let's see your veggie garden {pics}

[Charly]

I tried some lettuce this year (started in middle and end of spring) and no seed germinated... I thought the seeds were too old...
I might try to germinate some again more protected from the sun.
Thank you Bob for the link.

 

[SmokesAhoy]

Lettuce takes too long to grow in the ground, I'll do it again but it will be outdoor hydro. I've seen YouTube videos of it on time lapse and that's more my speed.

 

[greenmonster714]

I usually grow lettuce in a nice sized flower pot. Never had much luck with it in the garden. I love scallion onions as well and do those in pots as well. Last year I even grew corn in a large pot. I didn't harvest many but they were pretty good.

 

[deluxestogie]

Here is my entire garlic crop. It's 60 plus heads. For a total of about one hour's work, I have this to use over the next year (minus a couple of heads of each variety, to replant as cloves in November). It's the easiest crop of anything that I grow each year.

One particularly tasty use I make of fresh garlic is in preparing refried beans. In the morning, I dump a can of black beans into a pot, along with all the peeled cloves of one head of garlic. I add several tablespoons of olive oil, a cup of water, then simmer it for most of the day, stirring when required, adding more water or olive oil if needed. Then I use a potato masher to mash it all to a pulp, and continue simmering. Salt to taste. A piece of pork can also be simmered all day in the same pot, and mashed into it. Serve with a sprinkle of shredded cheese.

Bob

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

The aroma must be awesome.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

My potatoes are 3' tall. I've hilled them once, and run out of dirt. I realized they were infringing on the first row of onions, so I bent them back a bit. That last row of onions hasn't grown very well because of the potatoes.
I'm trying amaranth, you can see on the right, just as an experiment. They're starting to flower. I'm curious how much seed you get from one plant.

 

[SmokesAhoy]

Amaranth beats spinach any day. I grew it for seed a couple years ago and remain indifferent to the grain but after having it cooked as a green when still young and tender I'd say it's my favorite by far.

My potatoes are also silly tall, blossoms are dropping daily. I was kind of hoping to have a seed pod on one but I'll be lucky for that to happen now. Bugs stopped bothering them, after hilling it the second time I haven't bothered with weeds as basically there are none, the potatoes out competed everything else by a huge margin.

Corn is looking super healthy, roundup only happened once when it was about 6" tall, doesn't look like another application will be needed.

I smoked my first mud cured lug in a pipe today. No matter how much tobacco I have I can never resist doing that at least once.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Amaranth beats spinach any day. I grew it for seed a couple years ago and remain indifferent to the grain but after having it cooked as a green when still young and tender I'd say it's my favorite by far.

My potatoes are also silly tall, blossoms are dropping daily. I was kind of hoping to have a seed pod on one but I'll be lucky for that to happen now. Bugs stopped bothering them, after hilling it the second time I haven't bothered with weeds as basically there are none, the potatoes out competed everything else by a huge margin.

Corn is looking super healthy, roundup only happened once when it was about 6" tall, doesn't look like another application will be needed.

I smoked my first mud cured lug in a pipe today. No matter how much tobacco I have I can never resist doing that at least once.

With the amaranth, is there a balance in eating the leaves without stunting the grain production?

 

[SmokesAhoy]

Not really, overseed an area, when plant is about a foot tall cut it or snap it above the roots or wherever it snaps and isn't fibrous. Chop it all up and fill a pot to boil up. It doesn't take long to get to a foot or so tall if you plant more seeds now you can have some as greens without messing up the one you are growing for seed.
On the variety I grew it was a seed type variety grown from a bag of amaranth seed from the store so presumably Peruvian in origin and got to 7-8 feet tall but the leaves had too much oxalates when it was that old, but was really good when immature.

 

[deluxestogie]

Moon Beans

My Genuine Cornfield Beans have climbed 7 of the 10 strings of my trellis, and the remaining 3 are trying.

In this evening photo, with the yellow porch light as the only source of direct light, the full moon rises through the trees, and seems attached to a string holding 3 garlic heads on a test garland. For the first time, today I saw blossoms on the trellis.

Four years ago, I planted Scarlet Runner beans at this corner of the porch. Every summer day since then, a hummingbird pauses in the air, right where the Scarlet Runner's scarlet blossoms used to be, then flies away. The poor thing will surely be disappointed to find only white blossoms.

You may notice in the photo that I doubled the bamboo. During a windstorm, before the beans had climbed high, I began to worry that a loaded trellis might just snap the single bamboo in a sudden wind gust. So, the day before the first vine reached the top, I reinforced the support.

Bob

 

[SmokesAhoy]

My potatoes are also silly tall, blossoms are dropping daily. I was kind of hoping to have a seed pod on one but I'll be lucky for that to happen now.

Update: one single plant in 5 pounds of cut seed potato came through for me, it's a boy! I've got 2 seed balls maturing!

 

[wooda2008]

Best plants in the Veggie garden are my winter squash. Cucumber beetles and squash bugs are doing a number on them but they're still getting bigger and better. Should have some blossoms this week.

 

[deluxestogie]

How to Live a Greener Life

My three Early Girl tomatoes have had fruit on the vine for over a month now. Unfortunately, it started out green, and has remained green. The other tomato varieties bore later fruit, but that is also still green. Although tiny, green Roma tomatoes make wonderful dill pickles, I would be happier to have an occasional red tomato.

We need to make some sacrifices to lead greener life.

Bob

 

[SmokesAhoy]

I never knew that about Roma's, I have a bunch planted that'll be a great idea for the ones at the end of the season thanks.

 

[deluxestogie]

...that'll be a great idea for the ones at the end of the season...

Although you can pickle the green tomatoes at any time during the summer, pickling is a great way to salvage all the immature tomatoes still on the vine the day before the first predicted frost.

Green Tomato Pickles

Ingredients:

• Small green firm tomatoes (sliced into halves or quarters)
• Fresh dill or dill seed
• (optional) hot peppers to season
• Water
• Distilled white vinegar (1 part vinegar to 2 parts water enough to fill jars)
• Salt (1 cup per quart of vinegar) [approx. 5 tbsp salt per quart of brine]
• GARLIC (1 to 4 cloves per jar)
• (optional) mustard seed (8 to 30 per jar)
• (optional) peppercorns (8 to 30 per jar)

[1 quart vinegar, 2 qt. water, 1 cup salt make about 6 quarts of tomatoes]

Procedure:

1. Wash vegetable and pack into sterilized jars
2. Add garlic (sliced once lengthwise or slightly crushed) and optional hot pepper to each jar
3. Make a brine of water, vinegar, salt, dill and optional spices. Boil for 5 minutes.
4. Pour the hot brine over the vegetable in the jars
5. Seal. Hot water bath process for 5 minutes.
6. Ready for use in 4 to 6 weeks.

Occasionally, I see pickled green tomatoes in the salad bar of an Italian restaurant, but I've never seen them sold at retail, so the restaurants must do the pickling themselves.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

My North Georgia Candy Roaster Squash

This winter squash is really going to town. I've never eaten it before, but the name is promising.


[Okay. The Coke bottle in the photo is only 3" tall, but still, the squash is already 2 feet long, and growing.]

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

I get the feeling that I will be inundated with beans in a couple of weeks.

Beans growing on my porch trellis.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

Maybe Radish Does Keep Cucumber Beetles Away

Now that I'm harvesting several pounds of cucumbers every 3 or so days, I have yet to see a single cucumber beetle anywhere on the trellis.

I planted Red Globe and French Breakfast radishes throughout the area of my cucumber trellis. I harvested all the radishes I could stand, then simply allowed the remainder to go to seed. I'll continue to watch for beetles as the season progresses.

Bob

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

I picked some 4lb 2oz of cucumbers today. I'm fermenting them in a salt-only brine, with garlic and dill.



This will be the best cucumber crop I've had. I'm excited.

 

[deluxestogie]

View attachment 21258

My cukes are narrow, but about 1 foot long. I've been pickling in 1/4 wedges in quart jars. It's exciting when they start to bubble.

Bob