Gardening: (2016– )

[heidih]

Who knew?!  Collard Week!  I love all brassicas despite those nasty white moths... Very interesting interview. Collard growers in the group - how do yours grow? (and eat of course)  https://awaytogarden.com/tuning-in-to-heirloom-collards-with-chris-smith/

[KennethT]

What happens when you don't trim your mint plant as often as you should...

[chromedome]

1 hour ago, heidih said:

Who knew?!  Collard Week!  I love all brassicas despite those nasty white moths... Very interesting interview. Collard growers in the group - how do yours grow? (and eat of course)  https://awaytogarden.com/tuning-in-to-heirloom-collards-with-chris-smith/

I have planted them twice without success, but will try again. The vagaries of spring and fall weather here make things interesting, some years.

[KennethT]

After some, ahem, aggressive pruning.

[heidih]

1 hour ago, KennethT said:

After some, ahem, aggressive pruning.

 

Think of it like the old chesnut about shaving kids hair to encourage thick growth. However should you smell mint while in bed think "Little Shop of Horrors". 

[KennethT]

14 minutes ago, heidih said:

 

Think of it like the old chesnut about shaving kids hair to encourage thick growth. However should you smell mint while in bed think "Little Shop of Horrors". 

I currently have the best smelling garbage can around....

[chromedome]

20 minutes ago, heidih said:

 

Think of it like the old chesnut about shaving kids hair to encourage thick growth.

My uncle Ken did that, back in the 50s. When he passed away a couple of years ago, he was still waiting.

[MokaPot]

@KennethT, do you make tabbouleh with all your mint?

[KennethT]

19 minutes ago, MokaPot said:

@KennethT, do you make tabbouleh with all your mint?

I've never done so.  My wife is not a huge tabbouleh fan, and the type I usually like is more parsley heavy than mint.  I do make a lot of Vietnamese dishes, which is why I decided to grow it.

[heidih]

Tea too

[KennethT]

It's hard to believe that my lemongrass plant looked like it was on the verge of death a few months ago....  I think some tom yum is in the near future...

[heidih]

I finally see some citrus color. Picked a few tangelos. Still sour and super small but beautifully fragrant so peel will be in play. Will use juice in lieu of the lemons that are pathetic. If it does not rain in next week I will have to slow deep water. '

 

[Smithy]

26 minutes ago, heidih said:

...I will have to slow deep water. '

 

I'm sorry, please explain this? I don't understand it.

 

I never think of tangelos as being ready before mid-January or early February. (One of the better Valentine's Day gifts my parents sent me one year after I'd moved to Minnesota was a box of minneolas from home.  ) Do you have a different variety of tangelo, or are the seasons so much farther along in L.A. than in Visalia?

[heidih]

All the citrus are delayed. I normally bring gift bags of citrus to our "friendsgiving" for all.  This season little green midgets. The  tangelo is very old so who knows its "Ancestry dot com". It was sparse last year so maybe that is why it is the "leader" this season. By "slow and deep" I meant that our adobe soil is dry dry dry. Water will just pan off so I'd have to basically turn hose to a drip and let it go for a day or two. Probably a plan anyway otherwise should it ever rain the water won't saturate. These trees are on a flat part of the property. On the steep slope area I will just let Mother Nature do her thing. I do want the kumquat especially to produce at least a bit. I got the binoculars out and it has barely got green nublets but there is a Valencia type below it that is glowing brightly w/ orange so I'll get the gardener to brave that slope. With the dry the gophers have been manic so I do want to avoid twisted ankles - not worth it - "help me I've fallen and I can't get up" stuff  

[KennethT]

 

The dark side of hydroponics..... Extreme nutrient burn!!! I've always thought that we learn more from failure than we do from success. This is an herb plant common in SE Asia - in Vietnam it is rau ram, in Singapore/Malaysia it is laksa leaf. It is probably the hardiest herb I've ever grown - it's practically indestructible. You can over water it, under water it, low amount of nutrient - usually it's happy. What you see here is the result of neglect and a design issue in my automated coco coir drip system. It's pretty common knowledge that you always want to water to runoff in coco so you don't get what you see here. My system uses a capacitive moisture sensor to trigger when to water and when to stop watering.... But for a while now, the system stopped watering before runoff occurred, leading to a huge buildup in salts. Pretty soon (I'm getting ready to move soon) I'll revise my design to fix this issue.

[Kim Shook]

Mr. Kim's 1st ever actual garden (aside from the odd potted tomato plant or half-assed lettuce patch) was not successful this year.  Both the radishes and carrots seemed to produce only colorful roots.  He got one side dish of kale and his herbs were leggy and sparse.  Well, it's a learning process and he was disappointed, but not discouraged, I think and I believe that he'll do more research and try another one this year.  He was sort of cleaning things up New Year's day and found this:

(Tablespoon for size comparison.)  It was very crisp and sweet.  

 

Yesterday, he went out to see if there were any more and found this:

 

He's very happy and proud and I've promised him some roasted carrots for dinner tonight:

[heidih]

12 minutes ago, Kim Shook said:

Mr. Kim's 1st ever actual garden (aside from the odd potted tomato plant or half-assed lettuce patch) was not successful this year.  Both the radishes and carrots seemed to produce only colorful roots.  He got one side dish of kale and his herbs were leggy and sparse.  Well, it's a learning process and he was disappointed, but not discouraged, I think and I believe that he'll do more research and try another one this year.  He was sort of cleaning things up New Year's day and found this:

(Tablespoon for size comparison.)  It was very crisp and sweet.  

 

Yesterday, he went out to see if there were any more and found this:

 

He's very happy and proud and I've promised him some roasted carrots for dinner tonight:

 

Congrats to the man !  Those are adorable. I love roasted carrots but those little pups I'd steam or simmer in a touch of water and serve with a mustard cream sauce on the side. Enjoy! 

[chromedome]

That's a very nice size for eating as baby carrots. If your climate is mild you can basically leave carrots in place over winter (a couple of inches of mulch can help) and then they'll resume growing in the spring for a nice, early crop. Gotta harvest them early, though: they're biennials, so if you leave them they'll go to seed and the roots won't be any good for eating.

 

 

[AlaMoi]

mulching carrots in the ground works quite well - up until the mice eat them.....

fresh not stored-dry-for-weeks are a real taste treat.

[Kim Shook]

23 hours ago, chromedome said:

That's a very nice size for eating as baby carrots. If your climate is mild you can basically leave carrots in place over winter (a couple of inches of mulch can help) and then they'll resume growing in the spring for a nice, early crop. Gotta harvest them early, though: they're biennials, so if you leave them they'll go to seed and the roots won't be any good for eating.

 

 

He saw this same thing on his garden website AFTER he'd pulled them all.  😊

[chromedome]

Next year. Though as far as that goes, what you've got there is the size I usually prefer to harvest.

 

Overwintering works for parsnips too, btw, if you like those. My father always left most of his in situ until spring, opining that they were hardly worth eating if they hadn't spent a winter in the ground.

[KennethT]

The rau ram (laksa leaf) plant is dead...

 

Long live the rau ram plant...

[TicTac]

1 hour ago, KennethT said:

The rau ram (laksa leaf) plant is dead...

 

Long live the rau ram plant...

I find they certainly have a 'lifespan' - one of the first herbs in my garden to start to show its age - no matter how I prune and trim, it is one of the first to go. 

 

On a side note, I got my seed catalogue this year and boy, oh boy - am I going to go nuts and order (probably) far too many seeds and new (and very exciting) plants - like this 'Green Pepper Basil' from Mexico, which I know many on this board would be a huge fan of.... 🤣

[KennethT]

42 minutes ago, TicTac said:

I find they certainly have a 'lifespan' - one of the first herbs in my garden to start to show its age - no matter how I prune and trim, it is one of the first to go. 

 

On a side note, I got my seed catalogue this year and boy, oh boy - am I going to go nuts and order (probably) far too many seeds and new (and very exciting) plants - like this 'Green Pepper Basil' from Mexico, which I know many on this board would be a huge fan of.... 🤣

I don't think it was its age - granted, it was probably over a year old, but it was doing great up until my system started to fail it.  When I move (hopefully in a month or two) I'm going to revise my system which will keep that problem from happening again...

[TicTac]

4 minutes ago, KennethT said:

I don't think it was its age - granted, it was probably over a year old, but it was doing great up until my system started to fail it.  When I move (hopefully in a month or two) I'm going to revise my system which will keep that problem from happening again...

Perhaps just a heightened sensitivity to cold then - like I said, mine never last as long as some of my other 'heartier' herbs do.  Then again, I do live in the Great White North