Topic: Gardening

[Norfolk Slim]

Lots of potatoes, lots of beetroot, lots of broad beans.

Only doing small tomatoes this year, nothing ripe yet.  Also doing Tomatillos which are going well.

Artichokes havent really got going, hopefully I can get them to survive the winter and get a crop next year.

Cucumbers keep turning yellow for no obvious reason, which is driving me nuts!

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Our garden seems to get bigger every year.  So far, we've had lots of lettuces (Parris Island Cos is a terrific Romaine variety), carrots, beets, turnips, potatoes, kale, cucumbers, onions and chard.  Squash, tomatoes, peppers, bush and pole beans are yet to come.  The squash plants look like something out of Star Trek--they're huge!  Raspberries and boysenberries are coming on.
All best,
Johnm

[Bald Melon Jefferson]

Must be nice to have water 
Done gone fallow this year.

[Norfolk Slim]

Six months ago this county was half underwater!  Not much rain recently though. 

[NotRevGDavis]

We had tomatoes until November in 2013. This year my only tomato plant would be easier to smoke.

[Parlor Picker]

Great programme on Channel 4 here in the UK last night - "Amazing Spaces: Shed of the Year". One of the category winners was a wonderful shed housing an artist's studio and a music recording studio. It also had a roof garden with a difference - it was a wonderful "allotment" on which the owner grew loads of vegetables.

[RobBob]

Lots of rain here in the upstate of South Carolina.  Veggies and fruits abound.  Third crop of sweet corn coming on.

[Stuart]

Saw this earlier--Home grown tomatoes as anti-anxiety meds. Hah! I like it...

"Cook Those Blues Away"

"...I was out talking to the tomato plants this morning, watering them in the still, dank humidity just after dawn, willing them to continue to thrive. It was my intention to have that quiet experience power the rest of the day, to allow the memory to make bearable a workday commute in high-summer New York City. My urban pastoral: tomatoes as anti-anxiety meds..."

--Sam Sifton

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/24/dining/cook-those-blues-away.html

[lindy]

"Gardening" seems like an apropos topic for posting this link:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/15/nyregion/long-island-vegetable-orchestra.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=mini-moth&region=top-stories-below&WT.nav=top-stories-below

About half-way down there's a 25-second video of someone playing a vegetable, not to be missed.

If your interest is piqued by that short video, then there are two websites that are calling for you:

http://www.vegetableorchestra.org/index.php (I like the video titled "The Vegetable Orchestra recording the album ONIONOISE".)

https://www.facebook.com/londonvegetableorchestra/

The facebook page seems to have a commercial that uses the London Vegetable Orchestra to sell a brand of refrigerator. I've enough Brit friends to know that it's likely a hoax, but . . .

There's a blues joke somewhere in here, but so far it eludes me.

Lindy

[frailer24]

Maybe not a joke but perhaps a good hokum blues title? "My Potato Lost It's Whistle"

[Stuart]

From today's NYT:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/06/07/opinion/sunday/dan-barber-seed-companies.html

[Rivers]

Aii Yii Yii. This has to stop. My immediate concern is neonicotinoid pesticide treatment of seeds, and the specter of untested GMOs. Both are implicated in CCD (colony collapse disorder) that has decimated honey bee populations in "developed" countries. Not to mention other pollinating insects like butterflies.

A neighboring farm grows corn. They seem to have no clue about the reality of what they're planting and what they're spraying (atrazine, glyphosate). Roundup, a glyphosate so-called herbicide, kills bees. Atrazine kills everything, including people. GMOs... nobody knows, yet.

It really is incredible how we got to this. I have no answers, only a seething anger at implicit stupidity and greed.

[Rivers]

On a more positive note...

We have garlic, planted late fall and covered with hay mulch for the winter, going great guns. It just came up through the hay after the last snow had melted. 100% yield, 72 cloves planted, 72 came up. I'm very pleased about that.

Planted last week alongside the garlic, 75 strawberry bare root plants, a bit late but spring was a long time coming. Not expecting fruits this year, we'll pinch-off the flowers, let them grow and hay mulch for the winter.

Marigolds planted in another row alongside the strawberries. I love marigolds.

12 blueberry bushes went in this week in an artistic zen pattern, random groups of three, mixed varieties in each group.

Earlier we planted 4 chinese chestnut trees in the top terrace to the north. In May I did much pruning of our concorde grape arbor, blackberries and raspberry canes. All was way too late but spring was pretty late as well. I learn more every year and have learned to just get into it.

[Stuart]

I don't know if this film has been mentioned before, but if so, consider this a bump. I ran across "Seed: The Untold Story," checked it out from the library and watched it this evening. Here are a couple of links:

https://www.seedthemovie.com/

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/films/seed-the-untold-story/

[Rivers]

Update on our place. Hoop houses are still aspirational, but getting closer.

We're totally into mulch gardening, having tons of square-baled hay in the barn. Sad to say dairy farms are going out of business hand over fist in upstate NY. We stashed the hay we'd baled in years 1 to 3 and are deploying them as mulch and shelter / structure around the garden.

Successful plantings this late spring include blueberries, dill, basil, thyme, sage, oregano, corn, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, beans, squash. Picked several pounds of cherries this morning, big fun with the tractor loader. Last fall's garlic plants are not ready to harvest yet but are getting huge.

Bees are going crazy. Added a honey super & queen excluder to the strong hive yesterday. Found small hive beetles in the weaker hive today, which finally explains why it's always been weak I guess. Figuring out treatments, I need to do a full inspection and look at all the frames.

Have built a swarm trap to go up in a big maple on top of the hill, tomorrow or Friday depending on when my posse decides to return to work, I'm very flexible on hours. I have three really good employees, two millennial guys and one older guy. Working very well so far.