’ll have enough laying hens to keep the 2 roosters (1 now in #3 and 1 now in #4) happy, plus there’s reasonable room for the bantam rooster to keep clear of his larger adversary — assuming the silly bantam doesn’t start the fights, which he sometimes does, now, but that may be the present shortage of hens...

There are some useful ideas in this vid:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsFdIQdj5aY

Grommets might work for the reservoir connection:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcS0lcwWlUg

[Paul R.]

There were canning jars at a yard sale I was at, this morning. Everything was really cheap, even by yard sale standards* — maybe I should have nabbed them. But, storage space is already a big problem for us... :-(

*I nabbed a compact 1500 watt oil filled heater in great shape; about $50 (at least!) worth of extension cords, a trouble light / extension, and rope, also in good shape; a smaller heater fan in good shape (does need to be cleaned); 5 large storage totes in good shape (will help with storage a bit?); 2x dual compartment 1/4” clear acrylic (or possibly Lexan - not sure) storage units that will make great dual nest boxes (might have to spray paint the outsides - not sure hens will like “no privacy”); and a few misc. small items... all for $11...

[metmom]

Wow..... I’m surprised they still had the canning jars with as scarce as they are.

I have found two boxes of canning jars by the side of the road on the street we live on. One of the neighbors is cleaning out, I guess. I grabbed them both times and cleaned them up.

Aside from canning, I use them for storing stuff like pasta, rice, spices, nuts, etc. They are very mouse and insect proof with the lids on, although the downside is, glass breaks and if you drop it and the jar breaks, you just have to throw everything out. You can’t take the risk of ingesting shards of broken glass.

[Qiviut]

Post some nice wedding tent/camelot pics...ok?

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ok! Here are some pictures from the wedding venue …..

This is the ceremony site. Benches/tables made by the bride's sister. The arbor was made (for his wedding) by the best friend of the bride's brother & the friend was glad to have it used for this wedding, too:

The flowers, including all of the bouquets for bride & attendants, were done by the groom's mother.

The tent was fabulous – a great place for the reception dinner and dancing after. There was a stage for the band & dance floor. These pics were taken while the tent was being set up

Since this was an “at-home” & “country” wedding, there were some really cute decorations:

[Qiviut]

If you want to see more detail,you can “right click” on the pictures, select “view image” & it will take you to a larger picture. You can actually zoom in a bit on the larger picture, too.

[Qiviut]

Here’s a link to another tent pic (took it this morning) that’s a little better. Also, a pic of the field where people parked - you can see it in relation to the tent. It was a perfect setup.

https://postimg.cc/gallery/YhBjmSt

[greeneyes]

So nice. My favorite pic was the roses. So beautiful. My oldest daughter and her daughter had weddings outdoors. They are so great.

Thanks for posting the pics.

[MotorCityBuck]

Sounds like you also had a good year. 👍

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

I am visiting Texas, property hunting.

Putting an offer on a 10+ acre tract.

Would prefer 20+ but this one is the right one.

Views, trees, wildlife, and only 10 min to the town and hospital.

Did I mention it has decent soil and plenty of room for an amazing garden?

White tail, Axis deer (chiral or critical os real name) black buck, and elk all roam here.

I got the most amazing photograph of a huge elk buck lickin his lips while standing with the mom and the younger all together. The rack on the buck was wider than a bed of a full size pickup.

Will need a well and build a home but this on is right.

Backup plan is another lot farther away from town but would own both sides of a creek on 15 acres and the creek is near a property line and nor crossing through the middle of the lot.

It would be primary choice but wells put there can run 50k.

Meanwhile the wife and son are back home watering the garden every other day for me.

Daughter made the trip with me.....went into Austin yesterday so she could see if she likes the area. Property hunt is about an hour from Austin