What did you do in the garden today?

[igorsMistress]

View attachment 2386859Monster butternut

That’s awesome!!

 

[pennyJo1960]

I plan to plant allot lettuce and such turn the shelves in here to greenhouse.
As I do not have one just now

 

[Sueby]

@NewBoots I wish I could grow ginger outside here! I don't really have room & we keep it too cold to do it inside. I know there is a farm in VT or NH that grows it (saw it on Martha Stewart) but they grow it in 1 summer outside. Apparently it works ok but they just don't get the good skin on the outside. I ❤ ginger!

So do you do yours in the greenhouse or inside? Have you grown it before?

 

[NewBoots]

This is my first shot at it. I wanted to try it last summer but none the ginger I got from Walmart had any sign of sprouting until this last piece. It's the wrong time of year but we have a pot of it in the house and one in the greenhouse so we'll see.

 

[Compost King]

Ginger in the greenhouse, I will be moving it to a large pot soon. I want to go research what size and shape of pot is best for Ginger.

I went out to take a picture of the Ginger since the topic of growing it came up. While I was out there I took a few pictures to share and give commentary on.


The cloning machine, no roots showing yet but its only been a day or 2. I tried to remove one of the plugs and discovered that I may end up ripping the growing medium by pull it. I may find out I need to buy another tub just to a 2nd lid and use the next size hole saw. We will see when I need to remove a rooted clone. Shouldn't be too long because tomatoes root fast.
When bubbles come to the water surface they pop or snap and put a mist in the air and that is why wets the growing medium, then as roots grow they will go straight in oxygenated water. I am told hydrogen peroxide is beneficial in a set up like this but I have never used it. Maybe I will buy a bottle and add it.

Below is the leaky tray full of soil where I poured a bunch of that "Chick Mix" forage seed. Many of the seeds in this mix can be planted in fall so I might plant directly in the run with wire cage over it. Kinda like a rabbit cage except it would only be a few inches tall. This will allow plants to grow but prevent beaks from getting down to the roots.

even though night temps are not much warmer than outside the green house (in the 50's or high 40's) the day time temps being in the 90's seems to have sped up ripening. Before I put them in the greenhouse the peppers had stopped ripening after temps cooled off in sept.

 

[CluckerFamily]

I can totally see my 2 littles in your girls! My gray one is browner around her head/neck too & gets more gray toward her butt. Yours are both EE? I would be so happy if they turned out so pretty.

Yes, both are EEs. I have 16 EE hens/pullets, they are my absolute favorite breeds and it is all I have.

 

[Fishychix]

I always make steel cut oatmeal and I've used Alton Brown's recipe for years for sweet and savory now.

Steel Cut Oatmeal
Recipe courtesy of Alton Brown
Show: Good Eats Episode: Oat Cuisine

1 tablespoon butter
1 cup steel cut oats
3 cups boiling water
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon low-fat buttermilk
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:
In a large saucepot, melt the butter and add the oats. Stir for 2 minutes to
toast. Add the boiling water and reduce heat to a simmer. Cover and keep at a low simmer for 25 minutes, without stirring. Combine the milk and half of the
buttermilk with the oatmeal. Stir gently to combine and cook for an additional 10 minutes uncovered. Spoon into a serving bowl and top with remaining buttermilk, brown sugar, and cinnamon.

I've used that recipe for years now, this was the first time I didn't go for sweet. @Sueby, you're right, it was very much like grits (I make cheesy grits too from time to time). Here's a pic of the finished product:
View attachment 2386807
I really loaded on the goodies. You can almost see oats underneath!

Our trees are all small but we can't wait till we have some leaves to rake.

It's free association!

I potted a big chunk of ginger, repotted one of the peppers, trimmed back a couple basil and most of the rest of the peppers, (I can't make myself remove all the fruit) and stuck them all in the greenhouse. I collected all the seeds from the okra (there was a lot) and I'll give them another go next spring.

I love Alton Brown! I’m so glad hes doing Good Eats again

Be careful what you wish for with raking leaves! We only have two deciduous tres in our backyard and a leaf blower/vac. Hubs was working on them for over an hour and got tired as well as emptied 6? bags in that short amount of time. He only managed about 3/4 of the small maple tree

 

[Fishychix]

I have very confused green beans. I planted them a long time ago but the deer kept eating them. I went to dump their pot out and found these

 

[Compost King]

Went out to my green house tonight just to enjoy it. Its right outside the back door so why not? I noticed that my sunflowers are blooming. They are the super tall variety, I believe the largest that can get up to 15 feet tall but the tallest I have ever seen were about 12 feet tall and even that was rare. My ceiling is only 8 feet high however being in 3 gallon pots they aren't going to get much taller than they are. the flower heads will not get very large either but really they are only providing shade for my bubble cloner.

 

[littledog]

Ohh, @NewBoots - why don't you put avocado in the compost? I always put the peels & seeds in & I end up with avocado trees growing all the time, lol.

I always put avocado peels and skins in the compost, too! Is that a bad idea? I know the fruits are toxic to all animals except primates, but the seeds and skins should be fine to compost, no? No animals have access to my compost bin, and I always bury kitchen scraps so wild birds or rabbits aren't attracted. Never had an avocado tree grow, though!

DH want to just suck them up with the mower & be done, now on top of blowing them in a pile for me instead, I need to let them dry before putting them in bags. But leaves are too good to waste! Been thinking about asking the neighbor for his. DH will kill me, lol.

Do ya'll horde your leaves too or am I the only crazy one? On top of being great for layering the compost pile, they are great to spread on the snow so the chickens will venture out.

I confess, I'm a leaf hoarder or at least I try to be, LOL. I never actually *finish* the raking to get all of them though, I'm lucky if I get the areas near the house and under the trees near the chicken coop. My favorite fantasy is that some year I will get every leaf, enough to cover all the fallow area of the garden, before the rains come!
Last year, I noticed my neighbor filled up a bunch of bags of leaves from their huge maple tree, and the bags sat by their garage for awhile - I thought about stealing them, but came to my senses. This year, I'm watching for more bags, and I plan to ask them if they would like to trade some eggs for their leaves. And get the leaves dumped on the garden before Mr. Dog finds out and calls me crazy, LOL.

This week was really busy, so I didn't have time to do much in the garden besides uncover my cabbages, pull up the larger weeds, and cut some dahlias and impatiens to decorate inside. I don't know about the cabbages - I thought growing them under row covers would keep them healthy and worm-free, but they just got leggy and slugs found their way under the row covers and ate holes in some of the leaves anyway. Only one or two are starting to form heads, so I just weeded and left the row covers off. We just got our first frost, so maybe they will start heading? I hope so.

My luffas got tall enough to look nice growing over their trellis, but I never got a goard bigger than 2 inches. Oh well, I don't consider them a complete failure, because it was my first time experimenting with growing them, and so far I've learned they can grow here, and that I need to plant them way earlier next year.

With the frost, it's definitely time to give up on my tomatoes (they were all volunteers anyway) and put the garden to bed for real - hopefully with some help from the neighbor's leaves!