What did you do in the garden today?

[WthrLady]

Cumin and dill, you have to catch as it ripens and collect the heads, and store until dry then just shake and crush the heads to release the seeds. Otherwise they reseed your whole garden. That's the trick to them!

 

[igorsMistress]

Good afternoon. Wowee it's hot. I sat on the patio after work and started to sweat, lasted 3 minutes. Just got done putting a crustless quiche together for dinner. I sold 2 dozen eggs last night and the quiche almost finished off my stash. Hatching eggs arrived today, they were originally supposed to show up this Friday. Yay! @TropicalBabies so happy to hear from you and that the islands avoided anything disastrous. @Sooner Magnolia love that fabric! Have a good night all.

 

[WthrLady]

I have 300 more masks cut out and then that's it. NO MORE. I feel like I'm going to snap. LOL.

took 5 little san marzano out of the garden, I need to tie up the beefstakes. I lost one giant limb to the weight of one tomato! LOL>

 

[karenerwin]

My mom finally got to go home Wednesday evening!
I've been working on making bread and butter pickles. I've never made them before. I'm using a recipe from my daughter's 1st grade teacher(it is her mother's recipe). My daughter will turn 23 in August, but her former teacher and I are friend's on FB. Are pickles usually not water bathed? Got a lot of rain late this afternoon and all evening, More to come tomorrow. Gave the neighbor guy a couple of tomatoes for his wife.
Will try to catch up on this thread tomorrow! Heading to bed now.

 

[NewBoots]

'm going to rip out a couple more mostly dead cukes, the fruit on the plants are not doing well & it annoys me to see it.

Underperforming plants affect me the same way, like they were deliberately wasting my time, water and garden space.

I was wondering where you guys get your seeds from.

I get mine from Burpee and Eden Bothers mostly, with a few here and there from Amazon and Ebay. But the Ebay ones often turn out to either be a different species or totally different plant. I mean not even the same family. Or planet.

Your forecast suggests you need a good 21 day "Scotch Whisky" cleanse.

Good vodka would work too.

but all islands were spared any damage. Once again, the island of Kauai did a great job of pulling together with a smile.

I am so glad you guys came out alright.

Regarding cilantro: I had that “it tastes like soap” thing for years so I just avoided it. However, I heard on one of the cooking shows that small, gradual consumption helps that go away.

When I was a kid I tasted the leaves of a bunch of different herbs, and the cilantro taught me the error in the experiment. It took years and yup, small amounts in various foods to get me past the soap taste. I can still taste it as soap if I think about it but generally I don't taste it that way anymore.

My mom finally got to go home Wednesday evening!

Yay! I'm so glad for all of you. As far as the pickles go, @WthrLady probably knows.


So two weeks ago I started a 5 gallon bucket of compost tea (NEVER drink this stuff ) made from the crazy borage growth we had. Today I opened the bucket, (amazing smell) strained out the solids and mixed the liquid one stinky to ten water (still stunk). It made about 40 gallons and I started another batch. I used it on just about everything so I'll see how it works.

Tomorrow I plan to top all the crazy tall tomatoes. And I wish I could get a good picture of one of my stupice tomatoes, it has a really thick main stem and it's growing into a corkscrew. Like it's following the shape of the pot that it's in. I'll try to get a picture tomorrow.

 

[pennyJo1960]

I cannot even count how many seeds I tossed because nothing sprouted ..
I ordered from so many seed company's nothing came up .. bought all my seeds from Amazon got a great assortment and most all came up

 

[WthrLady]

My mom finally got to go home Wednesday evening!
I've been working on making bread and butter pickles. I've never made them before. I'm using a recipe from my daughter's 1st grade teacher(it is her mother's recipe). My daughter will turn 23 in August, but her former teacher and I are friend's on FB. Are pickles usually not water bathed? Got a lot of rain late this afternoon and all evening, More to come tomorrow. Gave the neighbor guy a couple of tomatoes for his wife.
Will try to catch up on this thread tomorrow! Heading to bed now.

Yay on mom.

There are refrigerator pickles, made,stored and eaten within two weeks in the refrigerator.

Then there are pickles that are prepped, water bath sealed, shelf stable for storage, and refrigerated after opening.

 

[igorsMistress]

G'morning gardeners. @karenerwin yay for your mom! Yes, pickles are water bath method. 15ish minutes as I recall. @NewBoots interesting that you got that much fertilizer! I've been thinking about trying compost tea so let us know if you think it helped please. Zilch happening outside for me today other than watering a few things. Have a great day all.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Good morning gardeners. Just a tiny bit less hot today. The hawks are making alot of noise this morning. They must be crazy hungry. I watered all the gardens yesterday and managed to mow the front yard. This morning I picked about 4 green beans, 2 cukes, 3 small bell peppers and an okra. I still need more cukes before I can make pickles. And as far as the Bread and Butter pickles @karenerwin. I water bath can mine. I use a recipe from one of the newer editions of the Joy of Cooking and these are my all time favorites. I can't consume that many pickles in a two week time frame so refrigerator pickles are just a waste of time to me. The dill I planted in the garden bed with the butternut squash is growing. I'm not sure how well it will grow however, since the squash vines are just monstrous. I have seen several baby squash forming in the maze of leaves so I'm hoping for a good harvest this year. I think my bird nest gourd plant is starting to make baby gourds. Knock on wood, but I'm seeing nodules that look like they may be tiny gourds. Also, seeing some color change on the tomatoes. Some are getting that lighter green color on them. Nothing much planned for outside today. We got some "un-forecasted" showers overnight, so the grass is too wet to mow in the back yard. Will likely take care of that tomorrow. Glad your Mom is back home @karenerwin. Have a great day everyone.

 

[Sueby]

@Sooner Magnolia I love the boot filled with rain!

@Acre4Me that squash is AMAZING! Have you ever had that kind, is it yummy?

@karenerwin - what everyone else says about pickles! I love to water bath can them so I have them over the winter - but if I only have a couple cukes I'll do refrigerator pickles.

Morning all! Watered this am, hoping for some rain tonight but that's probably just wishful thinking. Maybe next week from this tropical storm Isaias that looks to be coming up the east coast.

Grabbed a couple pics:
My Black Eyed Susans are flowering. I have them all over the yard, I just love them. I will cut some to bring them inside later.

My Brandy Boys! I assumed they'd be red, but it looks like they are pink from the Brandywines:

I do actually have a couple good sized cukes, they just don't look all that healthy, kind of yellow (though hard to see in the pic). Are they ok to eat you think?

My dead cukes, I need to rip them out, lol. Soooo frustrating.

Look at the size of this vining squash (haha, that's what I ordered but not what I got obviously) - it took over the whole bed & now the isle. You can see the teeny little rutabaga sprouts too:

I think I will get some good figs this fall, they are already almost golf ball sized & there is a ton of them:

& my squash haul - not sick of it yet, but it won't be long!

Hey @Wee Farmer Sarah - did your dahlias ever come up? Mine started like gangbusters then they just stopped growing, they are all like a foot tall & starting to produce blooms. I guess I need to feed them something.