Today's harvest

[pepperhead212]

Next year is my 3rd season for my asparagus bed, so it's should be my first season to harvest a few, from what I understand. I was surprised to see all those stalks pop up in September - is that normal?

I got a few more winter squash today - some of the larger ones, though there was a small one on the early butternut variety. The largest yuxi is 10 lbs 6 oz, and the largest butternut is 8½ lbs. A bunch of the larger butternuts still not mature yet - hopefully, enough time left. Still a bunch of blossoms left, too!
A few more winter squash, 10-07 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

 

[Kathleen]

My asparagus bed is only a year old. I used 2 year crowns but expect to have to wait for two years for it to produce.

 

[larry_stewart]

Next year is my 3rd season for my asparagus bed, so it's should be my first season to harvest a few, from what I understand. I was surprised to see all those stalks pop up in September - is that normal?

I've had asparagus beds in the past, and I always thought the new stalks come up early to mid spring and that was it.

This year, I paid more attention to what was going on, as it is a new bed ( 2 years old) and It kills me to see all the asparagus coming up and not being able to devour them. And , like you, I noticed stalks coming up throughout the summer and even into September.

Not sure if its normal or not, but seems to be happening up here too.

The bed I used is not in a prime location, sun-wise during the main season, but in the spring , when there aren't many leaves on the trees, it gets decent sun. I figured Id plant the asparagus there since they come up so early and will benefit from the sun so early in the season. Hopefully there was enough sun the rest of the season for the plants / roots to thrive. Judging by the growth this second year, and the continuous forming of new stalks into September, I think Ill be ok.

I love asparagus ( along with Rhubarb, lettuce, arugula, ramps and kale) as they are the ones that usually bring in the new garden season ( For me anyway).

 

[blissful]

I really didn't pay attention to asparagus coming up mid or end season. I've always thought the root system is the most important part to get a good harvest. We usually water very deeply (flooding it) in the fall, then again, early in spring, and it seems to give us a better harvest if we are paying attention to the watering in fall and early spring.

 

[larry_stewart]

Im hoping next year will be a good Asparagus year. Just waiting for the plants to die off so I can trim and mulch.

Was walking in the yard and stumbled across a bunch of chestnuts that fell from the tree. When I first moved to this house, my dad dug up an extra chestnut tree ( an offspring from his in his yard) and brought it to my house to plant ( that must have been 20 + years ago). Every now and then we get a couple, but usually the squirrels beat us to them. Thy actually gnaw off the end of the branch where the Chestnuts ( still encapsulated in their thorny housing) are and they fall to the ground. They are usually unripe and useless. I guess the squirrels get something out of them, Anyway, its been a relatively dry summer, so the acorns are dropping like crazy and luckily, the chestnut are drying up in the trees, opening then dropping to the ground. In the past 20 years, only one other time have we picked to many.

 

[Rocklobster]

Cleaned out the garden today..there was just a few pepper plants left...I've already dried a bunch, smoked and ground some, put some in oil, now I guess I'll get picklin'

 

[pepperhead212]

I did absolutely nothing in the garden today, but some related chores got done. I got two of my plants indoors today - the curry tree and bay laurel - mainly because it is going to rain hard, and I've let them "lighten up", to carry inside! I also rolled the other two, more heavy plants, inside on the back porch, using a hand truck, to prevent them from getting totally soaked, and even difficult to move when I get a helper!

Yesterday I tweaked the trimming of these plants, so no branches are growing on top of each other, and I sprayed them all, along with the soil, as well as the fabric pot, with some neem oil. Then today, I soaked the soil and fabric with an orange oil solution. It dried up quickly, with that wind! When I brought them in, and set them in their trays, I made up a solution Bt isaraelensis - originally for mosquitoes, but I use it to kill fungus gnat larvae, in pots and hydroponics. I poured a half gallon in the top of each pot. After this, I made another gallon, but using one of my hydroponics vegetative growth fertilizers. They sucked all up quickly, since I had not watered for quite a while, so I'll be adding even more.

It started raining about 3 hours ago, and I had just finished out there!

 

[Rocklobster]

We got 4 small jars of jalepenos pickled...they only last around a month so I didn't do too many..I still have a huge bowl of chili peppers..I think I'll try a paste and then just freeze and shrink wrap the rest..

 

[blissful]

Peppers! They look so nice.


10 kale stalks is about 1 cooler full of leaves. After soaking, in salt water, stripping them, soaking again, steaming. It might be 8 cups. If I clean 10 stalks of kale every day for 2 weeks, they will be done for the year. I hope.


We have a neighbor that composts manure from her animals, we had it spread into our three gardens. So glad that is done.


The new cover frame covers aren't quite done yet, they will be done this week, then the raised lettuce kale garden will have a cover for winter again. Fall has fallen! Rain and wind today.

 

[larry_stewart]

Planted some kale ( more to over winter and eat the florets in the summer).
Garlic will go in next week
Picked the last of the potatoes
Water Chestnuts were a bust. Fun experience, glad I finally tried it, but I'll chalk it off as a been there, done that experience.
Peppers still have a decent amount on the plant, no signs of frost in the near future, so will let them ripen a little more.
A few more eggplants , which have likely stopped growing
Peas slow but still producing
Got carrots and beets in large containers
Also got Rutabegas and Cabbages in containers, hoping enough time to mature.
Surprisingly good chestnut year.
Amazing how many hot peppers can grow on one plant
Lettuce doing well. Went full circle. Lettuce early spring, everything else mid season, back to lettuce to wrap things up.

Garden looking naked

Leaving the pole beans up for now, cause our resident Praying mantis laid an egg sack on one of the vines and dont want to disturb it. When all the leaves finally fall off, ill check for other egg sacks, them probably collect them and store them in the garage for spring release

 

[larry_stewart]

Here's the Water Chestnut pic. I thought I uploaded it in my last post.
Basically planted 10 water chestnuts . They grew well and shortly filled up the container I grew them in. The foliage grew tall and healthy. I thought for sure Id have a good harvest. About 2 weeks ago, a raccoon decided to take a bath in the basin, and basically knocked over and crushed the plants. I would have let them go until the foliage died off, but I was forced to harvest them a few weeks early. Not sure if it would have made a difference , but I wound up with one normal sized chestnut, the rest were pea sized or smaller. Was a fun project, but next year my unique crop will be Rice. Its and ' upland' variety that doesn't need standing water to grow in.

 

[bethzaring]

Someone in the family mentioned carrot cake. So I am gearing up for that suggestion.

 

[larry_stewart]

Nice carrots. I rarely have any luck with them, no matter what I do.

 

[blissful]

I tried a new carrot this year, the uzbec golden carrot. Nice gold color and not as carrot-y tasting. I'll grow them again.
(baker's creek seeds)

 

[bbqcoder]

Nice carrots. I rarely have any luck with them, no matter what I do.

What sort of problems did you have with carrots?

I had great luck with them this year. I even have parsnips growing.

Here it’s my technique.

Prepare the bed or row where you want to plant carrots by digging up the soil and sifting for rocks using 1/4” hardware cloth.

If you are doing rows, dig a 2” wide trench that is half inch deep. Fill with potting soil and plant your seeds.

Cover with a thin layer of straw. Water every day lightly.

After 2-3 weeks, you will see carrots popping up their leaves. It’ll be easy to thin since you used potting soil that is weed free.

 

[larry_stewart]

What sort of problems did you have with carrots?

I had great luck with them this year. I even have parsnips growing.

Here it’s my technique.

Prepare the bed or row where you want to plant carrots by digging up the soil and sifting for rocks using 1/4” hardware cloth.

If you are doing rows, dig a 2” wide trench that is half inch deep. Fill with potting soil and plant your seeds.

Cover with a thin layer of straw. Water every day lightly.

After 2-3 weeks, you will see carrots popping up their leaves. It’ll be easy to thin since you used potting soil that is weed free.

I've tried just about everything. For whatever reason, root crops such as beets and carrots just don't work for me. If I had bad luck with everything else, it would make sense, but I never have a predictable crop of those 2. Maybe once every 5 years Ill have an ' OK ' crop. Ive tried different varieties, different locations, Different soils, different techniques. Right now, I have one very large container going with both beets and another with carrots and they look really healthy, so Im keeping my fingers crossed. But that was after like 3 or 4 attempts ( of each) in different locations of the garden.

 

[larry_stewart]

This is definitely me, and my wife's reaction ( every year).
Each year I say I'll cut back the the amount of plants, but it always multiplies.

 

[bbqcoder]

I've tried just about everything. For whatever reason, root crops such as beets and carrots just don't work for me. If I had bad luck with everything else, it would make sense, but I never have a predictable crop of those 2. Maybe once every 5 years Ill have an ' OK ' crop.

What kind of problems are you having with them? Poor germination? Not growing big?

For me, the problem I had with carrots was poor germination, and dealing with too many seedlings and weeds. Beets I never had trouble with and you do need to thin them if you want them to be a decent size.

 

[larry_stewart]

At first I had issues with germination, then I conquered that. Then, when I got them to germinate, they just weren't thriving. The ones I have in a large container are an exception. They seem to be doing well and look healthy, just not sure Ill have enough time in the season for the to et to full size. I did select a variety ( forgot which one, Id have to check) that theoretically do well overwintering, so Im hoping if not ready this year, can over winter and can harvest in the spring. My dad had that once. He basically forgot to harvest a bunch of carrots. The next spring, when we were weeding out the garden to get it ready for the year, we picked store quality carrots. Im hoping I an repeat that.

at first I thought it was location, so I moved them to a different bed. I tried 4 different varieties of newly bought seeds , so I dont think it was the seeds. Timing was right , according to thee seed package. Started them early spring an every few weeks after that . So even If I was too early, The successive planting definitely brought me into acceptable growing temps. Knowing I was having issues, I was very in tuned with watering and all that. Finally, now in the fall, I decided to use a large container, since I now have complete control with soil, location and other things. Some of the others in the main garden are doing ok, but when only %25 of a row is doing well, somethings wrong.

 

[Vinylhanger]

We have trouble with carrots as well. Just don't do well.

Next season we will sift and aerate the dirt and see how it goes. I want to try the big 2 foot carrots, but since even basic carrots haven't worked, we will need to do some experimenting.

Beets grow very well for us, but I don't thin and mostly use them as greens. Not a fan of beets really, but some nice cooked veet greens are devine.