2024 gardens

[roony]

When my garden was at its worst I mixed up a mild solution of Miracle Grow and foliar fed the plants. Might have helped, didn't hurt.

[KEN W]

First Zucchini and first Cauliflower head. Picked first 2 heads of Broccoli, picked an ice cream bucket of Green beans and dug new baby Red Potatoes yesterday.

Time for grilled vegetables

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[Steve-o]

First Zucchini and first Cauliflower head. Picked first 2 heads of Broccoli, picked an ice cream bucket of Green beans and dug new baby Red Potatoes yesterday.

Time for grilled vegetables

Nice cauliflower!  I love doing something like this... 

https://www.wholesomeyum.com/cauliflower-steak/

[tangle tooth]

      Nice looking cauliflower. I'm jealous. I walked past ours a few days ago and thought we should maybe pull them in a couple days. Two days later, all four were covered in bugs and worms. Gave them to the hens.

[KEN W]

I always put netting over ALL my Cole Crops to keep the white butterflies off. They lay eggs to make green worms. Don't want to put pesticide on. The butterflies migrate up from Texas this time of year.

I have several more early heads almost ready. Then later headed varieties. Plus Broccoli and Cabbage and Kohlrabi.

[tangle tooth]

I always put netting over ALL my Cole Crops to keep the white butterflies off. They lay eggs to make green worms. Don't want to put pesticide on. The butterflies migrate up from Texas this time of year.

I have several more early heads almost ready. Then later headed varieties. Plus Broccoli and Cabbage and Kohlrabi.

Good idea about the netting. I'm going to check in to that. Thanks.

[KEN W]

Here are my Cauliflower here at home. I also have the same at my daughter's garden. keeps the bugs off. Especially those white butterflies.

Just can't get these pics to post right side up from my computer. Click on it and it will be right side up.

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[LPS]

Those are big plants.  Looks great Ken

[Dotch]

Tiger lilies are nearing full bloom now, obstructing our view of the LP tank...

[fishwidow]

We’ve got lots of buds on ours. Looks like it will be a bumper crop this year.

[KEN W]

Well....I couldn't keep the bear from my corn. I tried deer repellent. We peed around it. Put in ground vibrators. Nothing worked. It ate all of it. If it gets the next batch or my melons. I'm P'OD.

[LPS]

   I know it is not funny but it is in a way.  I sure would have thought those deterrents you went through would have worked.  Our apples are getting big now so just waiting for some bear action here.  I have thought about putting some dog poop by them to see if it helps.  I have replaced a few young apple trees. 

[mike89]

well I know where he should be bear hunting!!!     

[KEN W]

Never thought about dog poop. Could have plenty of that.

[Jerkbiat]

You could try spraying or dumping some bleach around. I have heard of bear hunters fighting and doing that to bait sights.

[glenn57]

Or kerosene.  Don't ask how I know. some prick did that to me!

[Dotch]

Bummer about the bear getting the sweetcorn Ken. The smaller fresh market folks here are having one helluva time keeping raccoons out of their patches. The one guy says his patch is pretty sad. His daughter may have to charge more & wear a skimpier bikini to make up the difference. My neighbor has electric netting around his patch and he claims the coons are blowing right through it. Not sure how religious he is about making sure it's hot though. He's shot and trapped well over a dozen of them. My patch is looking OK. It's only ~ knee high. Hopefully they get filled up on everyone else's and leave it alone. Fortunately it's smaller and already has electric fence on two sides. I need to spray the fence one of these days when the wind is the right direction. Anybody ever try a solar powered fencer on bears? A fence like I have, I'd suspect the bears would just knock it down after getting the initial jolt. Would almost need a high tensile type electric fence to keep them out I suspect. A lot of expense just to keep bears out but betting they wouldn't mess with it after their first encounter.

Got the areas tilled last nite for the fall gardening project. Pretty good moisture yet. Ground was still plenty hard where I'd only gone over it once prior. Let the weeds cook a couple days, roll the dice & plant. One hill of zucchini is flowering so my 95 year old customer may get some to bake with yet. A lot of the vine crops are flowering. Kinda fun to go out there and listen to all the bees in the morning. Have a couple maters blushing, a Jet Star and a Super Fantastic. Might be others as well. Doesn't appear to be any blossom end rot yet anyway. All the tomatoes (& peppers) were no-tilled due to the spring. Had little choice as wet as it was. Tomatoes have done well with it so far. Peppers appear to be coming out of their funk.     

[Jerkbiat]

The big be keeper up here does use solar fencing around all his bee hives out in the fields. Seems to keep the bears out. Once in awhile the hives are close enough that a stack might get knocked over. Pretty rare though for how many they have out.

[roony]

Just how big are the bees?

[LPS]

  He used to get permission from the DNR to shoot bears that caused damage.  I would let him know when I saw hives wrecked.  Then they would sit by them and shoot the bears.  I wanted to get in on it but the DNR had pretty strict rules on who could be a shooter.  The shooter cannot keep the bear neither.  They could give them away but I didn't want one in the heat of summer.  He takes a bunch of semis to California with them in the winter.  Now the DNR wants them to use the solar electric fences.  I helped a different bee guy process honey one year and it was very interesting.  Really enjoyed it. Got stung so many times I didn't hardly notice it anymore.  I remember there was a hundred bees flying around in the room we were working in.  I said I got stung the first time and they all started laughing.  It was pretty funny.  LOL

[mike89]

https://northerngardener.org/growing-peanuts-north/

I didn't know this...   

[KEN W]

I only wish I could shoot that sucker.

[glenn57]

I only wish I could shoot that sucker.

I just recently talked to a local up here. Let's just say the DNR will no longer do much, so the locals do the SSS method  the guy I talked to said bear where messing with his chickens 

[roony]

I was looking at some pictures of our garden last year. I would say we are about 5 weeks behind where we were at then.

[LPS]

https://northerngardener.org/growing-peanuts-north/

I didn't know this...

I just saw a guy who had a big bag of peanuts.  Maybe 30 lbs.  He put them in the same pot he cooked crabs in and boiled them for awhile and then dumped all kinds of seasonings on them and let them simmer.  It sure looked good.

[fishwidow]

Years ago I had a really big garden and grew all kinds of vegetables. One year I planted some peanuts. The yield wasn’t real good, but I got a small amount. My soil was 14” of heavy black dirt on top of clay as far down as you could drill. I don’t think that was ideal for peanuts, and it also wasn’t great for potatoes and some other crops.
I tried some boiled peanuts in Georgia after seeing lots of roadside stands selling them. That must be an acquired taste. I tossed most of the bag.

[LPS]

I would plant some if it is easy.  I am not a very skilled gardener.  I wonder if they would grow up here?

[roony]

Our garden is coming around but it is far behind an average year. I was looking at some pictures from last year and I would say this year's garden is about 5 weeks behind. Still holding out hope.

[Dotch]

The peanuts would grow Barry, just not sure if your growing season would be long enough without starting them inside somehow. When I was growing up, my folks got some peanuts for us kids to plant as part of a package of different seeds. I was probably 8 or 9. They did a lot of stuff like that, mainly to keep us out of their hair. Anyway, we grew Spanish & Virginia types. The Spanish peanuts did fairly well actually, the Virginia type not so much. We roasted (baked) them & they were OK. Needed salt of course. Growing the plants themselves was the most interesting. Unique leaves with pretty yellow flowers typical of legume plants. It was about that time I started noticing those kinds of similarities between plants which helped me connect the dots later. Had I started sooner, it may have saved my Mom's tiger lily patch from the toy hoe they gave me for my 4th birthday!   

[LPS]

 I know what you mean.  As a little kid I wanted to fix things.  So I got some kids tools for Christmas and went around and tightened the outlet covers and light switch covers.  Needless to say they all cracked and Dad had to buy more of them. They are a nice looking plant.  Kind of like beans to a novice like me.  I will consider the Spanish ones next year.  So will need a grow light in the basement I suppose.