Gardening: (2016– )

rotuts · July 17, 2023

work well worth your energy.

did you use a hammer drill ?

hammer in some holes , then pop in the holes

some sort of splitter thing-ey you Sledged ?

nice

chromedome · July 17, 2023

A few random photos from my garden, which is finally hitting its stride after a cold and wet start to the summer (and yeah, I'm in the midst of another week of sporadic rain).

My pumpkin has really big blossoms:

Those were taken yesterday, when I had only male blossoms on the plant. This morning I had both male and female blossoms open, and hand-pollinated since pollinating insects aren't super-active in the rain. For those who don't know the difference, here's an illustrative example:

The blossoms on the right - all of them - are male, as evidenced by their skinny stems. The one in the foreground on the left is a female blossom. That bulge beneath the blossom will become a pumpkin if fertilized. I have two of these plants in large pots, and will prune back each one to just two pumpkins. They're a variety called 'Pepita,' which has hull-less seeds ideal for roasting and snacking. The pots aren't especially large for such a heavy-feeding plant, but the bottom half is all rabbit compost (ie, manure and bedding) so I'm confident I'll run out of frost-free weather before the pumpkins run out of nutrients.

My tomatoes seem to be doing pretty well this year, despite my early-season difficulties (the seedlings were in my greenhouse when a high wind deconstructed it for me). On the left are my slicing tomatoes, mostly Black Krim. On the left are my Romas.

I have potatoes in a couple of conventional beds, but also thought I'd try the notion of a "potato box": keep adding soil as the plants grow, and they'll keep pushing out new spuds along their whole length. In theory, you can get a remarkably high yield from a small square footage by doing this. I need to add another couple of boards' height to the box and top it up with another 10-12 inches of soil, whenever it stops bloody raining. But hey, so far so good!

...and my garlic is on the homestretch, now. It's sternum-height on me (admittedly, I only stand 5' 7", but still...) and just beginning to brown at the tips. Bulb growth is now in full swing, with the scapes having been removed a couple of weeks ago. I'll harvest them in a month or so. I won't sweat weeding these beds until I've harvested the garlic, since it's handily out-competing the grass at the moment. Then the beds will get a cold-tolerant late crop, probably kale or chard.

I also have a few beds of bush beans that are on the verge of starting to produce. The green is a variety called 'Provider,' the yellow is called 'Monte Gusto,' and there's a more delicate filet bean called 'Moscotte.' The latter is the one the mastiff was snacking on. I'm beginning to see buds on the first two, but my Moscotte bed is a week or two behind. The dog-eaten stems have largely regenerated, to my relief, and aren't far behind the others.

That's about half of the garden. At some point in the next little while I'll get pics of the rest.

heidih · July 17, 2023

@chromedome nice vibrant producing plants. On the pumpkin my clear visual flash was growing milk fed pumpkins for State Fair competition in Laura Ingall's Wilder series. I really look forward to your harvest of the 'Pepita' and how the seeds turn out for roasting and munching.

Edited July 17, 2023 by heidih (log)

Paul Bacino · July 17, 2023

Totally Bummed, neighbors turkeys devastated my tomatoes yesterday!!!

heidih · July 17, 2023

3 minutes ago, Paul Bacino said:

Totally Bummed, neighbors turkeys devastated my tomatoes yesterday!!!

Good fences make good neighbrs?

**Shelby** · July 17, 2023

13 minutes ago, Paul Bacino said:

Totally Bummed, neighbors turkeys devastated my tomatoes yesterday!!!

We need a shock face emoji. OMG! I'm so sorry! Domestic turkeys?

Darienne · July 17, 2023

1 hour ago, chromedome said:

A few random photos from my garden, which is finally hitting its stride after a cold and wet start to the summer (and yeah, I'm in the midst of another week of sporadic rain).

Wow! We really need a wow emoji. Really, really, really. I am so impressed by your garden, cd.

As for the pumpkin pepos...or at least that's what we always called the little emerging plants on the female hardshelled gourd flowers...which we also hand pollinated back when. What made it really special is that we grew a variety of different shaped gourds, and there, under the flower, was this darling (sorry) teeny weeny kettle gourd, or a cannonball, or a canteen gourd, or whatever it was. Then after a few years we gave up. Growing hardshelled gourds in East Central Ontario is not really a good idea....

dcarch · July 17, 2023

3 hours ago, chromedome said:

A few random photos from my garden, which is finally hitting its stride after a cold and wet start to the summer (and yeah, I'm in the midst of another week of sporadic rain).

My pumpkin has really big blossoms:

Those were taken yesterday, when I had only male blossoms on the plant. This morning I had both male and female blossoms open, and hand-pollinated since pollinating insects aren't super-active in the rain. For those who don't know the difference, here's an illustrative example:

-----

Some politician may say you have small hands. 🤣🤣🤣

Is that your electric fence system?

dcarch

dcarch · July 17, 2023

4 hours ago, rotuts said:

@dcarch

work well worth your energy.

did you use a hammer drill ?

hammer in some holes , then pop in the holes

some sort of splitter thing-ey you Sledged ?

nice

Yes, two methods considered. Hammer drill holes deep enough for rock splitting wedges. It took a while to drill granite at 2.5" spacing, 7" deep .

If that fails, I would drill (diamond core drill) 1.5" holes( 14" deep). Holes at 8" x 8", then fill holes with demolition expanding cement to crack the boulder.

If the above two methods failed, I may go with what heidith had suggested dynamite!!! 😆

dcarch

heidih · July 17, 2023

That fragged rock remover looks like a post hole digger? I have found then effective for their intended use. Yours - good thinking

chromedome · July 17, 2023

1 hour ago, dcarch said:

Some politician may say you have small hands. 🤣🤣🤣

Is that your electric fence system?

dcarch

For the record, 9 1/2" span.*

What you see in the background is the old original electric fence from a previous owner. The charger is buried somewhere in the barn, and I haven't located it yet. When I do I'll bring that back up to snuff/into service. The old fence loops around the back of my current garden, but the brush on the other side is so overgrown that the dog doesn't enter from that direction (and deer won't either, because of the dog). So I strung a temporary fence along the front (closing the loop, as it were) and connected it to my solar charger, which has more than enough oomph for that length of fence.

*I would estimate the blossom at 7-8"

dcarch · July 17, 2023

1 hour ago, heidih said:

That fragged rock remover looks like a post hole digger? I have found then effective for their intended use. Yours - good thinking

Actually it's this one, made with leftover electric conduits. Very effective to deal with heavy odd shaped objects.

dcarch

heidih · July 18, 2023

1 hour ago, dcarch said:

Actually it's this one, made with leftover electric conduits. Very effective to deal with heavy odd shaped objects.

dcarch

I should have realized yours was more Mac Gyver https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/MacGyver

TicTac · July 18, 2023

8 hours ago, Paul Bacino said:

Totally Bummed, neighbors turkeys devastated my tomatoes yesterday!!!

Ehhhh!?

I know what would be on the menu for dinner tomorrow night....!

gfweb · July 18, 2023

On 7/14/2023 at 9:50 PM, dcarch said:

That's a good spot visually in my garden, besides, it's not far from my electric fence system. I think squirrels like figs too.

No explosives used. Those are Rock splitting wedges.

dcarch

Explosives are more fun that making big ones into little ones by the Sing-Sing method.

Margaret Pilgrim · July 18, 2023

9 hours ago, Paul Bacino said:

Totally Bummed, neighbors turkeys devastated my tomatoes yesterday!!!

9 hours ago, heidih said:

Good fences make good neighbrs?

Turkeys make good dinners.

gfweb · July 19, 2023

Finally, some color in my tomatoes. None yesterday, real orange today!

JoNorvelleWalker · July 19, 2023

1 hour ago, gfweb said:

Finally, some color in my tomatoes. None yesterday, real orange today!

This brings me joy.

How I so wish I had my own tomato plants this year! Lord being willing maybe next year if I live so long. Meanwhile, for tonight's dinner: Shoprite purchased Campari style hothouse tomatoes, which I confess are often not half bad. I'll still buy Sunset brand when I can find them.

It's so wonderful now that quite acceptable Mexican or Canadian greenhouse tomatoes are available year long, rather than anticipating New Jersey garden tomatoes available for a month or two at best. I cannot help being reminded of Christopher Marlowe's play The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus. In those days out of season produce could get you in a lot of trouble.

chromedome · July 19, 2023

18 hours ago, Ann_T said:

I'm not big on breakfast, but I do love toast and tomatoes.

Especially when the tomatoes are from our garden and the toast is slices of homemade baguette.

These are Early Girl tomatoes.

I'm just getting blossoms on mine, which neatly encapsulates the difference in gardening from one coast to the other.

chromedome · July 19, 2023

This morning I learned that those pumpkin blossoms aren't just strikingly large and beautiful, but have a sweet scent as well. I'm very much a "stop and smell the flowers" kind of person, so I'm actually rather surprised I hadn't thought to stick my nose into one previously.

Ann_T · July 19, 2023

3 hours ago, chromedome said:

I'm just getting blossoms on mine, which neatly encapsulates the difference in gardening from one coast to the other.

Tomatoes don't grow as well here on the west coast. Not like Ontario. Tomatoes love hot days and nights. So growing tomatoes here

is always a hit and miss. So far this summer has been warmer and the evenings haven't cooled off as much so our tomatoes are doing

better. Other than these Early girls, it will still be a while before we start harvesting the other varieties we planted. Usually later in August and

into September.

chromedome · July 19, 2023

20 minutes ago, Ann_T said:

Tomatoes don't grow as well here on the west coast. Not like Ontario. Tomatoes love hot days and nights. So growing tomatoes here

is always a hit and miss. So far this summer has been warmer and the evenings haven't cooled off as much so our tomatoes are doing

better. Other than these Early girls, it will still be a while before we start harvesting the other varieties we planted. Usually later in August and

into September.

My early tomato is Scotia, which does well here in Nova Scotia (hence the name) and NB. I've only got one or two plants this year, which I picked up at the nursery rather than starting myself. It's not my favorite for flavor, but you'll generally get 'em ripe even in years when nothing else wins the race. This year's a bit of an anomaly because I planted them a bit later than my Romas and Black Krims, so their advantage will be relatively smaller. I have lightweight frames and a roll of heavy poly that I intend to put over the tomatoes as the season winds down, which hopefully will buy me a few extra weeks (which is often enough to make a difference).

I know conditions on your coast aren't ideal for tomatoes either, but I expect you get an extra couple of months between first and last frost. That counts for a lot.

Darienne · July 19, 2023

I posted a photo of my dirt bag garden recently and noted that my Eggplants were not producing anything...a couple of little flowers followed by nothing.

My question: Many garden centers still have vegetable plants for sale for planting even though it's half way through July. Could anyone suggest what would be the most useful seedlings to buy to get some kind of crop in Central Ontario...zone 5a.

Ann_T · July 19, 2023

51 minutes ago, chromedome said:

I know conditions on your coast aren't ideal for tomatoes either, but I expect you get an extra couple of months between first and last frost. That counts for a lot.

We actually have cool springs and can often have frost after the May long weekend. Doesn't often get warm here until later in June. And can start raining and not stop

by the end of August. This year so far had been good for the tomato plants. Places like Windsor, Ontario and the surrounding area have an extended spring and an extended fall so

perfect tomato growing . Moe grew up in Windsor.

TicTac · July 19, 2023

2 hours ago, chromedome said:

This morning I learned that those pumpkin blossoms aren't just strikingly large and beautiful, but have a sweet scent as well. I'm very much a "stop and smell the flowers" kind of person, so I'm actually rather surprised I hadn't thought to stick my nose into one previously.

Quit sniffing 'em and eat the damn things!

They are delicious. And at those size, screaming to be stuffed with some gooey cheeses (fava paste also works great).

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