Gardening: (2016– )

[chromedome]

7 hours ago, Senior Sea Kayaker said:

@FauxPas

I envy your tomatoes. I'm just starting to see fruit forming.

 

Me too. Except for one of my cherry tomatoes, which has given us a few ripe ones already.

[dcarch]

Found this monster this morning.

 

At first, I thought it was three or four tomatoes crowded together, then I was surprised. I was able to find only one stem.

 

Just about three pounds. Picture shows next to a one-pounder.

 

dcarch

[heidih]

1 hour ago, dcarch said:

Found this monster this morning.

 

At first, I thought it was three or four tomatoes crowded together, then I was surprised. I was able to find only one stem.

 

Just about three pounds. Picture shows next to a one-pounder.

 

dcarch

It is odd when the do that "crowd sourcing thing"  like the carrot(s) someone showed here today somewhere. Do report on flvor/

[dcarch]

It's a very strange year here in NY for tomatoes:

1. Lots of rain, rain, rain, but not one single fruit has cracked. ( I have 85 plants)

2. Many fruits 1/2 ripe red and 1/2 green. (can't tell about GWR varieties 😉 ) 

3. Excessive green shoulders.

4. You know those funny looking donut peaches? Many tomatoes, big and small came out flattened ?!

 

Also, many varieties are coming out not true to the variety.  I figure that's problems of supply chain issues of the past few years. I have a computerized labeling and tracking system. I don't think those are my mistakes.

 

dcarch

[Darienne]

About fruit cracking.  Our Macintosh apple tree in our back yard is something we watch carefully each year.  For almost 20 years, the apples were too poor, too few, too tasteless, to misshapen, and so on to bother with.  Then a few years ago, suddenly the tree started to produce these amazing wonderful huge crops.  We gave away so many apples to others...just got tired of processing them.  Then last year, the tree had about 6 apples on it all told.  And now, it looks as if it's back in production...but the apples are all small, cracked, misshapen again.  So disheartening.  

 

Oh well, there's always next year.  By the way, the Northern Spy, right beside the Macintosh, has not put forth one apple now.  

 

 

 

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

First bush beans picked yesterday.

 

[FauxPas]

I'm so pleased with tomatoes! Picked more today and more green beans also. 

 

 

[heidih]

For the hopeful tomato gardeners - some respected advice  https://awaytogarden.com/ripening-tomatoes-and-saving-seed-with-craig-lehoullier/

[KennethT]

Two of my kencur from Indonesia have sprouted. I heard they were slow growing but this is hilarious. The one on the right seems to have grown 2-3mm in the last week or so!

 

[FauxPas]

On 7/27/2023 at 9:56 AM, Senior Sea Kayaker said:

@FauxPas

I envy your tomatoes. I'm just starting to see fruit forming

 

It's been a very good year for tomatoes. Terrible for snap peas though, I hardly got any of those.  😞

 

I hope yours are plentiful, once they really get underway! 

 

You too, @chromedome! 

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

14 hours ago, FauxPas said:

 

It's been a very good year for tomatoes. Terrible for snap peas though, I hardly got any of those.  😞

 

I hope yours are plentiful, once they really get underway! 

 

You too, @chromedome! 

 

It's the opposite here. Great for lettuces, greens and peas and terrible for tomatoes and peppers.

 

[chromedome]

The fun part of being away for (most of) a week is prowling the garden once I get back, to see how things are coming along. Yesterday was the first of what I'd consider a typical high-summer harvest, with lots of chard/beet tops, kale, and the first big meal from my jungle of bush beans. Also we're starting to get a few winecap mushrooms from the small bed we'd inoculated (on a substrate of wood chips).

 

These are the greens (that's oregano on the left, it was starting to bolt so I harvested a bunch of the flower stems to dry):

 

...and the beans, a few last snap peas, etc. There were actually a half-dozen cherry tomatoes, but I took a few straight in to my GF before taking the photo.

 

 

Here's the aforementioned jungle of bush beans. I've planted them more densely this year to see how that works: last year I planted four rows in a 4-foot wide bed, this year six rows in a 3-foot wide bed. Once they hit their stride, the weeds didn't stand a chance.

 

What you're seeing there is actually two beds with a walkway between them, though you can't really see the walkway. The nearer bed is planted with a yellow variety, Monte Gusto, and the farther bed with a green variety called Provider. They both bear heavily, and are currently just dripping with almost-mature pods.

 

 

Today or tomorrow I'll go back through those beds and harvest 4 or 5 times what I got yesterday, and I'll do that for the next month or more.

 

 

My French-style beans (Moscotte) were planted a bit later, and haven't caught up (you can see the original planting on the right, and the second planting on the left; I'd run out of seeds initially). A convenient thing with this cultivar is that the beans are borne above the foliage rather than beneath, which makes them easier to pick.

 

My snap peas are just about done but my shelling peas are just hitting their stride, and I'll be harvesting those soon. That will make my GF happy; she's had a strangely specific fantasy from her earliest childhood of sitting in her rocker shelling a bowl of peas while surrounded by grandchildren who call her Granny. The peas are the only part she didn't have yet. I've been putting my peas down the middle of a bed, and planting other things on either side. This one has fennel to the left and bell peppers (Red Knight) to the right. The first peppers are starting to form.

 

 

Tomatoes are coming along. These are my Black Krims.

 

 

They're an indeterminate variety, and the tallest of them are now up to my eyebrows.

 

 

These are melons; Sugar Baby (an "icebox" watermelon), and Halona (a cantaloupe). I don't know how they'll do, but I can cover them to extend their season when the time comes.

 

 

So yeah, things are coming along. Probably going to harvest my garlic this weekend, it's looking about ready, and then I'll replant those beds in something else (I haven't decided yet what that will be; maybe cauliflower and a second planting of snap peas). I'll cut my first head of broccoli this week as well; it's pretty small but this cultivar generates a lot of side shoots if you harvest the central head early and ultimately gives a higher yield/plant. That wouldn't work for a commercial grower, but for me it's ideal.

 

On a side note, for those who are interested, I interplanted my broccoli with marigolds this year because of their reputation for deterring the cabbage worm moth. It seems to be working; I've had to pick worms and hose eggs from my kale and cabbage but not (so far) from the broccoli.

 

Edited August 1, 2023 by chromedome
Missed one of the photos. :P (log)

[heidih]

Impressive @chromedome Is your household big enough to plow through most of crops fresh or do you preserve/gift a fair bit?

[chromedome]

Just now, heidih said:

Impressive @chromedome Is your household big enough to plow through most of crops fresh or do you preserve/gift a fair bit?

The goal is to eat from the garden as much as we can, while in season, but also to fill our freezers for winter. A couple of years ago I'd managed to blanch and freeze about 30 pounds of kale, chard, etc for the winter, which carried us through until the new crop was almost ready. I hope to meet or exceed that, this year. The green and yellow beans freeze reasonably well, but I'll probably also can and pickle some (I have a pressure canner). We have three dehydrators kicking around, all of them relatively small but in total they'll do for drying herbs and suchlike. I'll be canning a lot of tomatoes by late summer, and probably making and canning/freezing some tomato sauce, and may dry some as well.

 

I try to zero in on things that we eat a lot of, and that are relatively pricey in stores here (the greens, the tomatoes, the beans, the peas, etc). That gives us the bang for the buck. I grow a small quantity of potatoes and carrots each year, because I like them garden-fresh, but they're grown here in quantity (ditto cabbages and winter squash) so I don't give them a lot of garden space because they're cheap and plentiful year-round. Mushrooms were a new thing this year, and results so far have been mixed (the winecaps and lion's mane are doing well, the oysters not so much).

 

I don't delude myself we're going to be self-sufficient in any meaningful way from such a small garden and the modest time I can invest in it, but ideally what we save in store-bought produce will offset the cost of my gardening compulsion and maybe leave us slightly farther ahead financially.

[heidih]

Sensible as always

[rotuts]

@chromedome 

 

I understand exactly what you are trying to do .

 

your choices are based on both ' Fresh from the Garden '

 

ie the potatoes , then the beans , fresh and preserved.

 

and carefully growing what you can save , over the winter .

 

finances are always important 

 

but the satisfaction that comes from both your planning 

 

and hard work in the Garden :

 

nice  .  very very nice .

 

 

 

 

[TicTac]

Nice to see everyone's gardens starting to produce.

 

It has been a bumper crop this year so far for Cucumbers (doing 2 varieties, the long one is unreal - called 'fruity cucumber' - very sweet) and pickling cukes.  Have made about 8 jars of pickles so far and given away a bunch as well.

 

Had a few meals from pole beans and snap peas; tomatoes coming in nicely as well, lots of fruit now about ready.

 

These fabric pots are awesome, and a great way to create an organic living soil that absolutely thrives (just hit it once with a batch of nettle 'tea').

 

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

Bush beans picked this morning. They're well on their way. Good thing as these are the last of the snow and snap peas (picked less than ten this morning and it's obvious the plants are almost done).

Some baby purslane to add to a salad.

First tomato with colour. 

 

[chromedome]

6 hours ago, Senior Sea Kayaker said:

Bush beans picked this morning. They're well on their way.

 

Yeah, shouldn't be long now. It was Monday night when I took the photos of my last bean harvest, which was every bean I could find that was ready to go. Last night (ie, 48 hours later) I went back through the beds and picked 3 pounds of them, just about exactly (a smidge over, at just under 1400 g). I expect to do that every other day or so for the next several weeks, which should fill my freezer pretty nicely.

My snap peas are also about done, but my shelling peas are on the verge of being ready. Greens are still going well, and I harvested my first small head of broccoli last night. Garlic is due to come out tonight. Will probably post more later, with some fresh pics.

[chromedome]

Harvested my garlic the other day. About the same number of bulbs Senior Sea Kayaker grew, something in the 50-ish range (I haven't counted, but I'd started with 48 and added on a few more to fill out the beds).

 

 

They're mostly a pretty good size. The one I'd clumsily pulled the stem out of, while tugging it out of the ground, checked in at 88g or just over 3 ounces.

 

 

...and this is why I'd snagged those decommissioned bread trays from the local buy-sell page when I saw them.

 

I knew right away they'd be super-handy at harvest time for things like garlic and potatoes.

 

I haven't been in the garden yet this morning, but will post some more photos (in situ and post-harvest) later in the day.

[KennethT]

Has anyone seen the videos online of people growing root type things (like potatoes) in bags of soil and the ridiculous yield they get?

[haresfur]

I think I need to hack back my warrigal greens before they take over the rest of the lawn. I don't eat them that often. The will climb so I may try to plant some where they can spread vertically.

 

[heidih]

9 hours ago, KennethT said:

Has anyone seen the videos online of people growing root type things (like potatoes) in bags of soil and the ridiculous yield they get?

Not videos but this has been a common technique for ages. I've not tried it. Myabe they like to be crowded . Lots of taters - not giant bakers.

[heidih]

23 minutes ago, haresfur said:

I think I need to hack back my warrigal greens before they take over the rest of the lawn. I don't eat them that often. The will climb so I may try to plant some where they can spread vertically.

 

 I used to walk my dog on a path that took me past the perimeter of a community garden .I spoke with some of the folks - mostly SEA immigrants and they chose plots near a perimeter fence so they could grow spreaders and climbers, like chayote.

[chromedome]

So today's harvest was roughly 10 lbs of beans. I think it's fair to say they've hit their stride.

 

 

The greens were just a handful to go to my father-in-law, along with a bag of the beans. Not seen: another half-dozen cherry tomatoes. I'll do a proper pick of the greens again tomorrow or the next day; today I had a time constraint because many stores here still close early on Sunday and we had a couple of things we needed in town.

 

My first planting of salad greens is largely spent and my second was washed away by an ill-timed heavy rain, but my third planting is coming along nicely (those are little nursery-bought cukes on either side of 'em). There's one row of Grand Rapids lettuce, and one row of the local seed company's mesclun mix.

 

 

Our moribund apple tree is having a last hurrah, with a bumper crop of apples on board. The poor thing's been through the mill: a former owner cut away one of its main roots for reasons I'll charitably say must have sounded good at the time (???); a colony of ants has been hollowing it out assiduously for years; and of course for the past few years it's had a couple of small children using it as their monkey bars and gym set. The first pic shows how badly it's listing; the second is a closer look at the apples it's bearing. This photo doesn't do it justice, sadly. It's the most fruit I've seen on the tree in the...I dunno, 6 or 7 years I've been coming out here.

 

 

 

As recently as this spring it was still standing vertically. We have a sapling ready to plant as a replacement (at a spot where it won't shade my garden) but of course it'll be some time before it's full grown. Fortunately we have no shortage of orchards here where we can U-pick to our hearts' content.