Tennessee 2018 Garden

[Vanisle_BC]

I tried to upload video to the forum but I get a message that says, no videos. I uploaded them to my Facebook page.

Gary, those were movies you wanted to upload?

[Gary350]

Quick easy salad in about 5 days. I saved several 1000 melon seeds last summer to plant this year. Pictures shows about 150 cantaloupe seeds on left & about 150 watermelon seeds on right. Cantaloupes are growing faster than watermelons for some reason they were both planted about 1 minute apart. Sprinkle seeds on the soil then cover them with soil they were up in 3 days and large enough to eat about 2 days later. I cut them off with scissors, wash & rinse, ready to eat. I like mixing 1 bottle of Honey Mustard dressing with 1/2 bottle of Zesty Italian dressing it makes a good salad dressing. These are good, not much difference than lettuce or other greens. Tomorrow I eat the watermelon plants if they are large enough.

It is also easy to make bean sprouts, easier than doing it in a jar in the kitchen. A 1 lb. bag of dried beans is 69¢ at the grocery store. I have tried, Navy beans, Kidney beans, Lima beans, they are all good in salad or stir fry. Sprinkle beans on soil then cover with soil and water they will be ready to eat in about 5 days. You can also pull these tiny plants up with the roots, wash & rinse then eat plants whole. A little practice you can plant the perfect number of seeds to eat for each harvest, try growing lettuce in 95 degree weather. LOL. Many years ago I grew seeds in large flower pots in the kitchen all winter but no place to do that at this house.

[Gary350]

Tonight dinner was taco salad with little water melon plants for salad. Easy an best taco salad every. Cook meat, onion, garlic in skillet then add 69¢ pack of taco season mix. Mix cheese flavor corn chips crunched into smaller pieces with salad. Put meat mix, salad mix in bowl top with cheddar cheese, salsa, sour cream and anything else you like even beans or rice. I put some little garden carrots in my taco salad. This will be extra good when it have ripe tomatoes.

[Vanisle_BC]

Good looking salad Gary. Here's an impromptu one we had last night (not Entirely from the garden)

Shredded Romaine, cabbage & turnip leaf, arugula
Bean sprouts & diced apple
Crispy fried bacon bits
Half a beaten egg (left from earlier tempura) fried in the bacon fat & chopped.
All tossed in Caesar-dressing dregs rinsed out with plum wine.

Served with sliced ham - pretty nice.

[Gary350]

I was surprised to fine 2 ripe tomatoes in the garden today, I really did not expect a ripe tomato for another 2 weeks. This is something new I have never tried, Supersweet 100. I was told these are good so I decided to give it a try. I can not describe the flavor, they do not taste like, Beefsteak, Big beef, German Johnson, Beef master, Super star, Rutger or Celebrity tomatoes. Plants are loaded with little green cherry tomatoes smaller than the cherry tomatoes I planted last year. I planted last years cherry tomatoes again from saved seeds. BC that sounds like a good salad it gives me an idea for our next salad.

[Gary350]

I would love to make 10 gallons of bread & butter pickles like my Grandmother did but first I need to know if I can make pickles worth eating. It is still not too late soon as corn is harvested I will have room to plant cucumbers in the garden about July 20. In the mean time we buy Bread & Butter pickles to make our own relish in the food processor then put relish back in the pickle jars. We never eat pickles on anything, we only put sweet relish into things like, potato salad, chicken salad, bean salad, coleslaw, hot dogs, and other things. We use lots of relish in summer but not so much in winter, it takes a whole jar of $2 pickles to make a large bowl of potato salad.
.

[Gary350]

Corn has grown about 3 feet taller since the last rain about 2 weeks ago when we had 5" in 3 days. Sweet potatoes, white & orange are both doing good no harvest until frost kills the plants in Nov. Melons, cantaloupe & watermelons are both growing 2 times faster than sweet potatoes. Peppers plants in 2 locations are starting to make a few peppers. It won't be long now potatoes harvest probably in August. Peas are starting to make pods we might have a harvest soon. Tomato plants are big and loaded with tomatoes we hope to have ripe tomatoes in 2 more weeks. Green bean patch has spread out wide into the walk areas and starting to grow baby beans. Soon it will be time to harvest several things and plant something new. I might do a second crop of corn & beans just wait and see how the first crop does. Cumberland Black Raspberries look and taste like Blackberries, plants are loaded with berries, looks like we will have several berry cobblers from this little crop. Cumberland black raspberries have very few seeds, cobbler, pie, juice, wine, is 90% fruit & juice vs 10% juice from most wild blackberries. Cumberland black raspberries are wild plants native to TN, I have taken cutting with me to every place I have lived it takes a few years to get a large crop from 1 cutting. We ate more of the onion crop today is a pot of beef stew, about 1/2 the crop has been eaten already. No Qcomeburs.

[Gary350]

Spanish steak for dinner was very good & easy to make. Potatoes, onions, garlic, tomatoes, came from the garden. Here is the recipe. Cover meat with vinegar, salt, black pepper, flour, brown in hot oil, add garlic & onions cook 5 minutes. Add 1 can enchilada sauce, 1 pint of garden tomatoes, 2 large thin sliced potatoes. Cook until potatoes are done about 45 minutes. Next time I cook this I am going to throw in some green beans. WHY is the recipe photo sideways it was not sideways on my computer when I uploaded it?

[Gary350]

I harvested more garlic, another 52 hard neck garlic & 76 soft neck garlic. I left garlic in the soil an extra 3 weeks to let the tops dry in the hot sun somethings this makes the heads fall apart into a hand full of cloves which makes garlic easier to cook with you don't have to pull cloves apart. I learned a new trick cut a clove in 1/2 then squeeze each piece the center pops out of the skin just like squeezing a grape out of its skin. I like growing hard neck garlic best, after planting cloves tops grow up in 4 or 5 days it takes soft neck garlic 2 to 3 weeks to grow tops. Be sure to plant hard neck garlic 50 days before first frost and soft neck garlic 70 days before first frost. Very soft soil lets the roots grow bigger & better garlic. Plant cloves so top ends are flush with soil surface then after frost kills the tops cover plants several inches deep with very soft organic material or straw. Remove all the soft organic material in spring after last frost.

[Gary350]

114 onions harvested today. We have already eaten several onions in, potato salad, stew, salads, sandwiches, stir fry, etc. I have 3 more onion crops planted in 3 different places to see how, date, sun, temperature, rain, soil, shade, effects each crop.

[Gary350]

I have 4 onion crops planted in 4 different locations each one gets a different amount of sun. Look how slow onions grow in cold weather. Look what more sun vs less sun does to onions. Last summer my best onion crop was planted about May 15 it received about 4 hours of cool morning sun then full shade until dark. Real 12 noon is 1:12 pm by the clock at my house. Use a sun dial it will tell you when sun is straight up. If you have no sun dial use a wooded stake hammered straight up in the soil when shadow is pointing North/South according to your compass it is Real 12 noon. Actually magnet north is not the same at turn north.

A month ago when air temperature was 90 degrees plants in 50% and 60% sun Bolted = Blossomed = made flowers = made seeds. Plants were probably 130 degrees in full sun no wonder they bolted they have no shade until 4 pm. Plants getting cool morning sun when air temperature is 70 degrees are not bolting. Later in the day air temperature is 95 degrees, plants are 95 degrees in the shade & no blossoms. Yesterday was the longest day of the year, sun rise was 5:03 am not sure what sun set was about 8:25 pm.

[Gary350]

Super sweet 100 tomatoes have been producing ripe tomatoes for a week. Tomatoes are ripe on all 4 plants & taste the same today as they did 1 week ago so I am convinced this is their true flavor. Tomatoes are very high acid with a strong acid flavor plus another flavor much like sour green apples that will make you pucker up. At the moment I will let them grow if I don't find a use for these I will pull the plants up. This is the type thing a person runs into when growing new things, some are good and some are not. Its has been years since I tried growing different tomatoes I am glad I saved seeds from last years cherry tomatoes they are just as good as, Big Beef and Beef Master but I lost the tag and don't remember the name.

UPDATE. We left a bowl of super sweet 100 tomatoes on the kitchen counter top 2 days neighbor one of us wanted to eat them. Today with lunch I ate 1 of the tomatoes and was surprised it does not taste like the same tomato. Sour acid flavor is gone the tomatoes are very sweet with a good flavor. This is very interesting I have never noticed any tomato flavor change much after setting for 2 days unless it is not completely ripe yet. I know tomatoes continue to get riper after they are picked so that must be what is going on tomatoes got riper 2 days in the kitchen and flavor got better. Tomatoes were bright red on the vine as you can see photo was taken 15 minutes after they were picked.

[Gary350]

First harvest of green beans this year. We need to get a ham bone next time we are at the grocery store, we will have beans & corn bread for dinner one night this week. These 7 cats sure are fun they follow me every place I go I almost got all 7 in the photo. Did you ever pick beans with 7 cats?

[applestar]

One of our two cats LOVE beans — she Would have been chomping away if you left the basket in front of her like that. LOL

[Gary350]

First harvest of peas this year just enough for stir fry dinner this evening. This is a mix of about 50% Alaska Snow Peas, 50% Sugar Snap peas & only 2 Wando peas. Only 7 wando seeds germinated from 250 seeds.

[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.