The Garden Thread 2023

sweetandsour · Post by **sweetandsour** » 03 Aug 2023, 19:53

Tomatoes and peppers are long gone with this continued drought and high heat. I didn't make my annual batch of picante sauce, but I did enjoy many tomato sandwiches. Decadent, home grown tomato, sandwiches, with thick tomato slices, thin white bread, olive oil mayo, sea salt, fresh ground black pepper, and fresh basil. If I'd had some homemade bread and butter pickles then I might have used a few of those on there as well.

My two short rows of field corn is all beat up by dry winds, but I've been trying to keep up as best I can with the water hose flowing in between the rows. There are several ears per stalk, but it's looking doubtful they will develop fully.

My two pear trees had a total of 25 pears. I ate 2 or 3 of them, and then made preserves with the rest, and they all disappeared quickly during a series of breakfasts that included homemade biscuits.

There are a few green figs on the fig trees, and I've got my fingers crossed that they will ripen and that I will get them before the local mocking birds do.

Muscadine grapes are getting ripe now, and I've been picking them all week. They are really sweet this year, I presume because of the lack of rain all summer, and the abundant heat.

And lastly, I prepared a raised bed ~2 weeks ago, and planted pumpkins. They should be ready by Halloween if I can keep them watered sufficiently.

Hovannes · Post by **Hovannes** » 03 Aug 2023, 20:22

The cherry tomatoes are still hanging in there. The zucchinis, cucumbers, eggplants and peppers are fried from the sun.

sweetandsour · Post by **sweetandsour** » 13 Aug 2023, 07:00

sweetandsour wrote: ↑03 Aug 2023, 19:53 Tomatoes and peppers are long gone with this continued drought and high heat. I didn't make my annual batch of picante sauce, but I did enjoy many tomato sandwiches. Decadent, home grown tomato, sandwiches, with thick tomato slices, thin white bread, olive oil mayo, sea salt, fresh ground black pepper, and fresh basil. If I'd had some homemade bread and butter pickles then I might have used a few of those on there as well.

My two short rows of field corn is all beat up by dry winds, but I've been trying to keep up as best I can with the water hose flowing in between the rows. There are several ears per stalk, but it's looking doubtful they will develop fully.

My two pear trees had a total of 25 pears. I ate 2 or 3 of them, and then made preserves with the rest, and they all disappeared quickly during a series of breakfasts that included homemade biscuits.

There are a few green figs on the fig trees, and I've got my fingers crossed that they will ripen and that I will get them before the local mocking birds do.

Muscadine grapes are getting ripe now, and I've been picking them all week. They are really sweet this year, I presume because of the lack of rain all summer, and the abundant heat.

And lastly, I prepared a raised bed ~2 weeks ago, and planted pumpkins. They should be ready by Halloween if I can keep them watered sufficiently.

I have 2-1/2 gals of grape juice so far; but the remaining grapes are turning into raisins quickly in this heat wave.

: IMG_20230808_212039775Resized.jpg (49.39 KiB) Viewed 1303 times

: IMG_20230808_212019519Resized.jpg (64.92 KiB) Viewed 1303 times

: IMG_20230805_143621171Resized.jpg (101.8 KiB) Viewed 1303 times

Hovannes · Post by **Hovannes** » 13 Aug 2023, 08:35

My garden is down to an eggplant and a Fresno Chili. I'm considering planting radishes, if I can get motivated.

joegoat · Post by **joegoat** » 13 Aug 2023, 18:06

Well, the weeds took over this year. They're uncontrollable. The dry start and super wet summer we're having has made them thrive.
The popcorn is doing well, but I'm afraid I may have some silk worms.
We got 25 quarts of green beans canned. One row of Provider did great. A row of Big Kahuna did OK, and a row of Kitchen King did awful. Lovely plants, packed with beans, but they were all very small and nothing in them but seeds.
The tomatoes are starting to come on. We cooked up a pot of tomato soup that will get canned tomorrow.
Peppers are doing well.
Our one cucumber plant is flourishing and I can't eat them fast enough. Glad we didn't plant two.

sweetandsour · Post by **sweetandsour** » 13 Aug 2023, 18:29

I went ahead and picked corn this afternoon. Most of it was tossed onto the bird feeder. What's pictured is what ended up being this summer's harvest. I gave them to my wife to use for decorations, but she said I should have left the husks on or partially on. So, on the grill they will go, one day this week.

: image000000 (19)Resized.jpg (85.77 KiB) Viewed 1293 times

Hovannes · Post by **Hovannes** » 24 Aug 2023, 12:59

Well, it's the end of this years vegetable garden---I pulled the remaining Orient Express eggplant and two Fresnos chiles.
I'll rake the beds and cover with plastic sheeting and let it cook the weed seeds into submission during this hot weather.
The trees appear to be doing well---a Meyer Lemon, two white pomegranates, an olive and a Quince.

jmg · Post by **jmg** » 24 Aug 2023, 20:45

sweetandsour wrote: ↑13 Aug 2023, 18:29 I went ahead and picked corn this afternoon. Most of it was tossed onto the bird feeder. What's pictured is what ended up being this summer's harvest. I gave them to my wife to use for decorations, but she said I should have left the husks on or partially on. So, on the grill they will go, one day this week.

image000000 (19)Resized.jpg

This is due to poor pollination. If you only planted a few stalks, I'd suggest planting more and fairly close together. When few are planted and too spaced, the pollen doesn't stand a good chance of falling down onto the silk.

Just my two cents.

sweetandsour · Post by **sweetandsour** » 25 Aug 2023, 05:14

jmg wrote: ↑24 Aug 2023, 20:45
sweetandsour wrote: ↑13 Aug 2023, 18:29 I went ahead and picked corn this afternoon. Most of it was tossed onto the bird feeder. What's pictured is what ended up being this summer's harvest. I gave them to my wife to use for decorations, but she said I should have left the husks on or partially on. So, on the grill they will go, one day this week.

image000000 (19)Resized.jpg
This is due to poor pollination. If you only planted a few stalks, I'd suggest planting more and fairly close together. When few are planted and too spaced, the pollen doesn't stand a good chance of falling down onto the silk.

Just my two cents.

Yeah, I always have my small pet corn patch. Typically 3 or 4 rows, 12' long. This year it was looking good until the plants were about 3 or 4 ft tall, a strong t-storm knocked them over. I tried save it the best I could but the patch became a hodgepodge, and then burned up in this drought and triple digit heat. But basically your two cents are correct. Oh and btw, the few small ears became decorative after all. So, no field corn to eat this year.

sweetandsour · Post by **sweetandsour** » 29 Oct 2023, 17:08

Turnips and mustard greens are about 6" tall now. There's still two jalapeno plants making peppers, and an unidentified plant bearing fruit that I need to positively identify.
Other than these, my wife's pumpkin vines have really gone wild. We've picked three so far, and a dozen or so are still green.

: IMG_20231022_182626875.jpg (6.2 MiB) Viewed 1164 times

: IMG_20231022_182514039.jpg (5.74 MiB) Viewed 1164 times

: IMG_20231022_182813893.jpg (7.27 MiB) Viewed 1164 times