Gardening Gardening

I've already harvested mint for drinks and food recipes. Still no planting, I'm a little behind because of all the rains.

 

We are covered up in asparagus. I'm picking at least this much every day.

 

Awesome. I love asparagus.

 

I used to warehouse and ship office supplies a long time ago.

 

This compost pile is starting to cool back down. It is full of compost worms which are now finishing it off.

Rhubarb along the shed.

Garlic bed surrounded by strawberry plants coming back to life.

Black raspberry plants are starting to leaf out.

Lupine, chive, and strawberry plants under an apple tree pruned to open center to allow sunlight through.

Asparagus from one of my volunteers under the same apple tree.

 

Messing with some grow bags in the greenhouse this year. I have 2 Red Duece tomato plants going and 4 bags of some red potatoes that had started to sprout. Asparagus is coming along good. Picking about 10 lbs per day.

 

Visited the local owned garden center today. Save tons here vs Lowes/HD/TSC.


Fresh till and I’ll be planting after lunch.


Grow season is here.



Mint is already nuts.

 

Rains came but couldn’t keep me from playing in the mud.
6 more sweet potato plants this year.


Gave them lots of room to vine.



3 tomato plants and a pablano pepper in the bottom corner.


6 sweet peppers, 4 regular cabbage, 4 red cabbage,6 romaine, 6 iceberg, 8 brussels, and right next to the mint is 4 red leaf lettuce and 4 butter crisp green leaf.



Time to put the chute back on the riding mower. I’ll be using grass clippings to control weeds again.

 

Do you dry out the grass clippings before putting them on the garden? Our clippings are always damp as the lawn never gets truly dry before cutting. My main weed is horsetails and they seem to come up through everything.

 

Nope, they go on as I mow.

 

Mine all bloomed out but the "newer" blooms I stopped managing (streptomycin) got fireblight and I'm currently determining how to go about fixing them. I hate to just start cutting, was going to try a phosphorus acid drench. Have you ever experienced that on yours? There's a large Callery pear nearby that has had fireblight before, it's too big to manage, but it seems like it always recovers.

 

What do you do with ghost peppers? I've thought about growing a couple but I have no idea how to justify it. I'm assuming you don't eat it as a pepper.

 

No I can’t say I have had any type of fruit tree diseases here.

I don’t spray so I have some apples with some bug bites here and there. I just eat around all that, and save the good ones for the family member who may be a little more picky.

 

I've eaten tiny slivers of the peppers before, but no I don't snack on them. They have a fruity taste for about one second before turning into molten lava I make fermented hot sauce with them. It's about a 2-3 week process but afterwards the sauce stays good for years in sealed jars. I still have some from 2021. My in-laws dry them out then grind them up (outside process!) which is also a good way to preserve them. You could pickle them too but for me personally, one pepper per pot of chili is too much.

 

I've heard that some of the heat can be mitigated by not cutting the pepper, but putting it in chili whole, then fishing it out before serving the chili. I've never tried it, though.

 

Almost had enough grass clippings from today to do the entire garden.

 

Half my snow peas doing well. Other half not so much. They were older seeds, maybe reason why. Only 2 of my cauliflower plants are making it. Broccoli looking good. Plan on getting my tomato and pepper plants in this weekend. Going to try and plant some in my straw piles and see how it goes. My chicken chit fertilizer I put on in December seems to be doung the trick.

Not sure if it's too early for my cucumber seeds. What are your thoughts farmer steve? Also what grow bags are you using?

 

Cukes can go in now. And then more in mid July. No name on the grow bags. I get them at Martin's produce supplies. Like $3.50 each. After adding water they are about the size of a 5 gallon bucket. Martin's Produce Supplies | Shippensburg, PA