Garden Geeks thread

[FreshFish]

Re: Garden Geeks thread

I don't recall that we've ever had such a bounteous harvest of raspberries, and the seaaon is just starting....over two quarts picked today and twice as much still ripening. Third harvest of peas. Green beans have started to flower, as have cucumbers. Even the pumpkins are poking their leaves above the ground.

No more planting, lots of weeding and tending.

[nmu_27]

Re: Garden Geeks thread

Zucchinis are flowering, just waiting for the male flowers to start. Nothing else is flowering yet, though I'm thinking the peas can't be too far behind. Everything seems to be surviving the weather, and I haven't seen any huge bug damage.

[FreshFish]

Re: Garden Geeks thread

This is amazing, just picked the first green beans of the year. The first of the jalapenos are almost ready to harvest. I don't recall ever having so much ready to pick so soon.

The nearby store had a sale, 6 oz of raspberries for $2.99.....which means we picked about $72 of raspberries so far. Add in the strawberries from earlier in the year and we've already topped $100. Fingers crossed that there is no blight on the tomatoes this year.

Also tried something new, tomatillos, grow sort of like pepper plants except way way larger (almost too large for the space, as we've never had them before).

[FiveHole12]

Re: Garden Geeks thread

I've been harvesting summer squash and zucchini for a few weeks now. Once they start you just keep picking. Picked my first batch of beets yesterday. Much like tomatoes, there's nothing like a fresh home grown beet.. they are delicious.
Tomato and cucumber plants are looking very healthy with buds and some small green tomatoes, but no tommy toes or cukes to pick as of yet.
I am hoping for no blight this year as well.

[FreshFish]

Re: Garden Geeks thread

Welcome to another edition of Be Careful What You Wish For, Gardeners' 2.0.....


While the raspberry season was wildly successful, I'm somewhat glad it's now at an end.....you sort of feel an obligation to harvest. At least with raspberries, when they ripen they usually fall to the ground, and birds and other creatures can then eat them.

With our haricot verts (a specific form of bush bean), you don't merely feel an obligation to harvest, harvesting is actually obligatory.

These beans taste so good when you pick them on time, steam them, while on another burner you put a Pyrex measuring cup with butter and crushed garlic....pour melted butter / garlic over steamed beans, eat fresh picked from garden minutes earlier, one of life's exquisite simple sensory pleasures.

If you don't pick the beans before they ripen, not only do they ripen on the plant, the plant also stops bearing any new beans. Which means that you have to harvest regularly, whether you are hungry or not, whether you feel like it or not, if you want a sustained long-term harvest.

Having thought we learned our lesson, this year we planted only three rows of beans, staggering the planting date by two weeks per row. Last week I picked a few, enough for a nice garnish for two. Today I filled a mid-sized colendar....from one row. Each row bears for maybe four to six weeks (hence the staggered planting ), which means that the weeks when all three rows are bearing at the same time, we'll to pick three times a week!

That's okay, we're lucky that between us our schedule fits and we really like the taste of fresh beans. It's a double treat if one of the grown offspring are home, and a triple treat if we can get one of them to do the picking!

[FiveHole12]

Sounds like you're having some fun in the garden there, FreshFish.

Picked my first cucumber today!!! WooHoo! Lots of little cukes will be ready soon. There are lots of pickling cukes ready to go also. Haven't been in the garden since Sunday and boy do things change in a hurry. Some GIGANTIC zucchini's (my wife and daughter love stuffing and baking them), lots of summer squash and picked another good batch of beets.
Tomatoes on the vine! Lots of 'em. Not ripe yet but hoping soon.

My water well crashed and burned earlier in the week and just got it up and running today. Got some water on the veggies and the sprinkler system will be back to work tonight. Just in time as temperatures in the 90's are expected from now through mid week. Everything green will be happy again.

[leswp1]

Re: Garden Geeks thread

First cuke here too. Planted in Earth box. They are going NUTS. Have about 10 more close to ready and more coming. The SS and Zukes are anemic and barely growing. THe beans aren't ready yet.

[Carter]

Re: Garden Geeks thread

I picked the first, and so far only, green bean yesterday. They're coming on strong though, so in a few days we'll be eating them nearly every night and giving away a boatload as well. Once they're fully producing we have to pick at least twice a week, maybe three times, and each time is 2 to 2-1/2 5 gallon pails. Lotsa beans, especially since we don't preserve any. Years and years ago, when we started the wall-o-beans, my wife said that no canned or frozen green beans would taste decent at all after eating the fresh ones from the garden. She's been proven right so far. If anyone has a method that they consider foolproof for preserving them and having them taste pretty much fresh picked, I'd love to hear it.

[leswp1]

Re: Garden Geeks thread

I picked the first, and so far only, green bean yesterday. They're coming on strong though, so in a few days we'll be eating them nearly every night and giving away a boatload as well. Once they're fully producing we have to pick at least twice a week, maybe three times, and each time is 2 to 2-1/2 5 gallon pails. Lotsa beans, especially since we don't preserve any. Years and years ago, when we started the wall-o-beans, my wife said that no canned or frozen green beans would taste decent at all after eating the fresh ones from the garden. She's been proven right so far. If anyone has a method that they consider foolproof for preserving them and having them taste pretty much fresh picked, I'd love to hear it.

We blanch for b/w 30-60 seconds. Spin dry in the salad spinner then lay out on towel for a few hours til dry. Then freeze in those ziploc vacuum bags and freeze

[walrus]

Re: Garden Geeks thread

r. If anyone has a method that they consider foolproof for preserving them and having them taste pretty much fresh picked, I'd love to hear it.

All I know is even frozen my beans are far better than any bean you'll buy in the winter. plus the fact that I know where they came from and how they were grown. I freeze a crap load of them

[FiveHole12]

Re: Garden Geeks thread

Ok all. I picked a bunch of zucchini and in the patch were two cream colored (almost white color) squash (picked from the zucchini plant). They look like zucchini but the color is weird. Are these albino zucchini? Anyone ever seen this before? In all my years of gardening I never have.

[walrus]

Re: Garden Geeks thread

Chard, Spinach, lettuce and green beans from the garden this week, the beans were out of this world. Freakin deer have found my garden again. My fence is in rough shape looks like Tractor supply is going toget some of my money for fence, posts and probably a fence charger

[MadTownSioux]

Re: Garden Geeks thread

It's been tough here with the drought, but thanks to constant watering the garden is still doing good. Started picking tomatoes last week. I Fixed them up in a couple of dishes - not enough to preserve yet. Jalapenos have started to come in, and we have had some sweet peppers so far. We've had several meals of beans, and I'll be doing a lot of freezing starting this week. The potato plants are getting brown; don't know if that's OK or because they are in sandier soil than the rest of the garden. Does anybody know when potatoes are ready in the southern WI area? Corn is very close. A bunch of watermelons - one very large - but the 'Moon and Stars' variety doesn't have anything yet. The watermelon vines have spread through the corn and the rose garden, and is aobut 20 feet into the yard. Good thing the yard is brown and doesn't need mowing. The hops look like it will be a bust of a season because of the drought; but I still have some from last year for making beer..

[FreshFish]

Re: Garden Geeks thread

A story about the resiliency of tomatoes....

We had had a brush pile for a few years on a cement slab, finally paid someone to haul it away. There was a lot of composted dirt at the bottom once it was gone, which I shoveled into several big flowerpots.

Tomatoes started growing from this dirt in the pots (from seeds that had fallen from the brush pile).

I decided to keep them, for fun (we picked a few cherry tomatoes the other day). However, you know how tomatoes branch out like crazy...I snipped a few branches off to make the plants more manageable, and just out of curiosity, I stuck those branches in the soil and started watering them. They are growing just fine on their own despite not having any roots to start! yup, they started growing roots out of the sides of the stem stuck in the dirt!

[goldy_331]

Re: Garden Geeks thread

Great. The bunnies weren't enough, now a pair of deer are in the neighborhood busily eating our garden.