What Are Your Garden Tricks?

[Tom from Rubicon]

Felt like early October here today. Explains why I am seeing migrant hummingbirds.
First chili pepper is fruiting. should have had more sooner but the dang squirrels kept digging up my seed beds. Deer have not been a problem since the subdivision got built. Looks like some turkeys are roosting in the Norway Pines. Hens by the shape of their droppings.

Tom

 

[MEASURE TWICE]

Sort of self-explanatory for those hop heads?

I have an old Farmer’s Almanac and it mentioned making hops tea for health benefits. I would probably just use it as finishing hop in a wort than has 10 minutes left to boil for an Ale fragrance.

The store-bought hops, at the homer brewers place, has the pellets that are way stronger and they boil the full hour or whatever the recipe says. That is the flavor, the bittering bite, to offset the malt flavor in a balance for nice sipping.

Maybe a pint and a half of hops cone flowers in the harvest. You need lots more for anything to add flavor. The ambiance of the fragrance is all that this harvest can help with.

MT

 

[Greg58]

Funny you posted in this thread, I just picked and ate my last two peppers from our garden. I have a couple of bell peppers about the size of grapes that probably won’t mature before it gets too cold, everything else has been cleared. I stuck a cutting from the old fig tree at moms old home place in the garden along the side inside of the fence, it is now over 6 feet tall in one season. It’s taller than the other fig tree that is about 15 feet away outside of the garden, my neighbor if a avid gardener with all kinds of plants, she said my fig tree was “happy” where it’s at.

 

[MEASURE TWICE]

I had some garlic bulbs that I have waited a little too long and they sprouted sitting in the kitchen.

I separated some to plant in a half wine barrel planter.

This Winter they are doing well.

5 of these I saw with green tops growing so far a foot tall.

There seems to be one of several that I expect to also pierce the soil surface eventually.

I recently had seen the little green nub, but not sure if it may be some other volunteer.

Not sure if buying from nursery is the only way to go, or can stuff from unused food in the kitchen also work.

I suppose it could be a hybrid that will not do well after it is sold in the supermarket.

My sage and thyme plants I think need to be removed and soil changed. Too many weeds in the thyme intertwined and something likes eating the sage.

The heavy rain and colder time of year now has the chive not looking great. Maybe I can take some of it as it is grown so big. I will get a small container and put with now some of my other plants in my sun room. Those being a Chinese Money Plant and the American Baby Rubber Plant that are supposed to not be kept below 50-degree F.

I also have some succulent plants that I would just like to keep inside. Mostly I think they can be outdoors, but strong wind could be a problem for ones that have a large wind face.

You must know not to leave stuff not tied down when the strong winds hit.

MT

 

[MEASURE TWICE]

I had some garlic bulbs that I have waited a little too long and they sprouted sitting in the kitchen.

I separated some to plant in a half wine barrel planter.

This Winter they are doing well.

5 of these I saw with green tops growing so far a foot tall.

There seems to be one of several that I expect to also pierce the soil surface eventually.

I recently had seen the little green nub, but not sure if it may be some other volunteer.

Not sure if buying from nursery is the only way to go, or can stuff from unused food in the kitchen also work.

I suppose it could be a hybrid that will not do well after it is sold in the supermarket.

My sage and thyme plants I think need to be removed and soil changed. Too many weeds in the thyme intertwined and something likes eating the sage.

The heavy rain and colder time of year now has the chive not looking great. Maybe I can take some of it as it is grown so big. I will get a small container and put with now some of my other plants in my sun room. Those being a Chinese Money Plant and the American Baby Rubber Plant that are supposed to not be kept below 50-degree F.

I also have some succulent plants that I would just like to keep inside. Mostly I think they can be outdoors, but strong wind could be a problem for ones that have a large wind face.

You must know not to leave stuff not tied down when the strong winds hit.

MT

I did get to some of the garlic. It is though uncured and picked it all to free up the planter.

The garlic uncured means that it was not hung upside down with the root and tops still attached to dry out and cure with stronger flavor.

So the uncured garlic bulb as well as the tops was in the frig for maybe a month as I was busy.

It has a milder flavor than cured. The green tops minced up as well on cutting board even have still a milder flavor. I used the stuff to add to a cheddar cheese omelet. Hot dog from BBQ a week ago I cut up and browned in cast iron pan. That went in with store bought green onions chopped up and thrown in.

I'll get some pictures later. 11 cups blueberries on a haul a few days ago. Hops has topped the bines. Spurs have formed near the top. They will change into hops cones around some time before October when I wait for dry weather where the cones dry out on the bines.

I got some for the time being in ground area and have sugar pie pumpkin plants and Harvard Square tomato plant.

The good soil in bags, I mixed with wetted down prior, the sphagnum moss. A little extra 10-10-10 fertilizer add in and they are going bonkers. Nothing ripe ready to pick but I would think pumpkins before Halloween. The cannot be used for Jack o-laterns as they are sweeter and small pumpkins for running though a ricer for pies, cookies, and let say some home made ice-cream.

MT

 

[wrench]

My Pear tomato and giant Cherry tomato grew nice and sweet
5 lbs in the bucket and there's still alot more on the plants
Grown from seed

 

[wrench]

Anna apples will be getting ripe in another month - Red & Golden
Tree usually produces a couple hundred apples, I give away what I don't need
Ummm apple pie soon

This fall when all the leaves fall off I prune all the branches back so the tree don't get any taller than it is now

 

[Tom from Rubicon]

They are standing tall in this photo. Before I went out, there were these dark birds. I thought they were prostrate crows. Got the binocs out, and to my surprise. A pair of juvenile Night Herons.
They go vertical when excited it seems. A first. Parents roost in our ancient oaks every Spring. Tomatoes, L and Cuc's, R bucket middle

 

[MEASURE TWICE]

Sugar Pie Pumpkin Harvest.

30 lbs of ten pumpkins harvested, first two pumpkins cleaned and baked pieces. I will puree in blender later and make pie, cheese cake, ice-cream, scones, and what ever I can see to use them up.

The voles did try, but just superficially mess up the skin on a few of the pumpkins. Cut off the skin first I did anyway, then cleaned out the inside to get what is pictured.

Blueberry rolls, slightly sweetened with granular sugar. I harvested about a gallon of blueberries and have not used all, they are frozen for when I decide what to do with them.

MT

 

[MEASURE TWICE]

Some of the pumpkin went into pumpkin ice-cream I made. The ice-cream has both little yellow-orange pieces of pumpkin and tinge pumpkin color in the base I made of the pure vanilla bean ice-cream.

The tiny black dots are the scraped seeds from the pods.

Non-extract works well with the pumpkin that does not have a very strong flavor from the sugar pie pumpkin variety.

Pairing the home made / home grown with an apple cranberry pie I made with store bought ingredients went well.

MT

 

[Tom from Rubicon]

Pavlov got a dog to salivate at the sound of a bell. Your photo is working on me.

Tom

 

[Greg58]

our garden was doing great till a doe decided to raise her fawn behind my shop and eat at the garden buffet, this doe has been here for several years and has never been a problem till now. Once the garden was gone so was the deer, hopefully she chooses somewhere else to raise her young next year.

 

[curtisfox]

our garden was doing great till a doe decided to raise her fawn behind my shop and eat at the garden buffet, this doe has been here for several years and has never been a problem till now. Once the garden was gone so was the deer, hopefully she chooses somewhere else to raise her young next year.

You are going to have to put up a 6' fence, they know a free meal ticket when the eat one, LOL............Curt

 

[MEASURE TWICE]

I am going to try growing an annual over the winter.

The seeds for spinach I put in a plastic bag, with water moistened paper towel in a warm place.

Then I transferred the sprout into a cardboard egg carton with soil to start small plants to transplant into the deer fenced area in a half-wine-barrel garden.

Before I put the seedlings in the soil outside, I will wait for a forecast period of a week if that or more, just so the seedlings can try to not get drowned out.

Maybe also acclimate them in the sun room that has a door I keep close and there is no heat in that area. A slower transition into a possible frost or freeze warning area outside.

I water the leaves as well as the soil in the planters to help. I have the special cover material that allows rain and light through, but keeps in some warmth.

MT

 

[Tom from Rubicon]

I took a Thai pepper plant into the house to keep it from frost as it is still ripening fruit. Got to start harvesting Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme while still green and fresh.
No parsley.

 

[MEASURE TWICE]

I took a Thai pepper plant into the house to keep it from frost as it is still ripening fruit. Got to start harvesting Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme while still green and fresh.
No parsley.

I have my plants outside, but I am near the Pacific so more moderate temps. Here is what the spinach is like after transplanting at about 5 weeks outside. A weed is being an imposter in the spinach container. Not until I realized the spinach seedling that was growing faster than the others and got big enough to see the leaf shape had a jagged edge, did I know. I have since pulled it out.

My orange tree I picked a small orange that was ripe only partially. What I mean, even though it had changed from yellow color to orange, and was soft slightly, it was not ready. It could have been ready to pick, as it was juicy and flavorful, just not that sweet. Even being a Valencia orange for juice it should be a bit sweeter. I need to wait till start of summer or early fall possibly for them to be really ripened up. You can see it is a dwarf orange tree. Ha Ha, the tag fifteen years ago when I bought it, said so. In contrast to the surrounding trees it is miniature.

 

[MEASURE TWICE]

I have my plants outside, but I am near the Pacific so more moderate temps. Here is what the spinach is like after transplanting at about 5 weeks outside. A weed is being an imposter in the spinach container. Not until I realized the spinach seedling that was growing faster than the others and got big enough to see the leaf shape had a jagged edge, did I know. I have since pulled it out.

My orange tree I picked a small orange that was ripe only partially. What I mean, even though it had changed from yellow color to orange, and was soft slightly, it was not ready. It could have been ready to pick, as it was juicy and flavorful, just not that sweet. Even being a Valencia orange for juice it should be a bit sweeter. I need to wait till start of summer or early fall possibly for them to be really ripened up. You can see it is a dwarf orange tree. Ha Ha, the tag fifteen years ago when I bought it, said so. In contrast to the surrounding trees it is miniature.

Could not change photo after a few days, no edit feature available. Here is another with better lighting exposure. The cell phone camera does have some distortion from lens, that makes the photo have some very slight bend to the vertical lines. Tall trees and the masts that support the hops when it grows from being dormant over the winter seem to bend inward at the top of the photo.

 

[Tom from Rubicon]

Two weeks into the new year, Wally World and the local Ace set up seed displays. Spring may not be in the air but is on our minds.