Gardening: (2016– )

[Shelby]

2 minutes ago, KennethT said:

Any reason you grow onions? 

The sweet ones are sweeter than any I've ever purchased besides real Vidalia onions.  We use a lot of onions....ease of not having to buy them.....habit....lol.  I had so many awesome onions last year.  I bagged them and kept them in the garage fridge.  I JUST last week had to purchase onions from the store.

[Shelby]

52 minutes ago, FauxPas said:

Do you ever grow winter squash? 

I don't really care for winter squash......once in a great while I'll buy some and roast it.

[KennethT]

2 hours ago, Shelby said:

The sweet ones are sweeter than any I've ever purchased besides real Vidalia onions.  We use a lot of onions....ease of not having to buy them.....habit....lol.  I had so many awesome onions last year.  I bagged them and kept them in the garage fridge.  I JUST last week had to purchase onions from the store.

Got it.  I always thought that an onion was an onion (of comparable types).  For me, if I run out, I can run to the supermarket that's about 200 feet away and grab more.  I wish I had more space so I could grown SE Asian shallots - they ahve a different water content than European style shallots and nowadays they're at least $8 per pound!!!!! And they're hard to find - I basically can only get them in Chinatown. Even the standard European ones are like $6 per pound now!

Edited May 24 by KennethT (log)

[YvetteMT]

After snow yesterday evening, my plum and crab apple don't seem any worse for the wear. (5k elevation,  couple inches of wet heavy snow after a bunch of rain). Trees are 4 years old, hoping this year we get fruit!

 

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

18 hours ago, KennethT said:

Got it.  I always thought that an onion was an onion (of comparable types).  For me, if I run out, I can run to the supermarket that's about 200 feet away and grab more.  I wish I had more space so I could grown SE Asian shallots - they ahve a different water content than European style shallots and nowadays they're at least $8 per pound!!!!! And they're hard to find - I basically can only get them in Chinatown. Even the standard European ones are like $6 per pound now!

 

I'd like to add to this. My garden is on a much smaller scale than @Shelby's so I go in for a lot of companion planting and intermixing. I use either white or red onion 'sets' and plant them on the borders of the beds and interspaced with tomato and pepper plants. They are invaluable for pest control, utilize space I'd otherwise have to weed, when thinned provide a season long source of 'green onions' and you get whatever is left at the end of the season to cure and have as storage onions.

 

 

Edited May 25 by Senior Sea Kayaker (log)

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

Enjoying a sunny day on the deck. The overnight temperatures are still too low so I still have to bring the tomato, pepper, cucumber and zucchini plants indoors. The other pots and planters are cold tolerant

I'm hoping to get the transplants in next week.

 

[dcarch]

Garlic scapes time.

More to come.

 

dcarch

[TicTac]

Also to add onto the onion topic - I grow Welsch onions, red bunching onions and green onions and leave them all in the ground and only ever cut off the above ground parts.  I also let them flower every year as they are one of the BEST pollinator flowers out there.

 

 

[haresfur]

Maybe I left my fennel seeds on the plant too long. The ones I have bought are a pale yellow and these are dark. Do you think they are ok to eat?

 

I already have some in pots in the cold frame and a few randomly scattered in one of the raised beds.

[TicTac]

9 hours ago, haresfur said:

Maybe I left my fennel seeds on the plant too long. The ones I have bought are a pale yellow and these are dark. Do you think they are ok to eat?

 

I already have some in pots in the cold frame and a few randomly scattered in one of the raised beds.

100% ok to eat!

 

 

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

I'm trying a few new things this season (always try to do at least one every year).

This year it's red shiso and spicy globe basil and I'll post a photo if things go well.

I also picked up a Carolina Reaper seedling and will give it a go beside my habaneros, serranoes and jalapenos.

 

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

Daytime temperatures have finally started to edge up into the 20's (C.) and nighttime temperatures are staying above 5.

Northern bed (from left) onions, Roma bush beans (just sprouting), tomatoes, hot peppers, perennial herbs, garlic and trellising sugar snap peas and long beans.

There's also parsley, little gem lettuces and more onions planted in with the tomatoes and peppers.

 

 

Tarragon, rosemary and sage.

 

 

And some of the tomatoes and peppers.

 

 

South bed of mostly lettuces, chards and beets (for the greens) Snow peas for the lattice.

 

 

 And a pot of chives and two of cilantro. Grow bag with a Black Krim tomato that will eventually be supported on the south bed trellis.

 

 

 

[Shelby]

First pick of the summer...seems a bit early for this much, but maybe not.

 

 

Potato plants are still flowering which means they aren't done growing but these guys were bursting out of the ground.  Cukes, tomatoes, zukes, potatoes and yellow squash.  Found some squash bugs yesterday morning but I think we got them early enough before any damage.  I hate those bugs.

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

@Shelby Nice haul.

 

[Shelby]

Today's pick

 

 

Along with what previous picks

 

 

Lock your car doors I'm in trouble already.

[rotuts]

@Shelby

 

I don't see any eggplant at least .

 

Eggplant :  the Garden's Cancer.

[haresfur]

On 5/13/2024 at 11:05 AM, haresfur said:

Not sure if it was here or elsewhere, but I decided to try a suggestion to snip the leaves off my volunteer tomatoes at the end of the season to get light into the green ones to start them ripening. Worth a try but probably should have been done earlier. They only get late afternoon sun.

 

 

An update on this. We are well into winter, getting several nights in a row of frost and above freezing days. The experiment is going very well with more tomatoes ripening on the vine enough to bring indoors to complete after they start changing colour.

 

These are on the south side of the house, which is the shady side in this hemisphere and don't get a lot of sun at this time of year but may get some tempering from the brick wall. They aren't the best tomatoes but that may be due to whatever the seeds came from. You can see the grey water overflow that happens when the pipe to the back of the property backs up, which is how I assume the seeds arrived. I'm sure it isn't a design that would be allowed these days.

 

I was going to take a new picture but someone decided to harvest.

[chromedome]

I have some catching up to do, and will try to get back with a fuller post later on, but I've been up to my eyeballs in work for this past few weeks (a new and lucrative project, which will roughly quadruple my income until September...exhausting, but much needed!).

 

The TL;DR version is that my experimental early plantings met with mixed success, but I am already harvesting copious quantities of kale and lettuce and my shelling peas are setting pods. Last year we experimented with mushroom spawn and had modest success, so we're trying again. We have shiitake and chestnut mushrooms as well as three kinds of oysters; of which we've so far seen a small flush from the blue oysters. Last year's success was the bed of winecap mushrooms, which gave us 25-30 pounds by the end of the season, and those are beginning to flush again as well. I didn't weigh my first harvest (2 nights ago) but I'd guess it to be in the range of 300-350g or about 3/4 lb.

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

Things are starting to get going here. I'm envious of @Shelby's haul but not of the heat they're experiencing.

First tomato flowers (Scotia a determinate variety), first scapes and coriander getting going.

I was happy that the tarragon has taken off. It was planted last year and did poorly.

 

 

Edited June 18 by Senior Sea Kayaker (log)

[Shelby]

We are having a much needed break from wind and excessive heat today.  We got an inch and a half of rain and more is on the way.  Don't worry.  The heat will be back tomorrow and next week looks to be 100+ every day (with the heat index included).  YUCK. 

 

But, the rain let us pull a few onions this morning.  We cut the greens off and washed them.  They will dry here in the kitchen for a day or so and then I'll put them in the garage fridge.  I went all last winter without having to buy onions.  I don't think that I'll be able to say the same with this years crop --I didn't plant as many as last year--but I still have this many or more still left to pull.

 

 

 

 

[KennethT]

A while ago, @Senior Sea Kayaker asked for a photo of my indoor garden. Sorry for the delay - I've been moving things around in anticipation of going away next week. Finally got it together....

 

 

Left to right-ish: curry leaf tree, mint (heavily pruned), rau ram, lemongrass (in the back), turmeric (I just used some leaves), kencur, kaffir lime, and sawtooth coriander.

[blue_dolphin]

@KennethT, every time this commercial pops up, I imagine this is what your place looks like:

 

The reality in your photo is much less dramatic 🤣

[KennethT]

1 hour ago, blue_dolphin said:

@KennethT, every time this commercial pops up, I imagine this is what your place looks like:

 

The reality in your photo is much less dramatic 🤣

That is hilarious!!!! Although maybe not that far off in the future. I'd like to build a living plant wall on one 14 foot high wall of the living room, complete with small waterfalls. I figured it would be nice to have a couple tropical birds in there too, but I don't think my wife would go for them!

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

8 hours ago, KennethT said:

That is hilarious!!!! Although maybe not that far off in the future. I'd like to build a living plant wall on one 14 foot high wall of the living room, complete with small waterfalls. I figured it would be nice to have a couple tropical birds in there too, but I don't think my wife would go for them!

 

Don't forget a few geckos.

 

[Senior Sea Kayaker]

I've started harvesting my lettuces (I seeded eight varieties). I'll eventually seed more as the tomato plants grow and I replace the onions growing around them (providing the necessary shade in the heat of summer).

Two varieties: top is Parris Island Cos (hardy and prolific) and bottom is Forellenschluss (looks great in a mixed green salad). Both are romaine type lettuces and taste pretty much the same.