Vegetable Gardens ??

[BigBallzWillie]

The night before the hurricane arrived I saw some leaves missing on my okra and zucchini. No problem, I got the sprayer with cayenne pepper in it and started hosing down the leaves. The sob sprayer clogs................so I get the other sprayer that has the garlic extracrt, combine the two, start spraying, and that one clogs. So fuk it, I unscrew the top and start annointing these plants like I;m the priest in the exorcist spraying holy water . I was laying down some bulk, 1 12/" stripes of this mix.
The hurricane comes overnight, blow and rains hard as hell all day. That night I see that Mr. Chuck was out there feasting in the downpour. He ate ALL the okra, more of the zuc, and 6 entire bean plants and some sweet potato leaves.
Mow I know that once a chuck knows there is food he always comes back. But it's been several days and he hasn't been around, all his faves are here...............So, did the cayenne pepper fuck up his day? It's somewhat surreal I have not seen him come back.

 

[BigBallzWillie]

Different type of bud.........catnip!


Bagging this up and there's cats all stoned out.. eat, roll in it, wrestle with the other cats, then crash.

 

[gwheels]

Wow the giant beefsteak sandwhich tomatos and the san marzanos are getting red every day now. I eat them for breakfast lunch and dinner and will give some to inlaws on the weekend...with some squash and i might have to dig up a spud or two.

The spuds...i dont want to dig them up if there is nothing there...how the fuck can i know unless i dig them up.

lol.

9 of the acorn style squash are growing now and 3 of the giant delecto...8 inches my ass these are 12 to 16 inch buttercup sized winter squash. My wife is overjoyed about it...i never saw people that loved it so much. I find the texture offensive and i have to focus my mind away from the nastiness.

so far i have eaten them every time and i almost like it !

But tomatoes...screw you cankers...

Cucumbers should be arriving in 7 days i was late getting those out...dug up 4 turnips last week and cooked them....so young turnips are hot and gross i will wait for the rest to get giant.

I should go after some beats....they are in there someplace !

The garden is fantastic...i will have one every year for the rest of my life now because i cant imagine not doing this.

 

[BigBallzWillie]

The summer sandwich is the goods. Thick slice tomato, med slice onion, and lettuce with touch of mayo, on whatever bread you like. Killer sandwich!

 

[BigBallzWillie]

Made 2 quarts of half sour pickles today, might have to make 2 tomorrow also. Old time NYC deli recipe. These will fly out of the jar. There is no vinegar at all, in a water/salt solution. They last 3-4 weeks in the fridge but they are never around that long.

 

[Deleted member 60]

Lots of growth over the last few weeks. Hot and dry. Watering every AM now. Hitting everything with a revolving door of organic ferts/NPK's depending on what it is. We're getting ready to get slammed with produce for about the next 6 weeks....maybe longer.

 

[BigBallzWillie]

Lots of growth over the last few weeks. Hot and dry. Watering every AM now. Hitting everything with a revolving door of organic ferts/NPK's depending on what it is. We're getting ready to get slammed with produce for about the next 6 weeks....maybe longer.

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You're definitely getting produce slammed shortly!

 

[BigBallzWillie]

This is about 2 quarts of dried tomatoes. I have about 12 quarts put up like this so far. Cukes and Zuch's are being pawned off on anyone who will take them.

 

[treefarmercharlie]

Cukes and Zuch's are being pawned off on anyone who will take them.

LOL! I'm in the same boat. Cukes and Zukes for days and they are so overgrown that I don't even see the fruits until they are huge. I chopped one Zuchinni up last night for dinner and it pretty much filled a 2qt skillet on it's own. I'm still waiting on those fuckin spaghetti squashes to be ready to pick, though. They are getting close, but still aren't ready. And some ghost of a critter is still stealing all my tomatoes before they ripen. I'll go out there and see 10-20 decent sized green tomatoes one day, then a few days later there is just no trace of them. I think I need to build an enclosed hoop house next year.

 

[BigBallzWillie]

LOL! I'm in the same boat. Cukes and Zukes for days and they are so overgrown that I don't even see the fruits until they are huge. I chopped one Zuchinni up last night for dinner and it pretty much filled a 2qt skillet on it's own. I'm still waiting on those fuckin spaghetti squashes to be ready to pick, though. They are getting close, but still aren't ready. And some ghost of a critter is still stealing all my tomatoes before they ripen. I'll go out there and see 10-20 decent sized green tomatoes one day, then a few days later there is just no trace of them. I think I need to build an enclosed hoop house next year.

Is there any traces of half eaten pilferage? Here's what you do..............sprinkle some flour out at round the plants, then look for prints.

 

[treefarmercharlie]

Is there any traces of half eaten pilferage? Here's what you do..............sprinkle some flour out at round the plants, then look for prints.

There were a couple of tomatoes with bites in them on the ground, a couple of weeks ago, but nothing since. The only animals I've seen at the garden have been small birds on the fencing but I may put a camera out there to see what it catches. There are definitely some deer that are reaching over the fence, because they keep taking the top few inches off the tomato plants, but I'm not so sure that they are the ones responsible for the missing tomatoes. I'm thinking it is either squirrels, rats, or opossums.

 

[Highland Rogue]

This is about 2 quarts of dried tomatoes. I have about 12 quarts put up like this so far. Cukes and Zuch's are being pawned off on anyone who will take them.
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Nice job. Curious how you dried 'em and if they will store well in jars at that level of dehydration?

I've made jerky with my dehydrator, (cheapo walmart dehydrator) but have yet to try dehydrating tomatoes and have a shitload of tomatoes and peppers to preserve.

 

[BigBallzWillie]

Thanks. I'm making these in an Excalibur dehydrator. It's a tool that I would recommend to anyone, great product. The shelf life of dehydrated foods can be 25 years. I also have a cheaper walmart type of dryer and that works great too, just takes a little longer. You can also make sun dried tomatoes with some cheese cloth and two window screens. The screens method take 3 days outside and you have to be there to make sure they come in if it rains, but it works. There are also some plans out there for making a drying box(which I never got around to,lol)

Those tomatoes take less than 24 hours. Beef Jerky is done overnight.

That time the freezer full of food crapped out............I lost very little, the drier saved my ass, paid for itself right there.
BTW.....ham jerky is like eating a bar of pig flavored salt..........but it's oh so good!

 

[BrokenHoeFarms]

Pig jerky i felt my heart stopping as i read it

 

[BigBallzWillie]

Like bacon but more salty, lol.

 

[Highland Rogue]

Killed about 25 of these tomato gluttons so far. They were rioting hard on my tomatoes, but I've restored law and order and the tomatoes are flowing. They sure make a squirty mess when you step on them.

 

[BigBallzWillie]

Killed about 25 of these tomato gluttons so far. They were rioting hard on my tomatoes, but I've restored law and order and the tomatoes are flowing. They sure make a squirty mess when you step on them.

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I got about 15 so far. They are a good reason to leave some suckers on the plant. I have 4 pair of scissors hanging around out there. I cut the fuckers in half right where they are and let the green goodness flow down to the soil. Of the 15, they got two plant tops, which shuts the plant down. Mark it on your calendar, they'll be back same time next year.

 

[BigBallzWillie]

BTW, the tomato fruit worm is worse but not as common. Those bastiges eat into the actual fruit. They look the same as budworms to me. I had one of them so far.

 

[BigBallzWillie]

The pumpkin I was growing to test out the Jacks 123, got three times the size of the unfertilized ones. But no matter, the vine borers got them ALL! (4). This is what the base looks like and believe it or not, this plant is huge and still alive. I just dumped a bucket of compost on the fine a bit further out to see if it will makes roots. It looks to be a compost addition at best, lol....fuck. ALL of them.



Black eye peas cover crop almost ready to chop and plant again for a 2nd crop. This is the only fertilizer these garlic beds get.



Heres some more.................these are going to get eaten, fresh black eyed peas are awesome! Really! These were planted in the gulleys between sweet potato mounds. They don't add as much nitrogen if you let them fruit, but it is still a net gain............that's like having your cake and eating it too. There is also a huge return on the beans you plant, very productive



I'm letting some thing go to seed, like lettuce and tatsoi. After the flowers close and dry up, the seeds will be ready. One small plant makes a pack of seeds......easy. If you have a small space of dirt that won't get dealt with until early summer you can just take the whole seeded plant and shake it out over that spot. Next spring just go out and start grabbing the resulting seedlings.........there will be MANY!! Free food babe! Red Lolo in the pic, I did the green Lolo earlier

 

[Deleted member 60]

You can feel the season waning here. Temps droppin from the normal 50's for lows into the 40's. Had to find the jeans and sweatshirt yesterday.

but it DOES signal things to get with it. We have a month left..if we are lucky. Just takes one night to toast the 'maters....so we will be on guard, for sure. When we see those temps heading our way we wait until the night before the freeze and will chop all the vines and take them into the Dome to ripen over time. Will likely dig up the peppers as well and transplant those into the dome as well. They will fruit again if we do.

We've been canning and freezing shit like mad...daily....




"Amos Coli" paste tomato. The size of 4-5 San Marzano's/Roma's. Just insane fruit.....

Below: Cherokee Purps puttin on softball size fruit all over the place. The ont in back is just huge. Was afraid to move em around for fear of knockin one off.


Have a few hundred (3?) carrots finishing up. Cabbages are comin in. Zucchini plant got pulled. We are sick of that shit and likely won't grow it again. Canned the first round of beets.....lotsa stragglers so it will be a bit before we hit the Motherlode. 3rd wave of green beans (staggered plantings) is an entire row. Tons of blooms. Been eating lots of strawberries....multiple varieties of lettuces....amaranth...celery/etc. Salads every night from the garden. Many nights dinner is comprised of items/dishes...all from the garden. Not totally self sufficient but we could make a it awhile on what we grow/can/freeze/freeze dry etc.

Some kinda fun......