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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Jun 29, 2017 12:28:51 GMT -5
As always happens, there are dill flowers a-plenty in my garden and no cucumbers yet. I think I'm going to be impatient and see if I can't rustle up some Kirbys at the farmstand this weekend so I can get a batch of pickles going. What's the point of growing dill for flowers if you're just going to let them go to waste?
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Baron von Costume
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Like an iron maiden made of pillows... the punishment is decadence!
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Post by Baron von Costume on Jul 1, 2017 0:31:13 GMT -5
 I don't think I posted it yet so here is my post new garden wall veggie shot. (No I have no idea what that is painted on the shed, it was there when I moved in.) I love my new wall and it was totally worth the effort, I just need to get some less ghetto looking fencing. It used to just be even with the path and the dog (dogs when the family was over) would just run in constantly, now she has a psychological barrier at least. Edit: the vines on that section of fence are a mix of my grapevines and some hops that I can't control at all. Since that photo was taken the vine starting to snake its way over to the rhubarb had completely surrounded it and was starting to cocoon it. Next major yard project (next year?) is going to be to pull up all those stones and redo the weed barrier etc which is going to be all kinds of terrible. There's simply no way I can keep the dandelions under control though. I mean I guess I could go out and spray roundup every second day but I'm loathe to do that near my veggies and with the dog always around there. |
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Post by ganews on Jul 1, 2017 10:38:03 GMT -5
Green fruit on multiple tomato plants. The eggplants are mostly looking good, bud I hand to pull off and crush about eight grubs that has destroyed all but one leaf on one of them.
I picked my first green beans this morning; not quite a mess, but a few servings worth. Growing beans on a real farm must very either very profitable or very unprofitable, because they are so easy to grow.
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Jul 5, 2017 13:47:46 GMT -5
On Sunday I took the camera outside to get some illustrative shots of the state of the garden... but had a macro lens on it and didn't want to go back inside to switch it so I ended up with just some detail pictures. Which is just as well, because on Sunday the garden was super overgrown and weedy and horrible. Yesterday we spent an hour or so working on tidying things up (some rigorous weeding; some cutting back of the desired volunteer plants like the mint, catnip, and cilantro; taking out the played-out peas), so now the garden looks glorious even in wide-angle! But I didn't take more pictures. So here are some of the sights from pre-cleanup. Several of our first-ever on-purpose flowers started from seed!  (This is a fancy-pantsy green and pink zinnia.)  (The one on the right is a fancy-pantsy extra-ruffly snapdragon. The one on the left is a regular boring snapdragon.) Dill flowers, in the sunshine!  Apples !  Peaches!  Yay! |
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Post by 🐍 cahusserole 🐍 on Jul 11, 2017 14:16:15 GMT -5
Now that my tomatoes have set fruit and are getting ripe, I can safely say that 19 is *probably* too many tomato plants for a household of three. I guess sort of thankfully only half of them are going great guns. So far I know for sure that I want to grow more Fox cherries and Paul Robesons next year. Cosmonaut Volkov and Celebrity tomatoes taste like tomatoes, which is fine but not super-duper exciting. I haven't gotten to try the Goldie or Prudens Purple yet. The Prudens has been astonishing, though, the fruits are so giant. My Goldie plants are doing the worst, but I'm okay with them languishing because the description said they were big on sweetness and not so much acidity, which my family prefers. The Ping Pongs are also lower acidity, which is unfortunate since that plant is going super-crazy. But it's not like I'm going to stop eating them.
I also bought a few more varieties during Hudson Valley Seed Library's last overstock sale for next year.
(edit: I just ate another Volkov and it was great. so now I don't know whether they're boring or good.)
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Jul 12, 2017 9:00:43 GMT -5
Now that my tomatoes have set fruit and are getting ripe, I can safely say that 19 is *probably* too many tomato plants for a household of three. I guess sort of thankfully only half of them are going great guns. So far I know for sure that I want to grow more Fox cherries and Paul Robesons next year. Cosmonaut Volkov and Celebrity tomatoes taste like tomatoes, which is fine but not super-duper exciting. I haven't gotten to try the Goldie or Prudens Purple yet. The Prudens has been astonishing, though, the fruits are so giant. My Goldie plants are doing the worst, but I'm okay with them languishing because the description said they were big on sweetness and not so much acidity, which my family prefers. The Ping Pongs are also lower acidity, which is unfortunate since that plant is going super-crazy. But it's not like I'm going to stop eating them. I also bought a few more varieties during Hudson Valley Seed Library's last overstock sale for next year. (edit: I just ate another Volkov and it was great. so now I don't know whether they're boring or good.) WOO HOOOOO! for your tomatoes! Your latest picture on IG made me sorry we only have one tomato plant this year. I'm so glad you're enjoying the Fox ones, because for my money those are the best all-around tomato out there. Big enough that you can use them like regular tomatoes, but small enough that they're still technically cherries, and so prolific, and so much with the sort of archetype of tomato flavor. I love 'em! I know we've grown Cosmonaut Volkovs, too, and I kind of have no memory of them one way or the other. Like, they seem like a perfectly serviceable homegrown tomato? Boring or good -- it can be two things! Anyway, keep us updated on the Prudens and Goldie!! Speaking of our one tomato plant, I was trimming the lower branches of it last week and accidentally cut the main stalk. It still had a tiny bit of secondary root activity, you know, where, like, a bit of the branch has sat on the ground and started sending out some roots. So I buried that part, gave it a ton of water, and hoped for the best. It looked mostly dead for a few days, but lo! Apparently cutting your tomato plant at the base and then just shoving it back into the ground is a totally viable farming technique! Because we have a baby tomato now, and the plant looks none the worse for wear! It is, it seems, physically impossible for us to have zero tomato plants in our garden.  |
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Post by 🐍 cahusserole 🐍 on Jul 12, 2017 22:15:16 GMT -5
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Post by ganews on Jul 12, 2017 22:35:12 GMT -5
We picked our first Sung Gold tomatoes of the year tonight: delicious. There's nothing like eating a tomato right off the vine. Also plucked four properly-sized Japaneses cucumbers to make Greek salad for dinner.
We have thirty intentional tomato plants for our two person household, but a number of the volunteer tomatoes that I allowed to live are also making fruit. I trimmed a bunch of extra Sun Gold branches and put them in water just to see what would happen.
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Post by 🐍 cahusserole 🐍 on Jul 18, 2017 15:20:11 GMT -5
During her last visit to my patch, Terrible Friend pointed out that some of my weeds were purslane, which is edible. I harvested a bunch this morning and made them into a pesto (along with a bunch of oregano and a few nasturtium leaves that weren't burnt to a crisp by the sun). My mother and one of the Corgi Sisters are convinced I have poisoned myself. I told them not to worry, since I am a champ at vomiting and if anything's off about this stuff it will be out of me tout de suite.
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Baron von Costume
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Like an iron maiden made of pillows... the punishment is decadence!
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Post by Baron von Costume on Jul 18, 2017 16:02:32 GMT -5
Anyone have any suggestions on how aggressive to prune tomatoes and potatoes that are going a bit crazy? I don't want to overdo it but they are so tall and wide they're all growing into each other and also shading other plants.
Also, if anyone else has grown goji berries, any tips on when to harvest?
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Jul 18, 2017 17:07:03 GMT -5
During her last visit to my patch, Terrible Friend pointed out that some of my weeds were purslane, which is edible. I harvested a bunch this morning and made them into a pesto (along with a bunch of oregano and a few nasturtium leaves that weren't burnt to a crisp by the sun). My mother and one of the Corgi Sisters are convinced I have poisoned myself. I told them not to worry, since I am a champ at vomiting and if anything's off about this stuff it will be out of me tout de suite. This is why I am afraid of eating the purslane, lamb's quarter, and dandelion that grow in my yard. Nasturtium I grow myself, so I'm pretty sure no cats or birds have done their 'business' on them. But is there any way to assure that something from the garden is absolutely clean, aside from boiling the hell out of it? |
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Post by ganews on Jul 18, 2017 19:24:38 GMT -5
During her last visit to my patch, Terrible Friend pointed out that some of my weeds were purslane, which is edible. I harvested a bunch this morning and made them into a pesto (along with a bunch of oregano and a few nasturtium leaves that weren't burnt to a crisp by the sun). My mother and one of the Corgi Sisters are convinced I have poisoned myself. I told them not to worry, since I am a champ at vomiting and if anything's off about this stuff it will be out of me tout de suite. This is why I am afraid of eating the purslane, lamb's quarter, and dandelion that grow in my yard. Nasturtium I grow myself, so I'm pretty sure no cats or birds have done their 'business' on them. But is there any way to assure that something from the garden is absolutely clean, aside from boiling the hell out of it? *puts on tie-dye shirt* Hey man, like, a little dirt won't kill you. Wash your vegetables and greens in clean water. If you're not eating out of a cow pasture and you can't see any bird poop, it'll be fine. Whatever Monsanto is spraying onto the so-called vegetables you see in the quote "grocery store", that's the real danger, man. *takes off tie-dye shirt* |
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Post by 🐍 cahusserole 🐍 on Jul 18, 2017 23:07:07 GMT -5
During her last visit to my patch, Terrible Friend pointed out that some of my weeds were purslane, which is edible. I harvested a bunch this morning and made them into a pesto (along with a bunch of oregano and a few nasturtium leaves that weren't burnt to a crisp by the sun). My mother and one of the Corgi Sisters are convinced I have poisoned myself. I told them not to worry, since I am a champ at vomiting and if anything's off about this stuff it will be out of me tout de suite. This is why I am afraid of eating the purslane, lamb's quarter, and dandelion that grow in my yard. Nasturtium I grow myself, so I'm pretty sure no cats or birds have done their 'business' on them. But is there any way to assure that something from the garden is absolutely clean, aside from boiling the hell out of it? I had to wash it a lot because of the dirt, so I figure any stray urine or whatever was mostly eliminated. Sometimes I'll blanch the basil or oregano before making pesto so the green stays vibrant (also because my oregano often looks a bit pest-nibbled). I'm pretty sure my mother threw it away while I was out. I found purslane seeds online. Maybe if I buy some legit she'll get with it. |
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Jul 19, 2017 10:07:59 GMT -5
I had to wash it a lot because of the dirt, so I figure any stray urine or whatever was mostly eliminated. Sometimes I'll blanch the basil or oregano before making pesto so the green stays vibrant (also because my oregano often looks a bit pest-nibbled). I'm pretty sure my mother threw it away while I was out. I found purslane seeds online. Maybe if I buy some legit she'll get with it. The New York Times had a feature a couple of years ago on purslane. One of their remarks about sowing it yourself was that you can get a pack of 250 seeds, but that's 249 more than you need. As for washing vegetables, I often don't even bother if the veggie looks clean. And I haven't died yet! (Veggies from the grocery store I worry about a lot more. All those people handling them on the shelves... children sneezing on them... e coli in the processing plants... ::shudder:: ) |
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Jul 19, 2017 10:09:09 GMT -5
Anyone have any suggestions on how aggressive to prune tomatoes and potatoes that are going a bit crazy? I don't want to overdo it but they are so tall and wide they're all growing into each other and also shading other plants. Also, if anyone else has grown goji berries, any tips on when to harvest? I think you can prune as aggressively as aesthetics dictate! I always under-prune my tomatoes and end up with reduced yields because the plant is so busy putting its energies into growing all its bushy branches and leaves that it neglects to grow as much fruit as it could. |
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Post by 🐍 cahusserole 🐍 on Jul 19, 2017 17:14:17 GMT -5
I had to wash it a lot because of the dirt, so I figure any stray urine or whatever was mostly eliminated. Sometimes I'll blanch the basil or oregano before making pesto so the green stays vibrant (also because my oregano often looks a bit pest-nibbled). I'm pretty sure my mother threw it away while I was out. I found purslane seeds online. Maybe if I buy some legit she'll get with it. The New York Times had a feature a couple of years ago on purslane. One of their remarks about sowing it yourself was that you can get a pack of 250 seeds, but that's 249 more than you need. As for washing vegetables, I often don't even bother if the veggie looks clean. And I haven't died yet! (Veggies from the grocery store I worry about a lot more. All those people handling them on the shelves... children sneezing on them... e coli in the processing plants... ::shudder:: ) Yeah I bought some. |
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Post by ganews on Jul 19, 2017 22:46:52 GMT -5
It was a day of firsts: first eggplant picked, first shishito peppers picked, first bell pepper picked, first picking of more than four cucumbers at a time, first marzano sauce tomato picked. First time I've done this thorough of a job pruning back Sun Gold tomato plants.
Also I suspect my mystery volunteer plant is a spaghetti squash.
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Jul 20, 2017 8:55:52 GMT -5
I've finally accrued enough cucumbers (still not more than four at once) to start a batch of pickles! This has been the weirdest stop/start/stop/start garden ever, and many of our peppers are stunted and horrible, but at least we're getting somewhere with the cukes!
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Post by The Stuffingtacular She-Hulk on Jul 24, 2017 9:30:51 GMT -5
A list of all the plants I have murdered this summer:
-2 regular basil plants
-2 purple basil plant
-1 lemon basil plant
-1 rosemary plant
-1 tomato plant (although I do think an animal got to it - I saw what looked like bite marks on the leaves before they all fell off)
-A GOD DAMN CACTUS
Seriously, I have no idea what the fuck I did wrong. I've grown basil in the Aerogarden before and it's like a never-ending pesto fodder machine, but the second I try it outside, it just decides to wither up and die, each and every time, despite my loving care and plenty of sunshine and water and plant food and nice soil and good drainage. Same with my rosemary. It just shriveled up.
I do have a few jalapenos on my plant that's going strong, and the marjoram is thriving. The oregano...eh, not so good, but it's not dead yet so I'll call it even.
Sigh. Well, at least the front garden with all of its flowers looks lovely.
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Jul 24, 2017 9:35:50 GMT -5
A list of all the plants I have murdered this summer: -2 regular basil plants -2 purple basil plant -1 lemon basil plant -1 rosemary plant -1 tomato plant (although I do think an animal got to it - I saw what looked like bite marks on the leaves before they all fell off) -A GOD DAMN CACTUS Seriously, I have no idea what the fuck I did wrong. I've grown basil in the Aerogarden before and it's like a never-ending pesto fodder machine, but the second I try it outside, it just decides to wither up and die, each and every time, despite my loving care and plenty of sunshine and water and plant food and nice soil and good drainage. Same with my rosemary. It just shriveled up. I do have a few jalapenos on my plant that's going strong, and the marjoram is thriving. The oregano...eh, not so good, but it's not dead yet so I'll call it even. Sigh. Well, at least the front garden with all of its flowers looks lovely. Basil can be surprisingly persnickity. And when the weather gets hot around these parts, at any rate, most varieties immediately give up the ghost to some kind of mildew problem. For the last few years I've been like, "Check out my mad basil-growing skills! Our garden is like a fragrant wall of basil! What's better in a heatwave like this one than knowing you've got months' worth of lush basil going on?" Then, 12 hours later, "What the fuck? Literally every basil leaf in this garden has shriveled up and died." (This year I knew better and harvested most of it as soon as the first tiny signs of the mildew appeared. Pesto ahoy!) |
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Post by The Stuffingtacular She-Hulk on Jul 24, 2017 9:59:49 GMT -5
Seriously, I have no idea what the fuck I did wrong. I've grown basil in the Aerogarden before and it's like a never-ending pesto fodder machine, but the second I try it outside, it just decides to wither up and die, each and every time, despite my loving care and plenty of sunshine and water and plant food and nice soil and good drainage. Same with my rosemary. It just shriveled up. Basil can be surprisingly persnickity. And when the weather gets hot around these parts, at any rate, most varieties immediately give up the ghost to some kind of mildew problem. For the last few years I've been like, "Check out my mad basil-growing skills! Our garden is like a fragrant wall of basil! What's better in a heatwave like this one than knowing you've got months' worth of lush basil going on?" Then, 12 hours later, "What the fuck? Literally every basil leaf in this garden has shriveled up and died." (This year I knew better and harvested most of it as soon as the first tiny signs of the mildew appeared. Pesto ahoy!) Oh thank god I'm not the only one. It's been absolutely beastly, horribly hot - even for Maryland in July - and I wondered if maybe they were just sensitive to the heat itself, but then I was like, no dumbass, basil grows just fine in Italy and Greece where it's hot and sunny too. So the (American) heat + the high moisture content of basil = bad times, if I understand correctly? |
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Post by ganews on Jul 24, 2017 10:05:35 GMT -5
Picked the first butterbeans of the year (the most important of all my crops), ate half of them last night. Last night there was a helluva rain. I'm going to have to run out there after work and make sure everything is OK. Here are some week-old pictures from before the big rain.    Yes that is a lot of tomatoes. |
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Jul 24, 2017 10:15:47 GMT -5
Oh thank god I'm not the only one. It's been absolutely beastly, horribly hot - even for Maryland in July - and I wondered if maybe they were just sensitive to the heat itself, but then I was like, no dumbass, basil grows just fine in Italy and Greece where it's hot and sunny too. So the (American) heat + the high moisture content of basil = bad times, if I understand correctly? Actually, I'm looking up downy mildew right now, and it turns out it prefers moderate heat but loves high humidity. Huh. Anyway, it's relatively new in the US, becoming an issue in the Northeast only in the last few years. So that might be your problem, if you've never had trouble with basil before... |
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Post by The Stuffingtacular She-Hulk on Jul 24, 2017 10:35:03 GMT -5
Oh thank god I'm not the only one. It's been absolutely beastly, horribly hot - even for Maryland in July - and I wondered if maybe they were just sensitive to the heat itself, but then I was like, no dumbass, basil grows just fine in Italy and Greece where it's hot and sunny too. So the (American) heat + the high moisture content of basil = bad times, if I understand correctly? Actually, I'm looking up downy mildew right now, and it turns out it prefers moderate heat but loves high humidity. Huh. Anyway, it's relatively new in the US, becoming an issue in the Northeast only in the last few years. So that might be your problem, if you've never had trouble with basil before... Well, crap, that explains it. Maryland has high humidity pretty much all the time - I've been having loads of trouble lately with my bum ankle (which is held together with a plate and screws) because of it, even though it's not cold out. I guess basil will just have to be an indoor plant. Or I'll just keep buying it from the supermarket. |
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Jul 24, 2017 11:01:05 GMT -5
Well, crap, that explains it. Maryland has high humidity pretty much all the time - I've been having loads of trouble lately with my bum ankle (which is held together with a plate and screws) because of it, even though it's not cold out. I guess basil will just have to be an indoor plant. Or I'll just keep buying it from the supermarket. You could also try growing other varieties. The bushier, smaller-leaf basils (read: not Genovese) seem not to be as susceptible to the mildew, and I have a few plants in my garden that are still thriving. The leaves aren't as tender and the flavor not as fine, but it's still delicious basil. (I've also got a variety we started from seed, Lettuce Leaf, that has the tenderness of Genovese, but in huge leaves. And it also doesn't seem to be bothered by the mildew.) |
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Post by The Stuffingtacular She-Hulk on Jul 25, 2017 9:15:11 GMT -5
Well, crap, that explains it. Maryland has high humidity pretty much all the time - I've been having loads of trouble lately with my bum ankle (which is held together with a plate and screws) because of it, even though it's not cold out. I guess basil will just have to be an indoor plant. Or I'll just keep buying it from the supermarket. You could also try growing other varieties. The bushier, smaller-leaf basils (read: not Genovese) seem not to be as susceptible to the mildew, and I have a few plants in my garden that are still thriving. The leaves aren't as tender and the flavor not as fine, but it's still delicious basil. (I've also got a variety we started from seed, Lettuce Leaf, that has the tenderness of Genovese, but in huge leaves. And it also doesn't seem to be bothered by the mildew.) I haven't got my heart set on Genovese-style basil, so I'll see what I can come up with! I may just wait until next spring to try again, given that we're almost into August now. Thank you for the advice. I appreciate it! |
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Jul 28, 2017 8:24:43 GMT -5
ONION HARVEST HAS BEGUN! I took out a quarter of them (the other three types all still have their leaves standing up pretty well), and my rough estimate is in the neighborhood of 10 pounds. They are GORGEOUS. Although we'd very carefully planted the four varieties in quadrants, but the squirrels kept pulling them out when they were seedlings. They got a little mixed up in the replanting, so our meticulous plotting process was somewhat for naught. I do think the vast majority of these are Patterson Yellows.
The peppers continue to be a stunted, ugly mess (I have no idea what's making the plants so miserable this year), but I got a pretty impressive haul nonetheless of three types of fryers. We didn't make meticulous notes with these guys, so other than the Cubanelles I have no idea what they are. Let's go with "green". (I'm sure they'll ripen to red, but I kind of want the plants to think about maybe getting bigger and better rather than putting all their effort into a four-pepper harvest.)
In other news, I had a bee in my bonnet to plant carrots two weeks ago... and here we are, two weeks later, with no carrots planted. It's because what started as a plan to plant the now-empty pea bed has evolved into putting some in the since-emptied garlic bed. And that bed needs some serious weeding, which is a bridge too far. It's so HARD being a lazy gardener!
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Baron von Costume
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Like an iron maiden made of pillows... the punishment is decadence!
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Post by Baron von Costume on Aug 1, 2017 16:04:45 GMT -5
My tomatoes have decided they're super stoked about the new foot of earth in the newly raised garden and are going absolute hog wild... I have no idea what I'm going to do with them all.
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Post by ganews on Aug 1, 2017 17:27:21 GMT -5
My tomatoes have decided they're super stoked about the new foot of earth in the newly raised garden and are going absolute hog wild... I have no idea what I'm going to do with them all. Make sun-dried tomatoes! We just loaded a couple pounds of Sun Golds into our drying net yesterday. |
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Baron von Costume
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Like an iron maiden made of pillows... the punishment is decadence!
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Post by Baron von Costume on Aug 2, 2017 9:39:30 GMT -5
My tomatoes have decided they're super stoked about the new foot of earth in the newly raised garden and are going absolute hog wild... I have no idea what I'm going to do with them all. Make sun-dried tomatoes! We just loaded a couple pounds of Sun Golds into our drying net yesterday. I may, definitely going to make some of Liz n Dicksgiving's marinated ones as I ran out recently. That is, once they're ripe, everything is still green green green but I can tell the tomatopocalypse is coming. |
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