Jim Inman's (jinman) Garden - 2007

[TBDonnelly]

Jim,
Can you eat what is produced on 35 catalope vines?
Later,
Dan

I think you may become known as a "melonhead".

The attached Picture shows what our garden was doing in February. (The "before" picture ) I think it's called "hibernating".

After watching Jim's garden grow, before I could even dig through the cold, hard, frozen earth..... I was like a tightly coiled spring unwinding when the weather finally broke.

Jim, I'll throw out the idea of "vegetable co-oping". People that live in the large McMansion style homes on postage stamps lots in upscale subdivisions are prime customers. I think it can be fun for the grower as well as enjoyable for the customer. The customers agree to a "weekly" drop of vegetables at a predetermined price. The grower includes whatever is "in season" each week. The customer receives an ever changing variety of fresh veggie's. Once a couple customers are established, the neighbors may become interested and a central drop point could be discussed for ease of delivery. I like this format because you have guaranteed weekly customers.

Don

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Everyone's garden looks better than my weeds.

I have little ants or something crawling all over my young okra plants. They are just starting to bloom flowers. Are these beneficial or are they bad? They look like little sugar ants or something.

My 'maters arent' faring too well and my 2 year old eats them as fast as I pick them...what to do....what to do....???

 

[Bird]

Kyle, I'd rather not have the little ants on the okra, but my experience has been that they don't do a great deal of harm; the okra still produces just fine.

 

[Ray2310]

I have been following the garden threads and thought it is about time to post some pictures of our garden project in progress. I plan to add five more raised beds in front of the existing beds.

 

[JC-jetro]

Here are a few pics of my tomato patch at the farm. I used several different ways to stake 95 tomatoes. This is going to be a test project to see how most efficient (easiest way) I can do it. I had bunch of 21 foot rebars that I cut to 5 foot stakes and use them when I ran out of cattle panels.




I have used cut sections of panel as such to either make triangular or square shape cages at home. I use some jewt twine to tie the corners and they work great, easy to stack, last for ever but a bit pricey.




I went hog wild with the number of tomatoes and had to improvise so I used rebarsfor staking. I hope rebars will not cut in to the stems. On few stake I covered the rebar with a piece of ¾” pvc to have a non abrasive surface thinking it may not damage the stems.



This the picture of my tomatoes patch after being planted for 3 ½ weeks. I have not used any fertilizers, only watered them originally when I planted them but got a bit lucky with rain.



At home my herbs are doing well but few tomatoes, pepper , egg plants and cucumber look a bit anemic due to lack of adequate sun.


JC

 

[jinman]

I have been following the garden threads and thought it is about time to post some pictures of our garden project in progress.

Wow! Ray, you and Don are running a good race for the prettiest garden awards. Your multilevel beds are a thing of beauty. And how did you manage to lay out your garden with perfectly square corners? I am absolutely smitten by how precise and exact your garden plots are. That's in addition to some great looking plants all mulched with straw on top of landscaping cloth. What a great lookin' garden.

JC, your tomatoes are looking great too. Are those cattle panel sections self-supporting by the legs pushed into the ground? That's the only thing I would question about your method. When the wind blows here, my cages often lean over if I don't have them anchored well. You probably have a method for controlling this, but I'm sure you get some wind in your area too.

Dan, I love squash and eat a lot of it. My wife eats some, but she can't make a meal of stir-fried squash like I can. So far, we have found people to give the squash to, but they are getting "over-squashed" too and we may have to find other outlets. Our real problem is that we are so far from friends and family that they can't just drop by to get stuff. I have to plan and haul it into work to find people to give it to. I found out last year that cantaloupes and tomatoes would make people come to us and we could give them other stuff when they got here. The melons and 'mators are our "bribe" crop.

I'm attaching some more garden photos I took last night. The last one is just the stuff I picked last night. The squash is an every other day thing.

 

[Ray2310]

Jim,

Those complements mean a lot coming from an experienced gardener such as you. As for how square and precise everything is...I grew up with a father who could not do anything without a level, tape measure and a square. I swore I would never be like that but....it happened. Also, my wife wants everything to look pretty.

 

[randy41]

you have a great looking garden....do you see honey bees on your cantelope or squash blossoms?

 

[Ray2310]

Not a lot of honey bees. I did notice that bumble bees were all over my blueberry bushes. My dad kept honey bees at his place for years and his garden always seamed to do very well. I may try this next with my dads help.

I picked my first zucchini last night. Attached is a picture of some radishes I picked several weeks ago. I will keep the pictures coming as things progress.

 

[Ray2310]

Jim,

A great recommendation (from my wife) for anyone with too much squash (standard green zucchini or yellow squash) They can be shredded in a food processor, packaged into Ziploc freezer bags and froze for later use in zucchini breads/cakes in the winter. Also we’ve had great results in freezing chopped zucchini to add to soup.

But mostly, we make Zucchini “pancakes” light fry them, then layer them in a tuperware container with layers of wax paper separating them and freeze… in the winter, take a few out, while frozen, put in a skillet with a touch of oil, by the time they are thawed/warm, they are nice and crispy.. wonderful addition to any meal!!!!! We make hundreds of them in the summer for winter eating.

2 cups of fresh or frozen zucchini
1 egg
1 sm onion chopped, finely
½ c flour
¼ c parmesan cheese
½ t garlic salt
1 T parsley

Add milk to thin batter if needed, should be like a thick pancake batter.

Mix all ingd, pan fry in a couple tablespoons of oil (canola is our favorite), about 1/8c per pancake.

If freezing just lightly cook, if eating, nice golden brown.


Another great Zucchini usage, Zucchini Lasagna, thinly slice zucchini and use them in place of lasagna noodles, use raw. Healthy and low carb too… much better than regular lasagna. (we’ve also had great results freezing whole pans of Zucchini Lasagna!)

Ray