2009 - How Does Your Garden Grow?

Locked
User avatar
Watchman
Foreman
Posts: 43823
Joined: 31 Dec 1969 18:00
Location: Free America

Re: 2009 - How Does Your Garden Grow?

Post by Watchman »

A couple of days ago we finished picking green beans for the season. We got about 8 quarts which we froze; we had previously canned 14 quarts. So 22 quarts from a $1.79 pack of seeds - not bad. We're still picking yellow squash and zucchini. There are [tons] of little green zucchini left. Will harvest potatoes in a couple of weeks - I think. Can anyone tell me when is the right time to harvest potatoes? Picked all the anaheim chilis and hungarian yellows that I planted (just a few containers). All the onions are up. We have a flat in the basement and gave away a bunch to our grandson. Thew tomatoes were a complete failure this year, well not complete, but we might have got a couple of dozen from all the plants. The rest - BER. Same with bell peppers. No matter what I did I could not get good fruit from them. Cayenne peppers, well thats another thing - there are loads on the plants. Will dry those.
“Two is one, one is none”
User avatar
cowboy38229

Re: 2009 - How Does Your Garden Grow?

Post by cowboy38229 »

We always wait till the vines die before digging our potatoes.
Toepopper
Patriot ⭐ Construction, Shelter
Patriot ⭐ Construction, Shelter
Posts: 1229
Joined: 16 Aug 2007 12:03
Location: Southwest Oregon

Re: 2009 - How Does Your Garden Grow?

Post by Toepopper »

Thats what we do also, but we leave the spuds in the ground and dig them up as we need them. I spread some straw mulch over them during the winter to prevent freezing just in case the temps drop below 32 degrees. Thismorning I went down to dig up some for breakfast and noticed some bear tracks in my potato patch. Fortunately he did not dig anything up but went for some blackberries instead. :lol:
User avatar
Hotshot

Re: 2009 - How Does Your Garden Grow?

Post by Hotshot »

Been a good year just put my second planting of green beans in and should be putting cabbage out soon.We still need to pick potatoes to can and will be picking pears in the next week or so to put up
User avatar
dejure

Seed Exchange?

Post by dejure »

Behind the house, and part of the property on which we are fortunate enough to be allowed to take up housekeeping, is about twenty acres of orchard (a very small one by standards around here). Asparagus is very common there. Additionally, there are several irrigated, hundred acre fields of commercial asparagus. Finally, on the way out to a couple irrigation circles my buddy watches, and occasionally has me watch, is a hundred acre field of asparagus being allowed to go to seed.

Additional to the foregoing, the fellow renting the orchard out back has another one a few miles away. That orchard is a mass of broad leaf plantain, which is a fantastic "stop smoking aid" and a well known and respected antibacterial.

In light of the availability of these items, it might be worthwhile to consider setting up one of the seed exchanges some people do.
User avatar
cowboy38229

Re: 2009 garden results

Post by cowboy38229 »

Image
these were some of my tomatoes that were only fertilized with horse manure
Image
they got so big they broke off the vine before getting ripe
Image
compare the size to this 4x4 post
Image
some of the biggest red potatoes i've ever grown
Image
yukon gold potatoes
Image
dosen't this 10 lbs. cantalope look good, ummmmmmmmmmm
Toepopper
Patriot ⭐ Construction, Shelter
Patriot ⭐ Construction, Shelter
Posts: 1229
Joined: 16 Aug 2007 12:03
Location: Southwest Oregon

Re: 2009 - How Does Your Garden Grow?

Post by Toepopper »

Nice work cowboy. All that pain and labor is paying off.
User avatar
Watchman
Foreman
Posts: 43823
Joined: 31 Dec 1969 18:00
Location: Free America

Re: 2009 - How Does Your Garden Grow?

Post by Watchman »

We mentioned to our daughter when we visited that the "potatoes are almost ready". She wanted us to bring her some mashed potatoes because the rehab center food bites the big one. Yesterday I took my digging fork out and barely went into the ground (about 6 inches) and pulled out three, completely blemish-free, Yukon Gold potatoes, the biggest one being a little bigger than my fist. This tells me we have a LOT of potatoes just waiting for that nice September day.
“Two is one, one is none”
User avatar
Watchman
Foreman
Posts: 43823
Joined: 31 Dec 1969 18:00
Location: Free America

Re: 2009 - How Does Your Garden Grow?

Post by Watchman »

Last week I planted some 11-year-old radish seeds that I had laying around. Now I can't tell you what the exact germination rate is but the rows (2) look intact, with lots of shoots and no breaks. They have been stored in a low (to non) humidity area at relatively stable temperatures. It leads me to believe that seeds will keep a lot longer than the companies state.
“Two is one, one is none”
Toepopper
Patriot ⭐ Construction, Shelter
Patriot ⭐ Construction, Shelter
Posts: 1229
Joined: 16 Aug 2007 12:03
Location: Southwest Oregon

Re: 2009 - How Does Your Garden Grow?

Post by Toepopper »

Some seeds will and others won't. Most of the seeds over 3 years old that I have tried to germinate did not come up. I have had some green bush beans that were 7 years old and instead of dumping them out on the ground I decided to take a chance and stuck them in a vacant garden bed and to my amazement every one of them came up! This year I planted some yellow wax beans, packaged for the 2009 growing season and not a single seed germinated. I planted the rest of the package and it was the same outcome. I took the package back to the nursery store and told them what happened and they gave me another package of seeds. Package number 2 did not germinate either. As a consequence we have no yellow wax beans this year. I have noticed that it is getting harder to find non hybrid type seeds. They are becoming a mail order novelty item because the seed companies want you coming back every season to buy their seeds. The best, most robust plants always come from heirloom type seeds that germinate in the refuse/compost pile and pop up voluntarily from last years veggi garden.
User avatar
Watchman
Foreman
Posts: 43823
Joined: 31 Dec 1969 18:00
Location: Free America

Re: 2009 - How Does Your Garden Grow?

Post by Watchman »

Final Report on Our 2009 Garden: I think we may possibly have won the zucchini war :twisted: We just finished picking a final 40 pounds of zucchini and yellow squash. All summer long, from about June, three packs of seeds ($4.37) yielded about 250 pounds. We dried it, battered it, pickled it, ate it in salads, grated it and froze it for zucchini bread, gave away about 75 pounds to our local senior center and friends. Was in China Mart yesterday and zucchini (Mexican, of course) is selling for $1.99 a pound and I can't remember seeing it much cheaper, maybe down to $1.49 a pound at Safeway when it was on sale. Roughly $500 worth of food from $4.37 spent. Water was from a well (no cost), used compost ONLY, no pesticides, fertilizer. Tomatoes were a bust this year. Got about 200 pounds of Yukon Gold potatoes from the 10 pounds of seed potatoes that I planted ($10). China Mart was selling Yukon Gold for $.80 a pound - do the math. We canned 42 quarts and gave away probably that much in loose potatoes. Got 14 quarts (home-canned) of green beans and about the same frozen, from a $1.79 pack of seed. Every single one of the onion sets I planted ($4.50) grew and we had been using them all summer long, green and sliced. They're all gone but are selling for $.69 a pound at Smith's. I figure we may have got a total of 40 pounds. Egyptian (walking - perennial), we hardly ever eat them but granddaughter and wife cut all the green stalks off of them, then into 1-inch pieces and dried them for seasoning. Planted a pack of 11-year-old radish seeds and as far as I can tell, they all grew and we enjoyed them very much. This has been an experimentation year for us and we consider it pretty successful for our first garden in about 23 years.

Dug out all the squash plants (frost got them anyway about 3 nights ago) and they are now part of the great compost pile. Left the bean plants in the ground over winter for the nitrogen. Wife is getting ready to bake son-in-law an apple pie (for his birthday) from apples we dried 5 years ago. Already tried it this year and he didn't know the difference.
“Two is one, one is none”
User avatar
side_job

Re: 2009 - How Does Your Garden Grow?

Post by side_job »

I have always had good results with seed I got from this source, and they offer sealed kits.

http://www.heirloomseeds.com/main/index.html

As far as germination, I sometimes will soak the seeds overnight in a cup of water if I have had them for a while, smaller seeds can be done the same way in a wet paper towel. I have used those water based sponge seed starting trays (something? domes) and find a nearly 100% germination rate with them.
User avatar
Watchman
Foreman
Posts: 43823
Joined: 31 Dec 1969 18:00
Location: Free America

Re: 2009 - How Does Your Garden Grow?

Post by Watchman »

My gardening is done for 2009. Last week we picked the last of yellow squash and zucchini and gave 95% of it away. The rest we battered and fried. Tilled everything in the garden. Am awaiting a bag of alfalfa pellets at our local ag store and will till it in also - Lord help us, the ground doesn't freeze. We had our first snowfall of the season today, about 6 inches worth. If you have anything else to say on your 2009 gardening experiences, please do so between now and November 30th. I'm going to close and lock this string on the 30th and begin a '2010 - How Does Your Garden Grow' on December 1st. Thats about the time that seed catalogs begin to appear.
“Two is one, one is none”
fern
Patriot
Patriot
Posts: 1100
Joined: 05 Jul 2009 19:19
Location: PA

Re: 2009 - How Does Your Garden Grow?

Post by fern »

If anyone has an interest in reading about the soft and hard rock phosphates I mentioned a few months ago, I found a website that offers more detail.
http://www.hbci.com/~cmills/PHOSPHATE%20Reams.html
“Laws are made for the weak more than the strong.” Ben Franklin
Locked