[Food] Production – Gardening, General pt 2

[PeakOiler]

Today I planted carrot seed for the very first time.

I dug out a very small part of my small garden (where I had removed/transplanted some of the pepper plants, and then refilled with loose, sandy soil about 15" deep in a 3' long mound), put in seed, and covered with some peat moss/potting soil mixture, and lastly, rainwater. Another experiment in progress...

I'll let y'all know...

I blanched a pot of fall-harvest tomatoes in the SunOven today, as well as steaming another ca. 1/2 lb of green beans in the second SunOven.
No freeze here yet!

Edit to add image:

[DoubleD]

Harvested some swiss chard tonight and made a great salad using sliced/roasted almonds, craisins, blue cheese crumbles and shredded baby swiss chard leaves. A little homemade ranch dressing to go with it - YUM!

Swiss chard is my favorite overwintered green and has easily become one of my all time favorite crops to grow. I think too many people underestimate and thus do not grow this versatile and tasty plant. The leaves can be used in any manner that spinach is used (fresh or cooked) and has much the same taste. The stalks provide a secondary crop that are good too.

My second fall crop of broccoli (the late one) is producing heavily now. Providing lots of good eating even as the night time temps now are dipping down to near freezing levels.

Got one picking off of the fall (late) crop of shelling peas. I waited too long this year to get them planted. Need to up it by about two weeks in 2009 just to be sure I get a better fall harvest.

The seedlings in the shop (under lights) are really getting some good growth on. The chinese cabbage in particular is looking impressive. Plan to give them all a drink of very very weak fish emulsion tea on Saturday.

[RedStateGreen]

I like chard a lot too.

Let's see ... I have already planted:

lettuces
carrots
chard
alfalfa
buckwheat
hard red winter wheat
oats
beets
broccoli
turnips
garlic

I also have a bunch of volunteer tomatoes and peppers that are sitting in my garage in front of the windows there. I have wheatgrass and a huge tuft of some kind of other grass that I dug out of the lawn in the garage growing for the rabbits to munch later on in the season.

I still need to plant my snow peas, tulip bulbs, shallots, and spinach. The weather has been so variable lately (one day in the upper 70's, the next close to freezing) that I haven't wanted to plant the spinach yet, in case we get another heat wave. The others haven't gotten planted yet because I'm lazy.

[PeakOiler]

I've planted lettuce, onion, garlic, and carrots. I should try chard and spinach I guess. (Never eaten chard before.)

Last night was the first light freeze of the season. My small garden is enclosed with chain link fence. This allowed me to put some solar shade material and black plastic sheet over the garden, secured to the chain link top rails and tomato cages. It seemed to have worked ok to protect some of the plants from the cold air. Only the basil looks like it took a serious hit from the cold air, but the tomatoes, green beans, and bell peppers (that I didn't transplant yet) are ok.

I removed the sheet plastic and solar shade material already this morning since it's above freezing. It's a sunny day today, so far, and will warm up nicely.

Ten of twelve potted citrus trees are indoors now too. The smallest two I enclosed in a small pvc pipe frame/plastic tent on the front porch like last year.

[PeakOiler]

Today I finished transplanting the last five bell pepper plants from the garden into pots. Another freeze is not expected for at least another week, so I'll have time to water them well for the next number of days which seems to help the plants get over the shock of transplanting. There's two small peppers still on the plants and I've harvested over 16 lbs of bell peppers to date this year...

I'm going for the 2 meter-tall bell pepper plant next year (if it survives being indoors for the next 3.5 months):!:

[DoubleD]

Took about an hour off from leaf raking duty this afternoon and picked berries instead. We have evergreen huckleberry bushes worked into our landscaping. About five mature (big) bushes and seven young ones I planted this spring. The mature bushes were very late with ripe berries this year (like everything else) but they are now loaded with ripe ones. Quickly picked a small bucket full and then used our large fan to winnow out the leaves and debris and then rinsed and removed the unripe ones that got mixed in and other dirt debris. When I was all done - I had a gallon of ripe clean berries. Spread them out on cookie sheets and have them in the freezer now flash freezing. Once they are frozen through I will put them in a gallon ziplock freezer bag and pop them back in the freezer. This is the same process I do with raspberries (except I do not wash them as they are so fragile), blackberries, blueberries, and cranberries. There is alot more out on the bush to be harvested. Hoping I can get my daughter to help later in the week to do another big picking.

[PeakOiler]

A garden update:

The broccoli and onion are growing. There are nearly 20 very small tomatoes on the volunteer plants still, which I've protected from two light freezes so far this season. Planted more garlic and cucumber today.

I planted radish for the very first time today. Planted some russet potatoes, too.

I think the carrots are sprouting. A late volunteer sunflower, (sprouted just a couple of months ago), has produced some seeds. I'll just plant those in the spring.

About 30 lemons, one satsuma, and four grapefruit are nearly ready to be harvested in the next few weeks.

Harvested a few more green beans, tomatoes, banana and bell peppers yesterday.

[3aidlillahi]

My dad has always been intrigued with grape vineyards as he knows several friends or relatives that grow grapes for their shade. I finally got him a few grape vines for his birthday last year and they've grown pretty well and started to produce although they probably weren't planted well and were constantly attacked by their new dogs.

He's planning on expanding into at least one row in his backyard for this coming year. I know that he's planted a few others like tomatoes and such in a small garden in the backyard. He doesn't know about PO yet and he wouldn't be that receptive of it (he commutes 70 miles each way for work!) but I figure that I could help him anyway as I did with the grapes. Then as PO hits, he'll still have a general sense of gardening that he won't be completely clueless or unprepared.

What are some ideas of things to get him? I was obviously thinking about like a beginner's/intermediate gardening book but I don't know of good ones. Also seeds should be a must. We're in NC which is like Zone 4/5 I think. Ideas?

[PeakOiler]

What are some ideas of things to get him?
Ideas?

Gardening tools are always welcome. Esp. gloves.

[JJ]

peakoiler, the first crop of carrots we planted this spring yielded a tremendous amount. (Still have three bags in the freezer). The second crop never even came up. Neither did the beets. Now we have (and are eating) spinach, collards, mustard, and turnip greens. Jay in Burnet

[PeakOiler]

peakoiler, the first crop of carrots we planted this spring yielded a tremendous amount. (Still have three bags in the freezer). The second crop never even came up. Neither did the beets. Now we have (and are eating) spinach, collards, mustard, and turnip greens. Jay in Burnet

Glad to read that carrots can be grown in Central Texas, JJ. Good job. I'll plant some in spring too, and see what happens...

[wisconsin_cur]

This year I am trying to be a little more purposeful in my planning next year's garden. I have more space than ever and want to make good use of it so I have drawn a scale map of the spaces that I have available for planting (measured in feet) including that space available for herbs. I am using that map to start making crop selections.

Next I will inventory the seeds that I have saved from previous years and then decide what I need to order before the catalogues arrive (one actually already has arrived but you get the idea).

[RedStateGreen]

What are some ideas of things to get him? I was obviously thinking about like a beginner's/intermediate gardening book but I don't know of good ones.

Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew (the older one is better) is a good beginner's book, and Four Season Harvest by Eliot Coleman is my favorite for year-round gardening.

[RedStateGreen]

This year I am trying to be a little more purposeful in my planning next year's garden. I have more space than ever and want to make good use of it so I have drawn a scale map of the spaces that I have available for planting (measured in feet) including that space available for herbs. I am using that map to start making crop selections.

This reminds me, I want to expand my garden again in 2009, and I need to start planning that out.

[frankthetank]

I'm expanding here too... Screw the lawn.. i hate mowing anyways. I didn't put in carrots this year and regret it. One of the easiest to grow crops i've done. Whats nice is up here you can leave them in the ground until December and they only taste better.

I'm also starting seeds a LOT earlier this year. Onions, tomatoes, and a few other will be start as soon as Jan 1. Tomatoes get an increase this year.

[DoubleD]

We are expanding the garden this year as well (again)

Already felled a rather large blue spruce tree and several rhodies/ferns and a large lilac. I still have stump and root removal to do this winter - and then it will be ready for the creation of new beds in the spring. Other than the placement of another narrow vertical grow bed (similar to the one I created last year) - the rest of the bed configuration is still not decided yet. I have been wrestling with what would be optimal and have not settled on the final design yet.

[PeakOiler]

A quick update on the over-wintering pepper plants. They're all still alive.

I don't expect them to produce, the goal is just to keep them alive till late March when they can go back outside.

The pineapple plants and citrus are doing fine. I harvested the last satsuma tangerine of the year tonight. It weighed 246 g, (over a half lb.)

I've harvested 57 citrus fruits this year. (The goal is 365 per year.)
More lemons are ready too, and all three lemon trees are in bloom again.

The broccoli and carrots are coming along nicely, and I picked another yellowing tomato. Another freeze is due tonight, and all the tomato plants in the garden are covered up. I don't expect them to survive much longer.

Edited for spelling.

[JJ]

A quick update on the over-wintering pepper plants. They're all still alive.

I don't expect them to produce, the goal is just to keep them alive till late March when they can go back outside.

The pineapple plants and citrus are doing fine. I harvested the last satsuma tangerine of the year tonight. It weighed 246 g, (over a half lb.)

I've havested 57 citrus fruits this year. (The goal is 365 per year.)
More lemons are ready too, and all three lemon trees are in bloom again.

The broccoli and carrots are coming along nicely, and I picked another yellowing tomato. Another freeze is due tonight, and all the tomato plants in the garden are covered up. I don't expect them to survive much longer.

Peakoiler, I remember reading in one of my gardening books about a guy why had several five year old bell pepper plants, he just brought them inside each year and put them back out when it warmed up.

[Ludi]

Another freeze is due tonight, and all the tomato plants in the garden are covered up. I don't expect them to survive much longer.

Don't forget to harvest all your green tomatoes before they get damaged by frost - many will ripen in the house, they don't necessarily need to be turning yellow when you pick them.

[PeakOiler]

Don't forget to harvest all your green tomatoes before they get damaged by frost - many will ripen in the house, they don't necessarily need to be turning yellow when you pick them.

Well some of the green tomatoes were very small still, and the freeze last night bit them pretty good. I did pick one more of the larger ones that was showing just a hint of yellow (but only 84 grams) a few minutes ago, but I think that's it for the tomatoes this year. Final tomato harvest for 2008: 31 lbs (14 kg).

I really want to get a greenhouse soon, or build one. I know I could extend the tomato harvest substantially, and perhaps even year-round using a greenhouse in our climate, Ludi.

That's my next main project in the near future.