Washingtonians

[Chickielady]

Quote:
Hold on I am posting pics & will upload a link to the cucumbers

 

[Chickielady]

the cucumbers~~~

Dill bed:

Candy Onions:

Several plantings of lettuce:

Roma Pole Beans:

Black Beauty Zuchinni:

The nightmare Peas:

Spaghetti squash, Wyatt's Wonder Pumpkins & Sweet Meats Squash:

Then my camera batteries went dead~~~
Wyatt's Wonder Pumpkins are doing excellent despite temps below 60 what is responsible for yellow leaves, which green when the sun shines.
I did not have batteries to take pics of the back hoop house with water melons, peppers & more tomatoes.

Edited to add:
If you look at the side wall of the green house from outside, you can see the tomatoes all the way up to the roof inside!!
That must be about 7 feet high, and they are in a 18" planter box.
DH teases me that with raised boxes I will not have to stoop to plant, but NOW I have to have a ladder to harvest

 

[Chickielady]

This was 2 weeks ago, remember?
Wyatt's Woner, the Spahetti Squash & the Sweet meats have exploded out, ate a wheel barrel, and are trying to take over the dog house

 

[Chickielady]

Some of the Cucmbers shown are:

http://henryfields.com/product.asp?pn=67990

Some are "Muncher"


http://www.humeseeds.com/cuke_mch.htm


These are "green house" varieties, and there is one male plant in about 6 females.
No bees needed, no seeds are set.
These varieties are Gynoecious, and Hermaphrodite and Parthenocarpic, some have male & female reproductive parts, and are able to reproduce & set fruit without pollination, brought forth with LOW TEMPERATURES.
Extra early varieties.
I am curious to see how well they do in fall...these are a specialty of Canadian growers.
I am planning about 6 cases of bread and butter pickles from these babies

I ran out of bread & butter pickles last year !
I sweat my cukes slices in salt for a while, then cold pack with red & yellow bell peppers, and some sliced/sweated yellow crookneck squash...YUMMY!!!!!!!!

Since our move 1 1/2 years ago, and no canning at all last season, I am almost out of everything except peach & apricot jam.

 

[Chickielady]

My Mom & Dad make Dill pickles.
It is a nice trade when several family members "specialize" in SOMETHING.
They have alot of the big heavy crocks, and make REAL whole dill pickles.
I am not sure if they are doing them this year though..weather has been so cool....

 

[Chickielady]

Gak, I can still smell skunk!!!!!!!

I am out of here, going take a shower........DH says the smell is drifting in the window, but I still "feel" creeped out like it is ON ME!!!

 

[SadieSue]

I did attend the Tacoma Chicken Coop tour on Saturday. It turned out to be a fun day - nice to have the sun accompany us on the tour. There were 9 different coops of all varieties - not all of them super fancy either! Some were very simple and assembled with found materials, but they did the job. I don't have photos of all of them since I'm having technical difficulties, but here's a sampling of most.
Photos, as promised!

This modern design featured a treadle feeder, watering system and rain barrel. She had dog crate trays on the floor of her coop to help her clean.

These folks were pretty handy with woodwork (he has some kind of woodworking company I believe). They not only built their own cute coop, but also build and sell. The green one shown is for sale. $600

A nice tractor to move around the yard. BO on top right nest.

One of the fancier coops we had seen. Walk in coop, dutch doors, rain barrel in back of coop, nice walk in size run. My DH is admiring the garden in the second pic.

Using salvaged materials, this coop featured a double sided run. Second pic is of one side of the run, but I really admired their GLW!

Definitely the favorite of the day. These people had a BEAUTIFUL enclosed private yard, although the house is on a very busy street in the middle of town. Coop featured a nice roof garden. Lots of special touches throughout. I had more pics but can't load them right now. And because they had a MIL apartment, the coop earned the 3/4 numbered address.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

Quote:
The one I think is the oldest is called "Persian Straight" in the seed catalogues. Parthogenisis isn't an uncommon sport in cucurbits, though, regular old bittermelons (which are closest to the species form) can produce fruit under drought stress, with no pollination.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

Quote:
It's the low temps that set these apart from the older parthenogenetic/parthenocarpic varieties, then- more English type than Persian. I bet they make good pickles without all the darned squishy seeds.

 

[chickens4gramma]

Quote:
Wow! I wish I could have gone! I love the red one! That is how I envision ours. I have to show this pic to hubby tonight! We already have a red and white 8 x 10 shed. I love the idea of the Dutch door. Hubby just made me a new door though, and probably won't be happy if I ask him to do it over, lol But maybe he could cut it in half?

Thank you for sharing these pics. Hope you can get the rest up. Anyone going on the Seattle tour July 9th? I think it is through Seattle Tilth?

Susie