The Garden Thread

[Barbara]

Need to take some pics but have planted everything.

Unfortunately, my garden isn't as large as I had planned..but next year, I'll add on.

Heavy on stuff for salsa and marinara sauce..tomatoes, onions, peppers, celery.

Pole beans, spinach, snap peas..even some beets and radishes, although I'm not crazy about them.

In other places on the property, horseradish, pumpkins, winter squashes, zukes, sunflowers.

Also planted some fruits and perennials: Blueberries, bee balm, currants, coneflowers. a dwarf cherry tree, a patch of strawberries.

I'd like to add a couple of hickory trees, but I need to get rid of some pines first..maybe next year.

I've also found a few treats..rasberries, mulberries, rhubarb and crab apples already there. Also pokeweed, which I'm not planning to eat, and honeysuckle and lilac which smell great.

All in all, I'm satisfied with this year. Next year's efforts will hopefully include the nut trees and expanding the main garden.

[chavez_e_chavez]

WOULD LOVE TO SEE PICS!!!!!!

[Mac5.56]

keep us posted with pics, and if any problems come up let us know, we all may be able to pool our thoughts and start a good thread on problem solving.

[Barbara]

Will do..the vines aren't very photogenic..I've planted them in a cleared fencerow and don't weed them any more than necessary.

Things are popping up. Thinned the radishes, beans and beets a little more yesterday.

What's in everyone else's garden?

[Submariner]

Square foot garden with lettuce, okra, tomatoes, snow peas, kale green beans, egg plant, cucumbers, brussel sprouts and cantaloupes.

[Nathan_Bell]

On garden Mk II right now. Had everything but my tomato starts in and had a bit more water fall from the sky than needed.

Didn't lose potatos or the tomatos, but everything else is new. You can get pretty good deals at greenhouses this time of year btw :p

[BrentPete]

Everything we have planted is growing well.
We have eight tomato plants, two rows each of beans and peas. The radishes have grown to maturity and we have picked about half of them, I might pick the rest, replant and see if we can get some more. The zucchini, squash and cucumber are doing well. We also planted several green pepper, orange pepper, and banana pepper plants, they are growing well.

[Outlander Systems]

Since I was out shooting pictures of my candle crate, I figured I'd shoot some of the backyard grocery store:

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/1324/garden1l.jpg

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/3395/garden2qgz.jpg

http://img7.imageshack.us/img7/8892/garden3srs.jpg

http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/5555/garden4x.jpg

[Vic303]

I bailed on the garden this year. Only kept the fruits & herb going. Harvested & froze a lot of Nanjing cherries in spring, have apples (colonnade varieties) and container blueberries still.

Locally I know of a large publicly accessible supply of pecans, persimmons, and mulberries, plus found a place where someone's backyard Brown Turkey Fig tree overhands the fence onto the public sidewalk...

[Barbara]

Was just thinking of this thread today..no camera except my cell phone right now, but harvesting is in progress.

I'm boiling crab apples for jelly right now, and have beans snapped to freeze.

Picked onions and beats today, as well as a few zukes. Need to pick peas and peppers but didn't get it done today.

[PA PATRIOT]

I have two large apple tree's and one peach tree in the yard which was here when we moved in. We harvest more apples and peaches then we could ever hope to can. The rest gets donated to a food bank for the elderly.

[Barbara]

I have approximately 8 zillion green tomatoes right now. Since I'm furlough the coming week, I expect they'll all ripen on the same day the following week. :)

I bought the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving today..looks good. I've always froze or dried my produce except jams. This year, I'm going to try canning..after 20 years of not. :P

Next weekend I'm going to the farmer's market back in my hometown..will be picking up peaches and whatever other goodies are available. I find I can buy some produce there for less than I can grow it.

Get a deer or two in the freezer and I should be good to go.

[Barbara]

My first foray into both canning and crab apple jelly went really well..I've never had it but didn't want to let the apples go to waste..tastes sort of cranberrish.

[Outlander Systems]

Pics, Miss, pics!

I'm dying to get into doing some canning.

I'm on a 20-hour a week furlough...indefinitely.

:eek:

Plenty of free time to do productive tasks around my Doomicile.

[perna]

Fried green tomatoes are AWESOME, worth trying if you never have.

[Barbara]

Will snap some pics with my phone tomorrow.

Have more apples boiling..need another hour..and I'm sleepy. :)

Love fried green tomatoes..but like the larger varieties for them..I grow Romas because they're better for sauce..makes littel fried green tomatoes. May fry some up tomorrow anyway. :)

[perna]

I have been buying Roma lately, mostly because they are cheap and I can use a whole small one on a sandwich instead of half a large tomato, since a cut tomato does not store well.