Garden thread.

[glenn kangiser]

Winter vegetables are coming right along in the RV Garage planter -- now that I have stopped the giant rodents from devouring them.

[John Raabe]

That chard looks great... our garden is pretty limp and soggy. (It does help to have sunlight!)

Does eating the "giant rodents" teach them not to nibble the chard?

(I recently heard that there are more deer alive now that at any time before the European conquest of the continent.)

[Amanda_931]

John wrote:

(I recently heard that there are more deer alive now that at any time before the European conquest of the continent.)

Something on that order is my understanding.  That the suburbs are a perfect combination of grazing land (lawn!) and trees.

On the other hand, the Cherokees (I think) thought that deer were a gift to humankind.  You could kill one any time you wanted one (or you weren't no kind of hunter), and in addition to meat there were bone tools and the skin.  

And those greens are gorgeous!

[glenn kangiser]

There probably are more deer now.   :-/

They are slow learners and you couldn't possibly eat all the giant rodents we have running around here.  I have a bit of hay left at the corner of the garage and have seen 10 to 12 there two afternoons in a row.

I think we may eat some of that chard soon.  It doesn't get much fresher than that and in reality, it doesn't take much care after you get it started either as long as the 75 lb rodents stay away from it.  We have small deer but lots of them.  I think the're redneck deer.

[peg_688]

Well the last of the lettuce got picked Sunday . Last two nights we've had frost so what little bit I left standing is toast/ no longer good  Pulled up those tomaoe plants as well , time to gather the potted plants and bury them in leaves.

 


 

I talked to my farmer friend and will be hauling in a load of cow poop and rotilling that in this fall as well.  

You folks down under enjoy your summer Jonesy, Ciellia & Johnny , and the mob. Gad day mates 8-)  

[glenn-k]

Sassy is still picking tomatoes from the garden -- we had a bunch tonight.  I guess I should post pictures of our meals from the garden this winter so you PNW'ers will know what it's  like.  

[Sassy]

picture of a few tomatoes - Glenn picked a small bowl full - we still have more in the greenhouse - haven't checked to see how the rest of the tomatoes are doing on top of the house since the weather turned so cold... there's some leaves from a parsnip - we have hundreds in the garden - steam & then fry in butter - yum!  I had the vine hooked up on a parsnip plant on the left that had gone to seed.  The last time I pulled out a lot of the tall plants that had died, the raccoons went through the garden & trashed it... so gotta keep some of them there so they don't think that the garden is their playground  :-/

[Amanda_931]

Yum.  I've had tomatoes as late as Thanksgiving.

Not this year.

We just finished adding a couple of inches of well-rotted bark mulch to the raised beds.

My helper is a hard worker, but emptying the truck and toting bark mulch down the hill and then peeling more bark off a log got to her the other day.  I think she's going to be glad for an extra day off.

(I've got plenty of creaky places,--and she may have done more of it than I did--but this time it didn't bother me)

[glenn-k]

Sounds like You and Alma are a team to be reckoned with, Amanda.

Our winter garden is growing quite well.  Chard is charding and cabbages are cabbaging as they should.  Fresno is currently reporting 35 degrees at the air terminal.  Outside it is currently 56.1 degrees.  Nice living in the banana belt except for summer nights.

Hey -- there goes one now.

[harry51]

Seriously cool pic, Glen & Sassy......almost surreal.

[glenn-k]

Thanks, Harry.  I wish the plants were in a bit better shape, but they are growing.

A few aphids but not bad.  Sassy rinses them off once in a while.  The light was from the Western afternoon sun so gave a nice side and back lighting to the leaves.

[peg_688]

What's SUN ?  Only  14 days to the shortest one of the year. Then the slow lenghting of the daylight starts  

No much growning up here, but moss

[glenn-k]

Currently 56.8 degrees outside now --- from all the sun we had today.

--No sun, PEG, but look at it this way -- at least you're not in California.

[Amanda_931]

I think it's

[size=36]COLD[/size]

here.  26 degrees F. out.  Barometric pressure up around 30.6, so nothing to prevent the heat from leaving tonight.

Nice vegetable pictures.

Did get some parsley from the garden yesterday.  Went into some Spaghetti sauce and a peanut butter/lemon juice/garlic dip

[glenn-k]

We went out to the garden to have a look around today.

The cabbage is growing - I gave it some fertilizer a couple weeks ago and the extra grow power split one cabbage - guess we'll eat it tomorrow.   we pulled two of the heirloom carrots today - I don't remember the type but they are red or maroon outside.



They are still carroty color inside.  These two carrots are both about 2" in diameter.



It was hot when the seed was planted so many didn't germinate and survive but we got a few.  

Winter vegetables and volunteers still doing pretty well also.

[peg_688]

Yer killin me here :'( Bracing for another 50  to 60 MPH wind storm , raining like a cow peeing on  a flat rock , snow is in the extended forecast for Mon. / Tues., so temps are going to be dropping from the mid forties to the mid to high 20's  

The garden is  just wet ,black, cold,  dirt with leaves piled up for early spring tiling.

But still it better than Ca.    

[glenn-k]

PEG, my friend.  I hate to say it but I told Sassy we needed to post to the garden thread just for your benefit.  Would you like a picture of our ripe tomatoes?

Sorry about your weather.  Sounds cold and nasty.  As you can see we've been having sunshine today.  Soon we have to get ready to start planting.  

Actually we have a bit of weather on the way in a week. Maybe even some snow.

[Sassy]

PEG, that's a little bit of the passive-agressive coming out of him but I have to admit I kinda encouraged it
BTW, the carrots were really good - I think Glenn will finally let us eat one of the cabbages now!  

[Daddymem]

thanks for the warning, gonna go check which direction those winds are blowing from now....

[glenn-k]

OK Daddymem - wind is blowing toward Mass.  We are going to eat the second one tonight.  I just killed it.  :'(



Note that it was 56 degrees here last night and this morning but 4 miles from here it  was 30 to 32 with frozen ponds .  Such is life in the banana belt.

[peg_688]

Nice cabbage   How ya gonna cook it? Fried with bacon grease , served with vinegar and salt & pepper Or boiled in a New England boiled dinner(corn beef & cabbage )

[Sassy]

Steamed with ham & onions & a little Real salt...  (salt mined from Redmond, Utah )  didn't have any corned beef this time or bacon... but it should be good anyway!  

[glenn-k]

I really like corned beef and cabbage - but - Sassy has to work tomorrow and 4 miles to the store so I sent her digging through the freezer for something else to go with it.

[Daddymem]

Make some Kraut! mmmmm

[glenn-k]

That sounds good.  My mom used to make it once in a while.  Seems I remember large crocks and fermenting time involved.  I have a few more heads of cabbage out there.  They didn't germinate real well as it was a bit hot in the fall. -- Dried the planter surface a couple times.