Garden 2023

[blissful]

@larry_stewart I tried to grow the butterfly peas last year and it (one out of many seeds) blossomed about 6 times. I kind of gave up and saved the seeds. I didn't try this year. The blue tea goes purple, and if you try hibiscus tea it goes from bright red to purple. A pretty presentation for drinks.

 

[larry_stewart]

@larry_stewart I tried to grow the butterfly peas last year and it (one out of many seeds) blossomed about 6 times. I kind of gave up and saved the seeds. I didn't try this year. The blue tea goes purple, and if you try hibiscus tea it goes from bright red to purple. A pretty presentation for drinks.

This is the first year I'm growing it. So far, one blossom. If I get a lot, I'll grow it again. If I dont, I wont . It was new to me, so I figured I had nothing to lose and taking up little space.

 

[taxlady]

@larry_stewart I tried to grow the butterfly peas last year and it (one out of many seeds) blossomed about 6 times. I kind of gave up and saved the seeds. I didn't try this year. The blue tea goes purple, and if you try hibiscus tea it goes from bright red to purple. A pretty presentation for drinks.

Did you put anything in that hibiscus tea that went from red to purple? I often use a combo of rosehip and hibiscus as an ice tea. I like it with no sugar or other sweeteners. I have never seen it go from red to purple, but maybe the rosehip does something that keeps it from changing colour.

 

[blissful]

Hibiscus itself is more on the acidic side of PH. My water is more neutral (7). When I dilute hibiscus tea with my water, it is more purple. If I add a few drops of lemon juice (3), more acidic, it turns very red.
Red cabbage juice will do the same, from purple-blue and then turn to red.

If you have a red tea, you might be able to get it to be purple if you add something more alkaline with a ph of 7. I read somewhere that pineapple juice is more alkaline, but I don't ever have pineapple juice hanging around to try it.
If you grow your own hibiscus, you can collect the spent blossoms, dry them and use them for tea, like we do. The color of the blossoms matter.

 

[Marlingardener]

Harvested Roma and cherry tomatoes, and three cucumbers. We are having a great salad for lunch!

 

[pepperhead212]

I don't grow too many flowers, but here are a couple of them, to attract the pollinators. Those Peruviana zinnias are over 2' tall, with a lot of small blossoms, and not very dense foliage. The Lime Blush are only about a foot tall, getting more blossoms now, with a lot of buds, and the foliage is much denser.
Peruviana zinnias by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Lime Blush zinnias by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Here are my favorite flowers:
Peppers developed on a Thai Vesuvius, 6-22 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

 

[pepperhead212]

It didn't rain today, and the next several days are more likely to rain, plus getting hotter, and more humid, so I harvested the last 60 heads - 142 total, and these were the largest. They were definitely wetter than the first harvest, but I had to do it, and they cleaned up ok, and they will be the first ones used, besides the early harvest a couple weeks ago.
24 Estonian Reds by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The largest of the Estonian Red, the one on the bottom with just 2 cloves! by pepperhead212, on Flickr

36 Georgian Fire heads, a couple as large as the largest Estonian Reds. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The largest Georgian Fire, marked X to plant for next season, along with the largest Estonian Reds. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

I definitely will not have to worry about vampires! by pepperhead212, on Flickra

 

[blissful]

Nice looking garlic @pepperhead212 !
Ours are still green leaves with yellow tips.

I harvested some baby kale, 3 lettuce leaves, and some arugula for my salads. It was good!

 

[taxlady]

Hibiscus itself is more on the acidic side of PH. My water is more neutral (7). When I dilute hibiscus tea with my water, it is more purple. If I add a few drops of lemon juice (3), more acidic, it turns very red.
Red cabbage juice will do the same, from purple-blue and then turn to red.

If you have a red tea, you might be able to get it to be purple if you add something more alkaline with a ph of 7. I read somewhere that pineapple juice is more alkaline, but I don't ever have pineapple juice hanging around to try it.
If you grow your own hibiscus, you can collect the spent blossoms, dry them and use them for tea, like we do. The color of the blossoms matter.

Ah, I tend to drink hibiscus with rosehip. I think rosehip is also slightly acidic. Yes, I know about the red cabbage. It goes from purple to more reddish when I add the vinegar in my Danish recipe for rødkål. Did you know that it turns green with alkali, like baking soda. Or maybe, it's that it turns blue, then green. I haven't tried that.

 

[blissful]

Strawberry rocks for the strawberry bed. Acrylic paint+rocks=decoy for the birds.

 

[dragnlaw]

LOL - does it work bliss?

 

[blissful]

LOL - does it work bliss?

I'll ask the birds if it works.

 

[larry_stewart]

I'll ask the birds if it works.

LOL - does it work bliss?

Just look for the birds with the banged up beaks

 

[dragnlaw]

Check for birdies with bandages on the ends of their beaks.

Do you know I wrote this about 11:30 this morning. It is now almost 12 hours later and I've just discovered I didn't "Post"
.... go figure

 

[larry_stewart]

Check for birdies with bandages on the ends of their beaks.

Do you know I wrote this about 11:30 this morning. It is now almost 12 hours later and I've just discovered I didn't "Post"
.... go figure

I must have read your mind

 

[Kathleen]

The little lunchbox cucumbers are really setting on a lot of cucumbers. I hope they continue all summer! Really good cucumber taste with nearly no seeds. A hybrid though.

 

[pepperhead212]

After it had sort of dried up out there (it only rained .02" in that afternoon TS), I went out and checked everything out, and that one variety - Hippie Zebra I saw the other day, after the first rains, and noticed some possible blight, and this time it looked like even more, but only on one of the two plants, fortunately. And not a single tomato on the entire row, or any others, had even a hint of the blight - few yellowed leaves on the very bottoms of a few, but that's it! So I fixed up just a half gallon of Serenade, and I sprayed the Hippies to totally soak them, and the plant next to them, plus my cucumbers, just to use it up; fortunately, nothing else prone to fungus diseases has started showing signs of anything yet.

Some peppers are starting to produce in large quantities. Superchili is earliest, as always.
Superchili, loaded with full size peppers, 6-24 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

The calabash gourd is the first one to get a female blossom on it, even though it is listed as 79 day, while the bottle gourds are listed around 50 days, which is about what it is now. None on the bottle gourds yet, but there will be, soon.
First calabash gourd to appear, 6-24. I will try to hand pollinate it when it opens later. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

I actually saw some small pollinator on the male blossom, when I went to hand pollinate them, around 7 pm. This is unusual, since it is a night blossoming plant, but quite a few opened early.

I picked my first eggplant today - the first Ichiban.
First eggplant of the season, an Ichiban. 6-24 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

 

[blissful]

Hundreds of scapes-in the dehydrator (tips cut off).
No bandaged beaks so far.
I took pictures of the long expanse of blank landscape fabric Jun 1-ish. On July 1st I'll take pictures of our young plants. The third week in June really helped them start to grow from seedlings into plants. The small tomato seedlings are getting a grip. The wild flower garden is green! AND we got rain last night with more in the immediate forecast, which we need.

 

[pepperhead212]

I got my first cucumbers today, and a bunch more on the plants. One new one - Jin 301 - is weird looking, as it is long and skinny, and very dark. And one of the Snowy #6 looks like any other pickler - maybe a bit light colored, but that's all.
Cukes starting to come in 6-30 by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Jin 301, not ready to pick, but 8 in long. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

I am also getting my first ripe tomatoes - some Juliet, and a Oaxacan Jewel, which started to ripen on 6-28, and the first one that was totally ripe last year was on 7-3, so it's right on schedule with last year.
First ripening Oaxacan Jewel, 6-29. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

 

[KatyCooks]

Holy moly! My tomatoes are tiny green things compared to yours Pepperhead! July in the south of England is a total washout - an awful lot of rain! But, I always live in hope. And if I end up with a load of green tomatoes, I will make some sort of relish with them. As for my runner beans... well it is not looking good. They have flowered (a tiny bit) and I expect micro "beans" rather than anything I could call a runner bean. I have not had the guts to check if there are actually any potatoes in my potato grow bags, but I suspect I am supposed to be doing just that.... tomorrow I am going to just brave it. Maybe...