What did you do in the garden today?

[Iluveggers]

I'd like to know this too, I haven't started long term storage of my garlic yet.

Last year we dried our garlic and kept in the garage. It lasted us until April when we ran out. I kept about 70 bulbs...this year planted 90 because we go through so much!

Sorry I didn’t keep up with the posts! For some reason I wasn’t getting notified w new posts on this thread, so I stopped watching & then hit watch. Hopefully that will fix it!

Does anyone have a trick for ripening tomatoes? I have over 75 large ones, plus a row of cherry & pear tomatoes. None of them look like they are even beginning to turn. Yesterday was hot & muggy but no rain. Today is cloudy & cooler and (hopefully) no rain. I’ve done minimal work in the garden, it’s been wet and the mosquitoes are atrocious this year. It’s the first 48 hours with no rain but thunderstorms forecasted again for overnight. Will try to weed this afternoon if the rows aren’t super wet. Zucchini’s in raised beds are doing very well! Just starting so getting about 1 every other day (will hopefully have excess in a week or two). First cucumber is about 2 inches long, letting it do it’s thing! Jalapeño plant (only have one) is the first pepper plant with baby fruits on it. Still waiting for the numerous bell, banana & shishito to get going! They are all flowered though so hopefully soon! Threw a foil pack of onion, potato & green bean on the grill drizzled in olive oil. Delicious & didn’t have to heat up the kitchen!

Have a great day everyone! Sorry so long, it’s been a few days!

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Good morning all. Well amazingly we've gone more than 24 hours with no rain. However, it is 81F with 81% humidity. I fed the chickens and did my walk around the garden. Picked some green beans and I can't stop sweating. Ugh! It got up near 90F yesterday but there was really low humidity which enabled me to get a lot of the weed whacking done and DD mowed the backyard for me. I'm nearly out of trimmer string so a trip to HD is on the plan for the day. The summer squash are looking good as are the butternut plants. The corn isn't growing all that great so I put poles in there for the beans. The San Marzano tomatoes are developing now. Three of the six plants look healthy and strong while the other three are suffering from early blight. The peppers and okra plants in the main garden are just slow to develop. It seems like they get a bit of a growth spurt then just stop. I might try giving them a nitrogen boost with the worm castings I have on hand,

 

[WthrLady]

soil blocking.

another foggy HOT morning.
would like to mow the ranch today, but might have to wait until tomorrow. The grass is terribly wet.
Garden is at the stage you just wander in every couple of days to make sure nothing needs staked up or picked. Too many tomatoes to eat, but not enough to process.
Waiting on some gypsum in the mail. The whole garden needs a calcium boost due to too much water.

 

[Sueby]

Last year we dried our garlic and kept in the garage. It lasted us until April when we ran out. I kept about 70 bulbs...this year planted 90 because we go through so much!

Sorry I didn’t keep up with the posts! For some reason I wasn’t getting notified w new posts on this thread, so I stopped watching & then hit watch. Hopefully that will fix it!

Does anyone have a trick for ripening tomatoes? I have over 75 large ones, plus a row of cherry & pear tomatoes. None of them look like they are even beginning to turn. Yesterday was hot & muggy but no rain. Today is cloudy & cooler and (hopefully) no rain. I’ve done minimal work in the garden, it’s been wet and the mosquitoes are atrocious this year. It’s the first 48 hours with no rain but thunderstorms forecasted again for overnight. Will try to weed this afternoon if the rows aren’t super wet. Zucchini’s in raised beds are doing very well! Just starting so getting about 1 every other day (will hopefully have excess in a week or two). First cucumber is about 2 inches long, letting it do it’s thing! Jalapeño plant (only have one) is the first pepper plant with baby fruits on it. Still waiting for the numerous bell, banana & shishito to get going! They are all flowered though so hopefully soon! Threw a foil pack of onion, potato & green bean on the grill drizzled in olive oil. Delicious & didn’t have to heat up the kitchen!

Have a great day everyone! Sorry so long, it’s been a few days!

It seems to happen to everyone here every once in a while - no notifications. I don't have any tricks for ripening on the vine, I'm assuming that's what you mean, but every year I pull off all new flowers & growth in late August & then before the first frost I pull everything that hasn't ripened & wrap them in newspaper & let them ripen in the house. I usually eat the last Brandywine around Thanksgiving.

The peppers and okra plants in the main garden are just slow to develop. It seems like they get a bit of a growth spurt then just stop.

That's how it feels here, nothing is growing very quickly but producing despite themselves. My tomato plants should be taller than 3 feet, but boy do they have a lot of fruit on them! My peppers are short but also have tons of tiny peppers. It's a weird season I guess with all the cold rain, then the hot humid, then cold rain, repeat again...

Garden is at the stage you just wander in every couple of days to make sure nothing needs staked up or picked.

I slept in today as it's my day off & I'm still adjusting from west coast time - I got up & panicked because I haven't made my daily walk outside. Then I started thinking, huh, I don't even really need to go out there, everything is just doing it's thing! It's a nice feeling!

I'm getting ready to get my jam on. I need to pick some cukes too & I'll can them first. I'm just kind of lazy this am. Maybe I'll do it tmrw instead!

 

[Phaedra Geiermann]

After the disastrous rain, I am back to the garden again today for harvesting peas.

A lot of peas!

The pink currants are also almost ready, i will harvest them next week.

 

[Sueby]

After the disastrous rain, I am back to the garden again today for harvesting peas.
View attachment 2761892
View attachment 2761888
View attachment 2761893
A lot of peas!

The pink currants are also almost ready, i will harvest them next week.
View attachment 2761895

I've seen the rain & flooding over there on the news, it's horrible! Were the devastating floods anywhere near you?

 

[Phaedra Geiermann]

I've seen the rain & flooding over there on the news, it's horrible! Were the devastating floods anywhere near you?

Yes, our town is also seriously damaged, the neighboring areas also, as we are in the national park area, there are many rivers, streams, creeks, but this time even a small river has near 4m high after the continous heavy rain. We are lucky as the house is quite far away from the small river and located also a bit higher, but many residents, shops, factories, whatever buildings, bridges are destroyed.

 

[jerryse]

Last year we dried our garlic and kept in the garage. It lasted us until April when we ran out. I kept about 70 bulbs...this year planted 90 because we go through so much!

Sorry I didn’t keep up with the posts! For some reason I wasn’t getting notified w new posts on this thread, so I stopped watching & then hit watch. Hopefully that will fix it!

Does anyone have a trick for ripening tomatoes? I have over 75 large ones, plus a row of cherry & pear tomatoes. None of them look like they are even beginning to turn. Yesterday was hot & muggy but no rain. Today is cloudy & cooler and (hopefully) no rain. I’ve done minimal work in the garden, it’s been wet and the mosquitoes are atrocious this year. It’s the first 48 hours with no rain but thunderstorms forecasted again for overnight. Will try to weed this afternoon if the rows aren’t super wet. Zucchini’s in raised beds are doing very well! Just starting so getting about 1 every other day (will hopefully have excess in a week or two). First cucumber is about 2 inches long, letting it do it’s thing! Jalapeño plant (only have one) is the first pepper plant with baby fruits on it. Still waiting for the numerous bell, banana & shishito to get going! They are all flowered though so hopefully soon! Threw a foil pack of onion, potato & green bean on the grill drizzled in olive oil. Delicious & didn’t have to heat up the kitchen!

Have a great day everyone! Sorry so long, it’s been a few days!

I know a trick to ripen off the vine . Not sure what to do on the vine but wait . I ripen the last of the season off the vine . Put them in a bag with fruit like apples or bananas . Ripe fruit gives off ethylene gas which speeds ripening . As a teenager I worked at a produce house . They kept bananas in sealed rooms double stacked pallets . This helped them ripen from their own gasses . If they needed to ripen tomatoes they would put a pallet of tomatoes in the banana room for a few days .

 

[Iluveggers]

I know a trick to ripen off the vine . Not sure what to do on the vine but wait . I ripen the last of the season off the vine . Put them in a bag with fruit like apples or bananas . Ripe fruit gives off ethylene gas which speeds ripening . As a teenager I worked at a produce house . They kept bananas in sealed rooms double stacked pallets . This helped them ripen from their own gasses . If they needed to ripen tomatoes they would put a pallet of tomatoes in the banana room for a few days .

Thanks! I’m taking a screen shot so I don’t forget!

 

[gtaus]

in other garden news, my spouse wants to put in another large “raised” bed. Raised in the sense we would get a truckload delivered on top of the ground. Hmmm…I’m on the fence with the idea. More space to garden, but more space to weed. It also reduces our yard area.

Perhaps you could talk your spouse into building some proper raised beds which, IMHO, have many advantages over in ground gardening. First and foremost, as I get older, I appreciate my raised beds where I don't have to bend over all day tending the plants. Secondly, you can use square foot gardening in the raised beds which put your intended plants much closer together leaving less room for weeds. Third, weeding raised beds is much easier because you eliminate lots of those weeds that crawl along the ground and poke up into the garden. Fourth, you only have to water the raised bed itself, which saves water. Fifth, you can easily put hoops in the raised bed and either use bird netting to protect your plants, or cover it with plastic to create a mini greenhouse and extend your growing season. Sixth, when you amend your soil or fertilize your bed, you don't waste product on ground that you walk on. Seventh, you can make different kinds of raised beds, such as hügelkultur raised beds or sub irrigated raised beds. There are probably lots more advantages to raised beds, but those are just a few points that come to mind.

Having said that, I guess having a spouse that wants to make a larger garden is not such a bad thing, and even dumping the new soil on the ground to make a garden is a step forward. In the end, if you don't like the garden, you can till it up and replant grass to get your yard back. Your lawn would probably be better off with better soil used for the garden.