Gardens 2021

[Mountain trapper]

The yellow jackets ate every one of our strawberrys and red raspberries. So far they've left the black and yellow raspberries alone. Must be racist critters. I need to find some kind of spray to kill the little buggers.

 

[user 7704]

They love them.

 

[dirtdiva]

Plums are plentiful and we are gathering about 2 dishpans a day right now.

Still pickling beets. Tried my new Harvest Guard lids on pickled beets and so far they have worked great.

Back Currants ripen daily

Also picking blackberries, blueberries, squash, zucchini and cucumbers. Replanting fall cabbage, planted a new batch of green beans. Tomatoes are doing good but no ripe ones yet. Purple hulls are blooming. Okra really taking off in this heat as are sweet potatoes and peppers.

 

[user 7704]

I am dehydrating squash to make powder/flour. My son in law makes protein shakes so he can add a scoop or two for some added vitamins.

He eats healthy so for our annual christmas in July party he wants to use veggies to dip his spinach/artichoke dip instead of crackers. We are also having regular cold spinach dip and hot buffalo chicken dip, beef brisket, sausage balls, chocolate no bake cookies and ice cream sandwich cake.

 

[dirtdiva]

I am dehydrating squash to make powder/flour. My son in law makes protein shakes so he can add a scoop or two for some added vitamins.

He eats healthy so for our annual Christmas in July party he wants to use veggies to dip his spinach/artichoke dip instead of crackers. We are also having regular cold spinach dip and hot buffalo chicken dip, beef brisket, sausage balls, chocolate no bake cookies and ice cream sandwich cake.

I dehydrate greens like spinach and kale to throw into protein shakes myself. Never thought of squash powder that is a good idea also good idea to use for dips. I make tomato powder also from peelings and such dehydrated to use in cooking. I traditionally use dehydrated squash in the past by rehydrating and using in casseroles and soups mostly. I also dehydrate okra. It works great throwing in gumbos with a jar or two of home canned chicken and broth. Dehydrated okra also works great adding to home canned stewed tomatoes with some sautéed onions and garlic and some shrimp added as well. Served over a bed of rice.

 

[Dracos]

What is a squash bug? Here we have grasshoppers. They are totally unbiased and will eat anything they can stuff in their ugly little faces. They are much beloved by turkeys and chickens. And my Jack Demsey. (tropical fish).

 

[user 7704]

What is a squash bug? Here we have grasshoppers. They are totally unbiased and will eat anything they can stuff in their ugly little faces. They are much beloved by turkeys and chickens. And my Jack Demsey. (tropical fish).

Squash bugs are grey and they lay eggs on the underside of the squash plant leaves. The love to live under cardboard if you use it to mulch your garden.

 

[user 7704]

I made some dehydrated squash chips. I cut them too thin so the new batch is thicker. I seasoned with lemon pepper and garlic salt. Everyone liked them except for the too thin part.

Thinking of soaking some slices in Apple cider vinegar then sprinkling with sea salt then dehydrating.

Has anyone tried them this way?

 

[Mountain trapper]

What is a squash bug? Here we have grasshoppers. They are totally unbiased and will eat anything they can stuff in their ugly little faces. They are much beloved by turkeys and chickens. And my Jack Demsey. (tropical fish).

We have grasshoppers everywhere. We always get some but this year they're really bad.

 

[dirtdiva]

I made some dehydrated squash chips. I cut them too thin so the new batch is thicker. I seasoned with lemon pepper and garlic salt. Everyone liked them except for the too thin part.

Thinking of soaking some slices in Apple cider vinegar then sprinkling with sea salt then dehydrating.

Has anyone tried them this way?

Let us know how they turn out!

 

[user 7704]

Let us know how they turn out!

My son tasted one and said they are really good. The thicker cut is better. These are seasoned with lemon pepper and garlic.

I will try the ACV and sea salt next.

 

[GaRp58]

We are getting tomatos daily but fighting the stink bugs for them...
The potatoes are getting ready and we are already eating some.
The carrots are ready but we will leave them as long as possible in the ground and get some heirloom seeds too.
The eggplants are as big as baseballs today.
The beans are over 8 feet high today and the sunflowers are over 9 feet.
The pumpkins are covering about 35 square feet at the moment and the watermelon plants are just getting to be around 6 feet long.
The sausage pumpkins are climbing the acacia tree at 15 feet high now.
Just dug out the last area for the 16X16 ft terrace and used the dirt in the old pigpen for new topsoil and replanted grass for the third time there.....
Bought wood, cement, brackets, sand, gravel, bricks, sheetmetal and curbstones for the terrace...prices have doubled lately and the whole thing ran us over 1600 bucks...now the hard work starts at over 100°F daily...Gary

 

[Mountain trapper]

Even with all the grasshoppers eating everything they can and yellow jackets eating the strawberrys and raspberries the graden is doing great. The wife is picking stuff everyday for dinner, plus she's drying a bunch of stuff too. I've got 23 pepper plants, from jalapeno to ghost pepper, and they're all doing well. Should be ready to pick some soon. Too early to tell if the corn or watermelon will produce yet before frost.

 

[DrHenley]

Dang Arctic, you know you are near the left coast when even the yellowjackets are vegans, LOL. Ours are carnivorous. Mostly eating other insects but they'll readily eat deer meat when we are cleaning deer, and you will often find carrion covered with them.

 

[dirtdiva]

Picking this week blueberries which are just about gone. Blackberries are just getting started good. Elderberries are just starting to turn. Purple hulls have about another week till they are ready. Jade green beans are blooming again. Cucumbers and squash still going strong. Okra coming along. Figs are sizing up nicely. Gathered carrot seeds before another rain and butchered some hens past their prime. Looks like the duck hen may be starting to set and the old hen with chicks is foraging the yard with her chicks during the day and locked in a small chicken tractor at night. A little rain along so not too dry right now. July down and August to go with the heat. Maybe it will cool down early this year.

 

[user 7704]

I finally got rain. All of my blooms have been dropping because of the heat so production is down. I have new plants coming up but I'm thinking that it's grasshoppers that are eating all the leaves at ground level. Trying to stop that with DE. Can't use poison because of bees.

 

[Brianna]

Planted six more fruit trees last week, peanut butter fruit, mulberry, pitangatuba, rambutan (really pushing the zone on this, but it's a fun experiment) and Jamaican strawberry.
My Thai eggplants are coming along nicely. I'll be growing those every summer. Not many veggies that do well in our summer heat.
My peppers have struggled this year. Still getting tons of cayennes, limones, and Carolina reapers.

 

[GaRp58]

We still have beans growing but not producing yet, pumpkins are baseball size, sunflowers for seeds are 9 ft tall, all the apples fell off the tree for unknown reasons since it was watered daily. Tomatos are coming faster than we can eat or can, we will be giving some away tomorrow. Eggplants are ripe and we will eat one tomorrow too. Potatoes will be harvested on Wed. at the latest. Did NOT work today, hands are tired and back is not happy...

 

[user 7704]

How many tomato plants do you have?

 

[Amish Heart]

We planted over 50 tomato plants. Picking bucket fulls. Cut open our first watermelon today, and it was good. Planted the Black Diamond variety.

 

[GaRp58]

How many tomato plants do you have?

two and a half rows of about 20 plants each...50 or so?? We are the only ones getting healthy tomatos since we have so many plants, the neighbors only planted what they thought "they needed" and are getting hardly anything worth eating. We are sharing as we planted old seeds and did not know how good they would grow or produce...thank God they all came up, the seeds were from 2017. The fourth (late) harvest of potatos are already coming up also. Happy we got a little bit of rain two days also...Gary

 

[dirtdiva]

How many tomato plants do you have?

Last year I canned a bumper crop of tomato products and still have plenty so I tapered off to 24 plants total. They are every one loaded though

 

[user 7704]

I am having my best year, but still have to buy to can. I have over 50 plants. I dig a hole to use as aa bowl and then fill with new garden mix and other stuff but still don't produce alot. I fertilize, water and do everything as I should, but not much production. May be residual poison from the walnut trees i had cut.

 

[Dracos]

Rain, blessed rain. No downpour but light rain for over 24 hours now. Some idiot threw a cigarette butt out the window at our only stop sign. It caused a small fire. I say get the butt and do a DNA analysis on his lips. Many trucks showed up. The fire was out in less than 30 minutes. It could have been so much worse. It's still raining. For some reason my plants seem happier with rain than irrigation. If I see an idiot throw a cigarette out the window at the stop sign I will report him.

 

[user 7704]

Has anyone used the dehydrator setting on your cook stove (range) ?

 

[user 7704]

I'm going to have lots of yellow cherry tomatoes and have decided to squeeze out the juice and make my son dehydrated tomato chips. Too much work to do much more other than put through the juicer. I may do some both ways.

 

[Dani]

Has anyone used the dehydrator setting on your cook stove (range) ?

Dang. There's a setting for that now?

 

[user 7704]

Dang. There's a setting for that now?

I have a gas stove and its about 6 or so years old. I've only used bake and convection bake.

 

[user 7704]

I made some dehydrated tomato chips and squash chips. They are going to be very lightweight when we are hiding in the woods, running from the Vax man.

 

[Proud Prepper]

I made a batch of BlackBerry jam and my wife and daughter in law, jarred it.