The 2019 Garden Thread

[Road Guy]

All I got so far....

 

[Supe]

Looked at all my pepper plants yesterday struggling in the NC heat, and wished that I could grow pizzas instead of peppers.

 

[matt267 PE]

Squirrels are really enjoying the corn in the garden. A family of woodchucks killed my cucumber plants and severely damaged the cantaloupe and zucchini to the point that no fruit are growing. My watermelon looks OK but there's nothing growing on that either. This is my 11th year with a garden at the house and the animals are getting more and more destructive. Not sure it's even worth it anymore. Might just plant all flowers next year or let the raspberry plants take over. 

 

[Road Guy]

a good .22 rifle can be effective in this situation

 

[matt267 PE]

a good .22 rifle can be effective in this situation

Do you know any good squirrel recipes?

 

[Road Guy]

squirrel is pretty good with rice and gravy, but you just don't want to eat any city squirrels..

 

[LyceeFruit PE]

Cucumber #2, zucchini #4 I think. Our tomatoes are starting to turn red finally. And it looks like I'll get 2 more cucumbers and maybe 3 zucchini. But all of are plants seem to be dying... bean plants look ok but the others...

And boyfriends new hydroponic setup. Lettuce and spinach. Only 1 tray of each is planted right now. He plans to stagger the planting times so we have a constant pile of leafy greens. He built the shelf and I think he couldve modified the plans so the shelves sat closer together and then he'd get his 3rd shelf of plants(his idea for 3 levels)

 

[Supe]

Finally did something with that big batch of habaneros.  Made an AWESOME habanero jam.  A big ass batch of habaneros, about a cup of carrot in the food processor with a cup of vinegar, boil with a bag of pectin and another cup of vinegar, then dump 6 cups of sugar in all at once until it came to a boil for about a minute.  Its so good, even Junior and Mrs. Supe who are heat-averse have gone through about half of a jumbo mason jar of the stuff since Friday.

Now that I know how to make jelly/jam, I think I am going to make a strawberry reaper jam.  I'm also going to try drying out the shitload of jalapenos I have in the oven and making jalapeno pepper flakes.

 

[Road Guy]

Sounds pretty good! I will have to try them next year..

So last year I had a gazillion apples and they all had worms (have 2 decent size apple trees).. so I found out you have to spray the branches as soon as the leaves begin to bud out in the spring which keep the worms from coming, which I did and yikes that spray was $90 bucks!

So this year I have 5 of the most perfect looking apples you have ever seen but no where near the previous quantity?  I am not sure if it was the extended winter we had or the jump from heavy rain to desert heat? maybe I didn't catch up on the watering, its weird the tree looks perfectly fine but just not "putting out"

 

[LyceeFruit PE]

So our outside garden is basically toast except the tomatoes

Apparently (according to my gram) you're supposed to fertilize... 

I'll come up with an actual plan for the garden next year & do better research.

Planted the 4th row of the hydroponics last night tho.

The 1st row of spinach is ready to pick but the lettuce isn't. Each spinach plant is like 5 or 6 leaves... and only 3 of them are decent size lol 

 

[mudpuppy]

We're getting lots of cucumbers, green beans and tomatoes.  Some zucchini and squash.  A couple watermelons.  We're going to have a ton of bell peppers soon, and some okra.  Second round of strawberries are almost ready for harvest.  Eggplant, cabbage and pumpkins have been very disappointing.

We canned 11 quarts of tomatoes on Sunday, which took forever.

 

[Road Guy]

We thought about canning some but it does take so damn long!

And you can get some damn tasty canned tomatoes for like .89/ can..

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[mudpuppy]

We thought about canning some but it does take so damn long!

And you can get some damn tasty canned tomatoes for like .89/ can..

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I know.... and I never fail to remind my wife of that!

 

[leggo PE]

Well, our pepper plant is taking its sweet, sweet time. I don't think it gets enough sunlight. Same thing with the tomato plant, which is producing tomatoes like crazy, but they never get more than 1" or so in diameter (I'm pretty sure they're not supposed to be that small!) and some are much, much smaller. All of them do taste good! They just ripen and don't get any bigger before eventually falling off.

 

[Supe]

All of my pepper plants other than the habaneros are fruiting way less than years prior.  They're getting a ton of son, but I think this year's NC heat may have been too much.  Hopefully I'll get some decent batches as the weather cools some.

 

[Road Guy]

post up that habaneros jelly recipe sometime!

I think from the extended weather to desert heat this was a blah year for the garden - I'm going to move my area next spring, right now it just doesn't get enough sun. 

I got a shit load of cherry tomatoes from our container plants, but those went straight to  homemade salsa.

 

[Supe]

post up that habaneros jelly recipe sometime!

I think from the extended weather to desert heat this was a blah year for the garden - I'm going to move my area next spring, right now it just doesn't get enough sun. 

I got a shit load of cherry tomatoes from our container plants, but those went straight to  homemade salsa.

Pretty sure this is it (from memory)

1) Buttload of habaneros (I used about 2 dozen seeded)

2) A cup of carrots

3) 4 cups sugar

4) Tsp of salt

5) Two cups of vinegar

6) One box of powdered pectin

Food process the habaneros, carrots, and 1 cup of vinegar.  Add everything into the pan EXCEPT the pectin, stir, bring to a boil and simmer for about 10 minutes.  Return to high heat, bring to a rolling boil.  Add in the box of pectin and stir constantly while boiling for a minute.  Once it's cool enough to handle, go ahead and jar it.  

The carrot is largely unnoticeable but keeps you from having to add any additional food coloring.  The key is to not skimp on the sugar, or the dry pectin won't set.  Mine was set fully in less than 24 hours in the fridge.

 

[Ble_PE]

Well, our pepper plant is taking its sweet, sweet time. I don't think it gets enough sunlight. Same thing with the tomato plant, which is producing tomatoes like crazy, but they never get more than 1" or so in diameter (I'm pretty sure they're not supposed to be that small!) and some are much, much smaller. All of them do taste good! They just ripen and don't get any bigger before eventually falling off.

Are you sure that you didn't get a cherry or grape tomato plant? That's what type we plant every year and you just described the fruit perfectly.

 

[LyceeFruit PE]

ours basically died and we gave up. whomp.

even the basement garden isn't doing so good but I'm sick of nagging boyfriend to check nutrition/water levels. it's his thing so i'm staying out of it. i have more pressing projects to spend my energy/fight on lol 

 

[kevo_55]

^^ Wise words. Have you been speaking to Mrs Kevo?