He had a bit too much Christmas cheer last night and is sleeping it off!
Posted on 12/25/2021 7:20:14 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
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Thanks! We are always looking for more ‘natives’ to add to our property. Good prices - you weren’t kidding! :)
The Baker Creek Heirloom Catalog arrived this week. It is addictive p0rn.
This is going to be a rough gardening year.
Not much point in starting my seeds in the greenhouse that I will have to take down to move it to Texas in April.
Won’t be able to easily get a decent garden going in Texas because the deer will eat everything until I get a high fence around the house and garden area. I won’t say it will be a lost year but this year of transition includes the garden for sure
Thanks. The eucalyptus doesn’t bloom every year, maybe every five years. Never seen anything attract bees the way eucalyptus does when it’s blooming. Doesn’t make good honey, though, very dark and strong.
There is an effort to remove them from California because they aren’t native trees - they’re native to Australia. My dad always called them “Australian Gums” (my dad could grow ANYTHING).
They’re a problem for two reasons: They put down shallow roots making them vulnerable to our high winds. When ever I hear of a tree being blown over onto a car, house, sidewalk, etc., it is always a eucalyptus tree. Neighbor had one go over on his home, Thank God no one was hurt.
They are also real fire hazards - the firefighters here call them “gasoline trees” because of the oils, they explode into flames if ignited. It is illegal to plant a eucalyptus in San Francisco - and I’ve seen many of them taken out in Southern California.
I love mine. They smell wonderful especially after it rains.
He had a bit too much Christmas cheer last night and is sleeping it off!
Thanks for the info I never knew. BTW I liked that picture we so much I added it to my puzzle app. Makes a great puzzle.
Haha—I was drooling over the stollen.
3. Save Your Eggshells
Here’s a video on how to process eggshells so you can eat them - terrific source of calcium. I would imagine the calcium powder you end up with would be great in the garden.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4qB54PlCoA
A jalapeno question .....
I’ve always had good luck in the past with jalapenos. I let them go to red and then make Jalapeno Pepper Jelly (JPJ) out of them - the color using only red peppers is beautiful, sort of an amber with red flecks.
So this evening, my niece returned a box of empty jelly jars - she & hubby LOVE the JPJ I make - I usually give them a batch for a Christmas present. Hubby informed me he expected the jars to be returned .... full of jelly.
The jelly they got this year was made last year - I did not make any JPJ this year because my jalapenos ... well, they just plain ‘sucked’. They were short/stubby & they got the ‘age’ lines (corking?) on them while still green. By the time they turned red, they looked awful & I just didn’t want to use them. Niece’s hubby said they had the same issue with their jalapenos this year ... were not all that prolific & got the corking problem early.
I did as always & bought the jalapenos in a 4-pack from the local nursery. They were only marked as jalapenos & ‘hot’, no variety name or anything. The plants themselves did great & I actually had quite a few peppers, but the size/quality was the issue. I managed to make 2 batches of jalapeno poppers but I had to scrounge through a lot of smaller, stubby ones to find larger, longer ones for stuffing/wrapping with bacon.
Any thoughts about the corking issues - from what I read, after looking for info, it appears to be caused by ‘stress’ (for example - not enough water, too much water). Also, I’m thinking about starting some peppers from seeds myself this year .... very unhappy with whatever jalapeno plants I got last spring due to the short/stubby peppers. After no JPJ this year, for sure I will have to make a couple of batches next year - my brother gets JPJ too .. even bought me jelly jars last year so I would have enough to give him at least 2 batches!
Everyones old resolutions blowing around in the wind!
Maybe you left something on the last thread that will help to start up your new list!
Click on the picture to return and get looking!
It was another week of mostly shirt-sleeve weather here in Central Missouri. We got a bit of rain mid-week, but we are in dire need of more.
Mrs. Augie picked a nice salad from the garden to go with our leftovers that we had for Christmas dinner. The 31st will be our 30th wedding anniversary, and most of the kids/grands will be able to come over, so I’m holding the 16lb boneless prime rib of beef for New Years Day.
I hope you all had a safe and happy Christmas.
Merry Christmas (Yeah, a day late!) from southern New Hampshire, where we had rain and ice all day, Christmas Day! Footing is treacherous and this old fart is walking carefully.
Today is going to be dry and warmer, and I hope it clears and dries the roof so that I can install the roof mount for our Starlink “Dishy”. Then, I will go into the shop and start assembling the side hatches for our new hoop house, which has developed a bit of a sag in the middle. I am working up a plan to put up a backbone on the inside to support the roof. Also going to insulate and skin the inside of the front and back walls. Nothing is ever “done” in this homestead!
Household Six is delighted with the plumbing in her basement planting area, but now needs a water supply for her planting table, and oh, did I mention a drip system, and did I mention multiple zones? Like I said, no project achieves “done” around here!
It was 64 here yesterday in East Tennessee.
The forsythia is blooming.
The struggling snow peas are blooming. The lettuce is trying to grow.
Strangely, it feels like spring
I got my catalog from Seed Savers Exchange. I think they’re feeling the competition of the heirloom-hogging Baker Creek catalog and REALLY upped their game this time around.
They’re free: http://www.seedsavers.org/catalog
Having worked for them in the past, and having been a test garden for them through the years, I have things I can’t live without, now. ;)
Early Jersey Wakefield Cabbage
Red Kalibos Cabbage
Scarlet Kale
Merveille des Quatre Saisons Lettuce
Yugoslovian Red Butterhead Lettuce
Speckled (Trout) Lettuce
Blue Solaise Leek
America Spinach
Honey Boat Squash (Delicata-type)
Principe Borghese Tomato (for drying)
Blue Boy Bachelor Button
Calendula Mixture
Tip Top Nasturtium
Persian Carpet Zinnia...
...to name a few! Enjoy! :)
Such a sweetie! He probably earned that nap, LOL!
I never thought about eating them. If I have too much calcium, all it does is add to my bunion, LOL! (TMI!)
I started saving them, already. I crunch them up and mix them with bone meal and put 3/4 cup in each planting hole for tomatoes, peppers, zukes & cukes. No Blossom End Rot problems, ever.
If I’m remembering correctly, you guys got a LOT of rain this season - more than normal? That, right there, would lead to the ‘corking’ problem. Not much you can do about that, unfortunately. Peppers like it hot and dry, for sure.
They act that way, just like tomatoes ‘split’ if they go from being too dry to being too wet. Of course, the Jalapeno has a different cell-wall make up, so the corking happens, versus them splitting open like our friend, the thin-walled tomato. ;)
I don’t grow them often - Beau doesn’t like spicy foods, but when I have, I’ve grown the ‘Mucho Nacho’ variety. (Burpee has them, for one.)
“Mucho Nacho Jalapeno
The Mucho Nacho Jalapeno is a larger variety of jalapeno pepper as it grow up to 4 inches long.
You’ll find that these chillies tend to be longer and wider than standard Jalapenos, which makes them ideal for stuffing.
These peppers start off green and then turn red. I’ve found both colors to be extremely hot.
This is the Jalapeno pepper you want if you love heat.”
Year before last (and I will again, this year) I grew ‘Sweet Heat’ pepper and it made THE BEST ‘Cowboy Candy’ bar, none. Not as hot as a Jalapeno - so it was perfect for us.
‘Bonnie’ sells ‘Sweet Heat’ plants, (at Walmart) or you can get seeds from Jung’s.
https://bonnieplants.com/product/sweet-heat-pepper/
But, go with the ‘Mucho Nacho’ for really big, hot Jalapenos.
My cousin told me that the “old farmer with perfect tomatoes” that he met at the country store, told him his secret is powdered milk .... either top dress, then work into the soil a bit, or use in the hole when planting. The calcium in the dried milk is in a form that the plants can readily take up (so it’s said).
When I dig the holes for my tomato plants, I save the dirt in a bucket, add the dried milk, a little Tomato Tone & milorganite, mix well, then fill the hole back in with it. I rarely have blossom end rot any more and it used to be a fairly significant problem .... my cousin said once he started using the dried milk, no blossom end rot for him either.
I think I’ll experiment next year - plant some with dried milk, some with ground egg shell powder. The dried milk can be hard to find & gets pricey.
Thanks - we did get some spells of rain. I’ve had corking before, but never this bad & when the peppers are fat/stubby to start with, you don’t have a lot of ‘salvage’ room!
Hot is not an issue with the folks getting the JPJ :-) Mucho Nacho sounds ‘good’ to me!
BTW, speaking of Jalapenos .... my little niece, when she got her horse yesterday, mistook “Palomino” for Jalapeno. The horse’s new name is now Jalapeno. She also named their boar pig “Nacho” ... I wonder if she’s getting too much Mexican food??
Cowboy Candy is a different story. I made it with jalapenos only ONCE, several years ago - my Cowboy Candy was accused of:
- Causing such bad heartburn it mimicked a heart attack
- Caused the sensation of fire shooting out of peoples’ rear ends
- Was accused of causing hemorrhoids
Even if I used “Sweet Heat”, I don’t think those who made the comments above would trust my Cowboy Candy again, regardless of the peppers I used. I do have some guys ‘new’ to the family ... they might give it a try!
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