Vegetable Gardens ??

Now1more

Super Active Member
Back on the Rock Farm. I didn't post what we're growing. We were fortunate that we already had grapes, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, and strawberries growing, all wild. The wild strawberries are the best. They're about the size of a fingernail and takes about 5 minutes just to pick a handful, but you'll never taste a better strawberry. We put in more cultivated raspberries, blueberries, a few apple trees, and a nectarine tree.

For veggies: white, yellow, and green onions, cukes, tomatoes, basil, beans, all sorts of peppers, carrots, different squashes, and zucchini, beets, and I'm sure I'm forgetting a few.

Had to fence everything in to keep the deer, rabbits, and groundhogs out. The racoon only seems to go after the trash can and compost pile.
 

H.A.F.

a.k.a. Rusty Nails
I have some nice farms around me with some good veggie stands. Some things are easier to let other people grow. I stick to a salsa garden. Tomatoes, assorted peppers, onions, herbs. I might throw in some random plants but those are the staples.

In the 20's last week, 60's this week, daffodils are blooming...

And everything is going to freeze and die. I don't think winter is done yet, but I'll be dropping some seeds soon inside
 
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H.A.F.

a.k.a. Rusty Nails
I am new to the region I am growing in, and my stuff didn't do great last year. random seeds I bought and started, but might not have been the right "zone" for some of the heirloom stuff.

I am thinking about forgoing the seeds and just getting plants from the nursery. I think they might have strains of stuff best suited to the local climate.
 

BigBallzWillie

BE THE BALL
I am new to the region I am growing in, and my stuff didn't do great last year. random seeds I bought and started, but might not have been the right "zone" for some of the heirloom stuff.

I am thinking about forgoing the seeds and just getting plants from the nursery. I think they might have strains of stuff best suited to the local climate.
Get the seeds, it's worth it. Fedco Seeds stuff has been heads above anything else I have found, top notch!latehaul.jpg
 

H.A.F.

a.k.a. Rusty Nails
Get the seeds, it's worth it. Fedco Seeds stuff has been heads above anything else I have found, top notch!View attachment 49977
I got all fancy heirloom seeds, and the plants did well, they just didn't produce well. I have always been at sea level, and am at about 1000ft elev now, with a shorter growing season, and tall trees limiting the grow area.

I noticed while getting dirt and stuff that the starter plants were not the same varieties as at the Casa de Pot where I lived before - different regions. They still had the Beefsteak and such, but the other varieties were different strains.

Since I want production I am going to try theirs this season, then look for heirloom varieties of those strains that do well.
 
D

Deleted member 60

Guest
LOL.../that's MAY type weather in my 'hood...... and still too early to put plants outside. I'm @ 7100 ft elevation with snow covered peaks looming over head that hold snow into July..... and cold air sinks...yes..it does.

The nursery will have a wide variety. Look for the fast flowerers...like some of us do with weed. Some of the heirloom maters take 110 days! Early Girl hybrid....55-60 days. We still do the heirlooms cus I have a dome greenhouse. when it's gonna freeze...(late Sept/early Oct most years) we cut the ENTIRE plant down..take it inside before it freezes...and over the next 2 months most everything will ripen on the vine.

In ground stuff does really well. Asparagus....onions... beets, potatoes......etc. We do fast green beans as well...stagger em to get 2 harvests.....cucumbers for pickles....tomatillos for salsa....lettuces....celery....yaddayadda,

Itching to get goin but know better...LOL. Doing another cycle in the tent to keep the grow jones at bay.....but by mid-april i'll be starting seeds and trying to get a few things goin. Some stuff I just buy at the nursery.... it just takes a shit ton of space to get a complete garden goin from seed.,....

good luck all.........
 

H.A.F.

a.k.a. Rusty Nails
LOL.../that's MAY type weather in my 'hood...... and still too early to put plants outside. I'm @ 7100 ft elevation with snow covered peaks looming over head that hold snow into July..... and cold air sinks...yes..it does.

The nursery will have a wide variety. Look for the fast flowerers...like some of us do with weed. Some of the heirloom maters take 110 days! Early Girl hybrid....55-60 days. We still do the heirlooms cus I have a dome greenhouse. when it's gonna freeze...(late Sept/early Oct most years) we cut the ENTIRE plant down..take it inside before it freezes...and over the next 2 months most everything will ripen on the vine.

In ground stuff does really well. Asparagus....onions... beets, potatoes......etc. We do fast green beans as well...stagger em to get 2 harvests.....cucumbers for pickles....tomatillos for salsa....lettuces....celery....yaddayadda,

Itching to get goin but know better...LOL. Doing another cycle in the tent to keep the grow jones at bay.....but by mid-april i'll be starting seeds and trying to get a few things goin. Some stuff I just buy at the nursery.... it just takes a shit ton of space to get a complete garden goin from seed.,....

good luck all.........
Now that I'm a more knowledgeable grower, I have some spare blurples (don't we all?) I have actually thought about putting them to work for maters and peppers, or maybe the herb garden.
 

BigBallzWillie

BE THE BALL
LOL.../that's MAY type weather in my 'hood...... and still too early to put plants outside. I'm @ 7100 ft elevation with snow covered peaks looming over head that hold snow into July..... and cold air sinks...yes..it does.

The nursery will have a wide variety. Look for the fast flowerers...like some of us do with weed. Some of the heirloom maters take 110 days! Early Girl hybrid....55-60 days. We still do the heirlooms cus I have a dome greenhouse. when it's gonna freeze...(late Sept/early Oct most years) we cut the ENTIRE plant down..take it inside before it freezes...and over the next 2 months most everything will ripen on the vine.

In ground stuff does really well. Asparagus....onions... beets, potatoes......etc. We do fast green beans as well...stagger em to get 2 harvests.....cucumbers for pickles....tomatillos for salsa....lettuces....celery....yaddayadda,

Itching to get goin but know better...LOL. Doing another cycle in the tent to keep the grow jones at bay.....but by mid-april i'll be starting seeds and trying to get a few things goin. Some stuff I just buy at the nursery.... it just takes a shit ton of space to get a complete garden goin from seed.,....

good luck all.........
Early Girl is a great tomato. She's early, that's true, but she goes till the frost kills her here. I grow it every year. That and a cherry tomato called :Sungold" are my yearly hybrids. I mix and match heirlooms depending on mood/desire.......mostly beefsteaks.
 

H.A.F.

a.k.a. Rusty Nails
Early Girl is a great tomato. She's early, that's true, but she goes till the frost kills her here. I grow it every year. That and a cherry tomato called :Sungold" are my yearly hybrids. I mix and match heirlooms depending on mood/desire.......mostly beefsteaks.
I had so many cherries (assorted heirloom) that I ended up dehydrating a bunch. I dehydrate random stuff like mushroom's, onion, etc. Toss that stuff in ramen with some meat and have an easy stoner snack.
 

BigBallzWillie

BE THE BALL
Preachin to the choir here, I have 2 Excalibur dehydrators, lol. Dried tomatoes are the bomb. In Sept. the price on a produce box of Roma's will have bottomed and I'll grab a couple of boxes to dry. Didn't happen last year tho, prices never fell.
 
D

Deleted member 60

Guest
We did cherry tomatoes in our dome a few years ago.....like all tomatoes in there...they vine/produce profusely.... and they will last 2 years..or more......the 'indeterminates" just keep hammerin away in there.... we just took down a Beefstake grafted tomato plant that I planted April 2018! Wuz still gettin tomatoes....but after awhile they get smaller and the skins get a bit chewier. still REAL good for sauces/salsa though. Fuckers get 10 ft+ tall.. the chrry tomatoes were unrelenting in production....we'd get a HUGE bowl....6 cups or more...every 3-4 days....LOL. Needless to say...the neighbors here don;t buy tomatoes or weed......LOL. They just bring their jar by or the old sauce jar back when they are out....

We do Amos Coli and San Marzano sauce tomatoes yearly. the AC are slow and we always end up with lotsa green ones when we chop em....but they have ALL meat and few seeds...so they are a dream to prep into sauce/etc. If you have the season.....go to Baker Ccreek and try to snag some amos coli.....they are well over 100 year old heirloom seeds...grown by "Amos" himself for 80 years or some shit...and then when he saw that he was nearing his end...he shared them with tomato gugru "Brad Gates". If you haven't checked out this guys collection...it's crazy. tie dye tomatoes...Atomic grape//(I've grown both)....black, blue, yellow, orange, purpole maters..... just insane...like a good weed "breeder" would offer.....

We freeze a lot of maters/sauces...and i pickle a buncha shit that my neighbors love. We do like 150 pints a year of a variety of stuff........ need to investigate the drying racks/etc for herbs/etc from the dome.........
 

H.A.F.

a.k.a. Rusty Nails
We did cherry tomatoes in our dome a few years ago.....like all tomatoes in there...they vine/produce profusely.... and they will last 2 years..or more......the 'indeterminates" just keep hammerin away in there.... we just took down a Beefstake grafted tomato plant that I planted April 2018! Wuz still gettin tomatoes....but after awhile they get smaller and the skins get a bit chewier. still REAL good for sauces/salsa though. Fuckers get 10 ft+ tall.. the chrry tomatoes were unrelenting in production....we'd get a HUGE bowl....6 cups or more...every 3-4 days....LOL. Needless to say...the neighbors here don;t buy tomatoes or weed......LOL. They just bring their jar by or the old sauce jar back when they are out....

We do Amos Coli and San Marzano sauce tomatoes yearly. the AC are slow and we always end up with lotsa green ones when we chop em....but they have ALL meat and few seeds...so they are a dream to prep into sauce/etc. If you have the season.....go to Baker Ccreek and try to snag some amos coli.....they are well over 100 year old heirloom seeds...grown by "Amos" himself for 80 years or some shit...and then when he saw that he was nearing his end...he shared them with tomato gugru "Brad Gates". If you haven't checked out this guys collection...it's crazy. tie dye tomatoes...Atomic grape//(I've grown both)....black, blue, yellow, orange, purpole maters..... just insane...like a good weed "breeder" would offer.....

We freeze a lot of maters/sauces...and i pickle a buncha shit that my neighbors love. We do like 150 pints a year of a variety of stuff........ need to investigate the drying racks/etc for herbs/etc from the dome.........
I saw a tomato farm where the vines were supported from the ceiling, and as the plants grew they pruned lower limbs and coiled up the trunk on the ground keeping the plants about 6' tall
 

BigBallzWillie

BE THE BALL
We did cherry tomatoes in our dome a few years ago.....like all tomatoes in there...they vine/produce profusely.... and they will last 2 years..or more......the 'indeterminates" just keep hammerin away in there.... we just took down a Beefstake grafted tomato plant that I planted April 2018! Wuz still gettin tomatoes....but after awhile they get smaller and the skins get a bit chewier. still REAL good for sauces/salsa though. Fuckers get 10 ft+ tall.. the chrry tomatoes were unrelenting in production....we'd get a HUGE bowl....6 cups or more...every 3-4 days....LOL. Needless to say...the neighbors here don;t buy tomatoes or weed......LOL. They just bring their jar by or the old sauce jar back when they are out....

We do Amos Coli and San Marzano sauce tomatoes yearly. the AC are slow and we always end up with lotsa green ones when we chop em....but they have ALL meat and few seeds...so they are a dream to prep into sauce/etc. If you have the season.....go to Baker Ccreek and try to snag some amos coli.....they are well over 100 year old heirloom seeds...grown by "Amos" himself for 80 years or some shit...and then when he saw that he was nearing his end...he shared them with tomato gugru "Brad Gates". If you haven't checked out this guys collection...it's crazy. tie dye tomatoes...Atomic grape//(I've grown both)....black, blue, yellow, orange, purpole maters..... just insane...like a good weed "breeder" would offer.....

We freeze a lot of maters/sauces...and i pickle a buncha shit that my neighbors love. We do like 150 pints a year of a variety of stuff........ need to investigate the drying racks/etc for herbs/etc from the dome.........
I'll be checking those tomaters out.
Find an Excalibur dryer, thank me later. I actually bought a second one because it really enables buying in bulk and making a production run of anything. Fruit is amazing, banans, cherries, strawberries, et al. The second one was a re-conditioned one.......it was flawless and nicer than the one I paid the full ride on.
I use a ROMA processor to make all my tomatoes into pure juice. I then can that. Did 20 quarts last summer. I'll make sauce from that late,r on an as need basis, well past the summer heat or just drink it as is.
Also put up 48 pints pickles....the only cukes I grow are picklers. Dried about a gallon of garlic cloves, have a freezer full with garlic scapes and still have a bit of hardneck garlic hanging around. I try and save strawberries....but that ain't happening, they get eaten.
Whatever I can save I do. I got a shitload of jars, hot water and pressure canners, dryers and vac sealers to do that.
 

H.A.F.

a.k.a. Rusty Nails
I'll be checking those tomaters out.
Find an Excalibur dryer, thank me later. I actually bought a second one because it really enables buying in bulk and making a production run of anything. Fruit is amazing, banans, cherries, strawberries, et al. The second one was a re-conditioned one.......it was flawless and nicer than the one I paid the full ride on.
I use a ROMA processor to make all my tomatoes into pure juice. I then can that. Did 20 quarts last summer. I'll make sauce from that late,r on an as need basis, well past the summer heat or just drink it as is.
Also put up 48 pints pickles....the only cukes I grow are picklers. Dried about a gallon of garlic cloves, have a freezer full with garlic scapes and still have a bit of hardneck garlic hanging around. I try and save strawberries....but that ain't happening, they get eaten.
Whatever I can save I do. I got a shitload of jars, hot water and pressure canners, dryers and vac sealers to do that.
Roma is great for drying - more meat, less juice. You can even grind them to powder in a coffee mill and use it to thicken sauces and stuff.
 
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