Gardening and yard stuff

[Magna]

The first few of a garlic harvest. Hardneck variety garlic rather than softneck. We'll be harvesting about 100 bulbs this year.

 

[Ella Spell]

You're an incredible photographer!

 

[BenderRodriguez]

The first few of a garlic harvest. Hardneck variety garlic rather than softneck. We'll be harvesting about 100 bulbs this year.

This is fantastic and a great picture too. Your immune system will also thank you

I love garlic in general and its versatility in particular, depending on what you do it with it, the taste can vary so much, from sharp to sweet and everything in between. Aside from using it raw or cooked in food, I dehydrate it, make a paste out of roasted heads (keeps well in the fridge) or make black garlic. Something else I like doing is planting individual cloves in a pot and getting green leaves*. They are mild and fresh tasting and great in salads and such.

*The leaves are very similar to green onions or scallions, but flat instead of cylindrical

 

[Magna]

A busy day in the garden today. Zucchini and yellow "summer squash" is the vegetable you love and then you hate because it's so prolific and never seems to stop producing. I picked probably 40 pounds of it today. I've been shredding it with the food processor than dehydrating the shreds. It's about 95% water so it's amazing how much it shrinks when it's dried. I plan on using the shreds this winter by rehydrating them as needed for zucchini bread and muffins. Today I also powdered some of the dried shreds and I'll have fun experimenting with the powder this winter when I have more time in an attempt to create original baking recipes with the powder.

 

[Karamazov]

Must be a bit behind you as far as seasons go, our courgette plant is currently producing first fruit of the year: looking healthy but not dropped the flower off the end yet.
I’ve used them to make savoury scones before now (desperately searching for something to do with the glut!), they came out very well, but didn’t keep longer than around the 24-36 hour mark.
My aunt has used them in chocolate cake... I assume it must have been a nutty yellow variety, but haven’t specifically asked her.

 

[8398]

I grew this kind once, "Costala Romanesco" or "Tender Roman Zucchini" got many giant ones off it, even though the package says it's good picked small and the flowers, it was still perfectly good at a giant size. Delicious fried and kind of star shaped slices.

So I moved, high desert so it's very cold and hot. I'm in the woods now. I would dive into gardening, it's my favorite and love growing my own food. Not sure how to go about gardening here yet. So I've been doing other things...

First thing I did was make a dorodango, or basically dirt ball. I'm surprised that it was successful on first try, second try failed. It's pretty darn solid, not very shiny this time though, but that's okay it doesn't need to be. My dirt ball is my precious.

Then I found this in a pool. Initially seemed dead, came back to life a little, I kept her warm with my breath but she died. So I get to pin her.

I uhhhh, I guess I skinned a mouse. I was collecting mint and one of my family members happen to accidentally step on the poor thing. It was pretty cute, can't seem to identify it but similar to a kangaroo rat but with a cute hamster face. Tail is really long. Didn't know how I was going to feel about doing it, but it was interesting. Right now is a great opportunity for me to practice. I'm also hang drying herbs. Mullein specifically. Been having a lot of fun. Thinking about making an etsy or something and provide for other witchy / cottagecore fellows.

 

[Magna]

^I like the dirt ball. That's interesting. I'd never heard of it before. From what I recall Captain Beefheart lived in the High Desert.

 

[8398]

Yeah Dorodango is a japanese thing that also inspired the shiny aluminum foil ball. They can be shiny like a polished sphere of rock, or have a neat texture on them. I'm definitely going to practice and decorate my room with them.

 

[Magna]

The garden is in full swing. New pictures taken this week. The tomato and pepper plants have certainly grown!

I'm growing both "paste" tomatoes and regular tomatoes. There are going to be some big regular tomatoes like this guy below.

The plant below is a hybrid spinach called "Red Kitten". It's wonderful fresh in salads. The plants initially confused me because I thought they were some of the beets I planted that had turned weird in how they were growing. No. Spinach.

Below is pak choi (aka bok choi). Great in stir fries and also for making kimchi which I'll be doing again soon.

What a beautiful looking bell pepper.

That's all for now. This is kind of the "calm before the storm" when the plants are doing their jobs of just growing and I'm more or less observing. I'm only just now starting to get busier with harvesting some things and preserving them.

Gardening is the best thing I've found as a therapy for my PTSD and for lowering my stress level in general.

 

[Karamazov]

Those all look to be growing up well and healthy
Is the Tomato a “beef” variety?
We’ve had our first little bowls of ripe ones with dinner aver the last week, red and yellow cherry toms here. We did try a purple variety last year, but it didn’t seem to like our conditions: rather a straggly plant and didn’t produce much fruit. (Maybe it would’ve done better in a greenhouse).
See what you mean about the spinach, I’d mistake it for chard most likely!
Definitely more interesting visually for salads
We haven’t had success with spinach at this house thus far (same with rocket, they both bolt within days of planting out) I think it’s because the soil doesn’t hold the water very well at all, hopefully try them again in a shadier spot next year and see if that works better.

How much water/nutrients do the Pak Choi need?
Mrs K loves the occasional stir fry: would be nice to grow more things for them in our little patch

I know what you mean about the benefits of gardening: don’t have PTSD, but I’m definitely better at functioning in general when I’m going out to tend customers gardens regularly.
Fresh air, movement/exercise and the gradual nurturing of delicate growths to beauty/deliciousness. Winning formula

 

[Magna]

^ Sorry for the delay, Brother K.

Yes I believe the tomato is a "beef" variety. I purchased the plants from a store rather than growing them from seed this year because it took so long to get my greenhouse up and running. I did plant paste tomatoes from seed and they're doing ok; not great, but ok. Why? I planted the paste tomato seeds in "peat pots" but couldn't plant them in the ground (greenhouse not ready) so the seedlings got very "leggy"/spindly. Those paste tomato plants did bounce back so I'm glad I didn't give up on them. My plan for next year is to grow all of my tomatoes from heirloom seeds I have. I'll then be able to pick the heirloom types that I like and that grow well for me and retain seed stock each year. I'll then be able to grow my tomatoes in perpetuity.

One of the type of tomato I'm growing now is a purple variety. We'll see how they turn out. One thing I noticed about this variety is that it's very prone to splitting. We had a period of very wet weather and gravity draws groundwater from the front of the greenhouse to the back. The purple variety didn't like the excess water.

The spinach in that picture above definitely bolted. I try to quell that by pinching off the tips (and eating them on the spot).

I did not fertilize the pak choi at all. The ground the greenhouse sits on is virgin soil and the turf that was on top was just tilled into the soil. It didn't need any more or less water than the plants next to it such as beets or spinach. I recommend you try growing it. If/when it starts to bolt if you let it go that long, the shoots look like broccoli rabe and taste just like it too.

 

[Magna]

Beet harvest today.

Golden beets.

And lots of beet tops (greens) to work with too.

May the processing begin! Whether I like it or not.

 

[Progster]

I have beets too, and tomatoes. Too many to eat, I'm going to puree them and freeze them to use them as a sauce base later.

I also have a lot of goji berries. Goji berries are wonderful, they are great with Greek yogurt and honey, and the bushes just keep on giving

 

[Magna]

I have beets too, and tomatoes. Too many to eat, I'm going to puree them and freeze them to use them as a sauce base later.

I also have a lot of goji berries. Goji berries are wonderful, they are great with Greek yogurt and honey, and the bushes just keep on giving

I wish I could grow Goji berries where I am. I'm in a zone 3 or even sometimes realistically in a zone 2. There is a zone 2 hardy shrub known as a sea buckthorn or seaberry that produces orange berries high in vitamin C that I'm considering planting. It's not to be confused with "buckthorn" that we have in our area that's a HORRIBLE prolific invasive plant. The thorns can go right through your gloves and the soles of your boots when you're trying to clear it. Awful awful stuff.

 

[Progster]

I wish I could grow Goji berries where I am. I'm in a zone 3 or even sometimes realistically in a zone 2. There is a zone 2 hardy shrub known as a sea buckthorn or seaberry that produces orange berries high in vitamin C that I'm considering planting. It's not to be confused with "buckthorn" that we have in our area that's a HORRIBLE prolific invasive plant. The thorns can go right through your gloves and the soles of your boots when you're trying to clear it. Awful awful stuff.

I live in a different country and I don't know what "zone 3" or "zone 2: is, I assume they are climate zones? I live in a Mediterramean country, and although goji berries are not native to this country, they grow very well here. I don't know the buckthorn, I don't think we have such a plant.

Do you have blueberries? That's one thing I'm love to be able to grow, I'm very fond of blueberries.

 

[Magna]

I live in a different country and I don't know what "zone 3" or "zone 2: is, I assume they are climate zones? I live in a Mediterramean country, and although goji berries are not native to this country, they grow very well here. I don't know the buckthorn, I don't think we have such a plant.

Do you have blueberries? That's one thing I'm love to be able to grow, I'm very fond of blueberries.

Sorry, you're correct that Agricultural zones are climate zones.

I do not personally have an blueberry bushes, but blueberries are able to be grown where I live. Unfortunately there is a problem with an invasive non-native fruit fly in my area and the larvae live in soft fruits and berries like blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, sour cherries, etc.

 

[Progster]

Thanks for the info @Magna I think the climate in my area is similar to California, I'm near the sea and it rarely gets below freezing, and if it does, just a couple of degrees below. So that would make my area a zone 9, I guess.

Another thing I'd love to grow is bananas. Here, the plant will grow in sheltered spots, but doesn't produce any fruit. Though I have seen banana plants with bananas growing on them in Athens.

 

[Mary Terry]

Thanks for the info @Magna I think the climate in my area is similar to California, I'm near the sea and it rarely gets below freezing, and if it does, just a couple of degrees below. So that would make my area a zone 9, I guess.

Another thing I'd love to grow is bananas. Here, the plant will grow in sheltered spots, but doesn't produce any fruit. Though I have seen banana plants with bananas growing on them in Athens.

Can you grow capers? I recently ordered some capers from Santorini, along with dried Greek figs, fava, wild Greek oregano, and some other Greek products from Diane Kochilas' website. She is a Greek chef well known in the US.

 

[Progster]

Can you grow capers? I recently ordered some capers from Santorini, along with dried Greek figs, fava, wild Greek oregano, and some other Greek products from Diane Kochilas' website. She is a Greek chef well known in the US.

I don't know about capers, I don't think they produce them in my area, but certainly we have figs and wild oregano.

 

[Mary Terry]

I don't know about capers, I don't think they produce them in my area, but certainly we have figs and wild oregano.

Capers may not be easy to domesticate. I know they grow wild on the rocky cliffs of Mediterranean islands and are collected by hand. I want to go back to Greece as soon as this pandemic ends.