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Post by flowerbug on Aug 20, 2021 18:49:26 GMT -5
we'll be picking the first batch of tomatoes to be put up later that evening. the heat and humidity have returned. not enough rain so i spent time this morning watering.
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Post by flowerbug on Aug 22, 2021 15:21:36 GMT -5
we had a one day break in the heat/humidity enough that i could stay outside longer and finish up picking some dry beans from the first batch i planted. i should get a few lbs of beans from them when they are shelled out.
last night i canned 8 quarts of tomatoes from the first picking. the tomatoes aren't that great in quality - the variety is not one which we've grown before and i won't grow them again. not at all what i was hoping for. to me they are more like a grocery store tomato than what we are used to. they look good, but they are hard and not much flavor even if they are red on the outside. will leave the next batch to hang for a few more days but i doubt it will improve things much. i guess we'll see...
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Post by xdrix on Aug 24, 2021 15:40:03 GMT -5
Always no tomatos matured! The firsts eggsplants are in formation.
I have harvest the radishs reisenbutter today! I have did a harvest of beans.The grappe started to be matured.
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Post by flowerbug on Aug 28, 2021 14:49:31 GMT -5
busy picking beans, putting up tomatoes, weeding and getting gardens cleaned up to be ready for winter. some rains have come along and that is very much appreciated as then it means i don't have to use the well water.
at the end of the bean project page i have put some new pictures of this season's start of the harvest of dry beans.
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Post by flowerbug on Sept 8, 2021 9:09:30 GMT -5
at last got the onions lifted a few days ago. tomatoes coming in and getting put up. beans picking when i can get out there. will be busy shelling out beans for quite some time, but fun already to see some new ones in the pods.  harvest time is always crazy. i'm sure glad we did not plant so many tomatoes as it has been hard on me this season even with just having twelve plants. i've put up nearly 60 quarts already and there are probably another 30 or so out there to finish eventually. the best news is that we finally may have got the roof leaks resolved. the contractor we'd been working with was able to get out and replace the roof vents which were not the proper vent to begin with. you could see the rust on the edge of the vent where water was coming up and over the edge. we had a pretty hard storm yesterday and no leaks that i could see so perhaps finally we are done with this. |
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Post by flowerbug on Sept 11, 2021 7:49:09 GMT -5
finished canning the last large batch of the tomatoes last night, 20 quarts, that's it for the season, the plants have a few tomatoes left on them which we'll eat or give away when they ripen. an early season for us, normally we'll go another few weeks right up until the first frosts knock the plants out. otherwise picking dry beans and getting gardens ready for the coming winter.
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Post by xdrix on Oct 1, 2021 16:10:18 GMT -5
We will pick the lasts green tomatos and did jam with them.
We will let mature a few tomatos.
This season was late for the tomatos.June was too humid and too hot at the end and july and august was too fresh and rainy.
Thr first tomato was mature the 1st september.
Fortunately september was more dry.
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Post by flowerbug on Oct 9, 2021 23:46:07 GMT -5
squash from this fall's harvest:   some of them i don't know what they are so names would be interesting if you can guess them. what do you think xdrix? also a tree froggy as it has been pretty wet here for the past few weeks:  |
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Post by steev on Oct 10, 2021 20:12:42 GMT -5
Cute critter; are you sure it's not a toad? Zoology was my major: Herpetology: reptiles and amphibians, my favorite part of it.
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Post by flowerbug on Oct 10, 2021 22:40:53 GMT -5
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Post by flowerbug on Oct 11, 2021 20:32:04 GMT -5
the Irish Moss i found (brought in the pot along with the Creeping Thyme) a few years ago [and then i tried to get rid of it thinking it wasn't something i wanted and then i changed my mind after it came back so i moved it to another spot to keep a closer eye on it] is done with the 2nd season in the new spot and it filled in pretty nice and grew some. i've been weeding the thyme away from it and it is gradually getting bigger, but not as fast as the thyme has been growing.  about a month ago i found another few small patches near where it was growing before and i didn't want it to spread in that location so i moved them to a bare spot where i can do some comparison and also keep a better eye on things. one patch i removed the thyme so it will have less competition and the other i left alone to see how they do. the Irish Moss does seem to do ok growing in the thyme so we'll see how these two do. and do you like the deer hoof print there? they wander in this garden almost every night.  Onions and onion sets for eating and for replanting next year.  |
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Post by flowerbug on Oct 28, 2021 9:13:35 GMT -5
i spent a lot of time getting the North Garden redone again because the water flows coming in from the top were too much and washing things out. the lower area also needed to be leveled now that it had settled more. while i was working on it i also transplanted a lot more creeping thyme to fill in along the edges. the more bare dirt i can get covered the better it is for erosion control and also cuts down on how many weeds will get going. the largest lower terrace i was able to level and combine two parts into one so that is less work for me too.  for the top part i installed more of a raised ridge at the top (lifting up some of the thyme) and also put in two large ridges to divert any overflows. the ridge at the top i hope is set up to divide the flow towards both sides and have been getting those routes filled in with thyme. the two overflow ridges divert the water only to one side but that will be ok as long as it keeps the water from going into the lower terraces.  |
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Post by xdrix on Nov 4, 2021 16:41:27 GMT -5
[quote author=" flowerbug" some of them i don't know what they are so names would be interesting if you can guess them. what do you think xdrix? [/quote] At a moment it very difficult to say the name of the variety! I think the 4 greens clear big fruits on the second photo are blue hubard crossed with buttercup! If it this you will have a surprising taste! The blue squashs are my prefers! |
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Post by flowerbug on Nov 8, 2021 10:42:40 GMT -5
[quote author=" flowerbug " some of them i don't know what they are so names would be interesting if you can guess them. what do you think xdrix ? At a moment it very difficult to say the name of the variety! I think the 4 greens clear big fruits on the second photo are blue hubard crossed with buttercup! If it this you will have a surprising taste! The blue squashs are my prefers! i'll be starting to roast some of these up in the coming weeks but i'm going to hold off on those bigger squash for another month because last year i waited to process the Baby Blue Hubbards until December and that was a good choice. if i'd let them go longer they would have rotted and not been usable. some of the smaller ones are green/naked seeded variety that i just have to get the seeds out of for roasting and those are very good eating. all the rest should be good eating too. we really like those orange and green ones for flavor and texture. the Baby Blue Hubbards we like when mixed with the others, by themselves they are edible but a bit too bland in comparison - mixing them together gives more moisture to the drier squashes and the drier squashes give their flavor to the BBHs. |
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Post by flowerbug on Nov 10, 2021 12:45:24 GMT -5
a picture of some of the beans grown here. the variety i call Yed (Yellow Red mashed together - yeah, i know... very creative name. ) alas, they are a long season bean here so i'm not usually getting full production from these but since they are one of my first out-crosses that showed up here years ago i keep growing them once in a while to refresh the seeds.  |
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harvest time is always crazy. i'm sure glad we did not plant so many tomatoes as it has been hard on me this season even with just having twelve plants. i've put up nearly 60 quarts already and there are probably another 30 or so out there to finish eventually.