Posted on 07/08/2023 6:03:06 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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That tomato platter is gorgeous! Cannot WAIT for it to be on my table latter this summer. :)
LOL! Love it!
Who knew Basil could solve all of Life’s problems? ;)
Does pesto freeze well?
My maters and peppers are going to be very expensive this year. $120 for cattle panel fence. $120 for drip system. $40 for compost as mulch. Then I made a raised bed for 4 shisito peppers and filled it with store bought raised bed soil, $44. I'm up over $300 for 4 pepper plants and a dozen tomato plants.
Almost $20 per plant.
One determinate tomato plant made three tomatoes and I think it's done. I should have pulled the flowers off when the plant was too little to grow fruit.
Guess I'll try and think of it as $300 for growing lessons.
$50 for the lesson called -- Why You Should Pull the Flowers Off of Small Mater Plants (lesson includes 3 free tomatoes).
$50 lesson a couple of weeks ago was -- Don't Prune Too Soon (you could inadvertently cut the main stem off)
The $44 lesson -- Check the Price of Bagged Soil Before it's Rung Up
I just figured $5-6 or something. Nope, Whitney Farms Organic Raised Bed Mix is $11/bag and I grabbed four. Those four bags were more expensive than the truck bed full of compost. I could have mixed compost/soil -- 50/50 and it would have made a fine raised bed mix. Of course when I bought the bagged stuff, I hadn't bought the compost yet, wasn't sure if the "landscaping" place even sold it or if it was for their own use and had no idea of the price.
Free bonus lesson -- Don't expect the plants to act like normal plants.
One of my Chadwick Cherry plants grew a normal cluster. Then it grew three more clusters but the cluster branches kept getting longer and developed another cluster and one kept going and has three clusters. They are not suckers. They came out the stem all by themselves, not in the armpit of a branch. After those three turbo wacko cluster branches, it went back to normal single clusters. I had to drop another lean/lower string to hang that triple cluster from. I'll probably have to support the double cluster ones too.
I’ve got little baby shisitos again. I think I need to do like maters and pull the early flowers off to let the plants get bigger. They’re barely over a foot tall and have fruits. Looks like I’ll get plenty of them compared to last year, just small.
Garden visitors today! My niece was delivering piglets to new owners yesterday & spent the night next door - the 2 great-nieces were along. They see garden pics, but wanted to see it in person. That got me going early, cleaning things up a bit after all the rain the last couple of days.
Due to the rain, the cukes went nuts. I threw away about 15 that were too big, getting a bit yellow. There were enough decent ones to send a couple home with the niece & 3 left over for us.
The first spaghetti squash was given away, along with 4 huge & beautiful bell peppers (best I have ever grown), a large onion & 4 scallions. My niece has never made a homegrown spaghetti squash before - hope it turns out for her - she says it is on the menu tonight.
While I was out there, I cut back the sage again, which has finished blooming. I also cut back the mint, which was thinking about blooming. The oregano that was encroaching a bit got cut back, too. The dahlias buds/blooms chewed on by the Japanese beetles were trimmed off and some weeds that I know are susceptible to vinegar were sprayed. Spotted baby squash bugs, but the squash is ripening so they got to the plant late - the vines are about ‘done’ anyway.
Wildlife: saw a Pileated Woodpecker this morning on the Redbuds & spotted a box turtle while mowing in the back field Saturday. Fortunately, the turtle wasn’t in deep grass - I hate running over them with the mower. This one was laying eggs so maybe we’re going to have little turtles around, assuming something doesn’t dig up the eggs before they can hatch.
Agreed the tomato platter is gorgeous.
Shishitos like a ton of water. Plus I always have one up top in a large planter. The plant is almost twice the size of the others but all the peppers are big on all plants. Its not too late to water more.
Something tells me your drip system is not delivering enough water. We hose water almost every night unless it rains.
Now that you mention it, I should probably water them more often than everything else since they’re in a raised bed.
Our soil has great drainage so we just really soak them.
Tonight was jalapeño popper night! The jalapeños are huge: Bonnie Mammoths. The only disappointment was that just one of the peppers had some ‘heat’.
Hopefully, I will get some peppers that will make it to ‘red’ & still be in good shape for jelly.
A friend at church gave my mom some habanero pepper jelly about 2 weeks ago, his ‘specialty’ ... painfully hot and that was it for me, no more.
Most of my tomatoes are coming in right now and I am having caprese salad and bruschetta every day at lunch! (I started every one of those tomato plants from seed (he said with quiet pride!) :)
I know that you have some issues with limited cistern storage but even with that you might think about using a soaker hose instead. You get more water over a larger surface than a 1/4 with 1 GPH drips Encourages the roots to spread out.
I am using a Rainbird drip with 18” spacing for some of my tomatoes but I still do not think its enough water and supplement with the sprayer. Set up with a soaker is a lot easier too!
Grilled onions are the best. I marinade circular thick slices with the meat. Hint - use at least three toothpicks on each slice put in from the side and they won’t fall apart.
I still have a few Poppers left from my batch...and more on the vine. I grew a ‘Bonnie’ brand too, but it was just the everyday one. No heat problems once the seeds and membranes were removed.
I don’t understand the ‘heat thing’ either! One of Beau’s brothers is a total Heat Freak and always has his own ‘special blend’ of hot spices to add to anything you feed him. I think it’s a mental problem, LOL! Also, he’ll eat ALL the tortilla chips in the house - so I always buy TWO bags if he’s coming over! ;)
I am down to my last jar of Pepper Jelly, so I’ll be making more this season, too. ‘Just a little Heat...and a lot of Heart.’ ;)
Hey! That’d be fun to put on labels for gifting. :)
No rain since 10 days ago. I watered all fruit trees last Friday/Saturday and will again this weekend. It feels like ‘War and rumors of war,’ But, ‘Rain and rumors of rain’ around here. Next ‘chance’ is for tomorrow and Thursday and it might happen as family members are camping this week!
So, today the Kitchen Garden gets a watering, though I fertilized all the peppers and tomatoes, yesterday. If we get no rain, I’ll run the sprinkler on Beau’s sad little Sweet Corn patch so if it dies it’s not ENTIRELY my fault. ;)
I have GOT to convince him that we need another batch of raised beds over there for some decent production! Keeping up with the weeding in an open plot is not how I am going to spend my days when he’s off hunting bears all Summer and Fall. ;)
You should be proud!
And if my NEW OVEN (only weeks old!) doesn’t get FIXED today, I’ll be grilling everything, LOL!
I like raw, red onion, though, but I can’t see that grilled onions would ruin the salad.
But not for everyone. When I go to the gardening or hardware stores its the trays of really hot pepper that go unsold.
Some heat is good. I DO like the endorphin rush you get with some hot peppers, Allepo or Jalapeno, something like that. You can feel all the little aches and pains melt away for a while!
Good luck with new beds! (I keep thinking about getting some metal 24" galvanized roofing and using those for raised bed sides. Last longer than wood. I think 36" would be enough to keep the rabbits out? And make it easier to lean over to weed maybe.)
Shoot! Hope it does! A new oven that needs fixing. What brand?
MwH Very nice looking shishitos!
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