any gardeners?

“Spirit--how long does it take to grow them before they can be harvested? It sounds interesting!”

“Pink, they like cooler temps so you can plant them early in the spring after the threat or major frost is over. Once the plants die back (usually around this time) you can dig up the roots.”

“Holy Cow Crap!

I just harvested a 55 lb. cabbage from my garden. organic grown, and I never fertilized it once except for the compost and rabbit crap I put into the dirt when I planted it.”

“Dayum SC thats huge! The question is, what the heck are you gonna do with it?

I just picked a bunch of early girl and yellow pear toms, yellow squash and zukes. Gonna be good with some pasta later.”

“home grown corn...its da bomb!

home grown potatos....da bomb!

home grown garlic,,,da bomb!

home grown tomatoes...da bomb!

home grown cabbage...da bomb!

home grown peppers...da bomb!

:)”

“So, what causes a tomato to grow like this?

G says its a sign of the devil, being that we live in a conservative Christian town and he teaches evolution. LOL!

”

“Anyone? Anyone?”

“A local grower had all of her eggplants do that this year. They tasted just fine.”

“Yea, we cut it the other day, but I'm just wondering what causes it to do that.

Wonder if there'll be anymore devil veggies out there.”

“I forked my buckwheat cover crop and planted garlic today :)

MMMMMMM garlic.”

“save your smut talk for the X rated websites”

“hahah

ive done eaten all of mine :)”

“I always save some of the largest cloves for planting again mapes. this will be the third year I've had this kind and the heads get bigger each year because i save the large cloves :)

Also, I'm roasting a pumpkin in the oven right now so that I can make pumpkin pie today.”

“and now the seeds.....


damn the house smells good.”

“hahahaha I just screamed and fell out of my chair because a centipede was crawling on me. I must of picked it up outside somewhere. Scared the crap out of me LOL”

“I'll join in here. I gave one of my neighbors some of my tomatoes, he was raving about them, their size and the plant height. I guess a lot of folks had trouble this year for whatever reason, or the feed back I got was only limited to those complaining about their lack of a good garden. In about 20 minutes, my neighbor came back, lugging his g/f and a friend of hers over to look at my garden. Not pretty this year, but still lots of corn, peas, beans, maters, tators, pumpkins, etc. A little challenging here in N. CA with killing frosts sometimes in July. Kinda hard to keep things going when it freezes for 10 days in a row in the summer, but I have gotten thru that in the past. Everything is winding down now, but still eating out of the garden. The pumpkins are turning color and the tater tops are still green, so until it freezes harder, they should be fine for a bit longer. I have an area where I have been growing winter rye as a cover crop, but haven't converted it to gardening yet as I have enough ground now for my needs. Now if I could take that rye, my hops I grew and some of this mountain water, I would be set. Woohoo!”

“I think my husband planted the tomatoes too late. They seemed dead, so he tossed them on the side of our house. Weeks later, I see them thriving!

One is a very nice thick limbed plant that is supposed to have black tomatoes. We've taken it inside to put under a grow light, don't know if it's just too late. It has flowers and is just starting to show a tomato.”

“I ate a slice of very sweet home grown watermellon today...YUMMY!

The only thing I don't like about this heriloom kind (Moon and Stars) that they don't tell you in the descriptions is that the flesh directly around cach seed is very tough. Otherwise it's very sweet, kind of a pinkish red flesh.”

“When I was a kid in central CA, a couple years my dad and grandpa raised some Moon and Stars melons on the back acre to sell for a little extra money, they didn't need any attention, just some water a few times during the summer. Us kids got to raid the patch for our own needs. I don't remember them being tough around the seeds.”

“the tomatos seemed to be dying here too, but i insisted he keep trying with them. we are eating tomatos now.”

“Someone gave me a HUGE beef steak tomato this year and it was wonderful. Her trick was mixing in Epsom salt to her soil.

BTW I've been meaning to ask; is it OK to put straw in a composter?”

“As long as there's no seeds in the straw. Most compost piles don't get hot enough to kill weed seeds. I dumped already partially rotted straw bales in mine though, and had no problems.”

“The only tomatoes doing well this year are the ones growing wild around the compost bin. The ones I tried to grow all failed.”

“I put straw in mine....but then again, mine is always steaming hot due to rabbit poo and chicken poo.”

“Our rabbit straw goes in the composter. No problems.

Spirit, those are beautiful watermelons aren't they?! I love how the leaves are spotted too.

I roasted a couple of butternut squashes Saturday night. Froze one and made curried squash soup w/ the other. Three more on the vines. The snow peas and spinach are growing like gangbusters again, summer squashes and tomatoes are thriving. Our tomatilla plant is covered with the paper husks but very few have fruit in the husk and what's there is teensy. And the red raspberries are bearing fruit again. Our garden has done great this year. Very low maintenance too. The rabbit poo seems to make stuff huge. My only complaint is that something has eaten a good chunk of each of our cabbages.”

“I just made out like a bandit today. They had a plant swap at the park---

I took a bunch of roses and peppermint and I got toad lillies, spearmint, sage, tulip trees, obediant plant, ornamental basil, daffodil bulbs, chocolate sunflower seeds, and cinemon ferns :)”

“I haven't had raspberries for three or four years now. The deer have been grazing on them and whatever else isn't nailed down. I need to get ambitious in the Spring and rig up some posts and wire to protect them.

I bought a bunch of seeds from Seed Savers this year and and had some different stuff for a chance. Usually the same old stuff. I have tried tobacco years ago to see if it would make here in the mountains. Pretty blossoms, choked on the cured leaves, hiccups like crazy, they went into the burn pile. The Rose Finn Apple, fingerling potatoes are great, my neighbors rave about them when I give them some.”

“I placed my first order with Gardens Alive yesterday. 6# of Turf builder III with rhizomes grass seed. We're starting from scratch in the front yard and reseeding next week. That six pounds of seed cost $28! My dad swears it's like magic though, grows and spreads and never turns brown becasue the roots grow so deep. I hope so!”

“Garden's alive stuff is GREAT. i use thier organic fertilizer for my fruit trees and berries.”

“LOL

looks yummy them yammies!”

“Nice!!!! Wish I could grow them well here, but the groud is too clayish.”

“Don't put that on the caption this photo thread.”

“I was just thinking that it is time for me to get my greehouse up and running. I might do that this weekend :)
I feel the need to play with dirt and worms...”

“I feel the need to play with dirt and worms...”
The Dutchess of Road Kill
11:53:16 AM
11/03/08
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that almost makes the out of context....”

“true but all you garden freaks understand where i'm coming from!!”

“I think you are the only one here wanting to get freaky with the worms though!”

“ok that part might be true...”

“I just dug up our potatoes and we had some for dinner last night and they were goooood.”

“I have about 50 lbs of potatoes stored now :) it was a good year.”

“I would like to find a source for sweet potatoes that will ship to CA. At least NV, they could go to my mom and then I could smuggle them across the border to my place in the mountains. They may not make it with the sometimes shorter growing season, but I could cheat by using black plastic I think like I do with my corn.”

“You can grow sweet potatoes from your own slips, from potatoes bought at your local store.

I pulled out an even bigger sweet potato this morning. I grew 2 varieties, bush "Porto Rico" and vine "O'Henry," which is white fleshed. Now I need to cure them in a cool dark place for 2 weeks, and then they're ready for cooking. I think if you cook them straight from the garden, they keep a harder texture.”

“Do sweet pototoes carry any diseases? I don't plant anything from the store. I had pondered it last winter, but by the time I wanted to try it, it was too late in the Spring to get some starts going. My Irish spuds had that disease that leaves a brown ring just under the skin, the potato is still edible. I did without them for three or four years and the disease died out. It helped also to have my own tiller and not have to rent one which you don't know where it had been.

Every Fall, I see more bear scat in my yard and my neighbors, than I have seen in years of bping. It looks like my apples.”

“If you buy organic potatoes you'll have much more luck getting vines. Regular ones are treated with something to keep them from sprouting.”

“Starts. If you do your own, do you do like I did as a kid and put the whole thing in some water, supported, and let roots develop? I imagine, you don't let the roots get carried away like you were keeping the thing as a houseplant.:)”

“Yep, it's something like that. You cut off the little plants that start off of the main tuber.
If you're concerned about diseases, you ask around at local garden supply stores; they may be able to direct you to a certified disease free plant source.”

“I just baked up some of the sweet potatoes. They're supposed to go in a souffle for the koi club meeting tonight (HPM's becoming the next club prez) but DAYUUUUMMM... these things are incredible! They're not orange inside, but a deep gold, smell incredible, and taste even better. I may have to go snag another one!”

“Mmmmm, I made a killer sweet potato souffle yesterday. I omitted more than half the sugar, and added a little cinnamon, more vanilla and a 1/4 cup of southern comfort. The crumbly topping held the alcohol, so the first few people to get a scoop out of the casserole dish caught a serious whiff of alcohol. That got people's attention all right.”

“I've ordered some seed catalogs (sp?) cause I intend to actually "plan" my garden this year. I'll start some plants in the basement so they'll be ready for early planting and intend to replace the early plants, when they're finished, with whatever is appropriate. Helps me get through the winter:)”