2022 Garden Thread

[begreen]

My Black Beauty is much lighter colored on the stems and flowers, but I’ve wondered if I don’t have some off-types in my seeds because I grew some pretty lavender eggplants last year from that pack. I’ve never seen such brilliant eggplant flowers as the ones in your pictures, but I haven’t seen too many different eggplant varieties either.

I went out and checked, that was an Ichiban. Your plant is what our Black Beauty and our Galina look like too.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

I went out and checked, that was an Ichiban. Your plant is what our Black Beauty and our Galina look like too.

Well, it’s just a gorgeous plant. I hope it gives you equally gorgeous and tasty fruit.

I took a chance and sowed one more eggplant seed inside today. If it germinates, I’ll try to grow out a large transplant this time. I’m ready for summer to end (at least the heat part of it) and would enjoy a cool fall, but I can’t really count on that down here. It means that I actually do have a chance for eggplant, even if I really should have started sooner. I think I’ll put it in a pot so that I can move it indoors if I want to.

I thought about starting some cooler weather crops inside as well and decided to hold off on that for a bit. I need to reexamine the garden space to figure out where I can put things and what has priority.

 

[begreen]

The heat is on and the garden is producing. The Ringmaster crop is a bit overwhelming. Most are over a pound with some 1.5 lb monsters in there. All told there are about 36 lbs of onions which would be ok if they were good for storing, but these may only last 3-4 months. We will need to get creative with them.



Peppers are starting to turn red


And the first eggplants are peeking out.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Absolutely beautiful, Begreen!

If you’re not going to eat all the onions fresh, I’d start slicing and dicing them for the freezer. A food processor can really help in that task to do a bunch at once. I find it really nice to have onions pre-diced in the freezer for winter soups, stews, and sauces. I also love mixing up pre-measured batches of mirepoix, but sometimes I just freeze onions, carrots, and celery separately.

I can’t remember if you have a dehydrator. I think you do. You could consider running some of the greens or even slices of onion through for a homemade onion powder. We have loved what we made earlier this year. (We used the bolted onions for this.)

I still have one set of onions in my garden. They’re Red Creole short-day onions and should have finished a couple of months ago. I really don’t know what happened with them, but they haven’t bulbed up much, and their necks aren’t soft yet. My Texas Early White and Texas Legend were also smaller than I would have liked (I blame way too much roller-coaster winter weather and drought and heat), but they softened at the neck when they were done. I’m really mystified as to why this last batch just sits there and doesn’t grow and doesn’t droop. I’ve pulled the ones that bolted and some others just to make room for sweet potatoes. I keep leaving some, though, just to see what will happen.

And because I have to ask, what varieties are the peppers?

 

[begreen]

How do you make the powder after dehydration? Do you food process them?

 

[DuaeGuttae]

How do you make the powder after dehydration? Do you food process them?

I honestly don’t remember, but my guess is that I used a coffee grinder that we own that has never been used for coffee. We use it for grinding spices. It may be that I ground the large mass of material first in a food processor or blender to make it smaller and then used the coffee grinder for the final processing. The coffee grinder gives the fine powder consistency, but it does take some time to process in batches.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

My amaranth keeps growing. I’ve harvested leaves off them a couple of times, not for a whole dish but to add to other vegetables. Cardboard collars seem to be helping to protect them against cutworms.



My first luffa seems to be drying down. At least I hope that what’s going on.


Two days ago I seeded some Sunn Hemp into an empty area where I had hoped to have corn, but since a number of my corn seeds didn’t germinate, I don’t in this section. Yesterday I noticed signs of green at the surface, and today the seeds are definitely beginning to sprout. I’m growing this tropical legume as a quick cover crop, and I’m hoping for some good greenery in a couple of months either to chop and drop in a needy bed or into a compost bin. It’s nice to see new stuff growing at this time of year.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Looking good for August eggplants I hope.
View attachment 297275

Its been years since I grew eggplants. I forgot how much they looked like nightshade!

 

[EatenByLimestone]

The first round of tomatoes are being picked now. They're starting to pile up on my kitchen table. I mentioned to the wife we should start freezing soon. She's still enjoying eating them as snacks. Can't argue with that!

 

[Dan Freeman]

Hot and humid today. A chance of some rain this afternoon; a better chance tomorrow afternoon. Everything is so dry. We made a huge baking dish of eggplant parm from a bunch of our eggplants, and I picked about 10 lbs. of tomatoes.

 

[begreen]

Our last rain was in June and none is expected here.

 

[Dan Freeman]

Here is the eggplant parm we made in a 13 x 9 baking dish.



And the 10 pounds of tomatoes I picked today.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

@Begreen’s pictures of eggplant gave me a craving for it, I think. I cooked a 9 x 13 baking dish of eggplant Parmesan on Tuesday. My garlic and basil for the sauce were homegrown, but the eggplant and diced tomatoes were purchased from the grocery store. I’m keeping the plants alive in the hopes that there will be cooler weather, but there’s nothing much to harvest these days. We had a few small tomatoes and a couple of cucumbers on salad today, but that may be it for a while.

@Dan Freeman , your tomatoes look beautiful. What varieties are they?

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Our last rain was in June and none is expected here.

Are you having a heat wave now, too?

 

[Dan Freeman]

@Begreen’s pictures of eggplant gave me a craving for it, I think. I cooked a 9 x 13 baking dish of eggplant Parmesan on Tuesday. My garlic and basil for the sauce were homegrown, but the eggplant and diced tomatoes were purchased from the grocery store. I’m keeping the plants alive in the hopes that there will be cooler weather, but there’s nothing much to harvest these days. We had a few small tomatoes and a couple of cucumbers on salad today, but that may be it for a while.

@Dan Freeman , your tomatoes look beautiful. What varieties are they?

The oblong ones are San Marzano's. The others are a combination of Early Treat, Early Girl, Rapunzel Cherry, and Mountain Magic. It has been hot the past few weeks, not out of the ordinary, but we've only had only about 1/3rd the average rainfall for July, a little over an inch, so everything is bone dry, but not as bad as you are experiencing.

 

[clancey]

Everything looks so so good and free---what are those larger tomato's called for they look really good not the longer ones but the round ones? My tomato plant is large (wide) and it has one tomato on it with three yellow flowers so far--really big but no tomato's just yet. That Parm looks just wonderful and hoping everyone gets rain for you people really need it although here I am "rained out" and want some sunshine dryer weather for a change in my city but its been cooler which is really nice today which is good but temperature is rising..clancey

 

[Dan Freeman]

Everything looks so so good and free---what are those larger tomato's called for they look really good not the longer ones but the round ones? My tomato plant is large (wide) and it has one tomato on it with three yellow flowers so far--really big but no tomato's just yet. That Parm looks just wonderful and hoping everyone gets rain for you people really need it although here I am "rained out" and want some sunshine dryer weather for a change in my city but its been cooler which is really nice today which is good but temperature is rising..clancey

I might not have mentioned it. Those larger ones are some kind of beefsteaks, but I don't remember the name.

 

[begreen]

Are you having a heat wave now, too?

Yes, though not by Texas standards. Highs have been in the 90s in Seattle, 80s closer to Puget Sound, which we are. The hot weather is supposed to break by Sunday. Unfortunately with marine air coming in the nighttime temps will drop back into the 50s which is not the best for heat lovers.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Everything looks so so good and free---what are those larger tomato's called for they look really good not the longer ones but the round ones? My tomato plant is large (wide) and it has one tomato on it with three yellow flowers so far--really big but no tomato's just yet. That Parm looks just wonderful and hoping everyone gets rain for you people really need it although here I am "rained out" and want some sunshine dryer weather for a change in my city but its been cooler which is really nice today which is good but temperature is rising..clancey

You can fertilize each flower by rubbing or tapping it. Tomato plants are largely self pollinated.

 

[clancey]

Never knew that Lime and how interesting. My plant is real wide and I will take a picture of it maybe tomorrow--its a heck of a plant--unruly so to speak so I have place some different size containers under it to keep it off the ground and its seems to be doing well...thanks clancey

 

[Poindexter]

First two frost warnings here, 07-27 and 07-28 overnights. No actual frost at my house, but the wife was in long sleeves, long pants and fuzzy socks. I offered to light the woodstove, but she said no and made some pumpkin spice beverage thing.

This does have me thinking about using one of my firewood kilns as a greenhouse unit- if my Amish Paste were still alive right now they would probably be setting small fruit now, but weeks until anything is ripe. Been at least two years since I have burned every stick in the kilns for heat, I can probably free up one of them.

 

[Dan Freeman]

I could not imagine frost warnings in July! Sounds like a good idea to use one of your firewood kilns as a greenhouse. It would definitely give you more time on the front and back ends of the season.

Off topic: I watched a YouTube video last night about the Alaska Railroad's Denali Star Train that travels Anchorage > Wasilla > Talkeetna > Denali > Fairbanks in about 12 hours. Gorgeous scenery. I think I need to put this trip on my bucket list.

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[EatenByLimestone]

I remember being up in PEI, Canada on July 4th. It was back in the 90s and it was just above freezing.

 

[begreen]

This does have me thinking about using one of my firewood kilns as a greenhouse unit- if my Amish Paste were still alive right now they would probably be setting small fruit now, but weeks until anything is ripe. Been at least two years since I have burned every stick in the kilns for heat, I can probably free up one of them.

I had that same thought but was uncertain about the temp in the kilns. As long as the temp inside stays over about 40ºF Early Girls will still provide. The tomatoes will get smaller with the cooler weather and will take longer to ripen, but as a bonus, they also sweeten up. This year we ate our last Early Girl in February. The plant essentially stopped growing in Dec, but the tomatoes still slowly ripened. Not bad considering it was producing since late May.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

If you covered it in poly sheets, like a green house in your green house, do you think you could grow tomatoes as a perennial?