What's Growing in the Garden

[trc65]

Had a batch of green onions from last year that were in the way, so cut them off and kept them all.



Nephew had told me that anytime they use onions, all the leftovers and waste goes into a freezer bag and when full he dehydrates and grinds for onion powder.

Doing the same with these, will grind most for powder and keep the rest whole to add to soups, etc. I'll also keep dried chunks to use for some future salami recipes.

This is the first of probably 4 batches in the dehydrator.

 

[trc65]

Got most of the tomatoes planted yesterday and first batch of cole crops(cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts) in today. Cole crops have to be netted or they will be gone by morning (birds and deer). Use secs of fencing over the rows then stretch bird netting over that.

Didn't have enough buckets for all the tomatoes so some just got caged.





Will also be picking the first strawberries in 3-4 days.... Which is way early.

 

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

I picked the first batch of polka dot tomatoes this morning. These are the first ones ripening after the hail storm. Had to toss about half of them. The next ones should be pretty clear. I only planted indeterminate this year but the storm turned them into determinate I’m afraid. They’ve stopped growing and flowering… I’ll hit them with some foliar phosphorus and see what happens. The worms have decided the corn is ready to pick so my grandson (6) and I will knock that out tomorrow. He helped me stand the stalks back up and has taken ownership of some of the corn. Green beans are done, peas got plastered, I gotta dig the rest of the carrots. A few peppers are coming back and the squash are making a few, but not near as much as they would have if they hadn’t been beat to a pulp. I started to replant but I’m just going to let what’s there play out and spend the summer adding compost and conditioning the gardens for next year. My compost pile has grown to about five yards so I’ll spread that and some composted manure/hay from my buddy’s pasture and hope for NO HAIL next year.

Alan

 

[Mr. Peet]

I picked the first batch of polka dot tomatoes this morning. These are the first ones ripening after the hail storm. Had to toss about half of them. The next ones should be pretty clear. I only planted indeterminate this year but the storm turned them into determinate I’m afraid. They’ve stopped growing and flowering… I’ll hit them with some foliar phosphorus and see what happens. The worms have decided the corn is ready to pick so my grandson (6) and I will knock that out tomorrow. He helped me stand the stalks back up and has taken ownership of some of the corn. Green beans are done, peas got plastered, I gotta dig the rest of the carrots. A few peppers are coming back and the squash are making a few, but not near as much as they would have if they hadn’t been beat to a pulp. I started to replant but I’m just going to let what’s there play out and spend the summer adding compost and conditioning the gardens for next year. My compost pile has grown to about five yards so I’ll spread that and some composted manure/hay from my buddy’s pasture and hope for NO HAIL next year.

Alan

The ones tossed, were they full of bugs and slugs? Just wondering why they were tossed. We usually use the damaged for relish and salsa along with other things.

 

[sprucegum]

Tomatoes are planted under the plastic row cover, it will probably freeze again but the plastic gives some protection and the hoops make it easy to add a tarp if needed. I fired up the ancient troy built and made furrows to plant a couple rows of spuds. I will plant a couple more rows in a week or two, my peas need a trellis so that's my next project.

 

[Alan R McDaniel Jr]

What kind of furrower is that you have on the TB? Mines just a homemade job that really doesn’t work that well. Beats making furrows with a hoe, but not by much. I need to get something I don’t have to wrestle across the garden.

Alan

 

[trc65]

First of the year!

 

[sprucegum]

What kind of furrower is that you have on the TB? Mines just a homemade job that really doesn’t work that well. Beats making furrows with a hoe, but not by much. I need to get something I don’t have to wrestle across the garden.

Alan

It's a original TB furrower hilling attachment. It has wings that bolt on for hilling. I put a new predator engine on it last year.

 

[sprucegum]

First of the year!

View attachment 288788

I love fresh strawberries, mine are just starting to blossom.

 

[trc65]

I love fresh strawberries, mine are just starting to blossom.

Agree, there is no comparison having them fresh from the garden or farmers market. Nothing better than sliced berries with a tiny sprinkle of sugar and whipped cream, or ice cream if we are out of cream.

 

[Wildthings]

My evening harvest from my meager garden of grow boxes

 

[djg]

Tomatoes are planted under the plastic row cover, it will probably freeze again but the plastic gives some protection and the hoops make it easy to add a tarp if needed. I fired up the ancient troy built and made furrows to plant a couple rows of spuds. I will plant a couple more rows in a week or two, my peas need a trellis so that's my next project. View attachment 288786View attachment 288787

Man your soil makes planting potatoes look so easy.

 

[djg]

First of the year!

View attachment 288788

Looks like most of my plants have survived the transplant process this time. That's all I was hoping for.

 

[sprucegum]

Man your soil makes planting potatoes look so easy.

I've got a 5' tiller that goes on my tractor. I bought it about 20 years ago and had a pretty good little side hustle tilling gardens. It paid for itself the first season. It was getting to the point that I was going to need a new trailer and a friend bought a tiller and wanted to get into it so I just sent my customers to him, but I kept the tiller. I still do a few local jobs that I can drive the tractor to.

 

[Webb]

Last night I consumed some outstanding jumbo blackberries. My question to you gardeners is “Are the seeds viable?” I could easily had a hundred seeds and curious if the fruits have seeds I can propagate plants or are the fruits the kind the seeds are duds due to genetic medaling.

 

[trc65]

Last night I consumed some outstanding jumbo blackberries. My question to you gardeners is “Are the seeds viable?” I could easily had a hundred seeds and curious if the fruits have seeds I can propagate plants or are the fruits the kind the seeds are duds due to genetic medaling.

Short answer, yes you can grow from seeds. However they do cross pollinate so no guarantee they will be the same as parent fruit.

Long answer, for seeds to germinate, they must be cold stratified for ~60 days. Then they could be germinated and stepped up in larger and larger pots until big enough to be planted outside. Then you would have some fruit the second year.

Best way to propagate them is vegetatively through tip layering, digging suckers, or dividing roots. That's if they were locally grown and you have access to them.

A side note. I started a new black raspberry bed last year. Wanted a new variety, so I bought 3 "plants", basically a 2" section of stem and the associated roots. Since I wanted a larger bed, but didn't want to buy a bunch of plants, I tip layered a bunch last summer, dug and transplanted this spring and have now filled in the bed with about 10 total plants.