Garden time...Oh boy!

[jinman]

We have been working this garden all spring and summer, and it has been a persistent job just to keep everything watered and picked. Whew! We sure have picked a lot of veggies and learned a lot about our little garden spot to do next year.

We still have Porter tomatoes growing and they have produced hundreds of tomatoes on each plant. We probably have 10 lb of them in the fridge right now. I eat tomatoes for breakfast lunch and dinner, but have not grown tired of them at all. Every other day we pick about 5 lb of these "jewels."

The heat has about dried out everything in the garden except the okra and melons that seem to love the heat. We've been eating cantaloupes and watermelons almost as much as tomatoes and giving away as many as we can convince people to take. I have ****** melons just getting big and ripe. They will soon be ready to sample. We also have kept our squash alive and it is producing several nice squash weekly despite the heat.

I did make one big mistake. I overwatered the watermelons and had a couple of them burst open due to excess fluid. I just tossed them over the garden fence. They were almost fully ripe and broke into pieces on the ground.

That was a big, big mistake. The critters ate those melons and that let them know that the big green "things" in the garden had good stuff inside. When I went to the garden two days ago, I found six melons had been pecked by crows and finished off by squirrels and raccoons. AARGH! Check out the two melons in the attachment. I had to pick all the watermelons and I'm keeping a close eye on the cantaloupes and ****** melons. They don't smell like watermelon, so they were not attacked...yet.

 

[Egon]

Jinman:

There should be definitions on garden sizes. You have a vetable farm.

Now just remember all those critters out there need food too!

Our tomatoes are about fingernail size. Soon maybe we will have some fresh ones.

 

[BB_TX]

Jim - Is your okra still producing? If it is starting to slow and look like it is about to finish, look toward the bottom of the plants. You will probably see new branches starting to grow. Just cut the main plant off about 6"-12" from the ground and the plants will start all over again.

 

[PineRidge]

Jim I may have missed a previous post, were you able to save any of your sweet corn and if so how well did it turn out?

 

[jinman]

Jim - Is your okra still producing?

Bill, not only is our okra still producing, but it is going better than anything else. We are picking 1/2 bushel about every two days. Whew! We have a freezer about 1/3 full of the stuff. When it dies...I'll just let it go.

Mike, our corn was almost a complete flop. What the worms didn't get, the crows and raccoons took care of. We got a few ears, but we definitely decided that four ears for a dollar at Wal*Mart was sure a lot easier than growing and trying to keep out all the critters and bugs. We may try some next year, but we will have to come up with some better methods of pest control. Being a little open acre in the middle of an oak forest is just an invite for every kind of critter in the world to show up. I remember you said our two old dogs wouldn't help much and you could not have been more correct. They were too lazy to worry about what was going on in the garden.

 

[billbill1]

The coons found my sweetcorn too, we got two batches and the coons took the rest. I still have some that isn't ready, been reading on the internet that an electric fence with 2 strands (4" and 10") will keep them out, looks like I'll be buying a charger and fence stuff on Friday. The garden is in the same place that it has been for the past 5 years and we never had a problem before this year. Tons of tomatoes, squash, green beans, turnips, and onions. The potatoes rotted in the ground though, been real dry here.

 

[PineRidge]

I was hoping that you got the worms under control and at least were able to salvage some of your sweet corn.

Last year the coon and deer got a lot of ours so this year we planted a crop of field corn 1st hoping to lure them there so that we can sample the sweet corn ourselves. I'll let you know how that works later.

 

[Farwell]

I have to fence my garden to keep the deer and rabbits out. I have a live trap for the raccoons. They love 9 lives dried cat food. They are smart and it takes a little time to out smart them but I eventually get all of the ones in my immediate area. I take them for a ride and let them go in the forest about 10 miles from my place.
I found my first tomato worm today and it wasn't any where near my garden. Wonder what it was after?
Farwell

 

[jinman]

I was hoping that you got the worms under control and at least were able to salvage some of your sweet corn.

Last year the coon and deer got a lot of ours so this year we planted a crop of field corn 1st hoping to lure them there so that we can sample the sweet corn ourselves. I'll let you know how that works later.

Mike, I was spraying the corn with liquid and dusting with Sevin 5% on a regular basis. I skipped for about two weeks just at the wrong time and the worms infested the ears. It was a case of poor timing an lack of attention at the worst possible time. Then, the coons and crows discovered the corn when it got really dry and I was irrigating. My garden must have looked and smelled like paradise to them. I've never seen so many ears shucked and eaten down to the cob while they were still on the stalk. I can't help but smile when I look at the plants now; although, I was shocked when I first saw them.

Farwell: That trapping sounds like a good idea, but I don't know if I could be as humane as you. Once I had those little "buggers" in a trap, I would have a hard time letting them go. I think I'd want to poke at them with a stick for a few days just for revenge.

 

[PineRidge]

Farwell: That trapping sounds like a good idea, but I don't know if I could be as humane as you. Once I had those little "buggers" in a trap, I would have a hard time letting them go. I think I'd want to poke at them with a stick for a few days just for revenge.

Jim how bout giving the critters swimming lessons while the're still in the cage?

Sorry the sweet corn didn't make it, in my opinion the corn is the most important crop followed by tomatoes.

 

[Farwell]

Jim,
When I was a kid our dog would tree them, my brother would shoot them, my Mother would gut and skin them and we had fresh meat. I don't remember what the meat tasted like. Our dog and my brother got so good at getting them my Mother put a stop to the shooting. She said that if you shoot them you have to clean them. That put a stop to the raccoon shooting.
If you trap them be prepared for a mess. I have to use high pressure water to get the cage clean afterwords.
Farwell

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Scott has a garden going back behind his new barn-shop. We have to pick the okra every other day too. And I think we're going to be pink from all the tomatoes we're eating.

Just about every evening I make a quick spicey okra tomatoe gumbo kind of thing. It's good. It's good for you. And it's not something beyond the capablility of a man to do.

One onion diced

Oh about that much okra sliced (bowl full)

About half the okra amount of peeled and sliced tomatoes

Cup of jalopenas diced. Remove the seeds if there are tender mouths present. If not keep in those seeds!!!!

I put the whole thing in a microwave pot let it cook in the microwave for about eight to ten minutes.

The end result is a gumbo without meat dish that's absolutely delicious if you like okra and tomatoes. And since there's no water involved besides what's in the tomatoes there's none of the okra slime that you usually get from cooking okra conventionally.

Most people have a problem with their nose when I mention jalopenas. But if you remove the seeds before you dice them the only add a sweet taste to the dish. Most people can't tell I've put them in there but they do notice a good taste that they didn't expect.

enjoy.

 

[rox]

Harv,

In your gumbo, add a little bit of high quality olive oil and see if you like it. The olive oil should have a good flavor, not void of flavor.

 

[jinman]

Harvey, your quick gumbo recipe sounds good. I think Rox is onto something with a little olive oil too. Do you ever add any rice? Kathy has been fixing regular gumbo without meat for me from the okra and tomatoes. We've frozen some of it for a quick warm-up treat this winter. I'm sure she hasn't used jalapenos, but that sounds good to me. I'm one of those people who thinks everything is better with jalapenos.

I cut open our first ****** melon last night and it is sweet, sweet, sweet. If you ever have a chance to taste one of these, don't pass it by.

 

[Egon]

I always thought cooking started with putting your hand on the bottle of Olive oil and dicing some garlic!

 

[PineRidge]

I always thought cooking started with putting your hand on the bottle of Olive oil and dicing some garlic!

Egon I'm in total agreement with you, olive oil garlic goes with just about everything.

 

[Bird]

I cut open our first ****** melon last night and it is sweet, sweet, sweet. If you ever have a chance to taste one of these, don't pass it by.

I'd never even heard of an ****** melon until about 5 years ago when a neighbor gave me one. It was so good that I kept the seeds and grew my own the next year. I'm surprised they're not more popular than they are.