Garden 2022

[Neb]

Broccoli tomatoes and peppers are in their new homes. I had just enough blood meal to finish the job. Onion sprouts may get transplanted on Monday. Statistically speaking I may get frost in the two weeks but the next 7 days are forecast to be ok. If frost is forecasted, I will cover them with a tarp.

I keep some spares.

Ben

 

[UrbanHunter]

Today we blanched and shocked the spinach, it has all been chopped, bagged, weighed, and put in the freezer. The yield was not real big, but putting an extra 5 pounds in the freezer felt good. The wife and I worked together on it and we felt good about doing something productive. Trying to work with one eye sucks, but it's better than being blind.... I hope it heals up quickly.

I was able to harvest the last of the indoor onions today, I'm glad to see things moving outdoors. I have a full tray on onion starts that I will be planting in the morning.

 

[Bacpacker]

Harvested a nice mess of spinach and romaine lettuce and a few green onions for supper. Put some old scrap lumber i had saved from when the house was built, cut off 2x stuff in my newest bed. Got about 1/3 filled, then topped that off with compost.
Gonna cut a dead pine in the morning and do the rest of the bed and use what compost I have left. Saw on my way home the guy I've been buying it from is almost out. Hopefully I'll get the trailer empty and go get one last load

 

[LadyLocust]

Finally got our planter beds (3) back and assembled. They are still empty but at least they are now ready for filling. Took a bit to get them to this stage. Hubby will make aluminum "half hoops" to go in the rings that we had welded in with the design so we can cover them if need be. These darlings are HEAVY! But whenever we move, at least we can take them with us.

 

[Bacpacker]

Nice beds

 

[elkhound]

@Peanut well i planted out some corn today and afterwards i put up your fishing line trick. after last year i aint taking chances on crows making me plant corn over and over...it really messes up a corn patch with multiple plantings.


planted trucker favorite white dent this year and in my little garden i am testing out a new modern heirloom sugary enhanced sweet corn called TOP HAT. if it tastes good i will be saving seed and getting away from high costs of corn.$25 a pound is to much.

 

[joel]

I think they taste about the same, but I think the long ones are more convenient for grilling. It kind of depends on how you like your eggplant. (Me, I love eggplant pretty much any way you can think of — grilled, fried, Parmesan, baba ghanoush, marinated, Chinese stirfry, baingan bharta … yum!)

I’ve had other people tell me they couldn’t get many, and I’ve been wondering for a while if the reason I get such good pollination is that I have two different kinds of plant. I thought maybe you might have some insight on that, given that you’re growing multiple plants — is it just that you need more than one, maybe, to set a good amount of fruit?

Do you like the slim (sorry, that what it is to me),or do you have a way to remove it, like salt?
I have no right to talk, I love okra or Okro, any way I have tried it, including pickled.
I am curious about how you deal with the slap, not trying to be difficult, just want to know, maybe I can use it on my egg plant.

 

[joel]

Finally got our planter beds (3) back and assembled. They are still empty but at least they are now ready for filling. Took a bit to get them to this stage. Hubby will make aluminum "half hoops" to go in the rings that we had welded in with the design so we can cover them if need be. These darlings are HEAVY! But whenever we move, at least we can take them with us.
View attachment 85500View attachment 85501

I like the holes for frost /sun cover, the frames will last a hundred years or more, something to leave your grand children, to keep them out of the food lines.

 

[Peanut]

@Peanut

after last year i aint taking chances on crows making me plant corn over and over...it really messes up a corn patch with multiple plantings.

Funny you should mention crows... Dad mentioned them on monday, said they were raiding the first planting of corn. I said I'd get out the neon fishing line.

Said "Nope, I'm gonna shoot at them". It's been warming all week, 85 today. Good for him! Give him another reason to stay outside more. At least sit out on his back porch.

Besides, he's a great shot. I think he got 3 this week with an old .22 semi. They've certainly vanished. I was out all afternoon and didn't hear a single crow.

 

[jishinsjourney]

Do you like the slim (sorry, that what it is to me),or do you have a way to remove it, like salt?
I have no right to talk, I love okra or Okro, any way I have tried it, including pickled.
I am curious about how you deal with the slap, not trying to be difficult, just want to know, maybe I can use it on my egg plant.

I’m not sure what you mean by “the slap”?

I don’t find eggplant slimy unless it’s overcooked. If you don’t like it soft and melting, you can just cook it less. You can absolutely just cook it barely enough for grill marks to show up and eat it that way. I have some pickled in the fridge that wasn’t cooked at all, just salted and brined and stored in olive oil.

I like okra too! Though I do find its slime a bit off-putting if there’s a lot of it. A little is just fine.

 

[Peanut]

I like okra, in the south fried okra is king, it's my favorite. And not the fried okra with thick batter thats common in diners. I like a lite dusting really, fried in cast iron southern style, a little salt, cracked pepper. It does away with the slimy. I also like it in soups, stews, especially in gumbo. I like squash sliced thin and fried the same way.

 

[Peanut]

Sort of funny, we take okra seriously down here... One year I over did it... 6 rows of okra, bout 180ft long. Gave okra away for a couple months. This was several years ago.

 

[joel]

Sort of funny, we take okra seriously down here... One year I over did it... 6 rows of okra, bout 180ft long. Gave okra away for a couple months. This was several years ago.

View attachment 85506

BIL had fifty plant & froze enough for a year & gave it to friends.
We were over to his house & he told me I could have all I wanted & then he would plow it up.
I had to drive thirty miles to get it, but I had a crop failure that year.
So I got a five gallon bucket every three days, until the wife said enough & he plowed it under.
We ate okra till the spring crop came in.
I cut up the okra & DW put it in the freezer.

 

[UrbanHunter]

I love fried okra, in good years the wife will make the batter (we use a seasoned blend of corn meal and flour) then she puts them on parchment paper on a baking tray (not touching each other) and I freeze it. After a couple of days I will pop it off the tray and bag it. Stores well and when we want okra, it goes from the freezer to the skillet. I would prefer to just deep fry it, I used to have (bachelor years) a Fry Baby that I would fry shrimp and okra in. Wife didn't approve (not healthy) and the Fry Baby disappeared, I may have a new one on a shelf with my other low amperage electric cooking implements.

 

[Peanut]

Many around here cut up the okra, give it a lite batter then partially fry it (cast iron skillet). Then its divided into family meal portions and frozen. The okra is mostly cooked at this point.

In winter it's thawed and then briefly fried again, this finishes up the batter, and finishes cooking it. It's quick, by the time you get it hot it's done.

I found this photo on the net... I could eat a bowl of this everyday. This is how fried okra looks in these parts.

 

[Smalltimefarmer]

I had some tomato and pepper seedlings so I planted those today. Usually don't have much luck with nightshade plants because of walnut tree (juglone poison). It has been 20 years since I cut the trees so hopefully the roots are rotting too.

 

[Peanut]

I have purple hull peas coming up this morning! Okra is up and the Mosby white corn is starting to sprout.

My best find… Lamb's Quarters aka Chenopodium album. It comes up volunteer in my garden every year. It's actually more nutritious than the cabbage it's growing beside. I choose a couple plants each spring and harvest their leaves all summer. They are great in a salad but can be used as a pot herb. I just eat them in salads.

I don't harvest any until it's about the height of the one in the photo. When the plants are 6" or less its almost indistinguishable from the common cocklebur - Xanthium strumarium. The cocklebur leaves change radically after growing to that height.

There is a decent write up about the plant here
https://www.ediblewildfood.com/lambs-quarters.aspx
Peas

Lambsquarter

 

[Neb]

The Princess and I teamed up working The Ridge today.

There are flowers on the apple cherry and pear trees that survived 2 nights of hard freeze. Yeah!

Some of the pumpkins are up and the lame garlic is hanging in there.

She weeded while I planted potatoes and sunflowers. The seed potatoes were left over after planting the back yard raised beds. The sunflowers are new for us and are being grown so we learn how to press our own cooking oil.

I have 7 more 3x12' raised beds terraced into the hillside available. Onions, more sunflowers, and watermelon are planned.

Confession time!
The pumpkins and watermelon are a pipe dream. Since The Ridge gardens are in a wood lot, they are ravaged by deer and ground hogs. At the least they will be good ground cover. At best I may learn to protect the fruit from the fauna. It nothing else, I will teaching the local deer they should visit my archery range.

Ben

 

[UrbanHunter]

Today I replanted some regular corn seeds next to the "special crap", I also planted pole beans in the mix. Then I lowered one of the shelves inside the screened area and planted some leeks in there too. Then I added emitters to water all the containers inside the screened area. I ended up pulling emitters from about 20' of 1/2 line that I am not using this year. I also ran 1/2" line up to some hanging flowers and added emitters and valves. All in all I think I reused about 2 dozen emitters and valves. When I was all done I gave my water pump a go using the modified sine wave inverter, it was able to run everything just fine, pumped about 50 gallons through the system so I would walk around and evaluate everything, There are a number of places that need new emitters and some places need more water to them. I think I need to add about 40' more 1/2" line and about 25 emitters.

This will cover 90% of the garden and I am able to do it all even if the water and the grid are down....

It is nice with the stones even if there is over-spray there is very little mud to deal with.

 

[jishinsjourney]

Many around here cut up the okra, give it a lite batter then partially fry it (cast iron skillet). Then its divided into family meal portions and frozen. The okra is mostly cooked at this point.

In winter it's thawed and then briefly fried again, this finishes up the batter, and finishes cooking it. It's quick, by the time you get it hot it's done.

I found this photo on the net... I could eat a bowl of this everyday. This is how fried okra looks in these parts.

View attachment 85515

That looks amazing!!

 

[Bacpacker]

Urban I am learning from you on using the drip systems. I have purchased from Drip Depot for a few years now and have learned a few things, and made adjustments along the way. This year I am trying to figure out the best way to feed the 10 beds from a single feed point and to get the correct amount of water to each bed. Some crops need more than others and timing that comes into account. I'm sure I won't figure it all out this year, but I learn some each year.

 

[UrbanHunter]

This year my system is fed by a 2 hp pump (it's in the 3rd year of operation) which is fed from 10 water barrels each with it's own valve feeding a 1" manifold and goes via 1" pipe to a distribution with 4 spigots each spigot feeds a water filter and up to 5 watering circuits using 1/2" line and a valve right there, so from 1 location I can control the water to every raised bed.

Each raised bed is fed by lines along the outside of the bed with emitters spraying a 180 degree pattern into the bed and 1 line down the center high support with 360 degree emitters spraying down, it may be overkill when the plants are small but when they get a little larger every plant is within a foot of an emitter. I am using 1/2" pipe brackets to attach my 1/2" line to the wood I bend 1 of the ears of the brackets flat so I will attach to 2 sides of an outer corner holding the line tight in place.

Yesterday, I tested the system turning all the spigot valves off and then opening them 1 at a time to see what was being watered. I have 2 high circuits (7'+ above the pump) and they were not getting enough water so I will have to play with it that a little. I remember last year I would stand at the distribution center and do a timed close of each spigot to bump the pressure up to the others, I think I had it down to closing each valve for 3 minutes and in 15 minutes everything was watered using about 45 gallons of water. They make pressure regulators where you could limit the pressure to each loop or circuit but I don't think it will compensate for the general lack of flow.

For me the key has been figuring out how many beds (emitters) can my pump drive at 1 time and then rigging it up so I can do my watering as fast a possible. I don't want to spend days doing it. With all the spigots in 1 place close to the pump, I can do it in the dark (early morning?) with just a watch or clock.

Each year I add a thing or 2 to my system, this year I have added the screened in area for delicate plants, adding a second screened top for my raised beds with lids and using solar to drive my pump. Sometimes the new stuff works out sometimes it doesn't.

For example:
I tried a temporary green house where the screened in area is now, it got hot fast and the plants did great but I had to open the doors to control the temperature and the butterfly's got in, next thing I knew my plants were stems and I had lots of really big caterpillars. (list this as a really big fail). Lesson learned, every greenhouse needs screens on the doors and windows.

The raised bed tops have been a really big win, they have allowed my plants to think that it is 20F warmer than it really is, so I am able to keep my winter veggies going much longer, it typically increased my outdoor growing season to 9 months. This year my spinach grew all winter long (we only had a couple nights below 10F). I am planning to add in a retractable screen under the plastic lid to allow them to be open and not have trouble with insects, just a modification to my old design.

Like I said, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't...

I have 3 hours before church, I'll try to take a couple of pictures while I out doing my morning rounds.

 

[UrbanHunter]

Here are the pictures I promised:
Here is the modified bracket:

Here is my water distribution center:

Here are a couple inside the screened in area:




And here is a overview of the terraced garden area that @Neb asked about:

 

[UrbanHunter]

Before church I was able to get 40' of 1/2 line installed and fastened down. I am out of clamps so I ordered a couple hundred more just to be safe.

I need to go out and install about 25 emitters before I mow the lawn.

 

[ABR]

Got some more tomatoes and peppers put in yesterday day as well as more beans to replace what the dang gopher stole. I know it's a bit late but I went ahead and put in a few cantaloupe seeds as well just to see what happens.

 

[UrbanHunter]

I used up all my 180 degree emitters today, if I had know I would have ordered more of them when I placed my order on Thursday, oh I have some ordered, but if I knew I was about out I would have ordered a lot more of them.

The wife watched a show on saving seeds today, she said, "have you ever thought about storing your extra seeds in an air-tight container in cool dark place?" Hello! What do you call an Ammo can in a refrigerator??

 

[Chaosdawn]

Today I planted some lettuce and spinach then split my chives so they have more room. Then I weeded my two sunny garden beds and worked in some manure. Still too early to put anything out but at least it's ready now.

I also found these while weeding, they look like chives or tiny green onions and they have the oniony smell but my chives are like 50' away from that bed.
Anyone know what these are? They look big in the pic but they were actually tiny. They seem thicker too. I planted them in the green pot on the left, chives are on the right.

I also had a friend watching me rake up some leaves.

 

[Peanut]

I also found these while weeding, they look like chives or tiny green onions and they have the oniony smell but my chives are like 50' away from that bed.

Anyone know what these are? They look big in the pic but they were actually tiny. They seem thicker too. I planted them in the green pot on the left, chives are on the right.
View attachment 85588

Your plant looks like wild onion to me but only you can be sure.

Allium canadense: Wild onion/garlic, the names are interchangable. Wild onion is often referred to a wild garlic.

Down and dirty... If it looks like an onion and smells like onion it's wild onion BUT! if it doesn't meet both those requirements... its a toxic look-a-like named "Crow Poison" aka "Nothoscordum bivalve". I see it fairly often in spring and it does not smell like onions.

--------------------------------------
Read all three of these articles and you should be able to identify your plant with certainty

https://www.eattheweeds.com/allium-canadense-the-stinking-rose-2/
http://livetheoldway.com/wild-onion-wild-garlic-pictorial-identification-guide/
https://thegoodliferevival.com/blog/edible-wild-onions-garlic
-------------------------------------
This is an article about crow poison which ironically is in the onion plant family (Alliaceae). It's a cousin of onions.

https://anps.org/2020/03/24/know-your-natives-crow-poison/

 

[Chaosdawn]

@Peanut Thank you! I really think it's wild onion, from what I see on the look-alike it doesn't grow this far north. And the leaves on what I found are hollow like chives, not flat like the look-alike.

This is the third edible plant I've found growing wild in that bed when I weed. First was purslane and second was stinging nettle, which I moved and have a bunch of plants in that spot now. I haven't tried them yet but this year I should have enough.

 

[Bacpacker]

Urban thanks for the pics. You've got so much stuff in such a small area, it is very impressive what you are doing. BTW the pavers look great.