The Garden Thread

[peejman]

We've got one round of green beans and snap peas and pulled the plants up. 

 

The cherry tomato is producing and the Cherokee purple has a couple ripe fruit.  The other tomatoes aren't there yet. 

 

We've gotten a bunch of zucchini.... more than we expected as 2 of the plants were supposed to be cucumbers. 

 

Cucumbers V3.0 appear to be doing well but have a ways to go before we get any to eat. 

 

The okra is coming along, but those will also be a while yet. 

 

The carrots are taking forever.  The plants look healthy but the carrots are still tiny. 

 

The bell peppers are doing well, except for the one my son smashed yesterday. 

 

The jalapeno is also doing well, haven't tried a pepper yet to see how hot they are. 

[gregintenn]

If you've never tried this, you really should. Take ears of sweet corn from your garden, still in the shucks, soak them in water for about an hour, and grill them until the shucks turn black. When you shuck them, there'll be no silk on the corn, and it is delicious. No butter, salt, etc. needed.

 

I wish I could get rid of the raccoons. They know exactly when the corn is ripe. :wall:

[peejman]

I've grilled corn in the shucks plenty, but never bothered with the water soak. It's delicious! Corn on the cob is my favorite summer veggie.

[kieefer]

We're beginning to get a few bell peppers as well.

I've been trying to grow red bell peppers and have not had much luck. Past 2 years haven't yielded much and this year looks grim.

What kind of soil are yours planted in? Any tips?

[gregintenn]

I've been trying to grow red bell peppers and have not had much luck. Past 2 years haven't yielded much and this year looks grim.

What kind of soil are yours planted in? Any tips?

Red clay and chert rock. I've never had a problem growing them. Some years the plants are loaded, some years the peppers are kind of sparse. They seem to like sun.

 

Last year in particular, we got 4-5 GIANT peppers early, and then nothing for about 6 weeks. Then, suddenly, the plants were all loaded to the point of uprooting themselves.

Edited July 12, 2015 by gregintenn

[kieefer]

Red clay and chert rock. I've never had a problem growing them. Some years the plants are loaded, some years the peppers are kind of sparse. They seem to like sun.

Last year in particular, we got 4-5 GIANT peppers early, and then nothing for about 6 weeks. Then, suddenly, the plants were all loaded to the point of uprooting themselves.

That's it.

My purely organic finely grown compost that's rich in nutrients is too good to grow red peppers.

There's a landfill close to the Stones River, I'll dig up some run off dirt and spice my garden up for next year.

[peejman]

We've got red and yellow bell pepper plants, at least that's what the tags said. So far, we've got lots of green bell peppers. Not sure what's up with that.

[gregintenn]

We've got red and yellow bell pepper plants, at least that's what the tags said. So far, we've got lots of green bell peppers. Not sure what's up with that.

You're picking them too quick. They'll turn.

 

 

That's it.

My purely organic finely grown compost that's rich in nutrients is too good to grow red peppers.

There's a landfill close to the Stones River, I'll dig up some run off dirt and spice my garden up for next year.

Seriously, I do find that pepper plants in general grow well in poor soil. Why do you think they're so popular in Mexico? B)

[Mark A]

So far my pepper plants are doing poorly. I had a great year last year.

I'm hoping the heat headed our way this week will kick them into gear...

Mark

[peejman]

You're picking them too quick. They'll turn.

 

Seriously, I do find that pepper plants in general grow well in poor soil. Why do you think they're so popular in Mexico? B)

 

 

I've let a couple nearly rot on the vine waiting for them to turn, they were still as green as the leaves.  If I leave them too long, the bugs get them.  I've also left some sitting in a sunny window until they nearly rotted, no change.  I think I got mislabeled plants.  Which wouldn't be a big surprise as the zucchini that was supposed to be cucumbers is growing nicely. 

[Jamie Jackson]

I've let a couple nearly rot on the vine waiting for them to turn, they were still as green as the leaves.  If I leave them too long, the bugs get them.  I've also left some sitting in a sunny window until they nearly rotted, no change.  I think I got mislabeled plants.  Which wouldn't be a big surprise as the zucchini that was supposed to be cucumbers is growing nicely. 

 

 

LOL. That does happen sometimes. It bites...but happens.

 

We've got tomatoes coming out our ears!

Our cukes struggled...but we managed to put up 28 quarts of kosher dill pickles.

We have our second planting of bush beans coming along nicely. And I saw the first blooms on our okra this morning.

 

Our banana peppers have been producing nicely for about 3-4 weeks now. I've had one good picking from our jumbo jalapeno pepper plants (have 2 of 'em)...but enough to enjoy some cheese stuffed bacon wrapped jalapenos. :pleased:

 

Our bell pepper plant is just starting to produce...I thought it was an jalapeno as well...since that is what it was labeled...

 

We grow in raised beds fwiw and the recent rains have really helped the plants along. They grow much better with rain water versus me watering them with the hose during that long hot, dry spell we had.

[kieefer]

My small area is similar to raised beds, boundaries are cross ties. All I got room for is 3 tomatoes two cucumber, 3 squash, strawberries, lettuce and a few herbs. My red pepper stands alone in full sun. I moved it from last year when we had one green pepper the size of a soft ball up until late Sept. then it finally turned red, also thought I got a mislabeled plant.

My location this year I thought would be better. They're about the size of a tennis ball, half green half red and rotting. At least last years was eatable.

 

Plan to remove some flowers and expand next year. Wife's a vegan so she usually does the picking.  :up:

 

Of course the lettuce is for cool season and I believe I will grow this in pots next year and use the garden space for maybe catalope or something the wife chooses.

[peejman]

...but enough to enjoy some cheese stuffed bacon wrapped jalapenos. :pleased:

 

 

 

Recipe please....   :yum:

[maroonandwhite]

I had something get in my garden and eat up my tomatoes. Luckily I had just picked a bunch. I didn't have the fence plugged up since I was not having an issue with animals up to that point. I believe it was a raccoon or something small. Didn't see any deer tracks.

[Omega]

I had something get in my garden and eat up my tomatoes. Luckily I had just picked a bunch. I didn't have the fence plugged up since I was not having an issue with animals up to that point. I believe it was a raccoon or something small. Didn't see any deer tracks.

I'm having the same issues, all my green tomatoes are gone, but at least they left most of my jalapenos.  I need to setup my blind near the planters to get that/those critters. 

[Jamie Jackson]

Recipe please....   :yum:

 

 

LOL. It's almost too easy my friend.

 

I just cut the stem ends off, remove the seeds and rinse them. Then I stuff them 1/2 full of shredded cheddar cheese and then finish filling with cream cheese.

I then wrap them with strips of bacon and secure the bacon using bamboo skewers...I line up 3 per skewer...

I place the bacon wrapped and skewered jalapeno's, standing upright (cream cheese end up), in a baking pan to catch the dripping. I cover loosely with aluminum foil and bake for about 1 hour at 325 degrees...

like I said...easy.

 

Pretty darn tasty if I do say so myself. :pleased:

 

 

But you may want to take an extra cholesterol med just in case.  :cool: 

[kieefer]

I had something get in my garden and eat up my tomatoes. Luckily I had just picked a bunch. I didn't have the fence plugged up since I was not having an issue with animals up to that point. I believe it was a raccoon or something small. Didn't see any deer tracks.

 

Trapping season is opened the day I till my garden. Squirrels with grab a tomato or use to in my yard.

 

I also have blueberries and blackberries. The deer enjoy them as does the birds, I need to get a net for them one day.

[peejman]

LOL. It's almost too easy my friend.

 

I just cut the stem ends off, remove the seeds and rinse them. Then I stuff them 1/2 full of shredded cheddar cheese and then finish filling with cream cheese.

I then wrap them with strips of bacon and secure the bacon using bamboo skewers...I line up 3 per skewer...

I place the bacon wrapped and skewered jalapeno's, standing upright (cream cheese end up), in a baking pan to catch the dripping. I cover loosely with aluminum foil and bake for about 1 hour at 325 degrees...

like I said...easy.

 

Pretty darn tasty if I do say so myself. :pleased:

 

 

But you may want to take an extra cholesterol med just in case.  :cool:

 

 

Tried this over the weekend....  delicious!   :yum:    I ran them under the broiler for a little while to get the bacon a little more crispy.  I like my bacon right on the edge of burned. 

 

Though the jalapenos revenge at 5am wasn't so nice.  But that might have had something to do with all the beer.  and bourbon.  and tequila.   It was a good weekend.  B)

 

 

We also harvested our carrots a few days ago.  While we had lots of them, the majority of them never got much bigger than an ink pen.  Not sure why that happened... could've been the dry spell we had a month ago, also possible we didn't thin them enough when the seeds sprouted.  They were packed in there.  They taste good, it's just pretty tedious to skin enough of them to have with a meal. 

Edited July 23, 2015 by peejman

[Jamie Jackson]

I'm glad you enjoyed them my friend. Rough aftershock huh? :ugh:  It happens sometimes LOL.

 

I think you are right on the dry hot spell affecting your carrots that way. I've had the best luck regarding carrots with a fall planting. They really do well with cooler weather....and if I leave them alone... :cool:

[monkeylizard]

My leafy greens (lettuce, spinach, kale, chard, etc.) and herbs all did well but nothing else has done well yet. I've collected a few small tomoatoes out of 4 plants*, 6 peppers out of 17 plants, and a few cucumbers before the stupid cucumber beetles and stink bugs killed them off. I've harvested 3 kohlrabi. they're doing OK. Gotta keep  'em sprayed with BT or the cutworms will eat them up.  2 small yellow squash and 0 zucchini yet out of 3 plants. 1 eggplant is about 3-4" long. That's it out of 2 plants. I planted okra later and it is coming on strong. I should get a good harvest of that in the next week.

 

*I tried 3 new things with tomatoes this year. 1 - They're all planted in 3.5 gal buckets to keep them from taking over whole areas of the garden and 2 - I started them from seeds collected from store-bought Campari tomatoes as those are a patented variety and the seeds aren't sold, and 3 - the soil mix is different than what's in my raised beds. It's 1/3 each of worm castings, mushroom compost, and lobster compost. Next year I'll go back to putting them in the ground and starting with solid stock from my local nursery. The stuff I get from there always grows bigger, faster, and better than the plants I get from Home Depot. More expensive, but better. For anyone in the Bellevue area, I've had excellent results with plants from Moore & Moore nursery on Hwy 100.

Edited July 23, 2015 by monkeylizard

[MacGyver]

I've got some Yellow Pear tomatoes that are positively dominating the rest of our tomato plants.  We're probably picking 20-25/day from the two plants.  We've got a variety of other tomatoes that we're still having to wait for them to ripen.  That said, it looks like we're about to be up to our ears in them.

 

Our cucumbers have done well, but that's only really been the last couple of weeks.  I've got hot peppers producing.  Our bell peppers haven't started much.  Okra is doing well.  Something is eating my brussel sprouts.  When I find the rabbits - I'm liable to have stew.

 

Our carrots have been little thus far, too.  That said, I shouldn't really have mature carrots until the beginning of August.

[peejman]

I'm not 100% sure the carrots were "ready".  We kept checking them (by digging one up) and finding tiny little carrots, so we left them until the foliage started to wilt and die, then dug them up.  Bigger, but still quite small.  Maybe we'll try a fall planting. 

 

We're getting lots of tomatoes, jalapenos, and bell peppers.  The green beans, snap peas, and zucchini produced reasonably well and got pulled up.  The cucumbers and okra are finally starting to produce. 

[Grand Torino]

We dug up 61 pounds of red potatoes from 5 pounds of seed potatoes. We are really happy about that. So far we've canned 15 quarts of maters, 3 pints of sweet banana peppers, 3 pints of japelenos, 8 quarts of green beans. I think the carrots are just about ready. We planted them in raised beds with soil mixed with peat moss. The carrots are nice and long and straight. Our onions are nearly ready....we've picked a few and they are sweet but aren't quite big enough yet. The eggplant and green, yellow and red bell peppers are going gang busters. The cucumbers  didn't fair to well......they are tasting great but we didn't get very many and didn't get as green as last years. The yellow squash was a bust....which is strange cause they usually grow like crazy. Our corn is getting close...maybe another week or so. Of course the herb garden is doing great.

[Mark A]

Ok, garden stuff time again... my home based raised beds did pretty terrible this year. I've been working on slowly and naturally improving the soil. Last year was pretty good so I had high hopes for this year. Pffffttttttt...

Oh well...

Also, we decided at the last minute to plant a garden at the property we bought last summer. We were told that the soil wasn't very good and that it would take a lot of chemical inputs which I don't care to do. Mostly we planted some stuff just to see where we were.

Of course, it exploded...

I know, typical gardening story right?

Anyway, for the first time we want to plant a small fall garden. Mostly leafy stuff. Going to try to stagger some seeds and use cold boxes to try to grow until it gets really cold.

So, when to start in mid Tn? Now, a few weeks from now? What say you?

Thanks, Mark

[Omega]

I made this a couple years ago so the start date is probably off. I used info from various gardening sites so it was not my doing, just put it in my notes to use as a starting point.

Week 11 (Feb 3-9)
heliotrope, candytuft, primula, leek, early greens (to be planted out in the cold frame or greenhouse beds), viola, snapdragon
Week 10 (Feb 10-16)
delphinium, matricaria, onion, parsley, Greek oregano, impatiens, rudbeckia, early broccoli
Week 9 (Feb 17-23)
pepper, coleus, shallot, eggplant, cherry tomato
Week 8 (Feb 24 - Mar 2)
tomato, alyssum, cleome, salvia horminum
Week 7 (Mar 3-9)
ageratum, zinnia, more lettuce, radicchio
Week 6 (Mar 10-16)
bachelor's buttons, agastache, aster, basil, marigold, sweet pea, calendula
Week 5 (Mar 17-23)
sanvitalia, cabbage, convolvulus, nicotiana, lavatera, nigella, phlox, phacelia
Week 4 (Mar 24-30)
morning glory, nasturtium, melon, cucumber, squash

Based off of Average Last Frost Apr. 21 - Apr. 30 adjust as necessary.