Garden Thread 2023!

[Dan Freeman]

We just made it to 60 today. The low for tonight as of now is 35, but we are usually a few degrees colder where we are. All the plants are back inside right now.

It was too windy to work on the greenhouse today. It is ready to put in the front wall and last two side panels. We have commitments tomorrow morning and all-day Friday. It is supposed to rain on Saturday. So, it looks like the next day we can work on the GH is Sunday.



We really need to get some planting done after this frost/freeze tonight.

Too many chores; too little hours.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Begreen and Dan Freeman, your places are coming along nicely. You’re doing good work.


We had a mini harvest today of some Woods Mountain Crazy [Bush] Beans, Shishito Peppers, and our first Sumter Cucumber. We ate the beans and peppers sautéed together for a small side dish at lunch and had the cucumber as a late afternoon snack with some soft cheese and crackers. Yum.


I have three varieties of cucumber this year, two of which—Sumter and Beit Alpha—I’ve not harvested before. I’m growing both as pickling cucumbers, though I was interested to see that the Beit Alpha looks fairly smooth like my Southern Delight Slicing Cucumber.

The Sumter we ate today [in my youngest’s hand]


The first Southern Delight starting to stretch out. These will be long, smooth, dark cucumbers.


The first Beit Alpha. I don’t know how long these will get.


My Red Noodle Yardlong Beans aren’t yet ready for harvest, but there are new flowers each day, and some are starting to get long and dark. My son measured one at over a foot today, but it’s still quite thin. Most of the vines are only on the east side of the trellis, but there are some on the west, and the biggest have grown over the top and tangled in the middle. We’re starting to see some beans hang down there, too, so that’s fun.

 

[Dan Freeman]

The garden looks great DG. One of my projects tomorrow is to transplant my little Shishito and California Wonder Bell peppers from their starter pots to larger pots. It will be a while to wait for my peppers.

 

[begreen]

DG your garden looks great. I haven't heard of those cucumbers before, but the plants look healthy.

I was mostly selling plants today. Clearing out the overages. I did manage to dig up some raspberry runners today and put them in the new beds. I had to wash them down to the bare root to be sure there were no carryovers of buttercup or quack grass. Hope they make it.

We got some Chinese long green beans from a friend. She was given them years ago from a neighbor of her mother. Yu Ho Wong so they called them YuHo beans. They have grown them for many years since. From what I have been told they are more like 15" long beans and quite tasty. Hope they like it here. We will also grow our regular crop of Blue Lakes.

 

[Dan Freeman]

Very strange day. It wasn't supposed to rain until 9pm tonight, but we kept getting periods of mist and rain just about all day.

Tomorrow seems like another day it will be too windy to work on the greenhouse 10-12mph. Monday and Tuesday look promising. I would love to get the last 2 sections and the end wall up. Then, it would only be the doors to finish it off.



Despite this, the greenhouse has its first occupants: 8 Shishito Peppers and 7 California Wonder Bells.



Even got some "old fashioned, formal garden" areas in the backyard put in.

 

[EbS-P]

First real tomato harvest. I’m not going to lie like many aspects of my life what started out well planned gets picked to the back burner and grows in to a giant mess. It’s not pretty but it will work for now. Scrap 2x4,2x2 and pvc. It could use some duct tape

 

[begreen]

Sounds like Red-Green tomatoes. If the women don't find you handsome, at least they'll find you handy.

 

[Dan Freeman]

Put in 6 hours each today. We'll both be in traction tonight, but we finished the shell of the new greenhouse!

Still some caulking to do along with running some rubber gasket, and of course, building and installing the doors, but we finally got the shell finished. 18 days from start to finish, but 2/3's of those days we couldn't work due to wind or prior commitments.

 

[begreen]

Congratulations. That has to feel good. My accomplishments have been limited to 3 hrs of weedeating. It's really hard to type after that.

 

[Dan Freeman]

Congratulations. That has to feel good. My accomplishments have been limited to 3 hrs of weedeating. It's really hard to type after that.

Thanks, begreen. It certainly does feel good. Oh yes, I know those days when the body just doesn't respond like the old days after doing a chore like you had today. But, I'm sure your place is looking good. I am not too wild about the aches and pains in my back and shoulders from today's work. Isn't it nice to sit back and admire all you have accomplished, though?

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Congratulations, Dan Freeman. You’ve done well.

We were blessed to have a rainstorm give us almost a half inch of rain on Friday night [and no hail], and then yesterday we had a slow, steady rain that did give us a full half inch. This evening I had a chance to do a little harvesting. The broccoli and red noodle beans we had sautéed with garlic as a side dish with chicken and rice. We’ll enjoy the cucumbers tomorrow.


The two on the left are the Beit Alpha, which I’ve never tried before, so I’m looking forward to it. The three on the right are Sumter, which seems like it could be a really prolific one. The long one at the bottom is my Southern Delight Hybrid which I’ve grown for several years down here since it does well in heat.

 

[clancey]

Your food selections sound just wonderful --red noodle and beans with garlic and rice and chicken----love it...Dan your doing good but slow down a little and take a rest. My future plans are to have my Honey Locust tree trimmed and keep all the thin pieces of wood and strip them of their leaves and dry them out and keep them to burn in my stove someday and in the meanwhile I will place them in the wood house so that they dry real good. Does this idea sound like a winner ? I will know the wood that I am burning..Just an idea here and I will get this done maybe in Sept. clancey

 

[Dan Freeman]

They look great, DG. I just planted my Broccoli (Calabrese) and cucumbers (Spacemaster) the other day. I'm happy to hear you got a decent rain. We have been unseasonably dry so far this Spring. Rain totals are down, and we're not expecting rain in the next 10-day outlook.

 

[begreen]

Nice harvest! It's great that you got some rain. How do the purple beans taste?

I will be picking our first cuke in the greenhouse today. The Poniente cucumber plant is loaded with them. We have a Marketmore 97 outside that is just starting to flower. It is 1/4 the size of the greenhouse cuke. Our corn just started poking its head out of the ground. I am doing 2 crops this year, about 3 weeks apart for a longer picking season. A big surprise is that one of the Pomidoro Squisito tomato plants already has a few tomatoes on it. I started this plant indoors in December in the iDoo, then transplanted to pots in January and finally transplanted to the garden beds about 3 weeks ago. We did a huge lettuce harvest last night. It is thriving now that temperatures have settled back to spring norms. No rain here either and none in sight. We normally do not get dry spells like this until July and are way behind in annual rainfall for this year.



This is one of 3 lettuce beds. This batch overwintered and was transplanted to this container in February.

 

[NickW]

Started pepper seeds indoors April 4th. Planted outside Saturday along with seeds for zucchini and 2 kinds of melons.

 

[Dan Freeman]

I put a concrete bench down in front of the pond today. It is a nice place to sit.

From behind:


Sitting on the bench:


The water is very green from algae. It will improve as plants grow, but I have decided to purchase a filter to help it along.

Just a random pic from the FF. You can see the new greenhouse up the hill in the distance.


Got the two bottom parts of the greenhouse doors built and mounted today. Tomorrow, I will work on the tops.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Nice harvest! It's great that you got some rain. How do the purple beans taste?

Our whole family enjoys the red noodle beans. I’ve read that yardlong don’t make the best substitute for green beans if one just boils or steams them. We’ve never tried that, so I can’t say. We just had a couple of harvests last year, and we sautéed them with Shishito peppers and loved that dish. This time, of course, we sautéed with broccoli and garlic and enjoyed that. The beans do remind me of green beans but with perhaps a nuttier flavor. I’m not sure how to describe it. For us they work well, and they sure are growing nicely now, too. We’re looking forward to harvesting some more, and I may be able to have Shishito peppers with them in a few days as well.

The photos of your cucumbers and lettuce looked just beautiful, Begreen. Thanks for sharing those. Do you grow your greenhouse cucumber as a single stem plant? Do you do that outside as well or only for the the greenhouse?

I will admit that I’m missing my lettuce already. That beautiful planter with so many colors and textures of lettuce made me really crave a fresh garden salad. At least we’ve got cucumbers.

 

[begreen]

The photos of your cucumbers and lettuce looked just beautiful, Begreen. Thanks for sharing those. Do you grow your greenhouse cucumber as a single stem plant? Do you do that outside as well or only for the greenhouse?

I will admit that I’m missing my lettuce already. That beautiful planter with so many colors and textures of lettuce made me really crave a fresh garden salad. At least we’ve got cucumbers.

The greenhouse cukes set off side runners early. There are two on this plant now and will be more. I haven't tried keeping it to a single stem.
We have a salad almost every day so a steady source of lettuce is important. During your hottest months, I would grow lettuce indoors in an iDoo or AeroGarden. We still have a basil plant growing in the iDoo while the outdoor plants put on size. It provides about a cup of basil leaves every week. I will let it retire in a month and clean out the iDoo for fall planting.

 

[EbS-P]

The greenhouse cukes set off side runners early. There are two on this plant now and will be more. I haven't tried keeping it to a single stem.
We have a salad almost every day so a steady source of lettuce is important. During your hottest months, I would grow lettuce indoors in an iDoo or AeroGarden. We still have a basil plant growing in the iDoo while the outdoor plants put on size. It provides about a cup of basil leaves every week. I will let it retire in a month and clean out the iDoo for fall planting.

50w of grow lights and 6-10 sq feet can provide a lot of lettuce.

 

[begreen]

50w of grow lights and 6-10 sq feet can provide a lot of lettuce.

That is what I did last winter. I transferred my iDoo starts to pots under LED lights. The iDoo does it in about 1 sq ft and is automated. I will be getting another one this summer so that I can have a dedicated tomato grower and a separate lettuce grower. I have also learned that the number of holes is much less important than the plant spacing. The new unit will be wider and with fewer holes.

 

[begreen]

I got the drip irrigation manifolds and plumbing done yesterday. Originally I was going to do it all with Dripworks tubing but decided to hard plumb it with PVC pipe instead. This should be a bit more robust for a surface install. I am using T-tape on the new beds because I have a lot of it left over from another project. In the old beds, the PVC plumbing is underground and I used dripline instead. Both work well.



The old beds have a manifold made from 1/2" drip tubing and then the driplines are attached. The main plumbing is all underground and on a Rainbird 4-zone timer.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

50w of grow lights and 6-10 sq feet can provide a lot of lettuce.

I bought a freestanding grow light just last summer, I think, for that very purpose. I was disappointed this spring when it stopped working quite suddenly, but thankfully it was replaced under warranty. Right now, however, I don’t have anything growing inside. I’m concentrating on my outdoor plants. I had another nice harvest of cucumbers yesterday, and today I think I’ll have a good harvest of red noodle beans and shishitos. My kids will love that.

 

[EbS-P]

I bought a freestanding grow light just last summer, I think, for that very purpose. I was disappointed this spring when it stopped working quite suddenly, but thankfully it was replaced under warranty. Right now, however, I don’t have anything growing inside. I’m concentrating on my outdoor plants. I had another nice harvest of cucumbers yesterday, and today I think I’ll have a good harvest of red noodle beans and shishitos. My kids will love that.

Mostly salad greens. Over 50 cups. A lot of lettuce germinates in under 5 days. This will fill my rack

 

[Dan Freeman]

A couple of posts back, I posted pics of the FF pond and how green it is. That is to be expected, and with time, as the plants grow, the green water should clear up, but I am impatient, so I bought a filter to help it along. Today, I installed the filter. I took 2 pictures from each end so I can compare water clarity day by day.

You can see the filter in the background of this first picture. I plan to move the statue and make a miniature building to hide the pump. Perhaps a small gnome outhouse complete with moon carved in the door. LOL.



I am also excited. I have had miniature cat tails in the small pond off the deck for 7 years now, and this is the first time they have produced "flowers" which are the cat tails.



Finished the doors on the greenhouse. Much more to come on this...

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Enjoy those salad greens, EbP-S. I’d love to see some pictures of the rack when they start growing in. I bet that will be a beautiful sight.

Dan Freeman, congratulations on the cattails and the greenhouse doors.

I did have a nice harvest this morning of red noodle beans and shishito peppers that I sautéed to accompany bread and butter for lunch. The cucumbers went into the refrigerator for later.



I also got over a pound of green beans off my bushes. I hadn’t realized there were quite so many out there, but these went in the refrigerator as well.