Garden Thread 2023!

[begreen]

I stopped growing peppers in the greenhouse because of aphids. Maybe I should try in pots. That way I can do like you have and move them outside for a good spray when they need it.

Our corn is waist-high. I started a second crop last week. It's just sprouting now. The indoor-started Pomidoro Squisito tomato is showing first blush. The rest are setting and growing a lot of tomatoes along with the Blue Beech, Early Girl, Abraham Lincoln. Sweet Million, Garden Gem, and SunGold. Our Tiny Tim has some green tomatoes on it, but none ripe yet. Outdoor peppers are growing well, a few are starting to turn color. Zucchinis are daily pickers along with the cukes. Lots of herbs. We have a crazy large crop of tarragon and have already done a full harvest of basil. Dill is next. The squash plants are happy and taking over the place.

 

[Dan Freeman]

I now grow just about everything in my greenhouse in pots. It gives me so much more flexibility. First time I have ever had aphids in the gh. The plants are still relatively OK with some nice sized peppers, but I know the aphids can turn all that around real fast if I let them get out of control.

 

[DuaeGuttae]

Wow, that's a big change. The buyers will be getting some nice gardens and your family will be getting some nice heat relief I hope! Is this a permanent move back to VA?

It is, Lord willing, a permanent move back to Virginia. My mom owns a ten-acre property in central Virginia, and we are currently living with her in her house. We are in the process of getting a permit to build a second house on the land where my husband and kids and I will live when it’s finished. We’ll still be next door to Grandma that way, but we won’t be quite so underfoot as we are now.

We are looking forward to cooler temperatures here than in Texas. Last night, however, was ironically quite hot in the house. My mother does not have central air conditioning, though she does have a wall unit in her living room. The cool does not spread well throughout the house. It was in the mid eighties inside last night. Usually it cools off outside at night, though, but last night there was smoke in the air again, so we couldn’t open up the windows. [I’m not sure if it was Canadian wildfire smoke this time or if there was different source.]. Thankfully a storm came through and gave us three tenths of an inch of rain and cooled things down to sixty nine. When it started raining, I figured the smoke was washed out of the air, and I opened up. From our Texas days we own three of Midea’s U-shaped window air conditioners that should be arriving soon on with our household goods, and we’re looking forward to installing them in the warmer rooms here. They’re quite energy efficient and have a separate dehumidify function.

My mom has gardened here for fifty years. She has cut back in recent years but still grows an abundance of food. This year, in the hope that we’d be moving up this summer, she planted more than usual. It has been dry here, and she’s been having some problems with plants being eaten off inside her garden fence, so she actually believes that she doesn’t have a good garden. It might not be up to her usual standards, but it’s really quite amazing. She let me take pictures, though, so I’ll start posting some here.

The first picture is a salad I ate at lunch yesterday. The lettuce and parsley came from my mom’s garden, but the tomato is one we brought up from Texas when we drove this week. I had wanted to save seeds from this variety. It’s a Taiga that doesn’t ripen to red and produces a very meaty heart-shaped tomato. I thought the salad was an example of what a good gardening team I hope my mom and I will be. That’s her parsley patch in her garden.



Here’s one of her clumps of rhubarb. She has several around the edges of her garden. They probably need to be divided, but right now we’ll just leave them alone. My mom froze numerous pints of chopped rhubarb this spring.

This cabbage plant has already had the main head harvested, and its growing side shoots just the way that broccoli does. I’ve grown cabbage before but didn’t realize that it did that.


My mom isn’t super pleased with her corn this year, but it looked great to me and my kids. Their first reaction was to stand next to it, look at the tops over their heads, and say, “I think she’s got ‘knee-high by the Fourth of July’ covered.”


I’m going to miss my raised beds and my arches trellises, but it will be fun to have a gardening partner and some really good soil.

 

[Dan Freeman]

I am very happy for you that you are out of the Texas summers! Best of luck as you set out on building your new house and garden. Now, I know where you got all those gardening skills. Your mom must be thrilled with you being near.

 

[begreen]

I'm glad this is working out for you and your family. The gardens will welcome your attention and I'm sure that in a few years, it will have a trellis or two and other nice improvements. Good luck with the permitting process. Hope there will be a woodstove in the new house too.

 

[begreen]

First blush. Won't be long now.

 

[Dan Freeman]

Do you make sauce with those tomatoes as they ripen? We used to, then a few years ago, we started freezing them in 1-gallon bags until we had enough bags to make a giant pot with enough meatballs for many dinners. We usually do this twice per season, mid-way through and at the end. Of course, most of it gets divided up and vacuum packaged and frozen for future dinners. BTW, if you have never tried it, the skins come right off after defrosting, so no blanching to remove skins to make the sauce.

Question...those look like low hanging ones. Do you have problems with chipmunks biting into the lower ones? I am always battling chipmunks.

 

[begreen]

I suspect these early ripeners will end up in salads and fresh salsa. This is a plant I started indoors so it is ahead by about a month from the rest of our tomatoes. We make our sauce by batch-roasting the tomatoes together with some garlic, onion, and seasoning. That will come later in August. Last year we did some sun-dried tomatoes too.
So far the chipmunks have not touched the tomatoes. They seem to be into everything else though. This morning I found that they had dug up corn seedlings that were starting in the greenhouse. Grrrr. I have stopped filling the bird feeders in an attempt to discourage the little buggers.

 

[Dan Freeman]

I have been using 3 small Havahart traps the past couple of years (https://www.havahart.com/x-small-1-door-trap-0745), and I think the 2 Rinnetraps Flip-N-Slide bucket lid mouse traps I used this year in the cellar might get employed in the garden as well.

 

[begreen]

Likewise. I have rehomed 3 dozen chipmunks in the past 6 weeks with no end in sight. I think they have a replicator in our yard.

 

[begreen]

We're nearing peak garden time. There are masses of blueberries ripening. We are picking several zucchinis and cucumbers a day.


The new beds are performing well. The corn is about a meter high now.


I just harvested the garlic. Onions and potatoes will be harvested soon.



The cantaloupes are overachievers. They've taken over the south end of the bed.


On the north end, we have peppers, eggplant, some carrot, two tomatoes, and a basil plant.


We are going to have a record blueberry crop. The plants are full of berries.

 

[Dan Freeman]

Everything looks great, begreen. Your gardens (and layout) are beautiful.

 

[Dan Freeman]

Finally got the "fence" put together down in the FF to hide the pond filter and electrical post. Not sure whether to stain it, paint it, or just let it weather. (The hoses to and from will be buried under wood chips...just got too hot to finish everything today.)

 

[begreen]

Looking good. Did you use 2"x4" galvanized welded wire fencing? I am due to replace some of our older parts and am trying to decide what fencing to put up. It is not on level terrain and there is overgrowth I will need to clear out. The poly deer fencing is now 15 yrs. old and getting more fragile. The deer are certain to exploit this weakness so I am looking at metal fencing for a replacement. Deerbusters has several options.

 

[clancey]

I would put a table top on it and stain it the same color that you used on the other piece in your yard --a flip type of top in case you have to get into it.. clancey

 

[DuaeGuttae]

@begreen , your garden is looking just lovely. Thanks for all those pictures. In an earlier post where you showed the blushing tomatoes, what variety are those?

@Dan Freeman , good work on the fence. I think I’d stain it the same color as the pergola. I happen to like reddish stains, of course, and it may give some added protection from the weather.

Here are some more pictures from my mom’s garden that I took about a week ago..

Swiss chard with ferning asparagus in the background. Bell peppers.


A hill of sweet potatoes, probably the Ginseng Orange variety. Blackberries.

Some broccoli, onions, and raspberries. We’re using some of the broken down moving boxes to combat some weeds.

 

[EbS-P]

We left for a 4 night camping trip. Set up a watering timer to fill an almost 2 gallons a day into the tank. Rolled the tower out of direct sun. And came home to a 3/4 full reservoir and some small eggplant. Tried to eat as many tomatoes as I could. Took probably a gallon camping. Still brought some home.

Picked a pablano that turned red. Not spicy at all. Caterpillars are becoming a nuisance. Weekly BT application seems to keep them in check.

 

[begreen]

EbS-P, that looks great. It's nice to get so much yield in a small area.
DG, I can see where you got your gardening genes. Your mom's garden looks very healthy and happy. I think the two of you working together are going to have a great one next year.

The tomatoes are the Pomidoro Squistos that I started early. The late started ones are a month behind but have many tomatoes set on them. I picked 3 of the ripest tomatoes today!

Here's the rest of the garden's work in progress. The Sungolds are starting to change color.


Orange Blaze peppers are starting to yield. Melrose on the left and Jimmy Nardello on the right, waiting to turn red. We have 10 pepper plants total. (+ Jalepeno, 2 Beaver Dams, Ace, Goddess, Red Beauty, 2 Fresnos.)


Ringmaster onions (sweet) and Patterson onions (long keeping) are getting ready. Romance carrots on the right.


The squashes are happy, including a nice baby cantaloupe.


The corn is starting to tassel and I am delighted that the Autumn Bliss raspberry transplants made it. Not shown are the developing beans, now in flower. Potatoes ready to harvest. Garlic already harvested. Ten more tomato plants, eggplants, butternut squash, and cucumbers coming out of our ears.

 

[clancey]

Nice looking plants bg.. Just wondering about free if he or anyone else living on the east coast and north of there is affected by the major flooding happening so worrisome...clancey

 

[Dan Freeman]

We weren't affected by any flooding where I am.

 

[EbS-P]

Tomatoes have slowed down considerably. I can’t tell if the determinate plants are finished but I think they are. I went back and looked first tomato on may 3rd. Seeded on January 20th. I’m going to try some cold weather tomatoes bred for Alaska this winter.

Peppers are in. Small. Eggplant are taking off. Chard still hanging in there. The caterpillars did a number on them.

Made the decision to do Dutch buckets for tomatoes moving forward.

 

[begreen]

I had to look up Dutch Buckets. That looks like a good system for larger plants.

 

[EbS-P]

I had to look up Dutch Buckets. That looks like a good system for larger plants.

It could be movable for younger plants (I can start them inside under lights) and I think the cheapest hydroponic method for larger plants. Using perlite as the medium is cheap compared to the expanded clay.

 

[Dan Freeman]

Unfortunately, I woke up with a bout of gout in my right ankle yesterday. Could barely walk all day. Today, was a little better. I spent a good part of the day just sitting in the greenhouse thinking about how I want to move forward: i.e. insulation, heating, etc. All in all, it was a nice relaxing day. Hopefully, tomorrow, this round of gout will be history!

 

[mcdougy]

Unfortunately, I woke up with a bout of gout in my right ankle yesterday. Could barely walk all day. Today, was a little better. I spent a good part of the day just sitting in the greenhouse thinking about how I want to move forward: i.e. insulation, heating, etc. All in all, it was a nice relaxing day. Hopefully, tomorrow, this round of gout will be history!

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Did you go fishing in the afternoon....I hear pound for pound a goldfish is right up there. 😀