What did you do in the garden today?

[Sally PB]

Young luffa is also edible. I think it tastes a lot better than zuccini. Asians love luffa gourds and you can often find young tender luffa in Asian grocery store in summer.

At what size (diameter) are they edible?

I had 4 plants, but 3 were lost in the late freeze on May 26th. I was hoping to have some young tender luffa to eat.

 

[lightm]

At what size (diameter) are they edible?

I had 4 plants, but 3 were lost in the late freeze on May 26th. I was hoping to have some young tender luffa to eat.

The edible size is relative to overall plant size. If you have a strong big plant, then your edible size is big; if you have a small plant, then edible size is small.

You can eat it pretty much a few days after the fruit stopped growing. The fruit is still green. The skin needs to be peeled. You will see that the seeds are still tender after opening it up.

You can still eat the luffa gourd even a couple weeks (or longer) after it stopped growing. The seeds may be tougher but the flesh is still good. Think of zuccini or pumpkin.

 

[gtaus]

Cover them with some leaves/straw. Something to help insulate the ground a bit. They can handle the cold and freeze.

Sounds good. I'll dump a load of leaves on top of the planter and then put my anti-bird hardware cloth frame on top of the planter. Usually I use that frame to keep out the birds until my seeds sprout and grow a bit, but it will be equally good for holding down all the leaves in the planter so they don't blow away.

 

[gtaus]

I heard that Milwaukee and Ryobi are under the same umbrella now so that's interesting as well.

Both Ryobi and Milwaukee are under Techtronic Industries, TTi. They are separate tool lines, but I think they share some of the same tech.

Funnily enough I find myself using the angle grinder a lot. I actually have a job coming up that I'll probably use the angle grinder for and I'll be prepping a spare at least.

I don't know if you have a Harbor Freight in Australia, but they often have electric 4.3 amp grinders that go on sale for only $10 about every other month. I picked one up to have as a spare. My main grinder is a $100 18v brushless unit, but it's nice to have a spare in case you are working a project and your main tool up and dies on you.

I might never need to use it, but for only $10 to have a spare in the tool chest, it's worth it to me.

 

[Happy hen lover]

I picked all the green tomatoes, pulled cucumber vines and threw to girls. I found a recipe for green tomato salsa so I'm going to give it a try. My tomatoes finally made nice fruit that is somewhere between green and barely pink ! I'm also going to try my cowboy candy brine that's spicy on some baby green .

 

[akroberts1085]

I picked about a pound of green beans today. I knew that I couldn't eat that much so I hollered at the neighbors and gave them to them to eat. Who wouldn't want organic fresh green beans?

 

[akroberts1085]

Can anyone tell me how to calculate the nutrition value of canned food made at home?

 

[karenerwin]

Can anyone tell me how to calculate the nutrition value of canned food made at home?

I would use an app like My Fitness Pal where you can input the ingredients and quantities along with how many servings and it will tell you the nutritional values

 

[akroberts1085]

Can anyone tell me how to calculate the nutrition value

I would use an app like My Fitness Pal where you can input the ingredients and quantities along with how many servings and it will tell you the nutritional values

Thank you for the info. I'm thinking about starting a small business with the vegetables from the garden next year. This year I am going to make homemade pomegranate jelly and syrup.

 

[Dadanga]

@Dadanga, you're going to be our "garden fix" now. You're entering summer, we're going into winter.

I'm enjoying your pictures and posts.

Thank you! I'm contemplating what to do today but planting is on the agenda. I've got 4 60L barrels that'll get used for some veggies. Then there's the wicking beds to manage! I'm tackling the smaller 100L drums for the project first before doing the ibc. My big problem with the beds is what to use as soil. Not gonna lie. I'm better with hydroponics than soil. Part of me wants to use the compost I dump old eggs into along with veggies and other stuff to break down and then cut it with the jungle mulch I bought. Maybe some coco and then use some dry amendments like b&b, seamungus and slow release fertilizer.

The guy I got the worms off planted inground just using one sack of blood and bone and his castings. His garden was amazing. Certainly more lush and healthier than mine! The kratkies are like the backup. Oh another task I need to do is put a T piece in by the waterpump that comes off the big concrete water tank. It's a weird design because we have a bore that fills it and then I use the pump that comes off it but the problem is that I need water at the grove where the pump actually is hence needing a T and then I'll have a tap that comes off of that which will make it easier to water the fruit trees. Next winter I'm thinking about burying the rest of the fruit trees I have so I'll try to use the time in between to get them healthy (if I showed you a pic you'd laugh at one of them)