Garden thread.

[glenn kangiser]

Gophers, Homey?

[rick91351]

Our orchard up in the mountains at our ranch the pie cherries 10 of them are all budding real well, and are all in all doing very well.  However the sweet cherries are not fairing very well.  Does any have any experience with winter hardy sweet cherries?  We are at 5000 ft and a lot of snow most years and some sub zero.  We also do summer irrigate the fruit trees.  I know there are some that are very winter hardy and what I have plant are supposed to be but they just don't seem to be up to it.  Any ideas? 

So far up at the orchard this spring we have planted ten Honey Crisp Apple Trees.  (That makes fifty apple trees.)  This spring we also planted six peach trees split between two verities, and  three Nectarines.  Two verities of pears three each.  Replaced one pie cherry, and three sweet cherries.

Then just in side the deer fence we planted today 10 black berries and 75 raspberries.  50 reds and 25 yellows.  We also have 25 purples planted down here in the valley waiting to go up.  They are very young and frost tender at this time to they will have to spent this year down here before we transplant them up there.  We also today healed in 30 blue berries as we ran out of time to get them planted.  So next trip up maybe about Wednesday we will try and get them in.   

[considerations]

We've had 2 frosts in the last 2 days.  The leaves on my potato plants are frizzled. The grape and raspberries seem ok. Supposedly it was a record low yesterday night in Seattle.

[glenn kangiser]

Planted a bit of cool weather corn a few weeks ago - hope it works, some came up.. also a strawberry patch which is doing decent.  

Our trees are blooming and many have fruit.

Still cold for the garden though.

[PEG688]

Picked a few radishes , lettuce will be pick-able this week. Things are really growing well right now. we had a wind storm two weeks ago , that sort of set the bush beans back a bit. But they are recovering now.


 

 

 


   

[MountainDon]

Dang, that looks great.   Much more of a challenge in the desert though. And the mountains. Heck, it's still safe to plant anything outside there.

[glenn kangiser]

Looks like you are having better weather there than we are here, PEG.  Your garden is doing great - we just had freezing rain or slushy snow a couple days ago.   Now hot.

[glenn kangiser]

Things are warming up a bit and the artichokes are doing well... cooking some right now....

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

I'm having garden envy this year.  I can't bend over to do much in the garden because the baby is too tall, so my garden has turned into a jungle.  The tomatoes are somewhat stunted, but the weeds around them are doing quite well....  there is basil and dill, the cukes actually look good, and a few puny watermelons.   All the greens cooked early on and they're pretty much done.  Sweet peas and snap peas cooked.  If it weren't for the cukes and the hope of tomatoes, I would have turned the goats into the garden for the duration of the season. 

[Windpower]

The expanded mini garden (12' X 13") out produced my estimate

12 # of potatoes

45 # of tomatoes

12 # of onions

5 spinach pies in the freezer

62 # of squash (mostly butternut - 3 hubbard )

5 # of eggplant

2 # of brocholli

lots of zuchinnii and patty pan summer squash

some radishes and carrotts

the poblano peppers are just now comming in -- next year I will start the seeds in February


a very good year, Thank you God 

We are canning Tomatoes tomorrow

[glenn kangiser]

That is great.  I just picked ten yellow crooknecks today - renter picked a bunch when I was gone - this is from the new hugelkultur bed - with the wood buried 2-1/2' deep under it.  I turned off the drip to it before I left 5 days ago.  Still wet unlike the rest of the garden around our place.

Potatoes did good but the gophers ate them all.  Permies is saying to not plant in rows - makes it harder for them.

[glenn kangiser]

The garden is still doing well especially where I buried the logs and wood 2 feet deep under it. (hugelkultur from www.permies.com )

Even though started mid to late season it is producing better than a lot of the rest of the old garden and needing much less water.  In some areas it may need no water for the entire summer.



I now have six 12 yard trailer loads of brush from one of my jobs to expand on this method.

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

*sigh*  This fall weather has me daydreaming about next year's garden already, especially since this year's was a total flop because of the timing of the baby.

[Sassy]

Glenn & I just picked about 3 dozen ears of corn, at least 50# zucchini, a large bag of peppers, lots of green beans, other squashes, Armenian & lemon cucumbers, a few tomatoes & even an eggplant.

My roses are looking beautiful, lots of other flowers.  The cabbage is starting to make heads, the carrots & parsnips are growing, broccoli doing good besides we have a million little plants of broccoli & cabbage where I'd thrown the old plants that had gone to seed - Glenn is digging up batches of it & planting it down in the hugelculture beds.  Those planting beds have worked out great.

Picked several pomegranates from our 2yr old trees - there's still more on them  Glenn wants me to make pomegranate jelly - he found a good squeezer for me at the SPCA mall.  The rhubarb have really gotten big - think I can pick some soon & make a pie or 2.

Have lots of romaine lettuce & another type that is kinda purplish & lots of volunteer Swiss chard - it's growing all over.

Anyway, this has been a good year - especially from the hugelculture beds that were planted in the middle of July!

[muldoon]

nice after-christmas pepper yield.

serranos


habaneros


and the pepper bowl of goodness.

[MountainDon]

Oh yummy!   Peppers are so good. Will you use them all fresh or can, freeze, dry?

[muldoon]

What I have in the past is leave them out on the counter for a few days.  I'll use them in whatever I can and let fiends and family take what they want.  Then, they go into a gallon ziplock with the data and what they are and into the freezer.  They hold up real well and are still plenty hot when I take them back out on an as needed basis.  They do lose the crunch/crispy part after being frozen, but they cook just fine. 

[glenn kangiser]

Nice bunch of peppers, muldoon.  We are getting winter vegetables now - Swiss chard - lettuce, broccoli, cabbage coming on.

[Sassy]

They look good!  I freeze peppers just like that - not any work & always ready to cook with when you are.

[glenn kangiser]

Picked a couple heads of cabbage from the garden today.  Sassy made Berrocks from them - posted them in the dinner thread...you know what a stickler I am for staying on topic.....




Still getting Broccoli, Swiss chard and a bit of other other stuff also.

I planted 5 more rhubarb plants and 2 fruit trees last week too.  Trying to not bring home more at once than I can get planted.  [ouch]

[glenn kangiser]

Good heirloom seeds here ...time to start thinking about them.

http://www.seedsavers.org/

[Homegrown Tomatoes]

Is there ever a time NOT to think about what you're planting?

[glenn kangiser]

I need to get a bit of action going rather than just thinking, Homey... but like you, I have some good cow manure fertilizer this year...

[Redoverfarm]

Is there ever a time NOT to think about what you're planting?

HT somehow with 6" of snow on the ground planting is the farthest from my mind right now.  I usually have a little bit longer living inthe mountains as our season does not come as soon as other places.

Glenn although the manure is good for the garden it will also increase the weed population.  But then if you heated it in a Microwave and killed the seed it would be OK,  But for some reason I do not think Sassy would approve of the prevention method. 

[Sassy]

    don't give him any ideas, Red!