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Growing Your Own: What did you grow / raise / harvest?


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2 hours ago, FictoVore. said:

Do two human babies count? :o 

Giggles 

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12 hours ago, FictoVore. said:

Do two human babies count? :o 

Cabbage patch kids?

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I hope they're better than that :P

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  • 3 weeks later...
Spoiler

 

 

20180411_092843.jpg

Yesterday, I discovered that things had already sprouted in the greenhouse.  The fall-planted garlic has all sprouted and is already vigorously growing.  I also planted some lettuce seeds last November.  I have had marginal luck with fall planted lettuce, and last year, I thought it would fail because it sprouted during a warm stretch in late November.  When I checked it last month, it was all dead.  But I guess that there were many more viable seeds left, because the lettuce patch was thriving with seedlings.  So, I dumped buckets of snow on all the sprouted garlic and lettuce seedlings and it took all day to melt and slowly water everything.  I took pictures I hope to share, but getting them from my phone to this forum is proving to be challenging.  Hopefully I can figure it out and I will update this post with the photos.

 

Spoiler

20180411_094939.jpg

 

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On 11/9/2017 at 4:08 PM, Mocha Jo said:

Went through the garden for the last time today- it is finally going to be seasonable and cold here. The last of the butternut and pumpkins came in, the drying beans are all harvested and drying, the chickens got a couple of unripe squashes, as did the horses. (they seemed to want to try them- I think more as toys than anything else!). I also found a few onions that I thought had been lost, and a few jalapenos hanging on to frostbit plants. I should ideally get the bucket on the tractor and dump some more horse mud/manure on the plot for the winter, but I don't know if I will get that done. It has been so wet here that it may just freeze solid before I can scrape up the paddock.

Thanks for making me laugh. ...way too much family drama here lately. But last years old unripe squashes are more or less where I left them and my dog is finding them.

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On 4/12/2018 at 12:36 PM, Muledeer said:
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20180411_092843.jpg

Yesterday, I discovered that things had already sprouted in the greenhouse.  The fall-planted garlic has all sprouted and is already vigorously growing.  I also planted some lettuce seeds last November.  I have had marginal luck with fall planted lettuce, and last year, I thought it would fail because it sprouted during a warm stretch in late November.  When I checked it last month, it was all dead.  But I guess that there were many more viable seeds left, because the lettuce patch was thriving with seedlings.  So, I dumped buckets of snow on all the sprouted garlic and lettuce seedlings and it took all day to melt and slowly water everything.  I took pictures I hope to share, but getting them from my phone to this forum is proving to be challenging.  Hopefully I can figure it out and I will update this post with the photos.

  Reveal hidden contents

20180411_094939.jpg

 

 

 

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I can't remember where I planted spinach last fall. Maybe it was where I would find it when I plant peas.Thankfully, the garlic has sent up shoots so I can see where I planted that.  Today I am putting fertilizer for the fruit trees into holes in the ground.

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I'm letting some dry dirt soak up water today so I can get the tomato and pepper seeds started indoors. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

We used to plant a couple tomato plants every year when I was young and we had blackberry and raspberry bushes as well as a couple strawberry plants. My parents have since expanded the size a bit so when I go visit there are always a couple veggies there. I live in an apartment without balcony so unfortunately i can't grow much. I've tried growing a couple aromatic herbs but the combination of poor lighting, very cold winters, and occasional lack of watering when I have to leave have pretty much killed all of them. I'm definitely planning to grow a few more over the summer and see how long those last. 

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I saw the greenhouse garlic do something interesting today.  It harvested the overnight humidity / condensation on its leaves, and channeled little drops of water to the inside of the plant where the leaves come out.   I assume that water is then used by the plant for more growth.  Garlic:  The Asexual Vegetable.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I planted the greenhouse yesterday.  Squash, peppers and broccoli.  I also planted some nursery starts of Swiss chard since my seedlings are lacking vigor.   Everything already planted, especially the lettuce, is off to a slow start this year,  I hope my greenhouse isn't wearing out, but it is 15 years old, made of fiberglass, and it has become badly yellowed due to the high altitude sunlight.   I have been saving old windows so I can build a new greenhouse, with raised beds.

The nursery stock was infested with white flies.  I hope not any aphids.  I put them in a box with a no-pest strip for a couple of days before planting.  That usually works.

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Skycaptain

I have so much freakin bindweed, I'm considering digging out all the soil and replacing it. Total disaster alert 

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5 hours ago, Skycaptain said:

I have so much freakin bindweed, I'm considering digging out all the soil and replacing it. Total disaster alert 

I had to google "bindweed".  I have it in my lawn too!  I have always called it morning glory, but I learned that it is a slightly different plant.   At least it is green  with a pretty flower and it doesn't have any thorns.  It is almost impossible to kill with chemicals.

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BobRossRules

I have indoor hydroponic gardens.  I grow tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, lots of different lettuces, spinach, kale, broccoli, chives, onions, and various herbs.  I also grow several batches of microgreens.  I've never had an outdoor garden, but I do enjoy having fresh veggies during the Idaho winter.🌱 :)   

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  • 3 weeks later...

The Honeyberries that I planted a few years ago are finally producing. The soil here is too alkaline for blueberries so I thought I'd try growing them. They seem like an acceptable substitute...and they ripen early. 

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It's interesting to learn about all the different things everyone is growing!

 

I've grown green, red and yellow pepper plants; I've also grown small sweet potatoes and white potatoes. I was hoping they'd become large, but no. Still, they smelled fresh and tasted good.

 

I'm currently still growing a small peach tree, a couple of varieties of small apple trees, a small orange tree, and I might have a tiny lemon tree (I used to have a few that I'd grown for several months or at least a year, but they didn't survive one winter). I tried growing several mango trees and several watermelons (that grew to have long vines on the ground), but they didn't survive the winter, either. I remember that I had a very tiny watermelon, smaller than an egg, and bugs had started to eat it before it'd been able to grow into a larger size.

 

I still need to wait a few/several years before the trees will mature, and hopefully, bear fruit. They've all already survived at least one winter; one apple tree has survived at least two winters, possibly three (and is almost 6 feet tall, like the other apple tree), so I'm hopeful.

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I have lots of volunteer bibb lettuce plants. They mostly seeded into the area between the raised beds. The leaves are getting big enough to bother picking. I need to start making salads again. There are lettuce, spinach, arugula and radishes  out there.

 

The pea plants are about 6 inches tall.Last year the dog started sneaking and harvesting pea pods when I wasn't looking. The garden used to be off limits but I got lax about the discipline. Sharing the garden space is rewarding in a lot of ways but I need to make it clear that she does't have harvesting rights. It was ok when all she took was the low raspberries, but the peas are another matter. If she doesn't bite the pod off cleanly she will pull the whole vine down to get it. I don't like that. 

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Tonight I had a serving of fresh purple radishes with my meal.  I thinned out two rows and then ate all the thinnings.   I am expecting a hard freeze tonight.  It is already 36 F.  If the temperature is below 5 C  before 10 PM there is almost always a frost.  I have protected the squash, peppers and tomato  plants inside the greenhouse and I expect them to survive.  But you never know what plants will succumb to the freezing temperatures.  The "frost free" season doesn't usually begin until after the summer solstice around here (elevation 8300 feet)  

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I've only just found this thread. 8300 feet: my goodness! I thought I was high at 90. (Feels like  more when I'm carting up the shopping from the high street) Lasts frosts in my part of the UK are early May usually. Alkaline loving plants grow well on my chalky soil and  I've got a lot of herbs : oregano, rosemary, sage,fennel,lemon balm,savory , hyssopfor example. Not so much for cooking (not something I enjoy) but because the bees like the flowers and the herbs spread and take up space.I don't actually plant much . My policy is wait and see what grows. I've got old fruit trees - apples, pears, gage,damsons and lots and lots of self sown elder and blackberries. Oh, and hazels but the squirrels get the nuts (and the little pears on my one and only newly bought pear tree). But the thing that grows best? As @Skycaptain said - bindweed.I swear it grows as I look at it. It's malicious! Evil stuff.

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  • 3 weeks later...

My garlic garden is thriving but it is threatened by an animal I can't see.  Some kind of ground-dwelling rodent.  I thought I had a barrier in place to prevent their entry, but yesterday I found a large, healthy garlic plant half eaten and disappearing into the ground. I have dug up some of the perimeter, and flooded the borough, but it was filled in with fresh dirt this morning.  I really don't know what to do next, and the garlic is about a month away from harvest.  Poison?  I don't like that idea.  Traps?  never worked before.  Sonic rodent repellers?  It is hard to get the sound underground.   If I saw them I would shoot them but they are elusive.  I wish I could hire some predators like cats or snakes or foxes.  If anyone has any fresh ideas I would love to hear them.

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  • 2 weeks later...

@Muledeer  You could get one of those wildlife camera traps, to try and film the culprit, then at least you'd know what it was. I didn't have much success using one on rats though -  I did manage to film one on occasion, but the camera never caught it actually entering, only when it was sitting right in front of the camera with a smug look on its face!

 

I had another go at growing some veg this year, first time in ages (my garden is quite noisy and I don't like being in it). I have some dwarf bush tomatoes, which are covered with flowers and some fruit growing. Fingers crossed they don't get blight, because they are outdoors. A couple of cucumber plants are romping away, there's some chard that's looking good (I've never eaten chard, hope I like it!), and another first - edamame beans, also looking good. I planted some dwarf peas that were reduced to 10p because they were a bit past it, and they don't look so good, but amazingly produced a few tiny pods (just 2 peas in each) even though they were only about 2 inches tall! But then there has been a heat wave in the UK for about a month now, so great news for veg (at least for veg that's being regularly watered!)

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At present, I have an apple tree and some raspberry bushes. The tree is getting on in years, even by tree standards, so the harvests are erratic. 

Growing raspberries is easy, but harvesting them is a challenge. They have to be hand-picked, the fruit on the same plant doesn't ripen all at once, and, best of all, the plant itself is covered in spikes.

My family does some vegetable gardening in a raised-bed setup. Ordinarily, rabbits would be an issue with this, but our dog actively enjoys patrolling the garden against them.

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On 6/10/2018 at 8:57 PM, Muledeer said:

The "frost free" season doesn't usually begin until after the summer solstice around here (elevation 8300 feet)

8300 feet!  Wow!

 

On 7/6/2018 at 1:49 PM, CakeFlake said:

(my garden is quite noisy and I don't like being in it)...  A couple of cucumber plants are romping away...

Noisy?  Romping?  Your garden is quite different from mine!

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On 6/28/2018 at 8:28 AM, Muledeer said:

I wish I could hire some predators like cats

A cat sounds like a great idea.  They're the best "live traps" I know!

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On 4/12/2018 at 11:36 AM, Muledeer said:

I took pictures I hope to share, but getting them from my phone to this forum is proving to be challenging. 

I would love to know how to do this if anyone could explain.

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I had some snow peas from the garden in my stir fry and then went out and got some strawberries for desert. 

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@pickles mcgee  Here is how I get pictures from my phone to this thread:

 

1) Send a Bluetooth file of each photo from my phone to the computer.  I have a Samsung phone and HP computer and it isn't too difficult.

2) upload the photo to https://postimages.org

3) copy the link from the uploaded photo into the thread you want to post it on.

4) I usually post photos under the "spoiler"   - it is the football shaped button next top the emoticon button above the body of the posting box.  You can also just post the link directly into this reply box and it will usually work too.

 

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I have grown a small crop of potatoes and dwarf French beans this summer. I  also have 5  columnar fruit trees. sadly its been so dry this year the crop is small but I have enjoyed 

trying. I used to grow more veg but  being busy with work  and too lazy when I had free time I slowly grew less and less.

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I have a large crop of weeds, molding berries wilting squash leaves and such. I really hope to spend some time out there tomorrow. This whole week has been about work and dog bite survival. I need some garden time. My dog could do with some of that now too. There are small green tomatoes and hot peppers that look like they survived the neglect. The carrots and potatoes should have survived. Who knows what I'll find when I crawl around and explore. 

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