Besides hunting for our favorite meats I garden. Some do this as a hobby others to save $$$ while eating better foods. I'm in the latter catagory. 180 x 80 foot garden then I'll plant plots that are edible for us and deer. Winter squashes, turnips, melons, corn, pumpkins. Over the years I've put in all kinds of fruit and berry plant's. Today I did 2 flats 144 cells of cabbage green and red and broccoli. We eat a lot of cabbage but I also make and can home made sauerkraut. Tomorrow Ill do up some eggplant and kale. Still need to find my collard seeds or buy more. Mid March for all other plant starts. The house will be filled with flats. Hoping this snow stops and I can get a start on the hoop house. So guys what type of gardening do some of you do?
Mom used to make homemade sauerkraut when I was a kid Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
OND, have you tried growing sweet peppers?, If so, any good tips? I've tried for years and always turned out dismal.
Yes those and hot peppers. The issue here is taking them from green to fully mature red, orange, or yellow . We have a rather short season. All tomato, pepper and eggplant need to stay on the warm night side to not slow growth. Once they dip to the mid 50's growth slows. Blk mulch ,and high tunnel row covers help. Pinching also helps in production and less nitrogen. More PK. I watch my sweet variety picks for maturity dates and sweetness at different color stages in growth. I get hit and miss years on my garden ,strange the driest years and I don't water unless severe drought are my best. The deeper I force those roots, the healthier my plants are. All that said I hedge my bets on all plants. I plant dozens and dozens. 36 to 76 plants each species. I'm bound to get enough to put up no matter what happens. Two years ago I put up 96 quarts of tomatoes and 16 of tomato juice. Gave away bushels on top of our fresh use. I canned dozens of hot peppers and froze bags and bags and bags of poppers. Same with diced sweet peppers. I gave up trying to use or freeze all the eggplant. Last year...rabbits / Woodchucks ate nearly everything. NOT THIS YEAR!!!!
one presidential hopeful said growing food id easy, make a hole, put ina seed, cover with dirt, add water wullah ! P.S. an old trick I learned from an old gardener, to get peppers drop 3 or 4 matches in each hole, peppers love sulfer, works for me ! I have made sourkraut for 40 years, never go back to store bought !
Can not wait for home grown tomatoes nothing better. I want a regular tomato that tastes like a cherry tomato.
When you transplant them throw a couple of clipped match heads in the hole or a touch sulfur. Makes them bloom and set like crazy.
I ordered $107 worth of seed from Territorial this weekend. Lettuce, beans, squash, borage, cucumbers and peas. I buy my tomato and pepper starts from the same guy every year, even though I have a green house he does an excellent job and has good varieties. I always plant a couple of Jet Star tomatoes, they produce like crazy here in Oklahoma. I still have spinach producing that I planted in the fall and just as soon as it warms up a little my carrots that I overwintered will be done. This weekend I spread alfalfa pellets on the garden and in the raised beads, the rain hits them and they fluff up and make a great mulch barrier.
Yes all my plants are usually home grown and transplanted. We are banana eaters but in winter they tend to over ripen fast. I personally won't eat a banana that isn't a little green. Right now I have a freezer bin filled with over ripe frozen bananas. These can make great breads, though thanks to 4H I hate banana bread,and shakes. I use them to fertilize my peppers and tomatoes..dig a trench line with bananas cover with some dirt then plant seedlings. I also have comfrey( in borage family) in my garden. It is a good fertilizer and great mulch. Grew it for goat fodder until I read it could cause cancer if ingested.
Well I was busy but got nothing done,so it feels. I laid out the hoop house and found 4 cattle panels. then I found some 4x4's to use on base and the new tower. I am now going with a 5x6x6ft high. I decided that the rebar mesh will work well as a roof. The panels are 9ft so they will over lap a lot firming it up I'll just need a 2x4 as a center snow support. this will cut cost quit a bit. shorten wall material and still give lots of head room because I have 2 big piles of 5 1/2 in. cedar. Plan the ends will be wood cut to fit the curve of panels. I'll drill holes and wire the panels to each board before covering with landscape fabric I have. Then a sheet of cardboard for sound and insulation, a 3.00 blue tarp and a better camo tarp. The door will just need framing and covered with the cedar. which already has a tan paint on one side. I'll just camo trees over that. I might go with a real tree tarp or a digital one. The hoop house will be 16 long by 10ft wide...I'm thinking with 32 in high walls I'll get a 7ft clearance, that will get double checked. The long side will face between south and west and the back will get the cedar siding painted blk. on the inside. the front wall will be screened and then have a roll up wall. for summer air flow and bug pollination. Window in the door and the nth/west side. I may have the end 2x6x10's not sure, will have to pick up the rest for that. I will also need a ridge beam. Due to winds I already have several rather large basswood ,beech or ash I can use as anchor poles. Straps will go over the hoop and be anchored to the logs. we found out the hard way ground anchors don't work here. telephone pole cuts are what hold the canvas barn down. I also cleared the way for more of the neighbor fencing. Need to pull post and move to that fence area. He made off with 3 post I hadn"t painted pink yet...I'd be mad If it wasn't so dang funny...Maybe I did get some stuff done after all...lol
Jazz cabbage!? This is the only one I grew last year. 9 1/2' tall, 9 1/2' wide. Finished with over 2 1/2lb's. First time I've grown in 20 years. And it was all LEGAL.
Start indoors early check your zone and plan accordingly. My family owns and operates a green house 40 miles from the Canadian border it’s not easy but can be done with proper planning and lots of care.
Parks whopper are a great variety for taste or Cherokee purple. Lemon boy has low acid in it but remains a great flavor as well
I have great results with Jett Star and Celebrity. Love those Lemon Boys. When it comes to heirloom I really like Cuostralee. I planted Matt's Wild Cherry tomato once about 8 years ago and now they just randomly seed themselves around the yard.
