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Post by 🐍 cahusserole 🐍 on Aug 13, 2018 0:19:30 GMT -5
I did something dumb, and so I have a question.
One of my Brandywines had a little chomp taken out of it by some animal. I cut off that half and ate the other half. What diseases have I possibly given myself?
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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 13, 2018 9:23:35 GMT -5
Literally every single tomato I've harvested so far has been blossom rotted... I think I may just give up on tomatoes next year or have just one plant  I know it's been the fact that it's been a busy summer and a very hot summer and I haven't been able to water as consistently as I'd like but something about the new soil I put in the garden isn't doing them any favours either despite the fact that the PH seems ok and I've tried to add calcium. |
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Baron von Costume
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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 13, 2018 9:25:40 GMT -5
I did something dumb, and so I have a question. One of my Brandywines had a little chomp taken out of it by some animal. I cut off that half and ate the other half. What diseases have I possibly given myself? Hemorrhagic Scurvic Rabies |
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Aug 14, 2018 9:42:34 GMT -5
We went away for a week and left Boomer with the garden. She doesn't normally get involved with any of it, and we always feel bad leaving her responsible for anything to do with it. So we strip down the expectations, and just ask her to water.
I should have asked her to pick the tomatoes, too.
Instead, dozens of tomatoes ripened on the vines... and the squirrels found them. Now I suspect I will not be getting any more tomatoes from my garden, despite it being a bumper year for them, because the squirrels are happy to consume even the green ones as soon as they set any kind of size. Fucking squirrels! THERE'S A PEACH TREE RIGHT OVER THERE! Go eat the peaches, you stupid little fuckers!
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Aug 14, 2018 9:46:32 GMT -5
I did something dumb, and so I have a question. One of my Brandywines had a little chomp taken out of it by some animal. I cut off that half and ate the other half. What diseases have I possibly given myself? I do that all the time! I especially love cutting into a tomato, finding some horrible engorged, disgusting worm living in half of it, retching a little, then cutting the half with the worm off (and violently throwing it off the side of the deck in disgust) and happily eating the rest myself. |
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Aug 27, 2018 11:36:07 GMT -5
We ordered our seed garlic from Hudson Valley Seed Library over the weekend. Hard to believe that Garden 2019 is starting up already. But in a fun new twist... we're going to try growing shallots! FUN!
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Post by Lt. Broccoli on Aug 27, 2018 12:37:50 GMT -5
The squirrels are eating all of our tomatoes too, especially the little grape tomatoes.
Also this is what our cucumbers look like:
Hard on the outside, the seeds taste off, but the white part in between tastes ok...
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Nov 5, 2018 10:47:21 GMT -5
Garden 2018 is officially over! We cleaned out all the beds on Saturday, and cut back all the shrub-sized banks of catnip growing in the paths and outside the fence. Time to shut it down.
Garden 2019 is officially started! We topped off two of the beds on Sunday, and planted shallots and garlic in them. This is our first time trying shallots! And after last year's garlic shit-show, where all of the seed stock we got from the previously reliable Seed Savers Exchange was moldy and rotten, we ordered from Hudson Valley Seed Library instead. We got Magic and German Hardy hardneck varieties, and the quality of the seed garlic was extremely impressive. We managed to eke out a decent crop from the lousy stuff this last year, but now I'm extremely optimistic about even better results in 2019!
Anyway, the planted beds got covered with thick layers of straw, the garlic got its extra protective layer of chicken wire (to keep the squirrels out; we'd put some on the shallots, but we don't have any on hand and don't want to bother buying new), and I tossed some more straw over the bed that had the experimental overwintering onions growing in it. Then I shut the garden fence, stepped back, and took a minute to listen to the silence fall as the garden went to sleep. I'm always so eager to get it filled with green in the spring, but it's equally a boon to the soul to watch it turn to grays and browns in the fall.
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Post by Powerthirteen on Nov 5, 2018 12:19:02 GMT -5
I came home from a jog yesterday and took a shortcut through the patio past the garden, and was surprised to find that a bunch more tomatoes had ripened up unnoticed (a lot more had rotted away, but I digress.)
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Nov 5, 2018 13:30:36 GMT -5
I came home from a jog yesterday and took a shortcut through the patio past the garden, and was surprised to find that a bunch more tomatoes had ripened up unnoticed (a lot more had rotted away, but I digress.) Nice! That's the story of our garden from about mid-August until the first frost. I'm all excited about the first wave of tomatoes, but then they just keep coming, and I have my farm share, and who can be bothered going out to pick them all the time, and then suddenly you look out in the garden and it's knee-deep in rotting tomatoes. Tomato plants really are a lot more productive than I need them to be!  |
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Post by Powerthirteen on Nov 5, 2018 13:48:28 GMT -5
I came home from a jog yesterday and took a shortcut through the patio past the garden, and was surprised to find that a bunch more tomatoes had ripened up unnoticed (a lot more had rotted away, but I digress.) Nice! That's the story of our garden from about mid-August until the first frost. I'm all excited about the first wave of tomatoes, but then they just keep coming, and I have my farm share, and who can be bothered going out to pick them all the time, and then suddenly you look out in the garden and it's knee-deep in rotting tomatoes. Tomato plants really are a lot more productive than I need them to be! Our tomato plant kind of missed its window by three or four weeks - it started really putting out new fruit in September or so, late enough that they were all taking foreeeeeeeever to ripen because it just wasn't warm enough any more. There are probably 15 green tomatoes on the plant still. |
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Post by ganews on Nov 5, 2018 15:41:49 GMT -5
Yup, it's officially over. Wifemate (her presence is notable, because this was her first visit to the garden since July ended) and I went out to dig sweet potatoes this Saturday, shoveling up great mounds of mud to find all of three potatoes.
Normally I would have been posting in this thread continuously for months, but all the rain plus the late spring cold made this the worst garden year since I don't know when, maybe 2012. The weather never really moderated until September, by which point it's too late. I found multiple shishito pepper plants with little blossoms on them, for example, that came right before the frost; a whole garden-full of plants just waiting for some moderately dry weather to produce. There were even two eggplants half the size of your fist. The zucchini were the only out-sized success, and even then because we forced it by planting two full rows (which in a normal year would have made 1000 pounds of squash).
In other years I would have been mad that Wifemate contributed so little to actual field work, except there was so much less necessary this time. This was the kind of year that makes you question ever doing any of it again.
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moimoi
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Post by moimoi on Nov 5, 2018 23:28:07 GMT -5
I have about $100 worth of bulbs that never got in the ground because of the shitty weather this year. Hoping some survives until Spring. My garden shall rise again!
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Nov 6, 2018 10:24:12 GMT -5
Yup, it's officially over. Wifemate (her presence is notable, because this was her first visit to the garden since July ended) and I went out to dig sweet potatoes this Saturday, shoveling up great mounds of mud to find all of three potatoes.
Normally I would have been posting in this thread continuously for months, but all the rain plus the late spring cold made this the worst garden year since I don't know when, maybe 2012. The weather never really moderated until September, by which point it's too late. I found multiple shishito pepper plants with little blossoms on them, for example, that came right before the frost; a whole garden-full of plants just waiting for some moderately dry weather to produce. There were even two eggplants half the size of your fist. The zucchini were the only out-sized success, and even then because we forced it by planting two full rows (which in a normal year would have made 1000 pounds of squash).
In other years I would have been mad that Wifemate contributed so little to actual field work, except there was so much less necessary this time. This was the kind of year that makes you question ever doing any of it again.
Yeah, this year was just awful. Which made it weird that our garden was sort of enormously successful (doing just garlic, leeks, onions, peppers, tomatoes, sunflowers, and peas). But our farm membership was dire this year, so much so that the farmer has been sending out pleading emails begging members not to give up on him. As it became clear that summer's crops were a bust there was this chorus of, "But don't worry -- fall will be better!" Until fall came, and it wasn't any better. Absolutely the sort of growing season that makes you seriously reconsider your commitment. |
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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 Nov 9, 2018 11:37:51 GMT -5
Yeah, absolute garbage...
Hereabouts we went from bone dry for 3 months to garden perpetually puddle filled and temps 10 degrees below normal overnight so nothing had a chance.
I'm going to revisit my plans in spring but right now I think the plan is just to have two small tomato plants for like salads/blts and then just buy tomatoes for anything else I want to do/make.
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Nov 9, 2018 14:11:58 GMT -5
I'm thinking of permanently dedicating part of my garden to asparagus.
And that's my story.
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Post by kitchin on Nov 10, 2018 4:44:35 GMT -5
I was thinking the same for onions.
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Nov 12, 2018 10:35:33 GMT -5
I was thinking the same for onions. That's actually another thing we're planning for next year too -- fewer peppers and tomatoes, more onions! It's the leeks, specifically, I'd like more of, because they sit in the garden for as long as you want, and then they keep in the fridge forever, so they're low effort and high reward, in that you don't have to think about harvesting them until it's convenient for you, and if you end up with a zillion they'll last you all winter! In the past we've just set aside one row in the onion bed for them, so I end up with, like, six leeks. That's hardly any! I want more leeks! So I think we'll be doubling our onion/leek capacity next year, and plant more storage-type onions than we have in the past. I'd love to take a big bite out of my winter without having to buy onions at the grocery store. (AND DID I MENTION THAT WE PLANTED SHALLOTS? I am allcaps excited about the shallots.) |
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Post by 🐍 cahusserole 🐍 on Nov 25, 2018 22:13:21 GMT -5
Liz n Dicksgiving, are those Zombie Lemondrops you sent me cold-tolerant? Because everything else is dead or nearly there, but the Zombies are still workin' it.
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Nov 29, 2018 9:53:05 GMT -5
Liz n Dicksgiving , are those Zombie Lemondrops you sent me cold-tolerant? Because everything else is dead or nearly there, but the Zombies are still workin' it. Those things seem to be everything-tolerant. I mean, they didn't come from an actual, like, seed-catalog seed or anything, so I'm not sure what their traits are supposed to be. I mean, their parent plant(s) were "pedigreed", but your seeds were saved from the tomatoes that grew on some second-generation volunteers that not only sprouted up out of a bed of pea gravel, but also survived being ripped out during weeding, then re-planted haphazardly, then CUT DOWN ENTIRELY, then had their stems stuck back into the dirt in the hopes that no one would notice, and then KEPT ON GROWING. We didn't leave the plants in long enough to find out how much cold is needed to kill them, but considering that cutting them down didn't kill them, I'm not at all surprised to hear that a California winter isn't fazing them!  (We ended up with some very late-season volunteers this past summer that are the spawn of last summer's Zombies. I'm very interested to find out next summer what the next generation is like.) |
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Post by 🐍 cahusserole 🐍 on Jan 17, 2019 21:33:21 GMT -5
I'm switching garden patches! The new one is going to have SO MUCH SUN. So long, tree on the other side of the fence that dropped a billion leaves on my plants! It's further away from the shed, but I think I can live with it. Hopefully my new neighbors are cool and won't break the hose nozzle or email me about the proper coiling up of said hose. I think I'll go drop in some beans this weekend. It's also time to start working on my seedlings.
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Jan 18, 2019 10:41:50 GMT -5
Congrats on the new location, 🐍 cahusserole 🐍! I hope it's a smashing success for you! I'm getting the wheels turning today for the start of planting -- I brought in a bazillion blank seedling-pot labels, a sharpie, and our packets of onion and leek seeds, and will spend my quiet Friday at the office prepping for getting the onion seedlings into trays this weekend. Things are going to start happening around here! |
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Post by 🐍 cahusserole 🐍 on Jan 18, 2019 22:18:04 GMT -5
The only downside of the new patch is that it's not lined with gopher wire. I nearly killed myself trying to put gopher-resistant beds in my last patch, digging all those holes. Christ I hate digging. So I'm going to try not using it. The last guy in that spot was apparently growing onions (according to everything I've been finding in the dirt), so maybe they'll leave my shit alone too.
I dumped a bunch of random seeds in the ground and stuck sharpied popsicle sticks in beside them. Let's see if anything grows!
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Post by kitchin on Jan 19, 2019 7:16:03 GMT -5
I heard onions are heavy feeders. But my best tomato field ever was a bottom land lawn that a few years before had been an onion field.
What I would really like is a disused dairy pasture. But those don't exist around here anymore. Cussed refrigeration!
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Jan 22, 2019 12:15:54 GMT -5
The only downside of the new patch is that it's not lined with gopher wire. I nearly killed myself trying to put gopher-resistant beds in my last patch, digging all those holes. Christ I hate digging. So I'm going to try not using it. The last guy in that spot was apparently growing onions (according to everything I've been finding in the dirt), so maybe they'll leave my shit alone too. I dumped a bunch of random seeds in the ground and stuck sharpied popsicle sticks in beside them. Let's see if anything grows! Dumping seeds in the dirt and putting popsicle sticks in with them sounds like you've got it all covered! I can't wait until we're at "put actual stuff in the actual ground" stage. But the onions and leeks at stately Dick n Hisses Manor have been planted in their seedling trays! Garden 2019 is a go! (We have the trays under the grow lights, sort of hilariously, because there is nothing actually growing at the moment. But it's a nice feeling to be back in the time of year where we've got that fluorescent glow coming from the sun room corner of the house again. Feels like winter, baby!) |
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Jan 30, 2019 11:02:39 GMT -5
Keeping myself busy at work this morning... by finishing off my seed orders! WOO HOO! Things are going to start happening around here!
The final plans now are to grow Zombie cherry tomatoes, Sheboygan paste tomatoes, and Mikado slicers. And for peppers we're doing Goddess banana peppers again, Jalafuegos, and then three bell peppers -- King of the North, Wisconsin Lakes, and Doe Hill.
I forgot to include herb seeds, though, because I'm an idiot who wants to pay shipping multiple times for orders of one or two seed packs. D'oh!
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Post by kitchin on Jan 31, 2019 6:05:32 GMT -5
Keeping myself busy at work this morning... by finishing off my seed orders! WOO HOO! Things are going to start happening around here! The final plans now are to grow Zombie cherry tomatoes, Sheboygan paste tomatoes, and Mikado slicers. And for peppers we're doing Goddess banana peppers again, Jalafuegos, and then three bell peppers -- King of the North, Wisconsin Lakes, and Doe Hill. I forgot to include herb seeds, though, because I'm an idiot who wants to pay shipping multiple times for orders of one or two seed packs. D'oh! I've been to Doe Hill! It's almost alpine up in that part of Virginia, mainly forestry and sheep. This link says it's the same Doe Hill the peppers are named for: www.monticelloshop.org/631162.html I bought sesame seeds from that shop, and they turned out well, easy to grow, even in morning/evening shade and questionable soil. I didn't press oil, but that's the idea - a higher latitude substitute for olives.
The seed envelope was not nearly as full as from the usual suspect seed the companies, the ones sold at regular stores, but it was all I needed. Don't know if they're always that way from there. |
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Jan 31, 2019 9:45:40 GMT -5
I've been to Doe Hill! It's almost alpine up in that part of Virginia, mainly forestry and sheep. This link says it's the same Doe Hill the peppers are named for: www.monticelloshop.org/631162.html I bought sesame seeds from that shop, and they turned out well, easy to grow, even in morning/evening shade and questionable soil. I didn't press oil, but that's the idea - a higher latitude substitute for olives.
The seed envelope was not nearly as full as from the usual suspect seed the companies, the ones sold at regular stores, but it was all I needed. Don't know if they're always that way from there. I ordered my Doe Hill peppers from Hudson Valley Seed Company, and I think they do the standard "25 seeds" thing. But that's pretty cool to hear about the origin of the peppers! Also, seriously, you grew sesame seeds? I've never even CONSIDERED that you could do that! Tell all! |
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Post by kitchin on Jan 31, 2019 11:24:35 GMT -5
That's all. I shook them out of their pods when they got dry. You'd need a lot more than I had to make it worth pressing oil. There's a hand-cranked machine for sale for a couple hundred dollars (seems high), made by do-gooders for developing countries. That's all I know. I should have tried it with a vice or something just to get a quarter teaspoon as a test. Then I could grow all the ingredients for a marinara sauce (a la sesame). Anyway, that's why Monticello historic garden produces and sells the seeds, because President #3 wanted a local source for a Mediterranean vegetable oil. I believe he got them from Turkey.
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Post by ganews on Feb 2, 2019 16:30:18 GMT -5
I've been to Doe Hill! It's almost alpine up in that part of Virginia, mainly forestry and sheep. This link says it's the same Doe Hill the peppers are named for: www.monticelloshop.org/631162.html I bought sesame seeds from that shop, and they turned out well, easy to grow, even in morning/evening shade and questionable soil. I didn't press oil, but that's the idea - a higher latitude substitute for olives.
The seed envelope was not nearly as full as from the usual suspect seed the companies, the ones sold at regular stores, but it was all I needed. Don't know if they're always that way from there. I ordered my Doe Hill peppers from Hudson Valley Seed Company, and I think they do the standard "25 seeds" thing. But that's pretty cool to hear about the origin of the peppers! Also, seriously, you grew sesame seeds? I've never even CONSIDERED that you could do that! Tell all! . I ultimately lost half the seeds to mold though, because it's difficult to wash all the detritus out and get them dry enough to store long-term. |
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