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Garden Geeks thread

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Re: Garden Geeks thread

Canned 7 quarts of tomatoes on Sunday and there are probably 7 more out there (6 plants). Been eating them with every meal and giving some away too. Great crop thus far.

Carrots have gotten out of control and are getting almost too big. Might have to just harvest them all and store them. Need to stagger my plantings next year.

Have frozen 4 bags of hot peppers - jalapenos, cayene and mucho nacho. Use them through the year to add heat to soups, salsas and stir fry.

Have cuccs with about every meal too. Green peppers are just starting to be ready for harvesting and we're about to get a huge crop of strawberries.
 
Re: Garden Geeks thread

ZUkes and S Squash have failed. Cukes anemic. Beans producing like no tomorrow. Tomatoes still working at producing after being topped off by the groundhogs. Overall not a good yr so far.
 
Re: Garden Geeks thread

I've had a good year. Healthiest tomato plants I've had in years (no blight this year). Lots of cukes, zuke and summer squash. Different eggplant plants than I've used in the past... the Black Beauty's produced much more fruit, but these are OK (forget their name). Not sure how the potatoes will turn out this year... different plot, but the plants look healthy.

Looking for a fall crop, I planted more summer squash at the end of July, more zukes last weekend. Think I'll do OK with the summer sq, but pushing it with the late zuke planting. More spinach and beets planted last week as well. They'll be fine.
 
Re: Garden Geeks thread

Hot peppers are ahead of the tomatillos, so I'm fermentation-pickling some today. I used a few of my jalapenos in a batch of salsa that I'm fermenting, and some thai chilis in a batch of kim chi. Really into fermenting now. I have a batch of kim chi going pretty much all the time, and done batches of beets and daikon (not ones I grew) with good success. Not too happy with the cucumber pickles; I need to experiment with grape leaves or some other way of preventing them from getting mushy.
 
Re: Garden Geeks thread

I'm up to a grand total of 8 eggs from my 6 chickens this week. I believe 1 or two of them have started laying, and the others should have their egg makers going online soon. Lord knows the brats get enough treats from me here, lots of weeds from the garden, table scraps, and assorted bugs as well. A horsefly doesn't have a prayer of hitting the ground with them. But they don't seem to be all that found of worms.
 
bigmrg74 said:
I'm up to a grand total of 8 eggs from my 6 chickens this week. I believe 1 or two of them have started laying, and the others should have their egg makers going online soon. Lord knows the brats get enough treats from me here, lots of weeds from the garden, table scraps, and assorted bugs as well. A horsefly doesn't have a prayer of hitting the ground with them. But they don't seem to be all that found of worms.
Click to expand...
I let my chickens out everyday, they rid the yard of most every bug . Dog hasn't had a tick on him in months
 
Re: Garden Geeks thread

Well, my mom as part of "repayment" for getting her McCartney tickets and partially because she loves gardening helped me finish off my front garden today.

She provided the flowers and planning and I provided the heavy labor and materials. Part of a two-weekend project. Looks good. Should be much easier to maintain in the future since the plants aren't going to be Venus leaf-traps in the fall.

Lots of beautiful maroon and gold lilies and mums with a fire and ice hydrangea, a few sedum transplanted from my backyard disasters, and a couple of other plants I can't remember what they were called though. A bunch of hostas as well. There must have been 18-24 plants we planted.

We also beat back the grape vine that had taken over. Lots of small grapes this year though. She took a ton to see what she could do with them. I also figured out that I have a crab apple that either had never blossomed before this year or I missed it. Gorgeous blossoms earlier in he year and the grape had to be removed before it ruined this tree.

The only thing I need to figure out is what I want to do with the two trees the squirrels planted (an oak and a maple) that are either going to have to be killed or moved. I'd hate to kill them off but they can't stay where they are due to the proximity to the foundation.

This is all part of my five-year rehab for my entire yard. It's my first house and these first few years have shown me that I suck at lawncare and general maintenance. So we are redoing everything and trying to make it a more dx-friendly yard. Still need to aggressively overseed the yard this fall. I need a much thicker lawn to protect the hard clay from getting too dry and keep the weeds at bay

Next year I add the walkway around the front to the back, nuke my "carport" and remove the rocks and seed it with grass.

I'd like to add a firepit, rehab the fence, and repaint/rehab the deck in the next 2-3 years.
 
Re: Garden Geeks thread

14 quarts and 7 pints today. Took me almost 4 hours.

Ripped out two of the plants as I don't need much more for canning.
 
Re: Garden Geeks thread

I had an interesting garden-related experience the other day....

I generally wear a broad-brimmed hat when working outdoors to keep sun off head and neck, even if part of the time I am working in the shade.

Anyway. As part of a larger project, I was on hands and knees near some shrubs pulling up sod to transplant elsewhere. I finished and went inside to wash my hands. When I looked in the mirror, lo and behold! there was a praying mantis perched atop my hat.

I went back outside after drying my hands and gently placed my hat atop a lawn chair.


I can see how some cultures came to believe in omens.
 
Re: Garden Geeks thread

I planted grape vines in my back yard over a decade ago. Back then, it was for making wine- I planted Marechal Foch mostly- tried a few Vidal Blanc. Things changed, focus on making wine changed, wanted space changed....

I focused a lot in getting grapes last year, only to have my netting totally useless. Tried again this year, and found why the netting was useless, and made it more useful.

So today, I managed to harvest enough to get 10 cups of good grape juice that I will make into jelly later. Pretty cool.

Probably could have gotten double had I figured out that my neighbor's chickens were brutally agressive eating my grapes. :)

This fall, I'm going to re-do the trellis, and hope that I can get more. To make wine, I need something close to 6x that amount. Possible- but it will take some planning. Especially fighting the animals.
 
Re: Garden Geeks thread

alfablue said:
I planted grape vines in my back yard over a decade ago. Back then, it was for making wine- I planted Marechal Foch mostly- tried a few Vidal Blanc. Things changed, focus on making wine changed, wanted space changed....

I focused a lot in getting grapes last year, only to have my netting totally useless. Tried again this year, and found why the netting was useless, and made it more useful.

So today, I managed to harvest enough to get 10 cups of good grape juice that I will make into jelly later. Pretty cool.

Probably could have gotten double had I figured out that my neighbor's chickens were brutally agressive eating my grapes. :)

This fall, I'm going to re-do the trellis, and hope that I can get more. To make wine, I need something close to 6x that amount. Possible- but it will take some planning. Especially fighting the animals.
Click to expand...
Last summer I harvested grapes and made about 4 gallons of grape juice from my 10 yo concords. This year, at least 2/3ds of the vines were dead. The remains produced no grapes. Hope for something better next year.
 
Re: Garden Geeks thread

MadTownSioux said:
Last summer I harvested grapes and made about 4 gallons of grape juice from my 10 yo concords. This year, at least 2/3ds of the vines were dead. The remains produced no grapes. Hope for something better next year.
Click to expand...

My original plan (15 years ago, now that I look back on it) was to get 5 gallons of wine from 6 vines. But they never grew that well. Now I have basically 9 vines of one variety that theoretically can make decent wine.

If not that, I suppose I could dabble in distilling that. :) You know, for fuel and all.... ;)
 
Re: Garden Geeks thread

Our starter seeds aren't doing well, so went and picked up six tomato plants and planted them in large pots. I'd rather have them in ground, but if they're in pots, I can take them inside the garage for the day here and there when we get a freeze and then bring them back out when it warms up. If that works well, the plants should be around until May or so (if a certain little boy doesn't decide to give them a yank!). Also started up some herbs in pots. Still a bit warm for planting, but we're keeping the pots in a relatively shady spot, so they should survive the next few weeks until things cool down.
 
Re: Garden Geeks thread

alfablue said:
If not that, I suppose I could dabble in distilling that. :) You know, for fuel and all.... ;)
Click to expand...

Don't waste your time. Distilling fruit, excluding apples (for fuel of course), is a pain and not very productive in the long run in my opinion. I would suggest sticking to corn for distilling. The higher octane rating makes it much better. ;)

Oh, and if you really like fuel to be of the fruit variety then that taste can always be added later. :D
 
Re: Garden Geeks thread

MattS said:
Don't waste your time. Distilling fruit, excluding apples (for fuel of course), is a pain and not very productive in the long run in my opinion. I would suggest sticking to corn for distilling. The higher octane rating makes it much better. ;)

Oh, and if you really like fuel to be of the fruit variety then that taste can always be added later. :D
Click to expand...

except that when ripe, there is more sugar in grape juice than there is in corn beer. Grapes ferment to 10-14% ABV, cider and beer generally are lower. Even the high ones are just up to 10.

So, in theory, my 5 gal of wine, I can get ~1/2 gal of fuel. Yea, fuel- that's the ticket.
 
Re: Garden Geeks thread

alfablue said:
except that when ripe, there is more sugar in grape juice than there is in corn beer. Grapes ferment to 10-14% ABV, cider and beer generally are lower. Even the high ones are just up to 10.

So, in theory, my 5 gal of wine, I can get ~1/2 gal of fuel. Yea, fuel- that's the ticket.
Click to expand...

I was speaking to distilling (fuel/water;)), not wine or beer making.

I can easily get ~20% ABV out of corn mash using quality ingredients, a little extra sugar, and turbo yeast. Just ran a batch last Saturday and got ~145 proof, er, I mean octane ;) out of the main portion of the run.

Plus the cleanup and the processing is easier out of corn or other grains than it is for fruit. *This is just for distilling it for fuel and not for making wine. Wine is a whole different thing.
 
Re: Garden Geeks thread

MattS said:
I was speaking to distilling (fuel/water;)), not wine or beer making.

I can easily get ~20% ABV out of corn mash using quality ingredients, a little extra sugar, and turbo yeast. Just ran a batch last Saturday and got ~145 proof, er, I mean octane ;) out of the main portion of the run.

Plus the cleanup and the processing is easier out of corn or other grains than it is for fruit. *This is just for distilling it for fuel and not for making wine. Wine is a whole different thing.
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The problem is that one needs 200 proof to get the actual 115octane. Adding 25% water doesn't make it burn well.

Well, there are places where 145poof would burn. but that's different physics.

BTW, what yeast are you using that survives to 20% ABV? That's some healthy stuff. (adding sugar is cheating, IMHO)
 
Re: Garden Geeks thread

alfablue said:
BTW, what yeast are you using that survives to 20% ABV? That's some healthy stuff. (adding sugar is cheating, IMHO)
Click to expand...

Still Spirits Triple Distilled Turbo Yeast. They claim up to 18% but I can get 20% out of it. That or my hydrometer is way off which I don't believe it is.

I just add a little bit of corn sugar to help it along when I use turbo yeast. I don't always use it and only when making a corn mash.
 
Re: Garden Geeks thread

Should probably move this discussion to either the cars thread or drinking thread, as I'm very interested in distilling stuff.

Like does the sugar and yeast change the basic taste of bourbon.

But I can ask here if you grow your own corn. Some varmit ate All of mine.
 
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