What did you do in the garden today?

[Sueby]

Figs! (not this year, we had an accident & lost the top of the tree coming down the stairs so it's taken all summer for it to just start growing leaves again & is half its height, lol)

 

[igorsMistress]

I would prefer aquaponics but I have been reading that some things have an odd taste from it.


So leaving it open. I have pleanty of yard....

I want

Blackeyed peas both for snaps and for dried beans.
Pinto beans
Butter beans
English peas... (may not grow in my heat)
Cucumbers
Pumpkins (small variety if there is such a thing)
Cantelope
Watermelon
Blue berries (yes there is a varitey )
Strawberries
Acorn squash
....

Then trees for the yard:

Apple
Fig.... Hope there is a variety that likes the desert.
Pomegranite
Cherry

Then for the courtyard:
Lemon
Lime
Kumquat
Tangarine
Orange (there are some that can handle the cold the ones above either are cold hearty or have varieties that are....)

OF all the plants I am most familiar with Citrus.... I plan to espalier them around the courtyard fence... Excellent thorny predator deterent.

All can be preserved in some fashion.... I am dying to make Kumquat Marmalade....
Lemons and limes can be preserved MiddleEastern style. poach in hot salt water then let dry till they are black... Use them as seasoning in Lamb and beef dishes.... Oh yumm... I guess I will need to get a dehydrator as well.

Oh adnd I want herbs.... California Laurel which is our version of bayleaf.... Grows to be a small tree and is VERY hearty...

Then I want to plant natives about that attract humming birds and butterflies My Mesquite makes beans about six to eight inches long. Those beans can be ground up Pod and all after they are dried... to make low Gluten Flour...

Plus there are medicinals all over my property.... I have a book I need to locate a local expert... To make sure I have identified the plant and its usage. There are several Kumeay tribes I can probably find someone who can help me. I use to know at least two Shamans.... Long gone moved away.... Sigh

deb

You should be able to grow all of those things I would think. I'm not in to hydroponics or aquaponics, but it does have advantages for some. My friend here isn't able to bend well after back surgery so her husband turned their patio into a hydroponic greenhouse for her. Everything is at the right height so she can stand or sit on a stool while she works.

Small pumpkins would be the pie variety so look for those when you're purchasing seed.

I use Native Seed Search for some of the things I grow. They're all desert adapted and heirloom varieties.

I've had the best luck with Meyer Lemon. It grows as a bush/small tree and produces a tremendous amount of juicy lemons. Our last tree gave us 2 crops a year, it was an older tree, over the 5 years we cared for it. Our current tree is only a few years old but gives a crop every year.

I've never read about preserving citrus as they do in the Middle East. I'm going to have to go read about that, thanks for the tip!

A dehydrator is a great tool to have around. I'm trying an alternative method to see how well it works here...window screens in a car. Herbs can be hung in a bundle upside down until dry, I hang them from string on the shower curtain rod in our extra bathroom and from a quilt rack in the enclosed patio.

Have fun planning your garden and return home!

 

[igorsMistress]

@Sueby I was reading on another thread that someone just cores and freezes their tomatoes whole. The skins come right off after they defrost. I've never done that, I dehydrate my Romas into tomato chips and eat them that way instead.

 

[Sueby]

@igorsMistress that's what I had heard & thought it might be worth a shot.

 

[igorsMistress]

@igorsMistress that's what I had heard & thought it might be worth a shot.

My neighbor is trading me some tomatoes for a processed cockerel so I'm going to try it and see how it works out. I'll let you know and if you try it, let me know?

 

[Acre4Me]

Garden looks good. Tomatoes producing ok. Found one that we love - it is very juicy with a very good tomato flavor. It is called Champion 2.

Beans: Picked more dry beans today since it is supposed to rain. No need for the beans to think they should sprout - I would rather cook them in the winter.

Cukes:

Those stupid lemon cukes have taken over & squeezed out my regular cukes. They taste ok, but I can't really see pickling them, which was the point of cukes.

Yes, I agree - they really do take over, don't they! We do like the lemon cukes. I'll bet you could do a refrigerator pickle with them, too. But fun to toss in a lunch bag and eat like an apple (rub off the little black spines, of course). We picked our first lemon cucumber today and spouse took it to work for lunch. A few more coming along, but they are not producing many cukes yet.

The regular cucumbers (for eating fresh) are doing well, but the vines are not nearly as vigorous as the lemon cucumbers. We've already picked 3 off those vines.

Squash: harvested 3 small butternut, and then 3 from the unknown volunteer squash plants (BYCers thought Hubbard type and spaghetti type). Have more butternut coming along. Would like a few more to grow. I fertilized the butternut plants last week, so hoping that gives them reason to allow a few more to start to grow.

Expecting rain today, so I watered a bit this morning to hydrate the ground so the 0.3" of expected rain does not just run off the dry ground. Supposed to be good wind gusts as well, so I'll have to move the potted pepper plants so they don't get knocked over and broken in the wind (already lost 3 that way).

Enjoy this August day!

 

[IamRainey]

@IamRainey, your garden beds look great.

Well, they always look great when they're freshly planted. It's a month on when they're either weed infested or totally burned out that counts, right?

But I'm glad and grateful I was able to get it done and hopeful as always when I plant!

 

[IamRainey]

I've frozen the whole tomatoes in the past, however you do need to peel them first.

I don't have enough freezer space so I can mine but a friend who does freeze hers says she does it whole with the skin on. She says the process breaks the flesh down into a purée and when she thaws them to use she grabs them by the stem end and the firm green sorta-stem part and the skin simply slip away.

You might want to try a few intact and see if you find it less tedious. I know one year when I was taking skins off before canning the acid got to my hands and they were just sore from handling all the skins.

 

[IamRainey]

Nice looking figs! Looks like my Brown Turkish to me.

I rarely get a fig from mine. The tree produces abundantly but the birds always go at the figs as soon as the green begins to turn dark. Before they're ripe they are little sacks dripping seeds from the branches.
I love figs but I have to buy all of mine from Trader Joes!

I just took out a second fig tree. I situated it stupidly when I planted it. It was right where my raised beds are and it not only shaded everything but the roots grew up into the boxes! I didn't anticipate that. So I had to begin my late garden by digging 2 boxes out so the tree guys could grind up all the roots as well as remove the tree. In the pix of my boxes you can sorta see that one is still kind of cattiwompus from where the roots lifted the corner up. I hope in time its own weight will settle it down again...

In the Fall I'm going to put in some bare root trees and espalier them against the wall so I can have both fruit and veggies in time.

 

[Sueby]

My neighbor is trading me some tomatoes for a processed cockerel so I'm going to try it and see how it works out. I'll let you know and if you try it, let me know?

Deal!!

Yes, I agree - they really do take over, don't they! We do like the lemon cukes. I'll bet you could do a refrigerator pickle with them, too. But fun to toss in a lunch bag and eat like an apple (rub off the little black spines, of course). We picked our first lemon cucumber today and spouse took it to work for lunch. A few more coming along, but they are not producing many cukes yet.

I think what I need to do is pick them much sooner when they're still small & don't have many seeds. Then maybe refrigerator pickles! I will give that a shot.

Nice looking figs! Looks like my Brown Turkish to me.

I rarely get a fig from mine. The tree produces abundantly but the birds always go at the figs as soon as the green begins to turn dark. Before they're ripe they are little sacks dripping seeds from the branches.
I love figs but I have to buy all of mine from Trader Joes!

I just took out a second fig tree. I situated it stupidly when I planted it. It was right where my raised beds are and it not only shaded everything but the roots grew up into the boxes! I didn't anticipate that. So I had to begin my late garden by digging 2 boxes out so the tree guys could grind up all the roots as well as remove the tree. In the pix of my boxes you can sorta see that one is still kind of cattiwompus from where the roots lifted the corner up. I hope in time its own weight will settle it down again...

In the Fall I'm going to put in some bare root trees and espalier them against the wall so I can have both fruit and veggies in time.

I haven't had bird problems - I have bee/yellow jacket problems! They swarm them!