Gardening: 2015-2016

[ElainaA]

3 minutes ago, Okanagancook said:

Nice 'hoop house'!  You'll have fun with it.  

Is Superman still talking to Wonder Woman after all that assembly?

I'm assuming that if we had super powers it would not have taken us 2 days rather than 2 hours. He did much more of the work than I did. He is currently sitting in his garage contemplating the 1958 MG that he didn't have a chance to work on this weekend and listening to Anna Netrebko. I'm making him a very nice dinner and we have a bottle of good chianti. That will help a lot.  

[lesliec]

6 hours ago, shain said:

 

@lesliec Our tree is only just flowering. Never liked the fruits much, to be honest...
I never tried cooking with it, I sure will try to bake with the fruits once it will ripen. Perhaps a feijoa crumble.

 

Feijoa crumble is good, as are feijoa muffins.

 

And I've just learned that the flowers are edible.  Crunchy; hint of cinnamon (it says here).  It's too late for me to try them this year, but I'd be interested in a report from you.

[liuzhou]

Not mine I regret to say, but I spent yesterday at my second home in the countryside and my neighbour was busy harvesting and drying her alliums in the sun.

 

Scallions

 

Scallions

 

Garlic

 

Edited April 25, 2016 by liuzhou (log)

[dcarch]

7 hours ago, ElainaA said:

I have a greenhouse! We bought the kit last fall and spent all this weekend putting it up. The directions say 2 people = 2 hours. To which I say HA! Maybe Superman and Wonder Woman but not Barney and I. It is the cheapest kit on the market and kind of looks it but I have a friend who has had one up for 3 years and it is still in perfect shape. It is, I think, more properly called a hoop house since it has no heat and no lights. I have parts to extend the drip irrigation system, using individual emitters for each plant, into the structure. I've never gardened with a green house so it will be a learning experience.  The plan is to use it primarily for tomatoes - partly as some degree of protection from the air-bourne blight that is endemic here. 

 

 

Just a couple of thoughts:

 

1. Get a remote thermometer to monitor the temperature. On a hot day, it can cook your tomatoes pretty quickly.

 

2. Disassemble and put away the plastic film when the green house is not in use off seasons. In general, they only last about 4 years in full sun.

 

dcarch

 

[gfweb]

On 4/20/2016 at 8:01 PM, kayb said:

Y'all, don't laugh at my sad little tomato garden.

 

My father, whose gardens were always immaculate, would be horrified. But this garden spot was a Bermuda lawn of some 60 years' tenure, this time last week. It needed to be turned with a turning plow, then disked, then tilled. It got tilled. I pulled out the biggest of the clumps of Bermuda and chunked them over against the fence.

 

As I am newly back in the gardening business after many years, my collection of garden tools is minimal; a hand fork/mattock and a hand spade, both of which I've used for planting herbs in pots, and a cheap hoe I bought Sunday at Lowe's. So the planting of the tomatoes was accomplished by me sitting on the wet ground (we had had a light rain this morning and are supposed to have more tonight) breaking up clods and working in compost with a hand fork, and carefully planting and hilling up around each tomato plant by hand. I have 2 each of 2 different hybrids; about 8 Bradley heirlooms; a yellow cherry tomato, a red grape tomato, and eight Romas in this bed and the one next to it. 

 

A friend who no longer gardens offered to let me pillage her shed for hand tools I needed. Be assured I'll be doing so. Growing up with them, I didn't think about how hard it is to garden without them.

 

Next to come: cucumbers, yellow squash, zucchini and pole beans. The pole beans need to wait until it's a bit warmer. I ran out of time and energy to plant the squash and cucumbers.

 Think I'd mulch with newspaper to kill off the tenacious bermuda grass

 

[shain]

9 hours ago, lesliec said:

 

Feijoa crumble is good, as are feijoa muffins.

 

And I've just learned that the flowers are edible.  Crunchy; hint of cinnamon (it says here).  It's too late for me to try them this year, but I'd be interested in a report from you.

 

Lesliac, I owe you much thanks, this is wonderful and I've been laughing since trying the flowers. The petals are very sweet and fluffy, and have more then simply a hint of cinnamon, they taste just like flat cola! If I hadn't known better, I would say this is what coca-cola is flavored with. The flower's stamen is hard and tasteless.

[ElainaA]

7 hours ago, dcarch said:

 

Just a couple of thoughts:

 

1. Get a remote thermometer to monitor the temperature. On a hot day, it can cook your tomatoes pretty quickly.

 

2. Disassemble and put away the plastic film when the green house is not in use off seasons. In general, they only last about 4 years in full sun.

 

dcarch

 

@dcarch  Thanks! The thermometer is a good idea. The doors roll up so there is good ventilation - and on our hill the breeze/wind never really stops. Also, it doesn't get really hot here very often a day in the 90's is worth a mention in the newspaper.   We have been advised to remove the skin after growing season - less because of sun than because of the burden of snow. 

 

@gfweb and @kayb  For me the problem with newspaper mulch is getting it to stay in place. Spraying it with water after you put it down helps but I still either find it blowing around the garden after a few days or else I have to use lots of stones to weight it down - the very stones that I have been digging out of the garden! I like that newspaper decomposes and can be tilled in and do use it every few years but generally I fall back on black plastic. I buy the type sold for painter's drop cloth - much heavier than the 'garden plastic' and it last 3-4 years. 

Edited April 25, 2016 by ElainaA (log)

[Shelby]

Regarding the mulching with newspaper, we used to do this and then cover it with straw.  Now we just do the straw.  Works just as well with less energy exerted lol.  

 

The wind was HUGE yesterday.  I was going to plant my 'maters and some squash from the greenhouse but opted to wait.  I was afraid the wind would break them off.

 

So, I weeded and weeded and weeded.  Not a weed left in there.  It's always a good feeling when that is done.  

 

Oh and then I did plant some seeds.  Okra and cucumber.  And I threw 7 more brussels sprouts plants from the greenhouse in since the bunnies ate the others sigh.

 

The peas and beans and lettuce and collard greens and spinach have all poked there heads through the dirt.  I'm sure the bunnies will eat well.  

 

Today looks like a decent day to get back out there and plant.  I need to restock my Advil stash.  Gardening makes my back sore lol.

[ElainaA]

@Shelby  I've been wondering where the bunnies went. We usually have dozens in our yard and on our hills this time of year; this year - none. Now I know, they are all in Oklahoma. Sorry... 

[Shelby]

3 hours ago, ElainaA said:

@Shelby  I've been wondering where the bunnies went. We usually have dozens in our yard and on our hills this time of year; this year - none. Now I know, they are all in Oklahoma. Sorry... 

Yes.  I am the keeper of the bunnies lol.

 

They left the plants alone last night...we will hope that the trend continues.

 

Just came in.  Got exactly 50 tomato plants in the ground.  Have a few left over in the greenhouse that are still too little yet.  They will be good for backup in case of eatage or dog steppage lol.

[haresfur]

On 4/24/2016 at 7:20 PM, Thanks for the Crepes said:

A neighbor of mine, actually about a fifteen minute walk round trip, let's me take rosemary from her massive shrub because she has way more than she can use. I really appreciate it. Rosemary I can get in the store is just sad in comparison, expensive, and sold in quantities I can't use without waste.

 

I get all the rosemary I need from my potted plant (Soon to be put in the ground, I think), but there is an unlimited supply in the hedges the city maintains in town. BTW Gardening Australia showed an awesome bay hedge. Must have taken a long time to establish and I don't think I would have squared it off because the cut leaves look a bit strange.

[HungryChris]

18 hours ago, Shelby said:

Yes.  I am the keeper of the bunnies lol.

 

They left the plants alone last night...we will hope that the trend continues.

 

Just came in.  Got exactly 50 tomato plants in the ground.  Have a few left over in the greenhouse that are still too little yet.  They will be good for backup in case of eatage or dog steppage lol.

 

I had a rabbit problem a few years ago, but have not seen one in quite a while. I think the foxes and coyotes have the upper hand for the time being. I have to fence in the garden to keep the deer out, but it is a little early, yet.

Peas, lettuce, radishes and beans are all that are in the ground yet. Tomatoes have to wait until June here. I have tried to plant them in May, but you might as well put them in the fridge, they just go into suspended animation and do not grow at all. I wish I had room for 50 tomato plants, but just don't have that much sunny flatland at my disposal. My first house was a condo and I still celebrate having any garden at all.

After 4 years, I finally have a crop of asparagus that might make it to the table. Some are still spindly, but some are robust enough to cut. There is a farm nearby that sells cow compost for $10 per loader bucket and next weekend, I intend to get a few. Some will go on the garden and some onto the asparagus.

HC

 

 

[shain]

Too much mulberries. I suffer from heavy fructose overload and permanently purple fingers. 

 

[kayb]

Planting is finished here at KB Farms, all 208 square feet of it. Tomato plants are thriving. Got the yellow squash, zucchini and cucumbers planted yesterday. Planted pole beans this evening, to get ahead of the rain that's supposed to come through tonight or early tomorrow. Will sic Lucy the Watchpug on the first bunny to show its face.

 

Here's an amusing take on bunnies and other such varmints pillaging one's garden. It was my inaugural performance at Tales from the South, a storytelling show that's a regular on the local public radio station. One of my favorite things to do. "click"

[HungryChris]

11 hours ago, kayb said:

Planting is finished here at KB Farms, all 208 square feet of it. Tomato plants are thriving. Got the yellow squash, zucchini and cucumbers planted yesterday. Planted pole beans this evening, to get ahead of the rain that's supposed to come through tonight or early tomorrow. Will sic Lucy the Watchpug on the first bunny to show its face.

 

Here's an amusing take on bunnies and other such varmints pillaging one's garden. It was my inaugural performance at Tales from the South, a storytelling show that's a regular on the local public radio station. One of my favorite things to do. "click"

Nicely done, kayb, on both counts!

HC

[Anna N]

@kayb

 

Loved the storytelling!  

[Okanagancook]

Me too Kayb.  Very entertaining.

[kayb]

Thanks, y'all. I've loved my appearances at TFTS. It's a great show to find and follow online. My own personal favorite of the ones I've done is here. (Which has nothing to do with food, other than free food and drink. Sorry.)

 

 

[Okanagancook]

Harvest time.  Picked some arugula yesterday along with herbs.  Butter lettuce should yield a few leaves soon.  Many hummingbirds this am.

 

:

[rotuts]

your radishes look fantastic.  harder to grow than one might think, re splitting etc.

 

I used to grow French Breakfast.

[Okanagancook]

Yeah, the one split.  I really didn't think they would be nearly ready but when I checked, yikes, they were enormous.

[Thanks for the Crepes]

@Okanagancook, you know your beautiful fresh radish greens  are edible too, right? Usually, by the time they show up in my grocery stores, the greens are iffy and have been broken and abused by a rubber band or wire retainer on the bunch. Sometimes, if I cook them that same day, they are great. The prickly little hairs disappear with cooking.

 

 

[Okanagancook]

Oh, yes, the greens, grilled, thanks for the reminder.

[Wayne]

 

Nice to see everyone's gardening season progressing.

 

I built some new raised beds this spring and had a fair amount of quad mix remaining. Decided to try something new (for me) and covered a square yard of my asparagus patch with 6 inches of the soil.

 

The result: (with apologies for the quality of the photography)

 

I've harvested them as soon as the tip pops out of the soil.

 

[HungryChris]

I currently have squash and cukes in the top of the light stand. The cukes will go into an area on the south side of the house that seems to get an earlier start to spring, I think due to the exposure and the warmth of the foundation at night.

 

 

 

The squash will go in the garden in a few days, joining the beans lettuce, radishes and peas.

 

 

The herbs on the bottom of the light stand are destined for a whisky barrel on the deck, joining another one with thyme, chives and sage. I recently stained a similar barrel along the driveway that currently holds pansies and liked the look, so I stained the new barrel with the same stain.

 

This one  will get set up on the deck then I'll try and stain the one that is already there trying not to get that stain all over the deck. I do like being able to just walk out

the slider for fresh herbs when I want.

HC

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 1, 2016 by HungryChris (log)