What did you do in the garden today?

[Elyrian1]

Today is a dirt eating day. It's super windy and it's been super dry. Wish I had safety glasses with the rubber seal. Dh is building the boxes, then we'll fill the first three sections and get plants in the ground.

Of my two garlic varieties, I'm planting way more of the Italian this year. The nootka is pretty, tasty, smells and cooks great, but the cloves are tiny and very well wrapped. Which is too say peeling them is an arduous process for little return.

After I plant what I want for next year, I'll process everything that's left and get most of them frozen. I'll probably keep back a handful of unpeeled heads to see how well they use and keep at room temp over time.

 

[TJAnonymous]

Hey everyone! I am FORTY pages behind! Woah! Hope I didn't miss anything big!

Except for some cukes and my luffa, I've pretty much given up on the garden for a while. I will plant some fall greens and garlic soon but not ready for it yet.

Also, the new brooder is working out GREAT! Worth the investment...

 

[NewBoots]

Salsa! I wish I’d gotten more of my tomatoes this year than the deer. I love fresh salsa. Enjoy yours!

This isn't fresh, it's a canned green tomato salsa and it turned out delicious! Super hot though. I'll have to make more but I still need to make the relishes. The tomato plants are really hanging on like troopers, lots of loss to cold and rain but the chickens don't mind. I have to admit I'm looking forward to getting the winter greens planted though. Beets, mustard, kale, and even in the summer the loopers don't bother them much so with the rain and cold they shouldn't even be alive to bother anything.

 

[WthrLady]

I collect old jars.

So today I watched a video about canning lids and he mentioned some old jars are worth something . So I have mostly old jars . Checked one I recently filled . It is a blue square 100 year anniversary Ball 1913 - 1915 . Must have been grandma Mabel's then Mom and now mine . Not worth much $ but nice to know .

Love them. I have a couple worth a bit, but nothing to retire on, lol.
SPent 8 hours putting a steel roof onto the run extension.
I am, phew, exhausted.
I have a tiny bit of trim to do still but that requires a trip to town, maybe tomorrow. Anyway, it's ready for rain The ply underneath the old roof was, just wow. Good timing on this project.

 

[NewBoots]

Oh and does anyone have a better way to peel green tomatoes other than blanching them for no more than one minute? That's what all the instructions online say but that really didn't work for me. I had to cut the skins off even after blanching them for 2 minutes, not fun at all.

 

[BReeder!]

Oh and does anyone have a better way to peel green tomatoes other than blanching them for no more than one minute? That's what all the instructions online say but that really didn't work for me. I had to cut the skins off even after blanching them for 2 minutes, not fun at all.

Not sure if it works on green tomatoes, but I roast my tomatoes in the oven at 400F for about 30 min and then dip them into cold water. They peel easily that way and I feel the sauce or salsa I make with them tastes better with the roasting. Fire roasted (on the grill) is even better yet.

 

[karenerwin]

Oh and does anyone have a better way to peel green tomatoes other than blanching them for no more than one minute? That's what all the instructions online say but that really didn't work for me. I had to cut the skins off even after blanching them for 2 minutes, not fun at all.

You could try freezing them. It works great with ripe tomatoes. When you thaw them back out the skins slip right off. I haven’t tried it with green tomatoes though.

 

[littledog]

Apply compost in the Fall or the Spring? Or both?

I apply a big load in the fall and let it marinate, then get a smaller load in the spring and use it where it's needed for planting seedlings and adding to beds that grew nitrogen-using plants last time.

I've pretty much been ignoring the garden lately, except picking tomatoes as they get close to ripening and picking the last dregs of cukes and beans.

Because we've been focused on retrofitting our mud/laundry room, since I got a bunch of freebies. A bunch of lockers, and a large cabinet with a countertop. The lockers are the biggest pain to deal with - if I'd realized how much was involved to take them apart and reconfigure them into how I want them, I probably would have avoided the whole thing.

Mr. Dog sprained his wrist pretty badly, so he couldn't help me - then I dropped a set of lockers on my toe and couldn't do much either. At least I got all the lockers cut apart, put back together in the right sections, mostly repainted, and most of the laundry room gutted out. So frustrating, we'd hoped to have the whole project done by now.

In more fun news, my former neighbor who's moving out of state gave us a bunch of new chickens! Last night we picked up a mama hen with three babies, fully feathered. After my friend takes her rooster to her new place, we are going to take her last three hens. I divided off the run to give the new chickens their own quarantine space, using a 3-foot-tall dog fence, with netting above it, in which they have a doghouse for shelter and several covered perches. They were used to free-ranging and won't get to any more except when we're supervising, so to make them happy about their new place I gave them some tomatoes and a cut-up melon. They seem to be pretty happy and adjusting well so far.

 

[Sueby]

Morning all.

@NewBoots I've never peeled my green tomatoes for salsa verde! I hope you find a good way, let us know what works.

We have groundhogs, squirrels, 13-striped ground squirrels, deer, turkeys, and I'm sure other garden-eating creatures that I want to keep out, but I'm not sure how realistic keeping the diggers out is... any advice on fencing?

We have pretty much the same here, I have a fence of 7 foot deer netting, it doesn't keep the little rodents out very well (they chew a hole thru it), but it keeps anything out that does lots of damage - like the deer or the groundhog. The little chippes or squirrels I find don't do a lot of messing things up except knocking over or pulling out new seedlings. I will throw my welded wire fence trellises over the newly planted garlic & shallots so they can't dig them up.

I apply a big load in the fall and let it marinate, then get a smaller load in the spring and use it where it's needed for planting seedlings and adding to beds that grew nitrogen-using plants last time.

That's exactly what I do too.

Took a walk this am with DH & found a ton of bees sleeping on the dahlias. One had 3 bees in it! There had to be 40 bees on the flowers, they hadn't had their coffee yet so they weren't moving!

 

[Acre4Me]

picking the last dregs of cukes and beans.

Cukes…a figment of my garden imagination. We have TERRIBLE luck with them. The cucumber beetles must carry some potent form of virus…we have tried numerous varieties. This past spring, when my seeds grew then wilted, I bought some starts from the store..in less than a week they wilted. And cukes (or similar) have never grown in that raised bed!!

So frustrating, we'd hoped to have the whole project done by now.

we are getting ready for a bathroom remodel. As in gut to studs, repair missing (yes, missing) floor, put in actual shut-off valves so the rest of house has water…oh, and then wait 3-4 months for the cabinet and sink to come in. We will cobble something together for use as a sink, of course-probably just the old one. But, we are adding a small half-bath too, so at least we should have a useable toilet/sink (in addition to MB one), fairly quickly, as long as the plumbing goes forward without a hitch. We are doing most work, except for electric and plumbing, of course.