2013 Gardens

[Ritchie200]

Hey guys!  What are you-all planting this year?  Got the seeds started?  Strawberrys are blooming, but we have had frost the last few nights.  I wish Mother Nature would relent!

Jim

[tubenit]

I am thinking 3 grape tomatoe plants and one large one. That'll probably be it.

We like getting up early, having breakfast and going to the farmer's market to buy fresh veggies every other wkend.  

I have however planted 3 new roses bushes. Rio Samba and two Double Delight.

With respect, Tubenit

[sluckey]

I've got crook neck squash, cantaloupe, zipper peas, snap beans, cucumber, bell peppers, and tomatoes. Peppers and tomatoes are a foot high. Everything is in the ground already except the cantaloupe and they are going in this afternoon.

[thermion]

squash for sure...crookneck, straight neck, and tatume (calabacita)
'maters: sweet 100, black crim, matt's wild cherry, JD's centex, and another...can't remember right now
one lonely tabasco pepper
herbs: sweet and african blue basil, rosemary, spearmint (this last one went all perennial on me)
I still have lots of leeks left over from the winter, not gonna pull em yet
my girls are growing pickling cukes!
and also this year I got a sweet bay laurel and a key lime tree.
hopefully I'll get a volunteer melon or pumpkin out of the compost bin, I'm keeping it well-watered.
my mom did roses this year, 5 peach drift, they look pretty happy so far.

[EL34]

In the beds currently is Sugar snap peas, green onions, arugula, red sail lettuce, butter crunch lettuce and Broccoli

In the house in the nursery is Juliet tomatoes, sweet peppers  and diva cucumbers that I started from seed
These won't go outside for a couple weeks

I may pick up a couple more ready to go starter plants like a Habanero or some eggplant

I can't grow squash anymore, the squash vine bores have put a stop to that
I used to have great squash

[Madison]

recently took up p/t on a huge farm near here.

We grow acres of just about everything, greenhouses, etc.
Lots machine maintenance.

Great food bennies.

Not to mention my own personal garden here at the homestead.
Almost time to make wine again.
 

[sluckey]

I can't believe I forgot to mention my jewel... an asparagus garden. Maybe because it is not actually inside my garden area. Last year I built a 50' x 2.5' strip bed on the outside of my veggie garden. I planted 50 2 year old New Jersey Giant crowns. This year we began harvesting. We have been enjoying big juicy sprouts since the beginning of March. We love grilled asparagus so much that next winter I will build another strip bed inside my garden area. Highly recommended if you like asparagus and have the room. BTW, this stuff is perennial and a properly maintained bed will last 15-20 years.

[EL34]

I love asparagus, except the part about what it does to your wiz. 

I used to go pick wild asparagus in MI
It grew in the fence rows

wish I had the space on this mountain side to grow it

[sluckey]

I love asparagus, except the part about what it does to your wiz.

Me too. But it's a small price to pee for good food! 

[Ritchie200]

Planted some Sugary cherry tomatoes and some Cherokee Purple tomatoes.  The Sugary took off right away and should have ripe ones in about a week.  The Cherokee have just now hit a growth spurt and has not even flowered.  Anyone ever grown these two?

Thanks!
Jim

[tubenit]

Yeah,  my cherry tomato bushes are doing better this year then ever before. Should have a pretty nice batch of them maybe by this weekend?  Not growing anything else this year and decided to just do the local farmer's market more.

 

Jeff

[John]

Planted some Sugary cherry tomatoes and some Cherokee Purple tomatoes.  The Sugary took off right away and should have ripe ones in about a week.  The Cherokee have just now hit a growth spurt and has not even flowered.  Anyone ever grown these two?

Thanks!
Jim

My wife tried the Cherokee last year and didn't like it. We sell mater plants and potted herbs at our shop in the spring and early summer just for something different. But the Prudens Purple is excellent, just right for either slicing on sandwiches or canning, very few seeds. We like the Rutgers also.

Tubenit, if you like cherry tomatoes you should try planting a Tumbling Tom in a hanging basket. Each year more people come back looking for them. The fruit is about 1.5" across. They're bearing fruit right now, in fact.

[EL34]

I snapped some pics a week or so ago of this years garden
The sugar snap peas and lettuce are done now cause of the heat

I have onions, Broccoli, Juliet tomatoes, Diva cucumbers, 3 kinds of eggplant and green beans
Jalapeno, Habanero and sweet banana peppers

The plants are much bigger than in the picture cause of the heat
I swear the cucumbers grow 6 inches a day

[Ritchie200]

Yeah, my cuc's are going crazy!  Doug, do you can any of your stuff?  Also, that angled lower bed looks like a cold frame setup?

Jim

[EL34]

No canning but I do vacuum sealing on beans and peas

blanche them and then vacuum seal them in meal sized bags

That was a cold frame many years ago, but I removed the lids and just use it as a raised bed

Been eating my strawberries for a couple weeks and now the blue berries are coming on strong

[tubenit]

I am getting some excellent cherry tomatoes.  Some red ones and then the golden type. The red ones are delicious. The golden type are NOT as sweet as the Golden Gems that Doug turned me on to.

I also have 3 blueberry bushes and am getting some nice blueberries off of them.

And last of all ................... I planted some seeds from my beautiful Japanese maple and have a few of them coming up!!  Hooray!!  Can't begin to describe how excited I am about that!  My Japanese maple is maybe 15 ft tall and I've sculptured it over the years and it's incredible beautiful in the spring and fall. Love that tree.

Jeff 

[EL34]

I am eating blueberries off my bushes also. They are loaded this year.

Cool, I love Japanese maples. The color is awesome

[sluckey]

Ate my first cantaloupe yesterday. Good stuff! I can't believe I waited so long to try growing them. There are approximately 100 more melons in my patch. Hopefully they won't all ripen the same day. 

[tubenit]

I love a really ripe sweet cantaloupe!  

I really like having cantaloupe in the summer in place of a salad (sometimes) with an evening meal. I typically cook either red snapper, flounder, walleye, mahi mahi, occasionally halibut, salmon or some type of fish every week end.  Cantaloupe as a salad goes great with fish as the meat.  

Take something like a honey chipotle glazed salmon on the grill ......... OR red snapper with a honey chipotle basalmic vineger glaze used in a fish soft taco with red cabbage cole slaw ..................    Then take the sweetness of cantaloupe with those. YUM!!!!

100 melons ........ wow, that's pretty cool.

 

Jeff

[EL34]

I love melons too

Tried a few times growing them.
Found many with holes in them. I think voles dig under then and eat them.
Finally hung them from nylons on a stick up off the ground and that helped

[Willabe]

Take something like a honey chipotle glazed salmon on the grill ......... OR red snapper with a honey chipotle basalmic vineger glaze used in a fish soft taco with red cabbage cole slaw ..................    Then take the sweetness of cantaloupe with those. YUM!!!!

Wow! That does sound good. I think I'll try making that.



                   Brad       

[tubenit]

Brad,   

The fish taco "dressing" is made up of lime juice, canned chiptole's , a little bit of cilantro, some olive oil, some apple cider vinegar, a little basalmic vinegar,  and honey.  You can use the adobe sauce in the canned chiptole's if you want to?

Honey and olive oil are equal amounts and then add the rest of the ingredients as you like it to taste.  I like a fairly liberal amount of lime juice.  Use more apple cider vinegar than basalmic.

Same dressing works great on the Salmon also. However, be sure to use the adobe sauce in the mix for the Salmon glaze/dressing.  I cover the Salmon completely with aluminum foil.  5 minutes on one side maybe 6-7 minutes on the other. Then I usually remove it and put the Salmon filet directly on the fire/smoke for maybe a minute.

With respect, Jeff

[Willabe]

Thanks Jeff, I'm gonna make that for us. My wife will love it.

I was thinking right about what was in it, but I would have missed the olive oil. I can see that it's important I should have caught that.

I make a mango/smoked chipotle salsa in the summer time that we love. The adobo sauce from the chipotles is a key/must have ingredient as it gives the nice smoky flavor. I use all of the sauce and only some of the peppers (seeds removed) or it's way too HOT!   

It's just regular salsa (diced tomatoes, onion, jalapenos, cilantro, garlic and salt/pepper) but you add the mangoes, lime juice and the chipotle adobo sauce. If the mangoes aren't ripe don't even bother making it.  

I sometimes make fish on the gas grill in a foil package and it's always good. Little oil, little wine, herbs of choice, garlic, salt/pepper and thinly sliced onion, mushrooms maybe some thinly sliced zucchini. It's different every time but good.



                  Brad      

  

[tubenit]

It's just regular salsa (diced tomatoes, onion, jalapenos, cilantro, garlic and salt/pepper) but you add the mangoes, lime juice and the chipotle adobo sauce. If the mangoes aren't ripe don't even bother making it.   

Great!  My wife and I will try that out also!   

Jeff

[sluckey]

It's been raining every day for over two weeks now and the ten day forecast is the same. My melons are rotting! I may have to pull some green melons to save any.   

[tubenit]

Excessive rain is taking a toll on my 16 full sized rose bushes too.   They were looking excellent and now 3 of them are dying.  Bummer.

My tomato plants had yellow lower leaves ......

Jeff

[EL34]

All the lower stems turn yellow and fall off my tom plants
starting at the bottom and working their way up one at a time

not sure if that is what you are describing or not?

Epsom salts helps prevent blossom end rot if your tom plants are getting too much water

[PRR]

> raining every day for over two weeks

Had a very drizzly week a month ago and since then only a 0.05" spritz.

I also ditched the last large bog in my wet acre this month. The 20 year flood is almost all drained. The tree roots are not sitting in dank cold water. I can walk everywhere without spoiling my shoes.

Fern and Winterberry are super-happy. Can't see through that jungle.

Tomato plants are OK. 2' tall and two greenies so far.