Planting/Growing Your Own...The Garden Thread

[Anje]

Have harvested the first dosen chilies. The cold summer seems to have made for extra hot chilies, so I'll have some smoky food the next 12 months. Popped them right into freezer bags whole: apparently you can grate frozen chilies over food. Never thought of that before, but it's a brilliant consept.

I've also started my late summer crop: radiches and peashoots (grown for salad green leaves) are sprouting like crazy.

For some reason the chilly summer desided to go sunny and warm at the exact same time as the berries ripening. As a result gooseberries, blueberries and red currants went from sour to over-ripe in 3 days. Oh, well. I've made my gooseberry and clove jam. The rest I'll live without. Better luck next year.

[Thegoblinchief]

Another 18 pounds of Roma tomatoes just hauled in from the garden today! I think this is the only year I've ever NOT bought in additional canning tomatoes. Feels great! Praised be Global Warming, and not our strength, for it!

Jealous! My paste types have so far been a disappointment. Thrown a lot of rotten ones in the compost because they're having BER issues even when the slicer and cherry varieties in the same bed are fine. There does seem to be a large number of good fruits on the plants still, but they're taking their time ripening. This week's weather sure won't help (70s/40s).

I've started to finally see low prices of tomatoes at the FM but I'm holding off and seeing what the final yield will be. Maybe I'll regret that decision? Not sure how packed jars of dry tomatoes translates to sauce yield but so far I've got 12 quarts of dry 'maters built up.

Tom - thanks for the answer on the berries. I was going off of the packet provided by the nursery. We rarely get super cold temps without also having snow cover. I may mulch the beds with leaves anyways to prevent leaching, increasing OM, etc but I won't worry especially about the berries then.

[Erica/NWEdible]

I'm melting! I'm melting!

So far this am: 4 sheetpans of plum leather, a ton of tomato chili sauce, 5 liters of LF tomatillo salsa, and harvested 15 gallons of apples which are being processed into juice for hard cider (adults), boiled cider (think apple syrup) and fresh canned juice for a kid treat. Still have probably 50 gallons more apples to pick and get through.

All three dehydrators are totally full, my kids are being ordered to go pick more stuff, the house is sweltering....can I have a gin and tonic yet?

[Thegoblinchief]

Yes ;)

[happy]

can I have a gin and tonic yet?

Agree, Yes! Especially if the tonic is that wonderful home made recipe you posted.

[Erica/NWEdible]

Yes ;)

can I have a gin and tonic yet?

Agree, Yes! Especially if the tonic is that wonderful home made recipe you posted.

Thanks guys.  :)

Day two of the Plum and Apple Experience. I believe I am becoming a human-fruit leather hybrid. Something like 30 total gallons of juicing-grade apples picked and juiced for cider so far. The pulp was food milled to make apple puree, sweetened, spiced, and dried for leather. Of course, this took something like 8 batches of the juice, puree, spread, dry process.

Total yield: 4 gallons cider and a big jar of fruit leather. Maybe 100 servings of leather? I don't know at this point. I'm trying not to dwell on the fact that buying that much fruit leather at Costco would probably cost me $15.

Actually, that last bit makes me want to cry. Why am I doing this again? Is this entire process a stupid conceit? No one really needs fruit leather anyway. This is just because I'm stubborn and food waste really bugs me. Oh right, it's that time of year again: Question Your Sanity time.

Also, my feet hurt.

[lucky-girl]

I've been enjoying everyone's garden porn. my garden has been a real mixed bag this year. we had an epic hail storm a few weeks ago, which destroyed our summer squash, zucchini, and cucumber. Our tomato plants though have been extremely resilient- lots of bruised fruit, but new growth too- as long as our season isn't too short we should still come out ok.

[RetiredAt63]

It wasn't a good garden summer (warm but super wet, not a lot of sun), but not hopeless.  The tomatoes are finally producing, the peas were good and the beans are good.  Cucumbers and broccoli not so great.  The garlic (early spring start) was pathetic, so I am leaving them in their bed to overwinter and hope for a better crop next year. The sweet peppers got off to a slow start, but are finally producing.  I like them ripe (red) so nothing picked yet - I expect to end up with a bunch at once and freeze them.  Sweet pepper seed apparently doesn't keep well, unlike tomato seed which easily keeps 5 years for me, so I planted the plants that were from last year's seed separately (so not pollinated by any other peppers), and plan to save seed from them.  The germination with seed from 2014 was pathetic, although these plants are fine, so selecting for seed that keeps longer seems like a worthwhile goal.

This is the first time I have grown sweet potatoes (= yams).  So a question - can I go rooting for young smaller ones like we do for "new" potatoes, or do I wait until the last minute and harvest everything?  And when?  When the tops die from frost?  When it gets to a certain low temperature at night?  I would like to keep some for slips next spring, and I know I have to keep the tubers above 10^oC for that.

Same question for Jerusalem artichokes -this is the first year I have grown them, and they are 6-7 feet high.  Can I pull out some roots, or do I wait until frost gets them?

[Rural]

 This weekend I have smashed at least 25 tomato hornworms. Little fuckers even got on my peppers.  They don't even like hot peppers!

 Also, my tomatoes are so incredibly tall that I have to climb a ladder to get to them, and I fell off. Or, actually, the ladder and I both fell. It was exciting.

(I do seem to have survived, and the hornworms did not. One even came down with me that I hadn't spotted yet! I smashed him.)

 I hate hornworms.

[Thinkum]

Before a few days ago, I had no idea what hornworms were. I seen what looked like a caterpillar, then noticed branches of my tomato plant torn off, just gone! Then I looked it up and learned about those little bastards. I got him off my plant quick like, he went flying without a parachute.

[Rural]

Before a few days ago, I had no idea what hornworms were. I seen what looked like a caterpillar, then noticed branches of my tomato plant torn off, just gone! Then I looked it up and learned about those little bastards. I got him off my plant quick like, he went flying without a parachute.

Mash 'em next time; they crawl. Warning: green goo.

[RetiredAt63]

Tomato hornworms are often parasitized, if so they have white things on them, like the picture on this website http://www.extension.umn.edu/garden/insects/find/tomato-hornworms-in-home-gardens/  If they are parastized it is best to leave them alone, they won't eat much more and the parasites can emerge to nail the next generation.
If you do let some mature to adulthood, they are a big moth, kind of neat.

[Thegoblinchief]

I'm pretty pleased with my garden considering 2/3 of it were areas in new production that were little more than turned over lawn. I've been measuring my yields and have a total of $550 generated.

Question: my Yukon Golds have been dead above ground for a few weeks. Should I try and dig the roots now or wait for weather to get a little colder?

PSA: I started a new preserving the harvest thread if anyone wants to contribute in form of questions or expertise (http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/throw-down-the-gauntlet/preserving-the-harvest-a-to-z-(wip)/). I need to add a lot more info to the top posts but hopefully y'all can help and we all benefit :)

[Axecleaver]

Goblin, for potatoes once the vines die you're supposed to dig them up as soon as possible. If the soil is too wet, the potatoes can rot in the ground. We tend to get a lot of rain in the fall here. I've left them for up to a week, but no longer than that. If you're in a dry location, you'll probably be OK.

www.potatogarden.com is a good source for seed potatoes, and they have a very informative growing guide there.

[Rural]

Tomato hornworms are often parasitized, if so they have white things on them, like the picture on this website http://www.extension.umn.edu/garden/insects/find/tomato-hornworms-in-home-gardens/  If they are parastized it is best to leave them alone, they won't eat much more and the parasites can emerge to nail the next generation.
If you do let some mature to adulthood, they are a big moth, kind of neat.

Oh, I know, and believe me, I've been waiting for the wasp parasites, but no luck yet! Did see one of the wasps themselves yearerday, so maybe there's hope.


There is also a preying mantis living in those tomato vines, but apparently he's overwhelmed.

[RetiredAt63]

OK, I think my question got buried, so here goes again - sweet potatoes, when to harvest (i.e. by temperature, by dead vines, what)? And can I steal some early?

[Thegoblinchief]

OK, I think my question got buried, so here goes again - sweet potatoes, when to harvest (i.e. by temperature, by dead vines, what)? And can I steal some early?

Someone did answer you. They said you need to wait as long as possible, because they only bulk up at the very end. Typically the leaves will start to yellow with onset of colder weather. After some googling, it looks like you don't want to let the vines actually frost kill - or if they do, you need to cut or mow the vines down to avoid damage to the tubers.

[RetiredAt63]

Thank you, I never saw the answer.  (Edit - I just went through them again and still didn't see it, who posted it?  I saw the answer to your regular potato question, but not sweet potatoes, so am very glad you re-posted the answer.)  Anyway, we are down to 12^oC nights, so not sure when the vines will go, but I will refrain from snitching tubers.  This is a variety that is supposed to do well here (fast growing, early maturing) so I have hopes.  They are totally occupying a 4'x12' bed, so I hope all that growing space has not been wasted.

I picked more tomatoes yesterday, and the flavour is so-so.  Too wet and not hot enough, I think.  Definitely not over-fertilized.  Lots more green ones, I may have a lot of green tomatoes when frost hits (not for at least 2 more weeks, according to the weather forecast, our lowest low will be 10^oC).  My wax beans were blander than usual as well, not sure if it is the varieties (new ones to me) or the weather.  I liked the way they grew, they were taller than my old favourites and so easier to pick, but not that wonderful to eat.  My old favourite is in full bloom and starting to have tiny beans (I planted it later than the others, to have succession crops, it is not a slower bean), so I will get to do the comparison taste test soon.  Lots of green peppers, I am eagerly awaiting red ones.

OK, I think my question got buried, so here goes again - sweet potatoes, when to harvest (i.e. by temperature, by dead vines, what)? And can I steal some early?

Someone did answer you. They said you need to wait as long as possible, because they only bulk up at the very end. Typically the leaves will start to yellow with onset of colder weather. After some googling, it looks like you don't want to let the vines actually frost kill - or if they do, you need to cut or mow the vines down to avoid damage to the tubers.

[Thegoblinchief]

Thank you, I never saw the answer.  (Edit - I just went through them again and still didn't see it, who posted it?

Apparently the magic forum fairy - hah, I must have imagined it! Maybe I'd been reading about growing sweet potatoes myself and just thought someone had posted in the thread.

Dug my potatoes this AM. Man, what a workout in heavy clay soil! Ugh. I loosed with a spade as close as I dared (don't have a garden fork yet) but still quite the effort. For all I know I missed some. Yield seemed disappointing while digging. While the tubers are quite large for the variety, most plants only made 1-2. Pretty sure I needed to hill them up more - ah, that's what I get for being lazy!

The yield by weight and by row foot is definitely low. I planted 3 pounds of seed tubers and harvested 18 pounds. Not sure whether to just eat them all or try to save them as a seed increase for a bigger patch next year. At only a 6:1 increase I barely made any money, considering seed potatoes were $11 for 3 pounds. By row foot the patch was ~25 feet. A yield of below 1 pound per foot is rather disappointing. It should be closer to 2 pounds. Live and learn!!

[RetiredAt63]

Those darn forum fairies, playing mind games with us!

Thank you, I never saw the answer.  (Edit - I just went through them again and still didn't see it, who posted it?

Apparently the magic forum fairy - hah, I must have imagined it! Maybe I'd been reading about growing sweet potatoes myself and just thought someone had posted in the thread.

[happy]

[

Dug my potatoes this AM. Man, what a workout in heavy clay soil! Ugh. I loosed with a spade as close as I dared (don't have a garden fork yet) but still quite the effort. For all I know I missed some. Yield seemed disappointing while digging. While the tubers are quite large for the variety, most plants only made 1-2. Pretty sure I needed to hill them up more - ah, that's what I get for being lazy!

The yield by weight and by row foot is definitely low. I planted 3 pounds of seed tubers and harvested 18 pounds. Not sure whether to just eat them all or try to save them as a seed increase for a bigger patch next year. At only a 6:1 increase I barely made any money, considering seed potatoes were $11 for 3 pounds. By row foot the patch was ~25 feet. A yield of below 1 pound per foot is rather disappointing. It should be closer to 2 pounds. Live and learn!!

I've stopped (temporarily?) growing potatoes since I just can't grow them as cheaply as I can buy them.  Costs in Australia now doubt are a bit different but it just doesn't work out. I did grow mainly coloured varieties, which are hard to find in shops and more expensive…but still didn't come out much ahead. So from my point of view they are fun to grow  and as always one can get a product that is different and better  than shop bought, but not that cost effective.  So they are on my list of things I'll grow sometime for fun.

[Thegoblinchief]

happy - I still made a (very small) profit but I'll have to see how the garden space comes together. They're probably lowest priority when it comes to space allotment.

[Nancy]

Has anyone had any luck rerooting herbs in water and then transplanting to pots? I want to keep my basil going through the winter if possible. I was also wonderfing if you could reroot parsley bought at the store.

[horsepoor]

happy - I still made a (very small) profit but I'll have to see how the garden space comes together. They're probably lowest priority when it comes to space allotment.

I would guess that you need to lighten up the soil with straw or shavings or something so the roots spread better.  Also, unless that's organic seed potatoes, you should be able to find a cheaper source.  Our local feed store sells a few varieties in the spring in bins for like 59c/lb.  I find some varieties do only grow about 5x the seed potato weight, but Yukon golds generally do well and make a pretty big harvest.  Also, the imperfect harvesting just means you get automatic potato plants in the spring (at least here it works that way).

[Anje]

Has anyone had any luck rerooting herbs in water and then transplanting to pots? I want to keep my basil going through the winter if possible. I was also wonderfing if you could reroot parsley bought at the store.

I've done it with rosemary, basil, estragon and sage. Of the lot the basil is the only one to die. But I've never had much luck growing basil, so that could be it.

@Thegoblinchief: 1-2 per plant seems quite low. Potatoes like light earth, so maybe that's it? My gran (over 80 and stil rockin' the garden) grows potatoes every year. She typically gets 10-30 large ones per plant, depending on weather and diseases.

[Astatine]

I did some gardening today! So excited cos I wasn't sure I'd be able to this spring. Had surgery last month, going through chemo for the rest of the year and radiotherapy will start sometime early next year. (not posting for sympathy - just want to give context!) This is likely to be long because I am excited and I babble when I'm excited :)

I bought a $30 raised garden bed (metal) from Aldi a few weeks ago. I'd been eyeing them off at Bunnings (mega hardware store) for a year now, but prices seemed a bit high. Then happened to be shopping at Aldi on a spring gardening specials day and fluked this one. It's definitely a want, not a need, but I am definitely indulging more wants at the moment or bringing forward decisions.

DH put it together and we found a space near the clothes line next to the monster kale. It feels wrong to buy soil for the garden - it's got to come from somewhere and this is a country which is not rich in topsoil. So, we made do.

The raised garden bed is about 330 litres in volume. We almost half-filled it with the following:

1) I had a 30 litre bag of garden soil when I had Grand Plans to plant a lemon tree out the front (getting lemon trees to grow here is tricky. Once they're established, they're mostly fine but getting them established is hard. The gardening centre reckoned my best bet was digging a big hole and filling it with good quality soil but stuff got in the way and I didn't do it).

2) About 10 litres of soil from flattening out the area the bed is sitting on and from flattening out an area where a big gum tree used to be (the tl;dr story is it came down in a storm).

3) Half a bag of sheep manure leftover from last spring (1 bag = 30 litres).

4) A quarter of a bag of potting mix, ditto and ditto.

5) DH cracked open the bottom of the compost bin and got about 50 litres of compost. Yeeha. Looked awesome.

And topped with some pea straw mulch, also bought from Aldi.

---------------------------------------------------------

I planted kale about 15 months ago, so it's gone through 2 winters. It's finally starting to flower, but we're still eating it. Tip: you can cut off the flower buds and chop them in with the kale. I'll pull out two plants that are keeling over and getting in the way of the washing on the line (I had NO idea it grew so high) and I'll leave the other two as an experiment to see what happens.

Herbs that I've planted previously are going well. Unfortunately, the thought of adding herbs to food at the moment makes shudder (thanks, chemo) but we're trying to give some away when we remember. Parsley bolted to seed last summer and has self-sown into a wonderful carpet. Sage survived winter. I have 2 x thyme, 2 x rosemary going strong (although rosemary in the shade is a bit stunted). Oregano continues its plan for world domination out the front against a sunny north facing brick wall. Tarragon has come back from the dead. It remains to see whether the so-called perennial basil has survived the frosts or is in fact an annual in our climate.

The strawberries out the front (which are a sprawling mess underneath the nectarine tree I planted last year) are starting to flower. They seem to thrive on neglect. We are hoping for a bumper crop again this spring. Last year we were getting I dunno, a kilo or so a week.

I have to remember to pull off any nectarines on the new nectarine tree. A colleague told me the weight could break the tree in the first year cos it's still so spindly (I might keep a couple if they're near the trunk). The dwarf nectarine has flowered nicely. Some of the leaves look a bit weird so maybe it's susceptible to infections or something?

2 out of 3 columnar (tall, narrow diameter) apple trees have started flowering. I'm hoping the third is sleeping, not dead. Grapevine (planted for shade, hoping for some fruit one year eventually!) is starting to put out new leaves. Guava (or feijjoa? I forget which now) is growing upwards, no signs of flowers yet. I mostly planted it for privacy, again, fruit would be a nice bonus)

/essay

[pbkmaine]

I bet it felt wonderful to work in the garden after being in hospital, Astatine! Tell me, what is the botanical name of your supposedly perennial basil? How about your strawberries? I am wondering if either would do well in Florida. Like you, my rosemary, oregano and tarragon are going swimmingly, but the basil not so much. We have black swallowtail butterfly larvae eating our parsley and dill, but it's hard to be cross about that.

[Thegoblinchief]

Astatine - gardening is such good therapy, I felt all warm and fuzzy just reading your post.

More emphasis on tall containers and/or getting a hoe to weed standing up may help if you have days where you are weak/nauseous, so as to avoid bending over too much.

[Astatine]

I bet it felt wonderful to work in the garden after being in hospital, Astatine!

Absolutely! I kept forgetting it's only been 5 weeks since surgery, and while I've been cleared of any weight lifting limits I probably shouldn't have carried the 30 litres of soil from the carport to the backyard... (not sure how much it weighed? At least 10kg/20lb probably more) Oh well, don't seem to have done any damage. Digging was fun too :)

Tell me, what is the botanical name of your supposedly perennial basil? How about your strawberries? I am wondering if either would do well in Florida. Like you, my rosemary, oregano and tarragon are going swimmingly, but the basil not so much. We have black swallowtail butterfly larvae eating our parsley and dill, but it's hard to be cross about that.

Hmmmm. I have no idea off the top of my head. When I'm feeling less tired (it is theoretically past bedtime and I should go to bed), I'll see if I kept the labels with the plants. There is a stash of plant labels on a shelf in the laundry. I am naturally a rather unstructured person and have not kept any detailed records of what I've planted where. I know the generic names of everything I've planted and where, just not the details...

My dill bolted to seed within about 6 weeks of planting it last year (it grew about 2 foot high first). Any secrets for extending its life? Other than have it eaten by caterpillars.

[pbkmaine]

Yes, you have to keep cutting dill back so the seed heads do not form.

[Astatine]

Astatine - gardening is such good therapy, I felt all warm and fuzzy just reading your post.

It is! And good exercise! (it's another tl;dr story, but yesterday the physio cautioned me against my other form of exercise - brisk walks - because of hand swelling blah blah blah)

More emphasis on tall containers and/or getting a hoe to weed standing up may help if you have days where you are weak/nauseous, so as to avoid bending over too much.

I'm completely out of action for the first week after a chemo infusion, so I'm just going to dabble when I'm functional. The nausea is debilitating, so have no plans to garden on those days (on the plus side, chemo will wipe out my immune system and I'm reeeeally hoping that means my hayfever and asthma is also wiped out this spring = can be outside more) I'll plant a few cherry tomato plants in November and a couple of zucchini plants next chemo cycle, and the DH can manage those. He doesn't like gardening much but loves the produce, and was on harvest duty last spring cos my skin reacted to the leaves once the plants grew a bit. Other than that, we'll just aim to maintain what I've previously planted and try to keep the weeds down.

Next task - source some cheap bulk mulch. I'm a HUGE fan of mulch. You put it down, weeds are less AND magically over a year or two, the soil improves. We have heavy crappy clay soil.

A question for other gardeners - how thick do you have your mulch?

[Astatine]

Yes, you have to keep cutting dill back so the seed heads do not form.

Ah. Thank you! I had no idea.

[Thegoblinchief]

For weed suppression, you'd really want some non-glossy newsprint, plain cardboard, or plain craft paper underneath the mulch. With just plain mulch you need at least 5cm for decent suppression.

[smalllife]

Let there be fruit trees! Bought cherries,  paw paws, and a persimmon today. Yay!

[Nancy]

Anyone here in the Northeast (or a place with a cold winter) going for a  winter garden? I'm thinking of getting agribon19 and maybe some 6mil plastic and seeing how long my brassicas and root veg will survive. I'm on the fence about creating the PVC hoops. I currently have wooden stakes up that I could drape the fabric over, but they won't last long. Not sure if the experiment is worth the price of the entire hoop set up.

[Thegoblinchief]

Anyone here in the Northeast (or a place with a cold winter) going for a  winter garden? I'm thinking of getting agribon19 and maybe some 6mil plastic and seeing how long my brassicas and root veg will survive. I'm on the fence about creating the PVC hoops. I currently have wooden stakes up that I could drape the fabric over, but they won't last long. Not sure if the experiment is worth the price of the entire hoop set up.

I've read Eliot Coleman's stuff but haven't tried putting any of it into practice yet. If you do go ahead, I want details!

[Nancy]

Thanks for the book suggestion, GC! I should have planned this out a while ago, but it just occurred to me this morning (I feel sheepish). I think I'm going to go for it. At least we can learn from my mistakes!

[Thegoblinchief]

Thanks for the book suggestion, GC! I should have planned this out a while ago, but it just occurred to me this morning (I feel sheepish). I think I'm going to go for it. At least we can learn from my mistakes!

If for some reason you have access to cheap/free straw bales and storm windows, you can stack bales up to create "walls" and then throw a window on top as the light source. But for most urban gardeners the plastic plus PVC or EMT conduit is the cheaper way to go.

I've read that kale will make it though most winters (author who wrote this was in upstate NY) with a really deep straw mulch layer.

[Erica/NWEdible]

Anyone here in the Northeast (or a place with a cold winter) going for a  winter garden? I'm thinking of getting agribon19 and maybe some 6mil plastic and seeing how long my brassicas and root veg will survive. I'm on the fence about creating the PVC hoops. I currently have wooden stakes up that I could drape the fabric over, but they won't last long. Not sure if the experiment is worth the price of the entire hoop set up.

I've read Eliot Coleman's stuff but haven't tried putting any of it into practice yet. If you do go ahead, I want details!

This is one of my favorite blogs for Fall/Winter gardening: http://www.motherofahubbard.com/

[Nancy]

Fantastic! Thanks!

[Penny Lane]

Nancy, we have done the winter thing!  Have visited EColeman who is,yes,amazing!  We used 1/2"electrical conduit for ours and built a low tunnel, used the 2 layers, and had spinach, kale etc in March when we could get to the tunnel.  Same state as EC, lots of snow. 

Has anyone else read Carol Deppe's newest, "The Tao of Vegetable Gardening"?  I have a girl crush on her.  I already did the eat-all-greens thing; planted abt a 4x4' square raised bed with arugula, a chinese cabbage, 2 kinds of mustard, each in a quadrant.  I wish one of you younger people would teach me how to get a photo into this place!  Beautiful!!Planted in mid August, no weeds or flea beetles this time of year, and started to harvest fresh greens for salad.  I'll cook them later in the fall.

[asauer]

Fall garden crops now popping up- carrots, beets, onions, kale.  I'm hoping for a better harvest than I had in the summer which was almost non-existent due to a scorching hot month in July (consistently above 98 degrees).  Even with watering, a lot of my crop died.

[Thegoblinchief]

Fall garden crops now popping up- carrots, beets, onions, kale.  I'm hoping for a better harvest than I had in the summer which was almost non-existent due to a scorching hot month in July (consistently above 98 degrees).  Even with watering, a lot of my crop died.

Too much heat is almost never an issue here, but I'd consider getting some shade cloth next year and seeing if that helps. A friend of mine in a hotter climate has also done natural shade by trellising a heat lover like cucumber diagonally over top of a bed, so that the vine shades what's below it.

Has anyone else read Carol Deppe's newest, "The Tao of Vegetable Gardening"?  I have a girl crush on her.

I was going to pre-order it but got freaked out by how much I spent on garden supplies this last spring. I'd forgotten about it until now. Only one library in my system has a copy, but I just requested it. If I like it as much as her other books, I'll probably buy a copy. The plant breeding one is a bit beyond my time involvement right now but I definitely liked The Resilient Gardener.

I might order seeds from her if I can figure out a good space for the varieties I'm excited about (her strain of delicata will work easily for me, and also her popbean, but I don't think I have the space for her oregon sweetmeat, which is what I'm most excited about).

Images - the easiest way is, when creating or modifying a post, click on "attachments and other options" below the post editing window, then choose a file to attach.

[Nancy]

Penny Lane, I'm so glad it worked for you. This is very encouraging! When did you plant your seeds that were up in March? I'm going to plant this weekend, which hopefully is not too late.

[asauer]

Thanks goblinchief.  We did put in shade cloth but we put it in too late. Saving it for next year!  In NC you can pretty much bet that the extreme heat will be back!

[Thegoblinchief]

Aren't determinate tomatoes supposed to ripen close together? My determinate varieties seem to ripen about as unevenly as the indeterminate ones.

[Penny Lane]

Nancy,  I think around the time I plant the garlic in October so not too late to plant.  Good luck with this!

GC-- I will send you a copy of "Tao" if you would like; you should def have one!

[Astatine]

So, I'm pretty sure the allegedly perennial basil is not perennial, or at least, not in my climate with many winter frosts. Ah well. It was worth the experiment.

The garden bed we set up last weekend still remains empty of plants. But I think we will plant 2x cherry tomatoes (we finally have trellises - bought at Aldi the same day we bought the veggie bed thingy), plus basil plus maybe some pansies or something. I saw on a gardening show that basil + tomato is a good combination for companion planting. I forget the reason the guy said (was very fuzzy headed when watching the show) but at least I remembered the gist.

I'm going to be a spendypants this arvo and buy lots of bales of pea straw or sugar cane mulch from the big hardware store. It will be $$ but I don't care. Priorities are definitely shifting for me given the health issues of this year and the last few years (I swear my body is trying to kill me - 3 life-threatening conditions in 3 years). I want to do gardening. This way of getting mulch is quick and manageable. DH just needs to carry the bales where I want them and then I can do the mulching myself this weekend before the next chemo cycle.

I'm absolutely passionate about mulching. We have thick heavy clay soils and live inland where summers are very hot and dry and winters are cold (lots of frosts but no snow). Where the mulch is thick, the soil is beautiful. Rich and easy to dig into. Where the mulch is thin or balding, the soil looks crappy and is hardened. The more mulch the better IMO.

[smalllife]

My garlic arrived yesterday and is in the ground, surrounded by perennial flowers to make the front yard more "appealing".  Now to dig up the side and put in my comfrey and lovage ...

[Jon_Snow]

It's been several weeks since I've been at my garden and I'm itchin' to get over there. Especially since I keep hearing persistent rumours that neighbours and family are continuing to reap decent amounts of tomatoes and apples. What's got me really excited is that my purple cabbage has apparently gone through a growth spurt of EPIC proportions. I had been ready to call my cabbage, like my onions were, a failed experiment...but I guess not.

I've issued an executive order (through email and Facebook) NOT TO TOUCH THE CABBAGE. THAT belongs to Jon Snow and his DW.

I'm heading over early next week, with my wife joining me a few days later for the Thanksgiving long weekend. Lots of work to put the garden to bed for the season. And a *hit load of wood splitting to do - our winter supply of firewood is a bit sparse right now. I can't wait. :)