any gardeners?

“Laurel and I are having tomato salad right now; two kinds of tomatoes, fresh basil from the garden, and a light drizzle of Brianna's brand poppyseed dressing. Total yummers, if a little messy.”

“Meangreen, if by letter you mean check, yes! I already cashed it!”

“I love raptors. :D

I was just glaring out the window at a rabbit in my tomatoes, and a light colored hawk just nailed that little effer!

WOO HOO!!!”

“Had a somewhat major tomato disaster when I went out into the garden this morning LOL

I thought my mondo huge wire tomato cages would stand up to the wind we sometimes get around here, I guess the ginormoous tomato plants plus heavy rain and wind was too much for them LOL they were all over the ground. I proped them up the best I could but I'm sure they will fall over again. I had to pick up lose green tomatoes from all over the ground LOL and I discovered a lot more red tomoatoes ready to pick.....

I'm being overwhlemed by tomaotes LOL!”

“and that is a bad thing?! tomatos, the LOVE apple.
last edited: 7/26/07 12:21:48 PM”

“no...the bad thing is they fell over LOL, although I do need some help eatting them now, mike doenst like tomatoes.”

“My corn was knee high on the 4th and now towers between 6 and 6.5 feet with lots of good corn development. Just picked a bucket of summer squash that's headed for the freezer and got about a gallon of green beans from 4-5 plants before the heat drove me inside. I'm heading out right now to harvest the rest:)”

“Three words: Green Tomato Chutney

Great on hamburgers.”

“DO you have a good recipe, Leofric?”

“2 1/2 pounds firm green tomatoes, about 6 cups diced
1 cup golden raisins
1 cup chopped onion
1 1/2 cups light brown sugar, firmly packed
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups cider vinegar
1 tablespoon mixed pickling spices
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 tablespoon chopped crystallized ginger

Trim the stem and blossom ends from tomatoes and cut into 3/4-inch dice (you chould have about 6 cups). Combine all ingredients in a heavy kettle; bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and cook for about 1 hour, until thickened.

Spoon chutney into hot sterilized jars, leaving 1/4-inch head space; wipe jar rims.
Cover at once with metal lids, and screw on bands. Process for 15 minutes in a boiling-water canner, or 20 minutes for altitiudes of 1001 to 6,000 feet. Over 6,000 feet, process for 25 minutes.

Makes about 3 pints of green tomato chutney.”

“The best tomato cages are made from concrete reinforcing mesh. Mine are 5' high. I use two strong metal stakes to secure each one. They're about 20 years old and still holding up.”

“Just finished freezing 8 qts of green beans and 5 of summer squash. Hope I get some company when it's time to eat 'em.”

“I'll be harvesting my first few zucchinis this weekend. I've been picking the zucchini flowers for a few weeks. The tomatoes are still green and not ripe yet. The only other things I've been able to pick were basil and parsley. I got a late start with everything, but that's okay and at least I'll be getting something out of it.”

“hhehehehe there is a gold finch sitting right outside my window. COOL! :)”

“I just found a blue jay feather out in the yard and thought it might be good for tying flies, but it was only colorful on one side. Too bad it wasn't blue on both sides. I still should go out and get it, maybe I'll still use it.”

“Now all you need is a feather from the other side of the bird and you'll have a matched set. Could you possibly twist a bit of the feather into a conical shape, so just the blue is on the outside?

I got some crow feathers yesterday. THe local crow family is molting terribly.”

“That's how it works with duck feathers, you use feathers from both wings. I just went out and got it. I'll make it work for at least some parts of a fly if not the wings.
last edited: 7/27/07 7:49:30 AM”

“I could send you some Bald Eagle feathers;)”

“Hey folks,

Anyone pinch off or cut off the tops of their tomatoes? Mom told me to go chop them off, so the energy would go into ripening the toms instead of producing more and more flowers. Guess my grandma would take a butcher knife out in the middle of July and hack away. LOL!

Saw my neighbor out, and she's starting a new compost pile today and is taking the hacked off plants. Easy for me! Hopefully she'll give me some of her compost next year - I've got a section that doesn't seem to grow anything very well.

We did pick three roma tomatoes yesterday, have a couple more out there that are orange. A few more beans, too.

Next year I'll do less tomatoes, and some more veggies. Can't wait!”

“I think I'd be more likely to simply pinch off the flowers. I do pinch off suckers as the plants grow, but I'm all about as many tomatoes as possible.

Our raspberries are gearing up for round number two. The canes are loaded again.”

“So far I picked several zucchinis and they seem to be popping up fast now.”

“I'm getting fresh green beans by the boat load. This is an heirloom viarity called Dragon Langerie.


This is 'Sherbert Fiz' Callendula


Lobilia:

The humming birds go nuts for it.

Aztec Sunset Zinnias:


One of my pumpkins that have taking over my parking spot!


Birdhouse Gourd:


Apple Gourd:


Warty White Gourd:


Sunflowers:


Brugmasia:
”

“dang...what kind of camera do you have??????”

“That's a cool garden, nice plants!”

“div...just a cheap vivitar digital point and shoot. Rich...thanks. :)”

“I ate some of SC's gourds..te he he he he he”

“SC, your stuff looks so happy!”

“Sass....every morning I have to chop my way out of my house LOL! Its hard to believe the only thing I fertilize these plants with is compost once a year. And manure once a year for the gourds and pumpkins LOL
last edited: 7/31/07 7:40:41 AM”

“I can't believe how much difference the rabbit poo is making in our garden. Stuff is growing like gang busters this year.
Next year I hope to have a compost barrel up and running. The pile never works for us as no one is motivated enough to turn it.”

“Well....the pics are great...and I need a camera!!!”

“Sass, I add my rabbit poo to the compost and it heats up real well! :) I turn it once every two weeks.”

“My neighboors call the police on me every time I feltilize.”

“My vegetables are going nuts at the moment, particularly the green beans and summer squash. I'm freezing them and am having a problem with blanching the summer squash. The blanching time for both beans and squash is three minutes. The beans turn out great, but the squash is a little closer to being mushy than I'd like. I'm guessing that there may be too many squash in the kettle to sustain the boil, or the boiling time is too long. I could resolve it (I hope) by either turning up the heat, putting in less summer squash per "batch" or lessening the blanch time. Any thoughts?”

“Fewer squash per batch would be the first thing I'd try. Maybe less blanching time, too, like 30 seconds less, to factor in the time it takes for you to scoop out all of the slices and for them to cool off.”

“Do you put them in ice water as soon as they're finished blanching?”

“3 min seems a bit long to me too. We usually blanch beans for 30sec then chill in ice water. Good deal on the huge crop!”

“No, just cold water. Maybe that's part of it. I'm also putting cold beer in me at the same time...maybe that's part of it too.

I just finished picking one row of beans and the sink is full. Fortunately I only planted 2 rows.”

“No I think the cold beer is a good ingredient. Well I for one have never seen canned squash! Prolly a reason for it...I bet it's hard to get it the right consistency.

And the only frozen squash I've ever seen in stores is winter squash, like butternut or something.
last edited: 8/01/07 8:01:15 AM”

“I've seen frozen summer squash, but don't think I've eaten any. Maybe I'll just give it away...or trade it for beer.”

“Dehydrate it.”

“How's it taste reconstituted? Doesn't sound very good; sort of like dehydrated cucumbers.”

“Picked the last of the zuccinni last night.

Picked the first of the romas last night as well. A little last this year, but rather tasty!”

“I started planting some butterfly bushes around our place, and some other small stuff. Put off doing anything in the flower beds around the house for the last 3 years since we knew if we did it would all get trampled when the exterior remodel happened. Well, it is finally over... and the few tiger lillies we had I'm guessing will not come back next year even with all the stuff I piled around them trying to prevent the construction crew from stepping on them. Several were just yanked out - there one day, gone the next. Grr. So anyway I have a wanted ad up on Freecycle asking if anyone will split their butterfly bushes and so far one person is willing. Cool!”

“nible. it reconstitutes just fine in soups and stews during the winter :) I like it a lot better then frozen!

WK, if ya needed tomatoes you should of stopped by last week, I was giving buckets of em away to my co-workers LOL

Tech, check out places like blossemswap.com, you can get a lot of free plants that way for shipping or trade. Thats how I've gotten the majority of my garden infact----even my butterfly bushes, which I got this year and are already blooming and bringin' in the swallow tails and humming birds!
last edited: 8/01/07 11:09:02 AM”

“Effing blossom end rot and a big storm last week have ruined many of my tomatoes, dammit! It looks like my eggplant went from "not quite big enough" to "overripe" in less than a week too.”

“I threw out a few zuccinni's that were bigger than Ron Jeremy's johnson.”

“I've been bragging about how tall my sweet corn is. The county ag guy quieted me down by suggesting that they may not be developing ears because of this. He's not the garden ag guy, but the animal ag guy, so he didn't know much more about it. Anyone here have any thoughts/ solutions. Everything seems to be tasseling well. There is silk development but I don't notice any swelling that would be consistent with ear development. I wonder if the 10-10-10 I threw at them a couple of weeks ago caused all this. Sure looks pretty, but could be all hat and no cowboy.”

“Just found an ag website and it seems that excessive nitrogen is the culprit. Live and learn, I guess. It'll look good with the pumpkins in the fall.”

“My corn is only 4 foot high :(”

“I have no corn! Dang squirrels took it all so many years in a row I stopped planting it. I do buy it from a roadside stand a neighbor has though.

Tech, if you want butterflies you should plant a few milkweed plants in a corner somewhere. They adore it.”