2024 garden season

[djg james]

cant cover 4.5 acres here so at the mercy of the airborne chemicals all the time. most of the summer squash this year never put the first one on. only got a half dozen total and they were very poor quality.
For sweet potato plants, I just bury the whole tuber in one of my earth boxes whole and cover with the mix and get more plants than I can use from them. Just took the last 2 dozen out last night and planted them. Deanne at the local nursery gave us 1,500 tomato, pepper , and basil plants that she had left over from sales this year so we planted them.
About 250 basil plants in the lot which I have not a clue what that stuff is good for but I planted it anyway!
When we cooked yellow beans they lost all color, looked just like green ones which also lose the color when cooked.
Heading out to take a couple dozen small heads of cabbage and a bunch of onions to the mission . I planted Early Golden Acre cabbage this year cause everybody bitched about my 25 pound megatons that I used to grow! These are small but sweet and tender so I guess all is not lost! Still miss my Megatons! lol!
Sweetcorn is 3 feet tall this year and probably wont pollinate since its so hot and dry.
Dug 1 potato plant up and only had 1 decent potato under it and not many little ones. Plants are starting to die out and never did put seed balls on them.
The late planted greenbeans are 8 inches tall now and did germinate this time, FINALLY! Third time planting them! Only the first planting of sweet corn came up. The other 3 plantings never did come, just rotted in the ground. Too dry for it to actually germinate I guess.
Thats about it for now. Farm waterways need mowing again and I still need to finish fixin the back tractor tire, bout have the rim ready to put the tire and tube back on.
The pollinator mix is kickin azz on the farm so at least that is one good thing! AND I found a bee guy to put 10 or 12 hives of bees in the field!
Big old storm went over,--not a drop of rain from it.
The indoor jungle cactus had 9 blooms on it the other night.

My garden is about the same. Little germination and on my third planting.

 

[TNTreeHugger]

I feel bad for you guys having trouble with your gardens.
Mine is doing surprisingly well - but I give 100% of the credit to my fishpond fertilizer.
But, since something ate my fish, that'll be the last of that.

 

[TNTreeHugger]

You need to research how to make your own sweet potato slips.
I cut one in half, drill some 3" screws in the middle to support it in a quart jar of water in April.
Keep it warm, mine are in the cellar with the wood stove.
Keep the water topped up.
When the shoots are about 6" tall, break them off & stick in a glass of water on a window sill.
Usually ready to plant by mother's day.
Try one now, just to practice & you'll see how easy.
A single potato can give you 8 or 10 slips.
I don't know whey they call em slips.

How's this?

 

[Del_]

Looking good Del. Maters at produce auction were wholesaling at $2-3 per lb, yesterday.

Thanks for the tip.

We have a local farmers market I may try out. For now we are freezing and canning but we've got a lot more tomatoes coming on.

We are comparing Hossinator and Better Boy and Better Boy is winning. Hossinator is a quite firm slicer and must have been bred for shipping ability.

I was just reading about Better Boy Plus which we will be growing next years. Plus in every area over Better Boy. I didn't know about it until yesterday.

 

[Del_]

1/2 of our Yukon Gold harvest. The dollar bill is for scale. We will be planting 50 tennis ball size whole for our fall crop. We've got Yukon Gem growing and they will likely be replacing our Yukon Gold in a year or two.

About 90 Atlas and Apollo all male hybrid asparagus seedlings.

12 volunteers from our Jersey Knight asparagus patch of 50 crowns. The circular seeds pods in the background are Money Plant, and we spread these seeds around.

These are various new fig cultivars for us this year. Most are from un-rooted cuttings I bought this winter. We've got 7 good sized Brown Turkey trees in the ground and have had for ten years or so. One for 20 years which the others are cutting from. The piece of culvert if for wood ashes from our wood stove and we use them on our garden and spread extra around the place mostly in the woods. I'm lubing our 1984 Snapper RER Hi-Vac mower. It's what we bag grass clippings and leaves with for the garden. A quite collectible mower if you are into that kind of stuff. 96 Dodge 2500 Cummins 4x4 12 valve with camper box.

 

[Del_]

A few more garden shots from today:

Better Boy and Hossinator tomatoes. Blight is creeping up the plants as the season progress despite being mulched with grass clippings to reduce soil splash, which is how the blight gets on the plants to start with. The rain splash carries the blight up the plants. Also working the garden when it's wet out the gardener can carry blight on their hands and tools.

Our 'A' garden. We have a 'B' and a 'C' garden patches, too. The corn in the forefront is our fifth planting. Behind it to the right is our forth corn planting. The collards are a hybrid, Top Bunch cultivar. Supposed to take down to 17°F winter temps.

Two 50 ft. rows of peppers.

Top Chop hybrid collards. Supposed to take down to 17°F. These should produce collards until spring of 2025.

 

[farmer steve]

@Del_ . Many years ago my wife bought a pack of money plant seeds. She didn't know/realize they were a biennial and thought the seed Co put the wrong seeds in. The next year we had beautiful money plants. She would clean all the plants and sell bouquets of dried money plants. She would scatter the the seeds everywhere and we stihl have them growing 30 years later.

 

[TNTreeHugger]

Tomatoes picked so far... lots more on the plants.

 

[Del_]

@Del_ . Many years ago my wife bought a pack of money plant seeds. She didn't know/realize they were a biennial and thought the seed Co put the wrong seeds in. The next year we had beautiful money plants. She would clean all the plants and sell bouquets of dried money plants. She would scatter the the seeds everywhere and we stihl have them growing 30 years later.

We had white flowered ones pop up 15 years ago and still get some light colored ones.

We tried our best to preserve them but didn't succeed.

 

[TNTreeHugger]

Bumper crop of passion fruit this year.
I need to find out what it's good for.

I've seen only one Gulf fritillary caterpillar though. Lots of birds. I'll bet the birds got the butterflies.

 

[Stonesforbrains]

Brother in laws coworker brought a bunch of zucchini into work and my brother in law brought me a sack full. Now not all were this big and we usually grill the normal size zucchini with bell peppers. I have no idea what to do with these, anyone have ideas?

 

[farmer steve]

View attachment 1188509
Brother in laws coworker brought a bunch of zucchini into work and my brother in law brought me a sack full. Now not all were this big and we usually grill the normal size zucchini with bell peppers. I have no idea what to do with these, anyone have ideas?

Zucchini bread or Zucchini relish. I always had people asking for big ones like that for bread and relish.

 

[TNTreeHugger]

View attachment 1188509
Brother in laws coworker brought a bunch of zucchini into work and my brother in law brought me a sack full. Now not all were this big and we usually grill the normal size zucchini with bell peppers. I have no idea what to do with these, anyone have ideas?

Yup, zucchini bread.
I grate the zucchini, weigh out enough for my recipe (I think it's 2 cups/for a double batch), put in zip lock baggie and freeze. Lay them flat until they're frozen, takes up less space in the freezer.

I can give you my recipe if you want it. It's originally for banana bread, but I substitute zucchini, sweet potato, or pumpkin sometimes.

 

[sonny580]

harvested some of the early onions and cabbage and took some to the mission and gave some to Facebook friends. Kept a couple heads of cabbage for us and made kraut out of it.
Planted small headed cabbage this year cause I got tired of people bitchin at me for my 25 pounders that I always grew!

 

[Stonesforbrains]

Yup, zucchini bread.
I grate the zucchini, weigh out enough for my recipe (I think it's 2 cups/for a double batch), put in zip lock baggie and freeze. Lay them flat until they're frozen, takes up less space in the freezer.

I can give you my recipe if you want it. It's originally for banana bread, but I substitute zucchini, sweet potato, or pumpkin sometimes.

I appreciate the offer. I mentioned zucchini bread to my wife, who is a very accomplished bread maker, she looked at me scrunched her nose up and said “I’ll think about it.” That’s code for “I ain’t ****** with it but if you want to go right ahead.”
Zucchini relish might be something I will try, never had it, might be pretty good.

 

[TNTreeHugger]

I appreciate the offer. I mentioned zucchini bread to my wife, who is a very accomplished bread maker, she looked at me scrunched her nose up and said “I’ll think about it.” That’s code for “I ain’t ****** with it but if you want to go right ahead.”
Zucchini relish might be something I will try, never had it, might be pretty good.

This isn't a yeast bread. You can't taste the zucchini at all... it basically gives the bread moisture and texture.
Do you like banana bread, or carrot cake? Very similar.
Try it - you'll like it!

Using the basic recipe, you can add pineapple, raisins, apples, nuts, pumpkin, sweet potato, pretty much whatever.

I can't locate a pic of the zucchini bread...

 

[muddstopper]

My wife makes the best zucchini bread I have ever eaten. She uses brown sugar and pecans and adds sour cream. she makes it two loafs at a time, we eat one, put one in a ziplock back and freeze until really firm and then vacuum seal it. . Tried vacuum sealing without freezing first and the sealer sucked it flat. Oh well, it was still good. dont know how long the bread will last vacuum sealed, but I ate one not to long ago that had been in the freezer for at least two years. sliced off a piece, put butter on it and threw in the microwave for about 15 seconds, just like out of the oven.

 

[TNTreeHugger]

My wife makes the best zucchini bread I have ever eaten. She uses brown sugar and pecans and adds sour cream. she makes it two loafs at a time, we eat one, put one in a ziplock back and freeze until really firm and then vacuum seal it. . Tried vacuum sealing without freezing first and the sealer sucked it flat. Oh well, it was still good. dont know how long the bread will last vacuum sealed, but I ate one not to long ago that had been in the freezer for at least two years. sliced off a piece, put butter on it and threw in the microwave for about 15 seconds, just like out of the oven.

Is the brown sugar and pecans a topping, or in the mix?
The sour cream in it sounds delicious. I have a blueberry sour cream coffee cake that is one of my favorites.
I'd love her recipe if she'd be willing to share it.

 

[muddstopper]

Is the brown sugar and pecans a topping, or in the mix?
The sour cream in it sounds delicious. I have a blueberry sour cream coffee cake that is one of my favorites.
I'd love her recipe if she'd be willing to share it.

She uses brown sugar instead of the white sugar, or a combination of the two, the pecans and sour cream is mixed in the batter. I'll see if I can get her recipie in the morning.

 

[TNTreeHugger]

She uses brown sugar instead of the white sugar, or a combination of the two, the pecans and sour cream is mixed in the batter. I'll see if I can get her recipie in the morning.

Thanks!
I have a zucchini from the garden I can use.