Anyone doing a garden?
- Thread starter spartanmanor
- Start date
Here in Zone 10b, I'm just getting started. Some seeds are sprouting and I'm waiting for more to come from FEDCO.
Gotta have Mustards and Collards for Thanksgiving.
Gotta have Mustards and Collards for Thanksgiving.
RickeyM
Addicted Member
Some sweet peppers and a couple of tomatoes minus what went to yesterday's lunch and today's breakfast. I've cut back this year to avoid waste. Also today's strawberry harvest. After a pause during the hot weeks the strawberry plants have started producing again and sending out runners like crazy. I'm going to get as many of those runners started as plants before Winter hits.
Our garden is doing ridiculously well this year. It's only 2 small areas -- one about 12ft x 3ft, ,and the other a 12 foot circle with a red maple in the middle taking up quite a bit of space, but I'm going something like 23 different things (I lost count). It's all planted too close together according to guidelines -- and it requires some dexterity to harvest 
, but it works. Our family is eating large salads out of the garden most nights -- the salad is my full dinner usually 5 or 6 times a week. We could eat off the garden entirely if we had to.
I used a small battery powered tiller at the beginning of the season to break up the ground for the seedlings/plants (I don't do anything from seed). I tilled some organic fertilizer into the soil, but what seemed to help a lot was earthworm castings. I'd never heard of earthworm castings, but saw them at Costco, looked on the internet in the store and saw very positive feedback. I bought some more for Home Depot after Costco stopped stocking them.
My tomatoes get eaten before they are pickable, and the snap peas plant got eaten almost immediately after planting, the but everything else has been a success.
, but it works. Our family is eating large salads out of the garden most nights -- the salad is my full dinner usually 5 or 6 times a week. We could eat off the garden entirely if we had to.I used a small battery powered tiller at the beginning of the season to break up the ground for the seedlings/plants (I don't do anything from seed). I tilled some organic fertilizer into the soil, but what seemed to help a lot was earthworm castings. I'd never heard of earthworm castings, but saw them at Costco, looked on the internet in the store and saw very positive feedback. I bought some more for Home Depot after Costco stopped stocking them.
My tomatoes get eaten before they are pickable, and the snap peas plant got eaten almost immediately after planting, the but everything else has been a success.
RickeyM
Addicted Member
I'm going to start some Romaine again. Maybe I'll throw in some radishs as well. Around June I harvested some potatoes. A late planted potato had just started to sprout so I put it a grow bag and now the foliage is dying back. So soon (I guess) I'll have another potato harvest. My original raised bed is oriented East to West. I planed cow peas (black-eye peas) on the East half of the bed and basil on the West. I should have reversed that because the cow peas shaded the basil and it's barely going. Live and learn gardening folks.
Wash day today...cut and deseed tomorrow (with hazmat suit on lol)...smoke day Friday...then to the dehydrator. Little bit of everything here. The Habanero's for my son..the Leutschauer's and jalapenos for a medium heat smoked paprika. The Lesya peppers are doing ok too. I only have 3 plants and I've been eating them as fast as they ripen for lunch...cold and cronchy! 
Smoked the first batch of Leutschauer and Poblano's earlier this month.
Today I found this bad boy hiding on the back of one of the Trident plants. I was going to just take a pic in my hand but just pulling it forward slightly it snapped off. If you want a well producing Poblano plant for big stuffing peppers you want to grow these Tridents.
Smoked the first batch of Leutschauer and Poblano's earlier this month.
Today I found this bad boy hiding on the back of one of the Trident plants. I was going to just take a pic in my hand but just pulling it forward slightly it snapped off. If you want a well producing Poblano plant for big stuffing peppers you want to grow these Tridents.
@peterp1 ...Looking fine to me but way beyond me on the Scoville scale. 
I finally picked a couple red ripe poblano's today...slow is right. The Leutschauer and habanero's are still pumping them out though. Problem is I have to pick the habs right when they turn orange and paper bag them for a couple days to finish them to red ripe. If I dont, as soon as they turn red on the plants the ants will bore into them. I dunno why they only go after them...maybe they want to be fire ants.
I expected this year to be a bust since I'm using worn out soil from 4 years of growing. I usually amend it with more compost, worm castings and coco coir but this year nothing. All I did was added bone meal a few times and Miracle Grow Tomato fertilizer and Superthrive every two weeks. One surprise was I only had two peppers so far with blossom end rot....last year was horrible with it.
I finally picked a couple red ripe poblano's today...slow is right. The Leutschauer and habanero's are still pumping them out though. Problem is I have to pick the habs right when they turn orange and paper bag them for a couple days to finish them to red ripe. If I dont, as soon as they turn red on the plants the ants will bore into them. I dunno why they only go after them...maybe they want to be fire ants.
I expected this year to be a bust since I'm using worn out soil from 4 years of growing. I usually amend it with more compost, worm castings and coco coir but this year nothing. All I did was added bone meal a few times and Miracle Grow Tomato fertilizer and Superthrive every two weeks. One surprise was I only had two peppers so far with blossom end rot....last year was horrible with it.
Here is tonight’s nightly salad haul - in this batch is basil, Korean perilla, Chinese perilla, Shiso (purple perilla), arugula, kale, oregano, mint, thyme, bell pepper, jalapeño, and Korean pepper. This is our daily dinner 5 out of 7 days a week. Our whole family really loves it - will be a sad day when winter comes.
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Uncle Groovy
New Member
Tomatoes coming in hot and heavy!
I'd be making some tomato soup with the smaller ones...sandwiches with the biggest ones.
RickeyM
Addicted Member
Over in the flower bed I have dill growing that was reseeded from last year's dill plants. Lots of it. It's among some flowers but I decided to let it grow instead of pulling it. This year for the first time I've discovered Swallowtail butterfly catepillars on the dill. Ten of them at last count 
I often spot a black/blue swallowtail among the flowers this summer. Bees and butterflies in the garden is always a good sign. I tried planting oregano as a companion crop along with the sweet peppers but the pepper plants out grew and shaded the oregano which hasn't grown very much at all. The plan for next year is to plant micro-clover as a living mulch in the large pots for the tomatoes and peppers.
Meanwhile my strawberries that are in their third year are sending out runners like crazy. I'm trying to get as many of those rooted and growing as I can.
I often spot a black/blue swallowtail among the flowers this summer. Bees and butterflies in the garden is always a good sign. I tried planting oregano as a companion crop along with the sweet peppers but the pepper plants out grew and shaded the oregano which hasn't grown very much at all. The plan for next year is to plant micro-clover as a living mulch in the large pots for the tomatoes and peppers.Meanwhile my strawberries that are in their third year are sending out runners like crazy. I'm trying to get as many of those rooted and growing as I can.
My tomatoes get to about gumball size and then they get eaten. I'm not sure by what -- we have deer, chipmunks, groundhogs, rabbits, squirrels, and the occasional fox or racoon. They don't eat most of the 21ish other things we're growing -- not sure why, but I'm happy about that.. I put some deer repellent tablets in the garden a week or two ago and the tomatoes seem to be surviving so far (but are still very small). The tomatoes have all been eaten so fast that I can't remember which plant is the small cherry tomato and which is full-size. I did have one cherry tomato survive long enough to get red about a month ago, and it was tasty, but that was total tomato harvest for the year!
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As I've posted previously, we eat salad almost every night entirely from the garden. All of it is great, but the single best thing is arugula. I use seedlings not seeds (I'm not hard core like most of you), and I couldn't find arugula anywhere, so about 2 months after I planed everything else I bought 12 arugula seedlings from Amazon. Bizarrely, about 8 of them got eaten, not sure why the other 4 survived. They've stayed pretty small -- kind of "Charlie Brown Christmas tree" arugula -- so I can only pick a leaf or two for each salad. But arugula is so fragrant that it makes impact even in tiny doses in a huge salad.
I've got to figure out how to grow it properly, but fresh grown arugula is truly special. Would love to get advice if anyone has experience growing it.
-- so I can only pick a leaf or two for each salad. But arugula is so fragrant that it makes impact even in tiny doses in a huge salad.I've got to figure out how to grow it properly, but fresh grown arugula is truly special. Would love to get advice if anyone has experience growing it.
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Over in the flower bed I have dill growing that was reseeded from last year's dill plants. Lots of it. It's among some flowers but I decided to let it grow instead of pulling it. This year for the first time I've discovered Swallowtail butterfly catepillars on the dill. Ten of them at last count
Meanwhile my strawberries that are in their third year are sending out runners like crazy. I'm trying to get as many of those rooted and growing as I can.
Have any asparagus growing? When I do fish I take the asparagus and coat it with olive oil, lots of fresh dill and some Old Bay. Then if I'm doing it in my cast iron pan I throw it in with the fish or if on the grill I have a thing to do veggies in to give it a quick grillin. Fantastic.