Garden 2023

[dragnlaw]

Spent 2 hours filling some bags with compost, soil and still haven't finished. Only 9 bags but compost has not been oped up yet, it's at the bottom of a hill, wagon can only take 2 bags and I can only pull 2 partial bags up the hill. Then mixing soil dug up from post holes, I'm pooped. Taking a break.
Will finish this afternoon and get those potatoes in. They are almost producing leaves in the downstairs powder room where they are supposed to be in hiding.

 

[Kathleen]

My potato patch seems to be really thriving. In fact, they seem to have inspired a few asparagus to make an appearance this year. In front of them are raised beds with lettuce and what I thought was cabbage but appears to be broccoli.

My tiny tomatoes were planted behind day lilies and I have some Black-Eyed Susan's returning. The garlic looked nice but.....dime-sized cloves so far.

I have a couple of peppers, eggplant, cucumbers and onions. These onions are doing well. The Walla Walla that I brought from Seattle are dying miserably.
I will put beans in front of the eggplant and peppers.

A peek at the garlic resulted in nearly nothing at all. Hmm...I need to break out some paint as well.

 

[GotGarlic]

My potato patch seems to be really thriving. In fact, they seem to have inspired a few asparagus to make an appearance this year. In front of them are raised beds with lettuce and what I thought was cabbage but appears to be broccoli.

View attachment 64560
My tiny tomatoes were planted behind day lilies and I have some Black-Eyed Susan's returning. The garlic looked nice but.....dime-sized cloves so far.
View attachment 64561
I have a couple of peppers, eggplant, cucumbers and onions. These onions are doing well. The Walla Walla that I brought from Seattle are dying miserably.
I will put beans in front of the eggplant and peppers.
View attachment 64562

A peek at the garlic resulted in nearly nothing at all. Hmm...I need to break out some paint as well.
View attachment 64563

When did you start the garlic? Here, people typically plant cloves in September or October and they're ready to harvest in June or July.

 

[Kathleen]

When did you start the garlic? Here, people typically plant cloves in September or October and they're ready to harvest in June or July.

I did get it in later than I had hoped, but it did grow nicely. I wonder whether the soil is too dense or whether it was planted too late. Garlic (along with beets, scallions, and radishes) seem to be impossible for me to grow successfully.

 

[pepperhead212]

I was thinking that this was quite early for garlic, too. Usually July 4th is my target date, sometimes with them ready a little earlier, sometimes a little later. I actually fertilized mine today, for the last time.

I also noticed the size of those shallots in my back bed. A few of the smaller ones I started from seed, but most are these things I start when I use shallots, and cut off the bottom half inch or so of the root end, and plant it about 1½" deep, and eventually, this is what happens, and a few of them are 4 or 5 stalks from one! I planted a bunch of these in the winter, as long as the ground is not frozen. I do the same with scallions, but they are mostly in the front bed.
Almost all shallots, and a few scallions. 5-14 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

 

[taxlady]

Those scallions you plant the bottom, root portion of, what are they like when they grow? I planted scallions one year and they came back by themselves for a few years. But, they never grew the white part. The just grew long, hollow, green stems.

 

[pepperhead212]

@taxlady Here are some of those scallions, showing how they grow from those root cuttings - sort of like an onion set! The deeper they are planted, the more white stem you'll get, but I often just cut them even with the ground, and they grow right back! Like harvesting chives and garlic chives! And late in the season they do get large and thick, but that doesn't matter - I'll harvest one, and get the equivalent of 6 or 8 scallions! I just slit those thick greens lengthwise, and then chop them...with my onion goggles on! Those are the most wicked of any onions, when chopping them old.
Some scallions, started from the root ends cut from others, and re-planted. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

 

[taxlady]

Yeah, I think that's pretty much what the ones in my garden looked like. They tasted fine and I used them, but there really was nothing inside of those stems/leaves whatever you call those, except air. It was like getting one layer of an onion instead of the whole onion.

 

[larry_stewart]

Yesterday got just about everything planted. Tomatoes, peppers , most eggplants, cucumbers, chard, string beans, basil, parsley and probably a few other things I'm forgetting. Mulched everything, adjusted the sprinkles to hit what I want, and more importantly, not hit what I don't want. %90 of the time I hand water ( with the hose), but when we go for days without rain, gets very hot, or times when I'm away for a bit, I like being able to have the sprinklers do their thing.
Only things left to plant are the Okra, peanuts and the squashes ( which are outside, in their cells just waiting to get bigger and transplantable), and sweet potatoes, which usually become available in a week or two. Then its just keeping them healthy and alive until harvest.

 

[Kathleen]

I also still have okra and squash (acorn) to plant. I put some shelly beans and a tiny patch corn in the ground today. Also, I placed four cabbage plants that I bought along with a cantaloupe. I will plant pole beans later in the season.

 

[pepperhead212]

Yeah, I think that's pretty much what the ones in my garden looked like. They tasted fine and I used them, but there really was nothing inside of those stems/leaves whatever you call those, except air. It was like getting one layer of an onion instead of the whole onion.

Isn't that what all scallion greens are like? I never had any solid greens.

 

[taxlady]

Isn't that what all scallion greens are like? I never had any solid greens.

But, having all hollow tubes meant that it took a lot of them to get much scallion flavour into a dish, usually a salad like tuna or chicken.

 

[dragnlaw]

taxy, if you want to have a more "solid" part of a scallion growing, you will have to start to hill them. Meaning as they grow, you start to pile the soil up around the stems - just like you do with leeks and celery. Once the green parts get really started they become more hollow. As long as you keep piling the soil the whites stay white and solid.

 

[pepperhead212]

Yes, DL, but that's what makes the white - under the soil! All the green of any onions is hollowed out. And I usually cut those scallions just above the ground, with little white, and they grow back - the Chinese recipes I use it in are fine - no white really needed.

 

[taxlady]

That's a good idea about hilling the scallions. But, I had those scallions as volunteers that came back every summer for a few years. I don't think I'm going to be planting any scallions any time soon.

The green parts did get used. It just required a lot larger volume for the same weight as with whole proper scallions.

 

[pepperhead212]

I planted most of my basil yesterday, and a few more today; also a couple more okra, that had gotten their 1st set of true leaves. Still have 6 more okra to go, with 12 planted - the rest go to my friends. I also a few days ago, when I sprouted a bunch of okra seeds, before putting them in the pellets, I put 2 in empty spots for them outside, and I'll see if they grow faster than starting them in the pellets, though the pellets seem to have them growing faster already. I also started sprouting my butternut seeds, as well as more of the bitter melon seeds, of the ones that did not germinate. I "scarified" the seeds this time, filing the edges of the seeds - I'll see how it works. I also soaked them in KNO3 this time - what I use for pepper seeds, and some other seeds. And I also tried some saved seeds, from a white bitter melon a few years ago - something I haven't tried yet.

I sprayed Surround on the plants for the first time today - the eggplants, tomatoes, cucumbers, and melons. Only sprayed a small amount, given the sizes - eggplants the largest, and the main ones I want to start on, to prevent those flea beetles. I also put some potassium bicarbonate in the mix, as a prophylactic. Here is a photo of one Green Zebra, one of the larger varieties only 12 days after transplant.
One of the 2 Green Zebra Cherry tomatoes, sprayed with Surround, 5-15, 12 days after transplant. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

I also re-set my timers for the drip irrigation lines - had to set them to run now, since the rain has been almost nonexistent here in May, and almost nothing forecast. But I had to turn each row down, since the plants aren't very large yet - I put the timers away when the plants were full grown. I'll just have to re-set them again, when plants get larger, and it gets hotter. Still beats hand watering!

 

[taxlady]

I was hoping to get some plants put outside soon. We have a frost advisory for Wednesday and Thursday morning, so I guess it has to wait.

 

[blissful]

Our gardens will be the latest, not going in until June 1st. Wisconsin.
Our garlic is looking strong, I expect the first or second week of July for harvest.

We're hardening off peppers starting today, some tomatoes, and we're laying out landscape fabric. The onions will go in first. Hopefully some of our winter sown plants will be ready to go in in 2 weeks.

I seeded the west garden, which is now our bee flower garden and we had rain for a few days. I want to water it today.

The strawberries are growing but the cover frame is getting too old to keep, I'll put the plastic from it in bags. We have some rebuilding to do this summer for cover frames.

We've been gorging on asparagus from the garden. New asparagus plants from seed goes in in 2 weeks.

Mr bliss is regularly stung with bees from working at the bee place (semis with hundreds of boxes of bees). We took leaves from the plantains out in the circle garden, ground up with water to make a pulp, then put that on the sting areas, wrapped in paper then cloth. He says it helps a lot to cool the area and relieve the stinging and itch. The swelling went down within 36 hours which is pretty fast. He has one more week-end to go and I hope he doesn't get stung this time. He's going to wear taller rubber boots to avoid the ankle stings. So far neither of us have stings from our own bees.

It's very frustrating to see how we are the last people to put in gardens! We probably won't have lush garden pictures until July.

 

[bethzaring]

You're not the latest Blissful! I only have transplanted out broccoli, cabbage, spinach, onions, cos lettuce and planted peas from seed. May 25th is the average latest freeze, so nothing tender goes out until after the 25th. I have tomatoes, peppers/chiles, marigolds and zinnias still under cover on the seed starting mats. Haven't even started basil yet.

 

[blissful]

@bethzaring , I'm glad to hear we aren't alone.