Garden 2022

[LadyLocust]

I'm still waiting for @joel to come get all my pigweed. I also need to find someone who wants to raise pet earwigs - or borrow someone's chicken.
We picked a serving of greenbeans this morning and a passel of peas which I will get to shell when I get home. I'd like at least 21 more pints plus some fresh.

 

[joel]

I'm still waiting for @joel to come get all my pigweed. I also need to find someone who wants to raise pet earwigs - or borrow someone's chicken.
We picked a serving of green beans this morning and a passel of peas which I will get to shell when I get home. I'd like at least 21 more pints plus some fresh.

It will be a while, wife car's in the shop & daughter needs a new car.
So I will not be traveling for some time, but chicken love fresh pig weeds.

 

[Pearl]

It will be a while, wife car's in the shop & daughter needs a new car.
So I will not be traveling for some time, but chicken love fresh pig weeds.

Hey, you posted a picture recently and you were on a tractor.........start driving to LadyLocust's

 

[joel]

Hey, you posted a picture recently and you were on a tractor.........start driving to LadyLocust's

Can not afford the diesel, it is over $5.00 now.
Maybe when Mr. Trump returns!

 

[Pearl]

Can not afford the diesel, it is over $5.00 now.
Maybe when Mr. Trump returns!

I'm ready for that day!!

 

[Bacpacker]

Pulled the last of my early onions and got them scattered out to dry down.
Planted 2 small watermelon plants in the onion bed. Hopefully I'll get a few late melons.
Also harvest half a 5 gallon bucket of cukes. Half dozen tomatos, some red bell, serrano, and jalapeno peppers.
Also put a nozzle on the water hose and soaked down all the beds except for the taters, Drip line is working right at the plants, but the rest of the beds are soooo dry. I feel like it's just wicking the water away. After I finished and came in another storm moved in and we got a little rain. Still need more, but I'll take what we get

 

[Amish Heart]

I was soaking the garden, too. Everything was dried out, and a little water here and there was not cutting it. The guineas enjoyed running around in there when the ground was soaking. Hoping that they were eating squash bugs.

 

[Pearl]

Pulled the last of my early onions and got them scattered out to dry down.
Planted 2 small watermelon plants in the onion bed. Hopefully I'll get a few late melons.
Also harvest half a 5 gallon bucket of cukes. Half dozen tomatos, some red bell, serrano, and jalapeno peppers.
Also put a nozzle on the water hose and soaked down all the beds except for the taters, Drip line is working right at the plants, but the rest of the beds are soooo dry. I feel like it's just wicking the water away. After I finished and came in another storm moved in and we got a little rain. Still need more, but I'll take what we get

Rain water has a special touch!!

 

[Mel]

Just sharing some of what I have harvested the last few days. Also I'm proud of the coleus I grew from seed. I'm excited about the strawberry.

 

[Mel]

Cut up some okra, yellow squash and my pattypan squash and boiled it. Found out okra is actually good prepared with squash.

 

[Amish Heart]

Also good...had some green beans with patty pan boiled. Really yummy.

 

[Bacpacker]

Cut up some okra, yellow squash and my pattypan squash and boiled it. Found out okra is actually good prepared with squash.

Wife puts squash or zucchini in our okra if we have it. She also adds some frozen corn. Its good

 

[hashbrown]

These are just the prettiest plant.

 

[Magpie]

It was such a lovely evening I took a few photos- I kind of toss everything in and hope it thrives on neglect. So far so good!

I've some of the veg garden I'll put in another thread.

 

[Magpie]

Sorry thought there was a separate Veg garden thread

 

[UrbanHunter]

Last night as I was watering the garden, I noticed that some of my emitters were not working. It was all the ones on 1 string so I thought the valve was closed, but no it was open. So then I decided to clean out the filter on that string, it was full of junk. I ended up flushing out all the filters in the system, they all had a little crud, but only the one was clogged enough to restrict the water flow. I only bring it up because many of us use drip irrigation using pumped water (either from a well, river, or rain water collection system) and they do tend to clog up over time. Mine has been running for 3 months now so it was about time I cleaned it out....

 

[Bacpacker]

Last night as I was watering the garden, I noticed that some of my emitters were not working. It was all the ones on 1 string so I thought the valve was closed, but no it was open. So then I decided to clean out the filter on that string, it was full of junk. I ended up flushing out all the filters in the system, they all had a little crud, but only the one was clogged enough to restrict the water flow. I only bring it up because many of us use drip irrigation using pumped water (either from a well, river, or rain water collection system) and they do tend to clog up over time. Mine has been running for 3 months now so it was about time I cleaned it out....

Thanks Urban. Something i need to look into.
Where do you put your filters? I only use one at my primary feed line

 

[Wingnut]

Wow, those are some nice photos! While I was watering earlier, I noticed that my Jalapeno plant has thrown out some peppers... and the experimental watermelon plant is flourishing. The weed plants are thriving, but they haven't quite reached the stage that Hashbrown's plants have reached. No worries, I'm in no hurry, lol... the fruit trees are hangin' in there, but they don't seem to show much growth. I water 'em just about every day, but they don't seem to grow any taller, ya know? I reckon I'll just give 'em more time... as long as they don't die on me, I guess it's alright. Next young tree I plant will be a nut tree, pecan or pistachio, as those seem to do very well here... there are nearby orchards with thousands of nut trees, no lie, all tied into irrigation systems and thriving under the high desert sun.

This growing season has been experimental, along with all my soil amendment efforts, but I'm beginning to see which plants really thrive here. Next season, I'll be planting dope, melons & peppers in quantity, lol. Nut trees instead of fruit trees, I think... or in addition to fruit trees. I'm a little chapped because some birds got to the peaches on my tree, and the peaches weren't even ripe yet! They showed promise, until some opportunistic bird(s) saw 'em and pecked away at 'em, lol. I'm thinking maybe the nut trees would fare better against this sort of thievery... the birds would have to peck through the shells first, lol. Oh, well, this is an experimental season, and I'll use what I learn to make next year more productive. I hope those goldurned birds aren't gonna peck through the watermelon rinds... the blasted varmints!!!

 

[UrbanHunter]

Thanks Urban. Something i need to look into.
Where do you put your filters? I only use one at my primary feed line

I have divided my system into 4 circuits, the water pump draws the water from the barrels via a 2" manifold connected to each barrel with a 5/8" line and ball valve, then the pump pushes the water to the distribution center via a 2" line, at the distribution center there are 5 standard 3/4" valves and after each valve there is a filter, and after that there is a 1/2" manifold with 4 sub-circuits, each of those has its own 1/2" 1/4 turn valve. There is also a valve at every box so I can pretty much control the water flow to every box.


Here is a picture of the distribution center ans some of the filters and such. The guys at drip depot love me, they are always sending me candy

 

[Bacpacker]

I love drip depot. I usually get a couple of tootsie pops with my orders.

Nice set up. I've still got work to do on mine yet

 

[Wingnut]

Forgot to mention this volunteer, looks like a sunflower? If so, I'd like to save some of the seeds and plant a bunch of these next season... provided the birds don't get the seeds first, lol. This thing sprang up and grew 4' in no time, something to bear in mind when the next season rolls around.

Here's a weed pic to compare with HB's plants... these aren't as well developed, but there's plenty o' growing season left.

Believe it or not, that's amended soil under each plant, lol.

 

[Neb]

Forgot to mention this volunteer, looks like a sunflower? If so, I'd like to save some of the seeds and plant a bunch of these next season... provided the birds don't get the seeds first, lol. This thing sprang up and grew 4' in no time, something to bear in mind when the next season rolls around.

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View attachment 89339

Here's a weed pic to compare with HB's plants... these aren't as well developed, but there's plenty o' growing season left.

View attachment 89340

Believe it or not, that's amended soil under each plant, lol.

Now if the deer hadn't eaten my sunflowers...

My caged potatoes are still hanging in there. The caged have been nibbled by the deer but are still trying. They may have another month before they die back.

The elderberries have started to set fruit. We will see if birds will be a problem.

The image below shows the deer will eat the elderberries they can reach. The good news is most of the berries are above their reach. I am really hoping to harvest enough to make elderberry wine this year.

The next batch of garlic is getting close to ready.

I uncovered the bulb in the corner to get a preview.

That is encouraging!

Ben

 

[Wingnut]

Nice... except for the deer consumption. Round here, most of the deer stick to the nearby mountains, there's better cover & concealment up there in the forest. Traffic on the rail line & US54 probably deters a few from venturing this far west... if I were a deer, I'd stay in the mountains all summer long, it's cooler up there and there's plenty of foraging to be done. The mountains get more rain too, always a plus (except for flash flooding). Going back to the sunflowers, I'd like to have as many growing here as I see in your photos, and I intend to make that happen next season... I'm still in experimental mode here with the various plants & soil amendment.

Lately, I've been wondering whether I'm overlooking certain plants such as the mescal (agave) & prickly pear... I actually have some agaves in the yard, and they may have more uses than I know. The mescal plant has medicinal purposes, while the prickly pear fruit & its "leaves" (or nopal pads) can be eaten... might not be considered 'fine dining' but it'll keep one alive, aye? Or help to keep one alive... I'm gonna look into this idea more carefully, as those plants do well here with little water. I'd like to try some squash next season too, I'm just not sure yet which types will thrive here, if any... melons seem to like this climate, as long as they get enough water.

 

[Tommyice]

Things are finally starting to come on in my garden in fact I got to pick some green beans. They were delicious. Today dad thought he’d help out and pick some green beans for me. He picked my great Northern beans which were no where near time for them. I now have to mark all the areas that he’s not allowed to pick things from. He did pick some peppers for me.

thoughts on what I should do with the beans? Are the pods edible?

We did finally get some rain today which was a surprise cause I didn’t call for rain. There’s enough runoff the roof to fill the rain barrels thankfully. I also don’t have to water tonight possibly not tomorrow either

My replacement red potatoes are chitting nicely I’m hoping to get them planted before I go up to the cabin.

 

[elkhound]

2 types kale,collards,broccoli shoots,tomatoes,yellow squash,cukes and zukes.

 

[LadyLocust]

Last night as I was watering the garden, I noticed that some of my emitters were not working. It was all the ones on 1 string so I thought the valve was closed, but no it was open. So then I decided to clean out the filter on that string, it was full of junk. I ended up flushing out all the filters in the system, they all had a little crud, but only the one was clogged enough to restrict the water flow. I only bring it up because many of us use drip irrigation using pumped water (either from a well, river, or rain water collection system) and they do tend to clog up over time. Mine has been running for 3 months now so it was about time I cleaned it out....

Same is even true with house water - the kitchen faucet gets little particles built up restricting flow every so often. Good point.

 

[Amish Heart]

I pulled up all the onions this morning, and layed them out on the wood benches in the greenhouse to dry. Looks like about 40 of them, mixed...red, white, and yellow. Had 4 more pepper plants to put in ground. Still need to do some watering. Pulled a cabbage, lots of leaves going to the chickens, but will make some slaw with what I got. Cabbage worms were kinda brutal this year. Soaked the head I did get in salt water.

 

[Magpie]

One of my potato beds had blight starting - so I pulled the stalks and left the potatoes in the ground. Slightly annoyed, as its the bed to be lifted the last, with the mains in, hoping it doesn't spread, storage is an issue at the moment as OH is renovating the garage. My large tomatoes are looking good to be ripe in a week or so; the corn is developing ears and both the raspberries and currants are brilliant this year, so I'm making small batches of jelly ( mold is an issue at times) and freezing the rest. The white winter onions are drying, and it and the garlic will be for plaiting maybe next week. Cabbages are being devoured but rescuing some, and I had planted some for the hens as winter feed, so it's fine. They look a bit odd though, next to lovely rows of onions!

 

[elkhound]

wellllllll...the switch has flipped...no rain for weeks...now its dumped on barsoom. 3 rains yesterday...multiple ones several days before..this morning slow and steady coastal type rains....the corn i planted is up a few inches now and is standing in water like a rice paddy field ! we shall get through this...but garden is a jungle already in last 3 days. weedeater time i think...lol

 

[UrbanHunter]

Yesterday I worked at the indoor growing station. I sifted 10 gallons of potting soil and mixed it about 75/25 with perlite then made 2 #3 nursery pots for growing in-door carrots, planted 2 kinds of carrots. I also repotted 4 strawberry plants, they just out grew their old little containers. I've got 3 starter cups with lettuce up and will transplant them into the garden when they get about 2" high. The last batch of okra I tried to start fizzled, I got 6 plants from 18 planted, they will be ready to go outside any day now. Today it is expected to be sunny so I can work outside after church.