Garden thread
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Getting tomatoes, green beans, still lots of lettuce, onions and green peppers are growing good and cucumbers are filling up the fridge. Good garden this year! So I'm sharing with my sister who's lost everything, except tomatoes, to animals.
Next year, if she still has a garden, I'll help her fence it in. 1 -
Lost the last of my raspberries yesterday. Puppy (who is now a gigantic 8 month old) got over the fence and destroyed what was left of them. Everything's trampled and broken, and even with the damage that had already been done we lost easily over a gallon of fruit.2
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I spread clear plastic over three of my four beds yesterday. The fourth has tomatoes. There are other beds, but they have perennials.
Perfect timing. We're having "excess heat" all week. This should kill the weeds and the seeds. I might even be able to move the plastic and kill more weeds. This is to set up for next year's garden. I'll plant some cover crop soon that, I hope, will either live through winter or at least take up all the space with dead stems all winter. Then next May or June I can re-do the whole thing.
I'm even tempted to dig up the artichoke plants and set them aside over the winter and maybe just redo EVERYTHING except grapes, blueberries, and raspberries.3 -
I think I am done planting peas! At first, it was just a disappointing leafage and output. Now some are slowly dying off from the ground up. I can't ID any disease or pest; they are just dying. 😡
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@MsCzar - I'm still thinking heat. The only way I know of to beat heat is to get the earliest possible varieties, and plant at the earliest viable time - they can go in much earlier/colder than a lot of other garden veg. Pre-sprouting them helps, though early damp, cold soil is still more prone to root rot and damping off. They can tolerate temperatures below freezing, even, for some short periods. Even with an early start, though, some weather patterns will not be suitable for peas.2
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Hmm... overnight temps in the F 50's-60's and days in the 80's. They are in shade by 1-2pm. Perhaps the building captures and reflects some heat? I don't think I've seen 3 dozen pods this year.
It's possible they were crap seeds.0 -
Hmm... overnight temps in the F 50's-60's and days in the 80's. They are in shade by 1-2pm. Perhaps the building captures and reflects some heat? I don't think I've seen 3 dozen pods this year.
It's possible they were crap seeds.Young pea plants can survive light frosts, and will grow at any temperature above 40°F. Good growing temperatures are between 55°F and 65°F. Once the plants have started to flower and set a crop, frost can be damaging. Watch for any forecast of late spring frost and cover the plants with sheets or row covers if necessary.
From Minneota Extension Service, https://extension.umn.edu/vegetables/growing-peas
Temps in the 80s are not good pea weather.2 -
@MsCzar
Looks like heat damage to me. Peas are early-season or late season. Early season is tricky; they sit in the soil until it's warm enough, so birds can eat them. They sprout, and slugs get after 'em. Late season is tricky because you have to get them to sprout while it's warm enough but not too warm, then they make peas as the cool weather comes.
I pretty much lost my entire garden this year. Currently under clear plastic. With temperatures near 100 the last week or so, I bet I've killed everything, hopefully including the weed seeds.2 -
@LoveyChar and other interested in the grow bags, I'm in 9B in the Sacramento area in CA. The tomatoes have done fairly well but the zucchini and summer squash in the grow bags haven't done well, I think it's not holding moisture in enough for the bags as on the over 100degree days I'm watering twice a day which is a pain. They were fine in Spring but the summer's too hot for them even with mulch. It may also be as I grouped the zucchini and squash in groups of 4 whereas the tomatoes are in a solid row of about 40 with a retaining wall behind them. Just wanted to share since it hasn't gone well! The peppers, flowers, and herbs in the grow bags are great though!1
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Ok all you gardeners. ATM I have 12 cucumbers in my fridge. This is after giving a bunch away and eating a bunch a day. I don't make pickles. Plus I know if I peek under the leaves there'll be more to pick early in the week. I like them plain and in salads but help!! Any ideas what I can do with such an abundance of them?
I am going to check out our local food shelf and see if they'd like some.
Gardens and seasons can be so weird. Last year our cucumbers were all but dead. This year, yikes!0 -
I ate a HANDFULL of ripe Sungold tomatoes. Mmmmm.
I am helping care for a neighbor's cats and garden while they are away. They told me to take cucumbers and tomatoes. I reckon I shall.2 -
Ok all you gardeners. ATM I have 12 cucumbers in my fridge. This is after giving a bunch away and eating a bunch a day. I don't make pickles. Plus I know if I peek under the leaves there'll be more to pick early in the week. I like them plain and in salads but help!! Any ideas what I can do with such an abundance of them?
I am going to check out our local food shelf and see if they'd like some.
Gardens and seasons can be so weird. Last year our cucumbers were all but dead. This year, yikes!
Cold cucumber soup - very refreshing in Summer, usually a yogurt or buttermilk or tomato base, fresh herbs are a bonus.
Tzatziki used as a dip, sauce, salad dressing, sandwich layer.
Cucumber boats stuffed with some kind of salad (egg, tuna, chicken, bean . . . - bunches of recipes online). For a picnic, I've made cucumber cups, stuffed them with some kind of salad or maybe cheesy or thickened-yogurt kind of filling - good finger food.
You can stir-fry, steam, roast or bake them, use in recipes in similar ways to zucchini or other summer squash, too. Good in curries, for example.
Cucumber water is really refreshing, as a cold summer beverage (some citrus or mint are good adds). There are cocktail and mocktail recipes that use cucumbers or cucumber juice.
I love cucumbers.3 -
@MsCzar
Looks like heat damage to me. Peas are early-season or late season. Early season is tricky; they sit in the soil until it's warm enough, so birds can eat them. They sprout, and slugs get after 'em. Late season is tricky because you have to get them to sprout while it's warm enough but not too warm, then they make peas as the cool weather comes.
I pretty much lost my entire garden this year. Currently under clear plastic. With temperatures near 100 the last week or so, I bet I've killed everything, hopefully including the weed seeds.
FWIW, for early planting, I had good luck sprouting the peas indoors in paper towels, where I had more control over the environment. Lots of instructions online for doing this, pretty easy but requires careful handling of the sproutlets. (Slugs would still be a problem.) I assume it could possibly be helpful for late plantings, too, but I never grew late peas.0 -
I agree about the cold cuke soup (I use yogurt and dill in mine), and also a green gazpacho. You can do cucumber based salsas too -- I made some last year to use up some things and froze them.2
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Grateful for all the cucumber based ideas!!
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Haha must be a bumper crop year for all our local cucumber growers.
I've been seeing boxes and signs with Free cucumbers in front of a few homes.
Another bumper crop question. What can you do with sage that's taking over? Asking for my sister.
She's getting a few ideas from the internet but wondered if you gardeners would be able to add more?
Thanks!!!0 -
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Don't tell them it was me, but one of my neighbors put out a table with summer squash and tomatoes. When no one was looking, I added a dozen cucumbers to the free offerings.Haha must be a bumper crop year for all our local cucumber growers. I've been seeing boxes and signs with Free cucumbers in front of a few homes.
Sadly after canning 12 quarts of dill spears, 10 pints of bread and butter pickles, 8 pints of pickle relish and eating 3-4 fresh cukes a day, the rest are headed for the compost pile.
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You're too late for an annual gardening event.
I'm really surprised my neighbors didn't participate again. I think I know why - they didn't grow the dang things. They did give me some cucumbers, though. Their tomatoes are already ripening as they get started early in their greenhouse.1 -
Haha must be a bumper crop year for all our local cucumber growers. I've been seeing boxes and signs with Free cucumbers in front of a few homes.
Another bumper crop question. What can you do with sage that's taking over? Asking for my sister. She's getting a few ideas from the internet but wondered if you gardeners would be able to add more?
Thanks!!!
I have some, but I'm not creative about using it. It's good in scrambled eggs or other eggy things, in fall in squash or pumpkin soup, you can make sage butter to use on things (or steep in decent oil to make flavored oil), steep in vinegar to make sage vinegar (I'd put some garlic in there, too, if it were me), I've made lasagna with a either a sage-laced white sauce instead of tomato sauce or a layer of pureed roasted squash and ricotta flavored with sage, quick-frizzle it to crispness (but not burnt) in butter and crumble it on veggies and stuff . . . .
Fwiw, mine is not nearly as thuggy as my oregano, or past-times plantings of lemon balm, among others. It's pretty easy keep whacked/dug back to a manageable size, IME.
If she believes in smudging with sage to . . . I dunno, bring luck or drive off evil, or whatever . . . that uses up a lot of sage pretty fast. Not my thing, though.1 -
Yeah, IME oregano and mint tend to be the thugs. Sage is not an issue.
Sage is generally good with most things you might like fresh herbs with IMO -- I might use it in a stew or soup or on chicken or eggs. I also quite like it in smoothies, especially if I am also using blueberries. I have also been thinking of trying to make some teas, and it would be good in them.2 -
SuzanneC1l9zz wrote: »
Ooh that's what I'm eating right now. I got lazy and didn't check my garden for 3 days. My advice is never to do that. 2 -
You all are a mountain of gardening wisdom. Passing on the ideas of using sage to my sister. 1
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I was out cleaning up some storm damage this afternoon. Big branch on one of the fig trees bent over so much it was breaking and totally in the way. It's gone now.
But I noticed a nearly ripe fig on another of of the trees. Well, it would have been nearly ripe if the damn birds didn't get to it first. It looked like a fig with a quarter-sized hole in the side, through which the critter ate out all the flesh and left an empty, hollow skin. I tried to get pictures, but they don't show what I'm seeing.
I may not get figs this year. I should stop trying to grow fruit.3 -
Salsa makin' time!
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Birds and/or raccoons (and/or skunks) ate pretty much all my grapes.
Birds already devastated the blueberries and cherries earlier in the year. Starlings got all the ripe figs.
At least I'm getting tomatoes and raspberries. I should harvest the Bartlet pears and get some of them ripe.3 -
Birds and/or raccoons (and/or skunks) ate pretty much all my grapes.
Birds already devastated the blueberries and cherries earlier in the year. Starlings got all the ripe figs.
At least I'm getting tomatoes and raspberries. I should harvest the Bartlet pears and get some of them ripe.
Raccoons always eat my Concord grapes, typically 2-4 days before I think they're optimally ripe for human consumption. I don't even much look at them anymore, just let the raccoons have them.
I do miss having Concord grape pie - best pie I've ever eaten, I swear - but it's a ridiculous amount of work, so it's easy to be philosophical about missing out on it. Raccoons gotta eat, too, I guess.1 -
I don't mind SHARING my harvest with the other critters that live in the area. But I want them to share with me, too, since I go to so much effort to grow things.
My grapes are Interlaken. Very delicious early-season seedless table grapes. I'll eat some raisins from last year as a consolation prize.2 -
Anyone have advice for getting rid of snails? I have the tiny ones, way too numerous and small to handpick and they ruined my lettuce and strawberries. I have tried slug pellets and deadline without success. Please help.0
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Anyone have advice for getting rid of snails? I have the tiny ones, way too numerous and small to handpick and they ruined my lettuce and strawberries. I have tried slug pellets and deadline without success. Please help.
I would urge anyone NOT to use the slug bait that contains metaldehyde. The product you mentioned is based on metaldehyde. It's a toxic substance and can harm you, your family, your pets, and wildlife.
There is another product that's based on iron phosphate. It is labeled for use in organic agriculture. When it breaks down, it becomes a plant nutrient. It is safe for humans and other animals. It works by making the slugs and snails stop eating, and they die within a few days.
Another way you can help control them is with traps. Get some cans or plastic tubs. Make a very thin paste of flour and either cheap beer or water and a little sugar. Add a tiny pinch of yeast if you like. The slugs and snails will be attracted to the scent of fermentation, crawl in, and drown. If you just use beer, some will drown, but some may find a way to climb out and stumble home. Adding flour makes a paste that they can't climb out of, and it also means it continues to be attractive as the flour ferments.
You can also include some snake habitat in your garden to encourage garter snakes. They eat slugs.1
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