A Gangbuster's Garden: I hate for stuff to get wasted . . .

[BonzaiDuck]

Open for comment on this.

After some three or four years with nothing more than a single tomato plant, I put about eight tomato vines in the ground this year, pruned relentlessly to make them grow vertically. I put in two zucchini plants, some long-leaf sorrel, two cucumber plants, and some bib lettuce and onions.

The zucchini have "got away from me." I was trying to harvest when they were small, but these are a foot long and the width of a baseball. I just made a huge batch of Ratatouille -- followed the recipe completely -- and it's wonderful. But I only used one of these giant zucchinis. Since I can freeze this vegetable stew, I'm going to do another batch. I finally pulled the giant zucchini plant, because the other one is also productive and the former was crowding out my other garden plants.

I've got about ten cucumbers -- also enormous. I can make dill pickles by the cold-pack method. I can see my next couple days are going to be overwhelmed with kitchen work.

The tomatoes? There are going to be a lot. I can stew them. I can make salads.

I may be able to give some of my bounty away -- but I've got to work fast or the harvests will spoil. Zucchini lasts for up to two weeks in the fridge. But there's only so much room in the refrigerator!

On the up side, I'm trying to reduce meat in my diet, so I'm using veggie burgers -- see another thread here. I don't think I will tire of this vegetable stew. I guess the worst of this is the inconvenience of work that needs to be done to save the harvest and pickle or cook it. We'll have tomatoes for the duration of the year.

To what do I owe all this? I owe it to my army of red-worms and the 32 gallons of worm poop harvested from a year's worth of kitchen vegetable waste. And a watering system that is more than sufficient. There seems to be an absence of pests, like hornworms, grasshoppers, or mites. A great garden year, but I've got too much work to do!

 

[mindless1]

I used to grow zucchini, but it was too much of a PITA to control the stinkbug population. I'd sevin powder them, then it would rain and wash it away.

Fortunately the stinkbugs had no interest in my other crops, but they were everywhere and come fall, they'd lie in wait to come indoors where it was warmer, and unlike most flying insects, they have a lifespan of over half a year, so they'd be hiding behind some furniture then come out and dive bomb me in the head.

I don't like zucchini THAT much.

If you think it's hard catching zucchini to pick before it gets too big, try okra! I was picking that twice a day and still missed some, but then I just let the overgrown get to full maturity and dry out, to harvest the seeds for next time.

I don't much care for fresh cucumbers so I'd just as soon not grow any and if I want dill pickles, pickle zucchini instead, though this year I'm growing neither, but still some dill.

If you want seed from your zucchini, leave an early one on the plant as they do tend to get quite large by maturity.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

The Mrs. does various tomatoes, bell peppers, and herbs. Since I cook with them so often. I have been thinking about doing sweet potatoes or yams. Maybe some cucumbers for pickling. I had citrus trees and a mango tree, but between old age and hurricanes they are all gone.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

This was the best garden I've had in 20 years. I believe the reason is the timer-driven irrigation and the huge amount of worm poop I got from my composting bins. Previous gardens didn't get enough water in the So-Cal midsummer.

Somehow, this reduces pest infestation. I also had occasionally sprayed Thuricide bacillus on just about everything but especially the tomatoes. Then I come back and hit it all with some Neem oil to keep the mite population down -- so there are no mite infestations.

I've cold-pack pickled six jars so far. I've gone from chips or rounds to spears -- done today.

Tomorrow, I'll fix another batch of Ratatouille and freeze it into 6-inch cubes. After that, I'll just have to see what additional cukes or zukes I get, but the tomatoes are going to be a gangbuster harvest. After I can several jars of pasta sauce, I may cut down 2/3 of the vines and try to keep the remainder producing salad tomatoes. And then I'll clear the garden by December's end and put in new seedlings to start again.

I can still spread around some Arugula seeds. Overall, I'm well-fed and the entire activity raises my spirits. People like it when I throw them a few ripe tomatoes or cucumbers.

 

[mindless1]

I can still spread around some Arugula seeds.

You're in CA right? Weird how cool it is there with most of the country averaging 90F today.

I've got some arugula I started over a month ago but if I were to start any right now, it'd bolt within a month due to the temperature and be mostly a waste of time. I'll start another round of that and some herbs in fall.

Incidentally, I'm allergic to arugula, have no other known food allergies but get blisters in my mouth, and throat swells a bit if I eat a lot of it, but I still love the flavor so I eat a little at a time and then it doesn't bother me at all.

Arugula allergy is supposedly pretty rare, but I wonder how many people have eaten as much as I did in a short period of time, before I had any symptoms. Otherwise I wouldn't have known that I was allergic.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

You're in CA right? Weird how cool it is there with most of the country averaging 90F today.

I've got some arugula I started over a month ago but if I were to start any right now, it'd bolt within a month due to the temperature and be mostly a waste of time. I'll start another round of that and some herbs in fall.

Incidentally, I'm allergic to arugula, have no other known food allergies but get blisters in my mouth, and throat swells a bit if I eat a lot of it, but I still love the flavor so I eat a little at a time and then it doesn't bother me at all.

Arugula allergy is supposedly pretty rare, but I wonder how many people have eaten as much as I did in a short period of time, before I had any symptoms. Otherwise I wouldn't have known that I was allergic.

You may be right about Arugula bolting in the hotter weather, but the flowers and seeds are as good as the leaves. I have so many seed packets of the stuff I can just "throw it around and expect it to sprout and grow. I believe this is true: the stuff grows like weeds in a California garden, even the hardpan decomposed granite soil we have here. Of course, most of my garden has been so thoroughly amended over the years I'd have to dig down deep to find any of the original dirt.

I've never heard of an allergy to Arugula, but I believe you. It's just easier to grow here than lettuce, so I always have some during the year at one time or the other. I'm currently trying long-leaf sorrel, and there's Bib lettuce in the shady part of the garden.

I can't explain the weather, but I'm grateful when temperatures here stay below 90F. Really grateful.

I've got on order a set of ten 32oz plastic freezer container with lids, stackable and rectangular. So I'm doing another big batch of Ratatouille today to give away and freeze. Also two more jars of pickles.

The kitchen is a very busy place, and will require a cleanup.

 

[mindless1]

You may be right about Arugula bolting in the hotter weather, but the flowers and seeds are as good as the leaves. I have so many seed packets of the stuff I can just "throw it around and expect it to sprout and grow.

?? Does not compute?

Unlike dill, I haven't found arugula seeds to be useful for anything other than growing more arugula with the same purpose, to harvest the leaves, though I admit, that I have never tried eating arugula seeds.

Most things that bolt in hotter weather, if I don't want to rotate the crop, I can be lazy about and let them self seed, let a little fall by the wayside and then next spring, more comes up with no further effort on my part.

The downside to that strategy is that I had cilantro growing everywhere and had to treat most of it like an invasive weed... well that and another situation, that I had saved seeds for so many years and built up so much excess, that I decided to just get rid of excess seed, literally put out about a million pepper seeds this season, just to get rid of the older years stock, since they are going to compost and be a source of magnesium anyway, and now I have peppers everywhere because even those a decade old, have "too high" a germination rate.

#firstworldproblems

 

[BonzaiDuck]

?? Does not compute?

Unlike dill, I haven't found arugula seeds to be useful for anything other than growing more arugula with the same purpose, to harvest the leaves, though I admit, that I have never tried eating arugula seeds.

Most things that bolt in hotter weather, if I don't want to rotate the crop, I can be lazy about and let them self seed, let a little fall by the wayside and then next spring, more comes up with no further effort on my part.

The downside to that strategy is that I had cilantro growing everywhere and had to treat most of it like an invasive weed... well that and another situation, that I had saved seeds for so many years and built up so much excess, that I decided to just get rid of excess seed, literally put out about a million pepper seeds this season, just to get rid of the older years stock, since they are going to compost and be a source of magnesium anyway, and now I have peppers everywhere because even those a decade old, have "too high" a germination rate.

#firstworldproblems

I share the experience with cilantro. I think the cilantro is either best in a shaded area, or just easier to manage that way. And I also have a big bucket of cilantro seeds accumulated over the years. But time takes a statistical toll on germination prospects for seeds.

The arugula plant has seeds in a two or three-inch pod, which -- with the flowers -- is equally good in a salad with the arugula leaves. This had not been my own idea: I picked it up in some internet information about arugula.