My 2017 garden

[Animal_lover]

Oh, what a gallery of wonderful looking gardens . Love to see people passionate about gardening and animals. Also when speaking of dogs...how do you prevent your dogs from "marking" your garden? I don't want to fence up my garden because we already have limited space for our dog to go but also noticed that he is marking my herbs vigorously...

[wisconsindead]

Awesome. Cool to see so many different applications of your produce.

[Gary350]

I made this for dinner last night. I used baked potatoes instead of the bell peppers for a bowl. I scooped out the inside of the potato mixed in, sour cream, butter, cheddar cheese, then refilled the potato shell body. I cooked German Bratsworth in the skillet with, 1 chopped onion, 5 garlic cloves, 2 large tomatoes chopped, 1 large bell pepper chopped, 1/2 cup red wine, 2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce. Wow it was good.





Another 14 lbs of tomatoes.



Dog is no problem in the garden it likes to dig but does not dig plants. Digging is like having tiny free garden tiller. LOL

[KitchenGardener]

Question on your recipe: so you cook the potato mixture in the skins, and then add the sausage mixture on top? Or was the sausage mixture something you ate separately?

[Gary350]

Question on your recipe: so you cook the potato mixture in the skins, and then add the sausage mixture on top? Or was the sausage mixture something you ate separately?

I made this recipe again since I posted this. Bake potatoes in oven 1 hr 10 minutes, wipe with oil, don't cover with aluminum foil. Cut down center squeeze the ends the center will come open. Put 1 tablespoon of butter inside and 2 large spoons of sour cream, stir into the cooked potato. Top with sharp Cheddar cheese. Potato skin is bowl shape it acts like the bowl.

Cut casing off the outside of 2 German Bratsworth cook meat into small pieces, add 1 cup dices onion cook until tender, add 1 cup dices bell peppers and 1 cup dices tomatoes cook until most of the tomato juice has evaporated, add 2 tablespoons of soy sauce and 1/4 cup of red wine cook until most of the liquid is gone. Scoop the meat mix over the baked potato.

I tried this 2 different ways with meat over the potato and meat at the side of the potato. WOW they are both different and both very good try it both ways.

Note: Soy sauce is much better than Worcestershire sauce. Next time I make this I will use 3 Bratsworth to make 2 servings to see how that turns out, might be better and maybe not just have to test it and see. Garden vegetables make a big different in how good this is.

[Gary350]

Not much to do in the garden. Corn has been harvested, stalked pulled up, lots of corn eaten, 130 ears in the freezer for winter. Soil has been tilled.

Hot weather has slowed tomatoes down but I am still getting more than we can eat. I Canned 9 pints of tomatoes in mason jars and gave away 40 lbs of tomatoes.

I harvested beans several times, I gave about 10 lbs to my Son. Don't need anymore beans we have 15 bags in the freezer and 6 pint mason jars. I am letting beans go to seed for next years crop.

Late planting yellow squash it needs to be harvested today. 3 zucchini plants self destructed the other 2 plants are not making squash.

Too hot for bell peppers now, 1 plant made 4 very large peppers we ate 2 and 2 still on the plant. Fall cool weather will make a lot of bell peppers.

Kale is still growing but growing very slow.

Late onions look good. If all 75 onions make big onions I'm not sure we can eat them all before they go bad.

Water melons have about a dozen small melons that are about a month or so away from being ripe.

Cantaloupe has 6 large melons that look like they could be ripe any day.

I had 1 Russet potato that sprouted 4 eyes I cut them off and planted them in the garden. 4 month crop should be ready about Halloween.

[KitchenGardener]

Question on your recipe: so you cook the potato mixture in the skins, and then add the sausage mixture on top? Or was the sausage mixture something you ate separately?

I made this recipe again since I posted this. Bake potatoes in oven 1 hr 10 minutes, wipe with oil, don't cover with aluminum foil. Cut down center squeeze the ends the center will come open. Put 1 tablespoon of butter inside and 2 large spoons of sour cream, stir into the cooked potato. Top with sharp Cheddar cheese. Potato skin is bowl shape it acts like the bowl.

Cut casing off the outside of 2 German Bratsworth cook meat into small pieces, add 1 cup dices onion cook until tender, add 1 cup dices bell peppers and 1 cup dices tomatoes cook until most of the tomato juice has evaporated, add 2 tablespoons of soy sauce and 1/4 cup of red wine cook until most of the liquid is gone. Scoop the meat mix over the baked potato.

I tried this 2 different ways with meat over the potato and meat at the side of the potato. WOW they are both different and both very good try it both ways.

Note: Soy sauce is much better than Worcestershire sauce. Next time I make this I will use 3 Bratsworth to make 2 servings to see how that turns out, might be better and maybe not just have to test it and see. Garden vegetables make a big different in how good this is.

Thanks for clarifying - it looks really good! Heart cloggingly good!

[Gary350]

I harvested another Zucchini squash, 2 yellow squash and 12 lbs of tomatoes today. I had some Russet potatoes growing in the pantry so I planted the eyes in the garden they should be ready to harvest about first week of November. The deep freeze is full, the pantry is full, I put 2 more shelves in the pantry. Cantaloupe are very large about 7" diameter and water melons about the same size. Onions are getting larger but not ready yet. Weather man said it was going to be 101 degrees today, it was 95 in Nashville TN and 91 at my house 34 miles south. It was 107 in St Louis MO.

[Gary350]

My kind of summer time dinner. Bean salad, potato salad, cottage cheese, German tomato salad, Rotisserie BBQ Pork.

[Gary350]

I was surprised to have such a good crop of 63 onions. This crop was planted a month later than the 1st crop and it did many times better than the first crop. This crop of onions will last us a few months. I use to keep a note book but I stopped doing that about 7 years ago, I think these were planted about first week of May. I tilled the soil, leveled it with a rake, set the onion bulbs right on the surface of the soil then pushed them into the soil about 1/2 the onion bulb width. A little more than a week later onion tops were 6" tall. I sprinkled an empty soup can of Urea on the 25 ft onion row then pushed soil up over the onion bulb. We had a lot of spring rain, it rained almost every day first week of July 6th. Onions tops were starting to look brown 2 weeks ago and today they all were looking very dry and dieing so I pulled them all up. Wow what a nice surprise. Maybe I made a mistake pulling the onions up, maybe I should have left them in the garden and pulled them up as we needed them.

[Gary350]

This was my corn before I harvested it. 5 rows 36" apart 12" long each planted about May 1st. Harvested about July 7th. 130 ears of corn. Ambrosia is a small corn, 72 day drop, very good flavor.

[Gary350]

Sweet Bell peppers.

[Gary350]

Cantaloupe.

[Gary350]

Squash.



https://www.facebook.com/Prankster.tv/v ... 893993446/

[Gary350]

7 more pints of canned tomatoes.

[Gary350]

Another good garden dinner. Home made spaghetti sauce with, garden tomatoes, garlic, onions, parsley, oregano, marjoram, thyme. And 2 slices of rotisserie BBQ pork.



Potato salad with beans.



German Tomato salad with, garden tomatoes, onions, parsley.

[Gary350]

Another 14 lbs of tomatoes. Hot weather is not slow down production. I think planting my tomatoes under a shade tree worked better than expected. It was 97 degrees today, no rain in a week. Suppose to be 98 tomorrow. I never water my garden no matter how hot and dry it gets. We don't need anymore tomatoes Canned in mason jars we have 73 pints in the pantry.

[Gary350]

LUNCH........ 22" sub sandwich with, Salami, black forest ham, smoked turkey, Swiss cheese, Cheddar cheese, mayo, mustard, garden tomatoes, garden onions, lettuce, zesty Italian Dressing. I don't usually eat lunch meat or salami but this just sounded good today.























Scratch built cinnamon rolls. I have not made these in 5 years not too bad for being out of practice.

[Gary350]

More tomatoes.

[Gary350]

Not much happening in my garden but tomatoes and melons every thing else has been harvested. More tomatoes today this 95 to 97 degree heat does not seen to be hurting the harvest.

[wisconsindead]

Looking good.

Especially those cinnamon rolls...

[Gary350]

Can you see 33 tomatoes on this plant.

[Taiji]

That is simply amazing. When I look at all those tomatoes and the relative dearth of foliage, I'm thinking my garden just must be too nitrogen rich. I've got lots of foliage but few fruits. Wonder if I should lay off cover crops for awhile and figure out a way to get more P and K in the soil.

[Gary350]

That is simply amazing. When I look at all those tomatoes and the relative dearth of foliage, I'm thinking my garden just must be too nitrogen rich. I've got lots of foliage but few fruits. Wonder if I should lay off cover crops for awhile and figure out a way to get more P and K in the soil.

Don't give your tomatoes much nitrogen they tend to become all plant with few tomatoes. I give my 4" plants a hand full of 15/15/15 fertilizer the day they are planted and pellet lime. If I have wood ash I sprinkle that around the tomato plants it contains about 30% lime, potash and lots of minerals. The majority of the green leaves are near the top of the 8 ft tall plant. Most of the lower leaves have died. I don't usually waste my time removing dead leaves but this year I cut most of them off.

[Gary350]

I picked a 5 gallon bucket of tomatoes today. Close to 40 lbs.

[Gary350]

How much Chili will 47 lbs of tomatoes make? LOL. My wife closed her eyes and said, I don't want to see anymore tomatoes. LOL. I have given all the neighbors and friend and family so many tomatoes no one wants anymore tomatoes. Even the homeless shelter won't take anymore tomatoes. LOL. Our pantry is full of tomatoes we don't need anymore tomatoes either.

I have not kept a very accurate account of how many tomatoes I have harvested this year but, starting about Jul 10th 12 lbs per day for about 2 week, about 20 lbs per day for 2 weeks, now 40 to 45 lbs every other day for a week. About 500 lbs total.

Dilemma now is what to do with more tomatoes? I sure hate to pull up 21 perfectly good tomatoes plants. Next week we are going to start camping again and may go to Michigan again for 2 weeks and plan to spend about 2 weeks in Colorado. Maybe we leave and let all the tomatoes fall on the ground. We still want to have a minimum of 1 ripe tomato every day until Christmas day. I am also ready to till the garden so I can plant a winter crop, 30 ft rows of, Napa, Kale, Garlic, Chard, Bok Choy, Beets, Peas.

This year my tomatoes did much better being planted under a shade tree. They got morning Sun until 12 noon by the clock. Sun is straight up at 1:10 pm.

[lakngulf]

Beautiful tomatoes there. Is that some kind of hop skotch game on the sidewalk?

[Gary350]

Another ripe cantaloupe 11 lbs 7.9 oz. I don't know the name of this cantaloupe yet, I am sure there is a tag somewhere under all those vines. Sooner or later I will find the tag maybe not until frost kills the vines 1st week of Nov.



A large bowl of cantaloupe ready for the refrigerator.



Seeds are easy to save put them in water wiggle the inside stuff the seeds fall to the bottom of the pot. Seeds make very good sprouts that you can eat on a sandwich or in salads. Put a few seeds inside a quart jar with screen wire over the top. Put water in the jar then dump it out 4 times a day, breakfast, lunch, dinner, bedtime. In 6 or 7 days the jar will be packed full of green sprouts they have a little bit of a nut flavor.



This inside stuff looks good. I wonder if there is a good way to eat it?

[Gary350]

WOW this cantaloupe is good, they are always better the second day in the refrigerator. I have always liked ripe cantaloupe much better than ripe watermelon but 25 years ago before I learned how to grow a garden with no weeds I could never grow good melons. These are easy to grow in a 12 foot circle I have 4 plants about 4 feet apart keep turning the vines so they stay in the circle, cut the vines short it is less work. I went to the kitchen to get a few bits of melon before bed and could not stop, I think I ate 2 lbs of melon. LOL.

[Gary350]

I harvested another cantaloupe before dinner. No pictures, weight about 9 lbs. I sliced it, put it in a large bowl, put it in the refrigerator. It will be a lot sweeter and better flavor after 2 days in the refrigerator if it lasts that long. It took us 2 days to eat the last melon. 5 more melons in the garden getting very close to being ripe.

There is a very large watermelon in the garden about 2 days from being ripe. There R about 20 smaller melons hiding under the leaves. Wow when all those get ripe it is going to be a nightmare to try to eat all the ripe melons. Did anyone every try to eat a whole melon every day all by yourself?

3 years ago I had 28 watermelons, there was a ripe melon just about every day for a month.

[Gary350]

This melon looks like it should be ready to harvest any day now. The bottom is still white, I check it every day. I'm not sure my scales will weigh this I might need to weigh it on bathroom scales. I hope it tastes good as it looks. Melon diameter is larger than this 5 gallon bucket. 5 gallons of water weighs 40 lb. how much do think the melon weighs?

[wisconsindead]

Nice!

[Gary350]

After eating a whole cantaloupe every day for a week it is nice to finally have a ripe watermelon. This weighs exactly 17lbs. Scrap is about 65% compared to a cantaloupe that is about 50%. The bottom of the melon turned yellow yesterday, I waited 1 more day and harvested the melon. It is a very good watermelon, good flavor and plenty sweet. Tomorrow we will see if it gets riper in the refrigerator like cantaloupes do. This is the 1st watermelon this year.

[ElizabethB]

Gary,

I love your garden eating pics.

What about the lovely kitties?

[Gary350]

UPDATE. It is now 9:40 pm the watermelon has been getting cold in the refrigerator for 3 hours. I decided to go check see how the melon tastes cold. 1 bite turned into 2, 3, 4 and many more. I can't believe I ate 1/3 of a water melon 30 minutes before bed. LOL. Darn.....I will be getting out of bed all night going to the bathroom. It is so good I just could not stop eating.

The little cats all got a good home I wish I could have kept them all. We kept 1 we need another cat for the garden. I sure do miss my cat she was 14 years old she died in June.

[Gary350]

Hot summer heat has put the slow down on the tomato plants they look 95% dead as they usually do this time of the year. I usually do nothing if most of the plants die I don't care all we really want is 2 ripe tomatoes every day until Christmas day. This year I did something different, I cut off everything that looked dead leaving the main stump of the tomato plant. I tilled all the dead stuff into the soil. Now the stump has grown new leaves and in a few more weeks it will have ripe tomatoes. With cooler weather on the way tomato plants will start producing lots of tomatoes again until we start having 40 degree temperatures at night. My whole garden is the compose I throw dead stuff down where every it happens to be then till in into the soil that is much less work than a compose pile, been there done that.

[Gary350]

I think this is #7 or #8 cantaloupe I lost count. Refrigerator is full of watermelon we don't have room for cantaloupe. I have a pineapple that needs to be cut and another cantaloupe that needs to be harvested and a honey dew melon that may need to be cut Monday. Everyone around here was helping to eat the melons at first but now no one wants anymore. It is very good but now that I have to eat it all by myself I am about ready to start giving melon away. We need to have a melon eating party. I learned that Red Wine does not go good with melon. LOL. 9 lbs 9.8 ounces.

[Gary350]

This is my idea of a compose. Sprinkle kitchen scraps between the rows then till them in. I don't do compose piles anymore too much work, been there done that, now I know better. This is, water melon, cantaloupe, pineapple scraps. Butterflies love this I will not till it in for a week or so. Butterflies will be all over this tomorrow.

[Gary350]

I harvested 2 more cantaloupes and 1 more watermelon yesterday. I gave them all to my son, we are over dosed on melons. It is not easy to eat a whole cantaloupe and watermelon every day. I have been feeling the effected of eating too much sugar, I ate no melon yesterday and I feel much better today. There are 7 more cantaloupe in the garden and 12 more water melons about to become ripe soon. It is about time to pull up all the melon vines I have cold weather crops I want to plant. If I plant melons next year I may only grow 1 plant, ripe melons need to come less often 1 a week would be about right. I planted 4 cantaloupes and 4 watermelons they both came in a plant tray of 4 plants. 1 of the watermelon plants must have bad DNA all the melons on that vine split open when they are about 7" diameter none of the melons are ripe. Knowing that 1 plant can produce all bad melons it is best to never grow only 1 plant if all the melons are bad it may be to late in the season to replant. The big 40 lb watermelon is still not ripe I check it every morning and every evening.

[applestar]

Are you freezing any to eat later? When my kids were little, I bought a melon baller tool and dipped the melon balls in simple syrup then froze them individually on cookie sheet, then freezer bagged them. My kids loved to eat them as snack. I also made "adult" versions soaked in something... I can't remember what.

The frozen melons are also good for making smoothies.