Garden out and doing great

[jinman]

That is a great looking garden. I think I will see if hubby will put out the tar paper next year. We can just roll it back up later.

Carolyn, we only use the tar paper between rows. We used a landscaping cloth on a big roll for the actual rows. It comes with wire staples about 4" long that you use to hold it in place. It's porous so that rainwater can penetrate. You can also buy little plastic spikes at Tractor Supply or make them yourself by cutting and bending some heavy galvanized wire. Actually, if you have the soaker hoses under the cover, you could use either tar paper or rolls of poly. We cut holes where the plants are, but you can also run down on each side of the row and leave the center open for seedlings to sprout and then come back with mulch if you want. It all sounds like a lot of work, but putting down the cover is not nearly as much work as weeding. You do it once and you are done.:thumbsup:

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

We put the weed stuff down for the tomatoes, but hubby tilled the rows in between. I never put anything else down in the garden, just weeded. But it sounds like a good idea to put the tar paper between rows, but I think yours are wider then mine. Our garden plot is not huge.

Next year no brussel sprouts, less tomatoes, maybe 20 will be plenty and NO cherry tomatoes at all. I didn't even use them this year. Beets spaced wider apart. Also only 1 row of green beans. Hubby wants me to plant some patty pan squash, he really likes those.

So I'm planting carrots, beets, lettuce, spinach, bell peppers, cucumbers. Hopefully poblano peppers, a different variety of potato that keeps better, lots of onions, Texas sweets are good. I also want some eggplants, we like those too. But a smaller garden overall and only things we really use and like. What I have stored in the laundry room are doing well so far.

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

I picked tomatoes yesterday, they are much smaller but still......... I used over 50 today to make barbecue sauce, it cooked down to 6 pints. Sure smells good though, but I still have a wagon of tomatoes.

I gave some to my tenant and some to 2 neighbors and still have them. If I had thought to pick them Wednesday could have taken them to the food pantry. Wish I had, tomatoes in the store today were $1.49 or $1.99 can't remember which and the smaller ones $.99 a pound. I'm sure people could have enjoyed them. As it is, looks like either more barbecue sauce tomorrow or tomato sauce. Since I only got 6 pints might make barbecue sauce again. It's time intensive and the cooking time, is several hours.

It contains tomatoes, celery, bell peppers, onions, garlic cloves, brown sugar, dry mustard, serrano peppers, paprika, cayenne pepper, hot sauce, and vinegar, think that is all. I threw in some Worcestershire also. When I use regular BB sauce I generally add syrup and worcestershire to it, so can add some stuff when I use it. 12 pints would last a long time and could use a bunch more of those tomatoes. I even pulled 4 kind of dryed out looking vines as I'm tired of all these. They had a lot on them, picked most off.

Decided to make a peach cobbler for dessert. I brought home fixins' for Mexican tonight, it was so so. I bought peaches, $2.99 a pound, dang stuff is expensive. They taste good so peeled and fixed them and just now got the cobbler popped in the oven. We have ice cream for it too.

 

[Chuck52]

Carolyn,

You probably said, somewhere in this thread, but how many tomato plants did you put out to get so many tons of tomatoes? I have 54 plants out, but due to weather here in mid-Missouri, I only have pea-sized fruit so far. At one point I thought I'd lose the whole crop when we got hit by heavy rain and hail twice in one week. That's partly why I have 54 plants out instead of the 40 I was originally planning on. After the hail, I planted all my reserved starts thinking some of the ones already in the ground were gonners....then they came back. I think the Daconil I sprayed on the hail damaged ones kept the fungi at bay and allowed them to come back. Today's job is to go out and pinch off all the lower limbs so they don't get the creeping crud from ground contact.

My wife just retired after 40 years as a nurse and is planning to make the most of whatever we get from the garden this year. I may have to buy some kind of gas cooker for her to use in the canning (if we get that much anyway) because canning on an electric cooktop gets slow.

So far all we've had from the garden, aside from asparagus, is some lettuce, spinach and onions. The snap peas just died in the heat before they made any pods. I've had to till under two plantings of beans that did nothing, but the pole beans and bush beans I planted later are coming along nicely now. The corn is about a foot high and the okra and pink-eye purple hulls are up and going to town. I've spent almost as much energy trying to keep the peppers going as I have with the tomatoes, and they are coming on now finally, though the fruit is still just nubs. Squash and cucumbers are looking OK. I'd better get cucumbers this year since last year was a bust due to squash and cucmber beetles. DW loves fresh cucumbers and may leave me for a better gardener if I can't grow any for her!

Chuck

 

[jinman]

It contains tomatoes, celery, bell peppers, onions, garlic cloves, brown sugar, dry mustard, serrano peppers, paprika, cayenne pepper, hot sauce, and vinegar, think that is all. I threw in some Worcestershire also. When I use regular BB sauce I generally add syrup and worcestershire to it, so can add some stuff when I use it.

Carolyn, do you ever add molasses to your BBQ sauce? I don't like Masterpiece BBQ Sauce because it is too heavy with molasses, but I do like a touch of molasses flavor in the sauce. Your recipe sounds good.:licking:

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

I would like to take credit, but its just another from the Ball Canning Book. No I've never added molasses. What I generally add is syrup, brown sugar, and worcestshire. We like ours sweeter.

Today have to decide, catsup, seasoned tomato sauce, or more tomato sauce. Hummm, they all take about the same amount of time.

Next weekend probably both stands of corn will produce, I'm sure we will have to give some of it away there will be so much. That will likely get the rest of it packed for the freezer. I bought plastic cartons but I'm thinking of using my vacuum sealer so I can get more in it.

Then chickens up and I'm pretty much done.

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

I made stewed tomatoes to can, has tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, celery, sugar, and salt. Hubby likes those and I can use them in a lot of dishes.

The tomatoes are much smaller and not as nice but there are still a lot of them. I used 2/3's of the wagon and I still have tomatoes out there!:shocked: And guess what there are more to pick!!

Well, I can make more barbecue sauce, then what else????????

I saw those peaches, envy, envy...........


Hubby said do you have any peach squirrels, our wait until their fully ripe then dine well. They can strip a tree in no time. I netted them all, that was not a problem for them. Crafty little critters.

 

[jinman]

Hubby said do you have any peach squirrels, our wait until their fully ripe then dine well. They can strip a tree in no time. I netted them all, that was not a problem for them. Crafty little critters.

We used to have lots of squirrels and it was a fight to keep them out of the bird feeders. Now, our 4 cats love to chase them tree-to-tree and keep them mostly out of the yard and garden. The squirrels have decided they better stay in the woods.:thumbsup:

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

Hubby is trying to catch up everything he can before leaving. I want him to till most of the garden and I'm throwing flower seeds out there, will need to water.

He has some to do at the newest rent house. I always help but sure wasn't able to on this one. It's almost ready.

He wants to reinforce the motorhome cover in case we have a hurricane this year, he thinks it needs some being as tall as it is.

I want him to crank up the generator to make sure it will kick off if needed.

It sounds like a go, they are working on his passport and stuff. Got his documents together, goes down for his physcial Thursday, he has to take one for every new project. I wonder how some of the sick guys pass those?

So as far as we know its still a go. Hubby didn't even unpack from the last one. He did buy some new clothes today, so he is pretty much ready.

He thinks 2 or 3 more weeks, it always takes a long time to get visas and all the signatures on these things the first time.

Most of the work here will be done on gardening and remodeling for now.

 

[SandburRanch]

Since we have sort of a hodge podge gardening discussion here maybe it'll be OK to just ask my question here rather than starting a new thread.

Traditionally we have always stored our onions hanging in groups of maybe a half dozen with the tops still attached. The preferred storage area historically seems to be a cool dry place. The cool part of the equation always seems more difficult.

Question: is there a reason for leaving the tops on for storage? They aren't found that way in the supermarket.

The reason I ask is, I would like to store them in my finished basement, after they dry somewhat above ground, because of being cooler and storing with the tops removed would be much simpler in boxes or brown paper grocery bags. I have around 80 lbs. to store.

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

I cut the tops off mine and just left a stub. They are doing fine in the laundry room so far but I'm using them up in my canning pretty fast. I think folks just left all those stems on just to have something to tie them up with. I left about an inch or so at the top, cut the stems off with scissors.

 

[ericrm2005]

Response to the onion question.

All you HAVE to leave is a few inches of the stem. I usually leave mine in the field for a day or two if its sunny after pulled to dry a bit. After that i tie bunches of them together with twine and hang from my garage rafters. After maybe a couple of weeks they are nice and dry and I cut the stems a few inches up from each bulb and put them in mesh bags and store in the basement where it is nice and cool. They last quite a long time. Onions started from seed will last longer than sets will. Either way youl have them for a while.

Im pretty sure the people that keep all the stems on just do so to have something to hang them from and then they cut them off as needed.

As long as you let them dry out real well and discard any soft ones you should be fine.

 

[SandburRanch]

Response to the onion question. After maybe a couple of weeks they are nice and dry and I cut the stems a few inches up from each bulb and put them in mesh bags and store in the basement where it is nice and cool.

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I've thought of the mesh bags but have no idea where to purchase them. I'd appreciate any information you may have on what type store may have them? I see them on line but I'd like to buy local if possible.

 

[ericrm2005]

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I've thought of the mesh bags but have no idea where to purchase them. I'd appreciate any information you may have on what type store may have them? I see them on line but I'd like to buy local if possible.

I dont know of any store that sells them. I get mine from a local restauraunt. Local eateries all usually buy onions in bulk 50 lb bags. If you know someone or can make friends with someone who owns or works in a restauraunt, they can prolly get you quite a few of these bags for free. I know u can buy them online, but ive only ever seen them in bulk.

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

Went up yesterday afternoon and picked about 8 or 9 dozen ears of corn. Something is in the corn, deer we think so whether we will have anymore I don't know. Also the first 3 rows we were waiting for a second picking, the corn just dried up and yep we are watering. But its just incredibly dry here.

We are waiting till the first of next week to see of the other rows produce more. So about 22 dozen from a field that should have produced double that.

I got put up 40 1 and half pint boxes, 4 2 cup boxes, and 1 quart, so pretty good. Plus we are eating off the last 2 dozen, they are so good.

I'm making catsup today. My neighbor came over and got another 5 gallon plus bucket of tomatoes. He brought me more patty pan squash, hubby loves that stuff. Soon as the catsup is done, 6 pints?? maybe I have another half wagon of tomatoes to do up. I'm wanting to finish today so I can move on to other stuff. It's cooked down half, I have the spice bag in, sugar, paprika, and salt, but it needs to be thicker. It smells good. Last item to add is vinegar. Have to stir a lot to keep from sticking and burning. Lot of work to make catsup, just wanted to try it mainly, wish I had regular catsup type bottles, guess I can pour it in later.

These tomatoes aren't nice enough to can, sauces are about it for them. Maybe make some salsa, have to look at a recipe for that.

Next week dress out the chickens and I'm about done.

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

Good grief! I had a huge kettle, I'm sure it holds at least 8 quarts of juice, it had to cook down to 3 1/2 pints to get it thick enough. It would take ton after ton of tomatoes to make catsup. We are lucky we get it cheap as we do actually.

The rest of the wagon is going into some table tomatoes and stewed tomatoes then I'm done, so she says and hope to mean it!

I told hubby if we really like the BB sauce and the catsup, next year I will make a bunch of it. I can cook it down on our outside cooker. I'm wanting hubby to buy me a used cook stove so this kind of stuff can be cooked down outdoors.

Our local temp is showing 104 as the high today, could that be? Wow, we are burning up here. I know its hot out there, beyond hot.

 

[keegs]

Our local temp is showing 104 as the high today, could that be? Wow, we are burning up here. I know its hot out there, beyond hot.

I have a fire going in the woodstove. We've had mild temps and some heavy rain here in NJ. The house got cool and wet.

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

Unbelieveable. I gave the chickens fresh water today, I even put a flat pan with water in it also. They just drank and drank, it was real cool, had their feet in them standing on the edges, must have felt good.

All of them were standing around the 2 waterers. The heat out was like a blanket, just smothering. Right now there is a breeze but at almost 9PM its still 90 degrees. I looking at our side yard and back and its worst then I've seen it in the hottest August. I think we will lose trees this year.

Tomorrow make the rounds of everything and water again.

I keep water for the birds too and soon may start feeding them, looks like everything is drying up.

 

[Patriotic Stabilist]

I'm done, finally, 7 more quarts of stewed tomatoes, they are very versatile in cooking.

I'm tired and my feet, back, and hips hurt. Actually I'm exhausted.

That's it for this day.

 

[Chuck52]

And here I am happy to have found my first dime-sized tomato, which is on a Golden Queen, I think. I also found two pencil-sized zucchini. Woo Hoo!

Our temps have been all over the place. We had some high 90's for more than a week, then some rain and hail, and today it looks to be clear with a high of about 80.

If I can keep the coons out of it, my big garden success this year may, and I really mean may, be sweet corn. I've tried before without any luck, but this year I decided to go with corn instead of potatoes. My space doesn't allow me to plant everything I'd like, especially since I use so much of it for tomatoes.

I need to remember to collect seed for the fall garden. I usually put out some late beans, turnips and rutabagas, beets, and sometimes snap peas. My spring peas just died without making anything, due to the really hot spell we had.

We don't have the problem of too little rain, just the opposite in fact. The prediction is that this area will get wetter as the climate warms.

Chuck