2024 gardens

yea my maters pretty much suck. for the canning i’d like to do i’ll end up buying them.

not thinking there’s gonna be much for freebies!!!!!

Yea, canning is going to be sad at my house this year. I have quite a few stewed leftover from last year so those are off the table. Ill probably make one batch of salsa.

I planted 6 roma plants and didnt get 1 tomato.

My tomato plants are out of control. They have broken through their cages and are very full of tomatoes. Roma and San Marzano. My beans are looking great and my pumpkins are taking over. My cucumbers are also taking over and have taken down a few sunflowers we had for decoration. Going to do some work in the garden tomorrow.
DT

2 1/2 dozen corn ready for the freezer, throw in a jug of cukes and it’s beer thirty

last night i got tired of looking at some of my sickly looking tomatoes. i pulled 6 plants. the green maters i pulled of those 6 plants didnt even cover the bottom of an ice cream pail.

and those plants had little to no root system whatsoever.

My standard and Roma tomatoes are doing well and producing a lot of fruits. The green beans are about normal. Green peppers pretty much suck this year. I haven’t seen a single pepper yet. Hot peppers are doing well. The onions are bunched and hanging to dry and I’m happy with how they came out. Cukes have not been doing well. Carrots…. we’ll have to see. The rabbits hit the tops three different times so I think all the growth has gone to replacing the tops and not the carrot. Next year there’ll be fencing on that particular bed with one opening and a snare in place there.

Its amazing to hear how gardens vary so much this year. A good garden is a lot of work and its sad to hear of them not doing well. Between weather and vermin and bugs and weeds it can be a struggle to have a decent patch.

Rabbits seem to be thriving here in Rochester. Ma and I take our daily walks and it doesn’t matter what time of day it is there are rabbits everywhere. Some lawns will have five or six of the damned things sitting there. I keep the .22 with silent rounds handy and have been putting two or three on most weeks in the trash. Squirrels have been thinned out enough for now.

Last year was my best garden ever but I watered a lot. This year is my worst and I haven’t watered any. Only wet the 2nd plantings of beans, peas and acorn squash. Too wet.

My first year planting tomatillos. I had the pots about three feet apart to start. Plenty of flowers but no fruit.
After doing a little research I found out they don’t self pollinate like tomatoes. I jammed them together and made sure the vines were touching and it worked!

I did four tomatillos last year and had more than I could give away. Not much I could find to do with them other than salsa Verde. Can only eat so much of that. Didn’t plant any this year. I can buy a few tomatillos when I want salsa Verde.

Tassels are finally showing themselves on my corn. I might get some corn if I don’t run out of summer first. Tomatoes are coming back strong after the deer nipped them early this year. Same with poblano’s and habanero’s and banana peppers. Seems more people I talk to their gardens are doing poorly in my area. Mostly due to the large amount of early rains we had is my guess.

Ma likes her flowers and has started quite a few varieties from seed gathered from wild stock. Here she is with one of her “native” hibiscus clumps. Generally the wild hibiscus stay about 4 to 5 feet tall, but this one is well over 7 feet right now. It’s never gotten this tall. The black-eyed-Susan’s next to her are another of her transplant successes. Lupines from the cabin are another one she’s excelled at. But this hibiscus is outrageous!

Nice job, Ma. My wife keeps saying we need to plant more flowers next year, but she doesn’t know what kind. I started some crackerjack marigolds from seed this year and sprinkled a packet of wildflower mix outside. Some of the marigolds haven’t bloomed yet but are getting close. They’re a good 3.5′ tall now and most have bloomed. I can’t name a single flower in the wildflower beds. That’s the extent of my flower growing knowledge.

picklerick wrote:

Nice job, Ma. My wife keeps saying we need to plant more flowers next year, but she doesn’t know what kind. I started some crackerjack marigolds from seed this year and sprinkled a packet of wildflower mix outside. Some of the marigolds haven’t bloomed yet but are getting close. They’re a good 3.5′ tall now and most have bloomed. I can’t name a single flower in the wildflower beds. That’s the extent of my flower growing knowledge.

My garden is slowly transferring from a vegie garden to a flower garden because of the labor.
I love echinacea they come in all heights and colors. Plus the blooms last for a long time.

garden here is doing ok. getting more cukes then i expected. my second planting of cukes is going to start vining out here soon. 2nd planting of green beans is producing nicely.

my maters still suck. making salsa tomorrow and had to buy maters!!!! getting enough to eat is about it. carrots are the best i’ve had in a while. kalarabi……meh, they ok at best.

EPG..its a labor of love……and good eatin!!!! get that Indy here to help!!!!

Indy out
Belle back in
X and me are friends again.
Oct 1 cancelled.
We need to meet and have a drink, its been a real whirlwind!

Headed north Monday, going home following Saturday, I know where the channel bar is!

It’s no wonder you don’t got time for a garden lol

Dang!
I’m up tomorrow and fishing with Tom Neustrom on Friday. Heading back Sunday.
Maybe need to put a trip to Outing out there with some IDO fellows this fall.
Monster Eyes and Muskie then!

Im getting a little rush of tomatoes right now. Cant keep up with eating them.
Going to make salsa next week. I think Im skipping stewed tomatoes this year considering how many I have left from last year. Got two quarts of banana peppers put up this week. Probably two more next week. My Anaheim’s are kicking arse.

13 1/2 pints salsa.

Yea I bought tomatoes.

Picked green beans this morning after being gone 6 days. There on top of an 8 cu ft freezer. And some of my carrots. There huge.

I’ve canned and froze and my tomatoes are still gong bonkers. I’m going to put them on the curb as give away. Same with the grapes.

Jimmy Jones wrote:

I’ve canned and froze and my tomatoes are still gong bonkers. I’m going to put them on the curb as give away. Same with the grapes.

wish i had that tomato problem!!!!!!!!

I wished you lived across the street.

This is my worst garden year ever. Mine was too wet. Got about 3/4 cup of green beans. They were good though. Peas…nada. Second planting of each never took.
My one cucumber is pictured below.
Had my first sweet corn yesterday and that was good. Will be having some every day for a week or so. Second batch may make it. Tassels and silks came out over the weekend.
May get a couple zucchini, usually giving them to ~5 neighbors, and a few acorn squash. Had a 5-gallon bucket of those last year. Oh well.

This year our yields are completely opposite of what we got last year.
Our cucumbers never took off.. Our squash, pumpkins, & Zucchini all got Squash borers and they all died. BUT, my tomatoes are going bonkers and so are my peppers. Running out of room for blanched tomatoes. We’ll be doing our annual Salsa making day in about 3 weeks.

Anyone have a step by step process for making spaghetti sauce? Never made any before. Not looking for tomato sauce. I want spaghetti sauce. I’ll be adding peppers, onions, mushrooms, etc. (maybe there’s no difference?) If you have a tried and true recipe I’d love to try it out. PM me if you have something!

I make spaghetti sauce like 4 gallons at a time. Usually dump in two packs of Mrs Wages seasoning just to start then peppers onions basil oregano. Dont really use a recipe cause none of the veggies are ever the same flavor strength wise.

Netguy wrote:

This is my worst garden year ever. Mine was too wet.

IceNEyes1986 wrote:

This year our yields are completely opposite of what we got last year.

Same here guys. After planting the majority of the garden we got tons of rain for a month or so. And between work and kids/home life commitments, I really wasn’t able to pull weeds like I usually do, so a lot of weeds likely impacted what I had intended to grow by crowding the garden and syphoning water away. I have dug up about a third of my potatoes so far and they’ve done OK. They’re definitely smaller and I’m not sure if that’s because of the extra rain, the weeds, or both. I also never did get around to hilling my potatoes. Doesn’t seem to have made a drastic impact, but I did notice one plant with quite a few potatoes above ground and no good, so hilling would’ve helped that one.

I’ll have to post pictures of pumpkins in a month or so. The past two years I’ve really enjoyed buying seed packs of unique pumpkins, like white ones or the smaller decorative ones, and ones that are white with green stripes. I usually have one or two pumpkins that get fairly large (not real monster size but bigger than what you’ll find in a store) and I don’t have that this year, but might end up with some more rare ones this year.

One of my kids also wanted to try sunflowers this year and they didn’t grow near as tall as some I’ve seen but they’ve done OK.

Barely enough tomatoes for a small pot of sauce this round. I even added three quarts of cherry tomatoes and couldn’t make a full pot. Good thing I still have some from last year. What’s left out there we’ll be able to keep up with fresh eating for BLT’s, tomato/basil pasta, and salsas. The basil is starting to flower, so that’s all coming in soon.

i feel your pain picklerick!!!! i hit up the local farmers market today in town to check out mater supplies. UFFDA……there tough to find. there were 2 local Cold Spring vendors there, neither one had much for anything. 1 guy said he planted 1500 tomato plants this year, twice as many as last year and will not even get 1/2 the maters he got last year. they both said there arent many maters to the plants either.

i did score a box from Novaks out of Foley, 30 bucks, they had a pile of them. but i found out they grow there’s in a green house. they were nice ones too!!!! tomorrow i’ll be doing up some cukes and saurkraut friday stewed maters!!!!1

I know this is about gardens, but I’m not ashamed to say I’ve been using these when the homemade stuff runs out. It’s the only canned tomato I’ve had that actually taste good right out of the can. I think they’re about $6 for a #6 10oz can at Costco. I’ll blend the can, then bag it in one quart freezer bags.