Oh my Gosh I have sooooooo many different types of tomatoes and clusters after cluster...nothing ripe yet. The peppers are crazy loaded as well. Just plain ole jealous here...enjoy! My time will be soon.
Gardening in 2024 has been such a rewarding experience for me! I've been diving deep into it, thanks to all the fantastic tips and insights I've found on https://www.mklibrary.com/california-super-bloom/ . Seriously, they've been a game-changer for my garden. This year, I've been experimenting with a variety of plants—from vibrant flowers to practical herbs like basil and thyme. There's nothing quite like the satisfaction of using your homegrown herbs in cooking! I've also been trying out some new gardening techniques I learned online, like companion planting and mulching. It's amazing how these little changes can make a big difference in plant health and yield. Have you tried anything new in your garden recently? I'm always looking for inspiration and would love to hear about your latest projects or any tips you've picked up along the way.
Today my back hip felt good enough to hit the garden for a check. WOW rain , heat, humidity blew things up. Picked mystery compost pile squash . What they are is a striped zucchini and a yellow squash. Now these are hybrids and you have to be very careful on eating for they can be poisonous. Test them by slicing off a small piece and taste it. If there is any BITERNESS spit it out and remove plant. Ours are not bitter and I've sauted them up with garlic scapes, so good! The other squash in that group are acorn . I'll test them when ripe. Fungal spay helped but rains have reversed progress . Have to spray again. That said , so many tomatoes. Peppers went wild to where I had to thin fruit on a few plants to get size on Peppers and earlier ripening. Lots of bell tons of jalapeños and a few I have no idea. Look like banana could be roasters. My beets are now up, swisschard getting size. Cukes have fruit now, several baby watermelon,oakra is flowering. second planting of sweet potatoes are looking great. First group in a raised bed and these in a raised groud mound garden soil. Corn is above knee, cabbage has some worm issues and I killed a few. Have to wait for zero rain to DE dust again.pumpkins are taking off. Weeded carrots a little. My backs not good enough for that. Picked broccoli, need to pick lettuce. My brussel spouts are many and growing great. Many eggplant are in flower. We had collard greens for dinner the other night. Garlic getting close onoins...iffy. saw will need to buy for salsa canning. Beans, 9h my beans, what came up are looking a little sad and growing slow. I planted more, 5th planting, found a bunch dug up. The culprit showed up when I was out there. A stinking RED SQUIRREL. He climbs the plum trees and drops into garden. I think he's now after the red taters. One last thing winter squash are growing big but not in flower yet. Rosemary, dill, chives and oregano are all great.
Chicken bedding is getting spead around the melons and some squash. Fresh but far away from the root systems. This will still fertalize as these rains leach through manure filled straw. I already have 6 baby melons as of this morning. Transfered the bait station to garden next to potato bed. Nothing near chicken coop was using it anymore. Counted 15 eggplant actual fruit this morning that were just flowers yesterday. The new row of sunflowers is up 2 " after just a few short days
Do any of you recognize this tomatoes shape? I've not seen it before and it's from my store fruit experiment seed. I have a few of these plants.
Well looking it up they are about the right size and shape for San Marzano. Then the other being and Ox heart. The other plums or paste are looking like the very big Amish paste. That is interesting out of store bought tomatoes seed that were smaller paste and the on vine cluster. Also so many cherry, a couple of grape and several big beefsteak. I don't actual get how so many different types came from just those??.. now the blk cherokee cherry our daughter gave us years ago grew back in the garden true as in past years. Funny how the plants are handling the blight differently some are now leaf free waiting to ripen enough to pic. Others have stayed nearly blight free. I now just hope the flavors are good. The compost squash have been strange but very good, thankfully. Not poisonous , though the striped zucchini ones grow to huge, near blue hubbard sized VERY QUICKLY when not picked. Those are cut in half and fed to the chickens Hope to find ripe ones today.
First cherry tomato so satisfying! Killed a chipper but atill have more and the SOB got all beans on last planting and are eating baby water melon. Ya know Im wild about US forestrykilling a half a million striped(?) owls to help a smaller owl cousin out west.. WTF could possibly go wrong there. We, across the country, are being over run by rodents. A bigger owl that would eat more rodents especially in spring. Obviuosly they would eat more than their smaller cousin. Why not relocate owls. I'd love to see more owls up here. Voles, moles, red,grey squirrels, chipmunks , rabbits. Hey even farrel cats. All destructive in their own way. Maybe they could help with the grackles and starlings too. No hire sharp shooters a destroy them...conservationists
Man I just pulled another 5#'s of reds , garlic, broccoli, and cukes as well. I prepped a couple dozen jalapeños for poppers. Tomatoes are ripening faster. Now a major booboo, some how I managed to plant zucchini thinking it was my little dipper hubbard squash. No winter squash this year save the pumpkins. Let me tell you though, 4 different kinds of summer squash and fantastic recipes made with them. Last night zucchini, yellow squash with onions,tomato,garlic,basil,and banana peppers simmered up till just soft and then a cream cheese asiago/parm and cream sauce to finish cooking. Paired with a garlic, pepper and salt rubbed grilled pork steak and last years canned corn. Hubby loves that corn , I can't eat it. Love summer meals
Cross fingers, lost just one chicken a week ago. She gave us 2 huge 4.16 oz. eggs, that's as big as a duck egg then disappeared. I fear she got egg bound and died out in the brush. So today I introduced the young hens I hatch in April to their moms. Removed the roosters. After a few hours I released all of them to free range. Lets hope I still have 22 chicken tonight. They all came home
