Garden time !

[WFO Speedracer]

I always plant a small garden , this year I decided to go big , we had a nice spot in the yard that was sunny and level and I have an ATV disc so I disced it up proper.

I figured at the least it would be less yard to cut so no downsides , then cucumbers went up to $1.00 a piece , I got started really late this year due to no time and funky weather, so I had to buy plants which are expensive , but in my search I found this tiny shop I have driven by a zillion times going to the lake , they sell three plants for $1.50 , if you know anything about plants that price is ridiculous, some of them had more than one plant in the individual container , we call those bonus plant.

So I went nuts planting tomatoes, zuchinni, crook neck yellow squash , okra, corn , bell peppers, Coolano peppers (heatless Poblanos) , eggplants, onions, carrots, marigolds, cucumbers and watermelons. The Marigolds, onions and carrots are companion plants , they make other plants grow better when they are planted together.

Then I went back at the other place and planted more tomatoes, onions cucumbers and cantaloupes , the cantaloupes, watermelon and cucumbers were planted from seed, today I pulled this out of the garden, I didn't even know it was out there, I also pulled up two really large radishes , I have bell peppers , yellow squash and tomatoes on the plant but not ready yet.

No pesticides or insecticides , the companion plants take care of most of that , feeding is done with pond water once a week, regular watering , direct composting which is digging a hole by the plant and covering it with dirt and when I make tea I keep brewing it till it no longer has color , using the same tea bags, the tea is fertilizer and it keeps pests away

Lots of work but I enjoy it , those grassy areas are where the watermelons are planted and the watermelons grow just fine in the middle of a pasture so I am not going to keep it up like the rest of the garden, watermelons are basically hands off plants, plant them and leave them alone..

I am in the middle of mulching it right now with hay and leaves and that zucchini is on the grill drizzled with spices and olive oil.

 

[DylanS]

Gardening is badass. Didn’t know about the companion plants. Would like to do something similar and get some fruit trees going.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

I have some Peach tree seeds in the fridge right now, they have to stay in for two months then you can try to germinate them , trees are damned expensive so it will have to be a few at a time type of deal.

I have a section of what used to be pasture land behind my house, right now it's just a PITA that I have to mow every couple of weeks for nothing, no one can even see it from the road .

I want to plant the peach trees , some Nectarines, Plums and maybe a few Pear and Lemon trees and make a small grape vineyard there, I will still have to cut around them but grass doesn't grow nearly as fast in the shade.

Something anyone can plant is cucumbers, if you have a flower bed and something for them to climb on they will grow and make cucumbers , all you really need is a couple of Tomato cages zip tied together for them to climb on or a small spot by a chainlink fence will work just fine, Tomatoes are a little more finicky but not by much. Corn I personally have never had much success with , maybe it will make something this year.

 

[SmittySX]

I’m still in the learning stages but tried my hand this spring. I ended up planting 835 seeds because i was bored and had some extra time off.. My dumbass ran out of room as soon as i had to transplant just the squash. Needless to say, I’ll have a different approach next year. I think I’ve given everyone i know plants if some sort. This was back in April..

 

[WFO Speedracer]

Nice greenhouse !

 

[WFO Speedracer]

It's starting to kick some stuff out , I got a crookneck squash, two Poblanos and a handful of radishes today and trust me we are just getting started , Radishes always produce first , then peppers , squash and Tomatoes and Okra.

I have a bunch of green bell peppers and Poblanos almost ready and a Purple bell I planted just because , cucumbers are growing like wildfire , those Poblanos store really well , just cut them in have take out the seeds and the pits and freeze them in a ziplock bag until you have enough to stuff and grill them , same goes for the okra but you need to cut it into slices then put it on a baking sheet in the oven on a low temp for a few minutes.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

What you have here is what's left of a Romaine lettuce heart from the grocery store, most people just throw it away.

What they don't know is if you will slice off the bottom, sprinkle it with cinnamon and put it into water then change the water out every few days it will start growing again and make new roots , then you can replant it in a shady spot in the garden or in this case most likely indoors in a pot.

That leaf is all new growth , probably only been in the water 4 or 5 days.

Way , way too hot for lettuce to do well in the garden here this time of year, it prefers cooler weather , inside in a window sill it will do just fine.

When it grows out enough you can cut it off leaving a few inches and it will just keep growing back kinda like the grass on your lawn but much , much tastier.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

The garden is showing out today , I have Zucchini , crook neck squash , radishes , Coolanos , purple bell and green bell peppers

 

[WFO Speedracer]

I pulled an eggplant, it's not huge like the ones in the store, I have been informed that the younger eggplants are much sweeter than the bigger ones , at any rate Coolianos, stuffed bell pepper, grilled eggplant and BBQ boneless pork chops are grillin while I am chillin.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

Today it's radishes, huge ones, I have never seen radishes this big , for sure you won't buy them like this at the store.

I have so many that I am going to start blanching some and freezing them.

I also pulled some more eggplants , these are called long purple variety, they are best when harvested at 1-2 inches in diameter and about 10 inches long , the ones you buy at the store are Black Beauty variety , sorry I just plant them I don't make the names up lol .

 

[WFO Speedracer]

Another banner day !

Every time I pick a cucumber it's like putting $.68 in my pocket I have seen them as high as a dollar each , slicing Tomatoes $1.21 , okra a 12ox bag is like $5.00 , Jalapenos $50 a pop , bell peppers $.68 each for greens , colored like red yellow and purple $1.48 each, Eggplants like this you can't even buy at the store nor can you buy the heatless Jalapenos , so yeah you can see where I am going here with this, you do the math .

Once this garden gets popping I am picking something every single day ad we still have at least three months of growing season left so I am replanting a lot of stuff for round two..

 

[WFO Speedracer]

Biggest harvest to date this morning , I had to make three trips out there , also I now finally have watermelons and cantaloupes on the vines and corn is making ears , these I have never had any real success with growing before , it is absolutely amazing how fast the melons grow once they start producing, they can easily double in size in a matter of days .

I know some of you will say those tomatoes are not ripe and you are correct I was taught to pick them once they start changing color then bring them inside and put them on the windowsill to finish ripening, they will be red and ready in a few days, if you let them ripen on the vine the birds will poke holes in them trying to get at the seeds.

Tomatoes are weird plants ,at the end of the growing season if there is a danger of frost I have pulled up the whole tomato plant before with the green tomatoes still on them and hung them up indoors upside down, they will continue to grow and fully ripen that way also.

This okra all gets chopped up and frozen, you simply chop it into slices then cook it a 350 degrees for about four minutes on a baking sheet , let it cool and put the whole baking sheet in the freezer to flash freeze them then transfer them into freezer bags , I usually get enough Okra to last till next year. I have one bag already full and these okra plants are far from stopping production just yet , bell pepper , the ones that I don't stuff and cook on the grill I just chop up and freeze them in freezer bags , tomatoes so far I have just been eating them but it looks like I will have to start canning some or making homemade spaghetti sauce out of them soon , if you can them you can use them for whatever later down the road , Jalapenos you just cut them into halves scoop out the seeds and pith and freeze them as well , I usually have enough to last till next growing season . The corn , there probably won't be enough to put up , I will just pull them and grill them on the grille shucks still on them. Eggplants, they don't freeze well and those have all been grilled or made into eggplant casserole , similar the squash casserole but substituting eggplant for the squash., damn good stuff !

 

[WFO Speedracer]

Round two got planted today , Sunny days sweet corn and a ton of Bell pepper and Coolanio pepper seeds , no idea if those will come up or not, kinda doing an experiment here , if they do come up I have plenty of space for them to grow , I have to go cut stakes for the tomatoes , they have completely grown out of their cages , have only once seen tomato plants get this damn big .!

Still going to plant more squash and sugar snap peas in the same place where the corn comes up at . the peas can climb up the stalks and the squash will shade to root , they call it three sisters planting thanks to the American Indians , they came up with the idea.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

I picked these today , this sun is brutal on this garden , there are three things that just love heat, Tomatoes, Peppers and okra , but even the tomatoes don't produce well above 95 degrees , some of the pepper plants I had to cover because it was just too much sun , the leaves were turning yellow , okra ,I don't think you can get enough heat or sun to affect it too much, that stuff is putting out like gangbusters as are all of the pepper plants that have partial shade , there are loads of bell and colliano pappers out there I am just leaving them on the plant a while longer to see if I can get some bigger ones for stuffing and grilling , the Tomato plants are start to recover a bit and have loads of tomatoes on them as well that will be ready in a week or so.


Cucumbers , yeah they are not doing to hot , still making here and there but the one in the shade are doing great, some of the ones in full sun I just went ahead and pulled up , if it's not making anything I pull it and get it out of there , ain't nobody got time for that..

 

[WFO Speedracer]

Today was one of those days gardeners dream about , showing out today fo sho !

I though the Tomatoes and peppers were done but turns out they were in shock from the heat , once some of the heat died down a bit they have started producing like gangbusters again , I actually had to build some shade for a couple of the pepper plants because the leaves were yellowing , they have greened back up quite nicely and are still producing peppers.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

So what do you do with all those bell peppers, that's easy, I stuff them and eat them, I made these this morning , I make them in batches and freeze them because you only want two or three at a time but it's hard to make just two or three,

The smaller ones get chopped up and put in freezer bags to be used for cooking in various stuff from Squash casserole ,homemade spaghetti sauce to western omelets.
I have a quart freezer bag full of chopped bell peppers and two quart freezer bags full of chopped okra so far and we ain't done just yet .

 

[WFO Speedracer]

Pulled this beauty this morning ,it came up from some of the scraps I put into holes in the garden I didn't even plant this lol , several more are on the way to maturity , I also had enough Tomatoes to make another batch of homemade spaghetti sauce , everything in there except for the onion came from my garden , that will cook in there about a day to a day and a half.

These Tomato plants were clippings from my large plants that I clipped off and put in water for a few weeks, not all of them rooted but these did , they need to go outside for at least a week to harden then they get planted for round three .

I have 8 more tomato plants at a garden at the other house that have also started producing tomatos.

At the lake I have a greenhouse frame I need to take apart and get down here before next year , then I will start all my plants several weeks early and get a good jump on things for next year.

 

[MADMAT]

One of our best ever here in Ohio....just stared round 2 of green beans and peas last week.....

 

[WFO Speedracer]

Happy tomato day , I pulled the last of the cucumbers but I planted more last week so it's just the last two of the first crop.

I know what you are going to say those are green, I am having problems with birds pecking the tomatoes so I pulled some of the larger ones , they will ripen just fine in a few days in the windowsill and I reworked the bird netting so that should take care of that issue.

 

[WFO Speedracer]

I call this old world spaghetti sauce because this is how they used to do it.

20-25 tomatoes red , finely chopped ( if it had a tinge of red I cut it up and put it in there )
I large onion finely chopped
2 bell peppers finely chopped
1 Tsp garlic salt
2 tsp sugar
1/4 cup white vinegar
dash of oregano
dash of cayenne pepper salt
dash of black pepper
dash of red paprika

This is seasoned to taste , I adjust it however , which means I will probably put a lot more spices in mine than that but that is the basic recipe.

Do not add any water , if you do it will have to cook forever to thicken up, like it's not cooking forever already lol.

Put in a crock pot on low , let it cook all day long on low , at night turn it to keep warm , leave it on keep warm for the entire next day, it's done when it changes color to a darker red and has thickened up somewhat , add hamburger meat or sausage whichever you prefer and serve over spaghetti noodles. , I will be using Angel hair pasta but most likely tis batch is getting canned.

The photo is before it has started cooking of course. , everything except the onion , spices and vinegar came out of my garden.