Victory Gardens

[Gumby]

I just put a tomato cage over my cukes. Hope that works. First year I've tried that.

I keep buying plants. I bought tomatillos today. I don't even know what to do with those!

Make sure you get at least two tomatillo plants. They are not self-pollinating and will not bear fruit unless there are two of them.

Chile verde is a wonderful use of tomatillos. We also can them in a green salsa.

 

[ugeauxgirl]

Planted more okra today. No sign of okra coming up in the bed with the gin compost. If it does eventually come up there we are going to have BUCKETS of okra. It's not hard to give away though.

I also cleaned out my seed stash and planted a cutting garden. No telling what will come up in there. I LOVE watching seeds sprout.

 

[braumeister]

we are going to have BUCKETS of okra. It's not hard to give away though.

What else could you possibly do with it?

 

[Gumby]

I love okra and always grow a lot of it. We use it fresh or frozen in gumbo. Sometimes we fry it. Sometimes the young wife uses it in an Indian dish whose name currently escapes me. We also make pickles out of it.

 

[braumeister]

I know. DW loves it too, but I can't stand it. One of our running jokes.

 

[REWahoo]

Try basting some fresh okra with a little olive oil, salt and pepper it, then place on a baking sheet in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes until tender. Delicious!

 

[slingshot]

I don't have the link BUT I read an article on germinating seeds in the Instant Pot as it shaved off about a week to 10 days. We are in zone 9B so mostly too hot for lettuce now but I tired the Instant Pot method and have a small tray of "indoor lettuce" going now.

 

[unclemick]

4/15 AVERAGE FROST FREE date based on 10 year average. It snowed. Fingers crossed for the garlic, onions, potatoes and snow peas. Small 20 by 40 foot area to experiment in clay soil. Will play with various amendments - pelletized chicken poop, straw, compost, and ? Will plant more variety when it gets warmer.

Also have some seedlings planted - Dunstan, American chestnut, hazelnut, black walnut and elderberry.

heh heh heh - not a 'victory garden'. More like putzing in ER.

 

[P.S.]

Last weekend, cut up spoiled japanese eggplant and mini-pumpkin and planted in newly laid out mushroom mulch bed.
DH will build me 2 12x12 cedar beds, into which I’ll shovel the rest of my mushroom mulch, and then plant (seeds from Southern Seed exchange): Chioggia (Dolce Di Chioggia) Beet
Rouge Vif d'Etampes (Cinderella) Pumpkin
Costata Romanesca Summer Squash
Listada De Gandia Eggplant
White Wonder Cucumber
American Flag (Broad London) Leek
Cosmos, Picotee
Danvers 126 Carrots
Benning's Green Tint Summer Squash
Imperial Star Artichoke
Sweet Genovese Basil
Vates Kale
White-Stemmed Pak Choi (Bok Choy)
Yellow of Parma (Dorata di Parma) Dry Bulb Onion
Trifecta Muskmelon
I figured you would want to know the dirty details.

Already in the garden (mature): persimmon trees, cherry tree (not prolific, esp. after the birds are done with it), fig trees, elderberry tree/monster bushes, mulberry trees, blueberry bushes, blackberry bushes, red raspberry bushes, asparagus, purple potatoes, garlic, rosemary, thyme. And two baby peach tree and one baby apple tree. And three different hops plants (3y old, grows a lot of hops, but I don’t brew).

Hmm...that sounds like a lot, but I still love grocery shopping.

 

[P.S.]

Also have some seedlings planted - Dunstan, American chestnut, hazelnut, black walnut and elderberry.
heh heh heh - not a 'victory garden'. More like putzing in ER.

Unclemick,
our elderberries are very prolific and I, being gracious, share them 50/50 with the birds. Use them to make elderberry liqueur and syrup, esp. for gifting.

 

[brewer12345]

Planted some lacinato kale, parsnips, carrots and radishes today. The heat loving stuff will go in around Mother's Day, weather permitting.

 

[harley]

Unclemick,
our elderberries are very prolific and I, being gracious, share them 50/50 with the birds. Use them to make elderberry liqueur and syrup, esp. for gifting.

And the birds use them to paint cars.

 

[swakyaby]

Can’t find any fresh thyme in the stores for the past 2 weeks. I decided to brave the large nursery to search for the herb. No luck—all sold out. So I bought some seed and potting soil. It’s gonna be a long time before I can make my bean soup with the Easter ham bone recipe.

 

[Gumby]

Still no progress on getting the community garden open, so I planted my celery and leek seedlings in the herb garden at home. I potted the cabbage, brussels sprouts and artichokes with the thought of transplanting them again when I finally can get to the garden. I'll be starting my tomato and eggplant seeds under lights this coming week.

 

[brewer12345]

We are trying something new this year. An article in Mother Earth News pointed out that there are a number of vegetables that you can replant scraps and grow a whole plant. So far we are in progress with leeks, onions, celery and bok choy. When things warm up enough I expect we will transplant them to the beds or large pots outside. The bok choy is particularly luxuriant, but all of them are doing well.

 

[RobbieB]

I used to have a small garden plot but it was decimated by gophers. The new landscaping project includes six 2'x2'x6' stock tanks for tomatoes, peppers, herbs and whatever as well as 3 dwarf fruit trees.

Looking forward to home grown fruit and veggies again as well as no stooping for the veggies which is a pain in the back at age 60.

 

[harley]

I used to have a small garden plot but it was decimated by gophers. The new landscaping project includes six 2'x2'x6' stock tanks for tomatoes, peppers, herbs and whatever as well as 3 dwarf fruit trees.

Looking forward to home grown fruit and veggies again as well as no stooping for the veggies which is a pain in the back at age 60.

We grow strawberries for the birds and cantaloupe for the muskrats.

 

[RobbieB]

Juno (our husky, looks just like an Arctic wolf) is an accomplished killer of birds. Even eats some. Rats, squirrels and gophers too. Likes to sleep outside.

Better than my cats used to be -

 

[unclemick]

And the birds use them to paint cars.

I always blamed the mulberries. And we have a white truck.

heh heh heh -

 

[Winemaker]

I have in the past done the traditional hill and trench approach in my raised beds for potatoes, but the real estate is too precious to give up. Mother Earth news had an interesting article over the winter where they tried several ways of growing potatoes small scale. They said that there were really two winners: the traditional trench and hill, and growing them in woven feed sacks. Basically you put a mix of soil and compost in the sack mayve a third deep, plant your potatoes, and keep mounding up over the pants as they grow. At the end of the season when the plant dies back, you dump the sack out on a tarp and fish out your spuds. They said you get a slightly lower yield, but because it is so low effort that it is worth it. Since it also frees up raised bed space for me, we will try it this year.

I'm trying the 6 gallon bucket method this year; staggering buckets by a week. You drill some holes in the bucket, put 4" dirt, organic matter in bottom, put in 2 sprouted potato pieces. Cover with mix of dirt, compost, organic matter to within 4" of top. Add some bone meal. When greens poke through, top off bucket with more of dirt mix and mulch. Pick after top dies, unless you cheat and dig out the "new" potatoes (size about a quarter). Boil lightly, make cream sauce with some onions and peas. Yum.

 

[Gumby]

I have done the traditional hill and trench and the bucket method. The traditional method worked better for me. I had a cousin who put one or two seed potatoes on the flat ground under a bale of hay. The plant would then grow out from under the bale and the new potatoes were laying on the ground under it. To harvest, he just tipped over the bale and picked up the potatoes.

 

[P.S.]

An article in Mother Earth News pointed out that there are a number of vegetables that you can replant scraps and grow a whole plant. So far we are in progress with leeks, onions, celery and bok choy. When things warm up enough I expect we will transplant them to the beds or large pots outside. The bok choy is particularly luxuriant, but all of them are doing well.

I’ve done this with leeks, scallions, and butter lettuce (bought during a lettuce shortage when the only ones available were the ridiculously priced/plastic packaged ones with roots attached in a well) successfully enough that now, whenever I have sprouting anything or anything past prime, I just put in soil to see if it grows. Last summer, while weeding, I pulled out saplings that had avocado pits at the end. Must have been from compost material. So I repotted, brought indoors over the winter, and now they are about 18-24” tall. They do look a little odd though.

 

[Gumby]

I started a bunch of seeds under the lights today. Tomatoes - Mortgage Lifter, San Marzano, Sungold, a campari sized volunteer from saved seed, and Principe Borghese just for sun drying. Eggplant, zucchini, basil. And peppers - bell, cubanelle, poblano and jalapeno. Still waiting for my community garden plot to open. I usually put the tomatoes in the ground right after Memorial Day.

 

[cbo111]

This cherry tomato plant has been an epic producer. We have already harvested over 100 little tomatoes in the past couple weeks (in Florida). They grow like grape clusters. Very tasty!

 

[ugeauxgirl]

This cherry tomato plant has been an epic producer. We have already harvested over 100 little tomatoes in the past couple weeks (in Florida). They grow like grape clusters. Very tasty!

What variety is it? I planted watermelons today.