What did you do in the garden today?

[Dadanga]

Prepping for summer down under. Got some more leafy green type seeds for the critters. If the Ceylon/Malabar spinach ever decides to sprout I'll be able to have 3 different types of spinach from different parts of the globe. I'll end up building some more NFT rails to house them along the boundary. Got the perfect spot against the color bond fence. Hopefully the summer isn't too extreme. I also like the fact the gourmet lettuce seeds have 8 different types of lettuce in there.

Plans for Summer 2023.
Tomatoes: Cherry Falls (Just a smaller packet of Red Cherry, inflation?) Orange Cherry, Red Cherry, Black Cherry, College Challenger, Gross Lisse, KY1, Rouge De Marmande, Purple Cherokee, Black Krim and Costoluto Fiorentino. Also doing some Rosellas.
Chillies : Giant Red Habanero, Devils Brews, Chilli Shake and Prairie Fire.
Capsicums : F1 Redskin, Wonder Bell, Heirloom Mix, Sweet Allsorts.
Leafy Greens : Ceylon and Medania Spinach. Red Kale, Rocket and Pakchoi. Adding the Gourmet Lettuce Mix, Egyptian Spinach, Little Gem and Cos Lettuce. Kankong.
Others : Golden and Lebanese Zuchinis. Muncher Burpless and African Cucumbers.
Passionfruit, Little Fingers Eggplant, Squash and Mixed Squash. Bubba and Clemson Spineless Okra. Hales Best Rock Melon, Thai Basil, Sweet Basil.

All will either be going in raised garden beds, NFT rails, kratky or cocoDTW systems (Mostly the big heirloom varieties for those.) A few of my raised garden beds are in dire need of a top up including my pumpkin patch. Thinking it might be just cheaper in the long run to having soil/mulch delivered in bulk.

One kratky idea is to combine all cherry tomatoes in one 200L drum and have them all spill over the rim in a myriad of colors. I mostly grow tomatoes because the old man likes them. I plan on dedicating a 50W quantum board to a 100L res where it'll be used to grow a bunch of leafy greens for the critters.

I have done Kankong in the past and boy did that get destroyed by the chicken flock. It didn't take long for a handful of chooks to demolish a 20L pot full of it. But it does grow really well and loves overwatering. Chooks seems to love it.

 

[gtaus]

You know the white frost covers. Just put up some 2x2 stakes 4' long & we used shade cloth black 30% & tied that off to the 2x2s first. Then we stretched the white row covers over that. It will withstand more wind & overnight snow. Make sure to leave easy entry to harvest your greens.

I did not know about white front covers. I will look into that. Thanks.

 

[Farmer13]

I did not know about white front covers. I will look into that. Thanks.

Just make it so you can fold the cover back when the weather is clear & sunny then fold it back at night. Sounds like a lot of trouble but it's not really, it's just a way to protect your plants longer.

 

[CNJ]

I love Baker Creek for seeds. I have not had great luck with Bok Choy and related greens. I need to try them again in a different spot, I think.

I have better luck with choy sum, they grow like weeds, the left-over plants produce a lot of seeds that fall in the pot and regrows, so I think they grow on the surface of the soil. I read somewhere that the planted depth of seeds should be the size of the seed. I will transplant some to my set it and forget it aquaculture tank.

 

[CNJ]

This is an update on my comfrey leaf experiment. I think the comfrey leaves has been composting in my small container for about a month. The bottom when I flipped the container over still had a thin layer of green on the bottom which I mixed in. I couldn't smell anything from the top, but the bottom stank like when leaves are fermented in water. I will let the soil dry out and get rid of the smell before I start my comparison experiment.

The black container was stuffed full of chopped comfrey leaves and covered with about one inches of peat and I started mixing in more peat as the level dropped after about 2 weeks. I kept the container full and ended up with what we see in the picture.

 

[WthrLady]

A giggle since it's the end of fair season..

 

[jerryse]

I am up north again. Picked 1 bunch of Edelweiss grapes. Good enough to eat fresh. It was blooming in June when I bought it. Produced 2 bunches. Bought 2 Mammoth mum plants. Perennial zone 3 hardy. Need to sow some grass seed.

 

[TJAnonymous]

We don't have a TSC where I live. The Dollar Tree sent all their seeds back. I'll have to check the Co-Op next time I go to town. It's on the other side of town and I don't get out there much anymore. I think location matters, and I'm glad some people are able to pick up seeds at clearance prices. That's what I thought I could do. But, so far, I have not found any store with seeds still on display.

BTW, when I do go to town, I always check the clearance items. Sometimes I find great bargains. I recently bought a Ryobi 40v 14-inch chainsaw marked down from $229 to $115 on clearance. So, I bought it for the 5-year warranty alone. But that was the only clearance item I have found in the past few months related to outdoor tools.

I was hoping to pick up on some garden hose supplies on clearance, but nothing left on the shelves. Last year I got some good deals. Oh well, nothing I need, but I do like to stock up on clearance items if I can find a good deal.

Are there any seeds in particular that you are looking for?

 

[CNJ]

I used to grow mushrooms in a spare room but stop doing it after I got a spore explosion. Once spores are released in a grow room, it's hard to get clean petri dish clones.

I found out that cold varieties like shitake and king oyster mushrooms don't grow in the tropics without air condition. However, there were some unique varieties I could grow naturally like abalone oyster mushrooms and milky mushrooms.

The milky mushroom strain that I have, grows very large and meaty 6-inch heads and look like mutated white button mushrooms.

I grew them with hard wood pellets, but they are grown commercially with paddy (rice) straw. While I grew them, I was looking for a free source of substrate and just realized that I may have found something that I can use.

Lemon Grass are invasive, and look like straw when dried, and it grows back when I cut it near the stem.

This will be my next project, it's a continuation of a project I put on hold.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Good afternoon all. The really good news is the hurricane is puttering out and here way inland we’re just getting cool breezes and no rain. The garden is really puttering down now. I picked a few tomatoes, lima beans and green beans this morning. Cool temps today and looking to be that way for at least next week. It hasn’t hit 70F all day. I brought my lime tree and spider plant inside because the overnight temps may dip into the 50’s. I will be picking the rest of the leeks in the next few days and getting them into the freezer. I started making peach preserves today. I had forgot that the most labor intensive part of that process is peeling, pitting and slicing the fruit. Using frozen fruit is great. You just thaw and cook. It took 1/2 hour to set up the pot, add the peaches and sugar and boil. I let mine bloom in the refrigerator overnight before I can them. I have enough frozen peaches to do another batch and still have some leftover. I need to spend some time working on the new chicken coop so I’m going to wait another couple of weeks before processing the tomatoes. A week from this Sunday is apple picking day. I’m not sure if the Concord grapes survived last winter’s deep freeze but hopefully I can find enough to do a small batch of jam.