What did you do in the garden today?

[CNJ]

I decided to plant Chinese winter melon or wax gourd today. I kept a small one from my last harvest in my refrigerator and I just made chicken soup with it. I was surprised how long it can be stored. I really want to have this readily available through out the year.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

I decided to plant Chinese winter melon or wax gourd today. I kept a small one from my last harvest in my refrigerator and I just made chicken soup with it. I was surprised how long it can be stored. I really want to have this readily available through out the year.

Melon freezes easily and can be stored for a long time to be cooked and used in soups.

 

[igorsMistress]

Oh....and I think I'm going to plant some fava beans in the super acidic blueberry bed over the fall & winter. We'll see how that does.

I hear they’re good with liver and a nice Chianti.

 

[igorsMistress]

The plant will keep producing male flowers.

Can I give you two pH points from my blueberry bed? I just hope I can lower the pH before the plants say the heck with it and die. I'm doing what I can with peat moss and soil acidifier.

I just assumed that all the oak leaves and coffee grounds were making/keeping the soil acidic. Nope. Got a pH meter. It's about 6.8. Poor blueberries....!

I read that you can water blueberries with white vinegar added to water. You’ll want to test your soil before and after a couple weeks to a month to see how it’s going.

 

[igorsMistress]

Good afternoon all. The fruit trees are showing some mild signs of transplant stress, probably heat stress too. Tomorrow will definitely be a watering day, I’ll be up long before the sun, the story of my life all summer. Cities here are implementing water reduction plans and encouraging folks to reduce their water use by 5%. The girl and her kids are getting a talking to this weekend and a timer for their showers. I’m planning to add rain gutters to the house and another rain barrel before summer is over, and I keep sending good vibes out for a wet monsoon season

 

[TJAnonymous]

I hear they’re good with liver and a nice Chianti.

Liver....no thanks. You can keep it.

I've never eaten fava beans but I've seen lots of recipes. Might experiment....the hard part will be convincing DH to try them. He *hates* lima beans and they look very similar.

It's over 90 outside, but the wind is whipping around like crazy. My weather app says it's around 15mph but I'd bet it's gusting up in the 20-30s. I keep waiting for the temp to drop a little before going outside to work. I need to get some mulch down in the new raspberry bed. There's 5 canes in there....only one looks alive. I'm hoping that the others are just focused on root development. Regardless the bed looks really compacted. I'm hoping the mulch will not only keep the weeds down but allow the soil to loosen up a little because it stays moist.

 

[TJAnonymous]

I read that you can water blueberries with white vinegar added to water. You’ll want to test your soil before and after a couple weeks to a month to see how it’s going.

I did this once and it killed my blueberry plant. Proceed at your own risk.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

I hear they’re good with liver and a nice Chianti.

Unfortunately I saw that movie too. Scary stuff!

 

[vall]

I've never eaten fava beans but I've seen lots of recipes.

I've grown them - didn't come across any particular issues. You can make a sort of chunky hummus so they don't look like limas - Foul Mudammas.

 

[WthrLady]

I have a bunch of BOSS seedlings and now I can't decide where I should put them. I do have a few spaces between my tomatoes and onions but I did that last year and the sunflowers fell over my tire planters due to wind. Became a huge annoyance. I don't really have anyway to stake them up back there.... I'm also worried if I plant them there, they will block the sun for the tomatoes because they (the tomatoes) wouldn't get the morning sun anymore.

Well, grrr.... Maybe I should move them to the west side of the hoop house. I have nasturtiums and dill over there, but I could squeeze them in between.... Not sure how either of those would fair next to sunflowers though?

My tomatoes last year didn't enjoy sharing rows with them. I think the sunflowers took too much of their water.