SQWIBS Urban Garden Adventure 2017

[SQWIB]

Looking Good! Love that bar. I bet I could drink many a beers there.

My doors always open

[SQWIB]

July 15th - 18th, 2017






My sunpatients have never grown this big. The drip irrigation I put in seems to be working well.




I have the entire front lower yard on a drip line with the exception of the tree.




I picked my first Brandywine Red of the season, (Box Car Willie on the left)




I also got my first Abraham Lincoln picked, It seems that the AL are prone to splitting, sorry the photo I took was too blurry to post.
The most exciting and rewarding feeling I get from gardening is when I pick my first Eggplant, well other than seeing everything in my garden doing so well knowing it was all planted from seed!

This will be dinner tonight. I do have another that was ready a week ago but that will stay on the plant so the seeds can mature for harvesting. I will now be driving Laura nuts with all of the eggplant recipes I will be asking her to make, thank goodness she likes eggplant too!




Sitting by the back pond I realized the lights by the back fence weren't working.




Now how did he get a tomato




Leopard slug, This guy was huge, thats not a dime next to him its a quarter. and I'm a bit pissed that I offed 2 of them and found them to be beneficial.




Anyhow there were few up on the hill that big, I got the lighting working and learned a few valuable things... Don't off anything without researching it and DON'T wear socks ONLY on that hill!!!

[SQWIB]

Saturday I grabbed another Queen Annes Lace for the pond and dug up a few Blackberry plants I found in a parking lot at the industrial park. These things were growing through asphalt and there was barely any soil it was all shale and rock.




I don't have much hope for this one.




Just to make sure it's a Blackberry plant I ate a few!!








Hopefully this one will make it. There was Blueberry plant there but it has never bloomed.

[applestar]

Let's just go back to that giant slugs for a minute.... I DON'T BELIEVE YOU!! --- I was confident that we don't have any of those banana other hand-sized slugs around here and you are dashing my comfortable misconception!


...still the patten on that thing is actually quite attractive -- no wonder somebody named it leopard slug, and if it preys on the non-threatening, itty bitty, but obnoxiously voracious garden slugs, then by all means, let's have them!

...but... you haven't mentioned them in a bit but aren't you the one with the box turtles? Won't they eat the big slugs? Do they eat the little slugs?

[SQWIB]

Let's just go back to that giant slugs for a minute.... I DON'T BELIEVE YOU!! --- I was confident that we don't have any of those banana other hand-sized slugs around here and you are dashing my comfortable misconception!


...still the patten on that thing is actually quite attractive -- no wonder somebody named it leopard slug, and if it preys on the non-threatening, itty bitty, but obnoxiously voracious garden slugs, then by all means, let's have them!

...but... you haven't mentioned them in a bit but aren't you the one with the box turtles? Won't they eat the big slugs? Do they eat the little slugs?

LOL
I won the battle with the slugs in my Hugelkultur bed. Sluggo plus
Yes the turtles would eat these but it's out of their reach, this section of the yard is the back hill where I built the fence. The slug problem I had in the Hugelkultur bed is out of their reach as well.




I wish I would have started recording 20 seconds earlier, this guy was whacking that Box Car Willie all over the place, funny as hell.

[KitchenGardener]

Love it all! Congrats on the eggplant - that is quite an accomplishment imo, as they are exceedingly hard to grow where I am. Your turtle looks like he has a great sense of humor; hope he got a good meal out of it.

[applestar]

Hahaha that was soooo funny!


....oh, thank you....

...or maybe turtles are so patient they don't go gaaah ?

[SQWIB]

Hahaha that was soooo funny!


....oh, thank you....

...or maybe turtles are so patient they don't go gaaah ?

My daughter has another rescue she is bringing home, was hit by a car and the top of the shell is busted off, shell be epoxying him together and keeping him in the yard.

It's an ornate Box Turtle and supposedly they shouldn't be released into the wild.

[SQWIB]

Saturday Sam painted underneath the Bar Roof on the deck, thank you Sam , I hate painting and just couldn't do it, it took her all day, anyhow she said, "We need a new ceiling fan". So as she was painting in the 90° heat, I went down to the Air- Conditioned Mancave, popped on Netflix and ordered a new fan.

I Installed the ceiling fan last night and Sam loves it. I think it looks good too!








This fan has paid for itself, considering its not an outdoor fan and must be 10 years old, it still worked but was looking a bit nasty.





The tomatoes are starting to come off quicker and I keep chopping the basil. I actually sent a box of Basil to my wife's work for some of her co-workers.
I have one basil plant that smells a lot like anise, I am letting this go to seed to harvest the-seeds, I thought it smelled really interesting.

Brandywine Red left and my first Cherokee Purple.

[SQWIB]

July 21st, 2017 - July 23rd, 2017
Brandywine red, these are doing real well this year, there is a little bit of splitting at the tops.








“Wing nite” with Stephen on the deck during a monsoon lol.









Starting to clear up.





The garden is getting near its peak and is getting a bit out of control, I really need to get in there and try to clean it up a bit.




I stopped at the recycle center Saturday morning and picked up some more compost then stopped over Moms and topped off her Hugelkultur bed and planted some broccoli, I also picked up another flat cut piece of wood. I needed a path in front of the new Hugelkultur beds and figured this would be nice for a few years before it rotted out, plus I save on buying mulch!






The Cherokee purples are doing well, I just need to pick them a tad earlier, they develop splits on the top and the ants are getting in the splits. I have been freezing the split maters and will roast them later for different things.




Dinner Last night, Brandywine Margherita Pizza.







Eggplant, Green Pepper, Black Olive, Onion, Mushroom Pizza.

[SQWIB]

July 26th, 2016

It has been a while since I have updated this page, I have been extremely busy and have had hardly any time for gardening. I'll do a quick recap.


Enjoying a break in the heat wave.





July 27th, 2016

My leek garden is doing well






I also cant get over the flowers, I guess they really like the drip irrigation I installed.





I stopped at the trailer to do some maintenance and battle some ants For dinner I enjoyed some stuffed peppers, fried eggplant, sausage, some happy juice a few beers and banana bread for dessert.




July 28th, 2017

Well, I found out why my Zucchini wasn't producing, nasty little B@STARDS!










July 29th, 2017

Started a fresh batch of Sun-Dried tomatoes





This is a rogue Matts Wild Cherry, the one I grew from seed died, I think. It's kinda hard to tell because it is growing like a weed. Tasty Little buggers, I think these and sweet 100's are my wife's favorites.





And something for dinner!





August 4th, 2017

Our company moved, we done the move in a three days.





August 6th, 2017

We went on vacation to OC MD. for a week.






Nature always finds a way.






Harvested a bunch of maters and eggplant to take with us, ended up roasting most of the maters and we really enjoyed the eggplant and stuffed poblanos.








When we got home I unpacked and headed out to the garden to see what was going on, my neighbor had stopped in and picked some maters to head to Wildwood for a few days while we were on vacation. I marked what not to take.





I picked mostly tomatoes I have some poblanos and bells to pick but needed to get the maters picked right away, I ended up tossing a dozen or so. I had my better half run a bunch to the neighbors.







Spot the critter





Many moons ago, I had a butterfly bush planted next to the Butterfly House. The bush got very leggy and Gnarly so I removed it, this has to be 10 years ago. Anyhow I found this growing in the same spot, I'm pretty sure it is a Butterfly Bush. I wonder if there were some dormant seeds or something that got kicked up when I redid this garden?






The Rosemary is doing great.






Harvesting some Dill Seed, once all the heads start browning I'll cut back the dill.





Leek garden is doing great, hopefully I'll have plenty for some Leek Soup in September.






The other day I came home and noticed this plant in the center nearly died, I just thought it was done for the season, later I realized I turned off the water after I used the hose, how long ago? Who knows. Anyhow I remedied the problem.








The garden towers are doing as well as can be expected.







The pond plants are doing well, so are the Ghost peppers and Tabasco peppers, the Bee Balm has been shaded out of existence.





This year I have been roasting a lot of tomatoes to freeze.






These were roasted near 5 hours at 275°F, down the shore I was roasting at 300° for three hours, I like the results of the latter better.






Dinner










August 21st, 2017

This weekend was productive, as far as gardening goes.


Enjoyed a bit of Rain. Best time to weed!





A Spice bush Swallowtail?, enjoying my vertical tower.





The Koi are happy and the Poblanos in the pond are producing nicely.






I thinned out the Hugelkultur beds and planted some Bush Beans, Broccoli and Lettuce. Thinned out the Zucchini Air pots and replanted some more Zukes, I'm going to order some BTK to try to keep the SVB off the plant.






The Marigolds were taking over, I thinned them out and just let a few hang over the sides.







Removed the Patio Princess and Sprite from the front planters and planted some Bush Beans, the Patio Princess was done producing and the sprite wasn't looking good and wasn't worth keeping.



Corno Di Toro Giallo





Ruby Red Bell Pepper





Some Black Beauty Eggplants





Harvested most of my seeds for next year.

Made 10 pounds of Chili, one sweet and one sweet and spicy. Roasted some tomatoes for the chili, they were mostly Black Vernisssage.












Harvested some Dill Seed





Hooked up a pond pump to my rain barrel to water the plants

[KitchenGardener]

Unbelievable! I don't know how you do so much with such a small space! Wow, so impressed. Love all your eggplants, and peppers and tomatoes and...

[applestar]

Looking good! Love the looks of the Corno di Toro Yellow/Giallo. Is that a roasting pepper - thick peelable outer skin like the NuMex types? Or is it thin skinned enough to cut up and stir fry/cook in sauce, etc?

Your grill-cooking is always fun to see and makes me hungry!

For some reason first 3 images from 8/21 isn't showing up for me.

...which one is the saved seed tomato? Black/brown plum shape? It looks very big and I can't place it.

!!! I spotted the critter !!! Praying mantis! The short-winged native kind. I saw a green one of those a couple of days ago patrolling the Spiral Garden.

[SQWIB]

Looking good! Love the looks of the Corno di Toro Yellow/Giallo. Is that a roasting pepper - thick peelable outer skin like the NuMex types? Or is it thin skinned enough to cut up and stir fry/cook in sauce, etc?

Your grill-cooking is always fun to see and makes me hungry!

For some reason first 3 images from 8/21 isn't showing up for me.

...which one is the saved seed tomato? Black/brown plum shape? It looks very big and I can't place it.

!!! I spotted the critter !!! Praying mantis! The short-winged native kind. I saw a green one of those a couple of days ago patrolling the Spiral Garden.

Those are YouTube videos under 8/21

That's an eggplant I let ripen until it fell off the plant to harvest seeds.
I love the praying mantis and they're always in the gardens.


The Cornos are very sweet and thin skinned thick walled, I wouldn't roast these like I do my Poblanos
If you look closely in the following picture you can see how thick the Corno's are. There are also Ruby Red and California Wonders in there, I added some roasted Poblanos and chopped Jalapenos in the Spicy Chili




Frying eggplant for some Eggplant Lasagna




Dinner Last Night
Pot Roast beef, eggplant , mater sandwich with barbecue sauce and a side of Old Bay Eggplant Fries.

[SQWIB]

Unbelievable! I don't know how you do so much with such a small space! Wow, so impressed. Love all your eggplants, and peppers and tomatoes and...

Thank you... compliments like this, push me to do even more!

I now have neighbors calling up asking to stop by for a mater or two, also have my son delivering spices to a neighbor down the road who adores sage.

I must admit I am a bit greedy when it comes to my eggplant.

[ElizabethB]

SQWIBS - You Rock!

Your gardens are beautiful. It seems that your culinary skills are right up there with your gardening skills.

[applestar]

haha so you post MORE delicious pictures! LOL OK I didn't think to check if those were videos -- that just means I have to switch browsers to be able to view them. This one -- free version of Puffin -- is convenient in many ways but doesn't let me see the videos linked in this way and leaves blank spaces.

Haha that was an eggplant? I guess I never let one mature that turns the orange/brown color before. My eggies are just starting to come in. Yum! Thanks for info about the Corno di Toro. I think I will have to get some seeds and grow them next year

[thanrose]

Yep, applestar, they are videos. Impressive overall, lush gardens, happy family, savory food, silly turtle.

[SQWIB]

August 22, 2017

Tonight was an exciting night for my daughter at the Phillies Game, no she didn't catch a 'Foul Ball', something much more exciting, she rescued a Peregrine Falcon at Citizens bank Park.





August 23rd, 2017

Rosemary Exploded






Got home early so started dinner.










Today Amanda rescues yet another critter, a Great Egret. I have to laugh, every time I sit down to dinner, go on the deck, in the basement or in the yard, I am being stared down by Screech Owls, Morning Doves, Snakes, Gray Squirrels, Flying Squirrels, Raccoons, Canadian geese, Pheasants, Rabbits, Turtles or some type of critter. She gets calls from the police, environmental centers and wildlife officers all the time. She works at the Pennypack Environmental Center and some animals are brought there because they know she is a Volunteer at the AARK Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Center and will take them there when she can.
The dogs don't know what to think when she brings these rescues home.]





August 24th, 2017

This morning was a little cold for this guy, just below 60°, I gave him a little pat to see if he was alive, yep still alive but moving very slowly.

[thanrose]

60 degrees, eh? I'm thrilled when it's below 80, at 5am.

Very cool of your daughter. Cool job, cool interests.

Either that's a very small bumblebee or a very large marigold blossom! Beautiful.

[SQWIB]

Thank you all, I appreciate the kind words and comments.

[SQWIB]

August 25th, 2017 - September 5th, 2017

I was jonesing to build another Raises Hugelkultur Bed on the patio, but have been putting it off for a while, because it just didn't feel right, if that makes sense.
Anyhow I threw one together and it seems a bit overwhelming of the patio. I'm gonna give it a season or two and see if it should stay or go.


Since I was cutting back some of my shrubs I asked the neighbor if he wanted me to hack his stuff back. It's so overgrown you can barely get into his back yard and he has some large silver maple trees in there that gotta come out.

After the bed was built I removed the pavers underneath but didn't cut the other pavers, just in case I decide to take the new bed out.

I lined the bottom with Magnolia stumps and on top of that some thin cut Ash logs and then a boat load of Rose of Sharon cuttings, followed by a little of my clay soil, the contents of a planter that contained, peat, sand compost and manure then topped off with compost. In an effort to make it look a Little respectable, I tossed in some flowers and a basil plant then planted some Kale and Spinach.









I burnt the a lot of the heavy trimmings and this will be used for Bio Char and potash, I let the fire burn until everything was at coals and then sprayed with a hose.

I usually burn the evergreen stuff, weeds and tomato plants, everything else gets composted. A lot of the yew needles were used as a pathway, first I layered cardboard then the trimmings then cardboard and mulch will be added in the fall, my hope is that the yew needles are allelopathic.















I added a fridge to my smoking area, love it. My beer would always get warm while I was doing my yard work now it is ice cold.









I planted some Garlic cloves.

My Jalapenos in the Vertical Tower are really producing rather well.





I'm very happy with my Leek Garden out front, I may make this a tad bigger next season.






Moving day for my daughter, we stopped at Uno's to grab a bite after we got her moved in.






Trimmed the Black Vernissage tomato plant, it's way out of control. I'll make some Roasted tomatoes out of this, I may smoke them too.






Welcomed Guest





I had a few Goldfinches making their rounds on the sunflowers

We were laughing as we were listening to the bullfrogs in the pond and watching the Goldflinches tossing sunflower seeds everywhere.









Been adding to my Tabasco sauce again this year.






Found this Hornworm in the garden, my daughter took it as a little to do project.






Tore out my Black Vernissage and put in some Bio-char, rabbit manure and old potting mix from one of my Air Pruning Pots.






Another critter found






Planted some Crimson Clover and Oats. I plan on doing a section at a time as the Bio-Char and Rabbit manure come available.






Picked some peppers from the pond and Hugelkultur beds.








Roasted some Tomatoes and peppers








Picked up some more compost and topped off Moms Hugelkultur bed and some of my beds.






Grabbed some wood too!






Picked up 20 bags of mulch and cleaned up my pathway in front of the Hugelkultur beds.












Transplanted the Calla Lilies, they were taking over the Herb Garden.





And got some smoking and cooking done.

[wisconsindead]

Woah that food looks good! Is that a chili releno with eggs inside?

[SQWIB]

That's cheddar cheese, but it does look like eggs.
Here's a link to that cook. Hope it's allowed

https://sites.google.com/site/sqwibcook ... umin-sauce

[SQWIB]

September 9th, 2017


Leopard slug.





Started staining the Retaining wall and top pieces for the wall and fence.







Boards are flipped and stained on the other side.





The irises took over the pond and were really messing with the filters so I had no alternative but to tear them out, I'm still debating on what to do with the pond.










Replaced most of the rubber hoses with silicone hoses, the rubber ones always end up splitting on me.





Decided to put some of the plants back, had to go swimming. I think I am going to remove the shrub in the back before it is too late.





My plan is to make a ledge from the pond to the wall and place some attractive planters with calla lilies and add some metal wall art. I'll make the planters into Sub Irrigated Planters that are constantly fed by the pond.





I need to thin out the irises in the back pond and pull the ivy as well as a bit of weeding. The Tabasco and Ghost Chili peppers are kicking butt.








Eastern Black Swallowtail. There are about half a dozen scattered through the garden.





Sam laying cardboard for a weed barrier.





The family helping lay out the cardboard and mulch.





Sam and Laura staining the new Hugelkultur bed.








Since everyone is helping, I can take a break.






Mulch is finished.





Top plate is installed.






Two more turtle rescues, these will be let go in a week or two. (Hey what are you two doing?)






Some stuff from the Garden. Eggplant, Chives, Jalapenos, Cherokee purple. (Grilled Sirloin with Tomato and feta, Sweet potato and brown sugar, Fried Eggplant, Buffalo Wing ABT, Potato pancake).






One hungry family.

[applestar]

Fantastic! Really enjoying your updates. You have a great family -- no wonder, you feed them so well.

[SQWIB]

More from the garden





Some of my eggplants are struggling but some have set fruit and are still flowering.
Moms eggplants wont quit, this is a first year Hugelkultur bed I have no idea why these things have exploded, they have been supplying the neighbors with eggplant off of these two plants, I started these seedlings the same time I done mine and my plants look pathetic.







September 17th, 2017

Well it's about that time of year, the garden is past its peak and some hard choices for the garden need to be made, this is a melancholy time for me. Some fall crops have been planted and some plants are being pulled here and there. I guess I shouldn't be too sad, after all, I did have a great growing season. More Pond work needs to be done also.

Tore out the Laurel behind the pond and planted Calla Lilies. Hopefully the Flowers will take hold and grow in nice next year, it looks so bare! I also need to get something to cover the top of the Wendy Filter...the blue foam isn't cutting it!





Mom wanted to find a new home for her Koi, it was getting too big for her pond.






My first frost is in less than 4 weeks.

The tomatoes have slowed production with the exception of the Matts Wild Cherry, Celebrity and Box Car Willie, the BCW will not stop producing and "0" splits thus far. I do have quite a few green tomatoes and some random flowers. My Cherokee purples split and become bug infested while they're still mostly green, I'll never grow them again, I threw out almost every CP tomato the last month.

My peppers plants are doing real well;
The Jalapeno is on its third huge harvest (one plant). I may try to overwinter this guy.





The green (California Wonders) and Ruby Red bells fizzled out. I still have a few peppers that need to be picked.
Poblanos, Anaheim and Corno Di Toro Gillo still have plenty of fruit and some Poblanos and Anaheims are ripening to red, some will be roasted, peeled, smoked and dried, others may be stuffed.







The Corno Di Toro Giallo in the side Hugelkultur bed (2nd season Hugelkultur) is so loaded with peppers that I had to secure it to the trellis.





The ghost chili's are starting to ripen as well as the Tabascos. The Tabascos go into my sauce jar thats on its second year resting on charred oak. The ghost Chili's will be smoked and made into a Ghost Chili Salt.






The flowers out front look healthy, I never did get the "sunpatient" in the center to recover completely. The marigolds are doing great.





I don't know what I did to this Eggplant Plant but I couldn't bear to watch it suffer anymore so I tore it out and composted it, There were about 5 eggplants on it but only one was salvageable. I cut back the other two a few days ago and will let it go another week.





The Eggplant Plants in the Hugelkultur beds still look OK and have plenty of flowers but I don't see any fruit yet. This one looks a little bit nutrient deficient than the one in the Side Hugelkultur bed.






Side Hugelkultur bed





Rosemary is looking great.





The asparagus is going nuts, this is my 2nd year of not harvesting, next year I will harvest it a lot more.






The sunpatients in the upper veggie filter still look great.





I had a few eggplants that I dehydrated and made some flour to try in some flatbread recipes.








I fear my eggplant supply is done for the year, so we made a few Eggplant Dishes.

[SQWIB]

September 22nd, 2017

Was in garden mode after work today and decided to clean out one of the beds. I left one eggplant and the marigolds, the eggplant had a couple possible fruits on them.




Pulled the leeks for a buddy, they were puny but he didn't care. Gave him a bunch of Cherokee purples, celebrities, Box Car Willies, some basil, and some rosemary. I kept a few leeks for dinner. I had given a few of the CP's earlier to a neighbor







The Leeks in the Air Pruning Pot will be pulled next, Ill leave the leeks in the ground go till late octoner early November. I still have another pot of leeks that will be harvested sooner.




The Zucchini plant is doing well, I need to hit it with some BTK. I never grew Zucchini in the fall, we will see what happens.




Cut back the Raspberry and planted some more Garlic.




Time to play in the dirt, it is really nice being able to garden and not need a jackhammer. The Hori Hori wasn't even needed. Tore out most of the Oregano and left a little in each corner for next years pollinators.





The compost bin was full, it was actually about a foot higher a few weeks ago and the lid was just floating on top, it dropped quite a bit the last few weeks but I needed to make more room for the end of the season cleanup.




I pulled about 4 bucket loads and top dressed the top of the upper retaining wall, I'm concentrating on building the soil up there especially the ends because I plan to plant Asparagus beans and Spaghetti squash next year on either side.




I really need to do something with the Ghost Chili's, I'm thinking on drying a few and making a Ghost Chili salt.




The Tabasco and the ghost chili plant are really doing well here, I'll probably try a Serrano in place of the Ghost Chili next year.



I'll also space them a bit better and try not to shade out my Bee Balm. I also need to cut back the iris.



Since I was in garden mode I decided to have a garden dinner.





Thickened with Eggplant Flour






September 24th, - 26th, 2017

Made some Horseradish and Horsey Mustard for a buddy and myself.









Made some Datil Pepper salt and Ghost Chili Salt




Got a chance to try the eggplant flour on some flatbread pizzas, I used it 7 parts wheat one part eggplant flour, I'll try doubling the EP Flour next time 6 to 2, and go from there.











Had to pull a few of my leeks, the neighbor trampled them.





Prepping an area for some Phlox Transplants





Harvested some peppers and played a little.













Since I had the smoker going, I Roasted, peeled, Smoked and dried some Poblanos




Since I removed the Laurel, the Koi pond area is now so bare, I wanted to dress it up a bit so I ordered some fake flowers and topped my Wendy filter. I think it looks good, better than the blue anyway, and better yet, Laura likes it.

Before



After




Eggplant from moms Hugelkultur bed, Her eggplants are still putting out fruit, this guy was peeled, diced, blanched and dehydrated for winter addiction needs.




Prepped a third area to plant GARLIC, waiting for garlic to sprout.




Strawbwerries are still spitting out some fruit here and there, just enough to enjoy a treat when in the yard and to share with the turtles.




Sprayed the Zucchini and Broccoli with some BTK and put out some "Sluggo Plus"
Planted some Oat seeds and covered with cardboard to keep the birds off of them, they were up in three days. Ill be tossing down some more Crimson Clover as well. Prepped the garden area by the back fence with a load of compost and some rabbit dung. I really need to suck it up and pull the eggplant plant.





I had to get away from the garden for a few days, I was starting to obsess over everything. Saturday we walked at Challenge Grove Park in NJ for "Energy For Life Walkathon" to benefit United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation.
Nice Park.




Stopped at my Daughters Fall festival at the PennyPack Environmental center and Celebrated my SIL's birthday as well as mine with the family. It was actually nice to get away from the gardening.




The rest of this week I'm just putzing around a bit in the yard but will be away this weekend, I still feel I need a break from the gardening, hopefully this weekend will do the trick!

[SQWIB]

September 28th, 2017



Garlic first and 2nd planting.

August 27th




September 22nd




Oats in one of the raised beds on the hill, they're not even a week old yet, covering in cardboard the first three days really helps.





The other raised bed still has a few Cherokee purple plants that seem to be doing pretty good, the tomatoes are actually coming off less cracked, split and bug infested. Maybe due to a lot less rain?





Ghost Chili's and Tabascos are doing great, the entire pond area is doing great, I'll have to cut back the irises this year.







Koi pond, the Poblanos, Corno Di Tori Giallo and Ruby Red peppers are still producing. The plants are definitely deficient in something here, but this is a balancing act between the nutrient, plants and fish. The plants are mainly there to clean the water, the veggies that are harvested are a bonus.





Asparagus





Side Hugelkultur bed.






Zucchini test, direct sowed August 21st, next year if I have issues with the SVB and the Btk does not work, I'll try planting zucchini late July. I have sprayed this twice with Btk and will continue for another week, but I don't think that the Squash Vine Borer is active this time of year.






Side hugelkultur bed, year 2.






Backyard hugelkultur bed, left side year 2 (section with patio), right half year 1, (section with mulch). Got some romaine in the 2 year Hugelkultur bed. Have some struggling broccoli in the 1st year Hugelkultur bed.






Eggplants in the first year Hugelkultur bed (mulch section). I wouldn't bet on these getting any bigger than a baseball, but we shall see. The eggplant plant on the hill is getting flowers but no fruit. The plant in the side Hugelkultur bed have quite few flowers and may have a few eggplants forming.

[KitchenGardener]

Gah, I love all of this so much! Amazingly productive (as well as neat and attractive!) for such a jam packed space.

Question for you - how do the plants clean the water? Fascinating.

"The plants are definitely deficient in something here, but this is a balancing act between the nutrient, plants and fish. The plants are mainly there to clean the water, the veggies that are harvested are a bonus."

[rainbowgardener]

Wow!! Everything is so beautiful and thriving!!

[SQWIB]

Gah, I love all of this so much! Amazingly productive (as well as neat and attractive!) for such a jam packed space.

Question for you - how do the plants clean the water? Fascinating.

"The plants are definitely deficient in something here, but this is a balancing act between the nutrient, plants and fish. The plants are mainly there to clean the water, the veggies that are harvested are a bonus."

Basically
The plants absorb nutrients including nitrates, phosphates, etc.,
It can help help control hair string algae and algae by removing nutrients that would otherwise feed the unwanted algae. Its a balancing act between keeping the water clean for the fish but providing nutrients to wanted plants and starving out the unwanted plants.
without getting into the science of it, here is a pic that explains a little. But if you are interested in the science here's a link to that info. https://www.projectfeed1010.com/blog/2016/09/28/ammonia/



Some call them a Veggie Filter (like me) or Bog Filter, mine isn't actually true to either, while it does perform similarly, it's sort of a hybrid.


Here are a few pictures showing its design.

Base layer of rock, then a liner is added
The water is pumped from the main pond up through some media for bio filtration. Then overflows through three tubes into the main pond.





Feed line from main pond





Scrubbies for bio-media to store beneficial bacteria... very important in the nitrogen cycle.





Another layer of bio-media, again, very important in the nitrogen cycle.





This is when I was using true aquatic plants/no soil.





Three years ago I started growing veggies in the filter, I decided that I wanted something I could harvest and as a bonus it helps take some of the nasties from the water, I'm sure its not as efficient as a "true" bog filter from a plant standpoint but the bio media is more than enough to reduce nitrates, and if I get a dozen or two peppers, it's worth it. Even if it is taking up "0" nutrients, I can at least call it a "self watering planter" lol, but I'm sure they are taking up some nutrients.





I have a second veggie filter that drains into the lower veggie filter that is for flowers, we needed a bit of color, everything is green lol. This is designed to fill from the top and overflow into the lower veggie filter.
Plus it makes my wife happy.







Then I have "Wendy Filter" that is top fed, the water goes through three different grades of bio-media in a swirling motion leaving sediment at the bottom, then through a few hundred bio balls, as the water fills the filter it reaches an overflow pipe in a center tube and then drains into the pond.
I had blue foam on top and it looked a little ratty after I removed the Laurel, so I added some fake plants to blend it a bit better.

[rainbowgardener]

fabulous! So then do you eat the fish?

I have ambition to some day have a similar set up, with veggies watered and fertilized by the pond and growing tilapia or other food fish in the tank.

[SQWIB]

It's not practical in my zone.
Temperature is a factor, I could do trout in my zone but fingerlings take 2 years to grow out.
Tilapia fingerlings can grow out in as little as 8 months but need a warmer zone.

[KitchenGardener]

Just so impressed I don't even know where to start - with your knowledge or attention to detail and work ethic.

Thank you for such a detailed explanation - I enjoy it so much!

[SQWIB]

Just so impressed I don't even know where to start - with your knowledge or attention to detail and work ethic.

Thank you for such a detailed explanation - I enjoy it so much!

Thank you for the kind words.

[SQWIB]

October 1st, 2017

Zucchini has some flowers, I'll start hand pollinating this week.






Got some pond work done I decided to cut the iris back completely so I had to go in, it was getting out of hand, it should come back next season. Since I went swimming I decided to work on the Koi pond as well, I just stirred up the bottom, picked out some pavers that had fallen in and replaced the filter sponges with a coarser sponge. The filters were clogging up almost every third day.





Transplanted a bunch of Phlox.






Planted the rest of my Oats and some of my Crimson Clover. I really need to find a supplier for oats and get 10 pound bags.






I'm still rooting for these guys








My romaine is finally perking up, somewhat.






I might as well give up on broccoli, this is my best plant.






Clover is growing nicely.






Playing with my peppers.





The Tabascos are going on year two, started these summer of 2016, these are resting on charred oak and I will try some fall of 2018 to see if it is ready for processing.





Made some bio-char burning a lot of the marigolds, some cardboard, tomato plants, sunflowers, some old tree trimmings, woody plant stems, weeds, dog poo, and some pallets. I got about 2.5 five gallon buckets, I'll be adding some urea to the 5 gallon buckets and then topping the one raised bed on the hill or dumping in the compost heap. This stuff is great for amending clay soil but I don't think it does much good in my Hugelkultur beds due to the healthy soil, none the less I add some here and there and also will add ash.





Pulled my Corno Di Toro Giallo pepper plant to make room for the garlic. This thing was so heavy with peppers that it completely toppled over when I removed the support.






I'll try stuffing these this week and see how they are.






Planting the garlic










The eggplant plants in the Hugelkultur beds are doing well but the eggplants are growing slowly, I am not holding my breath for a late harvest, but I'm curious how far these guys will get.








The side Hugelkultur bed is doing real well and noticed a few eggplants on this plant as well.






This Jalapeno Pepper plant in the Vertical Garden is simply amazing, this will be my 4th harvest this year, I need to make sure and keep picking the peppers next year to promote new peppers. The first two harvests were about 18 each, the third was a dozen, looks like I'll have another 18 coming off in a bit.






Time to shut down the veggie filter. The cover to the veggie filter was looking a little weathered, so I sanded and stained it.








The pepper plants in the Koi ponds veggie filter are DEFINITELY finished.





Impatients are still looking good so I need to bypass the overflow. The soil is recycled into the compost bin with the plants The pots, saucers and fabric are stored away.






Bypassing the lower veggie filter to drain directly into the pond. Oh junk, just noticed in this picture that Laura stuck a fall decoration in the upper veggie filter, I hope she didn't tear the liner.






Pond work always requires a beer






Had to catch a frog that insisted on staying in the veggie filter, I called Amanda out to get him, she loves that kinda stuff. The weather is still fairly warm so technically I could have removed the stuff from the filter, placed on the cover and kept it running. There... all finished, now Laura can decorate this area with her festive fall stuff.






Planted a few Sunchokes on the upper hill. Planted two varieties of spinach and will let them go through the winter, I'm curious if they'll make it.






Played with the Swallowtails for a bit, easily two dozen on this one plant.

[SQWIB]

October 10th, 2017

Dam... Look at my parsley lol.





The everlasting gobstopper jalapeno pepper plant, I'll pickle a lot of these and make some Taco ABT's







Corno Di Toro Giallo, they really love this Hugelkultur bed.






Oats and Crimson clover are doing well, pulled the eggplant plant and diced the fruit up for my Saturday Garden Jambalaya. The marigold blows my mind, this was cut back twice.









The Box Car Willie still putting out red tomatoes, I got my first tomato off of this plant and it looks like I'm gonna get my last from it too.






The rest of the eggplant plants will be pulled Saturday.






The Composter is kicking @ss. My compost bin was full when I poured this 2nd batch of trub on it, a few days later it dropped a foot, must be the yeast.

[SQWIB]

October 23rd, 2017

Well, I did my end of year cleanup this weekend and I made another batch of Bio-Char, using, pallets, cardboard, junk mail, documents, dog poo (only what was collected this week), Bones, woodsy plant trimmings, some hardwoods and the tomato plants.
I tore out all the summer veggies with the exception of a Box Car Willie tomato plant, a celebrity, Matts Wild Cherry and a Corno Di Toro Giallo.





The Corno Di Toro Giallo peppers are from one plant






And I had 2 surprise Eggplants that were growing through the fence on the neighbors side in the side Hugelkultur bed. The two big ones will be fried, the little ones go in the Jambalaya.





My compost bin has been kicking @ss this year, the lid wouldn't fit on this 4 days ago.





Cleaned out the freezer and tossed everything on top, yes I tossed in meat like, pepper steak, chicken noodle soup, old chicken breast, cheesey dishes like stuffed shells etc...





This is the only problem with composting any type of meats and cheese. I could have burned these foods but wanted to try them directly in the compost bin first, the dog was up there before I could even get the lid on.





I start off with a few pallets with all the junk then started tossing on hardwoods to make my end of year Garden Jambalaya. Preheating with oil.





While the pallets and junk burn down, I started making some ABT's to snack on. I just cant believe I got another 32 peppers off of this plant, this is the 4th harvest.






Separated the peppers, some for pickling and some for stuffing.





My basic "Chicken Taco ABT's". Boiled Chicken breast, three cheese blend, taco seasoning, chili powder and a bit of chicken broth.






ABT's are tossed into the smoker with some Apple wood





Tossed in some Poblanos, these will be fully dehydrated in the dehydrator for later recipes. (Awesome in my Baked Beans)





Added the rest of my Tabasco peppers to my Tabasco sauce that has been resting on charred oak over a year now.





OK, time for the jambalaya. preheated oil, Chicken thighs, Hot Sausage, ground meat, onions and eggplant.






Corno and Anaheim peppers.






Roasted tomatoes from earlier in the season, can of crushed tomatoes, Montreal steak seasoning.






While that simmered I installed a rack for my garden tools.




Barley.





I snacked on some ABT's, sampled a bowl of the Jambalaya, then the rest was put in containers and placed in the freezer.







After I was done making my Garden Jambalaya, I spent a few more hours burning up some hardwood. When the last flame flickered out, I busted up all the hot coals, let it burn down a bit more, then covered the coals with some potting mix from a 10 gallon Air Pot of spent potting mix, perlite, peat, potting mix.

The next day I mixed the rest of the potting mix in with the coals real well, dug it out and put about 20% in my raised beds and the rest in the compost heap, then poured 3/4 gallon of urea on top of the bio-char in the compost bin.

I made sure to cover the top of the compost bin with the Bio-char and urea to keep critters out, on the other hand my dog was quicker than me.

I know that there is going to come a time when I will have to stop adding bio-char, but for now, a half a dozen fires a year should be OK for the next 10 years... I still have an entire front yard to do.

This end of season clean up works out well for me because, I get to clean out the freezer, clean up the gardens, add to my compost bin, use up all my extra veggies, have lunches at work for a month and have an excuse to hang out all day by the fire, listening to music, smoking, cooking and tossing back a few beers.




My daughters car blew up on the turnpike.








So what do we do?

We go out to eat of course.






A few more turtle rescues being rehabbed.









And I fear this may be my last tomato, a Box Car Willie, we will see, I left the BCW in the bed. (Roast beef is from Manday 6 cook)

[SQWIB]

Forgot to finish this thread...

October 29th, 2017
Smoked and dehydrated my Poblanos and into the jar they go..





Made my Fall Leek Potato soup.





I finally got around to making my Dill Bread. First I needed a way to separate the seeds. I used a colander for the first screening, most of the seeds went through the colander.





The next step was a coarse strainer to let the smaller particles and husks fall through.





There's still a good amount of Dill seeds in the screened pieces, these are placed in a jar to grow some dill next season.




Worked beautifully.




For the bread I just used a box of Bread Machine mix (white) and added a few of my own ingredients.
1 box of Bread Machine mix follow directions, I cut back on the water 2 tablespoons and added an extra tablespoon of oil.
1/4 Cup of Cream Cheese
1 tablespoon of Dried Minced Onions (will increase to 5 teaspoons next time)
2 teaspoons of Dill Seed (Will increase to 1 tablespoon next time)





The bread was fantastic, everyone loved it, but I want to increase the Dill flavor a bit next time I make this.