Any Veggie Gardener's ???

[Rivical]

MAN this year has been busy!

I finally got fed up and pulled those damn pickle vines today! I've done up 38-qts of dill and bread and butter, and there's probly another half dozen qts waiting for me in the crisper drawer.

Made squash pickles and frozen several gallons of shredded zuke in qt bags to make bread in the fall. And ate more squash than I care to think about right now!

Started making salsa yesterday, and put too much fresh purple basil in, 4 chopped leaves in 4-gal. Ruined it. So I made a spectacular chunky pepper spaghetti sauce instead. Used tons of sweet and hot banana peps and some jalapenos and all the other good stuff, didn't have to buy anything. Mmm, Tasty! Made Goulash with sum tonite!

I've already put back nearly two dozen acorn's and almost as many butternut's with plenty more to come. Corn's all off. Well into the first round of Broccoli.

Looks like I'll be making melon smoothies till late spring by the time I get all these crazy things off too!

Lot'sa beans. Haven't mastered the pressure cooker though. Always gotta do em twice cuz the pressure seems to push all the water into em the first time around and leaves me a few inches short.

Not sure if I wanna pull the potatoes. I was reading to put em in sand in boxes, in the root cellar to keep em from sprouting. Seem's not picking em yet would be just as well. Same with the onions. Just picking as needed for now.

Everything had been doing Great this year! Had one month where I double my water bill, but it's been worth it!


How are you other Gardener's doing?

 

[charlief1]

Garden's already done at this point. Goats have been let in to clean it up, but we had plenty of cucumbers (sp) and tons of peppers so far. The grasshoppers have had a field day so the corn was ruined, which pissed me off to say the least.

 

[Phoneguy]

Too many rabbits here...Had a really nice veg garden several years ago...havent been at it since. I really miss the flavor of the homegrown tomatoes, corn,broccoli, squash, cantaloupe, green beans and cucumbers...maybe next year I will build a raised garden

Bryan

 

[Rivical]

I got in late. Was still planting on Mothers Day.

Stupid grasshopper's! That sucks! I didn't have that problem this year, but the cucumber beetles tried getting into the corn. I grew these monster marigold's to disguise the scent of my pickles, and it mostly worked. Those stupid yellow buggers were trying to eat anything but the cukes! I try not to complain too much though. They didn't get much and it all freezes the same. I snapped alot of ears in half and still got plenty to feed us till next year.

I've beat nature on the cheap here so far. 5'x10' concrete mesh panels are only $7. I mount them a foot up on garden stakes to keep the deer out. I use chicken wire along the bottom and keep all the lil critters out too. To keep the insects down, try filling your hand carried weed sprayer with water then pouring some dish soap in and let sit overnight to mix itself, then spray on everything. Not even insects like the taste of soap! Only bad part is that you can't pick and eat as you go along either. Also trains the brave little nibblers who will come into the 3 sided box that's my garden during the night. They don't know the part that your veggies are clean again after a rain though. So, one bite and they stay away all summer. And if not, rabbit is tasty too! But the insects will figure it out. Had a terrible time with squash vine borers this year. Hear they ruined most peoples before they got ripe even. I cut the lil buggers out of mine in time, mostly. Some plants are still going strong when they normally would have died off a month ago.

I've been trying this for four years now. A couple of my freinds have expressed disappoinment when everything didn't go perfectly. It's really been as much a learning experience as relaxation for me.

 

[dr_frankenstein]

got anything for mealy bugs? destroyed my complete crop......... and are now moving to everything else that is green.

ive tried the soap, over the counter pesticides, oil, tabacco, cedar chips, tabasco sauce.....

 

[charlief1]

Best thing I've used is ortho Max so far, but you have to put it down either several days before a rain or right after. Killed every bug that go in the yard. Even had fire ants pile out and die like I've never seen.

 

[TexasT]

What, no pix?

I just moved(Hopefully the last time for a while as we bought this one) so no spring garden. We will try some fall things when it cools off. I already have a compost pile started, and am angling for a few pallets to make a structure for it.
Here are a couple of pix from some stuff we grew a few years back. Just a corner in the yard.

The garden corner

Okra

Tomatoes on the vine

Some mellons

A harvest for dinner.

 

[charlief1]

We've got goats so we've got more than enough fertilizer as well as some straw. I've been trying for years to get my landlord to mix it together and then plow it under to help the soil but he refuses to listen to me. We've got sand and clay around here but very little good top soil. He also likes to plant where the late sun gets to it rather thean the early sun. It basically bakes the plants in the late afternoon.

 

[INEEDAGN]

And I thought I was cool for growing some radishes.....

Someday I'll get more serious about gardening. Too much going on right now.

 

[Rivical]

Honestly, I've never thought to take pics.
I took one a few years ago of my 15 ft sunflower that had 39 flowers on it! That thing was amazing! Had a trunk bigger than my arm at the base.



If you've got goats Charlie, you should add chickens. When you clean em, the feathers can be ground into a meal that will provide nitrogen for the soil over 3-4 yrs. That will really help with tilling in straw that takes forever to rot down but contiually sucks the nitrogen everything but peas and beans need. If the landlord won't till it, I bet you've got something with a hitch and could turn your own garden area under well enough. If you compost the goat stuff and straw together for a year of turning at least every other week before plowing it in, you could have something serious going on. The horse farm across the way does it, and that stuff will make anything grow! Man, add that to chicken feathers and you might have to become a farmer!

 

[charlief1]

If you've got goats Charlie, you should add chickens. When you clean em, the feathers can be ground into a meal that will provide nitrogen for the soil over 3-4 yrs. That will really help with tilling in straw that takes forever to rot down but contiually sucks the nitrogen everything but peas and beans need. If the landlord won't till it, I bet you've got something with a hitch and could turn your own garden area under well enough. If you compost the goat stuff and straw together for a year of turning at least every other week before plowing it in, you could have something serious going on. The horse farm across the way does it, and that stuff will make anything grow! Man, add that to chicken feathers and you might have to become a farmer!

Have you ever raised chickens? They're a PITA to say the least. We've got yotes and snakes out here and have enough problems with them mixing in with the goats. I don't want to add anthing else that might attract more of them. We even had a pair of grey foxes that we'd see every now and them but could never get a shot at. Last year we had ferel dogs get in a few times but they were dumb enough to show up where could shoot them at least.

 

[broke]

Too many rabbits here...Had a really nice veg garden several years ago...havent been at it since. I really miss the flavor of the homegrown tomatoes, corn,broccoli, squash, cantaloupe, green beans and cucumbers...maybe next year I will build a raised garden

Bryan

I am over by KC and have alot of clay here so i built us raised garden beds and it worked great. Rabbits are plentiful but we have 3 Jack Russels that are on duty 24/7. Strawberries,blackberries,rasberries,tomatoes,bell peppers,and cucumbers all did great until this year which obviously was tough on anything alive.

 

[TRFanatic]

Some Super Hots.

 

[TRFanatic]

 

[tc86gn]

We had a pretty good garden this year. First time we did it. Ever since i was a kid back on the farm I hated doin the garden the most. I just picked the spot and knew I was right when I could smell the old manure in the soil as i disced it up.I just disc it. Go over it with the row builder (a gem of a tool). and let the Mrs. handle it. leave enough to get between the rows with the Kubota keeping the weeds down. She loves doin it and has really gotten into the canning mode. She did all of this stuff growin up too. Watermelons, cantelopes, butter beans, probaly 3 kind of beans. peppers, onions, tomaters, taters, Some stuff came out better than other stuff. Getting ready to till it under and put in a fall garden. One advantage of living here.