Garden 2021

[Terri9630]

That’s how we figured out what it was. We dug down. Found a large one and a little tiny one. May try the nematodes again. Good idea. We haven’t done them in a few years.

We had them last year and they were driving me crazy.

 

[Meerkat]

Breaded and fried with green maters is awesome

s.
I like the okra but never got a taste for fried tomato.

 

[Meerkat]

We are the opposite. We went from winter to summer. Warm and dry here. Going to be an early fire season.

Its a cool spring here too but like yall fires are already starting here in Florida.

 

[Bacpacker]

I like them better than okra. Fried pickles too, with horse radish sauce

 

[Meerkat]

I like them better than okra. Fried pickles too, with horse radish sauce

Never tried the pickles but did try to like the fried tomatoes.Also don't like eggplant not good since both easy to grow.

 

[Neb]

My current to do list does not permit time in the garden so I have a nursery wild garden thing going. Wild in the sense if something can grow without me babysitting it it survives.

I just finished the spring clean up and from this point forward the plants have do battle with weeds themselves. The following images show what is happening.

6 seedless grape vines where 3 will got cloned this year. 2 English walnut trees that will be moved to The Ridge next winter.

Lilac, pin oak, red bud tree and more grape vine clones.

Pine trees spruce chestnut.

White pine. All of the trees will eventually live on The Ridge. The pine trees will be planted along the north property line to make it obvious where our property starts.

German butterballs potatoes.

Blackberries and raspberries.

More in the next post...

 

[Neb]

Blackberries have a lot of flowers for this time of the year.

Starting bottom center and going clockwise
Red potatoes, apple trees, paw-paw and walking onions, fingerling potatoes.

A closer look at fingerling.

Purple viking potatoes and sugar maple trees.

Kenebec potatoes and garlic.

Strawberries

Service berries and persimons.

The rest of the boxes are onions or are left empty hoping that the grape vine cloning does food this year.

The "cages" covering many of the boxes keep Bambi, rabbits, ground hogs and birds out. Deer netting is used to cover the cages to keep the little from getting and nabbing the sprouts.

Ben

 

[UrbanHunter]

View attachment 66610
Blackberries have a lot of flowers for this time of the year.

View attachment 66611

Starting bottom center and going clockwise
Red potatoes, apple trees, paw-paw and walking onions, fingerling potatoes.

View attachment 66612

A closer look at fingerling.

View attachment 66613

Purple viking potatoes and sugar maple trees.

View attachment 66614

Kenebec potatoes and garlic.

View attachment 66615

Strawberries

View attachment 66616

Service berries and persimons.

The rest of the boxes are onions or are left empty hoping that the grape vine cloning does food this year.

The "cages" covering many of the boxes keep Bambi, rabbits, ground hogs and birds out. Deer netting is used to cover the cages to keep the little from getting and nabbing the sprouts.

Ben

For not having much time to put into the garden you have quite a garden

 

[UrbanHunter]

Today, I filled up another large growing tray to go on the picnic table. I wanted to get some more buy HD has been out for quite a while (I am using small concrete mixing tubs), I checked and Lowe's has some

 

[UrbanHunter]

I watered the garden tonight so I can harvest in the morning, I think I will have enough spinach to freeze another 6 packets of it and the lettuce is way more than we can eat. I need a rabbit.... 2 or 3 actually, I could name them things like buffalo-wing or stir-fry. Honestly, I think that I might have trouble harvesting an animal that I raised from a baby.... I know one year I hunted very early and saw a doe and her fawn, watched them every week, first at a distance but eventually they got very close, watched the fawn lose it spots, watch mom guiding it. After watching it for 2 months they walked within 10 yards of me, I stood up and said get out of here, what are you thinking? They bolted and I never saw them again, but I harvested a nice buck there the next day.

 

[Bacpacker]

Ran the disc thru the garden in the field where it wasn't planted yet. Just dry enough that it cut up really well. Not many clods with a lot of red clay. Once done, got the tiller out and ran it thru most of the area, including going thru my taters, beans, and onions. They all look very good, side dressed the taters and onions, then hoe'd the rows.

After that I planted almost 4 rows of corn, 6 hills of Moon and Stars Watermelon, 8 hills of Sugar Baby watermelons. Then put in several fence post and some cow panels. Gonna plant cantaloupe and some squash tomorrow.

 

[joel]

Neb,
Tell us about Service berries, I heard of them in nurseries, but have not planted them here.
THEY say the Service berries will grow well in zone 8, is it worth my time, IYO?

 

[Bacpacker]

Our Blackberries, both tame and wild are in full bloom. Should be a good harvest this year. Blueberries are filling out nicely too. and the pear trees look great. Just gotta figure out how to keep the critters out of them. Looks like I may have lost my entire PawPaw crop.

 

[LadyLocust]

Neb,
Tell us about Service berries, I heard of them in nurseries, but have not planted them here.
THEY say the Service berries will grow well in zone 8, is it worth my time, IYO?

I had service berries up the river. They are also Saskatoon or Juneberry - or at least very similar. I refer to them as a 'meat' berry as opposed to a juice berry. They are good for jellies and meat sauces. Ours were pretty seedy (maybe just ours)

 

[joel]

I had service berries up the river. They are also Saskatoon or Juneberry - or at least very similar. I refer to them as a 'meat' berry as opposed to a juice berry. They are good for jellies and meat sauces. Ours were pretty seedy (maybe just ours)

I know all those names, there are claims that they are late berries much like blueberries for cooking, not raw eating out of hand. All I rally know is what I read & do not want to waste time on them if they are just okay.
Meat berry sounds like it is full of seeds, like Sparkle berry, it has small round shine green leaves &
white blue berry like bell flowers, tree has cinnamon colored bark that turns gray with age. The berries are dark, black, small & gritty almost like sand like, because of the seeds in the buck shot size fruit.
Thanks.

 

[UrbanHunter]

Went out and worked in the garden this morning, harvested some spinach and took some before and after pictures:

Before light harvest:

After Harvest:

As you can see I left plenty of small leaves so the plants can keep producing, but I only got 3 gallons of leaves as a result. If I had pulled the plants I would have gotten a much larger harvest but then I would be without for a few weeks and I think a steady supply is better use of time and space.

 

[UrbanHunter]

Here is the water storage rack part 1:

It stands right at 7' tall:

I need to finish building the support for the 4 gray barrels (65 gallon each), the goal is to have their tops even the the top of the highest horizontal barrel. There will be 2 more horizontal barrels under the gray barrels giving me 5 55 gallon and 4 65 gallon storage barrels feeding 1 manifold that supplies the pump to the irrigation system. Not a lot of storage but we usually get a little rain every week and my collection system can fill them all with 1/4 inch of rain... City water can be used as a last resort.

 

[UrbanHunter]

The new raised beds are doing nicely:
You can seen the spinach sprouts in the foreground, the tomatoes in the back, if you look closely in the middle of the picture is a line of green onions.

Here is the other new bed with celery in the foreground and tomatoes in the back ground:

 

[UrbanHunter]

I planted a new salad tub with lettuce, onions, and spinach this morning, they should be up by early June.

Using an old picnic table for support I can have 6 (3 in full sun on top, 3 in the shade on the ground underneath) of these containers going at any given time

 

[UrbanHunter]

The onions that I planted last fall are now doing well, some are up to 4' tall trying to put on flowers, I wish I knew more about growing and harvesting onions.

 

[LadyLocust]

The onions that I planted last fall are now doing well, some are up to 4' tall trying to put on flowers, I wish I knew more about growing and harvesting onions.
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View attachment 66658

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@Bacpacker is the onion king so can offer more input, but will offer a tidbit I've done. Being gone during the days, I can't really babysit my plants very well. I get those little mesh party gift bags with the cinch strings and place them over the heads. The plant can still blossom, but the bag catches the seeds for me. (Lazy man's seed gathering??? )

 

[PopPopT]

The onions that I planted last fall are now doing well, some are up to 4' tall trying to put on flowers, I wish I knew more about growing and harvesting onions.

Onions and garlic are both things I wanna go deeper into here, for market garden purposes. I am told they bring a nice return.

I just planted my first garlic bed last fall, five different varieties, (about 300 toes), just to see what does well. So far, about two of them are doing really well, the other three, not so much. But I'm still waiting on harvest time to see what the bulbs look like. They don't seem to be difficult to grow and one or two local gardeners have suggested that they can bring a nice profit once you get going. I figure I'll keep the nicest for replanting and see if I can find a bit more good planting stock this summer.

Onions are another one that I've been tuning in to. They seem to do well for market gardeners and I'm just hearing about a guy up the road from me who is planting them in the fall in his high tunnel and has some nice onions to sell this time of year. Hmmm. I've never grown them over the winter. I do plant my seed in about March and end up with some very nice onions by fall. But maybe I need to take it to the next level on the onions, too. FWIW, I never did have any luck with "onion sets". Growing from seed is really super easy, too. It's a bit tedious setting them out but not that bad. I set out three varieties this year, a total of about 1,100 onions, not a huge patch, but should be enough for us plus some to sell if they do well. Now if we'd started last fall, we'd be able to sell now. Maybe next year, if we're still here.

 

[Meerkat]

I watered the garden tonight so I can harvest in the morning, I think I will have enough spinach to freeze another 6 packets of it and the lettuce is way more than we can eat. I need a rabbit.... 2 or 3 actually, I could name them things like buffalo-wing or stir-fry. Honestly, I think that I might have trouble harvesting an animal that I raised from a baby.... I know one year I hunted very early and saw a doe and her fawn, watched them every week, first at a distance but eventually they got very close, watched the fawn lose it spots, watch mom guiding it. After watching it for 2 months they walked within 10 yards of me, I stood up and said get out of here, what are you thinking? They bolted and I never saw them again, but I harvested a nice buck there the next day.

We have a deer born here last years,now a big doe. Hubby has already named her Bambi. People have cleared to build and we have only little forest left in the area. If the damn fool next door doesn't burn us out.

 

[Neb]

@Bacpacker is the onion king so can offer more input, but will offer a tidbit I've done. Being gone during the days, I can't really babysit my plants very well. I get those little mesh party gift bags with the cinch strings and place them over the heads. The plant can still blossom, but the bag catches the seeds for me. (Lazy man's seed gathering??? )

The bags if deployed before they flower also prevents cross pollination if you want to preserve heirloom varieties. If you don't want seeds cut the scapes to get bigger onions.

Ben

 

[Neb]

Neb,
Tell us about Service berries, I heard of them in nurseries, but have not planted them here.
THEY say the Service berries will grow well in zone 8, is it worth my time, IYO?

She who must be obeyed decided we should grow them for jam.

Ben

 

[Bacpacker]

Ill put up some links later where I buy my onions and use their techniques. It works.

Planted 8 hills of Edisto cantaloupes, 2 hills delicate squash, 2 hills Lemon squash, 5 hills of acorn squash, 5 hills of a butter cup type called Mrs Americans, 3 hills of a type a buddy gave me, I call it Woody squash, and 5 hills of Waltham butternut. Then planted a German queen tomato( large pink type that a slice will cover a piece of bread. My favorite for sandwiches. 3 jalapeno, sweet banana and 4 bell peppers.

 

[Meerkat]

You guys and gals are doing great with your gardens I'm jealous. Ours not so much. For us gardening is about over till fall, its getting too hot to plant now.

 

[LadyLocust]

Figured out why so few of my peanutbutter seeds sprouted. Stupid magpies are getting in the beds and eating them? Mangy, rotten, no good thieves! I caught them black beacked (as opposed to red handed.) Me thinks me needs pellet gun practice

 

[Double R]

Anyone have any non poisonous treatments for powdery mildew? Looks like the leaves of some of our squash have it.

 

[PopPopT]

Anyone have any non poisonous treatments for powdery mildew? Looks like the leaves of some of our squash have it.

Milk? Have read that 1 part milk to 2 or 3 parts water sprayed on the plant can help. That's about as "non poisonous" as I know of.

Baking soda or potassium bicarbonate are said to be helpful.

Some kind of a sulfur containing fungicide if you wanna go that route, maybe? Not sure what's out there.