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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Aug 2, 2017 9:42:33 GMT -5
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. Ahhh, Tomato Hell. The most wonderful time of the year! Or something.  (Mine usually comes later, more in the fall. When my farmshare gets the sauce tomatoes in. ::shudder:: ) |
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Post by Not a real doctor on Aug 2, 2017 10:31:10 GMT -5
I had let my rooftop garden get a little out of hand so I did some weeding over the weekend. Things are alive but kind of meh (it doesn't get enough sunlight and the soil is a "roof mix" which has a lot of gravel and brick chips) but things are there and it's still a pretty neat thing to have. I got this crazy pallet thing from a neighbor that I'm going to build a raised planter out of this fall so that will help with the poor soil/sunlight issue somewhat.
A meager picture:  I'm standing with my back against a wall that faces north, so to my right is east and the building's wall is on the left. A ~4' wall is on the east side (see below) so that shades a decent amount of the morning sun and the building on the western side blocks the afternoon sun so the whole thing gets a limited amount of sun. I'm going to put a raised bed on the east side to hopefully get things up in the air a little more so the morning sun breaks over the wall onto them a little earlier in the day. It's a crappy spot for a garden but it's neat to have it there and the windows on the left side look out of a hallway so people can see it when they pass by. The weedy spot at the far end has a compost tumbler that I'll move into the shadiest spot to open up the sunny spot that it's currently occupying.  This is taken from the geenhouse door. I'm leaving the grass in the center where I don't have anything planted because it is a "green roof" after all and I'm hoping it fills in the rest of the space. Again, it's crummy but it's come a long way from its status as "junk dumping spot" when I took it over. Also, my squash don't look as pathetic now, this is in their "post pulling the weeds around them slump over" period. Next year's raised bed will be on the left side net to the black half wall. The aluminum rack toward the back needs to be dealt with or converted into something usable. Right now it's working okay to hold some pots of herbs but it takes up a ton of space and gets filled with weeds underneath.  But the better news: I'll be moving into an actual house with a yard in a couple of weeks so I can go back to having a real garden of my own. |
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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 4, 2017 14:06:50 GMT -5
hey plant nerd folks, is this a Nanking Cherry? They were here when i moved in and are prolific this year but I'd rather not poison anyone if my mom's identification is off:   |
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Post by ganews on Aug 5, 2017 16:29:11 GMT -5
Picked the prettiest cucumber I have ever grown today. Also three eggplants, usual bell and shishito peppers, and the first okra pods of the year from the now gigantic okra plants.
Also sandwich season has begun in earnest at last. I've had a few already, but the slicing tomatoes are coming in ripe now. This is the prettiest bunch of beefsteak tomatoes ever. Hardly any are gnarled around the stem, most are bulbous and round.
Also we just made salsa for later, and the sun-dried Sun Golds are nearly done drying.
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Aug 5, 2017 16:48:09 GMT -5
What do you guys do with bad soil? My summer project has been tilling and prepping a bed of compacted clay toward the back of the house to serve as my future outdoor reading nook, wherein I will plant a Sargent crabapple tree, an Annabella hydrangea (already in), hostas, and drifts of various native woodland plants. Some of the stuff I've dug up has dried into rock and I'm not sure what do do with it. I'm going to put some in plastic bags with some worms and see if nature's alchemy can transform them by next Spring. Otherwise, what to do? Just toss the stuff in the trash?
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Baron von Costume
TI Forumite
Like an iron maiden made of pillows... the punishment is decadence!
Posts: 4,684
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Post by Baron von Costume on Aug 5, 2017 21:19:04 GMT -5
Sigh, a bunch of my tomatoes are blossom end rotty  |
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Post by ganews on Aug 13, 2017 17:43:52 GMT -5
Deep into tomato season for the past two weeks. Truly this is the finest batch of Beefsteak tomatoes I have ever grown, nearly all firm slicers at least as big as your fist. I suppose this insane August weather (highs in the 80s, huge amounts of rain every three days) is what helped make this even better than 2016's banner year. It hasn't been as good for the Moneymaker and Sun Gold tomatoes though; the former all have scars and I can barely find a ripe example of the latter that isn't split and therefore not fit to eat. The sauce tomatoes were getting a fair bit of end rot until the torrential downpours got consistent, and now they're pretty happy. We made 3.5 pints of tomato sauce yesterday.
Also we just produced our third quart-batch of salsa (made with our ugly tomatoes, bell peppers, and hot peppers) in the past nine days. We keep saying we will freeze half and eat half...then we just eat the whole thing.
Everything else is moving along pretty well; we'll be making pasta salad tonight with our peppers, tomatoes, and cucumbers. I gave a day's worth of shishito peppers to a friend who loves them and he gave me a bowling ball-sized eggplant.
The butterbeans aren't doing quite as well as I'd like, and I'm glad I planted 2.5 rows instead of two. I think they like more heat and less rain. It's OK, I still have a couple gallons in the chest freezer from last year.
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Baron von Costume
TI Forumite
Like an iron maiden made of pillows... the punishment is decadence!
Posts: 4,684
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Post by Baron von Costume on Aug 16, 2017 9:38:20 GMT -5
I cleaned out a bunch of end rotting san marzanos yesterday, hoping the rest will quit it. We are just not getting enough rain though.
Overall the tomatoes are going bonkers (I have one vine that if I had a high enough cage would probably be 8 feet tall at this point) but slow in fruiting.
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Post by ganews on Aug 16, 2017 12:03:33 GMT -5
I cleaned out a bunch of end rotting san marzanos yesterday, hoping the rest will quit it. We are just not getting enough rain though. Overall the tomatoes are going bonkers (I have one vine that if I had a high enough cage would probably be 8 feet tall at this point) but slow in fruiting. Pruning. I whisper aloud to my plants, "this hurts me more than it hurts you". |
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Aug 16, 2017 13:56:41 GMT -5
I cleaned out a bunch of end rotting san marzanos yesterday, hoping the rest will quit it. We are just not getting enough rain though. Overall the tomatoes are going bonkers (I have one vine that if I had a high enough cage would probably be 8 feet tall at this point) but slow in fruiting. Pruning. I whisper aloud to my plants, "this hurts me more than it hurts you". Yeah, I never prune enough, and the few times in my life that I've forced myself to get aggressive with the plants, there has been considerable payoff. You'd think I'd learn, but noooooo! |
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Aug 16, 2017 20:02:34 GMT -5
I cleaned out a bunch of end rotting san marzanos yesterday, hoping the rest will quit it. We are just not getting enough rain though. Overall the tomatoes are going bonkers (I have one vine that if I had a high enough cage would probably be 8 feet tall at this point) but slow in fruiting. Pruning. I whisper aloud to my plants, "this hurts me more than it hurts you". See, I'm a closet goth, so there's nothing I love more than taking large shears to living things. I take a perverse pleasure in cutting myself whilst hacking up rose bushes. |
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Post by ganews on Aug 16, 2017 20:47:37 GMT -5
Tonight we made pizza entirely from scratch, the tomato sauce coming from boiling down the peels left over after blanching probably 12 pounds of tomatoes. Because we use all the parts of the buffalo.
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Post by ganews on Aug 19, 2017 17:18:40 GMT -5
Today's garden produce project (just kidding there's always more than one) was pickling shishito peppers because we are getting over two pounds a week. We crammed an entire kimchi jar full.
Tonight we are making eggplant parmesan. Last night we made jambalaya but with eggplant instead of zucchini.
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Baron von Costume
TI Forumite
Like an iron maiden made of pillows... the punishment is decadence!
Posts: 4,684
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Post by Baron von Costume on Aug 21, 2017 15:01:41 GMT -5
I spent yesterday pruning the crap out of my tomatoes in hopes of maybe getting a solid harvest in before the end of the season. My hopes aren't high.
My pepper front is pretty sad too with the last of my hinkelhatz giving up the ghost and my other 4 plants probably due to produce a grand total of 10ish tiny peppers and 10 big ones from their various varieties.
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Sept 3, 2017 23:02:50 GMT -5
So I now understand why my neighbors dug up and amended all the soil in their front yard - it sucks. The soil is compacted clay with an alarming lack of wormage. I add compost with every new planting and every fall, I bury my flowerbeds in leaves. What else can I do, short of digging? Like, can I buy worms somewhere and dump them out under my flowerbed? Or will they wreak environmental havoc/get promptly eaten by the birds who nest in the trees overhead and feast in my mulch?
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Post by ganews on Sept 4, 2017 9:32:16 GMT -5
So I now understand why my neighbors dug up and amended all the soil in their front yard - it sucks. The soil is compacted clay with an alarming lack of wormage. I add compost with every new planting and every fall, I bury my flowerbeds in leaves. What else can I do, short of digging? Like, can I buy worms somewhere and dump them out under my flowerbed? Or will they wreak environmental havoc/get promptly eaten by the birds who nest in the trees overhead and feast in my mulch? Go to a Starbucks and get permission (or not) to take some garbage bags full of coffee grounds and filters from out back. Spread it through your turned earth. Worms love it. We did it like five years ago and never needed to repeat. |
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Sept 4, 2017 19:54:44 GMT -5
So I now understand why my neighbors dug up and amended all the soil in their front yard - it sucks. The soil is compacted clay with an alarming lack of wormage. I add compost with every new planting and every fall, I bury my flowerbeds in leaves. What else can I do, short of digging? Like, can I buy worms somewhere and dump them out under my flowerbed? Or will they wreak environmental havoc/get promptly eaten by the birds who nest in the trees overhead and feast in my mulch? Go to a Starbucks and get permission (or not) to take some garbage bags full of coffee grounds and filters from out back. Spread it through your turned earth. Worms love it. We did it like five years ago and never needed to repeat. Ooo, thanks for the advice! Not only do I have access to a Starbucks, but thanks to my airbnb hosting, I can have guests pitch their grounds into a compost pail! |
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Post by 🐍 cahusserole 🐍 on Sept 6, 2017 15:30:32 GMT -5
I do not need tomato seeds.
Guess what I just bought?
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Post by ganews on Sept 16, 2017 19:23:27 GMT -5
We made our return to the garden yesterday after two weeks vacation, during which a friend and his family supposedly came and picked at least once. The garden now looks about what could be expected for mid-September. We still got bell peppers, shishito peppers ate still producing but showing age, other stuff is making a final push. Got a nice haul of smaller tomatoes, so we made salsa and another gallon of blanched tomatoes. We now have over four pounds of blanched peels that can be turned into paste.
I didn't get to pick butterbeans one last time before the trip because of rain, and it took so long and I picked so many it will take hours to shell them all.
Our mystery plant did not survive two weeks of inattention. I had material underneath to keep them from soaking in rainwater but the two sizable fruits burst. Smells like cantaloupe. No idea where that came from, we never tried to grow it and it didn't come from our slop bucket because I don't like cantaloupe.
Also several of our okra plants are oddly pruned now, the leaves taken away. Seems unlikely my friend would do that, but I will ask him tomorrow.
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Post by 🐍 cahusserole 🐍 on Oct 3, 2017 23:07:58 GMT -5
Would anyone be interested in a seed exchange?
(Not that, you pervs.)
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Oct 4, 2017 8:48:22 GMT -5
Would anyone be interested in a seed exchange? (Not that, you pervs.) That sounds like fun! How would we work it? (I should endeavor to save some of the tomato seeds from the delicious volunteer yellow cherry tomato that we ended up growing on purpose this year. Then we'd have stately Dick n Hisses Manor exclusive seeds to offer!) |
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Post by 🐍 cahusserole 🐍 on Oct 4, 2017 11:35:54 GMT -5
Would anyone be interested in a seed exchange? (Not that, you pervs.) That sounds like fun! How would we work it? (I should endeavor to save some of the tomato seeds from the delicious volunteer yellow cherry tomato that we ended up growing on purpose this year. Then we'd have stately Dick n Hisses Manor exclusive seeds to offer!) I was thinking maybe we'd PM addresses to each other and then send random greeting cards with some seeds taped in? Would that work? Or would the post office think we're sending weed seeds? I saved some Berkeley Tie-Dye (Pink) tomatoes this year. |
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Oct 4, 2017 12:47:02 GMT -5
I was thinking maybe we'd PM addresses to each other and then send random greeting cards with some seeds taped in? Would that work? Or would the post office think we're sending weed seeds? I saved some Berkeley Tie-Dye (Pink) tomatoes this year. Oooh, I have a friend who has raved about those tomatoes! I will totally swap you some of our patented exclusive yellow cherry tomatoes for some of those! |
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Post by ganews on Oct 4, 2017 22:41:31 GMT -5
Would anyone be interested in a seed exchange? (Not that, you pervs.) I would be, but I have never had luck saving seeds and planting the next generation. Just loads of volunteer tomatoes that make their way out of our worm farm. I could send you some extra butterbeans... |
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Oct 4, 2017 22:49:43 GMT -5
If anyone has need for a beautiful (but poisonous) ornamental annual vine that re-seeds like a perennial, I'd be happy to send you some hyacinth bean. It's very hardy and easy to grow - plus even the seeds are cool looking.
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Oct 5, 2017 9:26:51 GMT -5
If anyone has need for a beautiful (but poisonous) ornamental annual vine that re-seeds like a perennial, I'd be happy to send you some hyacinth bean. It's very hardy and easy to grow - plus even the seeds are cool looking. I just looked at some pictures of that, and it's gorgeous! I wish we had somewhere ornamental I could plant something like that. |
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Oct 5, 2017 20:41:31 GMT -5
Does anybody else get a rush from particular garden tasks? I just found that digging up an dividing irises (a fairly vigorous pursuit) makes me feel like a real master of nature. I also derive satisfaction from wrapping up the 21 resulting corms in newspaper, having initially killed 3 of the 6 heirloom plants I purchased during my first spring at the house.
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Oct 6, 2017 9:38:30 GMT -5
I get a rush from the end-of-the-year clean-out. Which, coincidentally, is happening this weekend for us! A little early, but it's the best timing we can fit into the month. I just love being able to go into the garden and be a blunt instrument -- everything must go! And being able to step back and take stock as I work, watching as the unruly gets tamed, then stripped bare. And then the serene feeling when the last of the piles of cut-down, browned and spent overgrowth are hauled out, and we close the garden gate shut, and everything is still. My garden, because of the scale of the fence around it, almost manages to feel like a room. And when it's emptied, with the trees all going to brown around the edges of the yard, it has a monastic silence. I am always eager beyond measure to get it started again in the spring, but come October I'm just as thrilled to shut it down and be at rest.
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Post by Incense on Oct 6, 2017 11:03:49 GMT -5
I get a rush from the end-of-the-year clean-out. Which, coincidentally, is happening this weekend for us! A little early, but it's the best timing we can fit into the month. I just love being able to go into the garden and be a blunt instrument -- everything must go! And being able to step back and take stock as I work, watching as the unruly gets tamed, then stripped bare. And then the serene feeling when the last of the piles of cut-down, browned and spent overgrowth are hauled out, and we close the garden gate shut, and everything is still. My garden, because of the scale of the fence around it, almost manages to feel like a room. And when it's emptied, with the trees all going to brown around the edges of the yard, it has a monastic silence. I am always eager beyond measure to get it started again in the spring, but come October I'm just as thrilled to shut it down and be at rest. I need to do this myself. I was going to do it this weekend, but this morning, I noticed that the garden had a pleasingly Octobery look to it and thought that I might put it off until November now. Or maybe I'll crop the hostas down because they look like hell and leave the coleus alone. It's still thriving and I love that wonderful burgundy color against the orange linden leaves. |
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Post by The Stuffingtacular She-Hulk on Oct 20, 2017 15:22:05 GMT -5
I got three jalapeños on my plant all summer long, and when I went outside to check and see if it needed watering, I found NINE of them in various stages of growth. I hadn't touched it in ages. Maybe that was the key? I just read the plants do better in terms of growing hotter peppers when stressed (i.e., water deprived). I'll make sure I back off even more.
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(Mine usually comes later, more in the fall. When my farmshare gets the sauce tomatoes in. ::shudder:: )
