The gardening thread. What are you growing in your garden this year?

[bbhaag]

I didn't make a thread last year becasue well you know how life can get in the way sometimes BUT I thought with the cost of food prices going up why not a make a general gardening thread for 2023!!

Usual caveats apply so if the mods/admins feel like moving this feel free. I know we have a gardening sub but OT seems to get a little more traffic and this thread is more for posting pics/general conversation about gardening not a specific question.

Anyway, not much going on yet as it is still to early here in Central Illinois but we did harvest our garlic today. It was planted on November 1st last fall and just came ready!! Besides that we have the usual garden plants like peppers, tomatoes, beans, and corn coming along nicely. I've done an ATOT garden tour in the past but haven't in a few years maybe I will this year if I have time.

Alright enough talk! I'll start by posting up some pics of the garlic we harvested today.



Over 75 bulbs!!


Put them in the drying racks on the front porch. They will cure out here for 3-4 weeks before we net them and put them into long term storage.

 

[bbhaag]

So what is everyone else doing this year in the garden?? Feel free to post and add pics if possible!

 

[nakedfrog]

I'm trying to grow less Himalayan blackberry. Hack it back and dig out what I can, rinse and repeat for the next decade or whatever. The apple trees seem to be bearing fruit again this year, they gave last year a pass.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

I don't have pics on hand, but we have an extensive garden of mainly ornamentals for the local wildlife to pollinate/munch on. We've got kale and onions seeding (nfc how to harvest onion seeds) in a keyhole garden, tons of random squashes, tomatoes and shit in grow bags, lettuce in the greenhouse. Rivers of herbs. We're obsessed with chives and put them in errything. Thyme, rosemary, sage, like 13 varietals of basil, list goes on and on.

We're also supporting a local population of foxes and things foxes eat, so that's fun.

EDIT:
I lied. I found a picture

Member of aforementioned fox clutch

 

[akugami]

@bbhaag

Couldn't help but notice all the garlic greens. They're edible.

The wife uses them in things like stir fries. A simple, yet tasty, dish is to fry up some bacon strips, then saute the garlic greens in the bacon grease.

Or use them as part of a condiment. Something as simple as some minced ginger, chopped garlic greens, chili, and salt, mixed in some heated oil makes a nice sauce.

As far as what's growing, we don't have the yard space like you do. The wife just planted some asparagus, a single chayote plant is starting to sprout, some cucumbers, string beans, tomatoes, and some more Asian vegetables like bok choy, and Chinese mustard plants.

 

[A///]

I'm trying to grow less Himalayan blackberry. Hack it back and dig out what I can, rinse and repeat for the next decade or whatever. The apple trees seem to be bearing fruit again this year, they gave last year a pass.

laughed me arse off. good luck taming that beast. cut 90% of the bastard and it'll explode in growth. It's with you for life mate.

 

[Jeeebus]

Best part of the year is mango season! We have a super crop this year - probably getting 20-30 mangoes/day off the trees. Unfortunately we're going to miss a big portion of the season while we're here in Alaska.

 

[bbhaag]

Best part of the year is mango season! We have a super crop this year - probably getting 20-30 mangoes/day off the trees. Unfortunately we're going to miss a big portion of the season while we're here in Alaska.

I'm always so jelly when you post your fruit pics. lol They always look wonderful and it is obvious you know what you are doing. Which makes me even more jelly. haha

We harvested some cherries today but honestly it has been a pretty pitiful harvest so far. We had a warm early spring followed by a late cold snap and of course it froze most of the blossoms.....sigh....maybe next year.

 

[bbhaag]

I don't have pics on hand, but we have an extensive garden of mainly ornamentals for the local wildlife to pollinate/munch on. We've got kale and onions seeding (nfc how to harvest onion seeds) in a keyhole garden, tons of random squashes, tomatoes and shit in grow bags, lettuce in the greenhouse. Rivers of herbs. We're obsessed with chives and put them in errything. Thyme, rosemary, sage, like 13 varietals of basil, list goes on and on.

We're also supporting a local population of foxes and things foxes eat, so that's fun.

EDIT:
I lied. I found a picture

Member of aforementioned fox clutch
View attachment 81860

That is wonderful!! I love the pic. Gardening isn't just exclusive to veggies and fruits it encompasses many more things. I think it is awesome that you have a whole garden dedicated to wildlife and pollinators. That is so cool!!

 

[repoman0]

Squash, cucumbers, a few tomato varieties, basil, a few pepper varieties, trying my hand and failing at strawberries …

Still a newbie and I only have a couple 8x4 beds and a 4x4. I wish I could do this full time tbh. It’s really nice working from home because I spend time I’d normally spend commuting having a couple espressos and working on it.

Oh I also planted a young apple tree last year but it’s not doing well. I think the brutal cold we got for a few days killed the buds. Leaves are growing out of the bottom and the lower trunk but none of the upper buds opened. Not sure what to do about it.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

That is wonderful!! I love the pic. Gardening isn't just exclusive to veggies and fruits it encompasses many more things. I think it is awesome that you have a whole garden dedicated to wildlife and pollinators. That is so cool!!

Yup, we've got some food stuff but the vast majority is just local and near-local ornamentals. The bees enjoy it.

Panorama:

Also snagged a pic of some of our baby groundhogs (2 of 5 or so) that have so far evaded the foxes (we don't have high hopes).

 

[herm0016]

does this count? about 500 bales so far. Neighbor and I split the land I lease, and I help out with some other plots. about 60 bales on the trailer in the pic. got it put up just in time for it to rain all day today.

New video by Adam Herman

photos.app.goo.gl

New video by Adam Herman

photos.app.goo.gl

 

[bbhaag]

Of course it counts! But at 500 bales and counting you're getting out of the garden and more into farming. lol Please tell me you didn't bale all those by hand and had some equipment to help. If you did post up up some pics. I love to see farming equipment becasue it's so cool and most people never get to see it.

 

[herm0016]

The links: one of the 14 ft swather and the other of the 12 foot rake.

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

 

[bbhaag]

The links: one of the 14 ft swather and the other of the 12 foot rake.

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

Yeah I watched them. I enjoyed them but I couldn't really see what makes or models you were using or a baler. Not that it matters, I just geek out on old Ag equipment especially the older stuff from IH/CNH, Massey-Ferguson, and even the occasional JD.

Anyway, looks like a decent harvest. You plan on using it to feed livestock or just selling it?

 

[RLGL]

Nothing it is too dry no rain.

 

[nOOky]

We have a small garden with 3 sun sugar tomato plants (love them) and two other larger slicing heirloom tomatoes. I have some sweet potatoes growing, maybe a dozen sweet pea plants that we just eat right out there as we pick them, and some green beans. We also have two zucchini plants that are already producing more than we can use, two buttercup and two butternut squash. I'm planting some more peas and beets for the fall. I've got four 5 gallon buckets that I'm going to put carrots in, the horse usually gets most of those.

The main thing that we are proud of is that we own about 4.5 acres, and on two sides we booted the farmers planting corn on it off, and turned it into native prairie, maybe 3 acres. I now look out of my bathroom window behind the house and I see wildflowers instead of corn. There are flowers blooming almost non stop until the season ends, these pics are a few weeks old. I also mow just over an acre, and we have over 25 trees on our property if you count those right on the property line. We just planted three last week, a gingko, an autumn blaze maple, and a variegated river birch.

 

[herm0016]

Yeah I watched them. I enjoyed them but I couldn't really see what makes or models you were using or a baler. Not that it matters, I just geek out on old Ag equipment especially the older stuff from IH/CNH, Massey-Ferguson, and even the occasional JD.

Anyway, looks like a decent harvest. You plan on using it to feed livestock or just selling it?

sheep and a llama, neighbor has cows.

Hesston swather, maybe mid 90s? Hesston bailer, not sure what brand the rake is.

90 yo neighbor AL on the bailer.

New video by Adam Herman

photos.app.goo.gl

Me in the cab of the swather:

New video by Adam Herman

photos.app.goo.gl

Hesston was part of Allis Chalmers which was bought by fiat/agco. Agco owns a bunch of brands.

my tractor is a Branson 4720H part of kukje machinery in SK who is a parts OEM for many other brands, including their small engines for Cummins. they are quite heavy and more HP for the size compared to JD, and way way cheaper. Had an Allis from the late 70s before that which was actually a hinomoto from japan rebranded.

we are having a wet year. prices are down now, but may come up as it keeps raining. several neighbors have a lot of hay cut and rotting in the field. our fields were put up just in time. I may sell my overage later in the season. Hay prices are like playing the stock market.

 

[nisryus]

This year I replanted all of my dragon fruits. Most died during the 2021 ice storm, then earlier this year something destoryed what were left at night. (who would mess with dragon fruits since they have throns?)

 

[Gardener]

Harvested garlic on the 2nd of July, I wait until the tops start flagging. Don't grow hardneck anymore, when I did I cut the scapes about 2 weeks before harvesting the plants. Had a good asparagus crop this year, a gallon of raspberries, and the first sungold tomatoes are ripe. A warm, dry Spring in the PNW USA.

 

[Scarpozzi]

2 patches of beans... mostly half runners.

 

[Muse]

Spring and so far summer too has been unusually cool in the Bay Area and my yard reflects that. I usually have some red tomatoes by now, sometimes by weeks before now, but AFAIK none have even starting whitening from their characteristic early green color.

I had a ~1.5 gallon pot of mint get evidently destroyed by grass. No more mint leaves over the winter. Then I spotted one little stem about 3 months ago. I cut it off and planted it in potting soil in another pot, waited maybe a week and started giving it a little sun. This is how I started the original pot. But I think I gave the new pot less time than it needed to throw down substantial roots and it died. So sad. Then, a month later, I got the idea to try to pick out the grass from the first pot. I figure maybe, just maybe, there was some residual mint in there that could grow if the grass was cut thinner or eliminated. Voila! I got rid of all the grass and mint leaves started showing up. It's now utterly mint-revived!

My kabocha squash is going crazy. No flowers yet but the plants look Jurassic in their wild growth. Last year I didn't plant any but got one volunteer plant and a couple squash, which was nice. This year I planted maybe 50 seeds and figure to get a modest crop at least. I've had years where I grew well over 200 lb. of kabochas.

This is the first year ever when I've grown tomatoes from seed. During the pandemic I bought Early Girl tomato and large cherry tomato seeds. I tried sprouting them between paper towels and dishes indoors. Only the cherry tomatoes sprouted. I removed them one at a time and placed in little Styrofoam cups with potting soil and have transplanted those to either galvanized tubs or strips of outdoor soil. They are coming along nicely.

I bought 1 Early Girl tomato, 2 Sweet 100 tomatoes too and 3 pepper plants from Home Depot around early April. Only the Sweet 100's have survived. They are growing crazy though and I should soon have home grown cherry tomatoes in my daily salads.

 

[Muse]

I went to a birthday party on the 4th and they were really into their yard. They were growing out of 5 gallon buckets with holes in them. The guy was pretty knowledgeable on the techniques. He was growing tomatoes in some, sweet potatoes in others. He said the buckets would eventually be just filled with sweet potatoes below the soil surface. I think I'm going to try that, I think he called the technique "chitting." Another guy there talked about his advanced techniques growing vegetables on his small plot of land in west San Francisco, where it's foggy much of the time. He showed me a picture on his cell phone. He's doing amazing stuff.

 

[Scarpozzi]

I went to a birthday party on the 4th and they were really into their yard. They were growing out of 5 gallon buckets with holes in them. The guy was pretty knowledgeable on the techniques. He was growing tomatoes in some, sweet potatoes in others. He said the buckets would eventually be just filled with sweet potatoes below the soil surface. I think I'm going to try that, I think he called the technique "chitting." Another guy there talked about his advanced techniques growing vegetables on his small plot of land in west San Francisco, where it's foggy much of the time. He showed me a picture on his cell phone. He's doing amazing stuff.

Container gardens can be tricky. We did some potatoes a few years back. They grew fine, but were small. We have felt bags we use rather than buckets. They hold moisture and drain, but cost a little more than food buckets you can often get for free.

 

[bbhaag]

sheep and a llama, neighbor has cows.

Hesston swather, maybe mid 90s? Hesston bailer, not sure what brand the rake is.

90 yo neighbor AL on the bailer.

New video by Adam Herman

photos.app.goo.gl

Me in the cab of the swather:

New video by Adam Herman

photos.app.goo.gl

Hesston was part of Allis Chalmers which was bought by fiat/agco. Agco owns a bunch of brands.

my tractor is a Branson 4720H part of kukje machinery in SK who is a parts OEM for many other brands, including their small engines for Cummins. they are quite heavy and more HP for the size compared to JD, and way way cheaper. Had an Allis from the late 70s before that which was actually a hinomoto from japan rebranded.

we are having a wet year. prices are down now, but may come up as it keeps raining. several neighbors have a lot of hay cut and rotting in the field. our fields were put up just in time. I may sell my overage later in the season. Hay prices are like playing the stock market.

Pretty cool vids I always love seeing old Ag equipment being put to good use. I thought Hesston was a spin off of Massey but now it looks like both are part of Fiat/agco. Eh it's hard to keep it all straight now that so many of the big Ag equipment manufactures have consolidated.

Anyway, good to see some of their older stuff still alive and kicking doing what it was meant to do. Thanks for the new vids. It looks like you're making a go at it out in CO.