2021 gardens

Picked my first beans of the year today. They’re doing well–gonna be a lot more soon. Everything else is looking good here except snap peas. I think it was just too hot for them. We got a few, but my vines are about 12″ tall and appear to be done. Maybe I’ll plant a fall crop. My Fresno peppers are going strong!

mine have a bit to go yet. Are you like me, eat as I pick

Noticed little cukes yesterday.

glenn57 wrote:

Are you like me, eat as I pick

No, I don’t really like them raw. I have 7 and 9 year olds that practice that method, though.

Decided these onions are getting pulled before the rain we are supposed to get Wednesday.

First local sweetcorn tonight. Fantastic. Better than anything last year. Bought it from a bag that just came out of the field. Happy to find the the guy that said he was going to charge $12 a dozen. Because, believe it or not, a seed shortage. Wasn’t everyone’s plan. I gave $7 a dozen. It was well worth it. May get back to $5 when more people have it. If it stays this good I’ll pay $7 all year.

The FW spent many hours over the weekend weeding “my” garden, so now I concede that it’s ours. I picked up a couple 60gal livestock troughs at Fleet Farm. I pounded in a couple din rails that my company scrapped out and strung some paracord back and forth all the way up them to make a trellis for yellow beans and squash. In front of them I scattered a packet of bunching onions. When it cools down, I’ll put in some leaf lettuces, beets and radishes in the other trough.

Well canning season started. 23 qts of pickles. I cheat and buy them at becks by elk river. 7 qts have tia chili peppers in them for heat

Nice. Planning to do the same with four bush pickle plants. Tons of male flowers all over and the females are starting to pop. Going to make three different ones using ghost, habanero and jalapeno peppers. Ghost and jalapeno peppers are starting to show some size, 1-2″ long. Habaneros are just budding now.

Care to share your brine recipe? I tried to get the best one I’ve ever had from an ex-coworker but he said he was sworn to secrecy by the person he got it from.

picklerick wrote:

Nice. Planning to do the same with four bush pickle plants. Tons of male flowers all over and the females are starting to pop. Going to make three different ones using ghost, habanero and jalapeno peppers. Ghost and jalapeno peppers are starting to show some size, 1-2″ long. Habaneros are just budding now.

Care to share your brine recipe? I tried to get the best one I’ve ever had from an ex-coworker but he said he was sworn to secrecy by the person he got it from.

certainly…………

4 1/2 qts water….
2 qts vinegar……i always add a splash or 3 more
1 cup pickling salt
bring this to a boil before adding in the jars.
this set of ingredients is enough brine to do about 14 qts of pickles, so you can adjust accordingly.

to the jars with the pickles i also add onion, garlic, the real stuff not minced and dill, i grow it. DO NOT SKIMP on the garlic dill or onion…..IMO!!!!!!!

i hot bath it for no more then 15 minutes after the bath starts to boil. longer the pickles tend to get soft. then i let them meld for a good 2 months before i open them!

Cherries are long gone, next up peaches.

Thanks glenn. I like the simplicity of your brine. No calcium chloride (Pickle Crisp) or pickling spice is interesting. I’ve only ever done a few jars of refrigerator pickles at a time. I’ve tried both English and “regular” cukes but they get pretty soggy after a few weeks. Probably not the freshest things coming from a WI grocery store in winter. It’s also probably because I quartered or sliced them. Keeping them whole is probably best.

picklerick wrote:

Thanks glenn. I like the simplicity of your brine. No calcium chloride (Pickle Crisp) or pickling spice is interesting. I’ve only ever done a few jars of refrigerator pickles at a time. I’ve tried both English and “regular” cukes but they get pretty soggy after a few weeks. Probably not the freshest things coming from a WI grocery store in winter. It’s also probably because I quartered or sliced them. Keeping them whole is probably best.

yep the smaller the pickle the better.

Our also do a frigerator pickle type thing with cukes.
Slice the long way pretty much the same ingredients and brine only no hot bath and these go in 2 gallon jugs

anyone else that gardens and has tomatoes with the tomato wilt……..

i’m dealing with alot of it for some reason. not sure if it affects the tomato but hte plant looks like crapola!!!!!! i’ve dome some googling and talked to my brother who used to have it, from what i can gather adding this rock sulfate, sometimes referred to as copper sulfate to the dirt helps.

anyone dealt with or done this????? wonder iffin it would be to late to add this or i may need to wait till next year?

No, mine look great, but I am strating to see some blossom end rot, which I end up with yearly.

Ralph Wiggum wrote:

No, mine look great, but I am strating to see some blossom end rot, which I end up with yearly.

since I’ve been putting epsom salt around the bottom of the stems once the tomato starts forming I have mostly avoided that. Do it about once every 3-4 watering. About a tblsp each time.

I seen they looked wilty in your onion picture dont know why that happens sometimes. Knock on wood mine look good this year but i did pull out most of my cukes cause they wilted extremely fast and were dying from something.

just going to put this out there but if anyone is interested in starting or adding to a winter onion patch……i’ll have plenty of the starters for ya…….just let me know and this fall i can send you a bunch!!!!

Should be about 15 days or so and the coons will get fed well.

Is it legal to ship onion sets across state lines? If so, I’d be interested and would pay for shipping. Got my first harvest yesterday. One Sunsugar cherry tomato that probably could have gone a few more days and one nice sized pickling cuke that I cut into strips and made Chicago style hot dogs for lunch. We got over 2″ of rain here yesterday evening and overnight.

My GF has a cherry tree that is ready to pick. Thinking about making cherry moonshine. Anyone have a recipe they like?
DT

picklerick wrote:

Is it legal to ship onion sets across state lines? If so, I’d be interested and would pay for shipping. Got my first harvest yesterday. One Sunsugar cherry tomato that probably could have gone a few more days and one nice sized pickling cuke that I cut into strips and made Chicago style hot dogs for lunch. We got over 2″ of rain here yesterday evening and overnight.

I don’t see why not. Remind me about September, they should be ready then.

deertracker wrote:

My GF has a cherry tree that is ready to pick. Thinking about making cherry moonshine. Anyone have a recipe they like?
DT

No moonshine experience, but I soak these in Vodka. Any fruit soaked for a few weeks works wonders (I mainly do raspberries). No science to it, but more is better. I usually put a bunch of jolly ranchers in with it too. It usually turns a cheap bottle into something you can sip on ice.

Anyone else here hate flies as much as I do?? This thing works pretty good. Got it at the man’s mall that’s never stocked with product.

First picking of the year. Pulled all the dill too, less to water, but it was done for

Picked almost a gallon of cherries from the ladies cherry tree. Going to make 1 pie and the rest goes to cherry moonshine.
DT

It’s begun

Got a 10 qt batch of fermented pickles jarred up this evening after a fun four day trip to LOTW

Our garden was doing great then we were overtaken by Japanese beetles and powdery mildew. Our beans and cukes are doing ok for the time being but time will tell. Dang beetles may have taken out one of my new apple trees.

If you’re still dealing with the powdery mildew, you can try this. Mix 1 tablespoon baking soda with 1 tablespoon vegetable oil and 1 teaspoon dish soap in 1 gallon of water. I’d spray a few leaves in the morning and check the plant the next day to make sure it’s doing OK, then spray down the rest if it is.
I don’t have a fix for the beetles but if you’re using traps I’d get rid of them because it seems they actually attract them. Thankfully I don’t have any. “Studies have shown that traps lead to more plant damage in the areas they are placed in. One study found that a trap placed alone led to nearby vegetation having more damage than in similar areas where no traps were placed.”

I sprayed all the areas them dumb beetles were hanging out with SEVEN a few weeks ago. Last night i seen one for the first time since.

Garden wise, right on cue just like every year my tomatos are packed full of big green beauties and the bottom of the plants are starting to die off. Dont know why it happens but seems about the same time every year. Definitely isnt from water splashing up on them cause they havent seen any of that for a while.