Weekly Garden Thread - July 29-August 5, 2022 [The Rise and Fall of Kale Edition]

July 29, 2022 | Diana in WI/Greeneyes in Memoriam

[Diana in Wisconsin]

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[Bon of Babble]

Lots of work - but the results are well worth it.

My brother has now gone to ONLY raised beds - which he built himself. Our soil here is terrible - rock hard and of very poor quality - I fought it for years trying to amend it in every way possible - and finally gave up. I’ve switched almost entirely to container gardening, with good results.

[LilFarmer]

I tried growing kale a few years, but washing it was a pain (all the nooks and crannies) and I never was able to get the tiny zebra caterpillars and eggs…

I switched to collards and never looked back. They grow almost year round here in Ga

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Great score on gas! My Mom does the same thing by getting her gas at Costco. I think you can earn gas points at one other local grocery store, but I can’t remember which.

I mowed on Thursday...and got 90% done...and then the belt fell off that powers the blades and that was all she wrote!

Luckily, the house yard and the garden areas are done - I just didn’t get the barn yard and down by the dog kennels done. Beau will fix it all when he’s back on Monday.

As an added bonus, I’ didn’t smack my FACE into anything when I was mowing this week, either. Always A Good Thing, Martha! ;)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Your yard looks so inviting. Love the pine needle mulch!

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

"Bonjour Kale!" "Kale aux Lardons!" Bistro food! (Bet it contains this recipe!)

https://www.prevention.com/food-nutrition/recipes/a20488696/kale-aux-lardons/ (Kale with bacon and soft boiled eggs!)

The recipe calls for raw, but like you Liz, I like my kale cooked! Right at the end I would cook the kale for a bit in the hot bacon drippings until it wilts. (Here is an authentic recipe with a picture of the "Warm" salad. It is unfortunately in French but I include it for the pictures!)

https://www.academieduketo.com/blog/salade-chaude-de-kale-aux-lardons

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Your yard is neat and tidy and well ordered! Great! (Which reminds me to go out and start pulling weeds)

[GaltAdonis]

I like escarole - especially in Italian escarole soup.
And Swiss chard is okay.
And a yummy baby spinach salad is wonderful.
Cooked spinach is good with wheat germ sprinkled on top.
And I'll eat all of the romaine or black seeded Simpson lettuce
that you can spare.
I'll eat collard greens or mustard greens and almost enjoy them.
But Kale? Not so much - for me.

[Liz]

Merci beaucoup.

I can read and understand French........kindofa Francophile.

French techniques are the beat........so is your little trick w/ cooking kale in bacon...

....je t’aime........

[Qiviut]

This is the 2nd year I’ve raked/bagged pine needles for mulch. I also fill up the trailer & dump it between beds, then just fork it straight in to mulch. It takes about 12 bags (large contractor bags) filled in the fall that I store under a pole barn during the winter. I am currently on bag 11, so I’ll have enough to finish the sunflowers. The pine needles are the best thing to happen to my raised beds in the last 2 years ... really helps keep the weeds down & they don’t disintegrate all that much. I pull the old needles off and use them in the walkways ... any walkway with pine needles has much less weed growth than areas where I’ve had just wood (non-cedar) chips.

The yard looks more ‘inviting’ in pics than reality! The fields, when mowed, look like a park ... that I really enjoy after hours of mowing. I mowed the yard Monday - will have to do it again because certain types of grass grow big long shoots & they are up already with all the rain. The good thing is I don’t feel guilty burning so much gas in the mower, since it wasn’t $4.00/gallon gas!

BTW, the guy who services my mower is going out of business AND he pi$$ed me off the last time I had to call him. SO, I am going to service the mower myself when it’s time to put it away for the winter .... I have watched him do it for enough times that I know ‘what’ to do, just need to work on ‘how’ to do it & my brother can supervise the first time I do it. It will save $350 .... minus maybe $75-100 for filters, etc. I found a place that will sharpen the blades for me ... just need to get them off ... I think I am going to invest in a “lift” ... my brother can use it for his mower, too ... will save having to crawl under the decks to get the blades off. I have always wanted to work on the mower(s) myself instead of depending on someone to come do it .... looks like NOW is the time. :-) Believe it or not, I can put the belt back on the garden tractor mower - it would pop off sometimes - a new, tighter belt fixed that problem & I put that one on myself, too. Now the big mower - I would need help with that one, just don’t think I have enough arm strength after watching ‘mower guy’ struggle to replace it last year.

[Qiviut]

You haven’t (and won’t!!) see any pics of my dad’s pole sheds. “Neat & tidy” are not the words that come to mind! He grew up on a farm in the Depression ... every bent nail, scrap of metal, piece of wood, string, etc. was saved ... he’s done that all of his life. I confess that I do find things that come in handy, but some things really do need to go to the dump .... we’ve sneaked out a couple of pickup loads & he has never missed them. He’s going on 100 ... it gives me a stomach ache when I look at what will have to be cleaned up in the future, when he’s no longer around.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Good for you!

My belt falls off because ‘someone’ uses my mower where he shouldn’t! I am entirely convinced of that. But, if he wants to keep fixing it himself, fine by me. ;)

At least he’s not using a steer to mow the house yard like he used to do before I moved out here! :)

[Pollard]

And here I’ve sat with a frame for a high tunnel for 3-4 years now and haven’t done anything with it.

Of course all I have are the hoops. Still need plastic, a way to attach it, drop down sides, door on each end, vents for the peaks, shade cloth for heat waves and since we don’t have a well, gutters to collect rainwater. I do have two tanks. Then that water has to get to the plants so I either need a drip system or a dozen or more nice sprinklers hanging from the frame. In either case, the water needs to be filtered and pumped. The vents should be automated.

Basically I need all the stuff that costs the most money. I’ve thought about putting it on tracks and having it moveable but that’s more money, plus we do get some wind here.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Yep. Money. Always a consideration.

I know I’m jinxing myself, but this is the first year in FOUR that we didn’t need to make a big repair to the greenhouse due to wind.

Usually bad weather comes in from the West or Southwest. If it comes from the East, Katie Bar The Door! Literally, LOL!

[FamiliarFace]

*** But kale is one I have never been able to enjoy.***

The orchard near us grows its own kale, and it isn’t bitter. For salad, I take one leaf and remove the stem, then chop it up and sprinkle it in with the other salad greens. It’s lovely!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Agreed. That ‘Prism’ variety that I’ve been growing isn’t the least bit bitter.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Bon, great flowers!

More on figeater beetles; Yellow sticky traps. I would put some down and put some rotting fruit in the center and see what you catch. Organza bags over your ripening figs. >$10 cheap solution! This picture is for birds but should work for beetles:

https://www.diys.com/figeater-beetle-infestations/

Here I have Green June Bugs, which are about the same things. They like to lay eggs around compost piles and the grubs dig in and live somewhere the bottom. I find them when I turning the piles. I feed them to the birds. So If you have compost keep it turned.

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

Curly kale....hate it....Lacinato/flst leaf kale....that is a staple of my diet.

I also like red Russian kale which is more like a frissee in size without the rough texture.

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

I have a ton if Italian/lacinato kale seeds that I harvested from own plants.

If you need some send me your address in a p.m. and I will mail you some... I legit have a lifetime supply.

[TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig]

I take the Lacinato kale from the garden...give it a light rinse and then just eat it raw....love it and I feel a difference in my general health aince I don’t have my garden to eat from.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Needs a piece of 'recycled' orange baler twine in there, too...