Gardening Gardening

The first planting was July 11. Second planting was July 30. Both of those were each a week later due to my plant grower getting behind. These brussel sprouts were planted on the 11th. They need a good hard frost to make them sweet and not bitter. Probably will start picking anytime now.

 

What is the green vegetable? I haven’t seen that before.

 

How do you freeze cauliflower.

 

Romanesco. Some call it a type of Broccoli and some a type of Cauliflower. Not much harder to grow but you have to get the harvest time just right. It always brings a premium at produce auction.

 

We just blanch it and freeze. It does come out a bit softer when you cook it.

 

These eggplants are the last of the summer crop....fall is here in East Texas.

 

My winter collards are thriving here in Florida.

 

Looks like you got a nice little garden growing there.

 

That’s a friend’s property. He is Thai. I’m teaching him. His family owns the bait store. Good people for me to know.

 

Sprouts were a little chilly yesterday.

 

No doubt.

 

they will taste good now.

 

I noticed yesterday when I got out at work that the days are starting to get noticeably longer. In my area I'm still a few weeks away from seed starting time (zone 6a) but now is when I start planning what varieties and how much I want to grow for the year. Last year I was feeling antsy and had started tomatoes and peppers on February 12th, hoping for an early spring as the winter had been extremely mild. May arrived, cool weather had persisted and they remained indoors until the middle of the month. The plants were all root bound badly and had become very difficult to manage in the end. In previous years I had started everything in the first half of March and didn't have these issues. Another wrench in the mix last year were worm castings in the seed starting mix, which the seedlings thrived off of and helped with the growth rate. This year I'm going to force myself to wait it out until March, probably shoot for middle of the month. I've been gardening for years but only have been starting seeds indoors for about 4 years now and I'm still trying to perfect my methods. New to me this year I'll also start my marigolds indoors too, rather than outside from seed and having to wait until mid summer to have blossoms. In any case, I'm happy to be thinking about gardening again and looking forward to another productive growing season.

 

Eric Schamell. We all start getting antsy this time of the year. Was looking at seeds at the store today. Give yourself about a 6-8 week window from starting your seed till when you think you hope to plant them. Good luck.

 

Waiting definitely becomes a challenge for me, especially when we're approaching the tail end of winter. In the fall I planted some cabbage which ended up being too late and the plants went dormant from what I could tell. I was out looking at one of my raised beds the other day and noticed something odd. The small cabbage plants did not look dead one bit to me. I was expecting them to be shriveled up, slowly breaking down. They still looked alive and a healthy shade of green. I wonder if they could possibly survive until spring? Maybe that's very wishful thinking though...

 

It seems I spoke too soon. I looked at the cabbage plants today and they were withered up into a sad state of affairs. They were doing better when they had snowpack around them to insulate them from the cold, but since that melted and it got cold again they decided they'd had enough. No matter, spring will inevitably arrive and I'll try my hand at another crop.

 

The last picking from the 2020 garden. Didn't think they wood take the temps in the teens overnite.

 

One of my favorite veggies.

 

I'm giving hydroponics a try this year for my tomatoes and peppers. I'm starting w 6 buckets and will be doing it on an enclosed patio that faces south. The goal is to see if I can keep the tomatoes and peppers going year round. Tired of the wild life eating them when they're planted outside lol. I might add some lettuce to the system at some point.

 

You mentioned bucks, are you talking about 5 gallon buckets? How do you plan to oxygenate them?