Tennessee 2018 Garden

[Gary350]

We threw all the peas into the stir fly wow it was good. Pods from, Alaska snow peas, Wando, Sugar Snap, were all tender easy to eat. I was worried we would have to remove peas from pods. Garlic, onions, broccoli, peas, all came from the garden. Next time we make this we are going to put in some cashews. Thai sweet & sour sauce recipe is, 1/3 C soy sauce, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup vinegar, 1 T corn starch, 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper, stir & heat until thick, stir into meat then add vegetables serves 2 old fossils. Peas are not climbing the fence they grow together in a tangled wad of plants that fall over and lay on the ground. Next time I plant peas I am not putting up anything for them to climb on.

[Gary350]

It is a little bit hard picking beans with 7 cats but it is fun, cats think every bean that moves is something to play with. Picking beans with no cats gets boring. It started to rain an the cats all ran away. Rain turned into a big thunder storm that felt good. Wife wanted me to come inside, I told her rain feels better than 96 degree hot sun. I crawled on my hands & knees in the mud and picked 2 baskets of beans & 2 peppers. I decided I need a glass of ice tea and wife said lunch is ready so I had to wash all the mud off me with the garden hose to go inside an put on dry clothes. Pea plants are loaded with peas after I make some more German Bread maybe I will put my wet clothes on and pick peas. Garden was dry as desert rain came at the perfect time when, corn, beans, peas, potatoes, are at the final stage making a good crop to harvest.

[Gary350]

Another harvest of peas today enough for another stir fry dinner. Pods are not big some only have 1 pea most have 3 peas. I found 2 pods with 4 peas inside. Not a big harvest for a double 30 ft row of peas. Maybe peas need fertilizer so far I have not fertilized them. Looks like peas will produce all summer same as beans. Plants are not good climbers they keep falling off the fence wire and lay on the ground. Maybe fence wire needs to have a ruff surface. 35 years ago I learned peas & beans will not climb slippery bamboo poles. I think I might remove the fence wire and wooden stakes and let the plants lay on the ground that will keep the plants in their own row & might be easier on my back to pick peas. OH well we should still get a stir fry dinner about once a week maybe all summer that could be 18 stir fry dinners before first frost.

[Gary350]

I harvested 1 of my cilantro plants today for the seeds. I bet this plant has 1000 seeds on it. I want to plant about 20 seeds every week all summer to keep a continuous supply of cilantro for salsa and Mexican food. I have 3 more cilantro plants to pull up very soon.

Corn might be ready to harvest in 2 or 3 days. All this rain we had made a big difference in the corn crop. My rain gauge shows 1/16" short of 6" of rain. Wow I did not realized it rained that much.

[Gary350]

Another harvest of 71 onions. I planted 2 types of onions wow they taste good. Wife is going to make another pot of stew today to help use up some of the last onion harvest. I have onions planted several places in the garden in any row that had available space I plants a few more onions. We had fried pork chops with onions for dinner last night and potato salad had onions in it too.

[Gary350]

I harvested cilantro seeds from 1 plant. There must be 1000 seeds here. I am going to start planting small 25 seed crops of cilantro every week so we have cilantro for salsa. In this hot weather plants will bolt in about a month or so, new crops need to be on the way all the time 1 every week.

[Gary350]

This is what we have been waiting for. First corn & tomatoes of the year. Wow it was good. Even had garden onions with the hamburger.

[applestar]

What a great way to start off July!
You mentioned starting cilantro seeds in 4 inch pots indoors in the culantro thread — I’m going to try that.

[Gary350]

My potato crop is showing signs of old age my predicted harvest date is July 25 only 3 weeks away. Seed potato crop leaves are dieing but organic grocery store potatoes are still looking good. OK I give up how do you spell dieing or is spell check wrong? I know its not dying.

[applestar]

No “dying” is correct for near death. Are you thinking of “dyeing” which is the spelling for coloring with dye? That extra “e” always gives me trouble.

I once posted: “Dying is so much fun!” — and couldn’t fix it fast enough.

[Gary350]

It doesn't get much better than this, corn, tomatoes, beans, potatoes, Louisiana Cajun smoked sausage on the grill, homemade bread, banana nut muffins. Only thing missing is a blackberry cobbler.

[Gary350]

I harvested my carrots and another small crop of 17 onions they are both getting in the way of progress. I need this space to plant something else. Later today when it is 96 degrees we will wash the carrots, slice them and cook them, wife says we can freeze them for soup and stew to use this winter. If I had left the carrots until November they would have been much larger. Best carrots I ever grew was 20 years ago at the other house when I dumped a pickup truck load of construction sand in a 3ft x 8ft spot then sprinkled carrot seeds on the sand in February. We had a nice crop of carrots in July but I did not harvest them until November carrots were as big as bananas. Half long carrots are easier for me to grow. I made a mistake planting, carrots, onions and other things in random places all over the garden any place there was available space and now they are in my way.

[applestar]

I made a mistake planting, carrots, onions and other things in random places all over the garden any place there was available space now they are in my way.

Ah, that’s because your randomness was without intent or strategy. The trick is to fill those random spaces in such a way, with seeds or transplants of crops, that they WILL BE ready for you to harvest/clear away by the time you want the space for something else.

Personally, I need visual aids like diagrams and charts. When I was new to this concept, I used flowcharts... now I can do some of the visualization and strategizing in my head.

[Gary350]

I made a mistake planting, carrots, onions and other things in random places all over the garden any place there was available space now they are in my way.

Ah, that’s because your randomness was without intent or strategy. The trick is to fill those random spaces in such a way, with seeds or transplants of crops, that they WILL BE ready for you to harvest/clear away by the time you want the space for something else.

Personally, I need visual aids like diagrams and charts. When I was new to this concept, I used flowcharts... now I can do some of the visualization and strategizing in my head.

I don't usually replant anything in the garden this time of the year, random plants are normally ok no matter where they are but not this year if I plant new things. This is harvest season, tomatoes, corn, beans, all need to be in Mason Jars on the freezer we are going to be busy for 2 weeks. This year my son wants me to plant flat pod beans and a different corn. I have July to November plenty of time for a 60 day crop and a 85 day crop. Wow it is so hot this TN humidity feels hotter than Arizona and it was 114 degrees in Phoenix today. I will gladly trade 95 degree TN heat for 114 degree Arizona heat. I got a few things done in the garden early this morning before it got hot. After lunch 10 minutes outside was all I could take. It was still 90 degrees when it got dark. Tomorrow morning I need to pick more beans before it gets hot. It is very hard to get seeds to grow in 95 degree heat I will need to water 3 times every day for a month even then they may die if I stop watering them with no established roof system like spring plants have.

We had garden pizza for dinner, this evening we cheated and bought a Walmart pizza crust instead of making the pizza crust recipe on Lily White bread flour package. Homemade crust is mighty good but we were just feeling lazy today. Pizza had, Italian sausage, onions, bell peppers, garlic, sliced tomatoes, cheese & sauce. I harvested more onions and collected some dry garlic to put in the kitchen. Potato vines look deader than yesterday it is getting closer to potato harvest time.

WOW wife gave me 1/4 of a pizza she must think I am hungry. LOL.

[Gary350]

Sun woke me up at 5 am and I was in the garden a few minutes later before it gets hot. I removed the wooden frame where onions and garlic were growing in beds. I tilled that whole area to get soil flat & level again it sure did till up nice soil is powder. The cats love it they think it is there own personal poop box. LOL.

While tilling I found something amazing. April I bought a bundle of bunching onions at the grocery store. There must be 75 to 100 little green 6" long onions with roots and tops in a bundle for eating. I think these onions are a garnish to make food look beautiful, my plan was eat them in oriental soups. I planted them in the garden to keep them alive & grow larger. The tiny onions never grew larger so I left them there 3 months later they died 3 weeks ago. When I tilled through that spot were the bunching onions were growing it was full of onion bulbs. What do I do with these onion bulbs, eat them or plant them in the fall?

[lakngulf]

Your onion bulbs look like shrimp.....or maybe I am just ready for some at the Gulf next week!!
Ambrosia corn? Peaches and Cream?

[Gary350]

Your onion bulbs look like shrimp.....or maybe I am just ready for some at the Gulf next week!!
Ambrosia corn? Peaches and Cream?

I planted Ambrosia corn 75 days ago we are eating it out of the garden how this is a small corn. My son wants me to plant Peaches & Cream I bought seeds it is a larger corn than Ambrosia and 85 day crop. Wow it will be hard to get seeds to grow in this heat with no rain, not sure yet if I will plant or keep seeds until next spring. 2 more months of 95 degree heat corn & beans will not like that. In the past I have planted beans Aug 15 this will give me 1 good harvest before frost kills plants. Corn cannot get planted later than July 20 sun will be low in the sky Oct trees will shade the corn. I wish these 40 ft trees were about 8 ft tall.

[Gary350]

Another good garden dinner, it was all eaten except the fried chicken. Potato plants look like its time to dig potatoes. A small spot of the garden has been tiller I can't decide if I am going to plant something else here or what.

[Gary350]

This is my volunteer potato crop. Wife peals grocery store potatoes thick because she knows there are chemicals soaked into potatoes to keep them from sprouting & she does not want to eat chemicals. I threw potato peals in the grass next to the fence several times after several weeks of rain potatoes were growing there so I just ran the lawn mower around them and let them grow. Weeds were 3 ft tall and looking bad so I mowed weeds & potatoes down today. Soil is too hard to dig so I ran the tiller over the potatoes several times fairly fast & each time more potatoes came to the surface. I washed the potatoes clean and wife put them in a bowl. Wife said, we are having some of these for dinner tomorrow. Scales say, 2 lbs. 4 ounces. LOL

I have another place with volunteer potatoes. We had so much rain it floated the onions out of 1 of the onion beds and most of the onions rotted so I started throwing kitchen scraps there plus garden scraps, coffee grounds, potato peals, banana peals, grapefruit peals, etc. in there. Next thing I know potatoes are growing there. I harvested about 15 onions from there a few days ago. There was also a volunteer broccoli, some volunteer tomatoes, volunteer boc choy. At the moment potatoes are not a problem there I will let them grow we might get another 2 lbs of potatoes.

[applestar]

You are doing great! I read about your volunteer harvests and think it’s perfectly normal and innovative. But I know there are people who would think this odd. I can’t believe/understand so many people don’t grow FOOD in their garden.

[Gary350]

I have not been keeping an eye on the melons or sweet potatoes there really is not much to do but today I noticed it is infested with Dodder Vine. This is like having 100s of feet of kite string tangled all over the plants. I cut the sweet potato vines in 1 area and melon vines in another area then wadded it up in a ball and put it under the pine trees where nothing grows. I need a hazmat unit to come clean this mess up. It is hard not to drop little pieces of Dodder vine I hope little pieces will not sprout roots and grow. I hope it is not one of these plants in the last effort to live the plants uses all its remaining energy to make seeds. Dodder vine wraps around the plant stem, around leaves, around groups of leaves and around the whole plant. I spent 30 minutes trying to remove it from my Basil plant. Dodder vine makes little things that look like caterpillar legs that attach itself to stems and leaves like Dracula sucking the blood out of its victim. I removed all the dodder vine I could see I probably missed some it was getting dark. It will be interesting to see if the remaining pieces of dodder vine continue to live or die. I wonder if the vine gets broken up into 100s of smaller pieces if all the pieces will live. The soil is covered with little pieces of dodder vine I hope they dry up and die in the hot sun. Dodder vine grows very long straight sections that travel through the whole garden like it has a brain and knows it can infect a larger area much faster by growing out in all directions like the spokes of a wheel. I pulled in a few vines that were 6 ft long this stuff must grow fast once it gets started. Online shows dodder vine seeds are so small they are like fly specks on a white sheet of paper they are very hard to see. We had high wind, clouds, cool weather today that made it easy to work on this mess. I hope it stays cool like this for a few more days so I can inspect the garden to see what dodder vine is up to. There is a Rosemary plant next to the Basil plant the Dodder vine is staying away from Rosemary.

We had garden potatoes for dinner. It has been so long since I had a garden potato I did not remember they taste better than grocery store potatoes. We steamed about a dozen little potatoes they were good. Tomorrow potato salad. Maybe hash brown potatoes for breakfast.

[applestar]

I have a (crazy) idea — since the dodder research video showed that dodder vine will preferentially choose one plant over another, maybe if you placed a sacrificial potted plant nearby, they will swarm the preferred plant? I wonder what that would be? In the video, they were using a tomato plant weren’t they?

Here’s a link to a write up about that research —

https://news.psu.edu/story/141628/2007/ ... e-research
Parasitic plants sniff out hosts, according to Penn State research

[Gary350]

Today I made about 50 cuttings from Cumberland Black Raspberry plants then put rooting hormone powder on them before putting them in pots. They have to stay wet, stay in the shade, and need water mist to spray them all day. November I can dump the pots and plant the cuttings with roots and new tops. Next summer will be first year grow, year after that berries. The little berry patch I have is doing fine but not moving along fast enough. In 3 years I should be able to harvest about 25 gallons of berries. My plant in the yard made 1 cup of berries so far. These large berries are easy and fast to pick about 1 gallon in 15 minutes. When I lived at the other house I made a lot of cobblers and 64 bottles of wine every summer. I thought these were blackberries for 35 years now I know they are raspberries native to Tennessee.

[Gary350]

Wife said, go pick us a few tomatoes for lunch. I returned with this. We ate the 2 largest tomatoes.

[Gary350]

My small little blackberry patch is picking up speed producing about 1/2 cup of berries every day. I made a blackberry cobbler today to eat later this evening with ice cream. I planted 1 blackberry plant 2 years ago last year is produced about 10 berries and grew several more canes. Second year canes make the berries not first year canes then the canes that made berries dies. Plants multiply very fast from 10 berries last year to about 100 berries so far this year but there will be more this year for several more cobblers & muffins. Next year plants will probably have 1000 berries & year after that 10,000. I never trim I know some people do. All I do is mow around it to keep it 6' wide if I can reach the middle from both sides I can pick everything. Interesting thing about blackberries & raspberries as long as you pick every berry it will continue to produce more berries. One year at the other house my berry patch was 6' wide 20' long I picked a gallon of berries every day for 3 weeks then the plants started slowing down about 3/4 gallon every day for a while then 1/2 gallon every day for a while. I picked berries every day until the middle Oct. I got tired of picking and quit. That was the year I made a lot of blackberry wine 64 bottles, several cobblers, muffins, cakes. If you see a berry that you can not reach to pick then get the hoe or shovel and knock it off or cut it off, if you leave it that signals the plant to stop producing. These berries are big it does not take long to pick a gallon. I call them blackberries but online information says they are raspberries you can tell the difference in how the stem pulls loose from the berry if it leaves a hole its a raspberry, no hole its a blackberry. Today's harvest is on the paper plate.

Garden dinner was GOOD as usually, corn, tomatoes, potato salad, Louisiana Sausage. There is enough sausage left over for breakfast. Plenty of potato salad for tomorrow lunch & dinner.

[Gary350]

We started eating corn a week ago, 1 week too soon kernels were small but it was good, we have 400 ears to harvest soon as they are ready. 1 week later and 2 small sprinkle rains later that barely made the soil wet corn is larger. I harvested 4 ears for a test for evening dinner. It looks like the whole corn crop does not need to be harvested for a few more days there are 2 crops planted 2 weeks apart in the same location. We froze it on the cob last year and ate it all winter flavor was as good as the day it was picked. We are going to can several pints of kernels in mason jars for stew this winter plus still have about 160 ears in the freezer. We have already eaten 22 ears and will probably eat 30 more before the whole crop is harvested. We have a spare refrigerator freezer we can fill up too.

[Gary350]

Today we are making pizza sauce from this 14 lbs of tomatoes that we have today. Crock pot has 1 gallon of puree tomatoes with skins & seeds. We try several recipes in each 1 pint jar test to see which 1 tastes best. Pizza sauce is better on spaghetti & spaghetti squash than spaghetti sauce.

Good thing I bought 2 marjoram plants and 2 oregano plants because I'm having a terrible time getting marjoram growing from seeds. I have a 1000 seed pack, I have tried growing in pots & in the soil, seeds germinate fast about 3 days. Tiny plants just set there an don't grow. Plants in full sun sure do get green but they stay little and have a high death rate. Plants in full shade get long and spindly in search of sun. Plant is parcel shade and not doing well either. Plants I bought are not growing fast either they are only 6" taller than they were 2 months ago.

Dinner was good as usually we bought a 1 lb pork roast in marinade sauce, cooked it 1 hr on the BBQ grill outside. Corn, tomatoes, fried potatoes, too. Blackberry cobbler is gone I will make another one tomorrow.

Has anyone every seen a 2" long stink bug? Cat found a bug it looked like the largest stink I ever saw with 6 legs. Cat ate the whole bug even the legs, LOL, it must have smelled & tasted good. Surely it was not a stink bug cat would not have eaten it. What bug looks like a giant stink bug?

[Gary350]

This is my Dodder vine CSI investigation. I cut a section out of a sweet potato vine that has dodder vine wrapped round it. 3 turns of dodder vine around the sweet potato vine with both ends of dodder vine cut off. This 3 turn section of dodder has what looks like caterpillar legs sucking the life out of the sweet potato vine. It has been 2 or 3 days since this was cut off, sweet potato vine is not dead yet and dodder has grown a new section on both end where it was cut off. 1 end of dodder is a 1.5" long section with a Y fork, the short section of the fork made 2 tiny pods that produce seeds. The other part of the fork it growing longer apparently trying to find another victim plant. The other end of the 3 turn dodder vine made a pod to produce seeds. Dodder is determined to make seeds or fine another victim. If you cut dodder into smaller pieces each piece can continue to live. If I let this pile of cut off sweet potato vines, melon vines, dodder vine lay on the ground to dry out and die I think dodder will make 1000s of seeds that fall to the ground. All these cut vines are going into a dark color trash can to set in the hot sun with a lid for a week to cook Dodder to death. Dodder could still make seeds that survive the 150 degree bake in the hot sun. Online says, Dodder vine is a very big problem from California tomato growers.

[applestar]

...maybe put them in metal trash can and set them on fire after they dry out...

[Gary350]

There is something new on the table, Fried Squash like grandmother made, wow it is good. Potato salad, tomatoes, corn, & some dead cow meat on a bun. We made another blackberry cobbler with extra berries this time. The 1 gallon of tomatoes cooked down to 4 pints. Poured the tomato sauce in 4 pint jars then added fresh garden herbs, marjoram, oregano, thyme, basil, onion, garlic, salt, pepper, red pepper, bay leaf, then screw on the lid. Pressure cooked pizza sauce 25 minutes, can't wait to try this soon.

[Gary350]

We have been picking corn every day for a week or so. All of a sudden all the corn is ripe and the local animals found it. After dinner I picked corn while wife put it in the freezer. I planted 400 corn seeds about 75 days ago. We lost about 30 ears to animals & my son took some corn home with him. We are stocked up for the winter. Not sure how much corn is in the freezer probably close to 300. Wife has about 40 ears in a large pot she plans to cook tomorrow morning then cut it off the cob to use for stew & soup this winter.

Dinner tonight was good, stir fly chicken with green beans, corn, tomatoes, potato salad, and blackberry cobbler with frozen yogurt ice cream.

[SQWIB]

Quite impressive.

[applestar]

Wow 30 ears is a lot, but 1/10 of your harvest. That sounds about right for wildlife loss as I have heard it. I’m glad for you that you harvested enough to satisfy.

Still, it’s devastating to find the ravaged garden. You must have been so mad.

Do you know what kind of animals?

[Gary350]

Wow 30 ears is a lot, but 1/10 of your harvest. That sounds about right for wildlife loss as I have heard it. I’m glad for you that you harvested enough to satisfy.

Still, it’s devastating to find the ravaged garden. You must have been so mad.

Do you know what kind of animals?

We have deer in the front yard every morning when the sun comes up but I never see them in the back yard & they never eat the garden. I know deer can hop over the 4 ft chain link fence like nothing. No deer foot prints in the garden soil either. We hear coyotes every night but never see or hear them near the house day or night, I don't think they eat corn. There might be raccoons in the forest across the road but they are night animals we have never seen a raccoon. We have 2 squirrel families with 4 babies each but every year after babies are born May, squirrels are gone never to be seen again until spring a year later. Garden was fine yesterday morning, we were gone for 2 hours 11 am to 1 pm. Dog will bark if it sees people but never barks at birds, deer, or squirrels. After dinner 6 pm I noticed several corn stalks were broken down and ears on the ground that were eaten on the top side. There was 1 deer in neighbors front yard a few days ago eating the flowers they have planted in the front yard about 1 pm. Judging by all the corn stalks broken down it appears to be a deer but no foot prints in the soil. Soil has not been tilled in 1 1/2 months so soil may be hard enough not to show deer tracks. I don't think squirrels can break corn down like that. I had a radio in the garden like James said but wife complained radio keeps her awake at night. It seems logical deer ate the corn. We had this same problem last year after I removed the radio so this year I planted a lot of extra corn. The radio really animals out of the garden.

[Gary350]

Early this morning I pulled up all the corn stalks. This evening after temperature cooled down a little I tilled the soil. Now the melons & sweet potatoes vines can move into this area. I might take the basket weave fence down soon. I scattered the corn stalks all over the place to dry out, I wish I had a way to chop corn stalks into tiny 1/2" pieces so I could till them into the soil.

[Gary350]

This is a potato experiment I started 1 month ago. I put a potato cutting in this flower pot and kept it at 70 degrees. After 2 weeks potato plant was 2" tall. A potato cutting in the garden takes 4 in colder weather to be 2" tall. 2 more weeks in the pot the potato plant is 12" tall but it should have been transplanted already. This might make potato growing possible for someone living where growing season is too short to grow potatoes. I was hoping it would be helpful for me to transplant potatoes in my garden after rain finally stops and the swamp finally dries up.

Here is another good harvest of tomatoes. We might can in quart jars this year.

[Gary350]

I harvested my potatoes this morning it was a disappointment. Russet seed potatoes 60 plants = 18 lbs of new potatoes. Russet organic grocery store potatoes 40 plants = 9 lbs of new potatoes. Harvest was 1 potato per eye. Most of my cuttings had 1 eye. I had several 2 eyes cuttings and a few 3 eye cuttings just to see the differences between 1, 2, & 3 eyes. The cuttings with 2 eyes produced 2 new potatoes, the cuttings with 3 eyes produced 3 new.potatoes. Harvest turned out nothing like Texas potato growers said online and nothing like what I use to grow in Illinois. The 40 plant crop average = .225 lbs of potatoes per plant. The 60 plant crop average = .3 lbs of potatoes per plant. I used no fertilizer, maybe I should have fertilized with 5-5-20. I had too much hope for such a large test crop this year, next time I will plant only 5 plants to see what I get before I ever plant 90 plants again. Oh well we have 28 lbs of organic potatoes to eat.

Both photos show seeds potatoes on the left & grocery store organic potatoes on the right, both are Russet potatoes.

Organic potatoes are closer to round shape, with very smooth light color skin.

Seed potato skins are ruff as 40 grit sand paper, long body slight brown color.

Volunteer potatoes from about 30 potato skins produced 2.5 lbs of potatoes much better crop than these other 2 crops. LOL.

I talked to 1 of the Farmers Market sellers about growing white potatoes he said that he makes cuttings with 2 & 3 eyes then plants 10 cuttings in the same hole 2" deep 2" apart about 22 eyes in each hole. His 18 plants produced 88 lbs of potatoes but his 18 plants are really 396 eyes = .222 lbs per eye very close to what I grew with my potato crop.

[Gary350]

More tomatoes. Time to put more tomatoes in mason jars.

[Gary350]

7:30 am Sunday morning, 78 degrees outside the humidity makes it feel like 95. The continuous rumble of thunder off in the distance sounds like a war zone. Weather man said 4" of rain expected. My son said they had a really big rain yesterday we are 7 miles from him & no rain here for more than a week.

[Gary350]

Wife made chicken vegetable soup with garden vegetables, corn, beans, potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, herbs, salt, pepper. Wife cooks a whole chicken all night in the crock pot then removed bones & skin this morning. Strain the broth put it back into crock pot with shredded chicken & vegetables & cook all day.

I picked a few tomatoes & blackberries before the big rain storm this morning. 6 kinds of peppers in the garden all grow at their own speed. Sweet bell peppers seem to grow the slowest. Hot chili peppers seem to grow fastest. There is 1 very large, very ripe looking cantaloupe in the garden that is not ripe yet, we can hardly wait to eat it. I would love to make salsa but I have no cilantro and grocery stores do not sell it in hot weather so maybe coriander will have to do, cilantro seeds smell exactly like cilantro. Cilantro seeds I planted have not germinated yet.