Planting/Growing Your Own in 2016

[Rural]

What do you all like to do with garlic greens? I've got a ton. Tried sauteeing some and the texture was weird. I hear you can make pesto with them, but pine nuts are so expensive I'd rather save them to use with my basil which is also going insane.

Instead of pine nuts, you can try another tree nut.  I prefer almonds.

walnuts also work really well!

As do hickory nuts if you have a virtually unlimited free supply like I do.


...but pesto is just fine with no nuts at all; my entire last years' supply is proof of that concept.

[horsepoor]

Re: nuts for pesto - they're not a ton cheaper than pine nuts, but I've gone to using macadamia nuts for my pesto.  They have a touch of sweetness that helps to counteract any bitterness in the basil, and they are amazaballs with the Thai basil pesto I make.  Cashews tend to work the same way.  If your basil is still imparting a bitter flavor, some dried cherry tomatoes in the pesto will help a lot.

Hoorsepoor
We always planted the corn in rows with two or three shorter rows of each planting or hybrid to ensure pollination.  Could you plant circles of a few plants for the same effect?

Walking around last night, I think I've got it figured out.  My cauliflower will mostly be ready to harvest soon, and if I dig up the adjacent bed of potatoes for nice new potatoes, there should be enough planting space to get some good pollination going.  Just need to get some seed sprouted since this heat wave is supposed to break on Thursday, which should be an opportune time to plant, though I'll need to mine some good compost from the bottom of the pile to amend the beds for that hungry corn, first.

Made a nice salad last night featuring homegrown Romaine, lacinato kale, red spring onion and carrots.  The cauliflower, Romanesco and cabbages look like they'll be ready to go soon.  My okra seedlings aren't looking so great, so I probably ought to start another batch of seedlings just in case.  The field of beans is looking rather rough, but putting on true leaves, so I think they'll pull through.  Cherries are ripening and might be ready to pick this weekend.  Two of my apple trees are bearing, though I plucked most of the fruits off of my cider apple; not enough to actually make cider, and they aren't good for fresh eating, so no reason to have the tree put energy into that.  My jostaberry also has ripe fruit, though I don't really care for them, so might see what sort of jelly or syrup they can be turned into.  Tomatoes are fruiting, and my peppers aren't looking quite as rough as they were.  Oddly, my garlic hasn't producted any scapes yet, which I was looking forward to for a carrot green and garlic scape pesto.

"Going out for dessert" last night meant eating strawberries and the first two ripe raspberries right off the plants.  Some of the strawberries are just unbelievably delicious.  I have 2 or 3 different kinds mixed up, and I don't know what they are, so not sure if it's the variety that accounts for the difference in taste. 

[Tris Prior]

Rural, do you just leave the nuts out or do you add anything else in to compensate? I like the slight crunch from the nuts. Maybe I'll try a cheaper kind of nuts next time though.

hmph. My spinach bolted and it looked last night like one of my lettuces was thinking about it. So I harvested it all before it got too bitter, and I guess we're going to be eating a lot of salad. The leaf lettuce I sowed from seed still looks ok. Interesting that my early-bolting greens are the ones I bought as plants.

It's been unusually warm here for early June. Today it's chilly. By weekend, 95. ??? The plants have got to be so confused!

[Bracken_Joy]

Oddly, my garlic hasn't producted any scapes yet, which I was looking forward to for a carrot green and garlic scape pesto.

I thought it was just me! My garlic just kinda... ceased growing much a couple weeks ago, when all the weather craziness started in earnest. No scapes for me, either. First year doing garlic, so I assumed I had done something wrong. (Not ruling that out, haha). But good to know it may not be my fault, either.

[Rural]

Rural, do you just leave the nuts out or do you add anything else in to compensate? I like the slight crunch from the nuts. Maybe I'll try a cheaper kind of nuts next time though.

I just leave them out most of the time, but often I have planned to add nuts later, when it's time to harvest them (see the free hickory nuts I mentioned earlier). This year work got crazy and I got no hickory nuts (plus they're a royal pain to shell, anyway). So we're eating it without.


Perhaps I'll experiment with adding peanuts to a small batch and report back.

[Frugal Lizard]

From the greenhouse - We are going to have sugar snap peas very soon!  Radishes in the green house did not work.  They germinated, grew big and leafy and never developed a radish.  They are now flowering without any root thickening.  Too rich a soil?  Too hot some days?  Won't be bothering again.  All the pots of leafy greens in the greenhouse worked out brilliantly. And they are just about finished.  Six weeks of no buying greens from the store. 
On my front lawn -Potatoes are poking out of the tower of compost and mulch and manure and junky soil in the first photo.  Some cukes are just poking up around the edge of the potato tower.
On the back deck - next planting of peas are coming along.  Runner beans in the bigger pot behind are slower.  Mostly just flowers in the third pot.
Allotment garden is really slow this year because there was no rain.  Strawberries are flowering heavily.  Leeks recovered from being eaten.  Hopefully the beets and greens come along.  Never get enough beets from the CSA share.

[ender]

Ok finally something I can share. Our two cherry tomato plants are going insane on our small garden porch balcony:

[Allie]

I'm hoping from some help from a tomato wizard.  I have a bunch of plants under cover that are starting to get curly leaves.  Not that the leaves themselves are curly, but the stem the leaves are on is curled under...like a fiddlehead fern.  It's just the smallest, newest leaves that are growing on the plant, but the whole stem of leaves is spiraling under.  Is this normal?  This is my first year growing tomatoes from seed instead of getting mature plants, so maybe I just don't know what they are supposed to look like? 

I've attached a picture.  Otherwise, they looked nice and green and sturdy.  I noticed this was starting on a couple plants, but when I went out tonight it was almost all of them.  They are in a high humidity, hot during the day, cold at night covered area...and there isn't much I can do about the environment. 

I attached a couple photos, which I hope are easy to see.

Am I the only one with a short season who spends the month of June running around the garden fretting because soon there won't be enough time to replace the things that didn't take?

[horsepoor]

Those plants look perfectly healthy to me, Allie.  Nice work starting them from seed!

[horsepoor]

Ahh, the weather has cooled by about 30 degrees and it's pleasantly breezy outside.  This morning I dug about 5# of small blue potatoes to make way for my Bloody Butcher corn, picked 5 gallons of cherries, a dozen cauliflower (going to stock the freezer with cauli-rice), about 8 heads of garlic, a few baby leeks, some chard for breakfast, and a head of cabbage.  And the peas are finally producing!

Most of my tomatoes have green fruits on them and they keep attempting to climb out of their cages.  The peppers are still not looking great, but they're hanging in there and some have fruited.  The zucchini has started to blossom and the cucumbers are beginning to climb. 

I have a few bare patches to fill in with squares of beets and carrots now that it's not so bloody hot that everything dries out in 5 minutes.

I'm thinking this month's grocery bill is going to be like <$100 with all this produce starting to come in!

[geekinprogress]

Horsepoor, I'm salivating at the description of your bounty. 

Allie, this is my first year starting tomatoes from seed too (well, first year starting anything from seed, really), and most of the my container tomatoes on my deck are also doing weird, floppy, curly things.  They seem to be growing super well and hearty though. 

The tomatoes in my garden plot are looking quite buggy and sad.  They seemed to be recovering a bit but it's been so slow.

I'm stressing today because the temps shot up from some pleasant 70's to the 90's this weekend.  Not sure how my baby lettuces and peas that were finally taking off are going to deal with that.  Maybe it'll bolster up the tomatoes, though? 

[ender]

One of our tomato plants has a pretty serious break in a main stem. I fastened it to a post and hopefully it doesn't die, but being bent over at that angle... I'm not optimistic for that particular branch of the plant..

[horsepoor]

Picked about a quart of josta berries today.  They are a cross between gooseberries and... something.  Anyway, they don't really taste good to eat fresh, but I started thinking about how gooseberries are a big thing in Peru, and how they use them to flavor Pisco, and how we have a bottle of Pisco that's been sitting in the cupboard since DH went to Peru like 8 years ago.  So he gave me the green light to throw the josta berries in it.  Might make a jelly when the next cohort of berries is ripe.  I'm also dropping cherries in booze, so we should be set for some fancy cocktails this winter.

Dug some compost into a couple beds and planted my Bloody Butcher corn as well as more radishes, parsnips, beets, carrots and lettuce.

The okra plants look like hell, but I think they're going to survive. 

Need to start more cabbage plants, and finish mulching.

[Rural]

Cucumbers are blooming.


I need to mulch everything and decide once and for all what I'm playing next in the radish bed. If I wait much longer, I can just plant lettuce...

[Allie]

I have a cucumber bloom too!  Just one, but it's my first veggie bloom of the season!!!!

I'm going to trust and wait for the tomatoes to unfurl on their own.  :-)

[cerat0n1a]

Picked about a quart of josta berries today.  They are a cross between gooseberries and... something.  Anyway, they don't really taste good to eat fresh

There was a German scientist whose life's work was crossing gooseberries and blackcurrants, which are fairly closely related and this was the final result - a fairly complex hybrid of about 4 different closely related things. The name comes from joining the German words for blackcurrant and gooseberry, Johannisbeere and Stachelbeere. I've taken cuttings and given plants away to quite a lot of people.

I quite like them raw; they are pretty acidic/tart though, not to everyone's taste, although birds seem to absolutely love them. The unripe fruit taste more gooseberry, getting closer to blackcurrant taste as the season goes on. Mostly use them in smoothies these days.

[horsepoor]

Picked about a quart of josta berries today.  They are a cross between gooseberries and... something.  Anyway, they don't really taste good to eat fresh

There was a German scientist whose life's work was crossing gooseberries and blackcurrants, which are fairly closely related and this was the final result - a fairly complex hybrid of about 4 different closely related things. The name comes from joining the German words for blackcurrant and gooseberry, Johannisbeere and Stachelbeere. I've taken cuttings and given plants away to quite a lot of people.

I quite like them raw; they are pretty acidic/tart though, not to everyone's taste, although birds seem to absolutely love them. The unripe fruit taste more gooseberry, getting closer to blackcurrant taste as the season goes on. Mostly use them in smoothies these days.

Thank you, interesting!  I was too lazy to go look it up last night.  This is the first year I've really picked anything off it.  I think the quail are eating them, and I might just leave most of the berries for them.  It does make a pretty decent low-maintenance shrub.

[Frugal Lizard]

I picked two radishes, a half pint of peas and more greens this morning.
Tomatoes are flowering.
Cukes are up.
Protected the juneberries (Haskaps) with netting so that I can try them this year.  This is the first time they have really flowered and the robins and starlings are eating them unripe. 
Strawberries are starting to come along but we desperately need rain.
Spinach and earliest lettuce are bolting.
Collards, kale and chard had trouble with the heat last week and are looking sad.
Something keeps eating my allotment garden so I put up more barricades and re-planted.
Starting to worry that the allotment is not going to be worth the effort and $20 fee.
Hauling water down to it the wheelbarrow is pretty hard work (but at least it is downhill)

[Cressida]

Can anyone identify what's wrong with my tomato? I bought the plant from a reputable nursery a couple of weeks ago and planted it in a container. (These photos are from the same plant, but they look dissimilar.)

tomato1
tomato2

[rockeTree]

First one looks like mild sun scalding, will be fine. S cons one has critters or disease of some sort. If it's just a few leaves, I'd cut them off and let the plant carry on without risk of spreading.


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[FerrumB5]

Anyone uses common purslane for anything? I have plenty of it in garden and was religiously weeding it out until I found out today that it's in fact edible. I'll probably keep weeding, but what's your opinion on it?
http://hyg.ipm.illinois.edu/article.php?id=484

[geekinprogress]

Anyone uses common purslane for anything? I have plenty of it in garden and was religiously weeding it out until I found out today that it's in fact edible. I'll probably keep weeding, but what's your opinion on it?
http://hyg.ipm.illinois.edu/article.php?id=484

I've been letting it build up a little bit so that I can pull a bunch at once and try it in a dish, maybe in potato salad.  I was hoping to have enough this week - if I try it I'll let you know how it works!

[sailinlight]

Ate a salad tonight with lettuce spinach and vegetables exclusively from my garden for the first time!  Thanks to this forum for giving me the inspiration!

[geekinprogress]

Used purslane in my potato salad tonight! It was....actually pretty unnoticeable.  I tried a few of the leaves on their own and they didn't have much flavor or character - I didn't get much of the lemony flavor some descriptions mention, so probably this weedy strain isn't great for culinary purposes - but I tossed it in anyway because it looked nice, and I figured I could use a couple more leaves in my diet.  :) 

[Allie]

My daughter and I grabbed some lettuce leaves from the garden.  Last year, it all came out super bitter, but this year it is really great, despite the heat!  I'll probably start another row or two.  I can see eating it quite a bit. 

I bought a ton of ladybugs to see if that helps with the aphids and mites I have attacking my cherry tree and my currants.  I also have neem oil and a super kill all the bugs insecticide.  It would pain me to spray the bushes with something that will make the fruit inedible, but if it keeps up the way it's going, the mites and aphids will kill them.  :-(

Everyone else is looking pretty good!

[jda85]

Here is the garden growing away. The spinach harvest ended a few weeks ago so we removed the plants and replaced them with thai chillies (still small).
I should probably start harvesting the green beans.

[athiker10]

The big win so far in gardening for me (In my three years of trying): I grew a beet! Every time I've tried something that isn't tomatoes and isn't an herb, I've failed miserably on until this year. Now I've got beets (though one went woody, boo), pac choi growing like mad and broccoli rabe producing as well. The chard is a little slower, but it looks great, I have several flowers on each of my tomato plants and herbs that are going.

[Diniecita]

I'm in MN and it's just raving up into summer here. I harvested some bok toy, peas, onions, 2 bunches of romaine lettuce and a bunch of spinach so far. I'm looking forward to tomatoes and my watermelons. I have so much planted that I'm looking forward to eating. BEETS!!!
I love my garden! 

[dougules]

Harvested the garlic, likely the only produce I'm really self sufficient in

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Yay garlic!  We harvested our garlic a couple weeks ago and we have around 40 bulbs curing in the house.  Homegrown pizza sauce will be on tap in a week when the tomatoes hit. 

Does anybody have any ideas on keeping birds away from blueberries and peaches?  Will nets will work?  I've been too cheap/lazy to buy them, but it's a false economy since peaches and blueberries are expensive.  I'm going to eat them even if I have to buy them.   

I also have a huge mulberry tree that got 100% picked clean.  It's way too big for a net. 

[rockeTree]

Hooray gardens!

I know folks who use netting on the big rabbiteye blueberries, dunno about little ones or peaches...

I have a couple cups of dried peas from pulling out the plants and putting in pumpkin when it got hot. Is there anything at all other than pea soup to be done? The man doesn't like pea soup.


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[horsepoor]

Harvested the garlic, likely the only produce I'm really self sufficient in

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Yay garlic!  We harvested our garlic a couple weeks ago and we have around 40 bulbs curing in the house.  Homegrown pizza sauce will be on tap in a week when the tomatoes hit. 

Does anybody have any ideas on keeping birds away from blueberries and peaches?  Will nets will work?  I've been too cheap/lazy to buy them, but it's a false economy since peaches and blueberries are expensive.  I'm going to eat them even if I have to buy them.   

I also have a huge mulberry tree that got 100% picked clean.  It's way too big for a net.

Yes, the nets work.  I covered most of my cherry tree with netting as the cherries were ripening.  The top wasn't covered, so birds could still get in, and about 1/3 were pecked when I went to harvest them.  But within 2 days of taking the net off, all of the pecked cherries that I left on the tree were totally gone, so clearly the net was effective, and necessary if I want any cherries. 

[Bracken_Joy]

Question: can I move my garden? =o

I'm sure this is a pipe dream and it'd kill all my plants, but I'm hoping anyway! We put in an offer on a house and it was accepted, so we will be moving in a little over a month. Our beautiful garden is ramping up for tomato, pepper, and tomatillo season. And lemon cucumbers. =( I was feeling better about leaving it behind when we could "gift it" to our neighbor we share a communal yard with, but she just put in an offer on a house as well! I would be heart broken leaving these amazing plants behind to wilt, die, and go to waste. If nothing else, we've got a good ~$30 into the garden, and I don't want that to go to waste!

Is there any way to dig up tomatoes, peppers, tomatillos and move them? The cucumbers are twined up a ramp so no way to move them for sure.

[geekinprogress]

Tomato plants are surprisingly resilient, so I think you could probably move them....I suspect they'd do better if you put them a bit deeper (like six inches) so that the extra buried stem could sprout roots to help the plant recover from the lost root structure. 

Or you can even just cut off branches from tomato plants and plant them, and they'll often root and grow into new plants - not guaranteed, but if you have any casualties (like snapped stems) in transit, don't write them off entirely! 

I don't really know anything about tomatillos or peppers. 

Once you move, maybe you can still get in a late crop of some quick-turnaround veggies like radishes, or some greens?  Or at worst, there's always next year! 

[FerrumB5]

Chicago, IL. Cucumbers simply don't grow. The vines are very small, very ugly, and fruit (if any on the vine) are dry/dead. I've heard before from couple of local friends that their cukes here are complete shit. But may be I'm doing smth wrong? SOS! I water them daily, and they have plenty of sun

[Tris Prior]

I'm in Chicago as well and my cukes have never borne anything bigger than an inch. Usually they just get fungus and then drop dead. I gave up a couple years ago. Can't do zucchini either; same issue.

[FerrumB5]

I'm in Chicago as well and my cukes have never borne anything bigger than an inch. Usually they just get fungus and then drop dead. I gave up a couple years ago. Can't do zucchini either; same issue.

Sigh... I might give up after this year. I spent so much time babysitting the seeds (yes, started indoors), then planting very carefully (yes, cucumbers, watermelons, melons, zucchini, etc hate transplanting).. then watering them with hundreds of gallons of water. Not sure it is worth anymore. I won't even prune them - just will let them be. If they produce anything I might try again, if not - screw it

[rockeTree]

I've never done well with cukes (though at my last house the neighbors did so it's not the climate). They spring up big beautiful vines and then either never set fruit or set fruit, make like 1.5 cukes, and fall over dead overnight. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I plant well and protect the stems when young and in six years have never gotten enough to so much as can a batch of relish.


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[geekinprogress]

Well that doesn't bode well - my cukes are languishing in Madison, too.  This might be a first-and-last year for cukes for me! 

[FerrumB5]

2 of my red bell pepper plants were slaughtered last night - cut clean and left on the bed. F%$%ing bunnies or squirrels. Sad

[horsepoor]

I've been out of town since Sunday morning.  Will be back tomorrow night, and am crossing my fingers that everything's still alive.  DH set the sprinkler over the whole main garden one night, but I left the little peripheral gardens to though it out, and it was hot this week, so this will be an interesting experiment.

For the cucumber challenged - what varieties are you growing?  I don't deal with humidity-related issues, so what works for me might not work for you, but these days I only grow pickling varieties, and they seem pretty hardy.  Usually Alibi, Boston Pickling or State Fair.

[FerrumB5]

I've been out of town since Sunday morning.  Will be back tomorrow night, and am crossing my fingers that everything's still alive.  DH set the sprinkler over the whole main garden one night, but I left the little peripheral gardens to though it out, and it was hot this week, so this will be an interesting experiment.

For the cucumber challenged - what varieties are you growing?  I don't deal with humidity-related issues, so what works for me might not work for you, but these days I only grow pickling varieties, and they seem pretty hardy.  Usually Alibi, Boston Pickling or State Fair.

Ironically, Chicago pickling ones :) in Chicago area.

[Jon_Snow]

Been away for a while....there have been many garden related triumphs Zin that time. Last October I scoured the beaches of my island for seaweed which I put directly on my veggie beds....this has to be part of the reason why things have been amazing this year - the overwinter leafy mulch as well. That there has been such a leap in just my second year of doing this is exciting.

My first planting of 3 varieties of peas has almost run it's course...the second batch is almost ready. All sorts of squash are just starting to produce....we have already enjoyed some yellow zukes and 8-ball squash.


The real winner this year is the CABBAGE...it's immense...especially compared to the runty specimens I produced last year. They may not match Backyardfeast's quite yet but I'm very happy with both the green and red varieties.


I look forward to being a bit more active in this great thread as me move through the summer.

[horsepoor]

That is looking great, JS.  Congratulations on the cabbages!

[Allie]

Does anyone know peppers?  Peppers and tomatoes are new to me this year and I have no idea how they are supposed to act!  I have a few pepper plants that are growing and making buds.  They keep growing taller and dropping more and more buds down, but nothing is actually blooming.  Does it usually take a long time for the flowers to bloom or does the plant start blooming after a certain number of flowers are ready?  I'm used to berries, peas, etc.  the bud develops, blooms, fruits.  Our cold weather plants are usually pretty efficient.  These peppers are taking their sweet time.  I keep telling them, you don't have all summer; it'll be cold soon.  But they just aren't listening.

Also, what an awesome garden Jon_Snow! 

[Jon_Snow]

Does anyone know peppers?  Peppers and tomatoes are new to me this year and I have no idea how they are supposed to act!  I have a few pepper plants that are growing and making buds.  They keep growing taller and dropping more and more buds down, but nothing is actually blooming.  Does it usually take a long time for the flowers to bloom or does the plant start blooming after a certain number of flowers are ready?  I'm used to berries, peas, etc.  the bud develops, blooms, fruits.  Our cold weather plants are usually pretty efficient.  These peppers are taking their sweet time.  I keep telling them, you don't have all summer; it'll be cold soon.  But they just aren't listening.

Also, what an awesome garden Jon_Snow! 

Allie, those of us in the PNW are not blessed with ideal pepper growing conditions...my own peppers are behaving much like your own...and from my experience with them last year the peppers WILL start to form after the blossoms. But yes , they do indeed take their OWN SWEET TIME...just not enough heat with all those cool breezes coming off the Pacific I guess. But with just a recent increase in daily temps they have just had a little spurt of growth. I can just tell they are craving warmth.

And I appreciate the kudos on my garden...the whole process has surpassed my expectations TENFOLD. Easily a top 5 highlight of FIRE so far. :)

[rockeTree]

Amazing Jon_Snow!

This year the cukes are burpee pick-a-bushel hybrids, can't remember what I tried previously...


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[geekinprogress]

Straight Eight cucumbers here, although I checked today and there are some new leaves that look like they're doing okay, so maybe I shouldn't count them out.

Everything else is coming along ok, just haven't had much to harvest besides lettuce so far. 

[horsepoor]

I've been out of town since Sunday morning.  Will be back tomorrow night, and am crossing my fingers that everything's still alive.  DH set the sprinkler over the whole main garden one night, but I left the little peripheral gardens to though it out, and it was hot this week, so this will be an interesting experiment.

For the cucumber challenged - what varieties are you growing?  I don't deal with humidity-related issues, so what works for me might not work for you, but these days I only grow pickling varieties, and they seem pretty hardy.  Usually Alibi, Boston Pickling or State Fair.

Well, I'm back, and everything seems to have fared pretty well, even the stuff that didn't get watered all week. The worst thing that happened is that a huge cabbage head split.  I knew I should have harvested it before I left, but I hoped it would hold.  The mid-week watering must have done it in.  I'm on the road again in two weeks, so I'm feeling better now about the garden's ability to survive without me.

This weekend I need to start more cabbages and broccoli for a fall crop.  I might throw some green beans in the ground too, just to see if they produce.

[FerrumB5]

My watermelons are blooming o_O Hoping they will ripen ok in Chi town

[Spruit]

I used to curse the poor and dry sandy soil, but with with an extreme wet spring it's a blessing I can still walk the paths without muddy mess.
Great perk of an allotment garden: swapping in situ! Got peas and snaps a-plenty, neighbour has too much currents to pick them all, and a swap is easily made. My garden neighbours have been so sweet by giving me all kind of veggies and transplants, it's really encouraging for a rookie like me.
Little experiment this year: growing acorn squash up a trellis after the peas.