Official Gardening/Homesteading thread: Our back yards are our grocery stores

Discussion in 'The Mainboard' started by lhprop1, Apr 9, 2015.

  1. Tiffin

    Tiffin ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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    Not much growing up here right now. Got a few blueberry bushes that have put on ok, get a handful or two every 3 days. Planted a couple peppers and tomatoes but they aren't doing very well in the spot I went with. Need to get the tiller going and till up the old garden plot and plant a couple rows of later season stuff. Need to get some hot peppers out soon so I can make my traditional Xmas card gift of hot sauce.
     
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  2. texasraider

    texasraider thanks
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    BlackBerry jalepeno jam is so good
     
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  3. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    After we put our garden fence and fence along the front of the house up, we've got a 20x20 section of the yard that is mostly useless. Going to put weed cloth down and plant a lot more blackberries and blueberries down. Already have 8 blueberry bushes and 20 ft of blackberries along another fence.
     
  4. Beachy Toast

    Beachy Toast He wants you too, Malachi.
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    Do you make jam?
     
  5. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    We have before, Right now with 3 kids home, any berries we pick in the morning don't make it 5 minutes once we get back in the house.
     
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  6. Tiffin

    Tiffin ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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    I've made pepper jellies and fig jams before. Turkey fig is currently loaded down. The golden fig down in Alabama put on a ton of fruit this year, but a lot of it was noticeably worse this year. Figs don't last long anyway, so jams are a great use for them.
     
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  7. BayouMafia

    BayouMafia Thought Leader in Posting
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    Waited until the next one cracked and can confirm that's the way to do it. Tasted incredible, especially cold after being outside in 105 degree heat yesterday
     
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  8. jrmy

    jrmy For bookings contact Morgan at 702-374-3735
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    My dad had a bumper crop this year. His corn went nuts...we probably froze 70 quarts of corn and used another 20 ears after giving away about 50-60. His green beans put out like three different times and I think they ended up canning about 50 or so jars of them. Getting 15-20 tomatoes a day and are going to start canning those soon because they can't give them away and eat them fast enough. Between our pepper plants and his extra we are getting about 10 or so bell peppers and 20-25 banana peppers a week.

    Only thing that didn't turn out well was squash and zucchini. Had some squash bugs that kept him from getting as much as he usually gets. Okra is starting to put out now too though.
     
  9. bigred77

    bigred77 Well-Known Member
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    can i throw fresh picked okra in a jar of juice that I just finished eating the pickles out of and get an edible product?

    I've got a jar of some bad ass hot pickles that has one slice left and my neighbor just gave me about 50 okra he just picked
     
  10. comrade static

    comrade static i love french fries
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    Fucking ants keep eating my ready to be picked tomatoes. Any suggestions for a remedy?
     
  11. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    Our watermelon, cantaloupe and okra plants are really coming along. Plus some of the pickings.

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  12. bigred77

    bigred77 Well-Known Member
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    My cantaloupes this year spread like crazy, put out a shit load of flowers, and not a single fruit
    Pretty sure the whole plant is about to die off, cause its that time of year in Texas and hot as hell
     
  13. bigred77

    bigred77 Well-Known Member
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    6 year old decided we need to plant some lemon seeds today, so hopefully we will have some lemons when he is about to go to high school
     
  14. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    Mine haven't spread as well this year, they've been outclassed by the watermelon. We have about 6 football sized watermelons growing and spotted 4-5 baseball sized cantaloupes.
     
  15. BayouMafia

    BayouMafia Thought Leader in Posting
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    I’ve harvested 4 chanterais and have 2 more on the vine, but all of the other flowers have either not fertilized or gotten to the size of a golf ball and then rotted.
     
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  16. Bert Handsome

    Bert Handsome I'm sorry, the card says Moops
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    I have a tomato plant that is growing way out of it's cage. Is there anything I can buy to easily prop this up or should I just pin it up on a tall pole?

    This is a few days ago and it's already gotten bigger and sagging more

    IMG_20200719_173351.jpg
     
  17. PJP3

    PJP3 Well-Known Member
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    get it on and attached to a big stake. Doesn’t hurt to prune either. You’ll get better fruit from the vines you keep. If I had long branches w no flowers I usually prune them as they can be suckers and just drain the energy from the rest of the plant.
     
  18. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    Checking the garden this morning and the bees were all over the corn. Took some slow motion videos of them, here's one.

     
    #2168 billdozer, Jul 23, 2020
    Last edited: Jul 27, 2020
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  19. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    Good rat snake is good

    [​IMG]
     
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  20. Nug

    Nug MexicanNug
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    Question guys

    I have a property at the base of Mt Rainier -- about 2,000 ft above sea level, and it's covered in snow 6-7 months out of the year, starting in November/December. I have 8-9 large planters with trellises, the idea was to build like a "green wall" to shield a big concrete above-ground septic tank:
    IMG_4177.jpg IMG_4176.jpg

    Everything took longer than expected, so I'm wondering if I missed this season and should just wait until next Spring to try something. Or, would it be worth it to try and plant something now? I'm completely uneducated on plants, and feel if I just walk into a nursery they'll try to sell me something.

    Can provide more information that would help, but trying to determine if I should stop by a nursery on the way down there today, or just leave the planters filled with dirt this year and take advantage of the trellises next year? Maybe just some easy flowers/something for the rest of summer/fall?
     
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  21. PJP3

    PJP3 Well-Known Member
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    Are you looking for something that is just there to grow and create a visual barrier, or do you want something that will produce something you can eat? Also, what is your growing zone? If you don't know it just go to this website and put in the zip code.

    https://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/
     
  22. Nug

    Nug MexicanNug
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    Visual barrier, not anything to eat. This is going to be a rental property, so low maintenance would be ideal.

    Zone 8a
     
  23. PJP3

    PJP3 Well-Known Member
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    I don't know much about non vegetable/fruit plants, but I'd just google something like best privacy plants zone 8a and you can probably find something. Those are nice boxes though, Hate to waste them on something you can't eat. You could get some sweet cukes, peas, melons, or even some berries climbing those. Why not move them to somewhere you can grow stuff and just put in some hedges in the ground that don't require trellising?
     
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  24. Nug

    Nug MexicanNug
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    I don't have anywhere else to move them, I live in downtown Seattle and those were a bitch to build + level the ground + put in place. I'm really happy with how they turned out, but they're going to stay there for the foreseeable future.

    Also, per WA regulations for septic tanks, I can't have any plants with deep roots going into the ground below the septic--my initial idea was big hedges/bushes. So those boxes have gravel/wood + landscaping carpet at the bottom to try and keep the roots self-contained.
     
  25. Russellin4885

    Russellin4885 Well-Known Member
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    Not even remotely the same climate, so take it with a grain of salt but I have had my best luck with planting and transplanting things in the fall. They seem to get established enough before winter and then do much better into the next year than spring planting. I said take with a grain of salt because I think a big part of that could be them getting a longer/better chance at rooting before NC heat comes in the summer.
     
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  26. comrade static

    comrade static i love french fries
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    I have no advice to offer. I would like to know the name of your good lookin dog
     
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  27. timo

    timo g'day, mate
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    hops. plant them in the spring
     
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  28. Nug

    Nug MexicanNug
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    That's Nugget. His mis-adventures are fairly well documents in the history of the-TMB
     
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  29. Nug

    Nug MexicanNug
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    Spent a long time at the nursery yesterday with old man Mike, he helped a lot. Got a lot of Trumpet Vines, some Ivy for right when you pull in the driveway, and four hop plants - two Nugget hops and two Golden hops.

    He wasn't as concerned about the hops, said they won't fruit much this year, but they should survive the winter fine and be bountiful next season.

    Assuming all the fucking deer around here don't eat them.

    IMG_4558.jpg IMG_4557.jpg IMG_4556.jpg
     
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  30. Russellin4885

    Russellin4885 Well-Known Member
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    Nice, was going to suggest trumpet vines but didn't know about your climate. Big fan of them for covering, they grow fast are very pretty when they bloom. Actually going to be planting one this fall my self for a trellis to block my HVAC units.
     
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  31. thunderstruck

    thunderstruck I'm a Boss

    What was the outcome? I’ve gotten to the point of having too many banana peppers and did this last night with a few.
     
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  32. bigred77

    bigred77 Well-Known Member
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    I dunno yet, haven't opened the jar to try em yet
    Little internet research tells me you can reuse pickle juice a couple of times, so hopefully they will work
     
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  33. One Two

    One Two Hot Dog Vibes
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    I would advise against planting trumpet vine near your home/foundation.
     
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  34. Nug

    Nug MexicanNug
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    Crazy roots?
     
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  35. Why?Pokes

    Why?Pokes Take me back to the kine
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    Or never. Citrus planted from seed often won’t ever fruit. It needs to be grafted.

    We’ve got 3 lemon trees and a grapefruit tree that fruit and they all have graft knuckles. I’ve tried germinating seeds from the Meyer and can’t even get them to pop let alone grow.
     
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  36. One Two

    One Two Hot Dog Vibes
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    Yeah roots can get into the foundation and once it’s established it’s very hard to get rid of. Since you aren’t going to be up there to monitor it if roots latch on to house/structure and grow unchecked will create issues
     
  37. bigred77

    bigred77 Well-Known Member
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    I love these krill tomatoes
    [​IMG]
     
  38. Beachy Toast

    Beachy Toast He wants you too, Malachi.
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    Looks good.
     
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  39. bigred77

    bigred77 Well-Known Member
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    Tried em out yesterday evening and they are really good
     
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  40. thunderstruck

    thunderstruck I'm a Boss

    I was waiting for your reply before I tried mine.
     
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  41. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    Getting around 50 okra a day now, so we started freezing it.

    [​IMG]
     
  42. bigred77

    bigred77 Well-Known Member
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    Lol
    My neighbor just asked me a few minutes ago if I wanted any more cause his plants are going crazy too
     
  43. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    The only problem with cantaloupe and watermelon is that they all ripen at the same time.

    Already picked 6 cantaloupe and 3 watermelon.
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  44. gritzy

    gritzy I am a hurricane on the golf course

    Do you have to thin back the fruit on each vine?
     
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  45. billdozer

    billdozer Well-Known Member
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    No. From 3 cantaloupe plants, we have about 15 cantaloupes. And 8-9 watermelons from 3 plants.
     
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  46. Tiffin

    Tiffin ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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    Not sure where I should ask this. I don't know if we have any etymology experts on the board like we do for birds and reptiles, but maybe Owsley or someone here would know.

    Saw this thing hanging on a the blueberry bush earlier. No clue what it is. Any ideas?

    2020-08-13 09.30.26.jpg
     
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  47. texasraider

    texasraider thanks
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    looks like some sort of walking stick
     
  48. Tiffin

    Tiffin ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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    Makes sense. Haven't seen one that color recently, been seeing more of the skinny dark ones this year.
     
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  49. One Two

    One Two Hot Dog Vibes
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    timeout. Krill or Krim?
     
  50. Hail Southern

    Hail Southern GATA Eagles!
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    Anyone have a guide for how early you can plant something for winter time without it wilting / bolting?