Posted: 6/23/2007 8:16:33 AM EDT
|
Ferral, how's your garden doing this year? Ready to start canning? I've got zucs, squash, cucs, okra, onions coming in faster that I can eat them. First planting of bush beans are 3 weeks away from canning. First eating and frying tomatos will be ready in about 3 weeks with canning tomatos ready in about 4 weeks. Egg plants got bug bitten really bad but may come around. Rabbits got my beets. Bugs got most of my brocoli and cabbage. Potato beds will be ready to dig up in about a month. Peppers have the crud again even after treating with copper since the day they were transplanted. |
|
geez, it's finally warm here and everything is taking off. Toms have blooms on them, about 3' tall, the squash plant is doubling in size every day (ok, maybe not, but I know where they got the idea for that musical) peas are about done Damn donkey from the neighbor ate one of my pear trees (yes, I'm pissed) Rasberries are all in bloom, i'm going to have so many rasberries it's not funny (which is a good thing) Onions are doing well, but the canteloupe seems way behind to me. Wife says be patient, it will come along now that it's hot out. Put all the mulch down the other day to keep the moisture in and that helped a lot (stole grass clippings from all the neighbors: "here fill up my tractor bucket") Canning season is coming!!!!!!!!!! |
|
Will trade you cucumbers for rasberries! I planted 4 blueberry bushes in February and already have enough to put in a bowl of cereal. Next year may have enough for a pie :) Yep, canning season is coming. I'm down to 50 quarts of green beans and 15 pints of salsa........that's dang near an emergency. |
|
potatoes are doing great, did my last hilling and they should have some baby taters now. Squash - man, more than we can eat. Zuchini, same thing. Okra, doing fine, should have okra in couple weeks. Corn, after my initial disaster, I replanted now it is 4=5 feet high. Tomatoes are huge, and turning red. (50 plants) Onions are buried in the grass...? |
Poor bastard.  It's great to see the gardeners starting to gather round to talk about things. How you been, reeldoc? I was thinking of you last night when I opened a half pint of Club sauce for a top round roast.  You're quite a bit ahead of us I think as we're still a few weeks away from doing any canning. I've got beanstalks that have climbed to the top of an 8 foot trellis, but they aren't yet making beans. I expect them to start any day now.  I've got pickling cukes that'll be ready soon....probably weekend after next. I'm itching to try out BozemanMT's recipe as I think it'll be superior to the one I used last year. We have only three groups of pickling cukes in this year, so I'm not looking to put up too many pickles. Still have dills and some relish left over from last year in any case. Our garlic is doing its usual predictable thing......I love garlic because of how sturdy and uncomplaining it is--put it in the Fall, harvest it in July...no bumps in the road.  Out tomatoes are worrying me a bit this year.....they're absolute monsters. I tried out a new fertilizer when I set out transplants and it seems that it works. The Romas are 5 ft tall and have absolutely swamped the 5ft I left between rows this year (and that's with cradles or cages!). I used red mulch too this year on 5 out of 8 rows.....but I can't honestly tell the difference between the rows that have the red mulch and the rows that don't. In any case. I think we're looking at an absolutely huge tomato harvest.....gonna be a record amount of salsa and red sauce in our house this year.  The peppers are coming in nicely too...they're mirroring the tomatoes as peppers seem to do. Got a nice canning recipe for bell peppers? I haven't canned much with peppers, but I'm thinking about it this year. We oughta make this the "official" 2007 garden/canning thread....I'll try to post some pics this weekend. |
|
Gardening in this part of Michigan means a late start. Winter hangs on a couple weeks long as the wind blows in from Saginaw Bay. Spring & planting begin as late as the 3rd week of May. In the raised garden bed near the house the cucumbers are doing well. The tomatoes are too. Peppers are already producing. Peas & Beans are right on schedule. Here's something I put together that does double duty. This water wagon is so my wife can take care watering duties in the cold frame/green house. It's about 100yds from the house & stretching a hose that far is just a pain in the ass.  I cut a small hole in the top to make filling with a hose quick & easy. The top stays on so not much water splashes out during transport.   The wagon is made of angled steel, treated wood deck & an old lawn tractor front axle. I have a plastic sill cock near the bottom & just threaded it into the side of the barrel. Total cost into the project.....about $30. The wagon serves double duty by providing a means of transporting nonpotable water for flushing toilets & such during power outages. That as back before I had a big enough genny. FWIW, the green house is built from two old patio glass doors & treated lumber. |
I don't currently garden, other than mowing the weeds that dominate my front and back yards. But in reading up on lawn care, it seems like the trend is away from mulching lawnmowers because of the thatch buildup. At first I thought that composting the clippings would be good, you could till the stuff back into the soil in a vegetable garden. But is that even worth doing? |
I think it's worth doing. Adding fresh grass clippings as mulch serves as a nice weed cover, at the expense of adding some weed seeds. At the end of the season it can be tilled under and thus add organic matter as a soil amendment. Using grass clippings for compost is good too.....the clippings provide a ready source of "green" for the compost pile during the months where leaves are scarce. The heat from the compost kills the weed seeds and you end up with a very nice soil builder. We use grass clippings in both ways and have found it worthwhile. YMMV. |
| Leaves and grass clippings are my mainstay soil builders. My garden area stays moist so I don't have to mulch. I put all my grass clippings in the ditches between the rows and they break down quickly. I start at one end of the garden, fill a ditch up then move to the next ditch, etc. By the end of the mowing season they have disappeared and I start mulching leaves. |
|
tag for more pics. is there a good...err, great website that has some good stuff on gardening? its been about 20 years since i have messed with a garden and now that i have 4 acres to work with, i want to get started. i am looking at time frames: like when to plant what, spacing, watering, tilling, harvesting. just everything. what can i do now to get ready for next year or the fall? its all currently just growed up grass and weeds. should i just till it under, or use a herbicide to kill off everything for now or what? |
Man I'd kill for four acres! Mow it tight, till it under. Take soil samples and send to your state ag agent to get it ready for next year. Take part of it and plant some stuff for this fall but let the balance of it rest. Here are some good forums and some smart folks. Don't use herbicides. http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/tomato/ http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/harvest/ http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/pepper/ http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/can_home.html http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/soil/ http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/tompests/ http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/tools/ http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/cornucop/ |
Do you have hot or sweet banana peppers? I like to wait until mine are 4-5" for pickling or 5-6" for stuffing and baking. Sometimes depends on how big around they are also especially for stuffing. Cut the stem out and core the pepper. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=growing+banana+peppers&btnG=Search |
I'm not real proud of my garden this year so I'll just bask in the joy of seeing pics of yours. |
Yes, just like Feral said I tell you what on the thatch. Now, out here is very dry and reasonably hot. WE run Kentucky bluegrass (and some fescue), mostly cool season grasses. I don't catch my grass (why I need my neighbors) and cut very tall (4 + inches when cut) and I don't fertilize but once a year (winterizer) and my lawn looks as good or better with less water than my neighbors. I never catch it. (unless I'm stealing for my garden) and I don't have a thatch problem. |
So, what's the fertilizer?????  Ours are doing ok, but it's been cooler this year, only heated up in teh past few weeks, they seem behind. Ours are MUCH bigger than the last few gardens I've looked at while working. (can't help it, I gotta know, I'm inquisitive) |
It's this stuff.....like Reeldoc guessed it's a 10-10-10 fertilizer with some additional micronutrients. It may be a gimmick....but I gotta say that these plants are pretty damn vigorous this year. We'll see what the yields are. You know how gardeners are  No, Reeldoc, I didn't fertilize the beans this year.....I'm not really sure why they're lagging. I presume they'll catch up eventually in terms of bean production. |
|
Get a toad Really We moved a couple over, gave them a toad house and two years in a row, almost no bug problems. We even now have more than one toad (not quite sure how that happened) I've decided the garden is my hobby (see other thread on job loss) or my wife is going to kill me if I sit around and go "i'm bored, bored bored bored" So, deep watered everything two days ago. Opps, not watering enough, the plants exploded in the last day or so. Peppers literally doubled in size. Guess i'll need to do more of that. |
| Bozeman, or Feral, (or anyone else) my butterstick and crook neck and strait neck squash has leaves turning yellow at the bottom. before planting, I added N, P, K and Lime as my soil sample directed. Is this natural? I will say the plants are enormous, as compared to years past. Also, my Ky wonder bean plants are light green/yellow. |
Not being a soil expert, but never fearing to put my opinion out there, right or wrong. . Here in Colorado, if that happens, it means you need more Iron (our soils are very iron poor out here) and that yellowing means it can't pull the nutrients out of the soilBut for SC?????? I dunno. Feral??????? |
|
FG, it is normal for the lower leaves to start dying off. When a leaf starts yellowing or gets discolored I remove it. Additionally when it starts getting really wet and hot I'll remove several of the larger healthy bottom leaves to allow for ventilation. I gave all my zucs and squash a leaf removal yesterday since we have had a lot of rain and it is now into the hot season. Don't leave dead leaves or flower ends laying on the ground under or around any of your plants, they'll will rot and start fungus growth. I also remove the flower ends off my zucs and squash when they are big enough that the flower will fall off naturally. Keeps the ends from rotting. I think your beans are doing the same thing. I only grow bush beans now because I get quicker results and less diseases or problems than I did with pole type beans. I searched the diseases and I really think they are just culling their old leaves. http://vegdis.cas.psu.edu/03Diseases/D301_Bean.html |
thanks fellas. And bozeman, another site you might like is tractorbynet.com. I am a heavy equipment/farm equipment enthusiast, and I like to talk farming with those guys. By the way nice New Holland you got. |
|
Feral, must be the weather in PA this year. All my romas are monsters too. No remaining space between rows and TONS of little ones already set. Corn is 5-6 feet high and getting ready to tassle. Squash went mad too. Planted 50 various types (hubbard, crooked neck, butternut, etc.) in a 50x50 foot plot and the vines are taking over the entire yard! They are about 4-5 feet high and already have loads of babies started. Lets hope that the weather stays nice and doesn't ruin everything later in the summer. Potatos went nuts earlier (planted late March) and the vines are starting to wilt down. Seems like everything was just perfect this year for a change. Hoping to get the raspberries ripened before the Japanese bettles chew them to shreds. |
REELDOC, thanks for the links to garden web!  That site is a great find. My garden is small this year, but our toms are gettin' ripe, and we've had beans and lettuce for awhile now. My asparagus bed is doing particularly well this year. It would be cool to have a garden forum here, but it would probably get pretty quiet in the off season. Nice to see so many other folks interested in this stuff. |
It seems like it's a strange growing year here.....good but strange. That first dry spell has been made up for in the last few weeks, in spades. My beans are slow, but my peppers and tomatoes are kicking butt. I harvested some nice peppers today--not the biggest specimens, but big enough to pick and quite tasty. That seems early to me for peppers. Our tomatoes are also monsters......they've swamped the row space between them too. I'm happy that they're so vigorous, but harvesting will be a pain....and cause some damage to the plants too. Pickling cukes are starting to come in now......we put up 3 quarts tonight.....kind of a test run, if you will. We've only got 3 hills going, but I think we'll have all the picklers we want this year. Just putting up a few quarts of pickles up has given me a taste of what's coming.....very exciting. _______________________ This is an absolute sea of Romas.......the picture doesn't quite do it justice.  The peppers are marching merrily along.....the grass mulch is keeping the weeds down nicely,  We're really going to have a bumper crop of peppers this year, i think.  This was our yield tonight......first of the year, really. It's only gonna get more ridiculously huge.  Here are some of the cukes waiting to be processed......that's some chopped up wild dill in the foreground. FWIW, I shelled out some garlic that I put up last year......the garlic cloves were (just barely) adequate for fresh cooking but not good enough for putting into a jar of pickles that may keep for a year. Fortunately, this year's garlic will come out of the ground in a week or so.  Only three quarts of pickles tonight, but the season is young.   |
|
Did ya try my pickle receipe? The secret to bumper crop peppers? When the pepper plants are just starting to bloom Get a spray bottle, fill it with water, and add just a little (maybe a teaspoon or less) of epsom salt. Spray it on the leaves. Stand back. Got the idea from Storey's Guide to country living, it works wonders That is a freaking MAZE of Roma's.  You look to be about 2 weeks in front of us, been a much cooler spring than last year (although been high 90's last couple days) |
|
Last year I got all gung-ho about building a garden at my bug-out location. I cut, stripped, and sunk about 30 15 foot cedar posts in a 100x80 foot rectangle, stretched 11 feet of fencing around it, and topped it with barbed wire. Afterwards I was so tired I never planted it, and there it sits
|
Sure did. I had to make a couple minor substitutions to account for the ingredients I had on hand, but it's basically your recipe. The brine is exactly yours. In another week or so, I'll have the exact ingredients specified. The bottom line with your recipe is that I think it'll make an excellent pickle. I have never heard the epsom salt trick before with peppers. If I remember to, I'll give it a try next year.
|
Who's got good ideas to get rid of groundhogs and squirrels? I have a 2 ft+ high fence all around, and I think he is climbing it in, and getting our tomatoes, anyone got good repellents? My back yard backs up to the woods and there is a never ending supply of rodents, plus I can't shoot, I'm in town and the neighbors are in the line of fire...(no cans in the Illinoisistan, either )Thanks! |
cool, tell me in 3 weeks how you like the pickles. Try the epsom salt trick now, blooming is the earliest, once they are one will work well too. WE got easily 50 to 70 green peppers last year OFF 3 plants!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was amazing. |
I'll definitely let you know on the pickles. I'm looking forward to trying them. I'll also try the epsom salt thing, though probably on only a few of the plants. If we get the same results you got we'll have too many peppers to deal with as we've got at 25 or so plants.
|
is there any chance the salt will damage the soil for next year as to other crops? I have heard of "salting" the earth, nothing grows...is that something different/or regular salt? |
|
Ford, you won't be using enough to make a difference. By next year there will be enough rain to dilute to the point that you wouldn't even be able to test for it. I don't know how 'often' Bozeman uses it, but I only use it twice a year, first when I think the plants have hit mid height and loaded with blooms and then about 3/4 height with the last of the blooms. I only use 1 TEASPOON per quart of water. You only want to coat the plant, don't drown it. Before my peppers started getting crud every year, the salts would give me at least 30% more peppers and for someone with full sun and good soil I could see how you might get way more than that. Found evidence of tomato horn worms today but I couldn't find the darn critters. Saw the first squash vine borer mom today also but she got away before I could smash her. I'm trying like heck not to start chemicals this early but I may be forced into it if the critters keep showing up. |
|
Need some help guys. If this is too much of a hijack, I'll yank this post and start another thread. Got some funkiness going on in the garden. Here's an establishing shot:  First, I learned not to mulch around squash plants once they've started. I tried putting a nest of dead composted weeds around 2 squash plants and killed them dead.  Next, the base of the squash and zucchini plants look like they're splitting open and rotting. And the stalks are all sagging to the ground (and leaves are rotting where they have been touching the ground):      Here are all 3 Zucc plants together:  Finally, the weirdest thing of all, I have these little pods all over the base of one cucumber plant. Can tell if they're fungus or bug eggs:    On a happy note, my corn is tasseling (sp):  And I've had 2 squash so far (here's the one I haven't picked yet):  |
|
Squash vine borers: http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef314.asp At the point where the plant no longer looks viable, pull the plant, split the stem, find the grubs and smash them. Do not put the stems back into the garden to mulch, you may miss some grubs. Fire the plants up or put into a plastic garbage bag and dump them. Last year I 'counted' 43 grubs (yes I do remember that number because it is the most I have found) in 12 plants which means I missed at least that many. If you want to take a chance with a plant that might continuing producing you can take a razor and find the grub stick it and then cover the split up with dirt. I've even read of folks that will run a caot hanger through the stem in hopes of skewering the little bastages. I haven't had enough success with stem splitting a semi-healthy plant to make it worth while because there are usually more than one and you have to keep splitting. Corn looks good and let those last squashers keep on keepin on! As a general rule you don't want mulch to touch a stem, keep it 4 or 5" away. The little pods are a mystery............ |
Arrggghhh again.........friggin bean beetles showed up today. Now the war really begins. Screwing with my bean plants is catamount to mutually assured destruction. One the good side.......I snuck a peek at some taters under the straw. I might actually have hit on something. Will see for sure in another couple of weeks. |