Garden 2020

I’ve put out 10 tomato plants of various kinds. I’m trying a couple of large Tarter Tank raised bed planters. They’re basically galvanized stock tanks without a bottom and filled them with compost based soil. They sit East-West and on the North side of each one I drove in a T-Post at each corner and strung 5′ high with 4″ square welded goat fence between them and have been tying the vines to it with the green stretchy tape.

2 of the tomato plants got planted in front of the house in big flower pots that I’ve repurposed. I did plant a bunch of Marigolds in the planters too for some color and to help repel bugs.

I also put out radishes, lettuce, onions, carrots, beans, cucs and squash. The onions and carrots aren’t doing much. I think I got them out too late. Everything else is going crazy.

I’m working on clearing space for another 5 Tarter raised beds next spring. Each one is about 24sq ft. I’ve heard it takes 200 sq ft to raise enough food to feed each person for a year. I don’t know how true that is.

I’m pretty sure my paste tomatoes are at or over six feet now. They’re loaded with tomatoes and flowers clear to the tops of the plants. My two hills of bush cukes are more yellow than green with flowers and small cukes already hanging. The lettuce bolted in the heat but we got lots of meals off it this year. The new “Patterson” variety of onions are really going to town. The onion bulbs are almost baseball sized now and beginning to lift in the ground. My garlic is just starting to turn a bit and the shallots are beginning to show a bit of browning in the stems so I figure another week or two and they both should be ready to dig. Like the Patterson onions my garlic is about 3 feet tall. Been fun to watch the garlic. This is the first year that I have had garlic do anything. Where the tops go into the ground they’re about an inch and a quarter diameter.

Best garden I’ve ever planted so far. Will be blanching and freezing green beans tonight, and canning baby pickles next week. Peas didn’t do so well, but everything else is looking to be bumper crop.

does anyone else plant dill????? man has that been on fire. i’m to the point I gotta check it everyday. not going to be canning any pickles this year but will need it for when I pickle some green beans and cukes. it also freezes up nice and have used some upto 3 years old with no real difference in the out come.

been picking jalepeno and green peppers, a few kalarabi are going to get pulled and cleaned today and the green beans are getting real close!!!

My green beans are so close too. I’ve not planted dill before.

I’ve got one tomato ready tonight! And a few others not far behind. 😊

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Sharon – what variety of tomato? My bush beefsteak has a pair that are turning red but it will still be a few days. I am close on green beans as well and the dill is just beginning to flower. Time to try pickling some beans. The beans must be good, my Springer Spaniel flies through the air to grab them when tossed.

These are cherry tomatoes. I also planted romas, and I see some green ones appearing!

Roma tomatoes are great for salsa’s and salads, but personally I don’t care much for them to just eat. To me they don’t have the flavor other tomatoes have. I usually plant 1 or 2 for salsa’s but didn’t this year

I also usually plant 1 cherry tomato, a super sweet 100. Again I didn’t this year. I have 23 tomato plants in the garden. I need to make salsa and my soup starter, and that takes alit of mater’s.

Sometimes I have to holler at the boys for nibbling on the weeds peeking out of the garden. Today while checking the tomatoes I ate two that were ripened, and turned around to see this… the watchful eyes saying, “Hey Momma, how come YOU get to nibble in the garden but we can’t??” 😅🐶🍅

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yep those innocent eyes.

Picked maybe an ice cream pail of green beans tonight. and pulled a few carrots.

I’ve been picking a few cucs and peppers. The spaghetti squash are almost getting bigger as you watch them.

I got a tomato and a couple nice cukes tonight. She ate the tomato before I could even dream of a slice.

All my stuff seems to be coming along good, but ive noticed some marks on a few tomatoes and picked 2 big bell peppers with soft spots. Also picked 4 zucchini last night that had little bite marks on them. Seen a chipmunk in there the other day thinking hes taste testing. Might have to put a rat trap out for him.

JEREMY wrote:

Seen a chipmunk in there the other day thinking hes taste testing. Might have to put a rat trap out for him.

Uh oh! Yep, might be time for the trap!

I found out I’m no good at holding up a tape measure and trying to use the phone to grab a picture when the topic is at 79″ My Roma tomatoes have outdone themselves for growth this year. As a rule my Romas get to maybe 4 feet. I have 14 of the Roma plants and they’re supposed to be about 30″ apart but instead they are a green wall that tops out at 79″ and the size of the tomatoes themselves is just something else.

Anybody have a sweet horseradish pickle canning recipe?

It seems like everything in my garden makes me itch like crazy.

I’ve convinced myself that I need to wear gloves to pick anything.

Do you have a favorite lotion to cut down on itching?

I feel that way too sometimes after picking tomatoes. Hydrocortisone cream can help any really itchy spots. Or for an all-over lotion try a soothing lotion like Eucerine – it comes in fragrance-free too, which is nice.

Zucchini plants are huge and loaded with flowers, but not seeing any fruit. Same thing happened last year. Have 2 varieties side by side.

Any thoughts?

Thanks
Pete

Pete, sounds like it could be a pollination problem. This looks like a helpful article:

https://theveggielady.com/zucchini-flowers-but-no-fruit/

I’ve never done any gardening before. This year I decided I would grow some potatoes in a couple of buckets.

I made a bucket stand to get them off the ground. Bought a couple food grade buckets, drilled some drain holes in the bottom of them and planted some potato chunks that had spuds sprouting.

Three weeks later I knocked it over when I was backing up on the riding mower.

I found nothing growing in one bucket and one spud had sprouted in the other. I refilled the growing spud bucket with the soil but nothing ever grew after that.

I’ll give it another try next year. Maybe buy a couple raised beds too.

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I did buy a couple upside down planters. I planted grape tomatoes in those.
Also some basil, thyme and cilantro in a ladder planter. Luckily, I placed those where I can’t run over them with the mower…

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MNdrifter wrote:

Anybody have a sweet horseradish pickle canning recipe?

I just add Horseradish to a standard dill pickling recipe, but I’m sure you could do it to a bread and butter one as well. I’ve always just used googled recipes and they work well.

Speaking of pickles, I made these refrigerator pickles this morning.

Everything veggie that went in the bowl was picked fresh this morning….cukes, green pepper, and onion. Slice everything as thin or thick as you like, toss in a bowl, add 2 tbsn of canning salt, 1 tsp, celery seed, 2 cups of sugar and I cup of cider vinegar. Stir it all together, cover and set in the fridge. I like to give two days at least, stirring everything up a couple times each day.

This is a small batch. When the cukes really get to rocking I’ll do a 5 quart ice cream buck full of these and keep the bucket full as long as the cukes and peppers produce. Onions are no problem any time. When the bucket starts to get down about 2/3’s of the way I’ll whip up more with new brine and just add the former pickles to the new batch.

This is the pits talking about the darned things….now I have to wait a couple days before diving in.

koldfront kraig wrote:

I made a bucket stand to get them off the ground

You made those? They look amazing, @skindog! What a talent it is to manipulate metal like that. 🙂 How are the upside down planter tomatoes coming along? I imagine those will be easier to pick being up in the air vs. ground tomatoes.

Fresh picked green beans from the garden! 😊

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Canned pickles yesterday. Fresh BLT’s today. I had a BLTJCG, (Bacon, lettuce, Tomato, jalapeño, cucumber, green pepper). Gardens going nuts! I’m about a week away from WTF am I going to do with all of this, and about 2 weeks from salsa.

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Little behind some of you guys. But got the first tomatoes picked last night. I see a BLT in my near future!

-J.

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Sharon wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>koldfront kraig wrote:</div>
I made a bucket stand to get them off the ground

You made those? They look amazing, @skindog! What a talent it is to manipulate metal like that. 🙂 How are the upside down planter tomatoes coming along? I imagine those will be easier to pick being up in the air vs. ground tomatoes.

I work in metal fabrication. Its easy when you have the right machinery.

I’m everyone’s best friend here at work when someone needs something repaired or fabricated.

I pulled my onions today. Totally disappointed.

Been eating kalarabi and carrots from the garden also. Some tomatoes and cukes.

Pulled all my dill also.