I mentioned a while back that I was growing millet for my cockatiel. I've been cutting the sprays here and there to give to the bird, leaving the others to dry. I've never seen the bird so happy to attack a millet spray as it has been with these fresh ones. I think I've created a monster.
So it's definitely not outdoor "garden season" any more, at least here in OH, but how was everyone's harvest this year?
Our cherry tomatoes turned out pretty well, got lots of fruit and they were rich and juicy. Didn't have any problems with them - will be growing some more next year.
However - the better boy's went to $hit, only had about 5 fruits on the whole plant - and most of those started to rot on the vine while they were still green ?!?!? Pretty sure the weather screwed things up because we pruned the sucker branches, had a lot of buds that never sprouted - and fertilized/watered it regularly. Oh well, will try a different variety - maybe roma's - in place of these next year
And the serrano peppers turned out ok - had lots of peppers, so many that we had to freeze a couple sandwich bags worth - but they didn't get as big as we had hoped, largest ones were only about 3 inches long - still tasted good though. Will definitely grow these again and maybe add a couple other varieties next year.
Herbs are now inside and still growing like crazy - faster than we can use them fresh so we've been drying them. Digging the dried mints/hibiscus for hot tea.
And the best news - the lime tree is starting to produce fruit!!! It's inside now and receives full sun all day and is next to a heat vent .... and it has probably 10 small limes growing right now and another 6+ buds/flowers going. It will be a few months before the limes mature but I'm looking forward to having some fresh, home-grown limes for mojitos come spring time.
So it's definitely not outdoor "garden season" any more, at least here in OH, but how was everyone's harvest this year?
Our cherry tomatoes turned out pretty well, got lots of fruit and they were rich and juicy. Didn't have any problems with them - will be growing some more next year.
However - the better boy's went to $hit, only had about 5 fruits on the whole plant - and most of those started to rot on the vine while they were still green ?!?!? Pretty sure the weather screwed things up because we pruned the sucker branches, had a lot of buds that never sprouted - and fertilized/watered it regularly. Oh well, will try a different variety - maybe roma's - in place of these next year
And the serrano peppers turned out ok - had lots of peppers, so many that we had to freeze a couple sandwich bags worth - but they didn't get as big as we had hoped, largest ones were only about 3 inches long - still tasted good though. Will definitely grow these again and maybe add a couple other varieties next year.
Herbs are now inside and still growing like crazy - faster than we can use them fresh so we've been drying them. Digging the dried mints/hibiscus for hot tea.
And the best news - the lime tree is starting to produce fruit!!! It's inside now and receives full sun all day and is next to a heat vent .... and it has probably 10 small limes growing right now and another 6+ buds/flowers going. It will be a few months before the limes mature but I'm looking forward to having some fresh, home-grown limes for mojitos come spring time.
MMMMMMMMMMM! Those limes are gonna be tasty. We've got fresh mint too, they're great for Christmas type beverages.
We had 16 tomato plants and put up over 52 quarts of stewed tomatos this year. The wife takes them and cooks them down over a slow heat (after boiling for about 15 - 20 min) for about a day and a half till they're perfect for making sauce for spagetti or chillli or soup. In mid Oct. she pointed her finger at me and said she didn't want to see another tomato until next summer! You might want to try growing an Amish Paste tomato - great flavor, very hardy, and perfect for making sauces or just eating off the vine.
There's a great pepper avaliable now called a Senorita hybrid - it's a hybrid halapenio that has 98% of the original pepper flavor, but with only 1/3 the "heat". Last year I grew a bunch of them with some guahillo peppers and it made terrific chilli spice.
At our new house there is a deer proof garden area that I certainly will plant!! Looking forward to Spring already! It's hot in the summer so bring on the tomatoes and peppers etc.. I love gardening...and eating
So it's definitely not outdoor "garden season" any more, at least here in OH, but how was everyone's harvest this year?
Our cherry tomatoes turned out pretty well, got lots of fruit and they were rich and juicy. Didn't have any problems with them - will be growing some more next year.
However - the better boy's went to $hit, only had about 5 fruits on the whole plant - and most of those started to rot on the vine while they were still green ?!?!? Pretty sure the weather screwed things up because we pruned the sucker branches, had a lot of buds that never sprouted - and fertilized/watered it regularly. Oh well, will try a different variety - maybe roma's - in place of these next year
And the serrano peppers turned out ok - had lots of peppers, so many that we had to freeze a couple sandwich bags worth - but they didn't get as big as we had hoped, largest ones were only about 3 inches long - still tasted good though. Will definitely grow these again and maybe add a couple other varieties next year.
Herbs are now inside and still growing like crazy - faster than we can use them fresh so we've been drying them. Digging the dried mints/hibiscus for hot tea.
And the best news - the lime tree is starting to produce fruit!!! It's inside now and receives full sun all day and is next to a heat vent .... and it has probably 10 small limes growing right now and another 6+ buds/flowers going. It will be a few months before the limes mature but I'm looking forward to having some fresh, home-grown limes for mojitos come spring time.
MMMMMMMMMMM! Those limes are gonna be tasty. We've got fresh mint too, they're great for Christmas type beverages.
We had 16 tomato plants and put up over 52 quarts of stewed tomatos this year. The wife takes them and cooks them down over a slow heat (after boiling for about 15 - 20 min) for about a day and a half till they're perfect for making sauce for spagetti or chillli or soup. In mid Oct. she pointed her finger at me and said she didn't want to see another tomato until next summer! You might want to try growing an Amish Paste tomato - great flavor, very hardy, and perfect for making sauces or just eating off the vine.
There's a great pepper avaliable now called a Senorita hybrid - it's a hybrid halapenio that has 98% of the original pepper flavor, but with only 1/3 the "heat". Last year I grew a bunch of them with some guahillo peppers and it made terrific chilli spice.
Certainly looking forward to the limes.....will check out those varieties of pepper though, thanks! Probably wont mess with the tomatoes again though, the in-laws have a 100+ acre farm and have about 2 acres for their personal garden. They can an insane amount of tomatoes each year so we'll just raid their stash for a while :-)
At our new house there is a deer proof garden area that I certainly will plant!! Looking forward to Spring already! It's hot in the summer so bring on the tomatoes and peppers etc.. I love gardening...and eating
Nice, I have never personally seen a lime tree and would love to see photo updates as the little fellow grows.
Rodney,
I took a few more pics this weekend (sorry they're a little blurry, took them with my phone)...
The plant is about 3 feet tall from the soil to the top of the "tree."
Also, it's about 3.5 feet in diameter - when measuring the branches that are furthest apart.
The "trunk" is about 1.25 in in diameter at the widest point. Then splits off into 3 main branches.
Close up of the unopened buds. The buds will grow to about the size of your thumbnail before opening.
This is what the flower looks like after the bud opens up. The flower will stay like this for 5(ish) days before dropping it's pedals and "exposing" the fruit.
My first load of leaves are ready to be unloaded into the garden. Time draws near. Potatoes, cabbage, greens, collards and early peas will soon be in the ground. Lets not also forget onions and garlic.
All of the herb pots (7) made it safely to the new house. Fertilized them the other day and they're going strong -- got them stacked on a nice little shelf, right in front of a south facing window - lots of sunshine for them!!
Been using them while cooking and in tea - love having fresh herbs in the winter.
But the lime tree, ruh roh rooby roo. Lost quite a few buds and small fruits in the move ... but that's ok - there were way too many buds for it to support anyways. Probably have about 10-15ish total buds now (and lost about 15-20 in the move, mostly buds/small fruits fell, but we did lose a couple of the larger fruits).
But where are we going to keep this thing??? We don't have as many good, south facing windows like we did at the old house - and we can't just put this pot anywhere, since the tree is about 3.5' diameter.
Tried it in the room with the herb pots - didn't get enough sun, window wasn't wide enough and herbs were getting all the sun. Tried it downstairs in front of the big south-facing living room window - not enough sun due to the roof overhang for the front porch.
So it looks like we'll have to try it in the the corner of the spare bedroom - which has a nice east facing window that gets lots of sun in the AM, and a south facing window that gets sun through the afternoon. Hopefully that will work and these little limes make it through the next few months until the tree can go outside again.
If not, might rig up a shelf and some lights in the basement and turn it into a potting/grow room.
Time to till for potatoes and greens.
February is my target day for both.
Good luck to all who till the soil.
There is not a thing in the world like fresh vegetables!
Time to till for potatoes and greens.
February is my target day for both.
Good luck to all who till the soil.
There is not a thing in the world like fresh vegetables!
Stop teasing me Beck.. Winter has barely arrived here yet, ( 64 degrees in chicago today) so planting is still a ways off me.
Time to till for potatoes and greens.
February is my target day for both.
Good luck to all who till the soil.
There is not a thing in the world like fresh vegetables!
Stop teasing me Beck.. Winter has barely arrived here yet, ( 64 degrees in chicago today) so planting is still a ways off me.
Mid March is my target this year...a little earlier than usual, but this year I'm re-configuring the whole thing, and am going to try a much more intensive approach to the raised bed three season home garden. I'll end up with a space about 20' x 30' and will have tomatoes, green beans, peppers, carrots, onions, spinach, brocolli, lettuce, squash, and mellons. I'll try to put pictures up in April or June.
Time to till for potatoes and greens.
February is my target day for both.
Good luck to all who till the soil.
There is not a thing in the world like fresh vegetables!
Stop teasing me Beck.. Winter has barely arrived here yet, ( 64 degrees in chicago today) so planting is still a ways off me.
Mid March is my target this year...a little earlier than usual, but this year I'm re-configuring the whole thing, and am going to try a much more intensive approach to the raised bed three season home garden. I'll end up with a space about 20' x 30' and will have tomatoes, green beans, peppers, carrots, onions, spinach, brocolli, lettuce, squash, and mellons. I'll try to put pictures up in April or June.
Sounds like a great plan. Let me know how it goes once and a while.
Time to till for potatoes and greens.
February is my target day for both.
Good luck to all who till the soil.
There is not a thing in the world like fresh vegetables!
Stop teasing me Beck.. Winter has barely arrived here yet, ( 64 degrees in chicago today) so planting is still a ways off me.
Mid March is my target this year...a little earlier than usual, but this year I'm re-configuring the whole thing, and am going to try a much more intensive approach to the raised bed three season home garden. I'll end up with a space about 20' x 30' and will have tomatoes, green beans, peppers, carrots, onions, spinach, brocolli, lettuce, squash, and mellons. I'll try to put pictures up in April or June.
Sounds like a great plan. Let me know how it goes once and a while.
Time to till for potatoes and greens.
February is my target day for both.
Good luck to all who till the soil.
There is not a thing in the world like fresh vegetables!
Stop teasing me Beck.. Winter has barely arrived here yet, ( 64 degrees in chicago today) so planting is still a ways off me.
Mid March is my target this year...a little earlier than usual, but this year I'm re-configuring the whole thing, and am going to try a much more intensive approach to the raised bed three season home garden. I'll end up with a space about 20' x 30' and will have tomatoes, green beans, peppers, carrots, onions, spinach, brocolli, lettuce, squash, and mellons. I'll try to put pictures up in April or June.
Sounds like a great plan. Let me know how it goes once and a while.
Time to plow !!!
Maybe for you, but it's 11 degrees here with a wind chill of -7, snow on the ground, and more on the way.
Time to till for potatoes and greens.
February is my target day for both.
Good luck to all who till the soil.
There is not a thing in the world like fresh vegetables!
Stop teasing me Beck.. Winter has barely arrived here yet, ( 64 degrees in chicago today) so planting is still a ways off me.
Mid March is my target this year...a little earlier than usual, but this year I'm re-configuring the whole thing, and am going to try a much more intensive approach to the raised bed three season home garden. I'll end up with a space about 20' x 30' and will have tomatoes, green beans, peppers, carrots, onions, spinach, brocolli, lettuce, squash, and mellons. I'll try to put pictures up in April or June.
Sounds like a great plan. Let me know how it goes once and a while.
Time to plow !!!
Maybe for you, but it's 11 degrees here with a wind chill of -7, snow on the ground, and more on the way.
+1
Wish I could get out in the garden right now ... sounds like you got a good plan JDH, keeps us posted on how it turns out.
Not sure what we're going to do this year, since we just moved we probably won't plant much in the raised beds but instead wait to see what comes up, since we have no idea what the previous folks planted ---
Bumpo....anybody out there getting plans together to build a new garden? Do you specifically look for veggies that grow best in your region? How do you research that? And herb garden arrangements, if you have them how are they set-up?
Tomato worms are hands down the CREEPIEST THINGS EVER!
Never seen one in real life but just googled it and that thing is creepy....thanks, now I'm gonna have nightmares LOL.
And it just seems like the grocery store tomatos have no flavor to them - I'm assuming it's because the grocery store tomatos are grown using hydroponics and not in soil. I'm guessing the soil helps add some flavors to them.
Soil contributing to flavor? Obsurd!!!
Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to enjoy a cigar and a glass of wine!
Tomato worms are hands down the CREEPIEST THINGS EVER!
Never seen one in real life but just googled it and that thing is creepy....thanks, now I'm gonna have nightmares LOL.
And it just seems like the grocery store tomatos have no flavor to them - I'm assuming it's because the grocery store tomatos are grown using hydroponics and not in soil. I'm guessing the soil helps add some flavors to them.
Soil contributing to flavor? Obsurd!!!
Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to enjoy a cigar and a glass of wine!
Used to love to feed those to my chickens as kid..picked them right off the tomato plants. Yuck!
My surrogate gardener was out of town, but her husband needed help with a sticky starter relay on his motorcycle, so I rode to their farmette yesterday. Visited my wee sotweed seedlings. There are 72 cups, each with six tiny sprouts. No idea what she's going to do with such a profusion of uppowoclets. All indoors, of course, because it's frigid out, with rain, snow, sleet predicted today. Sheet of plywood in front of a wall of window, under grow lights, all covered with seedlings for various vegetables. Supposedly, these sprouts have a long job indoors before planting.
Habano, from Goldie, via Rain's pass. Can't wait to roll it up.
I've been really inspired by this thread lately. For the first time, I actually own my home instead of renting so I actually care about the plants that grow there and growing a garden. My fiance (of 7 years... aka wife) hasn't allowed me to purchase any plants for a long time because everything I touch dies!
A couple months ago, the senile, old man that lives across the street from us gave her this wilted, dying plant as a welcome gift and I've managed to nurse the thing back to health and it's growing really well. Pretty proud of myself!
So now I'm taking the next step. Dollar Store near our house was carrying the Topsy Turvey Tomato Planters the other day. (Crazy because everywhere else sells them for $10) I bought a couple of tomato seedlings, planted them, did a ridiculous amount of internet research and they're looking good so far.... aka I haven't killed them yet.
If this turns out well, I'm looking forward to much more gardening in the future.
Just about that time. Cabbage, Collards and Potatoes. The smell of fresh turned Earth will fill the air around here tomorrow if all goes well. If not, the smell of fresh tilled Earth will probably still fill the air around here tomorrow!
So, cleaning up the area and transplanting stray strawberry plants that are all over. I've got some bags of compost but I have to carry them down to the garden. I only emptied 3 because the wife will yell at me, probably still will....oh well. I enjoy getting out there, takes my mind off stuff. I have heirloom tomato starts and pole beans growing in the house!
I've got about 20 tomato seedlings and my hot and sweet peppers are starting to come up as well. I'll have to give away some of the plants 20 tomato plants will produce more than I could dream of eating. If all the peppers come up I'll have 10 hot peppers and 12 bell pepper plants. Again I think I'll be giving them away too ...
I plan to get about eight or ten tomato plants in, along with my usual Peppers, eggplant and Zuchini Plants. Strawberries are a must for the rabbits and my dogs (they love these things). With the space left, I'll try Cucumbers, green beans, radishes, and a Pupmkin to finish the season, but somehow that always seems to end badly.
Comments
So it's definitely not outdoor "garden season" any more, at least here in OH, but how was everyone's harvest this year?
Our cherry tomatoes turned out pretty well, got lots of fruit and they were rich and juicy. Didn't have any problems with them - will be growing some more next year.
However - the better boy's went to $hit, only had about 5 fruits on the whole plant - and most of those started to rot on the vine while they were still green ?!?!? Pretty sure the weather screwed things up because we pruned the sucker branches, had a lot of buds that never sprouted - and fertilized/watered it regularly. Oh well, will try a different variety - maybe roma's - in place of these next year
And the serrano peppers turned out ok - had lots of peppers, so many that we had to freeze a couple sandwich bags worth - but they didn't get as big as we had hoped, largest ones were only about 3 inches long - still tasted good though. Will definitely grow these again and maybe add a couple other varieties next year.
Herbs are now inside and still growing like crazy - faster than we can use them fresh so we've been drying them. Digging the dried mints/hibiscus for hot tea.
And the best news - the lime tree is starting to produce fruit!!! It's inside now and receives full sun all day and is next to a heat vent .... and it has probably 10 small limes growing right now and another 6+ buds/flowers going. It will be a few months before the limes mature but I'm looking forward to having some fresh, home-grown limes for mojitos come spring time.
We had 16 tomato plants and put up over 52 quarts of stewed tomatos this year. The wife takes them and cooks them down over a slow heat (after boiling for about 15 - 20 min) for about a day and a half till they're perfect for making sauce for spagetti or chillli or soup. In mid Oct. she pointed her finger at me and said she didn't want to see another tomato until next summer! You might want to try growing an Amish Paste tomato - great flavor, very hardy, and perfect for making sauces or just eating off the vine.
There's a great pepper avaliable now called a Senorita hybrid - it's a hybrid halapenio that has 98% of the original pepper flavor, but with only 1/3 the "heat". Last year I grew a bunch of them with some guahillo peppers and it made terrific chilli spice.
I hope for a better year next season.
Nice, I have never personally seen a lime tree and would love to see photo updates as the little fellow grows.
I took a few more pics this weekend (sorry they're a little blurry, took them with my phone)...
The plant is about 3 feet tall from the soil to the top of the "tree."
Also, it's about 3.5 feet in diameter - when measuring the branches that are furthest apart.
The "trunk" is about 1.25 in in diameter at the widest point. Then splits off into 3 main branches.
Close up of the unopened buds. The buds will grow to about the size of your thumbnail before opening.
This is what the flower looks like after the bud opens up. The flower will stay like this for 5(ish) days before dropping it's pedals and "exposing" the fruit.
Time draws near.
Potatoes, cabbage, greens, collards and early peas will soon be in the ground.
Lets not also forget onions and garlic.
Been using them while cooking and in tea - love having fresh herbs in the winter.
But the lime tree, ruh roh rooby roo. Lost quite a few buds and small fruits in the move ... but that's ok - there were way too many buds for it to support anyways. Probably have about 10-15ish total buds now (and lost about 15-20 in the move, mostly buds/small fruits fell, but we did lose a couple of the larger fruits).
But where are we going to keep this thing??? We don't have as many good, south facing windows like we did at the old house - and we can't just put this pot anywhere, since the tree is about 3.5' diameter.
Tried it in the room with the herb pots - didn't get enough sun, window wasn't wide enough and herbs were getting all the sun. Tried it downstairs in front of the big south-facing living room window - not enough sun due to the roof overhang for the front porch.
So it looks like we'll have to try it in the the corner of the spare bedroom - which has a nice east facing window that gets lots of sun in the AM, and a south facing window that gets sun through the afternoon. Hopefully that will work and these little limes make it through the next few months until the tree can go outside again.
If not, might rig up a shelf and some lights in the basement and turn it into a potting/grow room.
February is my target day for both.
Good luck to all who till the soil.
There is not a thing in the world like fresh vegetables!
Sounds like a great plan.
Let me know how it goes once and a while.
Time to plow !!!
Wish I could get out in the garden right now ... sounds like you got a good plan JDH, keeps us posted on how it turns out.
Not sure what we're going to do this year, since we just moved we probably won't plant much in the raised beds but instead wait to see what comes up, since we have no idea what the previous folks planted ---
Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to enjoy a cigar and a glass of wine!
Habano, from Goldie, via Rain's pass. Can't wait to roll it up.
A couple months ago, the senile, old man that lives across the street from us gave her this wilted, dying plant as a welcome gift and I've managed to nurse the thing back to health and it's growing really well. Pretty proud of myself!
So now I'm taking the next step. Dollar Store near our house was carrying the Topsy Turvey Tomato Planters the other day. (Crazy because everywhere else sells them for $10) I bought a couple of tomato seedlings, planted them, did a ridiculous amount of internet research and they're looking good so far.... aka I haven't killed them yet.
If this turns out well, I'm looking forward to much more gardening in the future.
Cabbage, Collards and Potatoes.
The smell of fresh turned Earth will fill the air around here tomorrow if all goes well.
If not, the smell of fresh tilled Earth will probably still fill the air around here tomorrow!
I've got about 20 tomato seedlings and my hot and sweet peppers are starting to come up as well. I'll have to give away some of the plants 20 tomato plants will produce more than I could dream of eating. If all the peppers come up I'll have 10 hot peppers and 12 bell pepper plants. Again I think I'll be giving them away too ...